The Unmistakable Cone of Ignorance

<Nearly two years ago>

When did Americans become such mewling children?

Oh no… there’s a terrorist behind those bushes! That light up sign is a bomb!!! Won’t someone please think of the children?!?! etc.

I was just going to rant about the terrorism panic Americans suffer from but then I just saw this little gem…

http://www.fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=477125

Personally, if Fox and NBC want to show hardcore porn at 3 in the afternoon they should be able to. TV’s have V-chips and cable boxes have parental control units. Clearly parents have the tools to enforce what they want their kids to watch… why the hell is the government involved at all? Because most Americans are mewling babies who can’t take responsibility for anything, apparently. Besides if no one is watching the hardcore porn hour then no advertising will be on board so then no money will be made so the porn will be canceled. Somehow I don’t think ratings would be the issue though….

Anyways, on to the rest of this scree.

<about 2 years later>

God I started this nearly two years ago…  I’m pretty sure everything I said there still stands.  Mewling and whiney.  The latest and greatest in the great American pussifications… what to do with the Gitmo  Detainees… As Jon Stewart has said.. If we can keep the brain eating guy under lock and key, I’m sure we can handle these guys in our good ol supermaxes.  Hell maybe if we ended the war on drugs we could make room for the war on terror.  Always heard you shouldn’t fight a war on two fronts.  Not sure what that says about the war on cancer… I think we could probably keep that one and the war on terror.  Might be safer just to keep the cancer one though.  I know.. lets start with legalizing most vices. Prostitution… Legalize… Weed… Legalize…  Most other drugs… legalize.  We should probably keep the out and out poisons and potential neuro toxins illegal.  I’m looking at you heroin, pcp, crack and meth.  Coke.. you’re on the border.  Wide scale prohibition doesn’t work.  Hell even small scale targeted genies are hard to get back into the bottle.

To cut off stupidity at the knees… legalization doesn’t mean rampant distribution.  Cigarettes are legal but regulated.. Alcohol is legal but regulated.  I would envision all the other vices would fall under that category.  To the ‘but prostitution will encourage sex slavery!!!!’ people…. I’m pretty sure any type of slavery is still going to remain illegal, but now the girls and guys in the sex trade can get health care and regular check ups. (Thus reducing STD’s over all)  They can go to the police without fear when a john attacks them… cause assault is assault and you shouldn’t have to be scared of going to jail cause you got beat up doing something that should be legal.  Oooo and look at that.. we can save a shit ton of money on vice enforcement and really focus on tageting the real predatory types.

This rambling rant gets published now cause I’m tired of it being in my drafts.  I no longer care about how well written or persuasive it really is.  Citations are for suckers but multiple studies have shown that legalization of vice is probably the way to go and legalized prostitution has decreased STD rates in Nevada.

Blasted by your booby trap

I felt the blow in both kneecaps

Your eyes did shine

Your lips were fine!

And the device in your pants was out of sight…

Congress is insane, we’re all law breakers, video games cost too much, news at 11!  Apocalypse at 12!  I’ll bring the popcorn, you bring the beer.

and I feel sleepy.

If you were born after 1975 or maybe 1980, you don’t get social security.  I’d be maybe willing to say after 1990.  Some generation is gonna take it in the ass on this boondoggle of safety net, might as well step up to the plate on this one since ours has close to 40 or 50 years to plan for retirement.  So fuck it.  We’ll keep paying for your debts since the world basically fucked the older generations over and we’ll build a better future.  So figure 1980 + 80 years means we just have to keep it limping along till 2060 and as older generations die off without new recipients this should become a self correcting problem.

Plan better you fuckers!

P.S.  Glendale CA is awesome.

You have been sentenced to life without patrol.

Do you

A) Reflect on your ways and attempt to redeem yourself while living in a predatory shit hole?

B) Say ‘Fuck it’  and start racking up the offenses as you unleash your rage?  After all what can they do?  Sentence you to 2 more life sentences without parole and then another 99 years and then 40 more?

C) Kill yourself cause the alternative is to spend the next 50 or 60 years in the worst place ever because the American justice system is so fucked up it’s remarkable we’re considered a first world nation?

In Indiana, we apparently trust in god… well at least according to the large number of assholes with ‘In God We Trust’ license plates which were issued free of charge to any who wanted them by the state of Indiana.   They’re apparently no longer being issued as Indiana is being sued for a  violation of  the separation of  church and state for issuing these plates.

Either way, I have a plan to resolve the issue.  Everyone with one of these plates needs to go to the DMV and return the plate.  Upon the return of the plate, they will pay a 500$ processing fee for their stupidity in getting one of these idiotic plates and then the following series of events will occur:

1) They will be issued a new regular plate.

