Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

‘ello is the new website with the cute logo that’s hyping itself as the new facebook but early reviews seem to indicate that maybe it’s the new  google+, in which case there’s no real reason to abandon facebook, because google+ didn’t turn out to be the next facebook, either.

I’ve got no dog in this fight, though, so I wish them luck.  Being a late adapter, I figure if it is what it’s hyped to be, it will be there for me to join a year from now.  But, I’m skeptical.

They say they are like facebook except for a couple of key things: they won’t sell ads, and they won’t sell your information to ad companies, which is nice, except for a.) it makes you wonder how they think they’re going to make money and b.) is that  really enough incentive to jump ship?

Personally, those aren’t the two things that bother me about facebook the most.  If some site could figure out a way to filter out the stupid people, the boring people, the oversensitive people, and the  feline obsessed, I’d spend some time visiting  that site.

If there  were a site where you could go to discuss the important issues of the day, with intelligence, logic and wit, I’d spend some time on that site.

If there was a site where I could  show my poetry and people would actually read it, I’d spend some time at that site.

Some of these sites may actually already exist but, as I said above, I am a late adapter.

So, for now, I’m still with facebook.

Well, it’s 50 years since the release of the Warren Report, in which a formerly well respected Supreme Court Justice stamped his name on the greatest whitewash in history (up to that point).

Of course, there might have been greater whitewashes but, if so, they remained whitewashed.  For instance, I am convinced that the gunpowder plot was a false flag on the part of James I, partly  just to make himself look like a tough guy, because Elizabeth I was a tough act to follow in the bad-ass department, partly to marginalize the Catholics, and partly to sell a lot of copies of his new bible, but I am the only  person I’ve ever met who holds that particular opinion.

The 9/11 report is just as misleading as the Warren Report.  Key players went uninterviewed.  The explosions the firemen swear they heard were ignored.  And very little attention was payed  to building 7.

We can’t even find out what  chemicals are used in fracking.

What we need,   to combat this problem, is a permanent investigating committee.  Letting the current president nominate the people whose job it’s going to be to investigate him, and maybe find out what happened, is absurd.  It’s the old fox in the henhouse, it’s the inmates taking  over the asylum.  Make it a group of 12 and stagger their terms so that they don’t  all get appointed by the same president, ever.

Then, next time there’s a disaster, they swing into action.  With the power  to interrogate  anybody in sight.

About 4 hours ago I was tired, a bit high, and said  I would just lay down for a 45 minute nap and get up and write my blog, all refreshed.  Well, now it’s 1:15 in the morning, but I am somewhat refreshed and significantly less high although still in a pleasant, euphoric state so I’m writing a last minute blog, which should still fit in as yesterday’s, I get like a two hour window due to some weird computer time zone thingie, and can always backdate and cheat if I want to.

So, a couple down in Florida (I think it’s Florida.  Sounds like Florida.  Here’s a link if you want facts and stuff.  In my  blog I offer opinion.  Sometimes facts are important, as they certainly have a bearing on our opinions, sometimes not so much.) started up a website for Christian Swingers, and in this case Swingers means wife swappers.  I think it sounds like a lot of fun, actually, although I’m sure I could never convince Helena.

It’s  making the rounds on the internet,   mostly because people think it’s funny, due to the blatant hypocrisy.  It’s part of the Ten Commandments, I think:  Thou shalt not covet they neighbor’s ass, or his wife, or his wife’s ass, or something like that.

But, power to ’em, I say.  It’s all open to interpretation and when people interpret something in the way that’s going to get them the most nookie possible, that strikes me as a very clever interpretation.  I also don’t see why the Federal government had to make such a big deal out of bigamy, just because Mormons are into it.  That’s not just an issue of religious freedom, it’s an issue of freedom.

Party on, Christian Swingers!  I much  prefer your brand of Christianity to those who are out there condemning  other  peoples sexuality, or just trying to suppress it completely.

r.e. Eric Holder’s resignation:  who really cares?  He was not a spectacular Attorney General.  He did not investigate the crimes of the previous president, although there were clearly some doozies.  He didn’t do anything to legalize marijuana.  So, screw him.  Not sorry he’s gone.

The snap judgment I formed just from reading the headline was “Oh, yeah.  There are things going on behind the scenes that we don’t see, maybe he got caught with his finger in the proverbial cookie jar, or dipping into the office honeypot (“Eric, honey, that’s not the cookie jar.””Heh, heh, heh, that’s not my finger, baby”)  But then I read that he’ll stay on until a replacement can be confirmed, which means in a way Obama has outpoliticked congress once again.  If congress refuses to confirm the appointments O sends them, they’ll be stuck with Holder.

But the really interesting news tonight is that an Indian spacecraft has reached Mars.  Total cast:78 million dollars, less than the price of a lot of Hollywood blockbusters.  I’m glad to see that India is taking the smaller is better approach to Space Travel.    That’s the way forward.  We don’t need to feed the machines or bring them back all in one piece, and we don’t even need them to worry too much if they’re destroyed.

Maybe we should outsource other NASA projects to India.  The space elevator, for instance.

I’m not sure what effect this will have on human technology or what effect it will have on the future of space exploration.  But I’m going to guess:  The more nations who get involved, the more nations will want to get evolved.  Today, India and Holland.  Tomorrow…France?  Australia? who the hell knows.

One effect it may well have is making space travel easy, as easy as transcontinental travel in a covered wagon, anyway.  It is certainly bringing the cost down.

First, a retraction.  It turns out the story I reported on two day ago, about the woman who had plastic surgery to give herself a 3rd  breast, was fake.  It sounded plausible to me.  Medical science can perform miracles, and there are plenty of crazy people out there.   But, more skeptical journalists than I dug a little deeper and found that the woman in question has a history of posting bogus stuff on the internet, and this just got picked up by news outlets quicker than  some of her previous stories.

Tonight, I want to discuss this article from Mother Jones magazine in July.  In a nutshell, most scientists agree, and there’s been plenty of serious experimental evidence, that conservatives’ and liberals’ brains actually function differently, political feelings are as innate as right or left handedness,  eye color or sexual orientation.

Conservatives are motivated by fear of loss.  They don’t want the government taking their guns, they resent paying taxes, they worry that the U.S. is going to be over run by foreigners.  I think their fears are unreasonable, but, to be fair, that’s partly because I’m a liberal.

Liberals are more motivated by hope of gain.  Promise us solar panels, free university tuition, and a higher minimum wage and we’ll vote for you in large numbers.

I hold to the definition that liberals believe we are all in the same boat, and conservatives believe it’s every man  for himself.

The two definitions are not the same, but they don’t contradict each other, either, so they could both  be true.

And neither definition precludes the possibility of compromise.  We might just have to live with the fact that we’ll never think alike, but we can have a world which is acceptable to both of us, where everybody can be happy.

Gain is good.  Loss is bad.  We need a government, and an economic system, and a system of laws, and a physical infrastructure, which will both maximize our gains and minimize our losses.  Every sports team needs to play both offense or defense.  Even the team with the most powerful offense in the league (the liberals) will not win the championship if they ignore defense entirely.   Even the team with the stingiest, meanest defense in the league will lose games if their offense can’t score.

It’s  hard to even talk to conservatives, much less reach a compromise with them.  But, with a bit of imagination, we can probably figure out better policies, which appeal to both  sides.