Suspension of Disbelief

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/index.php

After the Bush, I mean Obama, speech given today I've come to a huge realization. I am so utterly sick and tired of being lied to. What kind of man has the audacity to spend an acceptance speech he is making for a PEACE prize that he has won cowing to the murderous ideals of the lunatic Republican fringe? What kind of man can honestly think it's okay to stand before this audience and claim that war is a means to a just end? He cites World War Two and how war stopped Hitler. Well yes it did. But it was still wrong. It was the wrong action taken at the right time. The right action would have been to intervene diplomatically when he threatened to invade Austria and Czechoslovakia and NOT wait until he invaded an ally of Great Britain and France (in Poland). The idea that it was noble is laughable. We got into the war for the same reason that Great Britain and France got into the war, to save our own asses. It wasn't about freeing an oppressed people. If we were so...

At the beginning of the human species, that is where it diverted (in the ways that it diverted) from other species to develop what we see today as the understanding of existence, conscious thought, and so on, humans were not much different than the rest of the world's animal species.  But as time passed a mental (and also the more clearly documented physical) evolution took place starting somewhere between 4 and 6.5 million years ago give or take a few hundred millenniums.  At this point, human thought, like other mammalian thought still seen today, was primarily focused on survival, instruction of the young by example, and basic systems of communication which were mostly non-auditory -- relying mostly on gesture and emotional bursts.  As the human species continues to evolve, it, as a select few species do (all mammalian or birds and mostly primate), begins to use simple tools to dig in the earth or a bit later use as weapons.  This is similar to the way chimpanze...

During a speech given at a anti-health care reform rally, the Billionaires for Wealthcare had something important to say. I think I came a bit...

Day by day we walk the streets of our lives This world surrounds us, Engulfs us, and Passes us by. There is not time in any single day To do all the things We may want. Time flies away. Yet from the darkness shrouding our desires, From this damnable Condition, We can rise. Heavenly rifts of emotion alight. Our burdens disappear And we live Life right. The clouds of our dreams, once so ominous Are driven away By but one Thing -- boldness.

"The Golden Boy" from La Nit Festival (1988) "Too Much Love Will Kill You" from Pavarotti and Friends (2003) "I Want to Break Free" from Live in Japan (1985) "Queen Medley" from Dutch World AIDS Day Tribute (1991)  

I'm working on some new stuff, but it'll take a bit to iron out all the kinks... and to write it down, etc... Everything's great.

Something about my life is annoying me. I need to figure out what. It's driving me fucking bananas.

I'm in a bad mood. So what's new? I'm always in a bad mood, well almost always. But, now I know why. And that makes all the difference. All I ever have are intentions. All I ever make are plans. And day after day and night after night I do nothing because something seems to be too much work. I have passion for nothing. I have drive for nothing. I don't want to do anything and yet want to do everything. It's a battle between being sedentary and being active, doing something - anything - and doing nothing. It's, contrarily, not about some sort of fear of a particular or general something. I'm not afraid of doing something. In many ways I'm afraid of not doing something. The problem is that I don't know what I want to do, never mind what I and going to do. I just sit here and do nothing and the need to so something, ANYTHING grows greater and greater. I know why I feel what I do. Most people I know and all of those whose opinions matter to me are moving...

It's a funny thing when I get time to sit around and catch up on the thinking I've been putting off in lieu of more pressing matters. It's a funny thing that the three people I hold as idols are now dead. If you know me, you'd probably be able to infer two of the three. If you really know me you'd be able to figure out the third. But that's neither here nor there. The fact is that the three people who over the past 2 decades or so that have influenced my thinking, my actions, and my beliefs will now no longer continue to add to my life. It's sad and unfortunate, but it's also life. When the third person had died, I assumed that I would write something in detail, something describing my personal feelings about this person's actions in life, something at all. But I didn't and haven't. In all likelihood, I won't either. I don't think it will matter. Those who matter already know what this person did for each of us. Those who d...

