Fin

My family has always been one for theatrical goodbyes— On this day 234 years ago, my great (etc.) grandfather calmly walked into his cabin and shot his wife of ten years dead, not bothering to dispose of the body before eating the dinner she had prepared only minutes before.

As you probably guessed that story was a complete fiction, grounded in nothing resembling fact or legitimate research.

But since you have reads this far—It is time for me to go. The autumn moon lights my way. And now I smell the rain, and with it pain. And it's headed my way. Ah, sometimes I grow so tired. But I know I've got one thing I got to do: Ramble on.

San Francisco's only large full scale music festival has released it's dates, Aug 14-15 in Golden Gate Park. Tickets are on sale now. So the good people of Outside Lands have decided to cryptically release clues of who is playing via their Twitter page.
Here is what I have figured out to be there so far:

Al Green - What the random?
Bassnectar - Please let this be true
Chromeo
Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros -meh
Gogol Bordello -top five best live act in music right now
Kings of Leon - wish they never came out with new album... it is full of suck, but love the oldies.
Levon Helm
My Morning Jacket - Face melting pleasure
Phoenix - meh
Rodrigo y Gabriela -meh
Social Distortion - fun the first 2000 times Ive seen them
The Temper Trap -Awesome, look them up
Tinariwen -yeah
Tokyo Police Club - on a suck scale of 1 to 10.. they are a 13

My Wish List:
My Bloody Valentine
Arcade Fire
Why?
Interpol
NOFX
Devo

All of those bands are touring or will be touring, and have a whole in their schedule during the time of the festival. Just give me one of my wish list please!

Maybe We Should Try To Make Her Go Back To Rehab?

Publish Post

Please Stop

Preface:
Here I sit. I am lost. Lost much like a Cuban refugee, only far less newsworthy. I am well into my twenties and can honestly say I am in no position to grow up. I lack every necessary skill one needs to tackle the “real world”. Sure I have a job, but at that job I do nothing but undress women with my eyes, and giggle at drunken people… real mature. Problem is I don’t even put forward a deceptive façade, anyone who knows me can tell you that I have very little redeemable qualities. Harsh? I don’t think so, I once had high expectations, but just like my attention span, they too have dwindled to virtually nothing.

Problem:
I attend class everyday and listen to students wax academic about meaningless drivel about literal nothings. I think to myself how lucky I am that I have come to this conclusion and I am no longer stuck inside this shell of expectation, and self-fulfillments. If by any chance one of you is reading this, I hope you get the memo soon. Chances are none of you will so I will climb on top of my soapbox and preach a little truth to you. Just because you know how to use the Google, and stumble through a Wikipedia article, doesn’t give you the right to talk. I know we have all come from the school of there are no dumb questions, or we are all special in our own way… I get that, that’s cool. Think that way if you like…but I don’t, so therefore I think all of your questions are stupid, and chances are I feel the same way about you. Whatever, if you read the first paragraph you know I am in no position to tell anyone anything, but at least I recognize that. You on the other hand continue to talk, and talk, and talk, and talk, and talk, and talk, and talk, and talk.

Conclusion:
I have no answers for you, mostly broken dreams, and failed promises, and in all honesty I didn’t think that far ahead. I just felt that I needed to address your pointless, and failed attempts at sounding relevant in class, and moreover life in general. All I ask is that tomorrow when you wake up, look in the mirror and ask yourself “ What have done to deserve this inflated sense of self worth?” I’ll answer for you. Absolutely nothing! This is where I drop the microphone and walk away…

Enjoy

Damn These Late Night Religion Posts

So I am an Atheist... yep, that's about it.

Atheism is the lack of belief
Atheism is the lack of belief in the existence of gods. It is not a belief system or a religion but the denial that supernatural beings exist. There are atheists with all sorts of philosophies and beliefs.

You’re already an atheist
Even if you believe in a god, you probably don’t believe in other gods – Zeus, Osiris, Jupiter, Thor, Allah or Jesus. It’s hypocritical to be skeptical in the holy book, revealed prophets, miracle stories, or holy men of all religions but yours. You are an atheist when it comes to everyone else’s gods, so why give your god a free pass?

