I think the best description of many people in the entertainment industry is “well meaning retards.” They all want to genuinely help people so much, but they just happen to be some of the dumbest people to ever grace God’s green earth. There is hardly a better example than Barbra Streisand. Were she some regular person, she’d just be an idiot on the street who no one ever listened to enough to gain a full appreciation of how profoundly stupid she is. Instead, as part of some cruel joke, she is famous and we all get to hear her amusing idiocy. The Drudge Report has obtained a fax she sent to “Gebhardt” (yes, it’s misspelled, but give her credit for getting the silent ‘d’ right), and she rails against the war on Iraq and the evil Republicans in a manner that is not only moronic, but also cliched. So, who gave her the idea she had anything original or intelligent to say? They must be very mean people and should be hurt. Yes, it’s funny to laugh at Streisand, but do those who encourage her to speak out ever stop to think of her feelings? She is a human being, and, if they had any concern for her, the would lock her away in a home and train her to keep quiet through a series of painful shocks.
Archive of entries posted on September 2002
So What Nation is it Supposed to Be?
Christopher Hitchens is leaving The Nation. This is a good idea. The Nation is one hilarious magazine, but Hitchens was never that funny. Unless I was missing the joke, it was almost like he was writing serious, thoughtfull pieces instead of parodies of left-wing editorials. He was just really out of place in that magazine. Well, maybe now that The Nation is pure humor, The Onion will buy it up and integrate its content.
Flattery of the Highest Order
I think I have just been given the best compliment ever, because it involved a reference to both the Simpsons and Gen. Patton. Anyway, Mean Mr. Mustard is one awesome blog. He’s a Berkley student, but not a left-wing idiot! It’s hard to comprehend; you must see it for yourself.
Maybe They Could Give Him a Talking Dinosaur as a Sidekick
They are planning on making another Superman movie, and Moriarty of Aint It Cool News has a script review. It looks like it’s going to be craptastic. Krypton, Superman’s home planet, never explodes, and they take Lex Luthor, the evil billionaire corporate tyrrant (and you think that would be a popular villian these days) and instead make him a CIA agent and an alien. I just hope they don’t do to Superman what they did to Batman. First, Tim Burton made the movies too dark and too weird, but it wasn’t that bad. But then Joel Schumacher took over, and, with each movie, moved it closer to gay porno. Well, whatever they do, if it’s an FDA certified blockbuster and contains lots of explosions, I’ll probably still go see it.
Does Religion Kill?
Bill Quick pointed out an article where some religious people are being silly pacifists, and then goes on to say “Religion makes some people murderously violent, but with others, it seems to cause blind idiocy.” Now, it is pretty easy to interpret that as saying for those whom religion doesn’t make murderously violent, it causes blind idiocy (though I believe Bill meant it as a condemnation of some religious people). Understandably, the comment section erupted with a lot of people arguing at and around each other. I just wanted to tackle one point brought up, which is the atheist assertion that religion is responsible for lots of wars and killing. Usually, I hear a tally of body counts, but that proves religion makes people more violent as much as it does that having ten fingers makes people more violent. Just as most people have ten fingers, by far, most people throughout history have been religious, so of course religion is going to be a factor among the killers. The difference between religion and finger count, is that religion is often used as a reason for violence while having ten fingers is not so often used as a one (except maybe if they are wars about mathematics). But wars have goals that are valuable to nonreligious people who are evil such as land, wealth, and power, and I haven’t seen any evidence that one wouldn’t have just used a different reason for violence if, by magic, a religious reason were not available, same as one might use a bomb to kill people if a gun isn’t available (religion doesn’t kill people, people kill people). As we’ve seen in the past century with things such as communism, people can just as easily latch on to nonreligious beliefs as a reason for killing. And there are many atheists who are just as fanatical and irrational about their beliefs as any religious fundamentalist. All I’ve seen proven is that religion doesn’t always prevent violence in all cases (well, a lot of cases), but that’s hardly a very strong condemnation of it.
Sorry, that wasn’t very funny, but I have to indulge myself sometimes. Now, an unrelated question I’m quite curious about: Are there atheists who think religion is a good thing? I.e. that the existence of a supreme being is a silly thing, but still it’s a useful fantasy?
These Things I Believe Part IV
In my compilation of beliefs, I have added opinions on big government, slave reparations, and the value of pi. Now you’ll know what to think on those issues.
