So Barack Obama has been elected the 44th President Of The United States Of America. The biggest fuss over his election is the fact that he is of African-American descent, the first ever in presidential history. A historic landmark for sure, but the other issue I think is just as important, if not more is his lack of, or should I say, less-of religious belief, in both personal and political aspects. Most probably don’t know that Obama grew up with no religious beliefs, his mother had no religious ties and despite his father being raised as a muslim, eventually became an atheist. Yes, that’s where the muslim connection came from and no he is not a muslim, not that it even matters. Obama has since aligned himself with the United Trinity Church of Christ, but a lot of that had to do with tradition in African-American culture. So with that being said, Obama is as close to a non-religious President since Thomas Jefferson who, while may or may not have been an atheist, certaintly questioned religion’s authority and was a strong proponent in maintaining seperation of Church and State in the U.S., which by the way is the only country in the world that maintains that to this day. After 8 years of Bush and his religiously driven foreign policy, even politically on the domestic side, it’s nice to know that we are a step closer to finally having a president that is not religious in motives, even if it’s still a long way to go.
One step closer to reality
Posted in politics, religion with tags african, american, election, mccain, obama, palin, politics, president, race, religion on November 9, 2008 by axl409Hitchens media blast
Posted in politics with tags fox, hitchens, mccain, news, o'reilly, obama, palin, religion, war on October 19, 2008 by axl409Christopher Hitchens in the news again, this time on the O’Reilly Factor except without Bill O’Reilly himself. In place of him is Laura Ingraham. Maybe it’s in the water coolers of the Fox news studio but this interviewer is just as ignorant as Bill himself. She attacks Hitchens in the intro and during the interview itself on Hitchen’s changing views, in particular the candidates for the 2008 US presidential elections. Hitchens has spoken out against both John McCain and Barack Obama on several issues at hand and Laura seems bewildered on why Hitchens now seems to support Obama after previously criticizing him in the past. Hitchens is known to be pro-war on the Iraq-Afghanistan situation, but what most don’t seem to understand is why. The reason is simple: Religion. Hitchens is a widely known and outspoken atheist, or should I say anti-theist. Hitchens will without hesitation criticize anyone who uses religion as a justified cause to infiltrate government bodies, and rightly so. After Sarah Palin was announced as John McCain’s running mate, Hitchens greased up the wheels and highlighted why she is not a great choice to even be in such a position. Read his article for Slate on this issue HERE It is interesting to note that Laura wears a symbolic religious cross around her neck during this interview, which would explain her lashout on Hitchens on the issue.
To Laura and those with the same view, to vote for someone just because they belong to a certain party or group does not mean you must stick with them no matter what they present to the public. If someone fucks up, makes a stupid decision eg making a religious nut your running mate, be prepared to look for other potential candidates to support. Hitchens has been smart enough to not align himself with a side or group these days, something which I now begin to identify with (thanx to George Carlin). It’s high school kid shit, people love to side with 1 another, seperate and categorize everything and that’s the problem with voters, especially in the US electorate system. Too many people too stubborn to change because they aligned themselves to 1 political party so therefore must be loyal. Loyalty has it’s place in life but not when making real decisions that can impact an entire country. Think with your head people, not with your heart. Otherwise we will have another mess like we have the last 8 years.
Watch the view interview below:
Which God?
Posted in politics, religion with tags alaska, god, iraq, palin, politics, religion, republican, war on September 4, 2008 by axl409This is from Yahoo news which originally came from a video posted on Wasilla Assembly of God’s Web site which in turn leaked around the net:
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a “task that is from God.”
In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it “God’s will.”
Palin asked the students to pray for the troops in Iraq, and noted that her eldest son, Track, was expected to be deployed there.
“Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God,” she said. “That’s what we have to make sure that we’re praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God’s plan.”
This is just downright scary and on top of that, very confusing to people who have a rational way of thinking, you know, normal people. My question is, how does she know this is god’s plan? Did god speak to these people and say go fight in Iraq? Doesn’t the same god also tell the Iraqi soldiers, al-qaeda and other terrorists fighting on the opposite side of the war to do the same thing, only against the United States? Am I missing something here or does this completely defy all logic? If you are going to fight a war, do it on your own convictions, do NOT say god is on your side. You have no proof that any god is on your side, it is basically a complete lie and yet people believe this shit. This whole situation is bizarre and not just in this case but in many cases where someone, especially in government where they claim god is on their side to win the war. Many times this has actually been said over many many years over many wars. Religious folk claim to be peaceful people and claim god is a loving caring all powerful being who loves all and yet is willing to side with 1 particular country to defeat and wipe out the enemy of another country. It is truly baffling that these people are allowed to walk the streets, let alone be allowed to be in places of power within the government. If there is a god, I sure as hell hope he ain’t listening to the prayers of these idiots.
