Crime Doesn't Pay

This guy got caught using a stolen credit card at a gas station. Unfortunately for him, it was the cashier's credit card. What are the odds?

Interesting

I was looking on the AARP website (long story), and I happened upon a link to this little quiz. It actually reminds me of an episode of "King of the Hill" where Hank took a similar online test. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to handle this, but my results were as follows: "Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for White American relative to African American" Ouch. Seriously, ouch.

The Right's Little White Lie

I'm getting increasingly tired of hearing people like Pat Robertson say that the founding fathers of our country were "good Christian men" who really didn't intend for there to be a division between church and state. It is vitally important, Pat and the gang, to have your facts straight before you start spouting off at the mouth. The U.S. Constitution is not a religious document. It is not intended to further the agenda of the church (and yes, religious communities do have agendas). Here are a few notes on this nation's founding fathers, just to set the record straight.

Thomas Jefferson: Along with Ben Franklin, Jefferson was certainly one of the most fervent opponents of imposing one religion on a group of people (including Christianity), as evidenced by this quote: "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury to my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." (Dumas Malon, Jefferson The President: First Term 1801-1805. Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1970, p. 191)

This is in stark contrast to Mr. Robertson and his friend George Bush (Sr): "I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God." - George Bush

Thomas Paine: Paine was one of the most outspoken figures in the American Revolution and a strong Deist (as were several of the founding fathers). His philosophy is pretty much summed up here: "I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church."

That certainly doesn't sound like someone who thought he was helping to create a "Christian nation".

John Adams: The second president of the United States (Adams) drafted and signed a treaty with the Muslim nation of Tripoli with the following language: "As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion [emphasis added]- as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen . . . no pretext arrising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

Hmmm, maybe we could all learn something here.

Benjamin Franklin: Oft quoted is Franklin's motion during the Constitutional Convention that a clergyman be brought in for prayer. What is often overlooked, however, is that he made no mention of such a thing until the convention had been arguing over a single issue for more than four weeks and everything was in danger of falling apart. In essence, he was grasping for straws. Even more interesting, however, is that his motion was voted down. Let me repeat: It was voted down! So it seems a majority of the "founding fathers" thought it was a pretty bad idea. Curious.

The original promise of the thirteen colonies and later, the U.S., was to serve as a place where people would be free from persecution, particularly religious persecution. The U.S. was meant to be a secular state, not a religious one. While some members of the Christian right believe that the best state would be one in which the bible reigned supreme, they forget that no good has ever come from such a religiously oppressive situation (see Spanish Inquisition and Taliban Regime). Do not get me wrong: religion is, in many instances, a good thing. It has the potential to bring out the best in people. But it can also bring out the worst. When it is used to oppress and to discriminate, that is not a good thing.

Though this entry wasn't supposed to turn into a discussion of my views on religion, I have to end with this quote: "What appears to justify persecution is dogmatic belief. Kindliness and tolerance only prevail in proportion as dogmatic belief decays." Something to remember.

 

Bush Makes Fun of Himself!

Why, gosh. It's always so good to know that our leaders can make fun of themselves. He even made fun of his inability to find weapons of mass destruction, and poked fun at his own incompetence when it comes to foreign affairs. I didn't have the privelege of being there to hear the president make his witty self-depricating remarks, so I can only imagine what was said. Luckily, I have a good imagination:

"I'm so dumb! I started a war on false pretenses and then blamed it on the CIA when it didn't work out! Ha ha ha ha"

"Thousands of Iraqis and hundreds of American soldiers are dead because of my pointless war. Oops, my bad! Ha ha ha ha"

"Hey, the same Supreme Court that appointed me (since I was never really elected), I now decry as filled with 'activist judges'. You're only as good as your last decision, guys! Am I a hypocrite or what? Ha ha ha ha"

"If we had let the democrats win in 2000, they would have increased spending and raised taxes! I increased spending way more than they ever could have, and all without raising taxes. I'll just let your children pay for it. And their children, and their children's children, and . . . oh, you get the idea! Ha ha ha ha"

I know I'm not the only one with an imagination. Exercise your right to comment! Can you think of anything else Bush might have said?

Transition

Making some changes to the blog. Sit tight! It'll all be over soon.

Soon to be introduced: The pure lard milkshake!

Okay, okay. I love chocolate as much as the next guy (maybe even a little more). I also like fried foods and sandwiches. But, let's be real; a deep fried chocolate sandwich is taking it a little far, don't you think? Although, now that I've said it, I'm a little curious . . .

Sure, whatever

No Marriage. . . for ANYBODY!

Hmmm, this is an interesting approach. However, it may end up doing more harm than good by forcing the powers that be to make a rush decision. We'll see.

