Terror organisation al-Shabaab have claimed an attack that killed 28 ... It is believed they asked travellers to recite passages from the Koran, ...
*************************************************************************************************************Okay, how should I put this....hmmmmm. I think this kind of behaviour is borderline inappropriate (sarcasm heavily emphasized herein). Perhaps the leaders of the religion known as Islam should at the very least attempt to coordinate, on a large scale, some sort of 'reigning in' process. Are you feelin' me on this? This is ridiculous already. How many more must be slaughtered? How many more innocent, non-combative , non-Muslim civilians must be intentionally targeted for a most horrible death?
How long will our society let this behaviour go on before we put a stop to it? Because we CAN put a stop to it. It's not as complicated as people like to portray it. It's pretty simple. Here's the deal, to all you fundamentalist jihadi Islamist terrorists, I have this and only this to say: It is very, very, very uncool to chop the head off of an innocent human being because said human being does not believe in Allah. Very uncool. Also, you can't keep going around committing mass-murders just because people aren't up to speed with regard to memorizing the Koran. Not cool at all, man. I'm just saying. Tone it down a bit please. It's starting to affect my peace of mind. Assholes.
Here's a good example when one person tries to protect the feelings of those who deep down in their hearts would not do the same for us. Three pretty smart guys, whom I all admire for my own reasons try to get to the heart of the matter that does not have a heart...
At least these guys call it for what it is, with no political agenda or proactive goal at hand. Intellects discuss things likes this based on fact, evidence, logic and reason -- the only things we humans possess to do really anything at all. I know there are plenty of very successful, learned, devoted souls out there who also use the tools of fact, evidence, scientific method and such in order to study a myriad of wonderful and horrible things the world is presently beset with.. What boggles my mind, and what will continue to boggle my mind until I die, is that these otherwise brilliant human beings by every possible measure - well, at least some of them - believe in things like resurrection and revelations and gold-plated books that may or may have not been discovered in 'Deliverence'-country of late (see Mormon).
This is such a clearly confounding exception to all things rational and reasonable in our everyday lives, that even those who seek the highest political office tend to advocate for 'Faith..' But faith is a childish notion and everyone knows it. I mean, really, do you think that having faith in your religion might help the millions of starving kids in Africa who die due to malnourishment simply because their mothers don't have access to clean water and food? Does 'Faith' really exist at all? I mean, put in simple terms, 'faith' means the absence of thinking. It is the notion that one should believe in something that one has never seen, heard, touched, felt, smelled or experienced at all.
On a deeper level, we are told to have faith when we are children by the 'grown ups' If something doesn't make sense to a child, the child is told to have faith that it'll work out' or that 'Santa Claus' will leave you a present under the tree.
Now, we're all grown ups, so I'm going to talk to you in grown up terms. The crude reality, is that faith is nothing more than the absence of thinking. It's an exercise in muting the intellect in the hope that something may or may not come about. That's the rather boring value of faith.
Now, I'd like to introduce to you a concept I've long called the American Doctrine of 'Hurt Feelings'."
About five years ago, when I had the unique fortune (misfortune) of being a guest (inmate) within the very vast Texas Department of Criminal Justice (Prison), I was selected to work in the prison kitchen, slaving away most hours of the day, cleaning dishes, washing, processing and such. One day I was complaining to one of the guards that I was expected to do too many things at the same time and it wasn't fair. The guard actually went to a nearby desk drawer (true story) and pulled out a form. It was a very official looking form. The header of the form read as follows: "HURT FEELINGS REPORT"
Yes, I'm serious. The form offered one the ability to report a variety of 'hurt feelings' due to all kinds of incidents, issues or circumstances -- whatever the case may be. Now, obviously this was not an official prison administrative form. It was one of the many devices conjured up within the sordid, jaded, cynical, sadistic community of prison guards to amuse themselves at the expense of the inmates.
I use this example in order to demonstrate a very important fact of life on Planet Earth: feelings get hurt -- it's not against the law to offend or hurt someone's feelings. In any humane, civilized society it just tends to happen. One human being offends the sensibility of another. And this is exactly how it should be -- everywhere -- all the time, specifically in regards to any conceivable notion of a society that embraces such concepts of Free Speech, Separation of Church and State and/or any other fundamental moral tenets or ethical or legal creeds.
