Monday, January 31, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Obama defends abortion as a right as lawmakers get set to roll them back | Mail Online
Obama defends abortion as a right as lawmakers get set to roll them back | Mail Online:
"The President said the 1973 Roe v Wade decision that legalised abortion affirmed what he called a 'fundamental principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters'."
I couldn't agree more Mr. Obama. I'm really not a fan of government being involved with anything in my life, but mark my words if I can take advantage of it I will. hand outs that is not abortion. I mean...I couldn't possibly have an abortion I'm a dude. Oh shit well maybe not! Haven't you ever seen Junior?
But what is hope?
"But what is hope? Hope is a longing for a future condition over which we have no agency. That’s how we use the word in every day language. I don’t say, “Gosh, I hope I put my shoes on before I go outside.” I just do it. On the other hand, the next time I get on a plane I hope it doesn’t crash. After I get on the plane I have no agency."
-Derrick Jensen
Obama Hears a Hu - Infoshop News
Here's a great piece pointing out the inherent corporatistic ideologies that are still and most likely always will be a part of Washington's agenda. Whether it be Bush or O'bama we can all rest assure that with the ever so eager helping hand of governments the rich will get wealthier and the poor, well, they get there jobs shipped over seas. You fill in the rest.
Naturally, top U.S. corporations were represented at President Hu Jintao’s prestigious State dinner. The seats were filled with CEOs from Boeing, Dow Chemical, General Electric and Microsoft among others. These same corporations had prime advertising space in the USA Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, where Dow Chemical touted its commitment to environmental protection and General Electric branded the VIP Lounge, “GE Imagination Theater”. Stories of the corporate control and worker unrest at the USA Pavilion can be found at: http://www.chengduliving.com/greed-and-corruption-usa-pavilion/#comments
Wagging US companies in front of China’s nose has worked for Washington. President Hu Jintao announced to buy $19 billion of aircraft from Boeing and Shenhua Energy signed a $2.5 billion contract with GE.
Boeing just announced the elimination of 1,100 jobs, apparently a new $19 billion deal can’t support the livelihoods of the working class that make their warplanes.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
The Horoscope is a Lie.
I've never found horoscopes to be useful, nor have I ever found them to have the slightest amount of truth to them. They're filled with massive amounts of loaded words, vague descriptions and are usually emotionally driven. But, most of all they seem like they are completely the same all the time!
Well finally my assumptions have come true. The folks over at http://www.informationisbeautiful.net did some friendly hacking on Yahoo!'s horoscope page and grabbed 22,000 horoscopes for every sign and made a nice word cloud of the most common words used for each sign. And guess what? 90% of the words are all shared!
The website broke this down into the 50 most common words and found the most unique words in two analysis' and quite frankly I couldn't be happier about being a Virgo. The first ones was 'take' and 'careful'. The second ones were 'totally' and 'perfect'. If you didn't realize I really preferred the later.
For fun lets try to make a horoscope specifically out of the words represented in the cloud above for my sign:
Plans? best friends perfect moment comes fun. Ready? Dealing energy careful turn enough matter help. Better feel life exactly. Takes everything totally sure. Mind change nothing situation. World, keep love.
OK well that is just ridiculous! What a load of crap! Hold on let me check my real horoscope:
Believe in your vision. Like never before, you see good and bad as they truly are.
Overview
You feel less organized than usual, which isn't much fun. You may have to force yourself to take care of business, but that's not so far off from your skill set. Things get better soon!
Really? That's it...frankly, I'm not convinced.
Links:
(Via The Friendly Atheist)
You May Not Be a Geek, But...
Whilst having a conversation with my co-workers about how we grew up and the social constructs in which we resided in, she directed me towards this great article; Five Geek Social Fallacies. In this article it outlines 5 fallacies that "geeks" encounter in large groups of friends.
Now I do not consider myself to be a "geek" in any respects of the word, nor have I ever had a large centralized group of friends, but I have had friends that have been and still are in those situations.
I consider myself to be a "people watcher" and I tend to over analyze social structures between people and this article was spot on to the groups that I observed while growing up. The interesting part about this, though, is that the majority of them I didn't consider to be geeks, but they all had one thing in common; they all were somewhat of an outcast from the "popular" or "normal" groups.
These fallacies could also exist in those "popular" groups, but I never really had an interest in them.
Although, I did not have these large groups of friends the author did give people like me a shout out:
Less commonly, people form a sort of counter-fallacy which I call "Your Feelings, Your Problem". YFYP carriers deal with other people's fallacies by ignoring them entirely, in the process acquiring a reputation for being charmingly tactless. Carriers tend to receive a sort of exemption from the usual standards: "that's just Dana", and so on. YFYP has its own problems, but if you would rather be an asshole than angstful, it may be the way to go. It's also remarkably easy to pull off in a GSF1-rich environment.
I have one problem with this, I don't think I'm an asshole and I certainly hope that the people that I do hang around with don't think I am. I may be a bit callous and distant, I may not invest myself in relationships and I may make jokes that are offensive, but I'm certainly not without compassion and understanding. This isn't to say I don't have any friends (Most likely I have more than you;)) or that I have any drama with them.
It has taken a long time for me to accept the idea that I don't have a large group of friends. I use to envy those that did, but after observing them for this long I don't think I ever wanted that in the first place. I'm pretty sure if you take the time to read the article you can find that group of friends that you know or knew and you'll most likely find yourself, that is, if you don't have a problem taking a look at yourself.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Sunday, January 9, 2011
If only he could see himself now.
I wake up most mornings thinking of the past. Usually because of a dream that I had with friends in them that I rarely talk to any more. I wake up with a sense of nostalgia and I can't seem to shake this feeling that if I had done something different things would be better.
"The grass is greener on the other side" they always say, but I sometimes really believe that things would have been better - more fulfilling. I don't know if that's just the way my train of thought is all the time or that I'm really just romanticizing.
I think about how I used to be. I think about how conversations used to flow so easily and how I was confident in being me. How my opinion matter and I had a deeper sense of life and what it meant. Or at least I romanticize about the past so much that I've made my past me more significant than what it really was.
I find myself to be more shallow, less understanding and frankly sometimes void of passion. Is it just age? Is it just the fact that I've decided that I now know somethings as to be certain. I decided a long time ago that I was an atheist. That god could not exist in anyway shape or form because of the cards that I was dealt. Not to say that the cards were not more favorable than others, because they most certainly were, but because religion played a significant role in separating my family. Although, those events happened I still had a feeling of spirituality. A sense of a greater purpose.
I knew at that time that we all shared energy with each other and that energy was indisputable. It gave me a sense of peace, a feeling of harmony with others. I used to read things about Reiki and books like The Celestine Prophecies. I used to argue the interconnectivity of everyone by citing new findings in quantum physics.
But all that is behind us now. I work long hours I certainly don't go out as often as I used to. I don't feel as though I have any real connection to anyone I know any more. I feel callous and angry most of the time and what I project is fake. Inside I worry and think of the past. How much time have I wasted drinking alone when now I could have been drinking with friends. How many times have I been conversing online rather then conversing in front? How many times am I going to let it burn me from the inside before I do anything about it?
If I could see myself today as I was yesterday, what is it that I would have to say?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)