Moved...

... to tumblr.
Seems nicer, better, easier, et cetera.

CLICK ME

"Democracy without transparency is not democracy, it's just a word."

No-Sexist November

The original article that this is a response to can be found at (on page 4): 

The Hilltop Monitor 25/9

Go forth, equality!

            As I was fully enjoying my joyful Wednesday morning breakfast I was made aware of an interesting piece of investigative reporting into the intricacies of No-Shave November. As a vivid and passionate participant of this most wonderful time of the year, I hurried to the next Hilltop Monitor box. Searching through the paper I was sad to find the article hidden on the bottom of the 4^th page. “An investigation like this should be front-page news,” I thought to myself, whilst stroking my beard and digging into the depth of the report (and my beard hair).

            Already after the first couple of lines I was starting to get confused. ‘Horror,’ ‘fear,’ and even ‘patchy’ were the words used to introduce this subject so dear to many - and me. “Surely just a sarcastic approach that would lead to outline the glory that is the beard,” I thought to myself, whilst thinking to myself that I might be thinking to myself a little too much. However, I had to find out that those were not words of sarcasm, but rather just harmless introductions to what would turn out to be a ripping apart of beards! Ouch, that really hurt Charley (Cassie, Stacy)!

             I was never aware of the sexist message I communicate non-verbally, facially. If I had not entered an unbreakable pact of growing my beard out for all of November, I would have immediately shaved it off right there and then – for equality!

I completely understand the frustration that women experience with not being able to grow a beard in this society. I can actually identify with this on a very similar level – though much more intense and long lasting. All year round women wear make-up. Whenever I feel the urge to enter the beautifully scented sections of Wal-Mart to purchase some paint to improve my facial features, I have to stop and turn around. I just know that society will not accept me using cosmetic products like these. What a terrible double standard. Women think it’s fine when they do it, but nicely made-up (with make-up) men are frowned upon. A close friend of mine that wishes to remain anonymous (Drew Mitrisin, sophomore, baseball player, curly hair, moustache) was even called a “freak” by many for sporting some beautiful eyeliner on Halloween

According to www.urbandictionary.com, make up is “war paint for birds” or a “Common part of the incantations used by the characters of Sailor Moon to perform their "henshin" (transformation).” For example, “Venus Cristal Power, Make Up!” Both definitions are not very helpful. But “Venus Cristal Power, Make Up!” sure sounds like fun that I would love to participate in. “Make up!!” has close to 30,000 fans of facebook (despite the obnoxious double-exclamation mark) ousting my beloved No-Shave November by 10,000.  “I Make-Up unrealistic scenarios in my head” (emphasis added by author) has a whooping 155,000 fans! I would love to make-up some unrealistic scenarios in my head, too. But No, I am a man. Society does not want me to make-up.

So, in conclusion I propose: No-Make-Up November, a 1 to 11 consolation (one month of beards vs. 11 months of make-up). Like Mohandas Ghandi said so beautifully, “I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.” He had a great moustache.

I really wish...

... that I was starting to set up an apartment right now.

I would already have my first picture:

FREE SHIPPING!

Ausländer?

Sadly, it's not spell proof.

GTFO!

Picture again sponsored by Uncle.

Bouncers

This picture, sponsored by Uncle.

Everything is Perfect

"Everything is perfect with all its flaws."

I saw that written as a painting in a café in Lawrence, KS. I wanted to take a picture, but after I was done playing Angry Birds and drinking my 20 oz. hot chocolate I just left.

I always forget. Perfectly flawed. Fuck.

Information is Beautiful

An interesting website with many great data visualization.

For example a Left- vs. Right-Wing comparison.

Known by the company we keep.

"The 18 countries known to have conducted executions in 2009 were: Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Libya, Malaysia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, the United States, Vietnam and Yemen."

There are like 2 countries that I feel stand out from this list as "probably shouldn't be on there." Not that any country should be on this list.

Am I right in observing that the United States are the only predominantly Christian country on this list?

source

What do Satanists enjoy?

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Virginia, write it for me.

"I wish I could hit upon a pleasant track of thought, a track indirectly reflecting credit upon myself, for those are the pleasantest thoughts, and very frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-coloured people, who believe genuinely that they dislike to hear their own praises."

Thanks.

Just some random mutation... oh wait, no!

Favorite Quote of the Week

"Anyone who believes cannot experience miracles. By day one cannot see any stars."
- Kafka

I wish I had the patience and self-discipline to do this every week. But I don't, so I am not even going to try. But maybe I will. Probably not.

If we all pull together...

... maybe we can:

Restore Stephen - fucking - Baldwin!


Because he talks about god, give him money!
He filed for bankruptcy because secular-monkey-ass Hollywood made him be 2 1/2 million dollhairs in debt.


