Saturday, June 27, 2009

Buggley Uber Alles

Music late again, oh well.

"Buggley Eyes", NOFX, White Trash, Two Heebs, And A Bean
"Bull In The Heather", Sonic Youth, Experimental Jet Set, Trash And No Star
"Bulletproof", Voodoo Glow Skulls, Cinema Beer Nuts
"Bullion", Millencolin, Punk-O-Rama Vol. 2
"The Burden", Dropkick Murphys, The Warrior's Code
"Burnin' Love", Ghoti Hook, Songs We Didn't Write
"Burnout", Green Day, Dookie
"Buzzbomb From Pasadena", Dead Kennedys, Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death
"Cacophany", Blink-182, Cheshire Cat
"California Uber Alles", Dead Kennedys, Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Coincidence?

I bought the game FEAR yesterday. I played it for a bit. A fun game, very creepy. One of the guys I work with is into video games too and we play a lot of similar games. FEAR was a game he recommended I buy. We are discussing the game and he is telling me about one of the creepier scenes that is in it. The conversation goes something like this:

Billy - "I will tell you if you want me, too. I don't want to spoil the game."
Me - "Go ahead I don't care, I will still play."
B - "Well you are in an elevator. You push the button to go. The lights flicker and go out. They blink back on and the little girl, Alma, is in the corner. Then the lights go out again."
Right after he says that the lights in the Warehouse flicker and go out, just like in the game. Both him and I spooked for a second. We then both proceed to laugh.

Coincidence? Well ya.

Racism Today

Just a couple of comments I heard at work today.

We had a little get together this morning at work, everybody brought some sort of snack. One of the snacks was a very tasty cantaloupe. One person remarked that they preferred watermelon. I responded saying that I don't like watermelon. Since I don't hide my political leanings at work I got this statement in response.

"You can't be an Obama supporter and not like watermelon." That was followed by laughter from a few people there. I just coldly said, "That doesn't seem like an appropriate thing to say." The person who said this is of Hispanic descent and if I had made a comment like 'You should really enjoy the nacho cheese, tortillas, and rice.' I could get fired, but there were no African-Americans around so this person was okay. Bullshit, comments like this are never okay. They are stereotyping and degrading. To me they also show the ignorance of the person saying it.

Then shortly after that another worker comes in showing what they have added to our shipping labels. "Made in America". Well this is actually not quite accurate, we receive parts from all over the world. "Assembled in America" would be the accurate phrasing. This same employee went on tirade accusing the Chinese of putting chemicals in food that will make all Americans become "slant eyed". This employee is a kook and everyone knows it, but again this shows to me stupidity, ignorance, and racism are all still alive and well.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Brass Monkey Bubblegoose

"Brass Monkey", The Beastie Boys, The Sounds of Science
"The Bravest Kids", Rancid, Let The Dominoes Fall
"Break The Glass", Suicide Machines, Destruction By Definition
"Breed", Nirvana, Nevermind
"Bright Green Glob", Down By Law, Punk-o-rama
"Bring On The Dancing Horses", Lagwagon, Before You Were Punk, Vol. 2
"Broadway", Foxboro Hottubs, Stop Drop And Roll!!!
"Brothels", Rancid, Give 'Em The Boot
"Brown Eyed Girl", Everclear, The Best Of Everclear
"Bubblegoose", Wyclef Jean, South Park: Chef Aid

Monday, June 15, 2009

Lying Liars and the Lies They Tell

The Ten Commandments, well at least ten rules that people arbitrarily pick out of the Bible and call that. I am not going into the fact that the commonly used Ten Commandments is never called that in the Bible and a different set of ten are called the Ten Commandments. No, instead I am going to pick on a few ideas about them and specifically on "Do not Lie".

First off "Do Not Lie" is not even a commandment. The commandment is "Do not bear false witness against your neighbor." The idea is do not lie in court, or don't commit perjury. That is far different than do not lie. It is about falsely accusing your neighbor of wrong doings and getting them punished for it. Lying on the other hand is often favored in the Bible. Look at the story of Jacob and how he gained his inheritance. His punishment for lying, he became the father of Israel and all the Jews. Wow, that is rough. So lying is not even on the common list.

