Comment to Durk Niblick's post

yeah, the war in iraq.

It's sad to me that everything becomes politicized. All people seem to be capable of doing is dividing into us and them, and loving us no matter what and vilifying them no matter what. So, the war has become the Republican's thing, so Liberals (such as NPR) are required to hate it, vilify it, mock it, dismiss it, etc.

it was the wrong time
it was the wrong way
it was unwise
but, at some level, it was still the right thing to do

Is what we're accomplishing worth the price? I don't think so, and I didn't think it would be before we invaded. But, about the first time I got called names around a lunch-table for expressing my concerns, I shut up.

Bottom line, this war is my fault and the fault of people like me. People who knew better, but still allowed ourselves to be intimidated by people who were too overwhelmed with patriotic fervor to think clearly.

I'm the bad guy here. I owe the troops and apology for not doing more to keep them out of this mess.

Sympathy for the Devil

Been thinking about the lyrics to SFTD today.
Reason to Rock writeup is interesting.

I've read that Sympathy for the Devil is the Screw Tape Letters of rock'n'roll; the idea that evil is insidious and everywhere and that we need to be very wary.

I'm not sure about this coming from the Stones. I don't know them well, but it seems out of character, doesn't it?

Then again, in the Viet-Nam era, when the institutions in which we place our hope and security are so badly boning us, I could see a group of rock-n-rollers coming up with this. Also, Jagger was going to the London College of Economics or some such thing, so he's probably reasonably clever.

I guess I could buy that the lyric is a thoughtful and even-handed treatment of evil in the world and that all the apparent satanism in the concerts, etc was a publicity scheme to set them in contrast to the beatles.

I guess I could buy that the guy who claims they were into satanism is just an example of the sort of nut who gets into satanism and shouldn't be taken seriously.

I don't know. I'm looking for a way to make it OK for me to listen to this, because I really love the song. Something just won't pass my sniff test, however.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Penny Arcade! - Eerie In Its Accuracy

language warning: Penny Arcade! - Eerie In Its Accuracy

Oh, dear LORD! This is SOoooo real to life. Video games are crossing some strange line.

Why would you want to get knocked up in a video game?

Don't think I'll ever get tired of listening to this ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn1pf0Xi3nU

How many times have i heard the phrase: "I will never date you 'cause you smell. like. bait."

So what? who cares? we're doin' it how we like...

Love it.

Shoulda' stumbled accross PAIN years ago.

My day today

I was going to delete this because it's useless emotional drivel ejected from a self-pitty party.

Then I decided it's relevant because I really felt this bad, if only for a while.

Then laziness won, and I decided not to decide.

I cried when I sent it

the letter from my physician

the recurring panic attacks

ending my career

little hope

sadness

And one again I felt t

The thrust and twisting blade

should have done better

Eviscerating me again

Try harder

Fail

Self's blood cries from the ground

his spirit shrieks towards sheole

Forcibly discharged from flesh

Cold empty blackness

No warmth

void

But this is a tremendous thing

There is now No ambition

There exists no pride

No deceptive worth

quietly awaiting

empty

And something that is empty can most easily be filled.

So …

dread naught

ignore the tears

the breast that quivers

The unsteadiness of my speech

The slight quivering of my lip

The self in fragments in my hands

Observe! the glorious dawn of a new beginning.

On Feminism

There's a tension between the good of the individual, which must be considered, and the good of the whole, which often requires sacrifice from the individual.


Nether of these can be dismissed, ignored, or downplayed. If we continue with our analogy of the body, we see that if enough heart cells are unhealthy, the body (whole) will die, but that if the whole dies, the cells of the kidneys, liver, and bone are soon to follow.

So, what of feminism?

As it turns out, raising the next generation of young is a lot of work, and most men aren't up to it. I could spend pages and pages defending those two statements, but I'm going to let them stand for now as assumptions.


The problem,then, becomes this: There is a critically important, time-consuming, and labor intensive job that is vital to the survival of our species, that no one is doing.

This, of course, is completely the fault of men. (Seriously - not being sarchatic) It is a shame that men have been so remarkably seflish as to disenfranchise women to the point where they don't trust us to do OUR job (which is to honor them, protect them, provide for them, etc) so that they can do THEIR job.

As a result, we have women attending to trivial things like the running of corporations and street cars and rivet guns and legal defenses, that could be deeply and profoundly engage in the enormous task and honor of raising the next generation of human beings.

I fear for the species when the best and brightest of our women cannot be bothered to raise children.

In thinking further (or, my arguments against feminism)... (part 1)

If we think about sin, we'll essentially see that the things defined as sin are things that harm others or somehow tear down the community.

The ten commandments in fact are a litany of do-unto-othersisms:
1. Don't kill who? Others
2. Honor who? Others (your father and mother)
3. Don't steal from who? Others
etc. etc. etc.

It's as though God felt we needed reminded that we are a social organism, and humanity as a whole (or the tribe or the other form that community might take) MUST be more important than ME.

So, if we challenge our selves to look into the aspects of the ancient Jewish religion which modern sensibilities find most disturbing:

Women - why are they commanded to be subservient to men?
Homosexuality - why would it be sin?
Destroying other cultures and ways of life because they hold fundamentally different values? (worship other gods etc)