Thursday, November 27, 2008

How We See Things...

Just a quick one for tonight...

We see things based on how we feel (good, bad, or in between). There is a sliding scale of responses that we could have to each thing that occurs in our life. If we're happy we have one response. If we're unhappy or even slightly less or more happy, we have a different response.

The key to happiness is to be happy. When we are happy, we make good decisions and have good experiences. Therefore we are more happy. Sadness is self defeating. Sad people make bad decisions and thus become sadder. Sad but true. Happiness and sadness (as well as all other emotions) are self fulfilling and cyclical.

So be happy. There's something to be happy for, I'm sure. Personally, I'm thankful for good friends this Thanksgiving. Truly they make my life much more happy and I am grateful for that. What are you happy for?

Peace, love, and Happy Thanksgiving,
FFF

Monday, November 24, 2008

The Economic Cluster Fuck...

Allow me to demonstrate...

We are presently in a period of no job creation. Employers are laying off workers and no jobs are being created to replace them. If the auto industry fails, as it very well could (and perhaps rightfully should if only the CEOs would be affected) that would dump another 3.5 million or more unemployed people into the system on top of the 6.5+ million now collecting unemployment and countless million others who have now run out of it. This massive number of unemployed (likely over 15 million) equates to 5% of the ENTIRE population of the US, INCLUDING CHILDREN, INCLUDING those collecting Social Security. With approx. 151.4 million working Americans that equates to 1 in 10. Decreased buying power results of this, first from those who can't afford to spend for more than necessity anymore (the unemployed) and soon thereafter by those who still have jobs that, realizing the crisis at hand, stop spending as well. This has already begun to happen. Look at the auto industry. People have stopped buying cars. Look at the housing industry. People have all but stopped buying houses. Look at any major asset industry and you will see the same. People are waiting to buy or cannot afford to buy luxury items. When 10% of the population is out of work, something else begins to happen. The affect of penny pinching on the economy ripples again and more businesses have to close thus increasing the number of unemployed, thus increasing the number of penny pinchers, thus increasing the number of unemployed... It is cyclical and terminal.

FDR's programs under the New Deal revitalized the economy as did WWII by getting people back to work so that they could consume again. The 1950's boom was the result. We NEED to do this now. Bailouts are temporary fixes. It is cash to keep companies on their feet. They are a stop gap alone. We must create jobs. We have a crumbling infrastructure. Bridges, electricity grid, roads, the spread of broadband Internet, any number of things will do, just make the jobs. Likewise, those who claim that the bailout, no matter how big, is wrong, are WRONG. It is a temporary measure that must be taken UNTIL people have money again and begin to spend again. I have no love of big business, but they do employ millions. For the economy to rebound, these people need to remain in jobs. Otherwise, the gov't will have to subsidize that much more industry to make that many more jobs to kick start the economy again. The infrastructure already exists in big business, maintaining that on life support is the best alternative now while creating new jobs. The true economic kick start is one that spurs spending by the general population. Jobs are needed. Bailouts are only a lifeline.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Strong Atheism... And A LOT More

It's been a while since I've touched on the subject, of which I am a full participant (as much as you can participate in atheism at any rate). I would like to delve back into my old arguments and try to make my position as clear as possible.

The following statement is some four years in the making and so far as I can now tell, it is complete -- proof that atheism is the one true belief (or is it non-belief...).

. . .

Time and space are inextricably linked, both mathematically and logically. Einstein and his followers have delved into this field deeply and all knowledge points at present to a dualism of time and space. Physicists use space-time and the curvature thereof to explain many things, but I will use space-time (which is proven to exist) as an argument against the necessity of a "creator god(s)".

If matter exists, time will exist if or when there is a change in that matter. If time does not exist, matter will go on unchanged in every sense forever. Clearly, in the universe, time exists, as things change. A basic explanation of time is that it is simply that if two or more phases of matter exist - that by definition a change must occur - then there was a TIME when it was one thing and a TIME when it was another. Likewise, there is (by human perception) a quantitative number of TIMES in between phase 1 and phase 2.

For example... Take a rock and place it in an empty room. Remember that there was a point BEFORE the rock was in the room, a point DURING the process by which you put the rock in the room, and a period AFTER you had stopped putting it in place.

The movement from Stage 1 to Stage 2 is TIME. It is progression from one clear point to another clear point - from no rock to a rock. In a linear universe, one in which everything has a beginning and an end, "god" is resembled by you putting the rock in place. The problem is that the universe is NOT LINEAR. It does not have a beginning and an end. It is cyclical. We have cycles on Earth that we can observe. The carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, and dozens of others whereby the build up of one form triggers an action which transforms some of that build up back into the original form. Stage 1 causes Stage 2 which in turn causes Stage 1 again, and so on.

For example... Water vapor builds up in the sky, forming clouds, and when heavy enough - the build-up becomes massive enough if you will - it condenses and falls to Earth as rain. An imbalance between Stage 1 and Stage 2 triggers the transmission of some Stage 1 into Stage 2. Then, even in absence of sun or heat of any kind, water will evaporate and turn back into vapor if the air becomes dry enough to create an imbalance again, this time heavy towards Stage 2 causing a transmission of H2O to Stage 1.

This very same process works within the universe when it comes to energy and mass. In the universe as we see it - though we do not see the whole picture - everything experiences entropy. That is, mass is continuously turning into energy, but as far as we can tell, not that much if any back in the opposite direction. We are decidedly in stage two as there appears to be much more "dark matter" or as I will call it dormant energy than there is matter in the universe.

The nearly infinitesimally small instant in which the Big Bang occurs is the turn from Stage 2's completion (from mostly or all "dark matter" / "dormant energy") back to where most of the universe is made up of matter. We are moving from that point to another point in our future where entropy will turn all (or most) matter back into dormant energy. There will be a coalescence of that dormant energy culminating in another Big Bang. And everything starts again. (Remember the laws of Conservation of Energy; nothing leaves the universe.)

Thus the universe is cyclical and nothing ever enters or leaves it. The rock does not get placed in the room by "god" because it is self-fulfilling that a rockless room will tend towards rockiness in the same manner that dry air tends towards evaporating liquid water or sublimating solid water.

Now why does this matter when we talk about "god"? It means that there is no linear beginning or ending of the universe. It is cyclical and as nothing ever needs to enter or leave it is fully self sustaining. God is simply not necessary in the process. It didn't begin at any point and won't end at any point. It will continue moving perpetually forever.

. . .

In the end, the idea of "god" or "gods" is simply a placeholder for a lack of understanding. When mankind does not understand something, it is "god" or "the gods" who do it. Eclipses, volcanism, earthquakes, death, birth, fire, existence, and an unknown number of other things too. They are all done by "god(s)" because mankind cannot (yet) understand what really causes them. Of course, we know now that eclipses involve the alignment of the sun, Earth, and moon, that volcanism involves internal processes of the subterranean mantle of the Earth, etc. etc. I've described now for you that the universe is not linear (timewise) and therefore put logic in place of god in knowledge of that topic.

In doing so, I can further restrict the metaphorical existence of "god(s)" further as I shine a light deeper into the darkness that is the knowledge unknown by mankind. In short, "god(s)" equal nothing more than ignorance.

There remains yet one place that I can banish "god(s)" or otherwise named "ignorance" from life:

Slow down time. It is as I said the progression from one phase or "Stage" to another and back again when need be. How does something go from not doing something to clearly doing something? It is simple. Well, theoretically simple. The universe is made up of something, some tiny little thing that all life is made up of, smaller than atoms. Many scientists today call these basic forms "strings" and they are the basis of String Theory.

I propose that these strings interact continuously and that the interactions that they make have only one function: "YES" Compare them to a computer which has 0 and 1, or YES and NO. At any rate, they will always do something, either yes or no, 0 or 1. They can't do nothing or they cease to exist at all. If there isn't a 0 or a 1 in computer code then there is no code. Strings, the basic building block of mass, can only do YES. Otherwise they do nothing. NOTHING isn't NO (1) it is a lack of doing, like a empty program waiting for code. Strings can wait until they find another string or strings that they can work with in a YES function. The first one(s) that they find will occur as there is no "NO" and therefore they do not have a choice. Two YESes cannot present themselves at the same time because a string can only do one YES and therefore no two things can happen at exactly the same time.

This micro-microscopic process creates the illusion of randomness because we cannot observe it happening. As anything else that seems random, it is impossible to observe it and have it remain "random". Yet so long as we don't observe it - or in this case cannot - it will always seem random.

So how does this apply back to the DURING that I mentioned earlier? It explains it. DURING happens because of complex processes between strings that cannot not do something when something can be done. In this way, the universe is ALWAYS moving between energy and mass. The H2O cycle is always moving between vapor and liquid and solid. And so on. DURING must happen because if it doesn't happen it doesn't exist. Since it exists it must be happening.

And thus, god/ignorance is moved back again and replaced by knowledge and understanding. Of course, "god(s)" are just an understanding for people who don't want proof and don't want to think of logic. That is why there are so many versions - exactly one for each believer in fact - because each person knows and doesn't know different things and needs their god to placehold for that knowledge that they don't yet have.

