Im constantly amazed

I think people really can't be as thick, stupid or hateful as they really are. In Ponce De Leon, a small town in Florida last year a principal was asked for help from one of his students, the girl asking for help is a lesbian, and she was being taunted by some classmates. So...what does the principal do to the girl asking for help?! He told her that being gay is wrong, then outed her to her parents...I guess that is the Christian way!

Some of this girls friends found the treatment outrageous so they wore gay pride t-shirts in support or t-shirts with rainbows. I wonder what happened to them? Well, first there was a witch hunt (the courts words not mine) by the principal to find more gays, then some students were suspended for daring to support their friend (what a terrible personality trait, wanting to stick by and support your friends, better crush that as fast as we can).

"We are a small, rural district in the Bible Belt with strong Christian beliefs and feel like homosexuality is wrong," said Steve Griffin, Holmes County's school superintendent. Interesting isn't it? From the highest authority in the school district we have people who think homosexuality is wrong...fine...but does that mean taking that personal belief and turning that belief into those kinds of hateful actions against children is well...

The principal was demoted but still teaches in the school...and the superintendent still believes they did nothing wrong. Seriously what the fuck is wrong with people!?!? They honestly can't see the effect such actions will have on children, or understand the hateful environment this will create for all of the gay kids who are in the closet. My god, who the fuck would come out there?!?!

I guess I have a totally different understanding of what the Christian ideal is than these types of people...I thought Christians were supposed to be loving, caring and understanding...rather than cruel, mean, harsh and well...fucking evil. Lets crush a young womans spirit, make her life hell, then talk about our great Christian values...well....fuck you...no wonder I am an Atheist!

I also can't understand how these people simply fail to read or understand the fucking law...seriously, how can they think their actions are legal?! Or that any court in the land would think its ok!? Are they so far removed from reality?!!? Can't they put aside their own retarded bias to do what is right for their own students!?!

"I guess I didn't realize we were this bad," Scott said...I guess you fucking didn't...asshole!

People wonder why I am so bitter and cynical...sigh...

أبو العلاء أحمد بن عبد الله بن سليمان التنوخي المعري

They all err - Muslims, Christians, Jews, and Magicians:
Two make Humanity's universal sect:
One man intelligent without religion,
And, one religious without intellect.
written by: أبو العلاء أحمد بن عبد الله بن سليمان التنوخي المعري

A poet (Al-Ma‘arri ) born in Syria in 973...already calling it as it is, we need to see more of this in the West!!

Swear Words??

Have you ever thought about how strange the very idea of swear words are? Words are used to communicate thoughts plain and simple, so why are we "offended" when people use swear words to communicate thoughts?! For example, I can comfortably say:

I am not happy with this product, it does not meet my needs and is poorly constructed.

But I can't say in polite company:

This is a piece of shit, what the fuck am I supposed to do with it?

Both essentially communicate the same thoughts, but one uses polite words, and one uses swear words.

One legitimate criticism of swear words is that they are very vague and thus they may not be the best words to communicate exactly ones thoughts. That being said, why is the use of swear words so shocking to some people?

When President Bush called a reporter an "Asshole", some people were stunned that the President would use such language. I hate to break it to you, but most everyone (except my mom) swears quite regularly. So why cant we swear in public? Why cant we swear on television? What the hell is so wrong about using some words?

A word is a word is a word...you can use many combinations of the most polite words to hurt or insult someone...so what difference does it make if one uses four letter words, or ones with more syllables to do damage?!

I must admit I have my own funny word bias, I happen to say "fuck" quite often...but only in the context of a general swear...I have never ever been one to say to a woman "Lets fuck", or "fuck me" or anything along those lines...its always been "make love" or "fool around" or "have sex"...don't ask me why, but its something I have never done.

Words...they are funny! So, think about it, what the fuck is so wrong about swearing!?

What happened to Fluffy?!