2) They will be hit across the mouth with a very large and heavy pipe wrench for fucking with the separation of church and state.

3) While they are picking their teeth up off the ground they will notice copies of the relevant constitutional sections highlighted and underlined for their reading enjoyment(as they’ll be laid out on the ground).  These are the first amendment of the US constitution as well as sections  3, 4 and 6 of the Indiana state constitution.  In particular, 6 for giving these plates away for free while 3 and 4 are more subtle in the whole ‘do these plates really show a preference to a religion by the state or interfere with the expression of religious belief?’ , but really…. ‘in god we trust’ has no reason to be on money or license plates.

Take that shit off public documents…  cause with the US Constitution(and your state constitution) if you’re in for a penny you’d better be in for a pound.   I don’t care if you think this is a ‘Christian Nation’ cause there are still something on the order of 60 to 90 million people living here that don’t share your viewpoint and for a nation founded to escape religious persecution it’s pretty fucking hypocritical to be bringing it back into vogue now, don’t ya think?

With all that being said, if you want ‘In God We Trust’ somewhere on your car, buy a bumper sticker or a license plate holder cause you have that freedom(since you’re in for a penny and thus in for a pound).

I’ve been following the Red Mosque shit off and on since I saw an article about how all the students are ready to die and such in the name of Islam.  I’d heard about it a few times before that but hadn’t paid much attention.  It was just another bunch of crazy Islamic hardliners being nutty in a country I wasn’t in.  However… I just saw that the Pakistani army is now storming the complex and currently the report is 50 dead students and 8 dead commandos.

How do I feel about this?  On one hand… I suppose I SHOULD feel sad that lives are being lost… On the other hand …. I’m very pleased that the Pakistani government didn’t take shit from these people and giving them what they so deeply desire in their life hating religion… cause honestly it seems like all the religions of the ‘Book’ revile life and living constantly focused on some  ephemeral afterlife that  promises all the things they revile and abstain from in their real life.

Seriously lets consider what these wank offs were demanding of the government.

1) They wish to live their lives under Islamic law.

2) They want the government to force everyone else to also live under Islamic law.

3) They hole up in a mosque and take hostages and go around kidnapping chinese massage workers cause they’re obviously prostitutes and the government isn’t forcing them to behave like proper muslim women.

4)…. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU EXPECT OTHER THAN TO DIE?

5) … right… profit as martyrs… what do women get in heaven anyways?  guys get the 72 virgins or whatever… women get…. ?? I’ve never heard.  I’m really curious..

Either way I’m glad that at least one semi middle eastern country is telling them to fuck off and being manly about it. I mean sure I don’t want or expect violence for the sake of it or in response to peaceful shit… but when you go around trying to jam your religion down the throat of others you’re just asking to have your shit stuffed in. Figuratively or if you push hard enough literally. Either way… I wish people weren’t crazy and that this shit didn’t need to happen but I’m glad that the hardliners didn’t get their way.

Hrms that was a very gut response. Could maybe be a bit more subtle or thoughtful.. meh… Fuck hardliners.

I’ll write about the last few weeks of germany later.

Islamic law is sooo fucked up. Iran is now trying to label all those associated in the production, distribution and manufacturing of pornography as ‘corrupters of the world’ . The penalty for being a ‘corrupter of the world’ ?? Lashings up to Death. That’s right being in a porno is gonna get you killed. Admittedly the bill hasn’t passed yet it has to go through something called the ‘Guarding Council’. Doesn’t that sound ominous… I mean holy shit… anyone who says Islam is a religion of peace must just be lying outright… It’s completely peaceful provided you adhere to every little rule or whim of random religious madmen… otherwise it’s sword meet neck time. Western religions are all fucking crazy but this is taking the cake… you had sex… and you made a tape?? To the whipping post then the hanging block with you you evil evil ‘corrupter of the world’ .

I do like the phrase ‘corrupter of the world’ though. Maybe I can get it on some business cards.

Jerry Falwell is dead.  Woooo!  One asshole down, way way too many to go.

1) Legalize everything besides crack and meth

2) Tax the substances like we do alcohol and cigarettes. Use these tax monies as well as like half the war on drug budget to pay for government rehab and safe drug use centers. Also make sure all substances sold are properly regulated to be pure i.e. no strychnine in your pot, this is to prevent major poisoning.
3)  Educate people about the effects of drugs on the body without the propaganda angle we have today.  Teach people the problems and risks as we do with alcohol or smoking.

It’s obvious there is a demand for drugs in this country.  It’s equally obvious the war on drugs just exacerbates the problem and results in massive jail overcrowding, wasted money on enforcement and people not receiving proper treatment if they need/want rehab.  Further by legalizing the production of the drugs we create new viable economic pathways and help grow markets that employ people legitimately.  This will also create additional money in income taxes for the government.  Seriously, anyone who tells me “god says drugs are bad” or that we fight the war on drugs for compassionate reasons deserves to be smacked.  The first due to the idiocy of basing any public policy on god and the  second  because massive prison population, endangering peoples lives by making a rather victimless crime illegal and forcing people to associate with dangerous criminal elements to acquire their supply is not compassionate.  It’s in fact so far beyond the realm of harsh and domineering it’s stupid.

I’ll say it simply for the gallery.  The war on drug was an excuse to persecute hippies based on unfounded public fears that white women would be raped by minorities using drugs.  While that ignores several minor subplots that’s the gist of it.   Moralists wanted to ban  drugs because they thought minorities would rape white women or cause mayhem.  Nixon wanted a way to attack his political opponents who used a lot of drugs. Bing bang boom.  Maybe I missed an important detail in there someplace but that’s my understanding of the history of the situation.   You’ll occasionally hear someone spot off about how the troops were using too many drugs in ‘Nam but that falls flat since the military is already subjected to a different set of rules than the public so a public ban is in no way truly justified by the need to ban the substances in the military.   RAWR prove me wrong.!

The people are made out of turkey!!!

So I just finished one rant on the Down’s Syndrome tests and I may as well continue the theme a bit longer so here is a second rant. This one in regards to the ethics of genetic testing. The afore mentioned article is actually part of a series of articles focusing on genetic testing. So here goes!

The articles focused on two issues.

1. Being tested for genetic disease markers which may be incurable and inevitable e.g. Huntington’s.
2. Genetic testing for in vitro fertilization to help select embryo’s without the genes for things such as major cancer disposition or Down’s Syndrome

So I guess the first point is addressed thusly, I don’t want to know if I’m going to die from something that’s inevitable and incurable unless I’m going to have children. I’m a very bad waiter. I hate waiting cause it just overshadows anything I want to do. Given that I know of no genetic disposition for anything like that other than heart disease and maybe alcoholism in my family I’m not particularly concerned. Ethically, I’d never deny someone their right to get tested though and take whatever steps they feel are necessary. Now anything that’s curable… sign my ass up for. I want that taken care of right quick. That ones a nice and easy point to address now onto the issue of gene therapy for embryos.

So this is a question ethicists get all tied up in knots about.

“Is it alright to manipulate the genes of your child to prevent disease or encourage particular traits?”

So my first response to this question? An emphatic ‘Hells yes!’ If we can guarantee that our children will be healthier and happier isn’t that our goal as a race and as parents? Humans have basically halted our own evolution through the miracle of medicine. We get away with things that would never go in the wild and yet we also say that this is one of the things that make us better than the animals. So why wouldn’t human knowledge and technology be the key to doing more. To restart evolution if you will?

My second response? Still ‘Hells yes!’ but maybe a bit less emphatic. We need to study these things in depth. It would suck to discover removing a predisposition to breast or colon cancer leads to a higher rate of Parkinson’s or something of that sort. Unless of course we’ve also got a cure for Parkinson’s. Then it’s no big deal. Stop the cancer, cure the offset. Of course that doesn’t make the best evolutionary sense because what happens if the cure is lost? Oops! But it’s sickening and frustrating to me that people want to prevent these things because it’s ‘Meddling with Nature’ or ‘Playing God’. Nature isn’t freaking perfect. It’s messy and though it’s done a lot right it gets a lot wrong. Think of nature as a great optimizer. Nature is trying to optimize an energy minimization problem but it gets stuck in local minima all the time. So what’s the problem giving it a little nudge? We’re natural…we came up with science… why can’t we use it? Certainly we must be cautious of the side effects of our actions but who are you to say genetic testing isn’t natural? What gives you that right? And seriously, telling me I can’t give my children a better future because an invisible zombie in the sky says so is just the height of arrogance. Lets me put this one last way… if someone feels the pain and cost of the procedure is worth it to save their children and children’s children et al from pain and suffering then who are you to tell them they can’t. And if these same people think it’s worth the pain and money to give their children blue eyes(which is likely not the case unless the procedure becomes significantly simpler and less painful) then it’s their money and their choice. Certainly we don’t want to give up diversity but we’re not talking about cloning we’re talking about tweaking.