The burden of proof is on the theist
Can you prove that an invisible pink elephant is not floating above your head? How does one prove a negative in the absence of evidence? Theists make the exceptional claim that there is a god. That claim requires exceptional proof. The burden of proof is on the theist to prove God exists. By using reason and science, humans have been expanding our knowledge of the world. Yet religionists (not a real word, but I am tired so I am leaving it there)continue to claim that there exists a supernatural realm immune to reason. Where is their proof? If a god is needed to create the universe, what created God? Rather than offer proof, mystics have often tried to silence and discredit those who reveal the complexity and majesty of the universe
What keeps flowers from turning into rocks, or rocks from floating in the sky? It’s not the will of a supernatural deity, but the fact that flowers are not rocks, and gravity keeps things on the ground. The universe operates according to causal principles, without the need for any supernatural power to keep things from getting chaotic.

There are natural explanations for the universe
Religious texts can offer moral guidance, but they are not the source of moral principles. Humans discovered long ago that following certain rules makes life more productive, peaceful, and pleasurable. Morality derives from human nature, not divine guidance. If one wishes to live a virtuous life, it is better to do so because of the earthly rewards of being virtuous than the fear of eternal punishment. Unlike a theist, an atheist knows that one life is all he has, and will try to live each day to the fullest.

Now let's look at some peoples proof for a god:

The cosmological argument

Some religious individuals argue that whatever begins to exist has a cause and since nothing causes itself, there has to be a First Cause, namely God. There are several objections to this argument, some of them being as following;

• What caused the First Cause? By making use of the cosmological argument one presupposes that an un-caused effect exists, enabling it to cause a chain of effects without being caused itself. Seeing that the argument is reliant upon the premise that all effects have a cause it is in consequence invalid.
• The First Cause is by no means equal to a deity. Even though the origin of the universe remains scientifically unexplained, it doesn’t justify supernatural religious claims.

The Teleological argument aka Intelligent Design

This argument states that some phenomena are too complex, or too apparently purposeful, to have occurred randomly. Therefore, these phenomena must have been designed by an intelligent or purposeful being (God).

- Who designed the designer? If an intelligent designer only is able to design irreducibly complex units, then an even more intelligent designer is necessary to design the original designer. This entails an infinite chain of designers. To counter this counter-argument some individuals make use of the cosmological argument. However, as explained above, this argument fails because it omits why a designer can be undersigned while the universe cannot.

The omnipotence paradox

Most, if not all, monotheistic religions claim the existence of an omnipotent God. This argument leaves the concept of omnipotence as a mere paradox unable to exist in a logical universe. If a deity is in fact omnipotent, then he/she is able to create a rock he himself cannot lift. Since he/she cannot lift the rock he just created he/she is not omnipotent.

Argument from free will

All monotheistic religions claim their god to be omniscient, and at the same time claim to have been given free will by the very same god. These two concepts are incompatible. Here is why: An omniscient being knows everything, including the future will of his supposed free willed- designees. Since the will is already known, it cannot be free at the same time.

Other arguments state that a complete being (God) must also be dead or non-existing in order to be fully complete. Furthermore, some conclude that since most theistic religions eventually were regarded as untrue, all theistic religions are most likely to be untrue.

A Few Podcasts That Help Me Shape These Thoughts:

• The Paracast
• Mysterious Universe
  
• Skeptics Guide to the Universe (Kind of Garbage)
• Paratopia (One guy is cool, the other sucks)
  

Sorry, No Mustache

I found this Russian blogger who tried to imagine how some historical figures could look without the face hair.

America is NOT Great

America is not great. There have been great Americans. Chief Joseph was a great American. Huey Newton was a great American. Howard Zinn was a great American. There have been great Americans. But America, as a nation, is not great. It is genocidal, homophobic, imperialistic, racist, corporatist and immoral. I’m not being dramatic. It doesn’t help to sugar coat. The things this nation has done are destructive to the point of fantasy.

