Thinker's Thoughts...

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Thu, 17 Nov 2016 14:22:00 +0000

Scientists confirm Justin Seidel is wrong, about everything , all the time. And his mama dresses him funny!

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Wed, 16 Nov 2016 14:12:00 +0000

https://shop.cracked.com/giveaways/the-two-apple-airpod-set-giveaway?gid=3624881

https://shop.cracked.com/giveaways/the-playstation-4-pro-giveaway?gid=3624881

One of my kids could save the world one day...

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Mon, 15 Aug 2016 00:37:00 +0000

I was reading an article on cracked.com awhile back, I don't remember about what, but a part of it really stuck out to me and I started to research it some more. Apparently, our planet can only support about 10 billion people. Some scientists estimate we'll reach that sometime around 2050. That's not that far away. Right now, there are more than 7 billion people in the world. When I was born, there were about 4.5 billion.

Humans are known for their adaptability and ingenuity. In the future and probably right now, brilliant scientists will be looking for a solution to this problem. So who knows? Maybe one of my kids,or maybe one of yours will be the genius that solves this problem.

Random Revelations

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 23:33:00 +0000

1. All people truly believe that deep down, they're good. They're not. That's just ego. There are good people. There are bad people. There are a whole lot of people that are neither.

2. Nobody really cares about your problems or what's going on in your life. If things are going well, nobody is truly happy for you. If they have any feelings at all on the matter, it's envy.

3. I'm not gonna live to see 40. The monster is becoming more insistent on removing the mask.

I am The Walking Dead

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 19:31:00 +0000

I've had this thought in my head for a long time. A formless idea that I didn't know what to call. It finally occurred to me. I am the walking dead. Not in any supernatural Zombie Apocalypse sense. It's a descriptor of my own. I'm alive. I live. I walk around. I'm functional, to a degree, but I'm just waiting for life to take its course; I'm just going through the motions, waiting for it to end. Now, don't get me wrong, I have a few driving forces that keep me from taking matters into my own hands. I have my fiance, who, despite her faults is the best girl I could ever ask for. I have my son, Logan, who is just the greatest 1 year old ever to have lived. I have my kinda-sorta step-daughter who I love as my own child. She's a great, great kid. As good a girl as anyone could anyone could ever ask for. And then there's Thor, my eldest son. His mother hasn't let me see him in nearly 4 years, but I will have him back one day. This blog is to document my own personal hell that nobody knows about. This is about the monster behind the mask.

Good thing we installed "democracy" there

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 02:25:00 +0000

I used to hammer this point a lot, but recently I've sort of let it go. But this article made me angry, and made me want to reiterate a point I've made before: Democracy is not the same thing as freedom. Merely electing officials by popular vote does not make a country free. The founders of the United States knew this, which is why they spent so much time in the Federalist Papers discussing the Tyranny of the Majority and how to prevent it. Without the proper checks and balances and enforced guarantees of the rights of minorities, democracy is nothing more than a majority vote to persecute and oppress those who don't agree. It's mob-rule dictatorship. And this incident illustrates this fact perfectly. The Afghan government better not drag their feet on this. They'd better get this guy freed and tell the local provincial leaders they can't do this shit. Fuck federalism and fuck local control--if the government (whether local or national) can arrest you and punish you merely for viewing material that the majority doesn't like, your country is not free. Period.

Afghan 'blasphemy' death sentence

An Afghan journalist has been sentenced to death by a provincial court for distributing "blasphemous" material. Sayed Perwiz Kambakhsh, 23, was arrested in 2007 after downloading material from the internet relating to the role of women in Islamic societies. A primary court in Balkh province said that Kambakhsh had confessed to blasphemy and had to be punished. The court also threatened to arrest any reporters who protested against Kambakhsh's sentence. Kambakhsh, a student at Balkh University and a journalist for Jahan-e Naw (New World), was arrested in October 2007 after material he downloaded was deemed to be offensive to Islam. Shamsur Rahman, the head of the court, told Reuters news agency: "According to... the Islamic law, Sayed Perwiz is sentenced to death at the first court. "However, he will go through three more courts to declare his last punishment," he said. 'Deeply shocked' Balkh province's deputy attorney general, Hafizullah Khaliqyar, warned other journalists that they would be arrested if they attempted to support Kambakhsh. Kambakhsh did not do anything to justify his being detained or being given this sentence Reporters Without Borders But Agence France-Presse reported that journalists were gathering outside the home of the condemned reporter. The sentence has been welcomed by conservative Islamic clerics in Afghanistan but criticised by international human rights groups. Global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said it was "deeply shocked" by the trial and appealed to President Hamid Karzai to intervene "before it is too late". In a statement, the group said the trial was "carried out in haste and without any concern for the law or for free expression, which is protected by the constitution". "Kambakhsh did not do anything to justify his being detained or being given this sentence." Kambakhsh's brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, said the verdict was "very unfair" and appealed for help from the international community, reported Reuters.

A Real American Badass!

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 06:24:00 +0000

Sgt. Henry Lincoln Johnson

Now this isn't exactly what I'd had planned for an update, but I'm not finished with the other piece I'm working on and I stumbled across this and just had to share it. This guy is what movies like Rambo are modeled after. He's a beast! I'd never heard this story before, and I'm somewhat of a history buff!

Anyway, let this hold you over until I finish my latest rant about what I'm pissed off about most recently and I'll try to get that update up soon!

In early 1918, Henry Lincoln Johnson was working as a humble redcap porter in the New York City Subway system, which basically means that his job revolved around picking incredibly heavy things up and putting them wherever The Man told him to. As you can probably imagine, this type of work sucks balls. Well when the United States decided it was sick of Germany's bullshit and joined in the 24-Hour All-Night European Booze-and-Babes Fiesta known as World War I, Johnson knew that this was a perfect opportunity to go to France and beat the shit out of some stupid jackasses. He enlisted into the New York National Guard and was shipped out with the all-black 369th Infantry Division, better known as "The Harlem Hellfighters".

Unfortunately, early on in the campaign the Hellfighters really didn't have the opportunity to dole out these much-needed assbeatings, because as you can probably imagine the cracker-ass American High Command decided to give the all-black regiment every single bullshit job on the Western Front. They unloaded cargo vessels, dug ditches and did all sorts of fucking menial shit, the extent of which fell somewhere between janitorial work and dishwashing on the Badassery Scale. Finally, after weeks of this bullcrap with no end in sight, the French Command was like, "well if you jerks won't let these guys get in there and start busting heads than we will", and decided to see if "Harlem Hellfighters" was more than just a clever name. The 369th and Johnson were tranferred to the French Command and immediately pressed into service in the Argonne Forest.

Well like a week after they were transferred, Sergeant Henry Johnson and his buddy, Private Needham Roberts, were put on guard duty one night and told to keep an eye out for any Kraut bastard desperately in need of having a bullet jammed into his ocular cavity. So Johnson and Needham were just out there minding their own business when all of a sudden an entire platoon of German Infantry (between twenty-five and thirty men) came running out of nowhere and started kicking the crap out of the two Americans. Johnson was hit with a grenade and shot in the chest with a motherfucking shotgun, while Roberts was shot twice with a pistol and knocked to the floor like a sack of potatoes that had just been shot twice at close range with a fucking handgun. The Germans rushed in, gave Johnson the finger, grabbed Roberts, and hauled him off as a prisoner.

Well Henry Lincoln Johnson wasn't about to sit around and let that shit fly. As the Germans headed back to their secret lair deep below the Earth's crust, Johnson managed to somehow stagger back to his feet and start firing his rifle like a madman. The Germans continued to make their escape however, so Johson harnessed his immense powers of Getting Super Fucking Pissed and started charging after them, gun blazing. When his weapon jammed, he started chucking grenades at them. When he finally caught the poor bastards, he started wailing on them with his rifle butt. When he broke his rifle over some jerk's head he reached over and whipped out his bolo knife.

Now try and picture this for a minute. You've got one dude who's already been shot twenty-one motherfucking times with everything from shotguns to rifles, armed only with a fucking machete, in the midst of about twenty German soldiers and he's going off like Miyamoto Musashi, hacking these bastards to pieces while they stand around like Black Ninjas from a bad 70's Kung Fu flick. Despite massive injuries, Johnson samurai-slashed, weaved and hacked at anything that moved. He killed four men, wounded an additional twenty-four, strode over the a huge steaming pile of dismembered corpses and dragged Pvt. Roberts back to his foxhole. The next morning when reinforcements arrived they found the two wounded men sitting together singing some sweet-ass jazz songs around a raging campfire.