Now, unfortunately, hurt feelings can cause people to do really stupid things (see Lorena Bobbit). Whether it be betrayal, jealousy, fear, anxiety, depression, sociopathy, envy, avarice or anger -- any and all of these feelings and numerous others (see chart at right) --are capable of being a culpable contributor to all sorts of outrageous, unacceptable and completely inappropriate human behavior (see Rape, Murder, Assault ).
Some societies have adapted and even evolved. Some have devolved. Others, most notably the United States, for example, seem to take every possible extreme measure, ostensibly in the interest of political correctness, or, put another way -- hmmmm, how should I state this. Oh yes. The United States government has a theme that bubbles up quite often -- or, rather more than a theme -- an unofficial policy perhaps. The idea is that they are afraid of what might happen if a certain group of people might 'feel' offended as a result of something that another human being might have said, uttered, written, painted, built, created -- whatever -- the concept that one or more human beings merely feels insulted as a result of the free expression of another human being. The United States Government currently prioritizes FEELINGS ahead of things like REALITY and PUBLIC SAFETY and SECURITY. And TRUTH.
It's clear from the rhetoric of the large majority of U.S. politicians, that they are more concerned about whether or not a certain group of people 'feel' insulted about something than they are about actual current events going on, all around the world, all the fucking time, repeat. And, NOW, that we live in the connected/digital age of I-can-see-and-hear-everything-going-on-in-the-world-all-the-fucking-time, more and more examples of my premise -- the 'hurt feelings' stuff is rearing its ugly head day after day after day.
In order to lend some clarity to this matter, I'll provide some examples: President Obama declares that ISIS has nothing to do with Islam, regardless of the fact that the first letter ('I') of the acronym he just enunciated stands for the word 'Islamic.' Why does the president say something so asinine. I mean, anyone with a reasonably functional (non-brainwashed) BRAIN and even a half-assed conceptualization of world affairs and current events knows, without mincing words, that ISIS has EVERYTHING to do with Islam. Christ, it's a defining component of, not only the actual name of the group itself, but also an inflammatory tool used to recruit young, uneducated Muslims from the broader Islamic world with the intention of creating the dark and dreaded Caliphate.
In some countries it is actually against the law to simply speak in a disagreeable way about religion. Why? Because it hurts the feelings of the idiots who run the country. In other words, a bunch of Islamic motherfuckers will try to kill you if you speak ill of Islam, or even if they merely think you believe ill of Islam. And in much of the Islamic world, they have absolutely no problem with this. That's right -- many, many millions of Islamic people all over the world actually believe that this behavior is appropriate. What else do they think is appropriate: Murder for converting to a religion other than Islam; Arranged child marriages; forced, female genital mutilation; 'Honor' killings (don't get me started on this one); And, in general, death to the rest of us.... the 'infidels.'
Basically, if you disagree with these people, then they might just want to chop your head off in a public setting with due haste. Yeah, that's right, beheadings, stonings, death, madness, propaganda and lies and darkness and bullshit. And the U.S.A does business with these countries......because of the oil. What a toxic relationship.
Those of you who know me know that I think ALL organized religion is based in bullshit and nonsense, but I think Islam wins the prize for the most archaic, barbaric, punitive, dishonest, ignorant, malintended, evil, fundamentalist, extreme, gross 'religion' of them all. Which is why I will even stoop so low to give it this much attention.
Put simply, in no uncertain terms, it's some evil shit. The writing is on the wall all over the fucking place. If it isn't one "Islamic Extremist Group" murdering and maiming and raping some unfortunate group of innocents, then it's another -- another "Islamic Extremist Group." How many times must we hear the term "Islamic Extremist Group" before the majority of 'civilized' people on our half of the planet pull their heads out of their asses and call it what it is -- call a spade a spade. Admit it. Islam is totally fucked up and that for the greater good of humanity, we must prioritize REALITY, TRUTH, and KNOWLEDGE ahead of hurt feelings on Planet Earth's 'To Do' list.
Now let me be very clear about the fact that this is NOT simply a case of a few 'bad apples' -- it's rather a very entrenched, complicated case of hundreds of millions of human beings who actually believe that their medieval-horror-movie-design-for-living-in-darkness way of existence is God's will. And there is nothing more powerful than God's will for a person who believes that he/she is literally a human manifestation of that very divine will itself.