Sumthin’ For Nuthin’
Posted in religion with tags creationist, darwin, hitchens, intelligent design, religion, slate on August 3, 2008 by axl409Christopher Hitchens latest article on slate.com touches on the creationist arguement, also known funnily enough as “intelligent design”. Anyone with a decent amount of common sense should know better but I suggest reading the following article for those that question why darwin matters: CLICK HERE.
Hypocritical a bit?
Posted in music with tags death, fans, internet, magnetic, metallica, mission, napster on July 18, 2008 by axl409
I have always said Metallica have the best fans in the world. And the worst. When it comes to critical opinions, Metallica fans voice their opinions like a motherfucker, good or bad. And sometimes the bad are just plain mean. But a lot of times I have to wonder if these same people actually think about what they say or really do see the glass half empty. Metallica finally revealed the new album cover for the upcoming new record “Death Magnetic” which is due for release sometime in September. Already the voices have come out criticizing the album cover for it’s blandness, it’s sexual connotations even though the intention of that farce was never there and the fact that it’s white. Let I remind you that these are the same people who also criticzed St. Anger for it’s harsh sound, yet 1988’s “…And Justice For All” album cover was white and the songs had horrible production and mixing and were similar in length and song structure. Hypocritical a bit?
Metallica fans have always been a bit hypocritical, from the blind sheep who refuse to have any dislike for what they do to those who haven’t liked anything they did since 1991. Now I’m a big fan of Metallica but accept the flaws they sometimes have that I see but always fully appreciate the good stuff that’s there. Their recent cover of Iron Maiden’s classic “Remember Tommorrow” was not to my taste, nor is Iron Maiden. But I accept what they are and what they do and that’s it. No expectations and no over-analyzing for ulterior motives or just plain bitching about it. And funnily enough, when I say I don’t like Iron Maiden, most generally seem to think I’m a crazy lunatic who has lost the plot. But turn it the other way around and say they are the crazy ones for not liking certain albums of Metallica or really, anything since 1991 and they’ll defend their criticisms with the tired old arguement of having the right to criticize or dislike what they want. Hypocritical a bit?
The recent fiasco of the reviews of the new album being pulled off the internet was quite interesting to say the least. And again, the termites came out of the wood-work like clockwork. For those that have been living under a non-digital rock, Metallica’s management invited a few journalists, magazine writers etc to come and listen to a few tracks off the new album. Days after the listening, reviews started appearing online, which is to be expected. All of a sudden, the reviews were pulled off the net by request from, funnily enough, Metallica’s management. The uproar eventuated into the usual “We Hate Metallica” bandwagon but even the loyal fans questioned this move. It later was revealed that management had indeed fucked up and Metallica themselves were unaware of the reviews being taken down. The same reviews were posted back up on the Official Metallica website by the request of the band. But the criticism of Metallica was basically the same shit. Metallica were anti-internet, anti-technology, anto this anti that which really derived from the Napster incident almost a decade ago. These are the same people by the way who think stealing is perfectly ok, as long as it’s on the internet, the pro-napster fuckheads who really have no argument to base their whingeing on. And yet they blindly pass over the fact that Metallica have been extremely good to their fans, the fanclub is top quality and they have made available their music online for quite some time. One only has to go to their official website to find various links to alternate official websites which offer entire live shows from their tours, video footage, websites that offer ringtone downloads, streaming music online, even a website dedicated entirely to the new album…the list goes on. So much for a band who is supposedly anti-internet. It really shits me that people are this stupid, ignorant and negative about anything Metallica, the same things that could actually be applied to other bands and yet receive no backlash at all. Hypocritical a bit?
It doesn’t bother me that people hate Metallica or just generally do not like certain things like album covers, song titles or whatever, people are entitled to their own opinions, but the reasons they give are such a joke it’s not even funny anymore. But hey, that’s just my opinion right?