Johnson was the first American to ever receive the Croix de Guerre, the highest award for bravery offered by the French Government. Just in case you think that "the highest award for bravery offered by the French Government" is an oxymoron, note that he also received the United States' Distinguished Service Cross as well. He returned home as a hero, got a ticker-tape parade in New York City, had a son who went on to be a Tuskeegee Airman (no small feat of badassery in and of itself) and is now remembered as one of the most badass American heroes of World War I.

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/henryjohnson.html

Be sure to check that link out too. Lots of kickass stories like this one there. The guy who writes that does an excellent job!

Australian Woman Killed By Amorous Camel

noreply@blogger.com (umbecast) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 01:25:00 +0000

(AP) An Australian woman was killed by a pet camel given to her as a 60th birthday present after the animal apparently tried to have sex, police said Sunday.

The woman, whose name was not released, was killed Saturday at her family's sheep and cattle ranch near Mitchell, 350 miles west of the Queensland state capital Brisbane, state police Detective Senior Constable Craig Gregory said.

The 10-month-old male camel — weighing about 330 pounds — knocked the woman to the ground, lay on top of her, then exhibited what police suspect was mating behavior, Gregory said.

"I'd say it's probably been playing, or it may be even a sexual sort of thing," Gregory said, adding the camel almost suffocated the family's pet goat by straddling it on several occasions.

Camel expert Chris Hill said he had no doubt the camel's behavior was sexual.

Hill, who has offered camel rides to tourists for 20 years, said young camels are not aggressive, but can be dangerous if treated as pets without discipline.

The fate of the camel was not known.

The woman was given the camel in March as a birthday present from her husband and daughter. "She had a love of exotic pets," Gregory said.

This is what happens when you lie a lot.

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 22:52:00 +0000

Poll: Majority mistrustful of upcoming Iraq report

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A majority of Americans don't trust the upcoming report by the Army's top commander in Iraq on the progress of the war and even if they did, it wouldn't change their mind, according to a new poll.

President Bush frequently has asked Congress -- and the American people -- to withhold judgment on his so-called troop surge in Iraq until Gen. David Petraeus, the commander in Iraq, and Ryan Crocker, U.S. ambassador to Iraq, issue their progress report in September.

But according to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Thursday, 53 percent of people polled said they suspect that the military assessment of the situation will try to make it sound better than it actually is. Forty-three percent said they do trust the report.

CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said he doesn't think the mistrust is directed at Petreaus as much as it is what he represents.

Holland said, "I suspect most people are hearing the words 'general' and 'Iraq' and that's what they're basing their opinion on."

He added, "It does seem to indicate that anyone associated with the Bush administration may be a less than credible messenger for the message that there is progress being made in Iraq."

Another interesting thing about the poll, Holland said, is that it indicates that about half of those surveyed -- 47 percent -- feel that the military is making progress in Iraq, although slightly more -- 49 percent -- do not.

White House press secretary Tony Snow reacted to the poll, saying that he hoped that "people do not try to engage in personal attacks on Gen. Petraeus or Ambassador Crocker."

"David Patraeus is basically the guy who's written the manual on counterinsurgency, and the one thing that you see with returning Democratic and Republican congressman is that something very significant has taken place," Snow said.

How the report is phrased also might determine how it is received, Holland said. If the report details military progress, that might be better received than what political progress the Iraqi government is making.

Twenty-six percent of those polled feel that the Iraqi government is making progress, while 69 percent said that it wasn't.

"We haven't done a lot of polling about the Iraqi government," Holland said, "but the numbers we have seem to indicate that people are pretty skeptical of any government official in Iraq."

The poll indicates that most of America's mind is made up about the war -- 72 percent said the report will have no effect on their view of the war.

Of those opposed to the war, 47 percent said Petreaus' report could not change their mind while 17 percent said it could.

Thirty-three percent said they support the war.

The poll was based on interviews of 1,029 Americans by telephone between August 6 and 8. The sampling error was plus or minus 4.5 percentage points, except for the questions based on the respondents' support or lack of support of the war, which was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Innocent Man Sentenced to Death Under Cruel Texas Law

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 03:23:00 +0000

By Liliana Segura, The Brooklyn Rail
Posted on August 14, 2007, Printed on August 15, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/59484/

Kenneth Foster's time is running out.

On Tuesday, August 7, in a six-to-three decision, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied his final writ of habeas corpus, giving the legal green light for his execution. Foster, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection on August 30, is now at the mercy of the merciless Board of Pardons and Paroles. The odds are bad. Five out of seven board members must recommend clemency before Governor Rick Perry will consider it -- and in a state that has executed nearly 400 people in thirty years, clemency has only been granted twice. But Foster's supporters, who are spearheading a letter-writing campaign to the board and governor, are relying on one particularly salient detail to move their minds, if not their hearts: Foster didn't kill anyone.

Foster was convicted for the 1996 murder of Michael LaHood Jr., who was shot following a string of robberies, by a man named Mauriceo Brown. Brown admitted to the shooting and was executed by lethal injection last year. Now Foster faces the same fate. So, if Brown was the shooter, what did the 19-year-old Foster do to get a death sentence? He sat in his car, 80 feet away, unaware that a murder was taking place.

Foster was convicted under Texas's "law of parties," a twist on a felony murder statute that enables a jury to convict a defendant who was not the primary actor in a crime. This can mean sentencing someone to death even if he or she had no proven role in a murder. Texas's law states that "if, in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed, though having no intent to commit it." Defendants, the Texas courts say, can be held responsible for "failing to anticipate" that the "conspiracy" -- in Foster's case, the robberies, for which he was the getaway driver -- would lead to a murder. Foster's sentence, death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal recently commented, "criminalizes presence, not actions."

In theory, the law of parties is "a well-recognized legal document," says Houston defense attorney Clifford Gunter, and most states with the death penalty on the books include a similar provision for "non-triggermen." Nevertheless, critics of the Texas law say it's an aberration -- a slippery legal statute that stands in direct violation of the 1982 Supreme Court decision in Enmund v. Florida. Still the "prevailing view," according to Gunter, Enmund held that the death penalty was unconstitutional for a defendant "who aids and abets a felony in the course of which a murder is committed by others but who does not himself kill, attempt to kill, or intend that a killing take place or that lethal force will be employed." In Texas today, the law or parties says exactly the opposite.

Even more troubling is the law in practice. When Justice Byron White wrote the Enmund decision in 1982, he observed that the Court was not aware of a single execution of someone who did not kill or intend to kill. What a difference another quarter-century makes. Months after Enmund was decided, Texas executed its first prisoner since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. In the tidal wave of capital cases that followed, numerous defendants would be sentenced to die under the law of parties.

One was Norman Green. Green was charged for a murder during a botched robbery in an electronics store in 1985. He got death. His accomplice, the man who actually pulled the trigger, got life. The arbitrary result exemplifies what Green's appellate lawyer, Verna Langham -- who also handled Kenneth Foster's first appeal -- sees as the danger of the law of parties. "[It] is subject to such loose interpretation," she told the Austin Chronicle in 2005. "A kid in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people can end up being sentenced to death." Green was executed in 1999.

No formal study has been done on the number of defendants subjected to the law of parties in Texas. Anti-death penalty activists estimate that Texas death row has 80 to 100. This number seems high to David Dow, founder and director of the Texas Innocence Network and author of Executed on a Technicality (2005). But he says that it could be an accurate measure of the number of prisoners whose juries were given the choice of applying the law of parties, even if their conviction did not hinge on it. "In a lot of cases, you have a [law of parties] instruction, but jurors have to find one or the other: Either the person was responsible for killing the victim or they are responsible for participating in a crime where it should have been anticipated that a murder would take place." For a defendant facing lethal injection, it's a distinction without a difference. Regardless of the number of times the law of parties has been used, its clear effect has been to broaden the pool of defendants eligible for death. By inviting a jury to speculate whether a defendant "should have known" a murder could happen, it drastically lowers the burden of proof for a punishment supposedly reserved for "the worst of the worst."