Okay, enough about Islamic Extremists. I think much of the world is sick and tired of hearing about Islamic fucking extremists. Why does nothing change and why do things continue to devolve into a hell that makes 'Revelations' look like Mr. Roger's neighborhood? Why? Yep, you guessed it -- it's because the rest of the world is made up of those same extremists or those who condone -- through passivity, indifference and silent support --the extremists. Welcome to your nightmare.
Example #2: MAINSTREAM MEDIA.
Talk about the absurdity of network censorship in an age of 24-hour, unfiltered, unvarnished information from new media sources like VICE, Gawker, Tumblr -- whatever floats your boat. The decline of archaic, antiquated, old-fashioned 'network' and so-called 'mainstream media' outlets. The rise of new media like Netflix, VICE, Amazon and other outlets that aren't shackled by childish regulatory matters, censorship and such. These new media companies have BALLS, and they're producing some of the most captivating programming in (non)television. No holds barred. They use words like 'Fuck' and 'Asshole' and 'Shit' and other words that for some reason aren't allowed on 'network' television. In other words, the new media is media for adults who can handle adult language and adult situations. The powers at be in the network/regulatory/ratings/quasi-governmental bullshit nanny media like to treat the viewing public as children, plain and simple. The new media doesn't give a shit about any of that, and they shouldn't have to -- this is called progression...(for example, read this piece on VICE ).
This is the natural result of the past few generations of people in our society who either act like children, never grow up -- or, the by-product of generations of parents who think it's a good idea to hide the truth about the world from our children -- to keep them 'innocent.' These children then grow up to be adults in body, but still childlike in mind. We've consistently and persistently pulled the wool over the eyes of our children and ourselves for so long that we now have a society of babies. And the worst part about it is that the King-biggest-babies of them all tend to go into politics. A society of babies run by toddlers. A gigantic nanny state in which most of the 'nannies' are themselves stunted in the grown up department.
Why, in this day and age, can you not say 'Fuck' on network television? I mean, really, why? Answer: it might hurt somebody's feelings, we must not let the children hear such things, and on and on and on with this broken record already. Now, please allow me to introduce myself....
It is a natural consequence of life. It cannot possibly be avoided. And despite our best efforts, it is a nasty, dark business. Death. D-E-A-T-H. Everything that lives must die. We all know it. Some of us embrace it and try to live in the moment. Others avoid it and continue to dwell on events that have passed and worry about those things that have yet come to pass. In the end, we all die the same way. The heart stops beating, the blood stops pumping, the oxygen disappears and then we're dead. It can happen quickly or very slowly depending on the circumstances, but at the end of the day -- or, rather 'life,' so to speak -- we all meet the same fate. Death.
Now let's kick things up a notch. Rather than talk about the death of one thing or one person, I think it is important to start talking about the death of humanity -- as a whole. The extinction of a species on a planet that has seen the comings and goings of many different species over many different eras. We will be rather short-lived, relatively speaking, due to our unique ability to bring about our own demise. Unless we change everything very quickly.
Human-fucking-beings. As far as we know, no other species in the history of species has been burdened with such things as consciousness, cognitive/intellectual/emotional ability, etc. For example, this is why dinosaurs roamed the earth for millions of years without too many problems. They were a dominant species and they dominated, naturally, for a very, very, very long time, as they should have. But, as we all know, shit DOES happen, and a huge asteroid explosion/aftermath wiped out the dinosaurs. The important thing to note here is that the dinosaurs didn't do themselves in -- they wanted to LIVE...the poor bastards.
Human beings, on the other hand, were born with a leg-up in the 'intelligence' arena, and within a relatively-few thousand years we've made quite a mess of things with due haste. We sowed our own demise the moment OIL met MONEY. If you were to look at any accepted world population graph, charting the growth of humanity from day one through now, it looks something like the chart below.
The beginning of that GIGANTIC spike on the far right of the graph coincides with the discovery and refinement of oil around 1900. That's when oil became the basis for the global economy. We are an oil-based economy. And we live in a monetary society. Do the math and you end up with these charts.