Second, the idea that we will be convicted by the Holy Spirit. Yes, any time you feel empathy your conscious speak up about how you wronged a fellow human being, then that is the Holy Spirit convicting you. Confusing empathy with the Holy Spirit seems to be a common thing for the Fundamentalist Christians that make this claim. This goes back to my post a few days ago. We are social animals, we need each other to survive. So having actual feelings for others around you, will help you survive and pass on your genes. Most of us just call this empathy. This again is how all major societies came up with the Golden Rule. Personally, I am a Secular Humanist and I live by the Platinum Rule, treat others as they want to be treated.

It is nice to think the wicked will get what's coming to them at some point, but that is just a fairy tale. The world is harsh and unfair at times, but it still doesn't care. It doesn't know how to care or what care means, it just is. Humans can care and know what it means. So we should look out for each other. We don't need an old book telling us what is right and wrong, just look into yourself and put yourself in the other person's situation. Empathy it isn't hard.

In one case of lying, I have never felt sorry or convicted for doing it. That is dealing with con men and scammers. I have a hobby where I will lead scammers down a path where they think I will pay them. Instead I waste their time and money and can keep them from real victims at least temporarily. These people would steal medicine money from a 90 year old. I never feel anything for how I treat them. I have heard the complaints of that is the only way they can feed themselves. This is utter bullshit, these people scam because they can make a lot of money doing it. Hope springs eternal and they profit off of it. So if lying is morally wrong and the Holy Spirit will convict me for it every time or else there is no Holy Spirit. Then there is no Holy Spirit. I also started this hobby while I was a Christian and I know several Christians that participate.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Bonzo Goes To Brain Stew

I am slow on my music post again. A few days late but it is here now.

"Bonzo Goes To Bitburg", The Ramones, Mania
"Boom", Bloodhound Gang, One Fierce Beer Coaster
"Boring", Blink-182, Dude Ranch
"Born Frustrated", Rancid, Indestructible
"Bottled Violence", Minor Threat, First 2 7"s
"Boulevard Of Broken Dreams", Green Day, American Idiot
"A Boy Named Sue", Johnny Cash, Johnny Cash
"The Boys Are Back In Town", Everclear, The Best Of Everclear
"Brad Logan", Rancid, South Park: Chef Aid
"Brain Stew/Jaded", Green Day, International Superhits (Because Jaded was made to directly follow Brain Stew)

I hit my first copyright wall. I cannot find Born Frustrated. :(

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Raping and Murdering

This is from Ray Comfort's Blog:

"Starbuck wrote: Now Let me ask you or any athiest why they insist on spreading their beliefs? I have asked a few and the response is that people need to know the truth. And they are there to show them.

Now why on earth would you want to go and do that? Because of this percieved Chistian Religion evils that have been perpetuated upon mankind?

Or did you in your own intelligence come to the conclusion that you are better and smarter then God? I suppose so, seeing you don't believe in him.

Why would you want to take away my hope? So many people need that. Hope. Why do you want to steal and destroy that for them?

I am assuming you are a decent person? Of course you are. Well, before I turned to Jesus, I was NOT a decent person. I lied, I drank and did drugs. I was violent. But I had no direction. I was angry, fearful and mean. I hated blacks, I hated gays, I hated mexicans, I hated chinese. I hated pretty much everyone. I hated my parents, I hated my siblings. I hated school and then I hated work. I hated the police. I hated doctors. Did I mention I was violent? I loved guns. I loved knives and swords and other weapons. For some unknown reason, I never hated God and I always knew he existed but sometimes had doubts. Evolution to me was just silliness. Even when I had turned my back on God.

I was headed for a confontation..
with someone or something.

Before you say I need to get my head examined, they did. They put a label on me.. paranoid schizophrenic. Thought disorder. They measured my IQ at 210. Although It would be nowhere near that. I have no idea why it was so high. But at the time I prided myself at how clever and smart I was.

I wanted to kill. Kill on a large scale. The doctors gave me medicine that toned it down a bit, but it made me feel sick all the time. Which made me angry.

But then a person very special to me talked me to about God and how he could help. Well I reached out and God grabbed me so hard, I could feel he was around. perhaps just my imagination. But when I accepted him as my Lord and Savior, I remember I had felt so tainted before. And everything started to wash away. And I had HOPE. Finially, hope!

And you athiests want to take that away?

Don't you think Churches are filled with idiots like myself? REALLY bad people who turned to God? What would happen if you took it away?

Those people would revert BACK to what they were before.. well a lot of them would. Only now I know I would have a target. The people who took away my hope. I would hate them beyond words. I would kill them on sight. I would hate athiests with all my passion I could muster.

I know I would do that. Because I would have no hope.