From the zeal of prosecutors to the legal machinery that supports them, "the structure of the Texas's legal system makes it easier to sentence people to death," says Dow. Between the Polunsky Unit in Livingston and the women's death row in Gatesville, nearly 400 prisoners are awaiting execution. By the end of the summer, Texas will have killed its 400th prisoner since the death penalty was brought back. The state that famously carried out 152 executions under Governor George W. Bush has seen Gov. Rick Perry surpass his record. Since taking office in December 2000, Perry has signed off on over 158 executions -- a number that will be dated when this piece goes to press (and which would be higher still were it not for the Supreme Court's 2005 decision in Roper v. Simmons, which forced Perry to commute the death sentences of 28 prisoners who were younger than 18 at the time of their crime). In this context, it's hard not to see the law of parties as an irresistible tool in a legal system designed to summarily execute people. Especially if the defendant is black and the victim is white.

Kenneth Foster's case is a good example. He's not just a black man accused of killing a white man; he was convicted for killing the son of an attorney highly esteemed by the legal community. As with so many other cases involving families of influence, the media was all over it, and the LaHood family's wish for an execution quickly became public knowledge. (LaHood's mother reaffirmed her support of Mauriceo Brown's execution last year.) In other particularly high-profile cases, the law of parties has come in similarly handy for the prosecution. In the trial of Patrick Murphy Jr. -- one of the notorious "Texas Seven," who in 2000 escaped from prison, killed a police officer on Christmas Eve, and were summarily sentenced to die -- prosecutors seeking death sentences across the board used the law of parties to circumvent the fact that Murphy was not at the scene of the crime. Prospective jurors were asked not just how they felt about capital punishment, but also about the law of parties specifically. (It worked. Murphy is now sitting on death row.)

The many excesses of Texas capital law offer a portrait of a brutal and broken system -- one that has long been protested by anti-death penalty activists. More recently, prisoners themselves have begun to organize from the inside. Kenneth Foster is among them. In 2005 he helped found D.R.I.V.E, a group of death row prisoners who protest the death penalty as well the abusive conditions of their incarceration. D.R.I.V.E, which stands for "Death Row Inner-Communalist Vanguard Engagement," is multi-racial, highly political, and, perhaps most important, thriving -- on one of the most repressive death rows in the country. Members encourage fellow prisoners to protest on execution days, and to protest their own executions (refusing to walk to the van that takes them to the executions chamber; refusing last meals). They also protest inhumane prison conditions. Last fall, a dozen death row prisoners at Polunsky went on a hunger strike to protest the inedible food and constantly overflowing toilets in their cells, among other abuses. Comparing themselves to the hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay, they eventually caught the attention of the New York Times.

Some members of the group also invoke the legacy of Gary Graham -- a.k.a. Shaka Sankofa -- the Texas death row prisoner who was executed in 2000, despite overwhelming evidence that he could be innocent. Graham, who was put to death amidst widespread protests, maintained his innocence until the end, declaring in his last statement, "They are murdering me tonight." This era, which Dow considers the "heyday" of protest around executions, coincided with increased repression on Texas death row. Following an attempted prison break in the late 90s, the death row population was relocated. At their new home in the Polunsky Unit, prisoners are housed for 23 hours a day in cells that are 60 square feet (the American Correctional Association recommends a minimum of 80 feet). Work and recreation privileges are pretty much non-existent, and the few prisoners entitled to small luxuries can easily have them taken away. Such is the case of Stephen Moody, whose participation in last fall's hunger strike led to the confiscation of his radio. Texas death row prisoners are allowed no contact visits, and only a few phone calls a year.

Despite this, Kenneth Foster and D.R.I.V.E. have allies on the outside. In addition to his supporters and family in Texas, a New York-based political hip-hop group called the Welfare Poets is speaking out on behalf of Foster and other prisoners on Texas death row; grassroots groups like the Campaign to End the Death Penalty are working to protest Foster's execution, from Harlem to Austin. With Foster's legal recourses almost dried up, a letter campaign to members of the appeal board is underway. But it's a long shot. "Perry has never granted clemency in a capital case before, even when the Board recommended it," says Bryan McCann, a CEDP activist in Austin. In a state that will have executed 400 people by September, clemency has only been granted two times. "If Kenneth Foster has a good innocence claim, that would be great for him," Dow says, noting that innocence is what gets attention these days. But while Foster's supporters argue that Foster is innocent -- that nobody should be executed "for driving a car," in the slaughterhouse state of Texas, innocence can be harder to prove than guilt.

© 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/59484/

How the hell is this even legal? By legal, I mean Constitutional. Texas seems to have some pretty retarded reasons for killing people. I wouldn't agree with it, but I could at least see the reasoning if they could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this guy had any clue what was going on, but come on! This guy has already spent years on death row and now he's about to get the needle for sitting in a car at fairly decent distance with no evidence to support that he was in any way involved! Fuck Texas!

Disclamer: No offense was intended toward any of our audience who may inhabit the great State of Texas. Unless you're a politician that supports this kind of bullshit.

Dying in a plane crash...

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 01:14:00 +0000

I have a recurring dream about dying in a plane crash. In fact, I had one last night. It's happened so much I feel that I'm as much an expert in dying in plane crashes as any living being can be. I'm not superstitious. I'm not afraid to fly. But on the off-hand chance this dream turns prophetic, I feel qualified enough to make a request for anyone unfortunate enough to be on that plane with me...

I don't mind the idea of dying in a plane crash. In my dreams, I've done it a thousand times under a thousand different conditions. In most instances, death is instantaneous and painless. The thing that does bother me is what happens during that final plummet. Yes it's terrifying. But please, for the love of God, what's with the screaming? I understand you're frightened. I understand you don't want to die. I'm coming to terms with that myself as is every other passenger on that plane. But while I'm facing my imminent demise looking out the window in absolute silence and stunned horror, you're ruining the last few moments of everyone else's existence with your incessant shrill chimpanzee-like shrieking.

You're going to die. Of what possible use is a last-minute vocal exercise going to serve other than to completely annoy everyone around you and make a terrible situation even more unbearable? We are all in shock. Our sense of time slows and our senses become sharper. Now is not the time to be yelling. I'm not a religious man; but I don't mind if you pray. I might even hold your hand. But please keep it within an acceptable decibel level. If your God is real, he isn't hard of hearing, and he's most certainly aware that the plane is going down. He apparently has a plan, and he's not going to change his mind on the basis of how loud you beg him to alter it. Besides, you have an eternal life to look forward to. Look at me... I'm an atheist, and I'm keeping my mouth shut. Superman doesn't exist, so I'm hoping you're not calling for him. Anyone who can help you is already busy trying.

All I'm asking for a bit of reverence so we may die in dignity. If you treat it like a fucking roller coaster, I swear I'm going to punch you in the fucking teeth for depriving me of this... and I'm pretty sure I'll get away with it.

New Feature Added!

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:48:00 +0000

I've added an RSS link to the blog. Now you can subscribe and get updates as soon as they are published. To subscribe, just click the RSS icon listed just below the archives on the right side of the screen. Enjoy!

The Truth About Scooby Doo

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 15:44:00 +0000

Everyone remembers the cartoon show Scooby-Doo from their early childhood, right? But something you may not remember is what the show was really all about. As I've gotten older, it has become more clear to me what Fred, Shaggy, Daphne, Velma, and Scooby were actually doing as they traversed the continent foiling crimes of all sorts in the Mystery Machine.

What We Remember:
Four teenagers and their trusted dog gallop across the country in their purple and green van solving mysteries of all sort--and in the process meet all kinds of interesting people.

The Truth:
Four high-school dropouts and their sentient dog ride around the country in their psychodelic love machine, earning their way by selling drugs. Oh, and they occasionally take some old guys mask off to solve a mystery.

It may be a little hard to swallow, but just take a look at the evidence...

Take Shaggy for example. Not only is he the inspiration for the current 'grunge' scene, with his sloppy dress and facial hair, but Shaggy is obviously a 'burner', i.e., he smokes marijuana. Why do you think he is constantly hungry? Shaggy can make a six foot hoagie and swallow it whole.