Maybe I should explain. Along with the discovery of oil as a source of energy came the reality of oil as a source of money. Humanity is addicted to energy, obviously, as everything we need to survive in modern society comes from some source that -- if you follow the trail, eventually you'll find it -- relies on oil for energy. That's just the way it is now. We're stuck with it. The problem is that 'oil' is a finite resource on Planet Earth. Fast-forward quickly to modern day -- All of the big oil companies, and agencies (OPEC, etc.) and governments and academics and economists know how much we've got left. And, as diligent human beings addicted to energy and money, we've been sucking, extracting, fracking, and refining the shit out of oil for over a hundred years now. It's in EVERYTHING, and I mean everything. Go educate yourselves, because weird shit is going to start to happen (oh, wait a minute -- weird shit is happening all over the world).
All the craziness going on in the middle-east has nothing to do with religion. It has to do with oil and money. They've got the most oil over there and everybody wants it. Because, remember, it's a finite resource (see above). The ONLY reason the United States of American Idiots has any interest in anything in ANY of the 'Arab' countries is because of oil. We need it, and we need more and more of it, and it's running out. Quickly. So, if it seems like all kinds of crazy shit is happening all over the world at the same time, it's because IT IS. You can call it what you want, but it is simply the natural collapse of a world based on oil and money. More on this later. For now, watch this:
Robin Williams committing suicide, the be-heading of American journalists in Iraq, another racist NBA team-owner forced to sell his team, rampant deadly diseases. These things don't have much in common, other than the fact that these matters should be a wake-up call to the world. It's rather unfortunate that the world should even need a 'wake-up' call at all. I mean, I'mup, and I've been up for several years now. There's something about pain and suffering and living close to the border that separates life and death that 'wakes' a person up to the true state of affairs in the world around him/her.
I think it really says something when one of our brightest lights, one of our most beloved artists/entertainers/performers.....a man with a heart of gold, with a spirit and a soul too big to fit within the limited confines of the human body....that this man was so upset with the world around him that he decided to bow out. There is no clearer example that illustrates to all of us that our world is so broken, so fucked up, so absurd. Something Needs to Change.
And now we've got 'ISIS' to deal with. Christ, talk about a bunch of assholes. These guys are so medeival, barbaric and horrific, they make Al-Qaeda look like Sesame Street. They move with baffling speed. They are unbelievably well-funded. We really need to take a look at who's funding these guys. I mean REALLY. Because shining a light on the funding sources will certainly ruffle some feathers in the Western world.
For example, European countries are currently buying oil from ISIS-controlled oil fields in Iraq. And, even more disturbing, it has been pretty clear all along that groups within Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait are funding ISIS (see this article from the Daily Beast).
Think about this for a moment. The United States routinely does 'business' with countries who are funding ISIS. Call me a pessimist, but this seems a bit inappropriate (sarcasm emphasized heavily herein). Why? You guessed it......money. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY. Money truly is involved in every evil act. Money. It makes the world go 'round. And it also causes western countries to buy oil from people who like to cut the heads off of innocent human beings.
I'm tired of listing all of the horrible things going on in the world around me. For some reason, the suffering of humanity affects me, profoundly. I hurt for the slaughter of innocents, for the hungry children, for the sick, for the impoverished. It pains me. As it should. And it pains a few others. But it's time for the rest of the civilized world to WAKE UP and lend a hand to the broken arc of humanity. We are a broken species. We need healing. And healing starts within.
There have been few individuals, so singularly talented, so extraordinarily gifted, so captivating as Robin Williams. This man was a divinely inspired bolt of comedic lightning. A man who lived only when he was performing for others. A man who understood that the present - that this moment - is all we have, and that it is not to be taken for granted.
It is a tragic paradox that so often the most gifted human beings are also the most tortured internally. Whether it be depression, addiction or numerous other 'mental' illnesses, it manifests in its most devastating form within the most creative, intelligent, energetic, compassionate human beings on the planet.
This has been a very sad year as we lost two of the entertainment industry's most beloved performers -- first, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and now Robin Williams. Addiction and depression obviously played very significant roles in these deaths. It is time to remove the stigmas associated with 'mental' illness and give it the attention it deserves.