I know you cannot understand why a person would do such a thing. but that is because you are decent. Without God, I am not a decent person. I am worse then Jeffery Dahmer.


But with God, I am a ok father, and an ok husband... my wife says I am a great husband.. but I digress. My kids do talk to me. And I don't hate anyone. Plus I am a great technician... pays the bills and keeps me fed.


Now, let me ask you one more time athiests.. Why do you want to take that away?"

The emphasis was added later by someone else. The claim is that without god this person would be out raping and murdering. Obviously, this particular person has mental issues and he admits that, but the claim of raping and murdering is not uncommon to most Fundamentalists and other Christians. I find this claim comes after the theist is backed into a corner where they have to admit that either A) their morals do not come from god or B) without god they would be out raping and murdering. For some reason instead of making the sane rational choice, they opt for B.

Even with the more extreme circumstances, like that which I quoted, I do not believe these people would rape and kill if it was proven there was no god. If one is so inclined to violence then that person can justify violence through the Bible and teachings of Christianity. For example the murder of Dr. George Tiller recently by Scott Roeder. Scott justified his murder as earthly judgment by god.

The fact is it is not god keeping these people from murdering. No, it is the same thing that keeps us all from murdering each other. The golden or platinum rule. The rule that developed through the process of evolution. Humans are social animals. Our ancestors had to work together to survive. In turn that working together required some form of trust between everyone in the group. Those who are inclined to kill and rape, would not be trusted. For the sake of the rest of the group they would be thrown out to survive on their own or killed. This is a simplified version of how morals evolved but one can get the general idea.

This is why I don't believe the people that say they would murder, steal, and rape if it was proven there was no god. Sure they wouldn't have some super natural power to answer too, but they would have their own genetics and the people in their community to answer too. Also anyone should be able to understand, it is better that they don't do these things because they don't want these things done to them. Where we arrive back at the Golden Rule.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Hypocrite

Reading this post by Jen at Blag Hag got me thinking. I wrote in response to her post and I don't know if I am truly being rational or not.

People who spend their time with their own spirituality that does not affect others are still wasting their lives in my opinion. They are throwing money and time away on make believe feel good nonsense.

That last bit though can be used against me and what I spend a lot of my time and money on. What is gaming? It is a bit of escapism, to a feel good (well not always, some things can get quite frustrating, but overall feel good) make believe nonsense. I spend quite a bit of money and time on it also. So really, who am I to judge here?

FUG commented saying, "In a universe without purpose, there is no such thing as a wasted action. There is no end to work towards, so every action is equitable." On the whole of the universe I can agree with that. But each individual is able to make goals or purpose on their own, irrespective of the, for a lack of a better term, "will" of the universe.

So I still sit here in a conundrum. I am willing to admit I am wrong and I am a hypocrite for judging them. Yet I still want to judge spiritualists, I still want to point out they are wasting their time and money on nonsense. I stand here, as I am, a hypocrite.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Plans

I have some ideas for this blog, but none are going to start soon.

First, I am going to TAM7, I will try to blog from it but I don't make any promises. I will give a full summary and my feelings after it is over though. Plus pictures, I will not forget my camera this time, or I will be very very very very very very upset, very.

Second, I am about to run a Warhammer 40k Dark Heresy game, probably in late August early September. I think I will write about how each session goes. This is my first time DMing a game so hopefully this will help me get better at it.

Thirdly, I feel I need something to push me more on writing here. I give my thoughts on certain subjects but a lot of time I am just too apathetic to post. I need to find something that drives me to post on a more regular basis. I just have to come up with something or somethings.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

All Things Bombshell

I am going back a bit because I bought some stuff definitely missing from my collection.

"All Things Dull And Ugly", Monty Python, Monty Python Sings
"Along Comes Mary", Bloodhound Gang, Hooray For Boobies
"The Auld Triangle", Dropkick Murphys, The Warrior's Code
"The Bad Touch", Bloodhound Gang, Hooray For Boobies
"The Ballad Of Chasey Lain", Bloodhound Gang, Hooray For Boobies
"Bodies", The Sex Pistols, Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols
"Body Movin' (Fatboy Slim Remix)", The Beastie Boys, The Sounds Of Science
"Bohemian Polka", Weird Al Yankovic, Alapalooza
"Bombshell", Home Grown, Take Warning: The Songs Of Operation Ivy
"Bombshell", Operation Ivy, Operation Ivy: Energy