And then there is Scooby himself. While dogs do not generally smoke joints, Scooby gets his 'high' from Scooby-Snacks, which are in fact Hash-Brownies. Whenever Scooby, or Shaggy for that matter, eats a Scooby-Snack, they go ape! It just blows their mind and they do whatever they are told, because they are so lit! Scooby is also hungry all the time.

The other characters do not actively take part in the stoner-fest that Shaggy and Scooby do, but they do condone the selling of it because it helps support their jaunts across the country (and the world--they drove to China once). These other characters do have their own peculiarities however..

Fred and Daphne are always splintering off from the group to go 'solve the case' by themselves. It's no real mystery what these two are really doing--they're getting busy in the back of the Mystery Machine. Daphne with her pretty pink, well, legs and Fred are constantly bumping uglies. Fred is, by the way, pumped up on steroids. One thing that remains a mystery to me though, is why he always wore that stupid scarf around his neck.

And what about Velma? Everyone's least favorite of the cast, was of course, a lesbian. But, as it turned out in the later episodes, she was also into beastiality. Where do you thing Scrappy-Doo came from? Scrappy, who was a dog yet spoke perfect english, was obviously a product of Velma and Scooby.

So the kids spent their teenage years driving around the world, slangin' dope, shooting steroids, eating hash brownies, and fucking their dog, while all the while looking for the perfect 'hit'.

O If we had only known these things when we watched this cartoon as children...

What the fuck is this doing on a government website???

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:02:00 +0000

his is from www.americasupportsyou.mil. Notice the .mil ending. This is on the motherfucking Pentagon's website:

Operation Straight Up Tour is working to help military children and families become stronger through faith-based entertainment, its founder said.

“OSU Tour is an organization dedicated to helping our armed forces with the common issues brave men and women face,” Jonathan Spinks said, referring to child rearing, troubled marriages, anger, depression, addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder. “We’re addressing those things through entertainment.”

http://www.americasupportsyou.mil/americasupportsyou/Content.aspx?ID=44755552&SectionID=1

Okay, alarm bells should be going off in your head right now. What exactly is "faith-based entertainment"? The remainder of the article blabbers about high wire acts and comedians, but if you go to the Operation Straight Up founder's website, you get a very different story, under the headline "Military Crusade in Iraq":

We are most excited about this crusade and yes we are willing to go to the front lines with a very encouraging word straight from God, to our troops. We feel the forces of heaven have encouraged us to perform multiple crusades that will sweep through this war torn region. We’ll hold the only religious crusade of its size in the dangerous land of Iraq.

http://jspinks.org/iraq.html

And what kind of "faith-based entertainment" are they sending to Iraq?

Actor Stephen Baldwin, the youngest member of the famous Baldwin brothers, is no longer playing Pauly Shore's sidekick in comedy masterpieces like Biodome. He has a much more serious calling these days.

Baldwin became a right-wing, born-again Christian after the 9/11 attacks, and now is the star of Operation Straight Up (OSU), an evangelical entertainment troupe that actively proselytizes among active-duty members of the US military. As an official arm of the Defense Department's America Supports You program, OSU plans to mail copies of the controversial apocalyptic video game, Left Behind: Eternal Forces to soldiers serving in Iraq. OSU is also scheduled to embark on a "Military Crusade in Iraq" in the near future.

...

The Left Behind videogame is a real-time strategy game that makes players commanders of a virtual evangelical army in a post-apocalyptic landscape that looks strikingly like New York City after 9/11. With tanks, helicopters and a fearsome arsenal of automatic weapons at their disposal, Left Behind players wage a violent war against United Nations-like peacekeepers who, according to LaHaye's interpretation of Revelation, represent the armies of the Antichrist. Each time a Left Behind player kills a UN soldier, their virtual character exclaims, "Praise the Lord!" To win the game, players must kill or convert all the non-believers left behind after the rapture. They also have the option of reversing roles and commanding the forces of the Antichrist.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15&pid=220960

Oh, and that's not all:

This controversy has not deterred OSU from encouraging US troops to play virtual rounds of kill or convert after a hard day of house-to-house searches and counterinsurgency warfare against Iraqi insurgents. What's more, OSU's "Freedom Packages" include a copy of evangelical pastor Jonathan McDowell's More Than A Carpenter -- a book advertised as "one of the most powerful evangelism tools worldwide" -- that is double-published in Arabic. Considering that only a handful of American troops speak Arabic, the book is ostensibly intended for proselytizing efforts among Iraqi civilians.

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion?bid=15&pid=220960

All with the blessing of the fucking Pentagon.

Thank you, Supreme Court, for protecting Bush's "faith-based initiatives" so bullshit artists like Stephen Baldwin can go on a "crusade" in Iraq spreading "faith based entertainment" to our soldiers which encourages them to kill or convert the unfaithful, all of it funded by our tax dollars.

Fucking sickening.

10 Reasons You Should Never Get A Job

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 00:55:00 +0000

1. Income for dummies.

Getting a job and trading your time for money may seem like a good idea. There’s only one problem with it. It’s stupid! It’s the stupidest way you can possibly generate income! This is truly income for dummies.

Why is getting a job so dumb? Because you only get paid when you’re working. Don’t you see a problem with that, or have you been so thoroughly brainwashed into thinking it’s reasonable and intelligent to only earn income when you’re working? Have you never considered that it might be better to be paid even when you’re not working? Who taught you that you could only earn income while working? Some other brainwashed employee perhaps?

2. Limited experience.

You might think it’s important to get a job to gain experience. But that’s like saying you should play golf to get experience playing golf. You gain experience from living, regardless of whether you have a job or not. A job only gives you experience at that job, but you gain ”experience” doing just about anything, so that’s no real benefit at all. Sit around doing nothing for a couple years, and you can call yourself an experienced meditator, philosopher, or politician.

3. Lifelong domestication.

Getting a job is like enrolling in a human domestication program. You learn how to be a good pet.

Look around you. Really look. What do you see? Are these the surroundings of a free human being? Or are you living in a cage for unconscious animals? Have you fallen in love with the color beige?

How’s your obedience training coming along? Does your master reward your good behavior? Do you get disciplined if you fail to obey your master’s commands?

Is there any spark of free will left inside you? Or has your conditioning made you a pet for life?

Humans are not meant to be raised in cages. You poor thing…

4. Too many mouths to feed.

Employee income is the most heavily taxed there is. In the USA you can expect that about half your salary will go to taxes. The tax system is designed to disguise how much you’re really giving up because some of those taxes are paid by your employer, and some are deducted from your paycheck. But you can bet that from your employer’s perspective, all of those taxes are considered part of your pay, as well as any other compensation you receive such as benefits. Even the rent for the office space you consume is considered, so you must generate that much more value to cover it. You might feel supported by your corporate environment, but keep in mind that you’re the one paying for it.

You only get paid a fraction of the real value you generate. Your real salary may be more than triple what you’re paid, but most of that money you’ll never see. It goes straight into other people’s pockets.

What a generous person you are!

5. Way too risky.

Many employees believe getting a job is the safest and most secure way to support themselves.

Morons.

Social conditioning is amazing. It’s so good it can even make people believe the exact opposite of the truth.

Does putting yourself in a position where someone else can turn off all your income just by saying two words (”You’re fired”) sound like a safe and secure situation to you? Does having only one income stream honestly sound more secure than having 10?

6. Having an evil bovine master.

When you run into an idiot in the entrepreneurial world, you can turn around and head the other way. When you run into an idiot in the corporate world, you have to turn around and say, “Sorry, boss.”

Did you know that the word boss comes from the Dutch word baas, which historically means master? Another meaning of the word boss is “a cow or bovine.” And in many video games, the boss is the evil dude that you have to kill at the end of a level.

So if your boss is really your evil bovine master, then what does that make you? Nothing but a turd in the herd.

Who’s your daddy?

7. Begging for money.

When you want to increase your income, do you have to sit up and beg your master for more money? Does it feel good to be thrown some extra Scooby Snacks now and then?

Or are you free to decide how much you get paid without needing anyone’s permission but your own?

If you have a business and one customer says “no” to you, you simply say “next.”

8. An inbred social life.

Many people treat their jobs as their primary social outlet. They hang out with the same people working in the same field. Such incestuous relations are social dead ends. An exciting day includes deep conversations about the company’s switch from Sparkletts to Arrowhead, the delay of Microsoft’s latest operating system, and the unexpected delivery of more Bic pens. Consider what it would be like to go outside and talk to strangers. Ooooh… scary! Better stay inside where it’s safe.

