Well, it seems that my music is too much on the sissy side. . . well that's not all baby, I also listen to good music and will at some point in the future, update some of the harder and perhaps cooler shit that I listen to.
It is worth pointing out that my music post was intended more as a complete work than as an accurate portrayal of what I listen to on a regular basis. That being said, I hate music snobs. . .
Also, I will finish the post "let him speak, he's crazy" at a later date as I actually have a job and it doesn't involve me sitting here writing this damn blog all day.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Let him speak, he's crazy!
Iran's "president" Mahmoud Ahmadinejad just finished his talk at Columbia University and interview on CBS at 60 Minutes and the result? A win for rational thought and liberty!?!
Defenders of Columbia university president Lee Bollinger, including his own, as well as his conservative critics have, in my opinion, been missing the point. We should invite Ahmadinejad, Hitler, and whatever other influential whackjobs or despots that we can so long as they consent to freedom of discourse, which Iran's president did. Why you ask? Because they're wrong. They're wrong, and they only way to strip from the the veil of respectability is to let them expose their own insance beliefs and be forced to defend them.
That's the beauty of watching Ahmadinejad squirm when the audience laughed at his claim that his nation has no homosexuals. People will be sympathetic and even affectionate towards a man like that so long as they can only see him at him most polished and only when they see what he wants them to see. The great thing about people like that are that they are isolated and surrounded by supporters and actually have immense confidence in their own nonsense and are often perfectly willing to walk onto a stage in front of a semi-hostile audience and look the part of the fool, which he certainly did.
There's no danger in that unless you think that his ideas are better than your own. Did Bill Kristol from the Weekly Standard have some fear that Ahmadinejad was going to come here and score a huge public relations win? Yes he did and said so quite explicitly. The mistake that Kristol makes is that he should have had no fear whatsoever. He should have be salivating at the chance that Iran's president was about to throw away most of his respectability and instead act as a profound illustration of the backwardness and barbarism of the Iranian state.
We should always be willing to challenge nonsense and the best way to do that is to give it the biggest stage possible and challenge it on every single point. Expose if for what it is. Don't give crazy people a soapbox but give them a stage big enough for their ego's to override their cautious good judgement by making them think that the chance to address a large audience is worth the risk of their views being exposed. That's what happened to Ahmadinejad and he certainly looks the worse for wear. I doubt that anyone walked out of that speech thinking "wow, we should really listen to that guy" and if they did they were already too far gone to concern ourselves with.
Now, I'm no defender of Columbia universities and it's own cowardice, intellectual abusiveness, and regular embrace of leftist nonsense but this time they not only did the right thing, but the best possible thing.
Defenders of Columbia university president Lee Bollinger, including his own, as well as his conservative critics have, in my opinion, been missing the point. We should invite Ahmadinejad, Hitler, and whatever other influential whackjobs or despots that we can so long as they consent to freedom of discourse, which Iran's president did. Why you ask? Because they're wrong. They're wrong, and they only way to strip from the the veil of respectability is to let them expose their own insance beliefs and be forced to defend them.
That's the beauty of watching Ahmadinejad squirm when the audience laughed at his claim that his nation has no homosexuals. People will be sympathetic and even affectionate towards a man like that so long as they can only see him at him most polished and only when they see what he wants them to see. The great thing about people like that are that they are isolated and surrounded by supporters and actually have immense confidence in their own nonsense and are often perfectly willing to walk onto a stage in front of a semi-hostile audience and look the part of the fool, which he certainly did.
There's no danger in that unless you think that his ideas are better than your own. Did Bill Kristol from the Weekly Standard have some fear that Ahmadinejad was going to come here and score a huge public relations win? Yes he did and said so quite explicitly. The mistake that Kristol makes is that he should have had no fear whatsoever. He should have be salivating at the chance that Iran's president was about to throw away most of his respectability and instead act as a profound illustration of the backwardness and barbarism of the Iranian state.
We should always be willing to challenge nonsense and the best way to do that is to give it the biggest stage possible and challenge it on every single point. Expose if for what it is. Don't give crazy people a soapbox but give them a stage big enough for their ego's to override their cautious good judgement by making them think that the chance to address a large audience is worth the risk of their views being exposed. That's what happened to Ahmadinejad and he certainly looks the worse for wear. I doubt that anyone walked out of that speech thinking "wow, we should really listen to that guy" and if they did they were already too far gone to concern ourselves with.
Now, I'm no defender of Columbia universities and it's own cowardice, intellectual abusiveness, and regular embrace of leftist nonsense but this time they not only did the right thing, but the best possible thing.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Kill me now
I will from time to time discuss the topic of suicide. Not to imply that I have any particular interest in it rather that people who kill themselves come in two varieties:
1. Disgraced and dishonored - this type at least gains some sympathy and respect from me.
2. Everyone else - look, I realize that life sucks for a lot of people. Trust me, I've experienced true suffering and misery. That being said, this is all you have and regardless of whether your beliefs are silly or dangerously absurd, it's all you'll ever have. I don't expect people to live a miserable existence just because life is so theoretically rare and precious but I do find it reasonable to judge people who throw it away causally. In spite of all that has gone wrong in my life, I would still give anything in order to have more time and I will always hate whiny punks who killed themselves not because of any legitimate suffering but because they were high out of the fucking minds. It's not like getting drunk and marrying some hippie.
In fact if you do kill yourself then you will miss out on shit like this:
Of course I'm not going to write some nonsense about how every life is valuable because they aren't. Instead I just want any of you depressives or alcoholics out there to realize that life can and does suck but worthwhile human beings are going to die just the same as you and quite frankly you owe it to them (should I say us) to pump our gas and serve our meals. Why? Because they make all of the joy and glory in this world possible. Think about it? Did you do anything to invent electricity and yet you use it every day, well guess what? Someone did and you benefit from it and now it's payback time.
1. Disgraced and dishonored - this type at least gains some sympathy and respect from me.
2. Everyone else - look, I realize that life sucks for a lot of people. Trust me, I've experienced true suffering and misery. That being said, this is all you have and regardless of whether your beliefs are silly or dangerously absurd, it's all you'll ever have. I don't expect people to live a miserable existence just because life is so theoretically rare and precious but I do find it reasonable to judge people who throw it away causally. In spite of all that has gone wrong in my life, I would still give anything in order to have more time and I will always hate whiny punks who killed themselves not because of any legitimate suffering but because they were high out of the fucking minds. It's not like getting drunk and marrying some hippie.
In fact if you do kill yourself then you will miss out on shit like this:
Of course I'm not going to write some nonsense about how every life is valuable because they aren't. Instead I just want any of you depressives or alcoholics out there to realize that life can and does suck but worthwhile human beings are going to die just the same as you and quite frankly you owe it to them (should I say us) to pump our gas and serve our meals. Why? Because they make all of the joy and glory in this world possible. Think about it? Did you do anything to invent electricity and yet you use it every day, well guess what? Someone did and you benefit from it and now it's payback time.
Sunday, August 12, 2007
Knock, knock, it's the thought police
Stanislav Shmulevich is a name that everyone in this country should know, not because he is a brilliant, or heroic, or really unique or notable in anyway at all, except that he might go to prison for four years. Why you ask? For throwing a paperback book down the toilet. The problem is that the paperback book wasn't his and it happened to be a Koran.
Have a looksy for yourself.
While groups like FIRE seem overly concerned with whether or not Pace university is being unfair in their treatment and possibly anti-semitic, it would seem that the greater concern is in the ability for activist groups to leverage state's coercive power to assault anyone that holds objectionable views.
I find myself increasingly sympathetic to the tin-foil hat brigade.
Have a looksy for yourself.
While groups like FIRE seem overly concerned with whether or not Pace university is being unfair in their treatment and possibly anti-semitic, it would seem that the greater concern is in the ability for activist groups to leverage state's coercive power to assault anyone that holds objectionable views.
I find myself increasingly sympathetic to the tin-foil hat brigade.
Geen schoner vermaak dan leedvermaak
While the dutch proverb above isn't likely to be familiar to most, any observer of modern American politics should be right at home with the sentiment.
Here's a quote from the DailyKos:
And there's plenty of similar from it's Redstate counterpart.
While it was once noted that the pleasure derived from else's misery was solely the bastion of Germans and sociopaths, it has become eerily commonplace amongst the voice of political bloggers. While I am not hostile to all German influence, this is one that I find particlarly worrisome as it is utterly without constructiveness.
Here's a quote from the DailyKos:
"But rarely has the sense of schadenfreude been more poignant to me than when reading the latest Economist article today about the woes of the Republican Party and American conservative movement in general."
And there's plenty of similar from it's Redstate counterpart.
While it was once noted that the pleasure derived from else's misery was solely the bastion of Germans and sociopaths, it has become eerily commonplace amongst the voice of political bloggers. While I am not hostile to all German influence, this is one that I find particlarly worrisome as it is utterly without constructiveness.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Education isn't dead yet
Lisa Van Damme has reminded me that there is hope for this country yet so long as innovators are free to pursue their ambition. She has a school in Southern California where good theory leads to one hell of a school.
"Education, in our view, is the systematic training of the minds of children. This requires the right presentation of the right material over a period of many years. A proper curriculum supplies each student with the essential content of knowledge, and teaches him to be a logical thinker. The result is a mature adult who knows what he thinks and can think on his own."
Just reading that makes me want to return to pursuing a career in education - not yet though.
"Education, in our view, is the systematic training of the minds of children. This requires the right presentation of the right material over a period of many years. A proper curriculum supplies each student with the essential content of knowledge, and teaches him to be a logical thinker. The result is a mature adult who knows what he thinks and can think on his own."
Just reading that makes me want to return to pursuing a career in education - not yet though.
Companies that have pissed me off
As of the ripe old age of twenty-eight there are only three companies that will not only never receive another penny from me directly but about whom I will constantly complain about, and here they are:
NorthWest Airlines is the most recent addition due to their annoying habit of lying to me, avoiding me, and stranding me in midwest cities.
Verizon landline services only. While their wireless services are top-notch, their landline services leave a little to be desired. Mostly not trying to charge me $90 for something that they should have done in the first place such as turning my phone service on.
Best Buy, the company that started it all. Flat out stealing money from me is not what I consider good service but when coupled with making me wait an hour for the privilege, know-nothing sales clerks, their perverse new philosophy, and not even having the lowest prices makes this one of my least favorite companies.
NorthWest Airlines is the most recent addition due to their annoying habit of lying to me, avoiding me, and stranding me in midwest cities.
Verizon landline services only. While their wireless services are top-notch, their landline services leave a little to be desired. Mostly not trying to charge me $90 for something that they should have done in the first place such as turning my phone service on.
Best Buy, the company that started it all. Flat out stealing money from me is not what I consider good service but when coupled with making me wait an hour for the privilege, know-nothing sales clerks, their perverse new philosophy, and not even having the lowest prices makes this one of my least favorite companies.
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