My Desk

Colin has told me that my desk gets junkier by the day, but I keep telling him it's not junk. Peruse the list below and you can form your own opinion.

1. Five Shot Glasses: 1 from Mexico, 1 from Canada, 1 from Trinidad, 1 from the Bahamas, and 1 from Jamaica. I keep some of the respective country's currency in each glass. I have some Iraqi money, too, but no shot glass to put it in. So, until I go to the Middle East, Saddam's Dinars are living in Jamaica.

2. Keyboard Air Duster: Well, I have the can, but I can't find the spout. Colin likes to use his air duster to dust the whole room (don't ask), so I think I'll just give him the can when his runs out.

3. Pen/Pencil Holder: It's black, it's plastic and its. . . empty. I'll put some pens in there soon, I promise!

4. Surge Protector: I keep it on the desk because I unplug things so often.

5. Laptop Computer: I wonder if you can still call it a laptop if you never put it on your lap.

6. Five Empty CD Cases: I bought a set of ten CD cases online, thinking that I was buying actual CD-Rs. Thanks Office Depot.

7. Two Half-Empty Cases of Floppy Disks: Well, half-empty may be an understatement. I think each case actually has only two floppy disks left. I suppose I could consolidate them but, hey, they're not hurting anybody.

8. Three Boarding Passes: I did a lot of flying last Fall and never bothered to get Delta SkyMiles credit for the flights. I'm supposed to call Delta (one of these days) to get those flights added to my SkyMiles account. Till then, the boarding passes stay.

9. Speakers: OOO, talk about cheap! :) Best $10 I ever spent.

10. Palm Pilot Charger: Where the hell is that Palm?

11. 3-Hole Punch: I actually use this quite frequently. I used it freshman year as a hammer. It still has the scars.

12. Scotch Tape: Boring

13. Ruler: Wow, I've had this thing for nearly a decade. I wonder how many times I've actually used it.

14. Miscellanous Receipts: I'm going to put these into MS Money at some point. Really!

15. Scissors: Eh, these are boring too.

16. Cords: Lots and lots of cords. They hook up to many different things.

17. Printer: Guess what this does.

18. A statuette of people having sex: I bought this in Vancouver. It's really cool. You'd have to see it to appreciate it.

19. A bag of shredded money: Courtesy of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

20. A picture of the family: 8 x 10, framed. I don't like how I look in it. That was back when I was trying to grow my hair out. *shudder*

21. Yo-Yo: I can hardly yo-yo at all, but it's a nice decoration.

22. 2 containers of play-doh: I won these last summer at PwC training. Go team one!

23. 2 hotel keys: From my travels.

24. Small obsidian mask: I got this from Mexico. I didn't realize until later how much I had overpayed.

25. Books: "A White-Collar Profession", "Holy Bible", "Webster's Thesaurus", "Morehouse College 2000-2001 Catalog", "Guide to Understanding Money and Investing", "God's Promises" (a gift from mom), "Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms", "Basic Law Terms", and "The Prayer of Jabez" (from mom as well).

26. A deck of Iraqi playing cards: Remember the cards that the U.S. military made? Well, these are cheap copies of those.

27. Miscellaneous papers: Miscellaneous papers.

28. Matches: One book of matches from the Chicago Club. Nice place, but way too "Good Ole Boy"

29. Batteries: Rechargeable batteries from Colin.

30. Electronic name plate / card holder / pen holder / clock / all around bad-ass device: Christmas gift from Colin. I think it turns into a raft as well, but I haven't figured out which button to press.

I think that's about it (for now, anyway). So what do you think? Do I have too much junk? No? I knew you'd agree!

Anti-Gay in a Black Sort of Way

An article by Earl Ofari Hutchinson;