9. Loss of freedom.

It takes a lot of effort to tame a human being into an employee. The first thing you have to do is break the human’s independent will. A good way to do this is to give them a weighty policy manual filled with nonsensical rules and regulations. This leads the new employee to become more obedient, fearing that s/he could be disciplined at any minute for something incomprehensible. Thus, the employee will likely conclude it’s safest to simply obey the master’s commands without question. Stir in some office politics for good measure, and we’ve got a freshly minted mind slave.

10. Becoming a coward.

Have you noticed that employed people have an almost endless capacity to whine about problems at their companies? But they don’t really want solutions – they just want to vent and make excuses why it’s all someone else’s fault. It’s as if getting a job somehow drains all the free will out of people and turns them into spineless cowards. If you can’t call your boss a jerk now and then without fear of getting fired, you’re no longer free. You’ve become your master’s property.

This Is Where I Say I've Had Enough...

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 23:08:00 +0000

There is a Secret World Concealed Within this One.

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 19:38:00 +0000

The lives we lead, and the lives we wish we led.

This world, the so-called “real world,” is just a front. Pull back the curtain and you’ll see the libraries are all filled with runaways writing novels, the highways are humming with escapees and sympathizers, all the receptionists and sensible mothers are straining at the leash for a chance to show how alive they still are. . . and all that talk of practicality and responsibility is just threats and bluffing to keep us from reaching out our hands to find that heaven lies in reach before us.

You can taste it in the shock and roar of a first, unexpected kiss, or in the blood in your mouth that instant after an accident when you realize you’re still alive. It blows in the wind you feel on the rooftops of a really reckless night of adventure. You hear it in the magic of your favorite songs, how they lift and transport you in ways that no science or psychology could ever account for. It might be you’ve seen evidence of it scratched into bathroom walls in a code without a key, or you’ve been able to make out a pale reflection of it in the movies they make to keep us entertained. It’s in between the words when we speak of our desires and aspirations, still lurking somewhere beneath the limitations of being “practical” and “realistic.”

When poets and radicals stay up until sunrise, wracking their brains for the perfect sequence of words or deeds to fill hearts (or cities) with fire, they’re trying to find a hidden entrance to it. When children escape out the window to go wandering late at night, or freedom fighters search for a weakness in government fortifications, they’re trying to sneak into it—for they know better than us where the doors are hidden. When teenagers vandalize a billboard to provoke all-night chases with the police, or anarchists interrupt an orderly demonstration to smash the windows of a corporate chain store, they’re trying to storm its gates.

When you’re making love and you discover a new sensation or region of your lover’s body, and the two of you feel like explorers discovering a new part of the world on a par with a desert oasis or the coast of an unknown continent, as if you are the first ones to reach the north pole or the moon, you are charting its frontiers.

It’s not a safer place than this one—on the contrary, it is the sensation of danger there that brings us back to life: the feeling that for once, for one moment that seems to eclipse the past and future, there is something real at stake.

Maybe you stumbled into it by accident, once, amazed at what you found. The old world splintered behind and inside you, and no physician or metaphysician could put it back together again. Everything before became trivial, irrelevant, ridiculous as the horizons suddenly telescoped out around you and undreamt-of new paths offered themselves. And perhaps you swore that you would never return, that you would live out the rest of your life electrified by that urgency, in the thrill of discovery and transformation—but return you did.

Common sense dictates that this world can only be experienced temporarily, that it is just the shock of transition, and no more; but the myths we share around our fires tell a different story: we hear of women and men who stayed there for weeks, years, who never returned, who lived and died there as heroes. We know, because we feel it in that atavistic chamber of our hearts that holds the memory of freedom from a time before time, that this secret world is near, waiting for us. You can see it in the flash in our eyes, in the abandon of our dances and love affairs, in the protest or party that gets out of hand.

You’re not the only one trying to find it. We’re out here, too . . . some of us are even waiting there for you. And you should know that anything you’ve ever done or considered doing to get there is not crazy, but beautiful, noble, necessary.

Revolution is simply the idea we could enter that secret world and never return; or, better, that we could burn away this one, to reveal the one beneath entirely.

Analogies and Metaphors Found in High School Essays

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 04:45:00 +0000

After putting something so serious up that pissed me off so much, I felt the need to lighten things up a little. I found this just randomly searching the net with StumbleUpon. (Great FireFox AddOn if you've never heard of it. Definitely worth checking out. You can find it here.)

Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two other Sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master. - Sue Lin Chong, Washington

His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free. -Chuck Smith, Woodbridge

He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a Guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it. -Joseph Romm, Washington

She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again. -Rich Murphy, Fairfax Station

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't. -Russell Beland, Springfield

McMurphy fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup. -Paul Sabourin, Silver Spring

From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you're on vacation in another city and "Jeopardy" comes on at 7:00 p.m. instead of 7:30. -Roy Ashley, Washington

Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze. Chuck Smith,Woodbridge

Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center. -Russell Beland, Springfield

Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever. -Unknown

He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree. -Jack Bross, Chevy Chase

The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease. -Gary F. Hevel, Silver Spring

Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph. -Jennifer Hart, Arlington

The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can. -Wayne Goode, Madison,AL

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met. -Russell Beland, Springfield

The thunder was ominous sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.-Barbara Fetherolf, Alexandria

The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon.-Unknown

He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River. -Brian Broadus, Charlottesville

Even in his last years, Grandpappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut. -Sandra Hull, Arlington

The door had been forced, as forced as the dialogue during the interview portion of "Jeopardy!" -Jean Sorensen, Herndon

Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do. -Jerry Pannullo, Kensington

The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work. -Malcolm Fleschner, Arlington

The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while. -Malcolm Fleschner, Arlington

He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something. -John Kammer, Herndon

Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from I Can't Believe It's Not Butter. -Barbara Collier, Garrett Park

She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up. -Susan Reese, Arlington

It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before. -Marian Carlsson, Lexington

The knife was as sharp as the tone used by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) in her first several points of parliamentary procedure made to Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton. -J. F. Knowles, Springfield

The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant. -Jennifer Hart, Arlington

The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free ATM. -Paul J. Kocak, Syracuse

The dandelion swayed in the gentle breeze like an oscillating electric fan set on medium. -Unknown

He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up. -Susan Reese, Arlington

Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser. -Chuck Smith, Woodbridge

She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef. -Brian Broadus, Charlottesville

She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs. -Jonathan Paul, Garrett Park

Her voice had that tense, grating quality, like a first-generation thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightened. -Sue Lin Chong, Washington

It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall. -Brian Broadus, Charlottesville

First it was Michael Vick, now it's Eli Manning too?!?!

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 20:14:00 +0000

Authorities Discover Illegal Frog-Jumping Ring In Eli Manning's Backyard

July 19, 2007 | |

BUTTERFIELD, MO—Authorities responding to complaints of excessive hooting and hollering on a 15-acre farm owned by New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning discovered an illegal frog-jumping ring Friday, leading to the arrest of Wilbur Jefferson, Manning's second cousin and the farm's only resident. "We have identified as many as a dozen violations of federal batrachian-cruelty laws concerning the procuring, housing, and training of the bullfrogs forced to take part in these underground leaping competitions," Barry County Sheriff's Department spokesman Brad Winters told reporters as photographers worked to document frog-jumping implements such as lengths of knotted measuring twine, jars of pond water, and a burial pit containing the bodies of legless and presumably defeated frogs. "We are not certain if Manning himself is involved, but he has been named as a person of interest in this case, and we have collected smokeless tobacco samples for DNA analysis." Winters would not confirm that police had acquired a cell-phone video in which a squatting Manning was clearly shown warning Jeremy Shockey against touching the amphibians during the contest, weighing opponents' frogs with buckshot, or using toads.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/authorities_discover

I love The Onion. Nothing is untouchable there.

Sorry for the lack of updates, but I have been very busy, and to be honest, I've had some writer's block. I am completely out of ideas and don't want to just keep commenting on other people's work. Feel free to leave me some ideas as to what you would like to see here.

Maybe this will kill the argument that homosexuality is a choice.