Ever wonder what happens to all of those pets that euthanized every year? From what I can tell it looks like 6-10 million pets are killed every year in the US & Canada. That is a huge number of dead animals, ever wonder what happens to the dead bodies?

I was shocked to discover that it is very common practice to take the carcasses to a rendering plants and turn them into pet food, or food for livestock. That's right, they pump the animal with enough chemicals to kill them, then turn the chemically filled bodies into food for other animals.

It turns out that the most common chemical used to put down is called "pentobarbital", and a study by the FDA suggest that pentobarbital is capable of surviving the rendering process.

The FDA has found pentobarbital in many pet foods it has tested. Linky

Now let me spell this out clearly, millions of animals are euthanized every year using the chemical pentobarbital. We have many reports of these dead animals being taken to rendering plants. In case you think Im making this up, check out this page and click on "What's Cookin". We have the FDA finding the very chemical used to kill these animals found in many of the pet foods it tested.

The pet food industry as a whole denies that euthanized pets ever become pet food despite the evidence (wonder why?!), the pet food industry claims that FDA studies have shown that they found no Dog or Cat in pet foods...The claim is that pentobarbital is making its way into pet foods via euthanized horses and cows.

...it is assumed that the pentobarbital residues are entering pet foods from euthanized, rendered cattle or even horses. Source

We know for a fact that euthanized pets are being rendered into feed, the question is, is this feed going directly back to pets? Or is it going to Cattle/Horses/Chickens, who then ironically are fed back to pets?! One thing is 100% clear, dead animals are being recycled and fed to other animals, and the process is being repeated.

Isn't this how mad cow was spread?!?!

A British inquiry into BSE concluded that the epidemic was caused by cattle, who are normally herbivores, being fed the remains of other cattle in the form of meat and bone meal (MBM), which caused the infectious agent to spread. Source

Seriously, how stupid are we?! In order to stop the spread of mad cow, we stop feeding dead cows back to cows...so we feed them to pets, who we then feedback to cows...my lord...its almost comical how fucking stupid people are...

Guide to Metal

What can I say...this is fucking awesome!!!!

War on Terror

Atheism and Buddhism

Can you be an Atheist and a Buddhist? Are these approaches to life mutually exclusive? I use to tell people I am a Buddhist then in passing mention I am an Atheist as well, which would confound and confuse, so now I generally just stick to the "I am an Atheist" approach to self labelling.

The famous quote from the Buddha is what empowers me to cover myself in both blankets:

"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it."

While this may seem like a common sense approach to a philosophy to base ones life on, you will find literally no "religion" espouses this view other than Buddhism. Can you imagine Christian or Islamic teachers telling you to use your own reason and accept only that which makes sense to you?!

Why would I call myself a Buddhist? Buddhism when you boil it down, amounts to living ones life by doing as little harm as possible, living with kindness and compassion and trying to be aware of the moment. Buddhism also has a strong sense of a duality of existence, that is we are made up of both the mind and body.

The concept of trying to be aware of the moment, to quiet the mind and not let it race along with thoughts at breakneck speeds is something that very much appeals to me. No matter that I am very bad at quieting my mind!

Meditation is also something I strongly believe in, and was once a great practitioner of, as of late I have rarely made time to meditate. This is something I aim to change in the coming days.

Do I believe in the Buddhist notions of nirvana or reincarnation? No, I do not believe in either of these two tenants of Buddhism. I don't believe that disqualifies me from owning that label and following some Buddhist practises.

One of the major problems I always had with traditional Buddhism was the formal priesthood and temples, both of which are concepts I would argue go against the teachings of Buddha. One of the major reasons I stopped using the label Buddhist for myself was the fact that everyone seemed to associate the temples and monks with Buddhism, and I wanted to distance myself from this. Then I happened upon this quote from the Dali lama:

This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.

Suddenly I feel its safe for me to once again wear the moniker of Buddhism. Now does that mean I believe or support everything that the Dali Lama says? Well, if you have ever read the bullshit that the Dali Lama says about sex, its clear that I can't support all of his views. He also believes in Nirvana and reincarnation, so there is still a huge gap in terms of beliefs between the two of us!