I’m not proud to be an American. I’m not proud to have been born inside an imaginary casing. To be proud to be American would be to be proud to be right handed. To be proud to be a citizen of the United States would be to boast an affinity for chance. I’m not proud to live in a place where you are called illegal for simply being. I have no pride in a nation which conducts/supports/triumphs the conquest and pillage of other nations resources. I cannot champion a state which relies unquestioningly on a document drafted by wealthy-racist-white men.

America is only a place. A place I happen to live. A place where good men and good woman have lived. America is also a place where destruction and hate have prevailed as ruling ideology.

My Music

Latley I have been hearing a lot of people talking about what music they listen to. Well it all sucks and you should feel ashamed of yourselves, here are my favorite bands. Drink this list of greatness in: (After numerous inquiries about this list I feel the need to tell all you stupid mother fuckers that I hate everyone on this list... )

• 7 Mary 3

• Ace of Base
• All-4-One
• Asia
• Bad English
• Candlebox
• Cannibal Corpse
• Collective Soul
• Color Me Bad
• Crash Test Dummies
• Creed
• Dan Band
• David Lee Roth
• Eagle-Eye Cherry
• Europe
• Gerardo
• Gerry Halliway
• Goo Goo Dolls
• Good Charlotte
• Green Jelly
• Gypsy Kings
• Hall&Oats
• Harvey Danger
• Ike Turner
• Insane Clown Posse
• John Cougar Mellencamp
• Korn
• Limp Bizkit
• Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz
• Man-o-War
• Master P
• Nickleback
• Oingo-Boingo
• Papa Roach
• Puddle of Mudd
• Savage Garden
• Soul Asylum
• Starland Vocal Band
• Starship
• Stryper
• Styx
• Ted Nugent
• The Rembradts
• The Spin Doctors
• Tin Machine
• Toby Keith

• Ugly Kid Joe
• Wilson Phillips
• Yngwie Malmsteen

2:25am and I wish God would help me sleep.

2:25am
As I sit in bed I find myself slipping further and further away from actual sleep… Looks like another long night. All is not lost though, so let us think about some stuff; stuff that isn’t fun for the majority of Americans to think about, God stuff. Well more like there is no God stuff. As a matter of fact I am no longer willing to follow conventional Christian induced grammar; I’m no longer going to capitalize god… As Dana Carvey would say “Nope, not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent at this juncture,”.
I saw a t shirt today, it was funny. Well no, the person that was wearing it was funny. The shirt made me think, and I really didn’t feel like thinking at the time. So in retrospection I’m removing the label of funny from the person who wore the shirt and now labeling them as stupid. Let this be a warning to anyone who makes me think when I don’t want too. Anyway back to the shirt. It was a black shirt that had in big white letters: What if Jesus was aborted? Look I get it this person is pro life, yada, yada, yada, whatever. That is for a different post, and frankly I’ve done way too much cocaine in my life to ever have an effective reproductive system, so no abortion necessary for me. I want to take the shirt at face value, what if jesus was aborted? Let’s just look at the wars that would have probably been avoided:
• The Crusades
• French Wars of Religion
• Reconquista
And those are just the big ones, and truthfully I don’t really want to do any research so those were the ones closest to the surface so to speak.
Next I want to challenge the very existence of jesus. I can’t tell you how many times I hear “well even if you don’t believe in god, you have to admit jesus was a real person.” Nope I don’t. And here are my reasons:
http://rationalrevolution.net/articles/jesus_myth_history.htm
Read the whole thing, this person did all the research for me!
2:41am
I am beginning to actually feel tired, but stupid me turned on the the TV and much to my surprise a history of jesus is on the History channel. I wonder if it is going to change my mind? Probably not, I don’t think much could at this point… We know Santa Claus is fake, he is only something kids belive in. Well the idea of a fat old man in red PJ’s that delivers cool stuff once a year to every kid in the world (lest you have been naughty) via flying reindeer is more believable than god. Hey god! Why do you hate amputee’s so much? I mean you let lizards grow back their tails, why can’t you let a diabetic kid who just lost his leg grow it back? Hmmmmmmmmmmm? Maybe because you’re not a you're at all and more like a thing, an it, a lie.