The very term 'mental illness' doesn't even make any sense, if you think about it. Depression and addiction, for example, are categorized as 'Brain Diseases.' Last time I checked, the 'BRAIN' is a part of the physical body. So why are certain illnesses classified as 'mental?' The symptoms of mental illness often manifest behaviorally rather than physiologically, and these symptoms unfortunately affect other people in the form of families torn apart, suicides, crimes, etc. Hence, the stigma remains attached to these 'mental' illnesses.
1. Such a career choice is almost certain to piss off your mother.
2. It would be very difficult to find a girlfriend which such gruesome hopes for the future.
3. Killing yourself in the hopes that you will be met by 70 virgins in the afterlife is not all its cracked up to be. I mean, what if they turn out to be seventy old nuns? Not very appealing, is it? You never know. It's a big risk to take.
4. The funeral would be very messy indeed.
Not terribly fashionable is it?
5. What to wear for such an occasion?
6. I don't think I-Pods are 'Jihad-proof.'
7. Your child will likely not have a very good time on your 'bring-your-kid-to-work' day.
8. There is no cigarette smoking allowed in the afterlife.
9. Occupational hazards include loss of limbs, decapitation, rape and imprisonment in the event you choose to leave 'the movement' and follow a different career path.
10. The dishevelled, unshaven, black-facemask look is really rather unattractive.
Albert Einstein famously said that if you cannot explain 'it' simply, then you don't know 'it' well enough. He applied this philosophy to anything from theoretical physics to the meaning of life and to his many anecdotal truths about society and humanity in general. Einstein was also famous for his 'thought experiments' in which he used simple, basic, ordinary language to explain the most complex of complicated problems.
I try to adhere to this same philosophy. I will now apply it in order to explain the following: What Would America Do if a hostile neighbouring country started indiscriminately raining down rockets into its city centers??
Obviously, I am trying to draw an analogy from the Israeli-Palestinian situation. So, what would the U.S. do, if, say, Mexico started sending rockets over the border into Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California (I have to scale up the relative size of such an 'operation' due to the immensity of the United States)? I think it's quite clear, based on history, that the U.S. would totally annihilate the enemy. Unfortunately, civilians would die, and the U.S. typically discards this fact and labels it as 'Collateral Damage' -- a necessary evil in the ugly battleground that is otherwise known as 'War.'
I will give you two historical examples: (1) The bombastic 'Shock & Awe' campaign of the second U.S. Gulf War against Iraq; and (2) The nuclear bombs the U.S. dropped on Japan at the tail end of World War II.
Shock & Awe
The Second Gulf War: This first example is quite unique in that the U.S. spent EIGHT YEARS (from 2003-2011) annihilating the 'enemy' before the enemy even used the weapons that, as it turns out, it did not even possess at the time. In 2003, when then-acting U.S. General Colin Powell, Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, famously presented his erroneous 'weapons of mass destruction' evidence to the United Nations, as we all know, the notorious U.S. military campaign called 'Shock & Awe' proceeded to destroy the 'enemy' with due haste (even though it took eight years, and even though the situation in Iraq is much worse now than it was then -- but that's 'in the past'......).
More Shock & Awe
Classified US military documents released by WikiLeaks in October 2010, record Iraqi and Coalition military deaths between January 2004 and December 2009.The documents record 109,032 deaths broken down into "Civilian" (66,081 deaths), "Host Nation" (15,196 deaths),"Enemy" (23,984 deaths), and "Friendly" (3,771 deaths).
World War II (Japan): Back in the 1940's, 'rocket-fire' did not exist. Instead, the Japanese army deployed 'Kamikazee' planes to hit Pearl Harbor. Please note: even though this was a 'military target' (as opposed to 'civilian'), the United States responded by declaring war on the Empire of Japan the very next day, and then it proceeded to send 110,000 Japanese-Americans to internment camps on the Pacific Coast for the duration of the war.(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans).
Hiroshima
And, in case anyone forgot, when it was all over a few years later, the number of Japanese military casualties was estimated to be around 2,100,000 (yes, that's 2.1Million). The number of Japanese CIVILIAN casualties ranges from 500,000 to 1,000,000, including 225,000 civilians killed when the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWII_Casualties#endnote_Japan).
Again, I don't think I need to explain this one any further. I believe in the concept called the 'Economy of Words' -- using the fewest words to make a powerful POINT.
