Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Terrific and typical news...

No more than five minutes after I've gotten into bed last night, the phone rings and the voice gives me shit for not picking up the phone quickly enough. I retorted that it took them long enough to call. As it happened last June, I figured out the reason for the call. Just one year and viola!

While on Facebook this morning, I went through the routine of buying pets, a silly app, and noticed that someone had changed their default picture. Wow! She looked better in that picture than in person. I IM'ed her and told her so. The chat got excruciatingly dull so quickly that my final text was "ditto". It's disappointing that this decent specimen doesn't have any oomph! beyond the initial moments.

Then again, I don't follow the general guidelines. I suppose my verbage falls under "where the fuck did that come from?"

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

The Rightists

I find it interesting how the current hatemongers in the U.S., being populated mostly by evangelicals, have the balls to accuse folks of the blatant hypocrisy with which they themselves blare over the airwaves. For example, here's a paragraph I copied from an article on the CNN website today:

"I think he's deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own world view, his own confused theology," [Focus on the Family founder James] Dobson said, later adding that Obama is "dragging biblical understanding through the gutter."

That is his response to a speech given by Barack in 2006:

"Which passages of scripture should guide our public policy?" Obama asks in the speech. "Should we go with Leviticus, which suggests slavery is OK and that eating shellfish is an abomination? Or we could go with Deuteronomy, which suggests stoning your child if he strays from the faith? Or should we just stick to the Sermon on the Mount?

I read it as Obama being open to religious consideration when it comes to governing but not governing under religion's edicts and canons. As an atheist, I see absolutely no point of mixing governing and religion. Does "an eye for an eye" make more sense than diplomacy?

Dobson later threw this into the mix:

"Evangelicals are people who take Bible interpretation very seriously, and the sort of speech he gave shows that he is worlds away in the views of evangelicals."

Here's something I'm borrowing from Alpha Bitch to rebuff this last statement:

"Myth: America is a Christian Nation.
..Suffice to say for now that any country with ZERO mentions of god, and only two mentions of religion (both of which pointedly exclude religion from the government and legislative process), in its foundational documents is pretty clearly not a religious nation of any stripe. Read the Constitution sometime, mm'kay? I know it's usually not required in school, but it's very enlightening. So what difference does this little delusion make in today's society? Well, ask any teen girl who got pregnant, because the only information she got about birth control was from an "abstinence only" sex-ed program … where all you learn is how often birth control fails, never mind how to use it properly, because premarital sex is a sin. Visit a school where science teachers have to include a unit on "Intelligent Design", aka. God Created the World (which is not any kind of scientific theory), right along side the theory of Evolution, or where the library had to remove books which somehow offended the sensibilities of a loud local church. Or how about NGO foreign aid organizations receiving government funding who, thanks to Reagan's biblical policies (enthusiastically upheld by both generations of BushCo presidencies, while suspended during the Clinton administration), cannot educate women in Third World countries about abortion, because that's a sin too? The US does guarantee that you can practice whatever form of holy superstition you like, but the Founders were really quite clear that you have no right to try legally forcing your religious values down other people's throats."

Here's another tidbit Alpha Bitch wrote earlier this year:

"Creationism is bullshit. Seriously. A big magic guy in the clouds did not wiggle his fingers and create the earth in 6 days. Didn't fucking happen. And I think anyone who professes to believe such a thing ought to be barred from political office. What if there was a religion claiming the world was flat, and the whole "round" thing was just an optical illusion created by God to test our faith? Would ANYONE be suggesting we teach it in schools? Would anyone vote for a politician who claimed to believe it? For fuck's sake, people. It's 2008. We have fossils. We have carbon dating. Get a clue!"

I'm sure to have pissed a few folks off. But take a moment and think about it please. Then ask yourself this:

Why do we yearn for explanations about what's happening or happened only to make up explanations that cannot possibly be true but that which we wish and demand it be true without any proof?

Friday, June 20, 2008

Right-Flingers

I think it's admirable that Obama is foregoing using public campaign financing. After all, it's our taxes dollars that can be spent on.....say, infrastructure, or, better yet, education, for dumb ass Americans. The surprising thing is that McCain's people feel odd and are opposed to this; yet, McCain once trumpeted campaign reforms as well. I suppose he thinks that Obama will be bought by the left-wing lobbyists whereas he's the bigger person who shuns the right's money while pushing their agenda.