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 23:53:00 +0000

Psychologists to review stance on gays

By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer

NEW YORK - The American Psychological Association is embarking on the first review of its 10-year-old policy on counseling gays and lesbians, a step that gay-rights activists hope will end with a denunciation of any attempt by therapists to change sexual orientation.

Such efforts — often called reparative therapy or conversion therapy — are considered futile and harmful by many gay-rights activists. Conservative groups defend the right to offer such treatment, and say people with their viewpoint have been excluded from the review panel.

A six-member task force set up by the APA has its first meeting beginning next Tuesday.

Already, scores of conservative religious leaders and counselors, representing such groups as the Southern Baptist Convention and Focus on the Family, have written a joint letter to the APA, expressing concern that the task force's proposals would not properly accommodate gays and lesbians whose religious beliefs condemn gay sex.

"We believe that psychologists should assist clients to develop lives that they value, even if that means they decline to identify as homosexual," said the letter, which requested a meeting between APA leaders and some of the signatories.

APA spokeswoman Rhea Farberman said a decision on when and how to reply to the letter had not yet been made.

The current APA policy, adopted in 1997, opposes any counseling that treats homosexuality as a mental illness, but does not explicitly denounce reparative therapy. The APA has decided to review the policy at a time when gay-rights groups are increasingly critical of such treatment and groups that support it.

Conservatives contend that the review's outcome is preordained because the task force is dominated by gay-rights supporters.

"We're concerned," said Carrie Gordon Earll of Focus on the Family. "The APA does not have a good track record of listening to other views."

Joseph Nicolosi, a leading proponent of reparative therapy, predicted the task force would propose a ban of the practice — and he vowed to resist such a move. Nicolosi, who was rejected as a task force nominee, is president of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality.

Clinton Anderson, director of the APA's Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns Office, insisted the panel would base its findings on scientific research, not ideology. He defended the decision to reject certain conservative applicants to the task force.

"We cannot take into account what are fundamentally negative religious perceptions of homosexuality — they don't fit into our world view," Anderson said.

One of the counselors denied a seat on the task force was Warren Throckmorton, a psychology professor at Grove City College near Pittsburgh. Though Throckmorton doesn't advocate a specific form of reparative therapy, he argues that psychologists should respect gay clients' religious beliefs in cases where the faith teaches that homosexual behavior is wrong.

"We work with clients to pursue their chosen values," he said. "If they are core, unwavering commitments to their religious belief, therapists should not try to persuade them differently under the guise of science."

However, one of the task force members, New York City psychiatrist Jack Drescher, said the conservatives don't acknowledge the harm that might be caused when a gay patient — even voluntarily — undergoes therapy to suppress or change sexual orientation.

"They want a rubber stamp of approval for a form of therapy that's questionable in its efficacy and they don't want to deal with the issue of harmful side effects," said Drescher, who is editor of the Journal of Gay and Lesbian Psychotherapy.

As the APA planned the policy review, it received input from gay-rights groups, including Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

PFLAG's executive director, Jody Huckaby, said reparative therapy had been particularly harmful for young gays whose parents insisted on trying to change their sexual orientation. His group contends these efforts can cause depression and suicidal behavior.

Current APA policy stipulates that no therapy should occur without "informed consent" of a gay or lesbian client. Jason Cianciotto of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said he hoped the APA would declare that no young person could ever be deemed to have given informed consent, and thus no reparative therapy would be approved for minors.

The largest ministry that does counsel gays to change their sexual orientation is Exodus International. Its president, Alan Chambers — who says prayer and therapy enabled him to move away from homosexuality — is among those apprehensive of the APA review.

"I had hoped for more diversity on that panel," Chambers said. "I see a lot of people who represent the other side — who don't believe that people like me have a right to self-determination."

The task force may submit a preliminary report to the APA's directors in December. Anderson said a final report might be completed by next March.

Maybe this will lead to some legislation that allows gays to have the same rights as anyone else. If the Fundies want to keep marriage as a religious thing, that's fine. But there is no reason not to allow civil unions.

Former Surgeon General: Bush censored science that didn't fit ideology

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 23:46:00 +0000

July 10, 2007
Former Surgeon General Says He Was Muzzled
By REUTERS

Filed at 4:25 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The first U.S. surgeon general appointed by President George W. Bush accused the administration on Tuesday of political interference and muzzling him on key issues like embryonic stem cell research.

"Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried," Dr. Richard Carmona, who served as the nation's top doctor from 2002 until 2006, told a House of Representatives committee.

"The problem with this approach is that in public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science, or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds. The job of surgeon general is to be the doctor of the nation, not the doctor of a political party," Carmona added.

Carmona said Bush administration political appointees censored his speeches and kept him from talking out publicly about certain issues, including the science on embryonic stem cell research, contraceptives and his misgivings about the administration's embrace of "abstinence-only" sex education.

Carmona's comments came two days before a Senate committee is due to hold a hearing on Bush's nomination of Dr. James Holsinger as his successor. The administration allowed Carmona to finish his term as surgeon general last year without a replacement in place.

Gay rights activists and several leading Democrats have criticized Holsinger for what they see as "anti-gay" writings, but the White House has defended him as well qualified.

U.S. surgeons general in the past have issued influential reports on subjects including smoking, AIDS and mental health.

"Political interference with the work of the surgeon general appears to have reached a new level in this administration," said Rep. Henry Waxman, a California Democrat who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to which Carmona testified.

"The public expects that a surgeon general will be immune from political pressure and be allowed to express his or her professional views based on the best available science," he said.

Carmona said he was politically naive when he took the job, but became astounded at the partisanship and manipulation he witnessed as administration political appointees hemmed him in.

Bush in 2001 allowed federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research, but only with heavy restrictions that many scientists condemn as stifling.

Carmona said the administration prevented him from voicing views on stem cell research. Many scientists see it as a promising avenue for curing many diseases. But because it involves destroying human embryos, opponents call it immoral.

Carmona said he was prevented from talking publicly even about the science underpinning the research to enable the U.S. public to have a better understanding of a complicated issue. He said most of the public debate over the matter has been driven by political, ideological or theological motivations.

"I was blocked at every turn. I was told the decision had already been made -- stand down, don't talk about it," he said.

Carmona testified with two predecessors, Dr. C. Everett Koop, who served under President Ronald Reagan, and Dr. David Satcher, named by Clinton but whose term ended under Bush.

Carmona said some of his predecessors told him, "We have never seen it as partisan, as malicious, as vindictive, as mean-spirited as it is today, and you clearly have worse than anyone's had."

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-bush-surgeongeneral.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Is anyone really surprised by this? This seems to be a common theme with this guy. NASA especially has had problems with this. For example, Bush nominated that lying idiot Deutsch (who lied on his resume to get the job) to be in charge of their press releases. He immediately started telling the scientists that they needed to make room for "intelligent design" in their press releases, that they can't mention global warming, and tried to suppress statements about the Big Bang. The EPA has also experienced this.

Putting political pressure on scientists to toe the party line has become standard procedure for the Bush administration.

Coincidence???

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 00:13:00 +0000

This is pretty interesting. It has often been asserted that Christianity is really just a mish-mash of older religions. Many of the rituals and holidays coincide with earlier religious beliefs. Many of the stories are even similar and thought to be borrowed from earlier religions.

I was reading about some of these differences when I stumbled up on this...

The Jesus/Horus Connection!

1. Both were conceived of a virgin.

2. Both were the "only begotten son" of a god (either Osiris or Yahweh)

3. Horus's mother was Meri, Jesus's mother was Mary.

4. Horus's foster father was called Jo-Seph, and Jesus's foster father was Joseph.

5. Both foster fathers were of royal descent.

6. Both were born in a cave (although sometimes Jesus is said to have been born in a stable).

7. Both had their coming announced to their mother by an angel.

8. Horus; birth was heralded by the star Sirius (the morning star). Jesus had his birth heralded by a star in the East (the sun rises in the East).

9. Ancient Egyptians celebrated the birth of Horus on December 21 (the Winter Solstice). Modern Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25.

10. Both births were announced by angels (this is not the same as number 7).

11. Both had shepherds witnessing the birth.

12. Horus was visited at birth by "three solar deities" and Jesus was visited by "three wise men".

13. After the birth of Horus, Herut tried to have Horus murdered. After the birth of Jesus, Herod tried to have Jesus murdered.