Now, children, let us revisit the question: What Would America Do if a hostile neighbouring country started indiscriminately raining down rockets into its city centers??
Tweet
Why those people who support Palestinians in Gaza are uninformed, misguided, and also support organized terrorism, revisionist history, death, darkness and ignorance:
Hamas (looks like a nice bunch of guys, eh?)
1. The citizens of Gaza democratically elected Hamas -- an internationally recognized terrorist organization -- to govern them. These civilians are thus not 'inncocent' of anything.
2. There never was a 'Palestinian' state -- ever. And the concept of a 'right of return' is thus not based in any historical fact whatsoever. For a more thorough explanation of this truth, I encourage you to read this: The Middle East 'Problem'
4. Not one of the twenty-two Arab countries in the world -- many with plentiful land and incredible oil wealth -- is willing to take in the Palestinian Arabs of Gaza. Not one.
5. The one Jewish state in the world -- Israel -- is the size of New Jersey. Yet, it is still willing to give the Palestinians a significant portion of its land. The only requirement is that the Palestinians officially agree to stop sending rockets into Israel and to formally recognize Israel's right to simply exist. The large majority of Palestinians routinely refuse to do this, made clearly evident by the fact that they democratically elected Hamas to govern them. And, again, in case you forgot, the stated aim of Hamas is to destroy Israel along with all of it's millions of Jewish inhabitants.
Eliahu Elath (first Israeli ambassador to
the U.N.) presenting ark to U.S. president
Harry S. Truman.
6. In 1948, the UN officially designated Israel as a Jewish state. For a brief historical primer, please visit this website: U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. The first line on that particular webpage reads as follows: "On May 14, 1948, David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel. U.S. President Harry S. Truman recognized the new nation on the same day."
7. If Hamas laid down its weapons, there would be no more war. If Israel laid down its arms, the following would immediately occur: Hamas, Hezbollah and the other innumerable terrorist organizations in and around Gaza and the surrounding Arab countries would immediately seek to destroy Israel.
8. The textbooks used to educated Palestinian school-children demonize the Jewish people and teach them to seek to murder all of the world's Jewish population.
9. The Jewish people in Israel and around the world are 'guilty' of this -- and this has remained unchanged for over 5,000 years: they are 'guilty' of wanting to be left alone to live in peace. They are guilty of wanting to educate their children. They are guilty of disproportionately being the wealthiest, smartest, most productive contributors to civilization in the history of humanity. They are guilty of simply surviving. They are guilty of cherishing life. And for these things, the world's Arab population wishes to annihilate them due to jealousy, ignorance, poverty, lack of education, and a uniquely gifted pre-disposition to being the most impossibly ungovernable people in the world.
10. All of this information is undisputed by any rational, informed human being on the planet, and has been for years. It's not complicated. Some people like to think it's complicated in order to justify their support of the dead, 'innocent' Palestinian 'civilians.' But, remember, the dead 'innocents' are not innocent at all -- they elected Hamas to govern them. And, in return, Hamas uses them as human shields to protect their rockets -- in schools, hospitals and mosques. This is undisputed by all sides and is publicly known information. It's been this way forever.
As Benjamin Netanyahu simply stated, once again, as he always does -- if Hamas stopped fighting, there would be no more war. If Israel stopped 'fighting,' there would be no more Israel.
Again, this is not complicated. Christ. A child could understand this. Seriously.
The older I get, the more life experience I accumulate, the more wisdom I acquire in my middle(ish)-age, I can only come up with one certain truth, which is this: There is simply not one shred of evidence that life should be taken seriously....at all. Yes, I'm serious...
Here are ten random headlines plucked from the most popular online news sources about an hour ago:
1. " Texas Governor Rick Perry compares homosexuality to alcoholism at a San Francisco business conference." (not a terribly brilliant move by Perry once again)
The esteemed Governor Perry of Texas
2. " Iraq's roads are littered with decapitated police and soldiers...as medeival sharia law is imposed." (yes, they're really adapting to the modern age quite smoothly over there)
Iraqi Al-Qaeda, very nice-looking young men...
