| (no subject) |
[May. 11th, 2009|03:24 pm] |
Damn, Star Trek was good. Beside the fact that I love starships and such, the movie actually had a script. I actually felt bad for Spock losing his mother rather than Vader being a psychopathic emo wuss.
On a side note: how many alien insects like to bury themselves into human brains? It seems like we ought to take McCoy's advice and stay the hell out of outer space. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 23rd, 2009|05:40 pm] |
It strikes me that with the biblical story of Job could have been a great tragedy on the level of Oedipus Rex and Hamlet if only God didn't crap all over Job's suffering by saying "Hey, sorry for making you suffer all that stuff, but you're wrong to blame me for it; here is a new family and some cash to make it all better".
Doesn't that kind of switch the story into a comedy as God comes down in a Deus ex Machina (literally) and makes it all better? And isn't Job a bit of an asshole to his dead family's memory by just getting over it? God comes off as a con man and Job his mark. The hilarity is that after all he suffered and learned Job goes back to God after God throws him a bone. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 8th, 2009|09:40 am] |
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On spring break. I have the house to myself and I've been living off of fresh strawberries and homemade whipped cream, pita's, and risotto. Life is good. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 27th, 2009|02:51 pm] |
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For those of you who live near Ventura: Does anyone know where West Main Furniture relocated to? I know it was supposed to be on Thompson or Seaward. Can anyone enlighten me? |
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| Some thoughts for Lent |
[Feb. 24th, 2009|11:19 am] |
When Jesus rises from the dead and appears to the apostles, why don't they kill him? If we are to take seriously that Jesus rises from the grave after the third day I want there to be a passage in at least on of the gospels explaining how we know Jesus is not a zombie, vampire, revenant, or other undead.
Seriously, good people don't come back from the grave. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 3rd, 2009|08:52 pm] |
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I put a shampoo from Traders Joes on my face, and because I was basically asleep as I did it, I lathered it all over my face. It burned like I imagine holy water burns. Needless to say I was awake after that. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 25th, 2009|12:19 pm] |
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Everyday since Obama has been President has been like Christmas. I wake up, read the newspaper and read things like "Obama stops torture", "Obama hearts science", or "Obama is going to have the FDA actually do it's job". I have to say that it really makes me happy. I think the only way it could get better than it is is if the President decided that because we had achieved world peace and solved world hunger and climate change we were going to rebuild things like the Stone Buddhas in Afghanistan as well as build some sort of interstellar spaceship with energy weapons. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 9th, 2008|03:11 pm] |
I looked up amazon.com to see if the movie Mongol: The Rise to Power of Genghis Khan had come out on DvD. What is more interesting is that amazon HAD to tell me that other people who like this movie also liked Maid in Sweden and SuperHotSex. I'm sure there is something deeply existential about this but quite frankly I just feel a little disturbed.
On the plus side, at least Maid in Sweden is a cult piece of art/pornography. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 8th, 2008|11:52 am] |
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I'm beginning to understand the horrible downside to an Obama presidency: The Daily show will now have to write their show. For eight years they have had their show written for them; now they will actually have to work again. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 5th, 2008|06:57 pm] |
I know it seems like California has taken a step back with passing prop 8 but there has been a horrible flaw in it from the beginning: What happens if it passes. It's going right back to the court that overturned the first law. Does anyone really think that the judges after making a constitutional argument for gay marriage are going to change their minds because half the voters don't like it?
Also the prop 8 proponents made it incredibly easy to overturn. Here is a snip from the press release of lambada legal who will be bringing the case in California:
The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and the National Center for Lesbian Rights filed a writ petition before the California Supreme Court today urging the court to invalidate Proposition 8 if it passes. The petition charges that Proposition 8 is invalid because the initiative process was improperly used in an attempt to undo the constitution's core commitment to equality for everyone by eliminating a fundamental right from just one group - lesbian and gay Californians. Proposition 8 also improperly attempts to prevent the courts from exercising their essential constitutional role of protecting the equal protection rights of minorities. According to the California Constitution, such radical changes to the organizing principles of state government cannot be made by simple majority vote through the initiative process, but instead must, at a minimum, go through the state legislature first.
The California Constitution itself sets out two ways to alter the document that sets the most basic rules about how state government works. Through the initiative process, voters can make relatively small changes to the constitution. But any measure that would change the underlying principles of the constitution must first be approved by the legislature before being submitted to the voters. That didn't happen with Proposition 8, and that's why it's invalid.
