Tuesday, March 27, 2012
no difference
i'm sure this has been brought up before, but does choosing to be gay or straight even matter? (personally, i think for most people it isn't a choice; for a small minority, however, i think it is) let's say it's always a choice and they want to get married. ...so what? as long as they want to get married for the "right reason" i don't have a problem with it. too many straight people get married for all sorts of dumbshit reasons or they get divorced because they simply don't care to work on that relationship. would gay people do the same? probably. but why deny them the the opportunity to legally express their love and commitment to each other?
Saturday, March 24, 2012
chemical castration
Moldova Chemical Castration For Convicted Pedophiles Legalize
"Foreigners convicted of sexually abusing children in Moldova will be mandatorily [chemically] castrated [without consent]... Chemical castration involves the administration of testosterone-suppressing hormones every three months, which are intended to curb sexual drive and male fertility."why only foreigners? "'The Republic of Moldova has been transformed in recent years into 'a tourist destination' for Western pedophiles and there have been cases where rapists have repeatedly offended even after they served prison time...' There have been nine convictions for child sex offenses in the country in the past two years – five of which were of foreigners from Western Europe..."
...is this really so bad? i understand that it's without their consent, but those molested kids didn't give consent either. and it isn't permanent castration. and dammit, if you're going to molest kids, maybe don't come to my country to do it!
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
moving sky
Aurora 2012 from Christian Mülhauser on Vimeo (watch it with the sound turned on and up!)
february 9th's astronomy photo of the day!
Saturday, March 17, 2012
charity
(lol, this site has become a bit of a atheist propaganda site)
Why You Don't Need God to be Good: the Rise of Atheist Charities
"Charitable organizations geared towards non-believers are growing. "Good without God" has become a catch-phrase of the increasingly vocal atheist and freethinker movement -- from books to billboards, the non-religious are asserting the strength of their humanist ethics. As atheists emerge from the closet and stand up for themselves, one message they're bringing along is that charity is far from an inherent monopoly of the religious."
“skeptics and humanists are frustrated that so many charitable organizations, especially those that help people afflicted by natural or human disasters, have efforts coordinated by religious organizations. These organizations sometimes proselytize to the people in need of their services. This is entirely unacceptable.”
as much as i like helping people / organizations, i always try to picks secular ones. it is really disconcerting when you go to a thing and the organizers are like "let's do this for god!" or whatever. i mean, i'm here to go good because i think it's the nice thing to do, not because some deity told me i should.
giving and helping should really be about the end goal, not about the motivation for why we do it. but, of course, many who don't agree with the organization's reasons for giving are understandably uncomfortable with contributing. so i'm glad there is a rise of secular charities. i know i am much more open to supporting secular causes.
Why You Don't Need God to be Good: the Rise of Atheist Charities
"Charitable organizations geared towards non-believers are growing. "Good without God" has become a catch-phrase of the increasingly vocal atheist and freethinker movement -- from books to billboards, the non-religious are asserting the strength of their humanist ethics. As atheists emerge from the closet and stand up for themselves, one message they're bringing along is that charity is far from an inherent monopoly of the religious."
“skeptics and humanists are frustrated that so many charitable organizations, especially those that help people afflicted by natural or human disasters, have efforts coordinated by religious organizations. These organizations sometimes proselytize to the people in need of their services. This is entirely unacceptable.”
as much as i like helping people / organizations, i always try to picks secular ones. it is really disconcerting when you go to a thing and the organizers are like "let's do this for god!" or whatever. i mean, i'm here to go good because i think it's the nice thing to do, not because some deity told me i should.
giving and helping should really be about the end goal, not about the motivation for why we do it. but, of course, many who don't agree with the organization's reasons for giving are understandably uncomfortable with contributing. so i'm glad there is a rise of secular charities. i know i am much more open to supporting secular causes.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
isms all the same
school district takes only boys to see a movie about why racism is stupid
a dallas school district spent $57,000 to take 5000 boys to see the new movie red tails. why boys? “There is only so much available space at the movie theater, so the decision was made for boys to attend the movie.” district leaders thought the boys would enjoy the action movie more than girls.
so what did the girls do? some of them got to watch the 2006 movie akeelah and the bee. others, since not every campus showed the movie, had regular school lessons. ...
it's just so crazy that the movie happened to be red tails since it's pretty much about how excluding people based on something like race is stupid.
a dallas school district spent $57,000 to take 5000 boys to see the new movie red tails. why boys? “There is only so much available space at the movie theater, so the decision was made for boys to attend the movie.” district leaders thought the boys would enjoy the action movie more than girls.
so what did the girls do? some of them got to watch the 2006 movie akeelah and the bee. others, since not every campus showed the movie, had regular school lessons. ...
it's just so crazy that the movie happened to be red tails since it's pretty much about how excluding people based on something like race is stupid.
