http://view.break.com/592648 – Watch more free videos
I admit, I LOL’d. Note “McCain’s” lack of actual dancing.
election
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Continued evolution of homo sapiens sapiens (that’s us!)
I seem to only be able to manage a post a week, or at least to post in flurries on weekends, so I might as well make my posts count. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the state of evolution within the human species, where it almost seems as though we may have stalled in our own evolutionary tracks, because we’ve reached the pinnacle of intellect where we have gained a mastery over the dark art of “science”, and therefore can overcome most otherwise evolutionary influences like predators or environmental hazards usually within a lifetime or two, thus short-circuiting the whole natural selection process. After thinking a good deal more about it, I’m convinced that evolution is still happening, but its effects, like a river that’s been dammed, will simply route around the dampening effort.
As an example, Clifton has informed me that his unborn son (who is, admittedly, possibly fictitious, as Clifton’s known for the “long con”) is suspected to have spina bifida, which is a very common congenital defect wherein the baby’s neural tube, what will become the spinal column, and what protects the spinal cord ultimately, fails to fully form. This condition affects one out of a thousand babies in North America. Most originally-explored environmental links to its cause have proven spurious at best, and there’s a mounting pile of evidence suggesting that the condition is genetic, with a specific gene suspected as being responsible should that particular gene mutate in a certain way.
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Nice quiet weekend, for a change
Jodi and I spent a nice quiet weekend for the first time in recent memory — no big projects, no major interruptions from work, just finally putting No More Heroes to bed (what a twisted plot it has, video game or not!), then watching Heroes (right after No More Heroes, the irony isn’t lost on me) and a great documentary miniseries called Miracle Planet. We also had a full, homemade, roasted chicken meal, complete with stuffing and my first successful stab at making gravy, though I used far too much gravy browning and it came out looking approximately like molasses. Tasted fine though.
Work is still work. I’m still taking on more responsibility than I should by rights have to. I’ve been told a new guy was offered the position for the other centre, but he has to put in his notice at his current place of employ, and even then I’ll likely have to train him up when he takes the position properly. So I’m not out of the tunnel, but I can see the light at the end. Here’s to hoping the light isn’t a train (which I guess in this metaphor would mean that they’ll have hired four complete wrecks in a row for the IT position in that centre, and I’ll just end up being tapped for even longer).
I’ve made a deal with Jodi, that she’s to read the Dune series if I promise to read the Belgariad series. On reading the first few pages, I really hope she’s right about it picking up and not being as low-fantasy as it seems right now.
We haven’t gotten voter registration cards yet, likely due to our moving recently. Tomorrow’s the deadline on calling Elections Canada — and I damn well want to vote this year more than any previous, so I’m going to make a point of taking time out of my usually-busy Monday to exercise my duty as a citizen and flex my electoral muscle. Which is hopefully better defined than my other muscles. I can’t bring myself to rage about the economic meltdown, but I will point you to this article at the Great Orange Satan and tell you that were I offered the $200,000 to give up on the $0-or-$1,000,000 suitcase, per the Deal or No Deal reference, I’d take the $200,000 in a heartbeat. Not an instant of hesitation. Call me a pragmatist. And a populist, because I’m definitely that too.
If you haven’t gotten your voter registration yet, call Elections Canada first thing tomorrow at 1-800-463-6868 and do your part. And yes, this does matter, so get informed, and vote. If we all end up in the poorhouse or fighting over scraps of food and the last of the unpolluted water in some freaky Mad Max scenario, all because the uninformed electorate was swayed by commercials wherein puffins poop on politicians, then I’ll be the first to blame you. Right before I roundhouse kick you and take your moldy cheese. Fucker.
News roundup
Hurricanes galore have been hitting the Caribbean and around the Gulf of Mexico, over and over again. The newest is a Cat-4 hurricane named Ike, and it’s going to ravage all those already-rocked spots that the last two just did (they’re coming so fast and furious I can’t even remember their damn names!). This will probably get Bob talking about the IPCC, but rest assured folks, just because climate change is definitely happening, and lots of scientists predicted it a long time ago, nobody could ever have predicted it and should it turn out that it was anthropogenic, nobody could have predicted that either. Sigh. Just suck it up and weather it. The human race will live through this, undoubtedly, and any massive shift in climate will likely spur evolution in a number of ways through a number of species, even our own.
In a nice bit of justice, Asif Ali Zardari, widower of Benazir Bhutto, just won the presidency of Pakistan, after the tin-pot asshat Musharraf (does this mean his ass is a tin pot?) resigned to avoid an impeachment in much the same way as Nixon dodged that particular bullet. There is a modicum of decency left in the world.
In the meantime, John McTimebomb chose Sarah Palin as his veep pick, without evidently first vetting her at all. Their campaign is being rocked by her incessant lying to the point where they’ve decided to curtail her access to the press in much the same way that McCain’s been restricted in his press access and cell phone use, to keep them from going off-message (read: making “gaffes”), and to keep people from possibly discovering what they, and pretty much this generation of Republicans, are all about. Not that media access would really matter, given that right now (and for the past good while) McCain’s down in the polls so all the talking heads are all but bending over backward to fellate the man in an effort to tighten up this race.
On the homefront, I had a debate with someone (at work, no less — shame on me) involving abortion. I of course took the position that pro-life is anti-women, and that nobody who holds the pro-life position is truly pro-life. I say “of course” because I can’t rightly think of any other way to argue this point, given that my views are roughly that a human life is not truly viable as a potential human being until they’re at least two years old (not that I’d ever advocate “aborting” after childbirth, but I definitely don’t personally consider a 1-year-old child any more viable than a three-cell blastocyst). Once they escape the spectre of SIDS, then they’re potentially going to be an adult. And I’m sure this is going to spark some controversy, so feel free to call me a monster in the comments.
