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!