The temptation is to chalk the “I ain’t into faggots” silly, inane slur that former street thug and hip hop artist 50 Cent made in an interview in April’s Playboy Magazine as yet another case of a show boating rapper playing to the street crowd. But 50 Cent’s comment and slur is what many black men say publicly about gays and many more say privately, and that includes the slurs. Their contempt for gays is hardly new.
I vividly recall the audience reaction to the scene in the 1971 film, Sunday Bloody Sunday when Murray Head and Peter Finch gave each other a big passionate kiss. The mostly black audience went wild. They screamed, jeered, and hooted at the screen. It took several minutes for the crowd to quiet down and ushers to restore order.
As I left the theater I listened to the young men talk. Their contempt and disgust for these two men spilled out into the street and into the parking lot. They called them "faggots," "punks," and "sissies." It seemed as if they were trying to scrape the slime off themselves that the scene of these two men kissing had left on them. That was thirty years ago. Rap artists such as 50 Cent, as well as legions of black novelists and poets, have railed against the gay life style as unnatural and destructive, and some have publicly uttered anti-gay slurs without batting an eye.
But three decades after actors Head and Finch kissed in Sunday Bloody Sunday, it’s not men kissing on the screen, but gay marriage, and as polls show more blacks, especially men, more rabidly oppose it than whites. The issue still punches hot buttons among black men and threatens and challenges their fragile masculinity at the basest and most ambiguous level. From cradle to grave, much of America has drilled into black men the notion that they are less than men. This has made many black men believe and accept the gender propaganda that the only real men in American society are white men. In a vain attempt to recapture their denied masculinity, many black men, mirror America's traditional fear and hatred of homosexuality. They swallow whole the phony and perverse John Wayne definition of manhood, that real men talk and act tough, shed no tears, and never show their emotions.
These are still the prized strengths of manhood for many black men. Whether it’s Rapper 50 cent, and his other rap buddies, grabbing their crouch on stage, or the mindless male testosterone driven gang violence that wreaks havoc in black communities, the hunt is on to wave their prized tough guy male virtue to the world. When men break the prescribed male code of conduct and show their feelings they are harangued as weaklings, and their manhood questioned. Many blacks in an attempt to distance themselves from gays and avoid confronting their own biases dismiss homosexuality as "Their thing." Translated: homosexuality is a perverse contrivance of white males and females that reflected the decadence of white America. They make no distinction between white gays and other whites. To them whites are whites are whites. That’s evident in the vehement opposition of many black ministers and black conservatives to any comparison of the fight for gay marriage to the civil rights movement.
Then there’s religion. Long before the religious right launched its national crusade against gay marriage, black men listened to parades of ministers shout and condemn to fire and brimstone any man who dared think about, yearn for, or actually engage in the godless and unnatural act of having a sexual relationship with another man. If men had any doubt about the moral truth of this message, there is the oft-cited biblical passage that sternly calls men lying down with men, "the abomination." Ignored are other biblical passages that encourage love, tolerance and respect among all humans. While many Americans have made gays their gender bogeymen, many blacks have made gay men their bogeymen and waged open warfare against them. Black gay men are the pariahs among pariahs, and wherever possible every attempt is made to drum them out of black life. They carry the triple burden of being black, male, and gay. They tell woeful tales of spending sleepless nights and endless days trying to figure out ways to repress, hide and deny their sexual preference from family members, friends, and society.
Polls show that more Americans than ever say that they support civil rights for gays, and a torrent of gay themed TV shows present non-stereotypical depictions of gays. But this increased tolerance has not dissipated the hostility that far too many black men feel toward gays. That won’t change as long as they feel that their manhood is subverted, accept America's artificial standard of what a man is, and as long as some black ministers and black conservative leaders stir anti-gay attitudes. 50 Cent is proof of that, slurs and all.

I don't know if anyone has ever stated the problem and the issues quite so well before. Bravo, Mr. Hutchinson. Now, if we could just get this into our school paper . . . :o)
If you're interested, you can find more of Hutchinson's articles here.

Boxing for Jesus

So, you go see "Passion of the Christ", and then you go home and have a fist fight with your spouse about the Holy Trinity? I'm inclined to agree with the wife; "It's the dumbest thing we've ever done."

"King & King"

How dare we allow incidents like this to take place? Those evil liberals are at it again. How could they allow our children to read stories about tolerance and acceptance? What is this world coming to?

A Comment Here, A Comment There

Just a quick note: if you don't want to leave your URL or e-mail address in the comment box (if and when you do make a comment), feel free just to type in your name. That should work.

Newsflash!!!

Oh my God!! Stop the presses! After years of study, they've discovered that sodas are bad for your child's teeth! Ahhhh! Nobody ever told us!! First cigarettes, and now this?! What's next? Are they going to discover that reading in dimly lit rooms is bad for the eyes?!? The horror!

(side note: Granted, tooth erosion is different from tooth decay, but it's still soda! Who pays for these studies?)

First Entry

Hmm, so this is what it's like to have a blog. Kinda lonely, actually. . . "talking" to everyone, but no one in particular. The television is kinda distracting. Maybe I should turn it off. No, I need the noise. Dum tee dum dum. My nose itches. No, not on the inside. I'm scratching it now. I just scratched my eyelid too. Now I'm scratching my head (yes, as I type). It's funny how everything starts to itch when you scratch one thing. It's like all the other parts are waiting to see if you'll give in before they start asking for a scratch. It's like a group of hobos; once you give money to one, everyone asks. Maybe I shouldn't scratch anymore. I'll just ignore it . . . That's not working. Oooo, someone just IMed me. Shoulder is itching now. Leg. Arm. Wrist. Ear. What the f*ck?! Stop it! Grrr. I think I'm gonna go put on some lotion. I'll try this blog thing again later.