Oh, and finally, as any good conservative knows, welfare for the poor is abhorrent, but welfare for the rich who go bankrupt is apparently perfectly justified. Far as I’m concerned, if you want to live by the sword, you should die by the sword. Don’t make it seem like helping those that are less fortunate is robbing them of the opportunity to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, and without missing a beat immediately turn around and give a failing business a golden parachute. If life is supposed to be hard and hard work is the only virtue, then let life be hard equally for those that have power once in a goddamn while.
I’ve got two posts planned, one for the Canadian election that’s coming up (and you can probably guess what I’ve got to say about Harper’s massive ad campaigns and massive last-second spending on military), and another hopefully relatively funny one about Darwin pareidolia, which has been covered recently by Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy and The Onion recently.
Life, the universe, and everything (or, I’m An Atheist And So Can You!)
I feel the need to warn you right now, this is going to be an extremely long post, and I earnestly hope it spurs some honest and frank discussion amongst you, my loyal few readers. And I’m going to try not to make the Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy references too prevalent. This all started on reading an interview with Richard Dawkins, prominent author and noted atheist. Read it if you want, but it’s long too, and I’d prefer you read me first. I worked hard on this!
In this post, I’m going to do something that, normally, I dislike, when I am on the receiving end. I’m going to proselytize. I will try to turn your fundamental beliefs regarding the nature of the universe on their ear. I am going to attempt to convince you that you are an atheist.
Continue reading “Life, the universe, and everything (or, I’m An Atheist And So Can You!)”
Today’s “Fuck You” round-up!
Fuck you, Robert Mugabe. If you have to put your opposition in prison and threaten everyone in your country with violence in order to win an election, then there’s no point in having a fucking election at all. Just call yourself a dictator and be done with it. Asshat.
Fuck you, Republicans who were eager to question John Kerry’s service in Vietnam, producing smear after execrable smear of his record, but are now more than happy to bitch about General Wes Clark questioning whether McCain’s graduating in the bottom 1% of his class (no, seriously! 894th out of 899!) then proceeding to get shot down in your fighter jet (after having crashed four other planes, by the way) qualifies you for being president.
And a big old, bold-faced, FUCK YOU to Future Ex-President Bush for finally seeing the light with regard to using diplomacy with one of the members of his supposed “Axis of Evil“, not one month after giving a speech before the Knesset (text) in which he called Barack Obama’s policy of diplomacy a “delusion” and akin to Nazi appeasement (and this in front of the legislative assembly of Jerusalem! Subtle, real subtle!). Yes, diplomacy is the right way of dealing with the assholes that occasionally occupy world stage positions, and force only comes as a last resort, so Bush should be applauded for managing an actual diplomatic win (maybe the first of his presidency!), but the hypocriticality of the whole situation just makes my blood boil.
It also bothers me that if Bush manages to get his war on Iran begun before he leaves office, then his ditto-heads will have another talking point — that Bush dealt with the Axis of Evil. Forget the fact that North Korea now has the bomb, and under Bush’s watch. Forget the fact that Iraq is a quagmire. Forget that he’ll be dumping THREE wars on Obama’s lap. (I refuse to even entertain the idea of a McCain presidency. And you can’t make me.) Edit: Oh yeah. And forget that the REAL war he’s supposed to be engaging in, the “War on Terror”, has a real organization involved, Al Qaeda, which is headed by Bin Laden, who is in Pakistan, and the Bush administration is FUCKING PREVENTING A SPECIAL FORCES PLAN TO GO KILL HIM!
So to you douchebags, I say, FUCK YOU.
Heh. That’s a good one. I’m going to use that image again in the future, I’m sure.
HAW!
This was good for a laugh — Supreme Court Reverses Gore Endorsement, Awarding it to McCain
“It is plainly obvious, by reading Section One, Clause Four of Article Two, that the framers, Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton, were firm in their resolve, that in the 2008 Presidential election, 219 years after ratification, former Vice President Gore, who the constitution also stipulated must lose the 2000 Presidential election regardless of the voters’ wishes, would be required to hand his endorsement and considerable public influence to John McCain, who was himself one of the original framers of Constitution,” Scalia wrote.
In other news, the process has been started for my mortgage application. If all goes well, we should know whether we can put a proper bid in on the house within the next 24 hours.
Better late than never.
Senator Hillary Clinton has officially suspended her campaign and endorsed Barack Obama. While she was, right up until mere days before Obama clinched the nomination, claiming she’d take the nomination fight right through til Denver, she has realized that unfortunately the steam has run out for her campaign.
Don’t get me wrong. Obviously I’m supporting Obama, as you could tell from my previous posts, but I sincerely believe that either one of them would have made a fine Democratic president, and a breath of fresh air to the whole world in comparison with what the Republicans evidently have to offer policy-wise. (And it’s because of the effect of the American government on the world stage that I’m at all interested, to be quite honest. Yes, I’m a Canadian, but I’m a citizen of this planet, and what America does has far reaching repercussions.) So, honestly, I’m happy that Clinton has suspended her campaign and thrown her weight behind the grassroots juggernaut that the Obama campaign has turned out to be, even if it means a good person who ran a good campaign has lost what could be her best chance at the most powerful position in, likely, the world.
Of shells and memories triggered by strange mp3s
I did a lot of thinking, as is my particular modus operandi, while driving to and from one of my company’s sites yesterday, and committed to writing a nice big blog post about it once I got home. I didn’t do so immediately, but at least I’m doing it now. But first, some background is necessary as to what triggered all this.
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