On last night's premier of Penn & Teller's Bullshit, the illusionists were railing against those who seek to bring down pornography by mocking a trio of anti-porno'ists. Two suggested that it leads to rape and child pornography. The third implied that it was an addiction greater than heroin and destroys families. Countering these hypotheses are studies (funded by the federal government during LBJ and RR) that said porn does NOT damage society and, in many cases, helped relationships.

The anti-porno'ists claimed that porn is violent and dehumanizes women. I can agree that women are objectified (isn't it the actresses' choice to get humped for money?). But, porn isn't violent as the actors are generally in a great mood as they get their freak on. How does a bridge exist between porn and rape?

I tried to see the anti-porn folks' points but just couldn't. I have viewed my fair share of porn and found a few quite exciting. However, I have NEVER EVER thought about rape nor child exploitation. It's just not right. Penn & Teller did set it straight by saying that rape is a violent crime and that all rapists should be caught and punished, as should those who are involved with child porn.

Of interest was a passage that Penn quoted from the bible that was porn-speak from the days. I'd wish I remembered the verse so I could post it here.

Watch some porn with your special person(s), smile, be loving and enjoy yourselves.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Funkagenda

I want this song!!!!!!!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

What global warming?

We should all be happy that the wonderful Triple-H (Hot, Hazy & Humid) days have arrived to our beautiful wilting Apple. The women are in skimpy clothes. People's faces are shades of pink and red as most forget to use SPF. They're so unlucky compared to me as I continue to get jazzed up in the mornings donning my tie and suit. After all, the recently introduced new trains spit out freezing air that so irk the barely-dressed female commuters. Pobre mujeres.

The heat does have drawbacks. First, I have to take cold showers in the morning and when I get home. Second, it causes my electricity bill to drastically increase as roaming spirits in my apartment scrawl on the walls for me to blast the air conditioning lest they tossed items at me. Thirdly, I can't sleep bundled in my comforter.

On the bright side, my appetite for spiced foods has soared. I get to use lots of napkins to wipe my mouth and waves of sweat. The frostbite epidemic will be kept at bay. Should it get any hotter, folks will not drive and, thus, create the low demand that will lower gas prices as inventory builds. Lives will be saved as who wants to shoot bullets and explode bombs. Life's a beach and we should all head there for breasts and volleyball.

This global warming hypothesis is crap conjured up by fascist liberals who are educated unshaven and assertive women and men like that who like other men; hate America; and, blaspheme God's great representatives such as Pat Robertson and George W. Bush. But that's cool as this heat is a prelude to their damnation in Hell.



Note: heat does cause circuitry to cross, send wrong signals and burn out.

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Bullseye Necklace

Since May, I've been working quite furiously when in the office. Not that I want to but because I have to as I was given a sparkling invisible necklace made of bullseyes from management. It all started with the re-restructure that occurred at the beginning of 2Q08. My group consists of three people (me boss, me-self and me co-worker).

The boss doesn't really do much other than push things onto me while he reads the paper, Stumbles online, checks out the Manhattan skyline and inhales a pound and change of sunflower seeds everyday. Me co-worker is ever the model worker as she helped me with a few annual reviews and other mindless shit that was handled by other folks prior the re-restructure. As for me, I'm inundated with demands from the front, middle and back office.

I get the privilege of hitting the group's quota for this year, writing up the bundles of annual reviews myself & correcting Credit's shoddy contributions (or lack thereof since they're worse copy-and-pasters than me-self), maintaining the quarterly financial statements & compliance certificates, reviewing & preparing closing documents, filing all necessary paperwork to the cabinets and responding to all waivers and inquiries from HK.

For all these perks, I get a key to the penthouse office where we've been re-restructured to. I'm not allowed to smoke on the balcony (me co-worker told me the big cheese asked her to spy on me). In fact, I'm not allowed outside but I go anyways and occasionally have a smoke. At least, I still have my music, my net links for time/space dislocations and a bathroom for 3 people only (they're not messy at all).

While I've asked for help, the assurances I get are that it's coming shortly, soon or in the near future. So far, ZIP, NADA, BUPKISS. But I shouldn't complain. After all, I have a job, especially in this shitty market when many companies are letting go of staff. Hell, I should work harder since they haven't fired my ass yet though they're so itching to do so. In fact, I should grateful to take their abuse as I put myself in this precarious position by performing so well at the beginning of my tenure that it created unrealistic expectations. Dammit, it's my fault that I'm not living up to those lofty aims despite the massive economic realities against it.

I should be so lucky to be adorned with the bullseye necklace.