Crazy?!

Some people seem to have a very lose grasp of reality. I was surfing around the net and came across this site.

This person, Dr. Bruce Goldberg claims that time travel will be invented 3050 by a man named Taatos, he then goes on to give all kinds of details about this...I really can't add much to this discussion as it takes a certain kind of crazy to believe this shit.

Luckily for you and me, this guy offers tapes! For only $75 you too can purchase all 7 cd's worth!!! A time traveling dentist, just what the world needed! For 60 seconds of laughs its worth visiting his site...ok maybe 30 seconds...I laughed!

Financial Melt Down Explained

My good friend Alan sent me a link to a radio show from National Public Radio in Chicago which delved into the entire financial crisis, it does an excellent job at explaining both the macro and micro issues involved. Its an hour long, but well worth it if you really want to understand what happened.

Link to the radio show.

Free Speech in Canada?!

We Canadians often carry a quiet arrogance about how civilized and developed we are as a nation, yet we are blind to the very real and very dangerous short comings in our civil society. Most Canadians aren't aware of our collective lack of rights, Canadians wrongly assume our rights mirror those of our American cousins.

I think most young people sleep through the lesson on "Peace Order and Good Government" while in middle school. Unlike Americans, we have an extremely weak constitution whose rules only protect us as long as the government sees fit. There is not one clause in our constitution which cannot be overridden by either the Federal or Provincial governments! When I tell my good American friends, that at any point in our constitution can be thrown out due to the "Not Withstanding Clause" at any time for any reason they are horrified. What is the point of a constitution if it cannot stand up to our government?! The whole point of a constitution is to protect an individual from government.

The federal Parliament or a provincial legislature may declare a law or part of a law to apply temporarily "notwithstanding" countermanding sections of the Charter, thereby nullifying any judicial review by overriding the Charter protections for a limited period of time. This is done by including a section in the law clearly specifying which rights have been overridden. The rights to be overridden, however, must be either a fundamental right (e.g., section 2 freedom of expression, religion, association, etc), a legal right (e.g., liberty, search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment, etc), or a section 15 equality right.

Can you imagine the Americans putting up with this?! Ok, so in general this bothers me a great deal, today my specific concern about current Canadian law is free speech. In Canada it ain't so free!

If you want to be shocked, take a look at this, this is a transcript from a Human Rights Tribunal, May 10, 2007.

Q: MS KULASZKA: Mr. Steacy, you were talking before about context and how important it is when you do your investigation. What value do you give freedom of speech when you investigate one of these complaints?

MR. STEACY: Freedom of speech is an American concept, so I don't give it any value.

MS KULASZKA: Okay. That was a clear answer.

MR. STEACY: It's not my job to give value to an American concept.

Mr. Steacy is an investigator with the Canadian Human Rights Commission. That's right!, his job since 1997 has been to investigate human rights complains within Canada for a decade at the point of this exchange. His job is to know the law inside and out, and look for violations, and his conclusion is what?! Let me spell it out again: Freedom of speech is an American concept, so I don't give it any value.

Of course this bullshit position by a Canadian government official barely raised an eyebrow from the Canadian public and media. Once again Canadian apathy strikes! Well fuck that, freedom of speech is not an American concept, its a human concept!

When the government tried to do some damage control due to the whisper of discontent about Mr.Steacy's comments, they came out with this gem:

What the fuck?!!? Canadian value of freedom of expression is different from the American value of freedom of speech?! Are you serious!? Well, legally there is some truth to the matter...care to compare how many books are banned in Canada each year compared to the US. Or how many people are prosecuted for so called "hate speech".

This is infact the bullshit which pisses me off so much. Are we that scared of people in Canada that we cannot allow some dipshits to spew hate?! If someone wants to say something about Muslims, or Jews, or Whites, or Blacks etc, they should be allowed to. What are we so scared about?!?!