... And now for something completly different.

Please excuse my laziness towards this weeks blog post; tiss the season for mid terms, and I am not one to miss the opportunity to take a copious amount of tests. Furthermore I have left you all with a song that I (Maynard James Keenan) wrote called Eulogy.

He had a lot to say.
He had a lot of nothing to say.
We'll miss him.
We'll miss him.

He had a lot to say.
He had a lot of nothing to say.
We'll miss him.
We're gonna miss him
We're gonna miss him

So long.
We wish you well.
You told us how you weren't afraid to die.
Well then, so long.
Don't cry.
Or feel too down.
Not all martyrs see divinity.
But at least you tried.

Standing above the crowd,
He had a voice that was strong and loud.
We'll miss him.
We'll miss him.

Ranting and pointing his finger
At everything but his heart.
We'll miss him.
We'll miss him.
We're gonna miss him.
We're gonna miss him.

No way to recall
What it was that you had said to me,
Like I care at all.

But you were so loud.
You sure could yell.
You took a stand on every little thing
And so loud.

"I'm too smart when you're invisible by the bone and the symbol on you. So he bashes his skull through the window while over looking the sea. Twilight amber ego. We were amused by this"

Standing above the crowd,
He had a voice that was strong and loud and I
Swallowed his facade cuz I'm so
Eager to identify with
Someone above the ground,
Someone who seemed to feel the same,
Someone prepared to lead the way, with
Someone who would die for me.

Will you? Will you now?
Would you die for me?
Don't you fuckin lie.

Don't you step out of line.
Don't you step out of line.
Don't you step out of line.
Don't you fucking lie.

You've claimed all this time that you would die for me.
Why then are you so surprised when you hear your own
Eulogy?

He had a lot to say.
He had a lot of nothing to say.
He had a lot to say.
He had a lot of nothing to say.

Come down.
Get off your fucking cross.
We need the fucking space to nail the next fool martyr.

To ascend you must die.
You must be crucified
For our sins and our lies.
Goodbye!!!

Pull the Trigger; A brief history of desensitization in our military and training people to kill people.

In the spirit of the Academy Awards, I am writing on a topic that is, at least, loosely related to the big winner of the night: The Hurt Locker… (First off I am glad that this movie took home the big award. If there is one thing I like more than blue breasted woman (and there is only one thing)…it’s a character piece that delves into the psyche of an American soldier…).

During WWII the United States ran into a problem: When it became go time—and by go time I mean shoot someone’s face off time— soldiers found themselves overwhelmed by their entirely natural /innate emotions: They couldn’t pull the trigger. Killing, as it turns out, is ‘bout as easy as Pimp’n— something the powers that be in the United States took notice of rather quickly. Since WWII the U.S. has implemented some new tactics to ensure soldiers are not restricted by the fact that they are evolved from humans.

Breathe these statistics in: Only 15-20% of soldiers in WWII were willing to kill another human being. Than number rose to 50% during the Korean War and has hovered around 90% from Vietnam on…

There are many ways this numbers have been achieved, but one of the premier tactics used is videogames… Yes, the same games your little brother plays…. As a player of violent games, I am finding myself in the throes of a Kanye West like moment of inner confliction— While I think the violence in videogames can lead to terrible consequences, I love decapitating the Russians in my Cold War Era videogames and don't know how I feel about toning them down (I remember calling Hillary Clinton a 'bitter-no-fun-face' when she waged a war against grand theft auto…).

Today, I have no answers… just information mostly collected from Wikipedia, Yahoo Answers and Encylopedia Dramatica and a lingering feeling that I may one day have to face my hypocrisy like a big boy…. Until then I am going to roundhouse kick some Charlie’s in the face.