"If the voters approved an initiative that took the right to free speech away from women, but not from men, everyone would agree that such a measure conflicts with the basic ideals of equality enshrined in our constitution. Proposition 8 suffers from the same flaw - it removes a protected constitutional right - here, the right to marry - not from all Californians, but just from one group of us," said Jenny Pizer, Senior Counsel with Lambda Legal. "That's too big a change in the principles of our constitution to be made just by a bare majority of voters."
"A major purpose of the constitution is to protect minorities from majorities. Because changing that principle is a fundamental change to the organizing principles of the constitution itself, only the legislature can initiate such revisions to the constitution," added Elizabeth Gill, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California.
The lawsuit was filed today in the California Supreme Court on behalf of Equality California and 6 same-sex couples who did not marry before Tuesday's election but would like to be able to marry now.
The groups filed a writ petition in the California Supreme Court before the elections presenting similar arguments because they believed the initiative should not have appeared on the ballot, but the court dismissed that petition without addressing its merits. That earlier order is not precedent here.
"Historically, courts are reluctant to get involved in disputes if they can avoid doing so," said Shannon Minter, Legal Director of NCLR. "It is not uncommon for the court to wait to see what happens at the polls before considering these legal arguments. However, now that Prop 8 may pass, the courts will have to weigh in and we believe they will agree that Prop 8 should never have been on the ballot in the first place."
This would not be the first time the court has struck down an improper voter initiative. In 1990, the court stuck down an initiative that would have added a provision to the California Constitution stating that the "onstitution shall not be construed by the courts to afford greater rights to criminal defendants than those afforded by the Constitution of the United States." That measure was invalid because it improperly attempted to strip California's courts of their role as independent interpreters of the state's constitution.
All I can say about prop 8 is try again. Too bad they are on the losing side of history.
Post Script: There are THREE lawsuits in the works. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 4th, 2008|10:54 pm] |
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It feels good to finally have won an election. Vae Victus Bitches! Seriously it won't be as bad as all the nay sayers think it will be. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 2nd, 2008|06:16 pm] |
I think I am going to vote for prop 8 so that can restore traditional marriage and treat my wife like chattel and screw around with harlots.
Postscript: I just read the language of the amendment to the constitution. It says that marriage is between one man and one woman. I therefore revoke my endorsement. I can't support any amendment that doesn't allow me to have a traditional marriage of multiple back biting, cat fighting wives. I don't know what the rest of you consider traditional marriage but if it doesn't have Zeus-Marduk supporting keeping multiple women subservient and knocked up I don't know what marriage is. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 15th, 2008|07:57 pm] |
It's nice to know that McCain thinks that women ought not to have the exception in the third term of a pregnancy for a woman's health because women and doctors use that excuse to just go crazy and have all sorts of fun. Thank goodness I have McCain to shield me from women and doctors as they are horrible people who you can't trust at all; especially with your health and life. I'm sorry but I'm slightly drunk since that is the only way to get through the debates.
On the bright side I noticed that the we and the Iraqis have decided that we will be out by 2011. To bad that is a time line and will embolden the terrorists to come kill our men and rape our women so our doctors can give them an abortion. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 14th, 2008|05:48 pm] |
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Who is interested in learning Timur's chess with me? It has camels and elephants. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 9th, 2008|10:06 pm] |
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I've been reading a biography of Timur a.k.a. Tamerlane, a.k.a. Tamburlane, a.k.a. king of the fortunate conjunction, a.k.a. scourge of God. It's made me think that I'm not doing enough with my life. Here was a man who had an empire that stretched from Afghanistan in the east to Lebanon in the west, Delhi in the south and Moscow in the north. He did this despite the fact that one ought to never get involved in a land war in Asia. Of course, he built a lot of pyramids of human skulls to make sure no one decided to screw with him. So it kind of makes me sad that everyone can't have the kind of opportunity to make the world a better place... Or a world with a lot of towers of human skulls. |
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 13th, 2008|09:41 am] |
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I can't believe that I already know a couple that is getting divorced. If getting married makes people think they are now no longer college kids divorce really makes one feel old. |
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| Classy |
[Sep. 10th, 2008|11:41 am] |
As someone whose parents are divorced I have to say that this is really bad taste. You don't tear down someones parents. This just makes me think that the republican vp pick is probably a poor parent, and vindictive person. The fact that she held a grudge long enough to get into office and then try and fire her ex-brother-in-law says what her character is and what her priorities in office are. It's one thing to be a jerk in your private life; when you bring your private life into your professional life to screw with someone that just screams classy. Between that trying to ban books and then having an enemies list larger than Nixon ought to disqualify someone like that.