Also... he has a Hannah Montana Tattoo on his left shoulder and thus might need 2 1/2 million $ + a Tattoo removal. 
(I couldn't make this shit up if I tried really hard AND/OR had Stephen Baldwin's drug-dealer)

God's Latest Press Release

INNER DISK, ANDROMEDA GALAXY—Thanking the spiral-shaped celestial body for its 6.8 billion years of tireless service, Our Lord and Divine Creator announced Thursday His "very difficult decision" to close down the Andromeda galaxy for good. "Nobody ever wants to have to do something like this, but operating Andromeda on a daily basis has grown impractical and I can't in good conscience keep it going," God said of the incomprehensibly massive nebula, which is home to more than 1 trillion stars and an untold number of planetary objects. "So much has changed since I brought it into being, and to be honest, it's just not working out the way I'd hoped." A spokesman for the Supreme Being issued an apology to Andromeda's 750 quadrillion resident life-forms, who as of midnight Eastern Time on May 15 will cease to exist.

source: http://www.theonion.com/articles/god-shuts-down-andromeda-galaxy,17335/

Critique of Dawkins, rebuttal

The theologian John F. Haught strongly criticizes the "new atheism"-movement of Dawkins et cetera. All his main points seem to look at the perception of faith that Haught claims the new atheism-movement to have; a clear-cut rejection of all faith and ignorance towards their own hypotheses based on faith.

I claim this to be false and a distortion of what the new atheism actually proposes. To be a thinker at all, one has to realize that thinking basically begins with faith or the concept of “I know that I don’t know anything.” The faith that new atheism rejects is not the faith in science, thought, or knowledge but rather only the faith in a God. 

I really do not understand what Haught (or most truly in-depth religious people that are not part of the extremist/fundamentalist agenda) means when he talks about self-surrender, being carried away, or another dimension of reality. I wish – particularly for the sake of argument – that I would understand his concept of the faith of new-age theologians. Maybe someone here (Blogger/Facebook) can explain? 

Due to my lack of understanding of this form of religious faith I am only left with pointing out that science does not claim that the multiverse is finite. Haught claims that atheism is a narrow corridor without the grand themes of infinity and divinity religion seems to "possess." Science actually has to conceive of the concept of infinity, as many math equations proof. To reduce the realm of atheistic views to a “squeezing” into a small frame of two dimensions is an incorrect, ignorant, and quite frankly a fairly arrogant proposal by Haught that lacks just as much tolerance and open-mindedness as he claims the new atheism to be lacking.




Above is a slightly edited part of a homework I just finished. It made me so riled up, I just had to share on my diary/Bloggidy-Diggidy (even if no one else understands what I am writing about OR what I am mad about). :)

Einstein's Morality

"Strange is our situation here on Earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to divine a purpose. From the standpoint of daily life, however, there is one thing we do know: that man is here for the sake of other men - above all for those upon whose smiles and well-being our own happiness depends."
- Albert Einstein

Without thinking about how genes/natural selection explain morality of any being (human or not), I feel this is a nice way to think about it. Pretty easily disables the religious argument of the satan-worshipping (probably dumbest thing I heard here: "So, you don't believe in god... do you believe in satan?" - "No, actually you believe in satan because you believe in god. I do in neither."), evil-doing atheist that does not have any moral guidelines, because he doesn't have god.
It should be more questioned how good moral guidelines are that tell me to keep slaves and that women are inferior beings. Or talking about less extreme examples (which doesn't make them less dumb):

"Prop 8 - The Musical" starring Jack Black, John C. Reilly, and many more... from Jack Black

"You pick and choose!"
Can't get it out of my head.
"You pick and choose!"

Religion-forming on steroids.

Dawkins devotes a couple of his pages to these little interesting movements.

They really made me smile, and I just had to share. 

It sounds like such a plausible way of how any (yeah, any) religion has been formed at one point:

"We don't know what the fuck is going on! It's probably god(s) doing some work... lets worship 'em! Maybe we will be in their favor then, too/more often!? Praise the Cargo/Trinity/Buddha/Allah/Flying Spaghetti Monster/iPhone/Tim Lincecum!" 

And it goes on, and on, and ooooon...

And again the Vatican celebrates not punishing rapists.

Disgusting.

Apologies, no penalties

So, as we know some priests around the world keep raping boys. The church (catholic that is) has to act. But again, as it does act, it acts without penalties, but merely with words.

As the catholic church constantly has to deal with this openly in the media (being one of the largest), I don't even want to know what can be assumed that is going on behind closed doors of any church.

“It’s all about protecting the institution and, above all, its wealth. The greatest contribution the pope could have made was to stop the abuse of victims, and he’s not even done that.”
Word up, victims' group founder.

“I know some of you find it difficult even to enter the doors of a church after all that has occurred.”

Yipp, Pope Daddy.

ManBearPig, where are you?

We are having snow in late March. And a bunch of it, too.