3. "Naked 73-year-old man in wheelchair attacks 92-year-old." (LOL)
crazy old wheelchair dude
4. "Mom of seven dies in jail over unpaid school fines." (good old-fashioned American 'justice')
5. "Harrison Ford injured on Star Wars set." (couldn't possibly care less)
6. "Condom use drops among teens." (that's because condoms don't feel as good, duh...)
8. "Donald Sterling is hiring four different PI firms to dig up dirt on other NBA owners." (no comment)
9. "Oh My God, Here's Chris Christie Dancing." (again, no comment)
10. "Man impersonates Twilight actor to lure girls." (not a bad idea)
Oh yeah, one more important headline: "Japanese red eels put on endangered species list." (I really don't care about fucking eels -- I care about humanity)
So as the large majority of humanity continues to devolve into a cesspool of ignorance, impoverishment, evil, absurdity and reality -- and while the privileged 'few' continue to look the other way and offer all sorts of uncredible platitudes and opinions on those things which they have not ever personally experienced -- I can't help, but sit back and laugh. Because this world is a joke. I welcome anyone to convince me otherwise.
As I may have mentioned before, I speak from a relatively interesting perspective as a former/future one-percenter and current ninety-nine percenter. I've seen how money has ruined this planet and completely warped and deluded those who never had to go without -- and I mean truly go without, as in without food, shelter, basic necessities. Funny how those people do most of the talking though, isn't it?? Wonder why that is.....oh yes, access, I mean money. Again. It all comes down to money.
In our society, money equates to intelligence and character, morality and productivity. It's a fucking joke. I have more character as a poor person than I ever had as a clueless rich kid with a headful of academic 'knowledge' based on nothing more than rote memorization and a few observations. I have more morality and 'intelligence' too -- much more. And as far as productivity goes, all I used to care about was money, so I went to the office and made money. It was easy. If that's considered productive to anyone reading this, then you're a moron and you need to get off of my blog. Like, right now. I mean it -- I'm watching you......(Google Analytics is a wonderful thing).
I apologize that my blog posting has been rather sparse this year -- I'm busy working on other creative endeavours that, I hope, will make me a ton of money.....at which point I will sit back and laugh even more than I ever have before.
There seems to be an awful lot of judgement and criticism circulating around the return of US prisoner-of-war Bowe Bergdahl. I find this to be unbelievably inappropriate. Here's why:
Bowe
This poor guy Bowe just spent the last five fucking years in Taliban captivity. I've been held in captivity before, in Texas, which is inhumane enough -- but it can't possibly compare to five years as a prisoner of war of one of the most evil extremist groups in the history of humankind. NOBODY is entitled to judge the circumstances -- ANY of the circumstances surrounding the release of this poor kid. And he IS just a kid -- well, actually, the past five years surely toughened him up enough on the inside to be a man. But he was only a kid when this shit went down five years ago. It doesn't matter what his personal views were, because he was a fucking child. Do those talking heads in the United States not understand this very material fact? You send children over to foreign countries to engage in organized murder (aka WAR) and you expect everything to go smoothly. You expect no emotional, psychological, spiritual variables to enter into the equation.
I don't care what this kid Bowe believed or didn't believe, and I don't care how many other kids may have been killed while looking for Bowe. They were SENT by their superiors to do so. So any mothers and fathers who are pissed off because their child died looking for Bowe -- you need to direct your contempt toward the United States Department of Defense. The commanders and officers are the ones responsible for sending your children into the lion's den. Plus, it comes with the territory. War is a ridiculous concept to begin with, especially when it ignites absurd discourses across America about how a certain kid was murdered and why and where and what went wrong.
My point is this: There is NO HONOR in war. It's violent. People enter into war with the intent of murdering other people. So people die. Everybody knows this. So I don't want to hear any parents crying about their kids being killed in war. It is not honorable. They're not 'defending' anything. Patriotism is bullshit -- it's just nationalism covered in sugar. It is sad. Very sad, that children are sent to do the business of men. I think you know what I mean. If you have a functioning brain, this should make sense.
So leave this kid Bowe alone. He's been through hell, and unless you've walked in his shoes, you have no credibility even discussing the matter. I can't watch CNN anymore. It makes me want to vomit.