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| (no subject) |
[Sep. 5th, 2008|07:54 am] |
So here is a semi-professional opinion about the republican convention: trainwreck.
I tried and actually keep a open mind about the convention but everyone made it really hard. First off, I'm not stupid enough to believe that the republicans were not the ones in powers for the last eight years. It's a big nod to Obama that the republicans have to steal his catch phrase of "change". Change is what the people who are out of power want and if you have to run from your record it's probably not a great start to an election.
Second, Ronald Reagan is spinning in his grave. I don't personally like Reagan but understand what he did well and what he did well was be optimistic. When he said that "It's morning again in America" it was a message of a hopeful future. Reagan was forward looking and hopeful. Obama is in the footprint of Reagan, the republicans spent four days simply tearing down the democratic ticket and sowing fear. It was ridiculous how tasteless Rudy Gulliani is. I realize that he is kind of a one-trick pony but actually using a national tragedy for a back drop is absolutely tasteless.
Third, I'm not sure what to think about Sarah Palin. I do get the feeling is that Palin was not completely vetted. What I am sure is that Palin hurts McCain. A vice president who is under any shadow of investigation is bad news it takes away from the topics you would want talk about. Also, while I'm not a big fan of digging into a persons personal life what this country has learned from the whole Bill Clinton affair is that, while unsavory, it is not off limits. What is good for the goose is good for the gander and I don't think the genie is going back to into the bottle. Furthermore, Palin destroys McCain's argument that Obama is inexperienced. Being a governor of Alaska is probably pretty good experience, but saying that she has executive experience unlike the democratic ticket reminds me that McCain has never had executive experience. So the only person who is qualified by that standard is Palin. Finally, she just reminds me how old McCain is. She looks like a granddaughter next to him. Pay very close attention to her; if you elect McCain as president I lay fifty-fifty odds that it would end up as President Palin.
Fourth, McCain is amazingly uninspiring. I have never heard a speech that left me less excited. It was forty-nine minutes of rambling. It was a biograghy that had no real theme or point to carry it together. It was made clear that McCain is a P.O.W. but not clear how that will help him run the country. Being prisoner does not inspire confidence that he can balance a budget or run a war. Also, I waited for him to match Obama's list of programs that would be implemented if in office. As an aside I realize that giving to sentence descriptions of a program like energy independence is not through but that is more that McCain gave us. He did give five minutes from saying that he was a P.O.W. to say that he would lower taxes he didn't even say for whom and by how much. These speeches are for making promises that you may not be able to live up to because of Congress the least McCain could have done is listed some programs that would have swayed undecided voters.
Finally, some erratta:
Don't have a theme song that is actually written about you. You look like a narcissist and the poor singer looks like a whore.
Palin needs to change here wardrobe. Black cocktail dresses are not what you wear to state functions.
"Drill, baby, drill!" is an awful energy policy. Even if we could drill enough oil to achieve energy independence wouldn't we just be back in the same boat using a finite resource? Way to look like you are in bed with oil companies republicans.
Making service to your county a theme of the convention, then saying that American ought to honor its soldiers, teachers, and politicians and then at the same convention making fun of community organizers... who serve their communities just shows how little the republican party cares. I truly think McCain cares about his country and public service but judging from everyone else if you are a public service or ever volunteered to read at the library, well then you are a sissy and an idiot. Way to make yourselves seem like total assholes republicans.
No one should ever let Mitt Rommney speak in public again. If you believe that the last eight years were a failure because of a government that was too liberal you need to take a breath and think about it. Also calling the current Supreme Court a flaming bunch of liberals is a bit of a stretch. I think seven of the nine were republican appointees.
Rudy Gulliani is not as funny as he thinks and needs to move on from 9-11.
I'm just going to hit my head against the wall now. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 13th, 2008|10:28 am] |
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I will be in the big V Saturday from some the like 7:00 am to 4:00 pm and am filling my calender. Let me know if you want to be on it. |
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