Example of Torture
Posted in general with tags guantanamo, hitchens, iraq, torture, waterboarding on July 6, 2008 by axl409How does it feel to be “aggressively interrogated”? Christopher Hitchens found out for himself, submitting to a brutal waterboarding session in an effort to understand the human cost of America’s use of harsh tactics at Guantánamo and elsewhere. VF.com has the footage. Related: “Believe Me, It’s Torture,” from the August 2008 issue.
Thanx to The Hitchens Zone
The world has lost a genius
Posted in general with tags 71, carlin, comic, george, government, hbo, heart, religion, world on June 23, 2008 by axl409
In a world of stupidity, it is so refreshing to see someone come along and put everything into perspective, to just kick some ass. George Carlin was that person, but unfortunately on Sunday he died. Most would say he “passed” away but Carlin was not a fan of euphemistic language, one of the many wonderful qualities he passed onto us. I for one will severely miss him, he was such an inspiration on me and one of the major reasons this page even exists. R.I.P. Mr Carlin, the world will be a lot worse off without you, and I hope you enjoy your view of the world as it crashes into oblivion as you have so humorously been expecting.
Brothers in arms
Posted in politics, religion with tags debate, hitchens, iraq, religion on April 24, 2008 by axl409Came across this just recently, the HItchens brothers, Christopher and Peter were recently in a debate with each other on the Iraq War and religion at an event organized by the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies. For anyone that does not know much about these 2, despite being brothers and well known journalists and writers, they have completely different views on a lot of issues, particularly religion and politics. This debate happened to have both issues at hand and as always, Christopher Hitchens was brilliant as ever. Watch this debate at the following link on youtube.
Sounds like a rant
Posted in general with tags airport, annoy, drivers, edison, history, people, security, sound, thomas on April 4, 2008 by axl409Lately I’ve noticed there are more idiots around than normal, doing things that just plain piss you off. Here’s a list of people that are annoying:
People who walk slow and get in the way. I don’t mean the disabled, the elderly, young kids etc I mean a group of regular people who decide they own the walkways, walk as slow as possible and then take up all the space so that noone can get past them. It annoys the shit out of me that people do this and I see it all the time.
People on the roads who drive right up to your bumper while going at a fairly decent speed. Back off cunt, I’m not about to change lanes for you or speed up. We’re already going over the limit as it is, slow the fuck down and get some fucking patience. And yes I realize the slight irony in this and the public walkways but the roads are different in that PEOPLE CAN GET KILLED!
Airport security. Ever since the attacks on September 11th 2001, security has beefed up. Fair enough that measures have to be taken so that it doesn’t happen again but I think they are taking it too far. Having been on several flights in recent years, Ivé noticed that logic in security has pretty much been thrown out the window. Everything has to be checked, your shoes, buttons, zippers, keys, the list goes on. And all because someone fucked up a few years back. It’s ridiculous. There has to be some common sense in security, it seems that they just check for any kind of potential hazard no matter how insignificant but without actually having to think about it. Case in point: Recently a woman tried to board a flight in Texas but was stopped for a random check and found that her nipple rings went off during the search, despite the fact that it wasnt detected during the main metal detector walkthrough. So she was asked to remove the rings and anyone who has had nipple piercings knows how hard they are to remove, so she asked if she could simply just show a female officer the piercings instead. They flatly refused and she had to endure a lot of physical and emotional pain just because they refused to let her board with them on. This is security in 2008, the dumb only just got dumber. I don’t know how many terrorists have nipple piercings but I’m sure they’re having a good laugh over this.
Phony people. You know the ones, they are your best friends to your face but talk shit behind your back. So which is it dipshits, friend or foe, make up your fucking mind and stick with it. A lot of people come up to me at work and they generally just trash a few of their co-workers, some of which don’t deserve it and then you see them in a conversation and they act like they are the best of friends. I personally don’t have any interest in the petty bickerings of other people but it does piss me off to see people just put on this fake bullshit show for other people and then whinge about them all fucking day to everyone else.
People with great stereo systems in their car but insist on playing that annoying as fuck techno crap. OK, taste in music is relative and there is no right or wrong. But doesn’t mean I have to like it and goddamn is that shit annoying. The same fucking beat over and over, I always say what a waste of a perfectly good stereo system by some young kid who has no idea what real music is.
