Chuck the Lucky

So there is a rumor going around that OBL is dead of . Does it strike anyone as ironic that in western countries, Which he hated and strove to defeat, typhoid fever is easily treatable? If he is not dead then I will have to stop snickering. Until then... SNURK!!!

People who have never had depression or struggled with weight problems often have no understanding for people who do. While they can understand that some people have a genetic predisposition to cancer or schizophrenia or other illnesses, but for certain conditions it is all "Pull yourself up and stop whining." or "Just get of the couch and stop shoving food in your face". As someone who has dealt with both conditions I personally know how naive such suggestions are . Even though both depression and obesity can be overcome, it is more like overcoming an addiction than some simple new years eve resolution. Changing who you are from the ground up, from lifestyle to attitude to perception... everything - is one hell of a task.

The reason I am mentioning this is that there are vast numbers of conditions and variations in humanity that are not shared by large numbers of people and are poorly understood and rarely sympathized with. Until I read this, I had no idea that being born without finger prints (in addition to the other health effects of the condition) would have any impact on ones life. One would assume that if one were not involved in crime the issue would not come up.

Strange how insensitive we are by default. This summer I worked in retail and while I was great at it (No really! Even jerky customers complimented me), I was amazed at how demeaning people were to those who, after 8 hours of chaos, might not be offering 110% service. These were low wage sales clerks working in a store that was under-staffed, many of whom were at their first job and people were treating them with outright contempt; as if they were personally to blame for everything that ever happened to them. Even I was the subject of abuse though (being the perfect and all) it was always a case of the customer transferring their hatred of "evil big business" and their guilt for shopping at the "evil corporation" just to get value for their dollar (if the store is forced to close on Labor day, how is that my fault? If something is not in stock, how am I to blame?).

Why do people not just take a moment and think about what it is like to be someone else before they judge them? Better yet, Why doesn't every person who is not me just go to another planet and let me eat their canned goods and read their mail until I die of old age? That would be great!

I will forego the question of why on earth the United States Senate has a procedure that allows a Senator to secretly halt the unanimous will of his or her peers and go straight to the meat of this issue.

Go to the above link and look at the list of Senators who have refused to deny that they are the culprit. They are covering for someone who holds the American people and their institutions in such contempt that this person would use this most disgraceful maneuver to prevent the public from accessing information about their government. Whether they refuse to deny out of support for the cad or out of the simple principle that they should not have to answer to anyone, they have demonstrated complete disregard for every person who believes in the principles of democracy, fairness and justice. Go to the link and if you find that your Senator is on the suspect list, no matter what your political affiliation no matter what the reason he or she gives. Commit yourself to their defeat. Blog about them, discuss their behavior with friends and most importantly, do everything you can to publicize their disgrace.

There are no Democrats or Republicans on this issue. No wingnuts or moonbats. No Christians, Jews, Muslims, Secular Humanists or any other divisions. There is only what is just and what is unjust. If this means that you need to vote for someone that holds the exact opposite views on everything simply remember that six years of bad representation is worth the price of a once in a lifetime chance to send a clear and unmistakable message. And if you just can't bring yourself to vote for the "other" party, spoil your ballot. Write "Suspect" on it. Send the suspects a clear and unmistakable message - that they picked a side and it was not that of the American people.

As the list of suspects shrinks, remember how long it took your Senator to do the right thing and consider that when elections come around.

Those who have to wait some time before getting to vote for your Senators, write "Suspect Senator" on the last day of your calendar so that when you switch calendars in December you will remember to write it on the last day of the next year's calendar and on the year when you vote, write it in on the first day of every month. If you forget that your Senator chose sleaze over your better interests then you truly deserve this kind of disrespect.

Your call.

(Important belated update below)

I am not the first person to note this but it does kind of jump right out at you even when news writers don't fill in the dots:

A recently discovered ancient book of Psalms discovered in an Irish bog was found open to Psalm 83 in which the people of Israel plead for God to not remain silent while their enemies plan to "cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance."

While taking this as divine communication through the ever popular medium of leather and mud (hey if I were God I would use leather and mud to communicate everything to everyone - maybe with handcuffs and harpsichord music on special holy days), I think that that might be a bit of a stretch (given what I said inside the last brackets I think I should have phrased that differently). I have no doubt though that Jack Van Impe is already preparing a DVD about the holy bogs of Ireland and the Apocalypse. We should probably remember that the Irish also used to put butter in the bogs (Hmm... Bog butter!!!) to keep it fresh and safe from Leprechauns. The pagans also used to sacrifice people in the bogs. Hell you could probably find Jimmy Hoffa in there. I have heard that given the number of events that happen over time, a one in a million event will happen about every month. We just do not notice most of them. Less probable events also happen occasionally so lets not go nuts. Though just in case, if your nation is trying to wipe Israel off the map, you might want to think about moving to Antarctica for a few months.

Update: I found out a few days ago that the 83rd Psalm about Israel is from the King James version which stuck the first two psalms together so that that work and the Catholic Bible would be forever out of whack. That is the 84th Psalm in the pre-James Bible and the psalm open in the bog book would be the 82nd Psalm in the King James which has nothing to do with Hezbollah or the price of tea in China. While this would have been a simple enough mistake to make for the journalists, I should have caught it if for no other reason than that I should know by now that if you see something in the media it is either a mistake or a lie.

Dear Amnesty International,

Please get off the dope and start doing your job. If you think that dreaming up charges (which you refuse to investigate in person) against America and Israel will make the world a better place you might want to read this. (Via The Jawa Report) Or better yet, just sell the name "Amnesty International" to an organization that is willing to do the job you claim to be doing.

Signed,
Someone who wishes that you didn't suck.

These two videos are the most powerful works I have seen in some time.
Part 1
Part 2
Even if you are already an atheist or agnostic you should watch them. If you are interested in theology or religion or science in society you should watch them.

It is like the Passion of the Christ for the non religious.

Let me see, the Army will recognize a symbol on a tomb stone for atheism (what the hell is that - a big hand flipping the bird to an image of the eye in the triangle?) but not a pentagram for pagans? What bureaucracy decides that the army will recognize atheists who die for the country and for democracy and for the American way but will not recognize pagans? Where is the logic and the decency? People who die for America and the preservation and the spread of democracy and freedom around the world deserve respect, even if one personally does not respect their religion.

So let us get this straight. The far left wing will (Democratic Party/Media) resent any implication that they do not support the troops but they have (through the media and other orifices) sent out the message that they hate what the troops are doing and if you even think about making a mistake we will be all over you with the presumption of guilt and if we are wrong we will never apologize.

Just so we are all on the same page.

Here I go starting up a new blog and my first strategy is to not make a new post for a huge time span. I will try to not do that in the future.