Don't Argue With The Gay Flight Attendant My flight was being served by an obviously gay flight attendant, who seemed to put everyone in a good mood as he served us food and drinks. As the plane prepared to descend, he came swishing down the aisle and told us "Captain Marvey has asked me to announce that he'll be landing the big scary plane shortly, so lovely people, if you could just put your trays up, that would be super." On his trip back up the aisle, he noticed an extremely well-dressed and exotic young woman hadn't moved a muscle. "Perhaps you didn't hear me over those big brute engines but I asked you to raise your trazy-poo, so the main man can pitty-pat us on the ground." She calmly turned her head and said, "In my country, I am called a Princess and I take orders from no one." To which the flight attendant replied, without missing a beat, "Well, sweet-cheeks, in my country I'm called a Queen, so I outrank you. Tray...

Sometimes not politicking is a form of politicking in itself. Usually speaking the very act of not doing something should predetermine that the outcome would be equal to the result of not doing something. Yet now and again suspending a political campaign to "race" back to Washington is in fact a political move. Likewise, the president of the United States not giving a political speech to students about the importance of education is also a political maneuver, whether you want to admit it or not. Whether or not one argues with this political move, be it a campaign suspension or this educational speech is determinant on whether or not a person agrees with the political figure giving the speech or suspending the campaign in the first place. The content of the message and the reason for the suspension doesn't matter at all in the end. In politics, as in life, all people will bring predispositions and biases into play, without regard to intent, no matter the situation or ...

I'll get back to this eventually!

When I was young I wanted to be a snow ball. But as I aged I became but a large flake. You see my child, global warming kills dreams too.

I don't even remember why I'm glad. I cannot fathom why you're sad. All I know is mother's mad. So my brother you know that's bad.

I don't care for convention. I'm not sold on the idea that there is a scale of beauty or a meter for rating the qualities of one's being. Life cannot be judged on a set of rules for happiness or joy. What is important to me and what has meaning for another need not match nor even overlap. For each person there is but one measure of their worth and it is by the strength of their own convictions alone that this must be realized.

I began Suspension of Disbelief less than four years ago. It was then called One Nation Divided. While it has undergone some three or four major renovation over the years, it's purpose has remained the same as it was when I first began... I set up this blog as a vent for a ranter and his like. Though I primarily created this page for my own reasons, feel free to comment or post something of your own. Talk about anything you want. Nothing is taboo here. Feel free to vent. But I digress, the purpose of this blog was to create sanity in a sea of insanity. I don't judge; I don't discriminate; I don't hate. If you follow these principles you can write whatever you want. If you write hate I will delete it. But otherwise, have fun. -November 13th, 2005. And while actual participation of those other than me has flitted in and out over the years, my purposes remain and my invitation does as well. The most popular article lo these many years has been my rant on Reganism and De...

Count on it being a week or more before I'm finished. So don't mind the bits and pieces.

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Evolution is simply change from one form to another. Generally, it must by definition tend towards an upward or forward motion. Those new ideas that don't work are weeded out, but those that do continue and prosper. In this way evolution is a good thing for the species, but as you'll see, not always good for the individual. There are different kinds of evolution, insofar as we can group together its various forms into an undetermined number of subgroups based solely on one's perception of the change taking place. The evolution of love or friendship, for example, is perceptibly different than the evolution of the sizes of dinosaur species from the Jurassic Period to the Triassic Period. However, the same general concept of a pattern of change still exists. Now let's take our dinosaur example. At a time there existed the large hulking masses of the sauropods. Food was plentiful, so they could individually support their sizes. They multiply and their species domin...

Spread this near and far to every person who will listen. "The Cause of My Life" by Senator Kennedy July 18th 2009 In 1964, I was flying with several companions to the Massachusetts Democratic Convention when our small plane crashed and burned short of the runway. My friend and colleague in the Senate, Birch Bayh, risked his life to pull me from the wreckage. Our pilot, Edwin Zimny, and my administrative assistant, Ed Moss, didn't survive. With crushed vertebrae, broken ribs, and a collapsed lung, I spent months in New England Baptist Hospital in Boston. To prevent paralysis, I was strapped into a special bed that immobilizes a patient between two canvas slings. Nurses would regularly turn me over so my lungs didn't fill with fluid. I knew the care was expensive, but I didn't have to worry about that. I needed the care and I got it. Now I face another medical challenge. Last year, I was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Surgeons at Duke University Medical Ce...