Ok that’s enough of that, there’s a lot of other groups of people that piss me off but we don’t have all day to list them all. The other thing I wanted to bring up was history. Seems to be a subject that’s interested me lately, I wouldn’t exactly call myself a history buff but admittedly did reasonably well in the subject during my years in school. And knowing me, the only time I ever did well in anything was if the subject interested me. Most history bores me, as it would with most people but theres a few things here and there that can be quite interesting to read up on. The early 1900’s up to maybe around the early 1940’s has always fascinated me and amazes me how much we have changed as a society, and not necesarily in a good way either. Sort of the reason I brought up earlier some of the annoyances we have to put up with these days, a lot of which was never an issue back in those days. But one aspect of history that caught my attention which goes back to the 1800’s was the beginning of recorded sound, or more importantly the sound of the human voice. Thomas Edison is known for basically inventing the phonograph, the first device created to record sound but the first ever recorded piece of human sound actually pre-dates it a few years before and you can actually hear it at this website HERE. Other early recorded sounds can be heard HERE. It seems like just some very ordinary piece of trivial information but when you listen to these early recordings and then compare to where we are today and the technology that we have now, it just makes you think a bit about how far we have come and how much has changed in over 100 years. I don’t think that there is anything being invented now, maybe never, that can compare to the bigness and historic magnitude of the inventions of 100 years ago, particularly of what Thomas Edison created. I certaintly did not give 2 shits about any of this as a kid but now, I seem to appreciate it a bit. I guess I’m turning into an old fuck now huh?
Back In Black
Posted in general on March 20, 2008 by axl409Apologies for the delay in another posting, I was, or should I say currently am busy with other things at the moment. And the little time I have had I’ve spent watching all of George Carlin’s stuff. It’s a new boxset of 14 DVD’s which includes all of Carlin’s HBO specials from 1977 up to 2005. Absolutely magnificent, I recommend buying it, NOT downloading it. Fuck that shit, not worth it when the quality of the content is that damn good. Speaking of George Carlin, who recently turned 70 which is a fucking absolute mindboggling thing to realize, he just did his 950th HBO special…..no actually it’s his 14th HBO special called “It’s Bad For Ya”. The guy has still got it, albeit a little slower maybe but the power of honesty and language in Carlin’s own way is still there. If you don’t have HBO you can probably find it on YouTube.com somewhere, or just wait for the DVD release.
More bullshit from the global warming frenzy, this time regarding signs from nature that global warming is real. The list is as follows:
You can see the trees and bushes blooming earlier. A photo of Lowell Cemetery, in Lowell, Mass., taken May 30, 1868, shows bare limbs. But the same scene photographed May 30, 2005, by Boston University biology professor Richard Primack shows them in full spring greenery.
You can smell the lilacs and honeysuckle. In the West they are coming out two to four days earlier each decade over more than half a century, according to a 2001 study.
You can hear it in the birds. Scientists in Gothic, Co., have watched the first robin of spring arrive earlier each year in that mountain ghost town, marching forward from April 9 in 1981 to March 14 last year. This year, heavy snows may keep the birds away until April.
You can feel it in your nose from increased allergies. Spring airborne pollen is being released about 20 hours earlier every year, according to a Swiss study that looked at common allergies since 1979.
You can even taste it in the honey. Bees, which sample many plants, are producing their peak amount of honey weeks earlier. The nectar is coming from different plants now, which means noticeably different honey — at least in Highland, Md., where Wayne Esaias has been monitoring honey production since 1992. Instead of the rich, red, earthy tulip poplar honey that used to be prevalent, bees are producing lighter, fruitier black locust honey. Esaias, a NASA oceanographer as well as beekeeper, says global warming is a factor.
In response to each of these weak arguments is what I say:
BULLSHIT!
Nature never stays the same. Taking a photo from over a hundred years ago and comparing it to today is not evidence that this change is a threat to the planet. It simply means the weather changes from season to season based on various reasons not necessarily subject to any kind of pollution. In other words, every year is always going to be different. Same as reactions to weather, especially with the technological advances in medicine today compared to 20 years ago. Winter does not begin on the same day every year, never has, never will. And explain the fucking freezing temperatures last winter and before and in previous years, some said to have been some of the coldest days ever. Global warming my ass. Check out this website HERE called the Global Warming Petition Project where over 19,000 American scientists have signed on to fight against the lies that have scared people into buying into the global warming issue.
Lastly, Christopher Hitchens in the media, sparking some controversy as usual. Now I agree with most things he says but his political views especially regarding President “Dubbya” is a little off I must say but he does bring up some excellent points in a recent appearance on Bill Maher’s “Real Time” show. Check out the episode HERE.