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
air force
"air force removes 'god' from logo", bunch of assholes get pissed
"Jason Torpy, president of the association, said the word "God" had no place in the logo because not all members of the military are religious. "We just hope (the Air Force) can provide more equal opportunities for atheists and humanists in the military.""
makes good sense to me! a lot of atheists get freaked out / turned off by pro-religion talk being brought up in places that have NOTHING to with god / religion... like forever21 printing "john 3:16" on the bottom of it's bags. it's kind of creepy. they have the right to do so, clearly, since it's a private company. but the air force is funded through our taxes so...
""The action taken by the RCO suggests that all references to God, regardless of their context, must be removed from the military," the congressional letter states... "We ask that you reverse this perplexing decision."" ...are you an idiot? how is this a "perplexing decision"? not everyone believes in god, therefore they're uncomfortable with those words plastered on every damn air force motto sign.
"courts consistently have upheld the constitutionality of our national motto, 'In God We Trust,' despite the obvious mention of God.... Religion is a part of this history." ...so is atheism, dumbass! and btw, tradition doesn't make something correct, duh. slavery was legal for a long time, wasn't it? so was segregation. and women not legally being allowed to vote, work, own property. and interracial marriages were illegal too. should we go back to that because of tradition? and btw, the past supreme courts have clearly been in wrong when they upheld non-secular laws. our first amendment that says clearly says it's illegal to do so!
btw, "Doing God's Work with Other People's Money" is a pretty damn funny motto, lol.
"Jason Torpy, president of the association, said the word "God" had no place in the logo because not all members of the military are religious. "We just hope (the Air Force) can provide more equal opportunities for atheists and humanists in the military.""
makes good sense to me! a lot of atheists get freaked out / turned off by pro-religion talk being brought up in places that have NOTHING to with god / religion... like forever21 printing "john 3:16" on the bottom of it's bags. it's kind of creepy. they have the right to do so, clearly, since it's a private company. but the air force is funded through our taxes so...
""The action taken by the RCO suggests that all references to God, regardless of their context, must be removed from the military," the congressional letter states... "We ask that you reverse this perplexing decision."" ...are you an idiot? how is this a "perplexing decision"? not everyone believes in god, therefore they're uncomfortable with those words plastered on every damn air force motto sign.
"courts consistently have upheld the constitutionality of our national motto, 'In God We Trust,' despite the obvious mention of God.... Religion is a part of this history." ...so is atheism, dumbass! and btw, tradition doesn't make something correct, duh. slavery was legal for a long time, wasn't it? so was segregation. and women not legally being allowed to vote, work, own property. and interracial marriages were illegal too. should we go back to that because of tradition? and btw, the past supreme courts have clearly been in wrong when they upheld non-secular laws. our first amendment that says clearly says it's illegal to do so!
btw, "Doing God's Work with Other People's Money" is a pretty damn funny motto, lol.
Monday, March 5, 2012
perspectives
a friend gave me his business school application essay to read. here i an talking about it with rip.
Neurp: something i found REALLY interesting: "...my one pride and joy, my hometown dragon boat team, fell apart. I felt as if I had nothing."
Neurp: "my one pride and joy, my hometown dragon boat team, FELL APART"
Neurp: that's... so... weird to hear that. esp since many years later we're still paddling. like, yeah, we struggle with having enough people (tho not this year)
Neurp: but i think we do really well for how many practices we have and stuff like that
Neurp: we all get along, there's much less drama now than there was 10 years ago
Neurp: (prob because we only have a couple officers and none of us are dating each other)
Rip: i think by fell apart he means 'things got hard and I gave up without a fight'
Neurp: I KNOW!
Neurp: i mean... i know part of the reason he quit was cause he found it too hard to work with [officer's name]
Neurp: and a lot of very senior members left, taking with them some of our strongest paddlers
Neurp: but... i really don't think it fell apart
Neurp: if anything, things got better once there few fewer people
Neurp: well, fewer officers anyway
Rip: yea, things are way better now, we got pete haha
Neurp: lol
the whole thing is surprising to me because 1. i didn't know it was his one pride and joy 2. i didn't know he thought we fell apart (since we still paddle every summer under the same team name and under some of the same leadership) and 3. i had no idea he took it so hard.
it's funny too, but a couple years after he left our team, we were talking about it and he made the comment that it was time for the team to die. i remember being pretty offended since i was still running the team at the time. and, sheesh, yes you used to be our head captain, but just cause you leave doesn't mean that others can't take over. i wonder now if he wasn't a little bitter. maybe he honestly thought that without him we would fail. yet, here we are, five years later, and still going reasonably strong.
anyway, i just thought it was interesting how people "rewrite" history.
it's funny too, but a couple years after he left our team, we were talking about it and he made the comment that it was time for the team to die. i remember being pretty offended since i was still running the team at the time. and, sheesh, yes you used to be our head captain, but just cause you leave doesn't mean that others can't take over. i wonder now if he wasn't a little bitter. maybe he honestly thought that without him we would fail. yet, here we are, five years later, and still going reasonably strong.
anyway, i just thought it was interesting how people "rewrite" history.
Friday, March 2, 2012
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