I've been trying to come up with an example that would illustrate -- in no uncertain terms -- how pathetic, childish, commercial and totally devoid of talent -- relatively and objectively speaking -- the American 'Pop Music' Business has devolved into over the past three or four decades. So, here it is:
According to Billboard, the official researcher of such things, the Top 5 'Pop' songs so far in 2014 are:
1. The Monster (Eminem, featuring Rihanna)
2. Timber (Pitbull, featuring Ke$ha)
3. Dark Horse (Katy Perry, featuring Juicy J)
4. Happy (Pharell Williams)
5. All of Me (John Legend)
Now, here are Billboard's Top 5 'Pop' songs for the year 1970:
1. Bridge Over Troubled Waters (Simon & Garfunkel)
2. Let It Be (The Beatles)
3. American Woman (The Guess Who)
4. The Long and Winding Road (The Beatles)
5. Tears of a Clown (Smokey Robinson and The Miracles)
It's obvious to anyone who knows anything about music how ridiculous the 2014 list looks next to the 1970 list. The only song on the 2014 list that is even tolerable, from a talent and melodic standpoint, is John Legend's All of Me. That's because Mr. Legend is an actual musician, who plays an actual instrument (the piano) and sings quite well. Granted, his song is derivative and sounds like a thousand other love songs that were popular over the past thirty years or so.
A fucking Joke
Eminem, featuring Rihanna is #1. Neither one of these two talented performance artists are actual musicians. Eminem writes rhymes, and he's very good at it, but let's face reality for a moment -- he's no Bob Dylan. Eminem's rhymes are for children, and apparently the music market in the USA is made up of millions of little kids, because they buy this sonic garbage in massive amounts. Rihanna has a good voice, and she looks good, just like thousands of other girls in the USA.
Pitbull, featuring Ke$ha have the #2 spot so far in 2014. Not only is this a terrible song by any measure, but it also exemplifies the fact that kids can still be brainwashed into 'liking' anything that is perpetually shoved down their throats via the 'radio' stations and promoters who are responsible for bringing such bullshit to market. Kids will listen to anything that is shoved down their throats. It's not their fault. They don't know any better. As for the millions of adults in the USA who also love this garbage, the world would be better off without you. I recommend suicide as soon as possible.
Katy Perry, featuring someone else. What is it with all of the 'featuring' nonsense these days. It's like heroin for puppies. Any idiot capable of coming up with a three-second-long 'hook' that happens to be catchy to listen to, is suddenly inserted into the structure of a song, because corporate researchers have determined that these little 'hooks' cause children to spend money to keep listening to the hooks. Heroin for puppies -- you'll start to understand what I mean as you digest the truth that I'm throwing your way. As for Katy Perry, she has a good voice, like millions of others. Song quality? Garbage. No depth or musicianship to speak of. But the masses will keep buying what the moneymen are selling because that's the way this monetary society works.
Wanna-be porn star w/a decent voice
Pharell Williams, Happy. This song is no better than thousands of commercial 'jingles' people of my generation grew up to. People call this guy a genius, because everything he touches turns to money. If money equates to genius, then all of these people would be correct. If one takes a look around the world, one would find plenty of very wealthy morons. Pharell is a 'jingle' writer. He belongs in an ad agency, writing jingles for Coke, or Pepsi, or Gap or Lululemon. His 'genius', if you break it down, is nothing more than an ability to come up with five-seconds-long 'hooks' repeated over and over and over again, ad nauseum. It's like disco plus Adderall. The kids in America will buy this shit and swallow it up and defend it at all costs. Like I said, heroin for puppies. Pharell deserves a permanent role on 'Sesame Street,' nothing more. If you're interested in learning about a genius music producer who actually produced music, I have two words for you: George Martin.
So, now take a look at the same list from 1970, also compiled by Billboard, using the same metrics and variables. The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, The Guess Who, Smokey Robinson.................all brilliant musicians and vocalists. Music for grown-ups. There is nothing more to be said.
Actual Musicians, remember them?
It's unfortunate that the American music market has turned into a cesspool of commercial jingles. Because the tragic reality is that there are tens of thousands of brilliant musicians in the U.S. who will never get the exposure they deserve. Once in a while, someone great like Jack White or Dave Grohl will make it to the top -- sadly this is probably due to luck more than anything.
Kenya bus attack: Al-Shabaab militants kill 28 non-Muslims who failed to recite Koran
