Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

October 29, 2013 · 8:48 pm

Humor v. Religion

Well, there was this thread up on my facebook page attacking Richard Dawkins and I felt the need to defend him because there are few enough people out there making the atheist case, so I said something flippant and then when I went back to check the thread a half an hour later of course I got one or two replies from people whose sensitive feelings I’d hurt, saying we should all be respectful of other people’s beliefs and whatnot, but beyond that there were about 30 more comments, some of them really, really long and almost all of them completely devoid of humor.

There was one really interesting one from somebody who claimed to know Dawkins personally, said he’s a really brilliant guy with very limited social skills, which would make him something like Ralph Nader or Mark Zuckerberg.  The world needs that kind of people, even if they are a serious pain in the butt sometimes.

Anyway, I abandoned the thread because life is too short and, while I sometimes enjoy a spirited conflict, I don’t enjoy arguing with people who get offended whenever you disagree with them and take it personally that some people don’t share their worldview.

I realized that there is a law at work here, a formula: The more seriously somebody believes in their position, the less likely they are to have a sense of humor about it.  PETA, radical feminists, extreme Christians, libertarians, teabaggers, and so on.

So, here’s me: an atheist, pothead, with left of center politics (even by European standards, by American standards I’m off the charts), a serious advocate of space exploration who believes that aliens are definitely out there and we should be trying to find them, and a believer that 9/11 was an inside job.

You have full permission to make fun of any and/or all of my positions.  If I get offended, well, then, fuck me.

Leave a comment

Filed under Blogs' Archive

October 28, 2013 · 9:54 pm

Conspiracy Theories

My friend (both in real life and on facebook) Karel posted this today:  funny how the mainstream coined “conspiracy theories” to ridicule any other source which might challenge their claim as a beacon of democracy and free press, when in fact it is the mainstream that is flowing with conspiracies and proven lies.

Is somebody trying to tell us something?

Is somebody trying to tell us something?

I totally agree.  Bigfoot is not a conspiracy theory.  The Chupacabra is not a conspiracy theory.  These are theories about the possible existence of species of animals whose existence has not yet been proven.  As we all know, new species of animals are being discovered all the time.  If something resembling bigfoot is ever discovered, it will be given an ordinary sounding name, like “North American  Mountain Gorilla” and it won’t be any big deal.  Reality is not as interesting as legend.

A belief in ghosts, or reincarnation, or leprechauns, or fairies, or angels, are not conspiracy theories.  These are beliefs.  A different view of the universe which, while it may be backed by some anecdotal evidence, even personally observations, has not been scientifically proven.  Still, no conspiracy is involved.

The idea that crop circles or giant carvings of animals such as the Nazca Lines are evidence of extraterrestrial visitation is not a conspiracy theory.  It’s an extraterrestrial theory.

A belief that something weird is happening in the Bermuda Triangle, or that there was an ancient city called Atlantis, are not conspiracy theories.  They are theories.

A conspiracy  theory means there’s a conspiracy involved somewhere.  The belief that Kennedy was killed by a group of businessmen (Brown and Root, later Kellogg, Brown, and Root, later KBR, later Halliburton) friendly to Lyndon Johnson, now that’s a conspiracy theory.  One I happen to believe, by the way.  Check this.

The belief that Larry Silverstein, Marvin Bush and Dick Cheney, as well as probably 30 or 40 others, conspired to destroy the World Trade Center in New York in September of 2001 and blame it on Islamic Terrorists, now that’s a conspiracy theory.  It’s got the word conspire right in there.

Nothing crazy about it.  Nothing supernatural.  It’s a theory.  It involves a conspiracy.

Keep the terminology straight, that’s all I’m asking.

Leave a comment

Filed under Blogs' Archive

Tagged as

October 27, 2013 · 9:11 pm

Megajuana

Over the years, my appreciation of journalist Dan Rather has gone up and down.  I definitely think he was set up by the Bushies in the fake  document scandal, and his original allegation (that  George W Bush was AWOL from his unit in the Texas  Air National Guard during the Viet Nam war) was true, but there was never any point prior to that  when I thought he was a great and fearless crusader for the truth.

Now, he seems to be making a bit of a comeback.  We’ll see where it goes.

The Future

The Future

I’m not sure about this piece, which I just perused over at the old Huffington Puffington.  Could be Dan is just offering his objective view, reporting  what he saw.  The comments seem to be about  evenly divided between those who saw it as a pro marijuana piece, saying it should be legalized so we can  get on with the reasonable regulations, and those who saw it as the next desperate argument from those who want to keep marijuana banned, because they are convinced it’s evil, and they are convinced it’s evil because it’s illegal and therefore only a bunch of hippie scofflaws smoke it.