Knowledge is the end of deism and deism is the end of knowledge. It too is a cycle.

Friday, November 21, 2008

Cryptic...

What a tangled up mood I must have been in... ten minutes ago... Hmm... lol (for lack of a less tired phrase). Oh well, enjoy trying to figure that one out.

Regardless, have a riddle...

I am to anyone else empty,
but to you or I -- a King.
I am easily born but hard to kill,
A wily, creative and destructive thing.

I can be false or I can be true,
But in the end you will see,
That the world is nothing at all
If by chance it is devoid of me.

-Anonymous

Semper Vexo

Boy oh boy have I been busy lately. And boy oh boy am I glad that this political season is finally over. The way the MSM drones on and on and on... It makes me want to puke. I just sit there and hope that the talking heads all explode one by one, yet to no avail. Anywho... I'm bored with politics now, so I'm going to stop talking about them for a while.

This has been a very strange couple of months for me. Very strange. And very fast too. I can't believe that the year is almost over. 2008 still seems so fresh. I don't know. 2009... It doesn't seem like a good number just yet. We'll see. A month til Christmas, holy crap! If you've got a bit of money this year, I'd definitely go looking for a deal or two; there are bound to be many good ones. We'll see. After having to buy a new computer (I spilled garlic sauce on my laptop) I'm not in the spending mood. Still in the getting mood though. ;)

. . .

It's been a strange couple of months. Hopefully this holiday season does not add any complexities to my already packed bag of stupidity. For if I don't have enough money this holiday season, I certainly have enough stupidity to give around. Let's hope I don't get any in return I've got plenty for sure.

  • "But those that understood him smil'd at one another, and shook their heads; but for mine own part, it was Greek to me." Julius Caesar Act I, Scene II, Line 279

Of course, that's all I seem to get lately is stupidity. Or intentions. Or potential. Or some other meaningless buzz word or phrase saying to me nothing less than I'm going to fuck with you a bit more, dig a little deeper, extract whatever I can from that, and then say screw you and ask why you're not in a pleasant mood.

  • "Et tu, Brute? - Then fall Caesar!" Act III, Scene I, Line 77

I'll just wait for the knife in the back and a woeful speech by a two-faced rat bastard be they family, friends, strangers or the economic market. Hey, let 's be realistic, why not all four.

  • "If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Caesar's, to him I say that Brutus' love to Caesar was no less than his. If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Caesar, this is my answer: Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more." Act III, Scene II, Line 18
To be a bit Orwellian... LIVING IS DEAD.

Saturday, November 8, 2008

New...

I've added a links page to lessen the clutter on my main page and also allow people to see past links that I've used. To get to it click on the "Links" tab on the header.

My Take After Prop. 8 (Revised)

I figured since everyone else was going to voice themselves, I might as well too and here it is.

The purpose of Constitutions and laws in the United States was as a protection against a dictator king figure arising in the United States and taking power for him or herself. The only time at which the Constitution or federal law delineated the removal of rights it was the removal of rights that belonged to the federal government. There is no instance at this nation's inception that either of these founding systems was meant to restrict the rights of American citizens. Quite the opposite in fact. The Bill of Rights for example.

In the case of Proposition 8, Californian citizens voted on whether or not to allow same-sex couples to marry. They chose not. Regardless of the fact that this flies in the face of the founders of this nation in regards to the intents of the systems used to remove such rights from said people, it is what it is today and that which it is is oppression. Like racism before it, like gender bias in the workplace post World War II, like preconceived notions regarding the activities of youth in the inner city, to remove a right from a selected group of people is oppression.

The action of one group in removing the rights of another group is nothing short of a means to control the behaviors of that group of people. Of course, they are fooling themselves if they believe that such actions as taken in Prop 8 will stamp out alternate sexualities (in their eyes homosexuality particularly). The results of their oppression are physical, the lack of a paper granting equality. They are emotional, the lack of societal approval. And most insidious of all, they are mental, manifested in the disgustingly high levels of depression and suicide within the non-heterosexual community. Take a look at these symptoms. And then take a look at your history books. Look at the mental well being of slaves, some who'd rather kill their own infant child than to see them enslaved, some who'd risk death for a chance at freedom, some who'd kill themselves, some who would rebel. Look at the mental well being of American Indians, past and present. Look at the psychological effects wrought on women as they are pushed back into the home after World War II like water back into a faucet.