1. Believe in yourself at least twice as much as you do now. 2. Sometimes it helps to pretend to be happy. You might forget why you're not for a bit and actually feel better. 3. Your successes are dependent largely on your outlook. 4. If you want something enough you can achieve it (short of resurrection of course). 5. If you aren't getting what you want, maybe you're looking in the wrong places. Maybe you don't really know what you want. 6. If you can't answer why you need something, then you don't really need it. You may need something else. 7. The biggest social handicap is worrying too much about others reactions to what you do. Just do it (legally of course) and worry less about possible negative outcomes. 8. Some relationships are fixable. But many times we misunderstand which are and which aren't. 9. Don't ever change who you are for another person. 10. You think you can do better than the person that you're with but you're ...

First I am a gay 22 year old male from MA. So lets get that out of the way. Because, undoubtedly it matters to some people. The movie was ridiculous in the most amazing ways. The antics of Bruno were completely out there and at points crazy (and very naked), but there was an underlying point to the film which, like Borat before it, tried to expose the bigotry of this nation, from formerly gay ministers to straight over-machismo to showing Ron Paul for the bigot he is. There are a lot of people who are going to be very offended by this movie because they will say that it detriments the GLBTQ movement. That it is too over the top to be taken seriously. I disagree. I sat in a theater with people my own age, straight couples and gay alike, in a not openly gay town. And we laughed. For the right reasons. There were points during it where two to three hundred people fell silent and stared in awe at the virulent bigotry that our nation of freedoms and liberties hides just beneath its surfac...

I dreamed that night of a perfect place, Sitting out beneath the crescent moon, Shadows flickering across our faces, Moonlight dazzling in our eyes as Our hands begin a slow symphony. With each heart beat the air grows warmer. Over the horizon our destiny lurks. And come what may -- but now, this night We are the banquet, each other the main course Tucked away are fears of what dawn will bring. Here and now we are two souls as one. For now, the rest of the world has fallen silent.

Some write of darkness, of pain, suffering, and plight whose agony knows no bounds or end. Others pen tales of daffodils, birthdays, and sunshine, freshly baked cookies, devotion, friendship and love a plenty. But my story is not so simple as light or dark, happy or sad. I cannot be put to float in a single boat. I am nine hundred thousand extremes, fighting for their place at a table that seats only eight.

There once was a rabbit Spotted brown and gray. He had a bad habit. He ate beans all day! His wife kicked him out. Soon, his mother did too. If you see him wanderin' about, That's the least you could do. Had I not met a hare so gaseous as him, Who's so set about rooting and tooting, (For never a moment does it dim!) I'd not believe one could be so polluting As my friend Reginald Arthur Benjamin!

Religious belief and religion are two different things. This must be said at the outset. Religious belief is internally coded. Religion is the external transmission of that internal religious belief. Religious belief is praying, keeping Kosher, treating others the way you want to be treated, etc., and how you feel about dogma. Dogma is religion. It is the Ten Commandments, the Baptism, the sacred rituals, the clothing, the physical expression of one's belief. It is this physical expression that describes for each other one's religious beliefs. What you see of a religious person can tell you much of what they are believing internally. The same is true for the non-religious -- absence is a sign the same as appearance. That said, the purpose of religion is to proliferate one's beliefs onto others and to fortify it amongst the "believers". Period. It serves as a standard by which all members of a faith or a sect of a faith will measure themselves by. (...

This summer's been interesting so far. Actually that should read: "This summer's NOT been interesting so far." Excuse the type-o. I know that this blog is seriously lacking some real content in the past month or so, but I haven't been thinking about anything big in that time. No new ideas or brilliant (if I do think so myself :P ) brain waves. I'm scattered. I can't concentrate on things for more than an hour or so at a time, if that. I tried reading a book this afternoon and ended up finishing one chapter and put it down because I needed to get off my ass. Oh well, what the hell can I do that is free / extremely cheap / time consuming but not tedious or boring? That's what I need to figure out. Hell, I'd even get a job for the summer, that is IF there were any available where I live. Suffice to say, if you see me working in Wal-Mart, I've clearly hit rock bottom and begun to dig. Otherwise, I'm sure I'll find something or ...