Should there be limits to speech?! Well of course threats, fraud and criminal conspiracies should be illegal. But peoples opinions, well seriously what is wrong with people being able to spout all kinds of bullshit?! Should my anti-religious tirade be illegal because they offend someone?! In Alberta, if I say something which offends a particular religious group I can be dragged before the Human Rights commission where I could face fines or prison for simply offending someone!!! Think Im kidding?! Canadian journalist and fellow allumni Ezra Levant was dragged before the tribunal for daring to publish the Danish cartoons which offended muslims. He printed a fucking cartoon and that cost him tens of thousands of dollars because some fucking over sensitive douche bags were offended by a cartoon! Here's his take on it.

This is plain wrong. I am ashamed of a country which is so scared that words upset or hurt people, that we are willing to prosecute those who dare say something offensive. Canadians we should all be ashamed, and people should know their rights, or in this case, lack of rights.

Why wont the christians save me!?

I reject Christ as my savior! The idea that some sort of zombie came back from the dead to save me from the sin of being born is something I cannot and will not accept. Ok, this topic isn't about why I reject all gods (unlike Christians who reject all gods but one), it is about why the Christians don't want to save me!

If I am a Christian who believes most of the bible (as an aside I must note that literally every single Christian who I have had the pleasure of debating picks and chooses parts of the bible and their various religions to believe in, and rejects other parts) then I must believe that someone who thinks and talks like Mr.Big will spend an eternity in hell!

The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.
Psalm 9:17

Im not even a nation, just one annoying arrogant guy! Since I am one man forgetting god, it must be pretty safe to assume it will be the fires of hell for me!

I have challenged a few of my closest christian friends with the question on why they won't save me. The bible is pretty clear that they are walking a dangerous path even associating with me:

"Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?" 2 Corinthians 6:14-17

"I have not sat with idolatrous mortals, Nor will I go in with hypocrites. I have hated the assembly of evildoers, And will not sit with the wicked. I will wash my hands in innocence; So I will go about Your altar, O LORD, That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, And tell of all Your wondrous works."
Psalm 26:4-7

"An unjust man is an abomination to the righteous, And he who is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked."
Proverb 29:27

And my favourite

"Do not be deceived: Evil company corrupts good habits."
1 Corinthians 15:33

I kinda like the idea that just being around me is a threat to someones beliefs, how strong the fear is that people will be easily swayed that the bible goes so far to state its dangerous to spend time in the company of people like me! Ok, I'm off topic...

If someone cares about me and truly believes I will spend FOREVER burning in hell fire why aren't they trying to save me? One would think that hell is the absolute worst place for anyone to be, yet people who laugh and joke with me are simply ok with the idea that I suffer forever in hellfire!

If I truly believed that someone would suffer an eternity in hell, I think I would do everything in my power to save them. Yet all of my Christian friends basically don't even try to save me from an eternity in hellfire! Do these people even like me?!!? Why on earth don't they try to save me!? Why aren't they trying to show me the path to righteousness? Why aren't they appealing to my emotional side? My intellectual side? Why will they let me burn?!

Ok, perhaps they want me to burn for being godless, I guess that is a possibility, but the people I have in mind are really good people, who seem to like me. So I am left wondering, why?!

When push comes to shove, perhaps they don't think I will burn, or that there is no hell, or that maybe not following some arbitrary rules laid down by bronze age sheep herders wont get one eternal damnation.

I think the real reason Christians don't want to save me is that by trying to convince an ardent atheist like myself about the existance of God they need to examine their own faiths critically as I ask some hard questions that aren't easy to answer. That is when talking with a Christian it often comes down to a statement like "You just have to have faith". One of my favourite atheists summed this up best when speaking with believers. as they often respond like this:

"I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith." That's just a long-winded religious way to say, "shut up," or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than, "How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do."
Penn Jillette

Enough of the serious talk...this is what I feel like: