Ah, those Beauty Pageant Contestants

At least she's hot.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww

Homophobia and Atheism

Are there atheists/agnostics who hate gays? I don't mean relatively harmless "gay jokes" (I know they're unacceptable, but I draw a distinction between true bigotry and engaging in offensive humor) or disliking the activity of gay sex, I mean actually hate the fact that a person may be gay.

I used to believe that the hatred of gays was based on religion, and if that was removed people would be more accepting. There are holes in that theory, however. People aren't exactly accepting of other "god-given" differences such as skin color, so I'm not sure why I ever thought "gay-ness" would be any more acceptable.

The Great Monotheisms on Tolerance

These really don't need an explanation.

The Bible
Exodus 23:24:“Do not bow down before their gods or worship them or follow their practices. You must demolish them and break their sacred stones to pieces.”

Deuteronomy 8:19:“If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I [Moses] testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.”

Deuteronomy 13:12-15“If you hear it said about one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you to live in that wicked men have arisen among you and have led the people of their town astray, saying, “Let us go and worship other gods” (gods you have not known), then you must inquire, probe and investigate it thoroughly. And if it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done among you, you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. Destroy it completely, both its people and its livestock.”

Exodus 22:20 “Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the LORD must be destroyed.”

Deuteronomy 14:6-10 “If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is of thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. Thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God.”

Deuteronomy 17:2-5 (NIV)“If a man or woman living among you in one of the towns the LORD gives you is found doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God in violation of his covenant, and contrary to my command has worshiped other gods, bowing down to them or to the sun or the moon or the stars of the sky, and this has been brought to your attention, then you must investigate it thoroughly. If it is true and it has been proved that this detestable thing has been done in Israel, take the man or woman who has done this evil deed to your city gate and stone that person to death.”

Leviticus 24:16“Anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death. The entire assembly must stone him. Whether an alien or native-born, when he blasphemes the Name, he must be put to death.”

2 John 1 10-11“If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.”

2 Corinthians 6:14-15“Believers must not commune with unbelievers. What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, light with darkness, believers with infidels?”

The Koran
Excerpt K 2:191[2.191] And kill them wherever you find them….. such is the recompense of the unbelievers.

Excerpt K 5:033[5.33] The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His apostle and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned.

Excerpt K 8:012[8.12]… make firm those who believe. I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.

Excerpt K 8:055[8.55]Surely the vilest of animals in Allah’s sight are those who disbelieve;

Excerpt K 9:005[9.5]…slay the idolaters wherever you find them…take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush…

Excerpt K 9:012-014[9.12] …fight the leaders of unbelief…[9.13] What! will you not fight a people…[9.14] Fight them, Allah will punish them by your hands and bring them to disgrace, and assist you against them and heal the hearts of a believing people.

Excerpt K 9:029[9.29]Fight those who do not believe in Allah…nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection.

Excerpt K 9:038-039[9.38] …Go forth in Allah’s way [to Jihad]… [9.39] If you do not go forth [to go on Jihad], He will chastise you with a painful chastisement and bring in your place a people other than you [to go on Jihad]…

Excerpt K 9:073[9.73]…strive hard [Jihad] against the unbelievers and the hypocrites and be unyielding to them…

Excerpt K 47:004[47.4]…when you meet in battle those who disbelieve, then smite the necks until when you have overcome them, then make (them) prisoners, and afterwards either set them free as a favor or let them ransom (themselves) until the war terminates…

Excerpt K 47:035[47.35] Be not fainthearted then; and invite not the infidels to peace when ye have the upper hand: for God is with you, and will not defraud you of the recompense of your works…

Oddly, Muhammad does say:
Excerpt K 2:257[2.257]: Let there be no compulsion in Religion.

No complusion, only death to infidels!

Time machines: looking more probable?

Ori's latest research suggests time machines are possible without exotic matter, eliminating a barrier to time travel. His work begins with a donut-shaped hole enveloped within a sphere of normal matter.
"We're talking about these closed loops of time, and the simplest kind of closed loops are circles, which is why we have this ring-shaped hole," Ori explained.
Inside this donut-shaped vacuum, space-time could get bent upon itself using focused gravitational fields to form a closed time-like curve. To go back in time, a traveler would race around inside the donut, going further back into the past with each lap.
"The machine is space-time itself," Ori said. "If we were to create an area with a warp like this in space that would enable time lines to close on themselves, it might enable future generations to return to visit our time."
Ori emphasized one significant limitation of this time machine—"it can't be used to travel to a time before the time machine was constructed." His findings are detailed in the Aug. 3 issue of the journal Physical Review D.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20070820/sc_livescience/timetravelmachineoutlined

Fascinating. I like the idea that as soon as the time machine is constructed, individuals from future generations start popping out one by one. Hopefully one will be a muscular cyborg who can't be reasoned or bargained with, and will not stop until we are dead.

I can't help but think that I've heard of this concept for a time machine before. Oh yeah, it was a movie called Primer. We all know how well that time machine worked out for those guys, right? Right?

Chris Farley Reincarnated?

Needs no explanation.

Random thoughts

Every atom in your bottom has been in existence since the beginning of the universe. You were once parts of stars, comets, nebula, and god knows what else. Though you may feel young, you're billions of years old.

If you're male and reading this, you (presumably) have a father. He had a father. And so on and so on, an unbroken line of fathers, back to the very first ape that even resembled a human. That's a pretty long line of males who did their part, and resulted in you being here. If you don't have a son, you break that million(s) year old chain. If you're female, same thing, just change all the words to reflect motherhood instead.

Salvia Divinorum is a mild hallucinogenic that isn't on any scheduled lists of drugs. Here's a website about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvia_divinorum. I've got way too much to lose to dabble in illegal drugs at this point (one of my biggest regrets is that I didn't partake more often in college ... though perhaps it's a good thing I didn't, consider my addictive tendencies). If I run across some, I'll post about it here.

If you have an Xbox 360, and you don't at least download the Bioshock demo, you are a complete moron. We may see three or four of the top twenty video games, of all time, released for the Xbox 360 within a 12 month time period. Bioshock, Gears of War, Mass Effect, and Half-Life 2.

Michael Vick: What a fucking schmuck

I have blatantly co-opted this image from Deadspin.com. It is too hysterical for me not to share with our massive audience. If Deadspin protests, I shall remove.

It seems to me that sports pundits may be approaching this Michael Vick fiasco from the wrong direction. Everyone is (rightfully) ferociously upset about the dozens of tortured, killed, or soon to be euthanized animals. The apparent scale of this dog-fighting ring is frightening. Bleacher seats? Cross-state transportation? WTF? What I think may doom Michael Vick, even if he pleads out and gets a slap on the wrist, is the gambling ring associated with his [alleged] dog fighting operation. As all of Vick's supposed friends turn on him, you're telling me or two of them aren't going to talk about the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars that changed hands on a regular basis?

You could drop every charge against Vick, but if credible evidence is presented in a court of law that Vick was a ringleader or knowing participant in a large scale betting operation, he needs to be out of professional sports forever. Here's why: you cannot have professional athletes conducting personal, illegal, gambling rings, even if it involves a sport other than their own. Period. End of story. This rule is (I believe) posted in every clubhouse in the U.S. I don't care what the sport is. College football, professional baseball, dogfighting; illegal gambling is illegal gambling. You cannot tell me that if Vick was involved, the NFL was never discussed at any of these events. That's ridiculous. It's bad enough to place illegal bets, but to be the owner of the house, a ringleader, and/or an active participant in a bookie operation?

When push comes to shove, that may bother the NFL more than anything else.

If all I ever watched were commercials ...

I'd think that the white, corporate employed male is the lowest life form on earth. I mean, can those guys ever do a single fucking thing right? Whether's it's picking out an appropriate laundry detergent, making a business decision as to which copier to buy, or choosing a practical vehicle for a family of four, the white male is an utter failure.

Just food for thought.

Grizzled with eld

I'm expecting my first child, a son, this December. I am a year older than my father was when I was born.

I think my head just exploded.

Victory is Mine!

I won my first solo trial involving more than half a million dollars last Thursday (it involved around 750K to 1 mil. in cash and property). I had to commute to San Luis Obispo for a week, and it was a hellish, unpleasant probate case. The facts were against me, but the law was on my side, and I'll take that every time.

Maybe it will mean more cash in my pocket, maybe it won't, but for the rest of my life I'll know I had that one big victory. Plus, I was called a "slick, high-powered, big city attorney" in open court. I think I'll order the transcript and frame that portion.

Recommending television shows to friends

I've never been much good at it. I think my brother will love 24, as far as I can tell he either hated it or hasn't watched it. I've praised Rome, Alias, and The Shield till I'm blue in the face, and no one I know watches them. I can't fathom my parents' taste, though oddly enough they did love Veronica Mars ... which I never recommended because I didn't think there was any chance they would like it. I purchased Veronica Mars for a friend, he couldn't get into it. The list goes on and on.

I'm not sure what it is. I watch a lot of television (Netflix and Shareaza are gods, gods I tell you), and I'd like to think I know what's good and what isn't. My latest love affair is with "Freaks and Geeks", the short lived show created by Judd Apatow of "Knocked Up" fame. It is fantastic, the best mass media presentation dealing with high school I have ever seen. It's authentic in a way that you rarely see ... it's often painful to watch. Now the question is, just who do I recommend it to? Having steered people wrongly in the past, maybe it's best to give it up.

Just for the record, the best shows of the last three or four years have been Battlestar Galactica (fuck you, it's fantastic ... basically it's WWII naval battles set in space), The Shield, Veronica Mars, Alias, 24, Rome, Lost, Firefly, Arrested Development, The Office, Angel, and Buffy. I recommend you watch them. You probably will like none of them.

We hold these words to be self evident...

...that all men are created equal.

Hmmm -- that's a powerful bit of rhetoric, isn't it? What the hell does it mean? Men (or people for that matter) aren't created "equal" in almost any respect, be it height, intelligence, hair color, or the propensity for finding reality television entertaining, etc.

I'm not even sure what the term "equal" means in that context. Does it mean equal under the law? That certainly wasn't the case back in the late 1700s (*cough* slavery *cough*), and it isn't the case now. People are not treated equally under the law; a lack of citizenship or prior felonies result in unequal treatment for a whole bunch of folk.

Basically, it doesn't mean much of anything, and whatever it does mean, it certainly isn't "self-evident".

Proponents of voucher programs miss the point: the biggest problem is the students

Vouchers may be a great idea because it demolishes the wasteful public school hegemony, but they aren't necessarily going to make everyone a great student.

If your life depended on the results of a standardized test, would you rather have 100 of the most intelligent students (in terms of I.Q., which despite popular protest is a great measure of general intelligence), but who have been taught by average teachers in average schools, representing you, or would you prefer 100 students who are of average intelligence but have benefitted from attending great schools taught by great teachers?

If you choose the latter option, I have a hunch as to which group of 100 students you'd belong in. Schools are made by students. Intelligent, socially responsible, non-criminally oriented students make a school great. Taking thuggish villains out of ghettoes and putting them in private schools won't make them great students. We are mostly a product of our genetics, not environment (go read Freakonomics or the Bell Curve). Now, I grant you that if a school is dangerous, truly awful, or non-conducive to learning, those who could succeed are likely to fail or underperform.

But, once minimum standards for schools and teachers are met, I would wager everything I own that the marginal utility of increasing the quality of the school or the skill of the teachers decreases rapidly. No one thinks that great coaching will make everyone a good basketball player; you have to innate talent and the aptitude for it. Why do we think that great teaching will make everyone a good student?

Orange County Mike: Intrepid Volunteer Police Officer

About a week ago I was stopped at a red light a few blocks from my house, when I witnessed two youths throw a lit firecracker (a big one, probably at least a M100, although it created a loud noise and a great deal of smoke) into the back of a pick-up truck filled with gardening tools. As you may imagine, it startled everyone around them.

They happened to turn into my neighborhood, and I discretely followed them. They proceeded to throw a lit firecracker at the feet of an elderly couple who were startled out of their wits. They then drove maybe 100 feet and pulled into a park, where they began chatting with apparent friends.

I called the cops and staked them out, supplying information until back-up arrived. Sadly, they weren't immediately arrested, and I grew tired of watching their belongings searched before I left. As I am currently trying to sell my place, this is the sort of event I don't need.

Depressingly, I notice now that every time I see a black teenager in my neighborhood, I check to see if it was one of these two cretins. Ugh.