Unfortunately as this summer drags when Youtube beckons I answer. Know the feeling? Stumbling about the interwebs until in a moment of epiphany you realize the sun is rising. Well at any rate... I am not and have never been a fan of American Idol. I think the show's tepid flavor demeans real music and destroys real musicians who try to cookie cutter themselves into fame and fortune. And, it's made Fox tons of money. I have not watched the series at any length and have probably not seen an entire episode in 6 years or so. But while stumbling around the tubes listening to old Queen concerts (of which there are hundreds incidentally) I came across what I'm told was from the last season finale, a cover of Queen's We Are the Champions by the two remaining contestants. So, as I'm bored allow me to rank it as the single best cover of this song that I have seen and seen many I have. The Original: (Queen: Rock Montreal- 1981) The Remake: (Queen + Paul Rodgers- Retu...

As usual, with every school year that passes into summer, like clockwork I miss what I've left behind. More so this year of course as everyone basically has graduated (myself included). I will be going back to the same school next year for grad school, but that doesn't change the fact that most of the people I love and care about will be gone. Almost everything will be different this time. So, as a tribute of sorts and out of a desire which tags along with me between sleep and waking, to some how go back and do it over again, I leave you with this video. Enjoy and FlyFreeForever.

S mot E U nbidde N N apol I S mit H H aples S IN N assa U E gres S

So this here blog is under what I like to call a bored reconstruction. That is, I got bored and am toying around with it. If something is missing or doesn't work, chances are I have fucked it up something royal. Rest assured that it will be fixed at my latest convenience.

I've kept this blog for the last four years, detailing my thoughts and wonders, challenges and struggles, triumphs and victories, and all that other bull shit in between. Four college years. I wish I could go back and absorb all that I wrote at once, to stand back and admire, wonder, and question. But, as anyone who reads this for any length will find: There always seems to be more. I can't believe that I wrote all of it, not contentwise, but lengthwise. In November of 2005 I wanted this to be a history of my college career, and it has been so far. But I'm not finished. I'll be beginning my MEd in the fall and will through the spring of 2011. So, I guess the endeavor will continue. Thankfully too! It's been only a week since I've been home and already I'm getting claustrophobic. 14 more weeks or so. This year I'm not counting though. Summer will not be an interregnum between two good things that I have to indure. I'll try to find someth...

It's a wonder we ever get anything done right in a nation which values tenure over innovation. We, by and large, see something that is new and scrutinize it against the old. This is fine and well, but we forget that occasionally what was old was wrong and what was new is right. When people publish scholarly work they cite others' past work. As such we justify new ideas with old ones. I repeat, it's amazing that we progress at all!

That's all for now.

Finally I finished and turned in my thesis! Hell yeah! Well, heck yeah, really. That finished, and most of my other responsibilities nearly done, I can't help but see the end of the year approaching. I'd be lying if I said I looked forward to it. I don't. I don't want to move back home. Fuck family. But I will. Unfortunately. I'll look to keep myself busy this summer though. I'll find something. It's unfortunate though that it's all about to be over. Four years up and gone. Most of the people I know and like I probably won't get to see again, some I should hope I do. But lives change and people go their own ways. It's a fun thing when just about everyone you care about is about to disappear from your life. I know that life goes on. And I know that I will too. After summer I have grad school right back here again, but it will be different. Just about everyone will be gone. Oh well. I know life will move on and so will I, but it...

I figured I'd title this one differently than the others which preceded it at the end of every school year. Usually it was something to the effect of "It's that Time of Year Again..." with a big ole moan on the end there. That's not to say that this summer might not be a big ole moan anyways. It could be. I haven't had it yet, so I don't know. But when I do, be certain that you'll know. Anywho, I need to find something or someone to keep me busy this summer. I don't care what or who. Just something non-lethal to get my attention. As anyone who knows me for any length of time, you know that there are two things that I cannot stand in life and they are my parents and religious belief. Thankfully, I can avoid the latter most days of the week, and be hilariously sacrilegious otherwise. The holy grail of sacrilege to me would be gay sex on the altar. It just seems like the right place. Of course, to snap one off in the rectory comes in a cl...