14. To hide from Herut, the god That tells Isis, "Come, thou goddess Isis, hide thyself with thy child." To hide from Herod, an angel tells Joseph to "arise and take the young child and his mother and flee into Egypt."

15. When Horus came of age, he had a special ritual where his eye was restored. When Jesus (and other Jews) come of age, they have a special ritual called a Bar Mitzvah.

16. Both Horus and Jesus were 12 at this coming-of-age ritual.

17. Neither have any official recorded life histories between the ages of 12 and 30.

18. Horus was baptized in the river Eridanus. Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan.

19. Both were baptized at age 30.

20. Horus was baptized by Anup the Baptizer. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.

21. Both Anup and John were later beheaded.

22. Horus was taken from the desert of Amenta up a high mountain to be tempted by his arch-rival Set. Jesus was taken from the desert in Palestine up a high mountain to be tempted by his arch-rival Satan.

23. Both Horus and Jesus successfully resist this temptation.

24. Both have 12 disciples.

25. Both walked on water, cast out demons, healed the sick, and restored sight to the blind.

26. Horus "stilled the sea by his power." Jesus commanded the sea to be still by saying, "Peace, be still."

27. Horus raised his dead father (Osiris) from the grave. Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave. (Note the similarity in names when you say them out loud. Further, Osiris was also known as Asar, which is El-Asar in Hebrew, which is El-Asarus in Latin.)

28. Osiris was raised in the town of Anu. Lazarus was raised in Bethanu (literally, "house of Anu").

29. Both gods delivered a Sermon on the Mount.

30. Both were crucified.

31. Both were crucified next to two thieves.

32. Both were buried in a tomb.

33. Horus was sent to Hell and resurrected in 3 days. Jesus was sent to Hell and came back "three days" later (although Friday night to Sunday morning is hardly three days).

34. Both had their resurrection announced by women.

35. Both are supposed to return for a 1000-year reign.

36. Horus is known as KRST, the anointed one. Jesus was known as the Christ (which means "anointed one").

37. Both Jesus and Horus have been called the good shepherd, the lamb of God, the bread of life, the son of man, the Word, the fisher, and the winnower.

38. Both are associated with the zodiac sign of Pisces (the fish).

39. Both are associated with the symbols of the fish, the beetle, the vine, and the shepherd's crook.

40. Horus was born in Anu ("the place of bread") and Jesus was born in Bethlehem ("the house of bread").

41. "The infant Horus was carried out of Egypt to escape the wrath of Typhon. The infant Jesus was carried into Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod. Concerning the infant Jesus, the New Testament states the following prophecy: 'Out of Egypt have I called my son.'" (See Point 13)

42. Both were transfigured on the mount.

43. The catacombs of Rome have pictures of the infant Horus being held by his mother, not unlike the modern-day images of "Madonna and Child."

44. Noted English author C. W. King says that both Isis and Mary are called "Immaculate".

45. Horus says: "Osiris, I am your son, come to glorify your soul, and to give you even more power." And Jesus says: "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once."

46. Horus was identified with the Tau (cross).

The first human recording of God-like Savior born of Virgin mother and later being Resurrected from the dead is found in Egypt, 3-4,000 years before Christ. The Story focuses on Osiris, Isis, and Horus, reputably known as the original Holy family; the father, the mother, the son

Horus originates in Pre-history, we can only date him to Egyptian times because we have no real records before that period of antiquity. The Egyptian “Book of Vivifying the Soul Forever” written over 5,000 years ago contains The Story of the Egyptian Horus and has remarkable similarities to the Story of Jesus Christ.

In fact if you compare the Egyptian book of knowing the Evolutions, you can see very strong parallels to the Book of Genesis which came from God to Moses, who was raised in the household of the Egyptian Pharaoh, and later became the King of the Jews.

Most later religions purporting Christ-Like saviors have their roots in the Early Egyptian religious system, which itself dates from an unknown source prior to any recorded History.

The Cult of Messiah

Egypt enters into the Historical records around the 4th millennium BC , prior to that period Egypt was not unified and the Historical record is very shaky. The followers of Horus invaded Egypt during the pre-dynastic time, possibly from Ethiopia, and probably shortly before the first records of a written language / hieroglyphics, and are largely responsible for it's rise as the Early Cradle of Civilization. In this same fashion, thousands of years later that the followers of Christ would invade The Roman Empire and bring about the rise of the Christian Church. Horus became a part of the state religion and was associated with the sun god, Ra. Horus was so important to the state religion that Pharaohs were considered his human manifestation and some even took on the name Horus.

The Egyptian pharaohs were considered to be "the word of God become flesh" or incarnations of the Egyptian Logos/God ,Horus. By making this claim the pharaohs were able to acquiesce a Divine right to rule, they considered themselves not only answerable to God and God alone, but to in essence be a God become flesh. This practice morphed through successive societies where Monarchs and rulers throughout the ages seized upon variations of this theme placing themselves and their offspring in a royal pantheon . The theory of Divine Right of Kings in Europe is a later version of the Pharaoh/Horus scenario.

This tradition continued through time . A cult of Messiah developed about Alexander the Great, he was claimed to be born of a Virgin and having had no Earthly father, although it was well known that Phillip of Macedonia was his Earthly father. A cult of Messiah also developed around Julius Cesar, it was claimed that he was born of a Virgin and had no Earthly father , although his Earthly fathers existence was well documented. The Cult of Divus Juluis became very prominent in the years following his assassination. {The Book of Mark may be a rework based on Julius Caesar and the cult of Divus Juluis }

And last but not least [actually not last either] a Hebrew Revolutionary known as Yeshua {Joshua} was claimed to be born of a Virgin and had no Earthly father, although it was known that Joseph was his Earthly father. A Cult of Messiah developed around the Revolutionary leader - Joshua [Jesus}, and the rest is History.

The Anointed ones

According to Tom Harpur, a former professor of Theology , the Christian usage of the term Christ derives from Egypt. He argues that the application of the term Christ to Jesus derives from the Egyptian term Karast (covered in embalming oil) to describe Horus, Christ in classical Greek usage could mean covered in oil, and is a literal translation of Messiah "the anointed one". The word utilized in its original classic Greek and Jewish contexts refers to the office, or status of the person. Certainly not to their actually having oil on their body.

Horus was anointed by Anubis, who was regarded as the main anointer; this anointing made Horus into Horus karast, or Horus the anointed one , an epithet which is written in Egyptian documents as HR KRST. The embalmed/anointed Horus.

In parallel , or, as some would have it, in imitation, the baptizing of Jesus made Jesus into Jesus Christ. or Jesus the anointed one / Jesus the Messiah becoming Christ by being baptized by John, who had his own cult of followers, and was especially regarded as a baptizer.

Immaculate conceptions

There are several birth stories of Horus .

As per one Legend , Horus was born of the virgin Isis-Me, Not a true Virgin but a widow as she had been married , but her husband was murdered , The legend states she conceived Horus from the seed of her dead Husband . Not a Virgin Birth, but an Immaculate Conception .
As per Legend two, Horus was born of the virgin Isis-Me as a Falcon, and set out immediately to avenge his fathers Death. Isis in the Ancient World
The birth of A Human Being related to God, From a Virgin birth and Immaculate conception > More....
Some accounts say he was born December 25th, not really amazing as dozens of Pagan deities have their births celebrated on or around December 25, and this fact is related to the Winter solstice observed by primeval and primitive man. In one account I read Horus was born in the month of Khoiak which corresponds to October / November, but there are various versions. [Before giving birth to Horus Isis-Me had given birth to another Son --Seth-- who had killed his Father Osiris. ]

Inscribed about 3,500 years ago, on the walls of the Temple at Luxor were images of the Annunciation, Immaculate Conception, Birth and Adoration of Horus, with Thoth announcing to Isis that she will conceive Horus, and with the infant being attended by three kings, or magi, bearing gifts.

The fact that Pharaohs were considered the be his human manifestation of Horus and some even took on the name Horus brings us The story of Pharaoh Amenophis III. About two thousand years before the Christian era , Mut-em-ua, the virgin Queen of Egypt, was said to have given birth to this Pharaoh. The god Kneph mystically impregnated the queen by holding a cross {Ankh}, the symbol of life, to her mouth. There was an Adoration of the newly born infant by men, including three traveling kings who offer him gifts. In the catacombs at Rome are pictures of the baby Horus being held by the virgin mother Isis, as the original "Madonna and Child."