Link of the Day
Joanne Jacobs discusses how Japan is changing its rigid system of education to try and be more like America’s failing schools. Make sure to check out the comments sections for some first hand accounts of the Japanese education system. I usually think copying America is one of the best ideas any country can have, but perhaps they’d do better emulating other things than our schools.
What Color is the Sky in this Alternate Universe?
France saved our schoolchildren in the Ivory Coast… by using force. When I first saw the news report, I thought I was watching an episode of Sliders. I feel ashamed that France bailed us out, but I guess there is no reason. They just acted quickly and decisively as any good country should have, but usually as only America ever would. I guess France has decided not to compete with Germany for most cowardly nation and instead go the other route. So, how do I say this… uh… oh yeah…
Thank you, France.
It looks grammatically correct, but why does it seem so odd?
So What If Democrat’s Aren’t Interested in the Security of the American People? I’m Not Interested in Their Security
Daschle is having a hissy fit because Bush stated the obvious that, “Democrats are not interested in the security of the American people.” I can sympathize, as this whole fighting terrorism stuff is sure inconvenient for Democrats during the election cycle. When the issue is important stuff like national security and keeping America safe from murderers, Republicans are trusted more. Democrats, on the other hand, are much more trusted with piddling crap. People think that Democrats are too whiny and touchy-feely to kill bad people when needed but are just whiny enough to get them cheaper prescriptions and free stuff. Problem is, when the focus is important things like wars, people don’t give a rats ass about saving a few cents on Prozac, so the Democrats need to keep the focus away from the war. Is this the same as not being interested in the security of the American people? Yes, but it’s not fair to point that out. If the Democrats were all really interested in keeping people safe from terrorists, then they’d all have to resign and appoint competent Republicans in their place (competent = not like Hagel), and that’s expecting a little too much of them.
Kids These Days
A Berkeley study shows that teenagers are more conservative on average than their parents. The results of the poll were that teenagers were more in favor of federal funding of faith based charities, school prayer, and restrictions on abortion than adults even though so many of them dress like stupid punks. This is a good thing, but the article doesn’t seem to say why this happened. Was it just a result of simple teenage rebellion?
“My parents are always like, ‘Let’s abort everybody and not pray,’ but I’m not like my parents.”
“Yeah, parents are so stupid and tend towards left-wing positions on social issues. Let’s go hang out at the mall.”
Link of the Day
I was thinking how Tony Blair is pretty cool now and that you can’t trust Saddam, but Juan Gato showed me why I’m wrong. You can’t argue with things when you assign numbers to it.
Not Being Able to Kill Makes Me Violent
I’m not good at this leagal mumbo jumbo; did the death penalty get outlawed again? What’s it with with these judges anyway? First they say we can only execute members of Mensa, then we can’t give props to God when saying the pledge, and now we can’t kill criminals all together. What gives? Now we’ll just have to stick to killing evil foreigners; much less paperwork. Hell, we can “regime change” until the seas turn red with blood and we don’t have to do any appeals or nut’n. Well, I just hope that when attacked by a criminal in the street you still don’t have to go through some trial before being able to unload a fifteen round clip into the guy and then slapping in another clip and unloading that into him and then kicking him a few times. And I better not end up being stuck at the police station answering questions for an hour next time either.
Frank Discovers a New Country
I read that American troops are headed to the Ivory Coast. My first question was, what country or countries is the Ivory Coast in? Ends up – I’m not making this up – it is a country! A country named “Ivory Coast.” That’s not even a good enough name for like a little town. I could maybe see it as the name of a hotel, but a whole country! What war did they lose to get stuck with that name? So, I looked it up in the CIA World Fact Book, but it wasn’t there. So I then looked under ‘C’ in case it was listed as “Coast, Ivory” for some reason. There I found Cote d’Ivoire which seemed to be it. I found out they have close ties to France and export coffee before my attention span petered out. Anyway, the American troops are going there to save missionary children from violent rebels (can we be anymore the “good guys” than that?) and perhaps kill some Ivory Coastians or whatever you call them. Well, Godspeed to them and… is one of it’s neighbors named “Burkina Faso”? Well, I guess not everyone can make fun of the Ivory Coast. My God, how many countries are there?
Yellow Is Good, Right?
We have now returned to yellow alert. I guess I’ll go back to leaving the safety on when I carry my gun.
These Things I Believe Part III
In my compilation of beliefs, I have added my opinions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and random ninja attacks and offer my solutions.