Makes me think back to the good ol' days of this blog.

Come on!

This is going to explode!

OMG... What is!?


This Blog, at least I think so. At least for a couple of weeks.

For a religion class I am currently reading Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion". And I have to say I love it quite a bit. Everyone in the world should read it.

For now I will just quote something he quotes, that I think is very double-quotable.

Talking about the whole Muhammed-cartoon issue in 2005/2006 he quotes journalist Andrew Mueller talking about the assumptions of religion/Islam:

"the values of Islam trump anyone else's - which is what any follower of Islam does assume, just as any follower of any religion believes that theirs is the sole way, truth and light. If people wish to love a 7th century preacher more than their own families, that's up to them, but nobody else is obliged to take it seriously..."

... Or a 0th century preacher...?

Here are some interesting stories I never heard about before:

Religion as a legitimization for drug use -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzales_v._O_Centro_Espirita_Beneficente_Uniao_do_Vegetal

Tolerating religious values taken a little too far -
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,474629,00.html

More passages and interesting thoughts will follow.

I Heart Googling...

... for interesting Bible quotes.

"If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity."
- Deut 25:11-12

"No one who is emasculated or has his male organ cut off shall enter the assembly of the LORD."
- Deut 23:1

"There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses."
- Ezekiel 23:20

"And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.
And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them."
- 2 Kings 2:23-24

2 Kings 2:11 - "As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind."
John 3:13 - "No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man."

Matthew 5:16 - "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven."
Alright, Jesus! Yeah Baby!
Matthew 6:1 - "Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them."
Ugh... what now?


John 5:31 - "If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid."
John 8:14 - "Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid."


These were just some of the results after 10 minutes of looking around. Now tell me how anyone can seriously take the bible literally and I will buy you a chocolate bar.

My point, exactly...

This is why I'm in a band

Probability of my jacket being stolen in a club: 15%

Probability of my iPod falling out of the stolen jacket's pocket: 5%

Probability of one of my three friends left finding my iPod - without knowing it was stolen - in a club with 400 people: 0.75%

Them figuring out it's my iPod because songs from my band are on it: Fucking Awesome.

Let's separate the Knower from the Known

Let's do it, baby.

So, talking about knowledge, beliefs, and truth real quick. Seriously, real quick.

I thought about this today while thinking about agnosticism vs. atheism...

If one is an agnostic, and thus doesn't know whether there is a god or not, because he is not sure, consequently one would have to doubt everything in the world just as much. Admitting that you are an agnostic, you say "contrary to no evidence what-so-ever proving the existence of a god or gods, I choose to still not be sure of whether there is one or not." And I am not even talking about the nut-job... excuse me... fundamentalists literal truth god but any god. When one isn't sure about something being not there or actually there that has been disproven by all means of science as far as currently humanly (maybe physically) possible, it should resolve in a lot more questions than just: 

"Is there a god? I am not sure!"

Furthermore:

Is the moon made out of blue cheese? Is gravity really just invisible goblins constantly winning a invisible tug-o-war against invisible griffins? Is everyone dead, is life a dream, am I dead, am I awake? I am not sure!

Having similar doubts all the time would require a lot of creativity, but would also seriously blow ass.

Constantly everyone involved in the process of living chooses to accept scientific concepts, laws of nature, or anything that surrounds us and we perceive through our senses as truth - as something that we can know. I don't want to say that this is the ultimate way, but it certainly enables ANYONE (fundamentalists, atheists, agnostics, butchers, tap-dancers, and many more) to live life without constantly worrying about floating away into space or worrying about whether the world is going to explode in one second.

(BOOM - Oh Shit.)

In short, without this we wouldn't be able to live. So we do make constant decisions (unconscious or not doesn't really matter) to accept certain visible things as truth. How then do we draw the line when it comes to a god or religion? How is it that some people decide to accept it as a truth, some people decide to deem it as "unknowable," and some are certain that it's baloney (Bologna, yeah, whateffz)?

Seriously, I can understand the religious side of this triad of theism in this argument better than the agnostic one. Obviously I am on the atheist side, but I can see how you choose a truth that has been taught to you over decades by family, friends, and the clergy/priests/really nice people in big buildings with symbols on the roof. But I can't see how you can be a non-religious person on the basis of not-knowing-for-sure. Because, as established, what the f do we really know for sure? We pick and choose on many things (2+2=4 ... Truth! Hooray, let's have a cup of tea.) based on our education, experience, genes, history, bla. It's just me, but picking and choosing beats "I don't know man..." any day. Especially when you have access to the information required to make a pretty educated guess.

This by no means is a suggested argument against doubt or the concept of it, because as atheist or as theist you should still doubt. But declaring your position as the position of the one without a clue, you are picking the easy way out, dude.

Short is short and long is long. This might not be as short as promised, but I am done.

... OR AM I?

Muahahahaaaa....