Nimrod the Babylonian version of Ra is known as Baal. Semiramis, as the female divinity, would be called Baalti. This word translated into English means "My Lady." In Latin it would be translated "Mea Domina". This name becomes the name "Madonna" which is the name by which Mary is often referred.

The same reasoning can be said of "Mediatrix", which Mary is also called. Mary received that title from "Mylitta" (mediatrix) which was one of the names of the Mother Goddess of Babylon. "The Queen of Heaven" is another name for Mary that has been adopted from the pagan Babylonian religions.

Raising Lazarus

Horus raised at least one man, Osiris, from the dead. Jesus raised Lazarus. Some aspects of the story of Jesus' raising of Lazarus are borrowed from the Egyptian myth of the resurrection of Osiris by Horus. Horus was born at the house of bread, an historic capital of Egypt. Translated into Hebrew house of bread is Bethlehem, the city of Jesus birth. The city was also named Annu in Egyptian, translated into Hebrew is Beth-any , or house of Any/Anu. The Jewish Bethany is from where Lazarus was raised from the dead. The Egyptian Bethany [City or House of Annu ] was from Osiris was raised from the dead.

The original spelling of Lazarus was given in ancient Greek as "Lazaros", which , it has been suggested is a corruption of "El-Azar-Os". Osiris, was originally called Azar. A Hebrew prefix "EL" and a suffix "Os", and as a whole is related by derivation. The name Osiris itself has a similar etymology - The Egyptian designation for Osiris was Azar. When the Egyptians spoke of their Gods they indicated them with “the” and so we would have had “the Azar.” This term “the” could also mean Lord or God, like the Greek word for God The-os or Theos. A Hebrew term for Lord was El and was applied to their many deities, such as El-Shaddai or El-hoim. So when the Hebrew writers included Osiris in their myths they put him in as El-Azar Lord Osiris. This in the later Latin translation was changed to El-Azar-us, or the Lord Lazarus. This use of the suffix “us” was the masculine ending for proper names in the Latin of the Roman Empire.

Osiris has two sisters - so does Lazarus. , both Egyptian and Hebrew legends tell of the two wailing sisters. Osiris, like Lazarus, was dead for four days. The similarities go on and on, but the fact remains that the raising of Lazarus is an ancient ritual which predates Christianity and is still practiced to this day, most notably in Freemasonry.

"Apollonius of Tyana, a miracle worker and contemporary of Christ, is said to have undergone 'ritual initiation' in the Great Pyramid whereby he was 'crucified,' buried and rose again on the third day." - The Christian Conspiracy: The Orthodox Suppression of Original Christianity

Miscellania

The Gospels report Jesus feeding the multitude on the Mount of Olives with just 2 loaves of bread and some fish. Some versions of the Book of the dead report a tale of Horus feeding 5000 with just a few loaves of bread. As a deity whose worship was centered at the Egyptian capital, Heliopolis [City of the Sun], also known as the house of bread [in Hebrew would be Bethany], which was where people would amass to obtain bread from the winter grain stores.

Horus had twelve disciples , which relate to astrological origins of the Twelve astral signs , Jesus had 12 disciples, and there are indications -unproven- that some of their names and personages may have been similarly symbolic.

The sufferings and death, and resurrection of both Jesus and Horus is celebrated each year on the Vernal Equinox -- Easter.

Horus was carried off by Set- the Egyptian name for Satan- to the summit of Mount Hetep. Jesus was carried by Satan to an exceedingly high mountain and tempted.

Both bore many titles, Jesus for instance was "Way, the Truth, the Light," "Messiah," "God’s Anointed Son," the "Son of Man," the "Good Shepherd," the "Lamb of God," the "Word made flesh," the "Word of Truth," . Horus also had many of the Same titles.

http://www.geocities.com/nephilimnot/horus.html?200710#The_Cult_of_Messiah_

Taking things to far...

noreply@blogger.com (umbecast) — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 23:23:00 +0000

Scientist Tests Husband's Underwear For DNA
Scientist Finds Husband Cheated; She's Being Investigated

LANSING, Mich. -- A state forensics scientist who tested her husband's underwear for DNA to find out if he was having sex with another woman is being investigated.

Michigan State Police want to determine if Ann Chamberlain-Gordon violated policies banning the use of state equipment for personal reasons.

She testified in her divorce hearing that she ran the test last September on the underwear of Charles Gordon Jr.

She said she found the DNA of another woman.

At a separate hearing, Chamberlain-Gordon said she ran the test on her own time with expired chemicals that were set to be thrown away.

A request for comment was left with her Thursday.

State police expect to decide by next week if disciplinary action should be taken. Chamberlain-Gordon's duties at the Lansing lab have not been restricted.

http://www.wftv.com/news/13628100/detail.html

I have to admit that this woman was pretty clever BUT I also have to add that if I had to go through the trouble of DNA testing on underwear I wouldn't be with the guy anyway. Women are so strange. We put up with way to much.....

File Under: Crazy people are amusing.

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 22:58:00 +0000

Thousands Commemorate 1947 UFO 'Crash'

By MARK EVANS
Associated Press Writer

ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) -- If you truly believe a UFO and its crew of bug-eyed aliens came crashing down here 60 years ago, rest assured: You're not alone. At least 35,000 people have descended on Roswell this weekend for the 2007 Amazing Roswell UFO Festival to commemorate a purported flying saucer crash on a nearby ranch in July 1947. Participants have filled hotel rooms and nearly doubled the southeastern New Mexico town's population for a few days.

The festival, which began Thursday, is a mixed bag that includes live concerts (one headlined by a band with a computer-generated 'alien' drummer), costume contests, a Main Street parade and a slew of lectures that ponder everything from body snatchers to "What Does NASA Really Know?"

The festival emerged in the 1990s to spark debate about the purported flying saucer crash, which the government says was a top-secret weather balloon. Believers in the Roswell Incident say the government is conspiring to hide the truth about the events of that day and, more broadly, the existence of extraterrestrial life.

Al Dooley, 59, of Seattle, said he wasn't sure what happened back then, but came to the festival to learn more. He was nestled into a seat at a convention center auditorium, eager to hear a talk on "UFO Files from the UK and Government Surveillance of Ufologists."

His wife Nancy sat nearby, visibly less interested. She was waiting for the festival to be over so the couple could move on to the next leg of their vacation in Sedona, Ariz.

"I didn't come for the carnival atmosphere. I came to listen to the speakers," Al Dooley said. "I wanted to hear what serious and educated discussion there is."

Although he's not certain whether an alien craft crashed here, he might have seen one himself in 1968 or 1969, he said.

Michael, who plays guitar in a rock band called Element 115 and doesn't use his last name, said he doesn't merely believe the crash happened. "I KNOW it," he said, as he handed out a business card.

Michael said he hoped Element 115 would one day be the house band for a huge theme park being debated here - featuring amusement rides, a concert hall and a 300-room hotel that looks like a flying saucer.

"I want to help them with that," he said. "I see millions and millions of dollars in this place - they just need to know how to market it right."

The city's convention center was swarming with vendors hawking trinkets and dolls, photo ops with costumed aliens, psychic readings and a kit to test whether your neighbor or boss is from outer space. Many peddled their books, DVDs or artwork of all things otherworldly.

Chase Masterson, a singer and actress, was signing autographs for fans who remembered her role as Leeta on several episodes of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."

"I am having a very interesting time exploring the theories that are set forth here," she said. "Some are completely outrageous but some are very intriguing."

The festival was being organized for the first time by the city of Roswell, after the local UFO museum hosted it for more than a decade.

Mayor Sam LaGrone said he was happily surprised by the turnout - and the economic boost it would give the city.

"I've never seen so many cars in town," he said.

Welcome!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Thinker) — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 22:04:00 +0000

Ladies and Gentleman we have a new contributor! umbecast has posted to the blog and I hope to keep her posting more. She is a very dear friend of mine and one of the smartest people I know! (Even if she can't beat me at anything whatsoever! :P

Show your appreciation and let her know what you guys think!