Time and time again historically and presently, we see the symptoms of oppression and the nature of the group being oppressed does nothing to change the fact that they are in fact being oppressed. A slave is a slave is a slave is a slave, be it to a plantation owner, a husband, poverty, or heterosexual America. The oppression is real and California's display of open and vehement bigotry is astounding even by this nation's standards for truly appalling and disgusting atrocities committed against its minorities.

Certainly, at some point in the future this orientationism will fall by the wayside, perhaps for another bigotry, but I can only wonder how many people will be screwed up along the way. How many people will not live to see the day when the American Dream serves them as well?

. . .

We also have to understand that this issue is not a reason to argue whether or not marriage should exist in government at all. But, on this issue, I'd like to put the whole religion/government argument to rest. It is in some opinion that marriage is a religious institution and because they don't like religious institutions (as I don't) they believe that marriage should not exist in government because it is a violation of the separation of church and state.

The fact of the matter is that marriage existed well before Christianity, which is the religious affiliation with which most people have a problem with. Marriage existed in Ancient Rome and Greece, hundreds of years before the Christian Church's inception. Likewise, marriage existed in places other than the later Christian Europe. It existed in East Asia, a place with no connection to Christianity. It existed in the Americas, a place with no connection to any of the modern big religions. It crosses all religious barriers because it predates all of them. Why? Because people like to feel loved and they like the security of knowing that they will continue to be loved.

So, to say that marriage should be done away with is a capitulation of a natural human desire to the powers that be in the religious communities of the world. Sounds a lot like the idea of getting rid of same-sex marriage rights in the first place. Hmm... How ironic.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

The 44th President of the United States of America

For these last 22 months we've gone back and forth trying to elect a competent person to the presidency and now it is all done. Thank heavens. What a race!

While the numbers aren't all tallied yet, it is clear. We have a new president. I have called the election officially at 8:24pm as NBC calls PA for Obama. In the immortal words of the immortal Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -- which will be no doubt recited ad nauseum in the coming days and weeks by pundits and laymen alike --

Free at last! Free at last! Thank god almighty, we're FREE AT LAST!


Allow me, with no undue pleasure, to introduce you to the 44th President of the United States:




Barack Obama.

Yes We DID,
FLYFREEFOREVER

Monday, November 3, 2008

Politically Incorrect

In case you haven't noticed, I'm pretty crass for a liberal. You know, a wimpy, limpy, namby, pamby lib-bib-bib-eral. Well to be perfectly honest, I think that political correctness or "pc" is quite possibly what caused Reagan to take hold as strongly as he did. And we did it to ourselves. Now, starting tonight, I'd like to set the record right, beginning with team mascots with American Indian icons.

The Washington Redskins. The Cleavland Indians. The Atlanta Braves. The Cincinnati Reds. And dozens if not hundreds of more at other levels in sports right down to school mascots and team names. So what's the big deal? It goes without saying that most of these names stem from a period of time when such names were used as a derogatory statement towards American Indians. By the way, it's American Indian -- as in American Indian Movement -- not Native American, as that's not only not preferred, but also historically inaccurate to boot. Regardless of when or by who, the name of the team, simply by existing hearkens back to certain notions of racism, suppression, and even extermination.

In addition to American Indian derived names, we have teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Oakland Raiders, and the Pittsburgh Pirates all of which are used to compare their teams to some sort of dark raw aggressive behavior. That's all these names stand for, visceral manhood in it's 1950's textbook definition. The Jacksonville Jaguars. The Texas Rangers. The Indianapolis Colts. The Seattle Mariners. All of these team's iconography reach for power and masculine qualities. It's competition after all, at least they're not trying to fool anyone. They want to win and they decorate their houses as such.

If one wants to debate the morality of such a desire, be my guest, but this isn't the time or place for such an idiotic argument. Mankind is strong -- mankind equals both men and women for the record, if you didn't realize that already (words are a means to meaning and nothing more -- so mankind it is) -- As I was saying, mankind is strong because of conflict. The idea that everyone is a winner is damaging to the health of mankind for once you are inevitably knocked down, how will you pick yourself back up unless you know how to? You won't. You'll flounder and fail continuously.

Like with those who declare everyone should be a winner all the time, miss out on a key point that those who complain about teams names and iconography also miss out on. They look to remedy the symptom and not the disease. In the case of team iconography, the symptom is that at some point in the past, American Indians were seen as savage and therefore viciously and viscerally powerful -- perfect to iconograph a sports team with for the aforementioned reasons. They would be powerful and dominant. The disease is racism.