Rather said they are growing  marijuana plants so  tall  in  California they look like  giant Christmas  trees, they are like little redwoods, they are up to 15 feet (almost 5 meters) tall.  He said they are growing  on  public land  and crowding out the local  fauna.  They are being  so  heavily irrigated that creeks  are drying up and the salmon are endangered.

I must say, I also saw this article  as the latest desperate anti-marijuana argument, because no where  in the  article  did  it  actually state the plain, obvious fact that once marijuana is just  flat out  legalized  across the board,  those problems would disappear.  There would be no need to grow it on  public land, you could just  grow  it on  your  own land, where it’s  not competing with any other plants.  There would be no need to  surreptitiously pipe water out of mountain streams,  you could get it perfectly legally and pay your water and utilities bills like  everybody else.

Over the last few  decades, the strength of marijuana  has  increased tremendously due to effective breeding.  Now, apparently, it is growing on giant plants as well.  I  foresee a future where humans walk, like tiny little elves, through giant forests of happy trees.  It is rather a pleasant vision.

Leave a comment

Filed under Blogs' Archive

Tagged as

October 26, 2013 · 9:45 pm

Good Luck, Saudi Women!

Saudi Arabian women are making a bold move.  They want the right to drive, and they plan to take it.  This takes an incredible amount of guts.  Women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.  Also, it is not a country where they are going to get a fair shake in the courts if the police arrest them for driving.

Saudi Arabia is not a democracy.  It is a kingdom.  The country is owned, it is the personal property of the Saud family, hence the name.  It’s as if we were to rename the United States Walton’s America, or Koch’s America.  It’s a scary thought.

It never ceases to amaze me that the U.S. government considers the Saudis to be our allies, and have through both Republican and Democratic administrations, as long as I can remember.  We give their government (i.e. their military) billions of dollars every year.  It makes me question the use of the term “ally.”  They are not a democracy, so they don’t share our system of government or our aspirations as a society.  They don’t represent our interests in the region.  The interests of the oil companies, perhaps, but not the interests of most people.

Women Take the Wheel

Women Take the Wheel

And they are shit to women.  Women can be executed for adultery.  They have to walk around in a black bag.  They are pretty much their husband’s slaves.  They aren’t even allowed to drive.  So, this is a huge step.

If they are allowed to drive, they will be able to get away from the house, occasionally, without waiting for their husband to give them a ride.  It will make it possible for women to remain single.  It is huge.  And it deserves the total support of everyone in the west.  Including our governments.

There should be no support for Saudi Arabia, or even acceptance, until they get with the program and join the modern world.

Leave a comment

Filed under Blogs' Archive

October 25, 2013 · 9:46 pm

Thoughts on Russell Brand

O.K., about a dozen people on my facebook page have shared this and everybody’s raving about it like Russell Brand is the next George Carlin, but I’m just not buying it.  Here’s why:

First, I thought Paxman had a really good point when he asked how anybody could take Brand’s political opinions seriously in view of the fact that Brand has never voted.  Brand fielded the question glibly, of course, the man is witty and reasonably erudite, I’ll give him that.  Not Stephen Fry level erudite, but he handled the grilling better than most human beings could have.  Paxman still had a good point, though.

Actually, he looks a bit like Charles Manson, doesn't he?

Actually, he looks a bit like Charles Manson, doesn’t he?

Brand’s point was that nobody in politics has the public’s interest at heart, they are all crooked, and we need a whole new system.  But Paxman pressed him on what that new system should be and the best Brand could do was to say “I’ll tell you what it shouldn’t be” and then proceed to list the whole litany of society’s evils.  He’s really big on economic disparity.

I don’t  disagree.  We live in an insane civilization.  The world is a wealthy, beautiful planet which could easily support all of its people in total luxury and only require minimum work.  We need to figure out how to cooperate, how to distinguish between the ideas which will work for all mankind and those ideas which will only help the rich, and even them only in the short term.  We need an actual plan to move forward, not just a good rant.

Brand didn’t propose one.  I don’t think Brand knows of one.  He’s a pretty  good comic and I’ll bet he’d be an absolute blast to hang out with, but if we’re looking for someone to lead a revolution, I’m afraid we’re going to have to keep looking.

Leave a comment

Filed under Blogs' Archive

Tagged as