If we change all the names of the teams worldwide who use iconography such as I mentioned, it wouldn't change a damn thing about racism towards American Indians. Not one thing, except now you have a bunch of resentful sports fans. What we have here is an opportunity to own up to the past. Acknowledge it. And move on to cure the problem today. Nothing can be done by suppressing or lamenting ashamedly the past treatment of American Indians. That won't help them any more than changing team names. What you can do however is realize that such treatment is still going on today and is fixable. We need to learn to accept our brothers and sisters as equals at long last, different from us in skin color, but similar in many other ways too. And besides, acknowledging differences in skin color is not bad or wrong and has no inherently evil or racist connotation, it is those who use it for nefarious reasons -- suppression or extermination for example -- that tarnish skin color. Be proud to be white. Be proud to be black. Be proud to be brown, or red, or yellow, or any other skin tone moniker. Be proud that here and now you harbor no ill will towards another because of their skin color. And, please, leave sports teams alone. Maybe the Braves are VALIANT! Maybe the Indians are HARD WORKING! Maybe one man's buccaneer is another's HERO! Maybe the X City Redskins are just as PROUD as the Y City Eagles! Maybe the Jaguars PROTECT their families!

Such iconography doesn't need to have a negative connotation. And besides, while we instill these good values in place of racism and oppression, what's to stop us from teaching our children the meaning of such good values and the folly of bad ones.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Rantings of a Mad Man XXI: Irked Edition

So I've been in a funk for most of this year so far -- bitch / rant warning -- and I have no idea why but let's take a look at a few possibilities.

Reason number 1: John McCain
This country must be really, and I can't stress enough, really stupid if the race is still as close as it "appears" to be. Need I threaten to move to Canada again? Does anyone else realize, and apparently not, that he has NO PLAN. None. He's just going to fix this and that. But he doesn't have a plan to do so. You just have to trust him. Sound familiar? Sounds like the last 8 years to me. Think about this when you go to vote on the 4th (or before): The next president will likely be replacing three liberal judges on the Supreme Court. IF we don't elect Obama, we could be feeling the effects of a Bush presidency for twenty to thirty YEARS! We as a nation are almost bankrupt after 8 years of this blind so-called leadership. But, I'll tell you want. IF McShame is elected, you get what you deserve.

Reason number 2: Polling
All of the major networks now are showing Barack Obama winning the election based on their polls. Why then do they keep citing how tight these polls are showing the race? An eight point lead is an eight point lead is an eight point lead. The media is out to show anything that even seems close, and feigning that anything that is getting closer. Now we're talking about Arizona and North Dakota as well as Missouri and the tightening in Ohio (by 1 point might I add) and Florida which is at least 8 points into Obama territory. My my, they'll do anything for ratings. Leads me to wonder how much one has to be winning by for them to start saying that they are winning. 25%? 30%?

Reason number 3: Don'cha Know?
If I see Sarah Failin' McPalin one more time, I swear I'm going to start burning her in effigy. Do you know who she reminds me of? Mom from Futurama. Enough said.

Reason number 4: Me
So guess what I did for Halloween. Laundry. Yup, I washed my laundry. Fun times huh. Well, with all the shit that I have to do: Work two jobs and technically a third but for college credit, finish my BA, shower, eat, and sleep, there's very little time left for me to be merry right now. Hell at this point all I'm looking for is a good night's sleep. Is that too much to ask for? Apparently so.

Reason number 5: Snow
I saw snowflakes on the 28th. That's the 28th of OCTOBER for those keeping track. And for those of us who don't live in the tundra (and spend $150,000 on winter clothes), I for one am pissed. But I know what the cause is. Confusion. Winter is confused. Each year Christmas season begins earlier and earlier and it's got Winter confused in his old age. For fuck's sake the leaves aren't even off the trees left, up until yesterday Halloween hasn't even happened yet, and Thanksgiving is almost a month away still, and we're still already seeing Christmas stuff coming out! No wonder Old Man Winter is coming early! (Oh and remember, don't vote for his brother John McInsane on Tuesday. We need a president capable of abstract thought.)

And finally... Reason number 6: Socialism et. al.
Let me remind everyone that socialism, Marxism, communism, Cuban socialism, Venezuelan socialism, and socialized medicine are all VASTLY different ideas and NONE of them are interchangeable and most importantly NONE of them describes Barack Obama or John McCain. This nation can't decide that women have equal rights yet never mind something so terribly abstract as total equality in a variety of areas. Communism and Capitalism both suffer from the same problems in practice... lack of regulation. Either Big Business decides the rules or gov't decides the rules. What we really need is a system of checks and balances between the two so that both systems serve the people of this nation and the people of the world. Checks and balances... where have I heard that before? Hmm...

That's all for now...

Cheers,
FFF!