Audi Alteram Partem

Saavik: Humor. It is a difficult concept. It is not logical.
Kirk: We learn by doing.

"With unemployment at 10.2 percent, price is more important to consumers this year than selection, quality or convenience, according to the National Retail Federation. Shoppers may spend an average of $682.74 on Christmas gifts this year, compared with $705.01 last year, according to the Washington-based NRF. " - http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aUwZi4ieMVHc&pos=5

That's a lot of money on crap.

Article 23.

* (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
* (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
* (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
* (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.


-http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

Fuck Bush too. Sure it's dated, but damn that man.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise— "so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one of you for whatever good you do, whether you are slave or free.

And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

Ephesians 6:1-9 (emphasis added)

Now, while I know that this was written in a time when slavery was common-place and considerably different than the sort of racist slavery that existed in America for hundreds of years, I cannot help but wonder why Jesus Christ that is, God incarnate, did not inform Paul (not to mention Luke, Matthew, John, Thomas and so on) of the simple fact that slavery is wrong and that the heavenly Father does not approve of it.

We have come a long way since Jesus--and the sort of soft rebuke that Paul offers: "And masters, treat your slaves in the same way." is a far cry from what one would expect from God when dealing with individuals that are depriving human beings of a basic human right. (or is freedom from literal slavery not a basic human right?)

Why didn't Christianity from the get-go fight against slavery?

PUZZLE!!!!

http://www.enchantedmind.com/puzzles/knights/knight.html

For those who give up, one solution is found under the cut. And I found this path--I didn't google it.

( Read more... )

11.

She teaches 6th graders. (my age tho)
There's something really odd about that.

Glenn Beck has ADHD.
That explains quite a bit.

My words live in a way that I, the author, do not!
( Read more... )

Jesus Christ there is a Jesus Day.
In America.
The country with separation of church and state.
JESUS DAY!
WTF?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Day#cite_note-1

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/06/us/2000-campaign-religion-issue-bush-s-jesus-day-called-insensitive-violation-first.html?scp=1&sq=%22jesus+day%22&st=nyt

What does it take to violate the first amendment?

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion...."

Well, I guess Bush was the Governor of Texas, and thus it wasn't congress. But I'm nearly certain the spirit of the first amendment extends to other governing bodies. Maybe not. Maybe I need to look into it.

EDIT: so i recognize the stupidity of:
"Well, I guess Bush was the Governor of Texas, and thus it wasn't congress." now.

Bush signed into law a bill crafted by the Texas legislative body--the Texas state congress. Der der.

Restless little one
Comfortable and warm
Let me fall apart
Crippled in your arms

Chase me through the dark
Ready on your mark
First to reach the stars
Wins a broken heart
One that broke apart
Shattered from the start

Are you there?
Do you read me?
Are you there?
I don't feel you anymore

Cages and alarms
Keeping us from harm
I will be the guard
Hope to rest upon

Could I be the one
To break a will so strong
Pray it won't be long
Til your will is gone
Everything is done
Nothing left at all

Are you there?
Do you read me?

----

I have weeks of free time now.
Ideally speaking that means I shall consume many a book.
Almost finished with the speeches of Malcolm X book I got from Jerry.

On and on life goes....


Room for photographs
Box full of letters
Come on make it last
Nothing else matters right now

It's about good foundations.
A solid start.
You can't get far if you get off on the wrong foot.
Well, you can't get as far.
And the goal is to be the farthest.
Since there is no stopping point.
No end goal.
No finishing line that afterwords we may sit and rest upon our laurels.
Our rest is work.

--------

The idiot B. strikes again. One more momentous moment that meant nothing.

I did discover that my bathrobe is soft.
I mean, knew that already, right, but this explains why I like it.
It shows me as being soft--unlike, say a leather jacket with spikes and chains.
Those are tough--hard.
A bathrobe is soft and comfy and warm; it's for a warm fuzzies kind of clothing.

I wasn't wearing the bathrobe for the above mentioned moment; that was the day before the bathrobe day.

The bathrobe day was fun; a return; a classic.

It was also totally deterministic.

---------

Societal norms are fun to mock.
They are like little princes and morality.

They must be shot at.

~B


( Silly edit. )

"none of us knew what happened next, especially those of us who were there"

Vox: (in post)"To what extent -- if any -- should we restrict the ability of the majority to inflict its religious views on the minority?"

Anosognosia (in comment): To the extent that the majority are trying to inflict weak, life-denying religious views on the minority. Since they are the majority, they will tend to be doing this, which is why tyranny is preferable to democracy.

The fight aint over yet. (http://community.livejournal.com/convert_me/1345435.html)

I was by myself the other day, thinking about life and all that good stuff. I realized that there must be one underlying premise to any and all arguments which, cannot really be disputed.

Anyone familiar with this comm will notice a trend--I look for things that are beyond dispute. For some reason, they fascinate me. The Universals--the Absolutes--they make me ponder.

All arguments must include the premise (tho it's generally not stated) that something exists.

P1) Something exists

Must be the starting point for all arguments, discussions, trivia, anything really. It is this really weird, but incredibly indisputable Truth. I would suggest someone here try to dispute it, but that would be impossible. Since either you don't exist and cannot dispute it, or you do exist and your existence proves it true.

I am hereby declaring the end of the relativist argument against truth. The above premise is not relatively true depending on culture or society or anything else. It is simply true and undeniable.

This of course shouldn't be news to anybody. If it is...well, OK. Now you know.

What astounds me is the next question it led me to.
Well OK, there IS something, but....why??

Why is there something and not nothing?
I feel the power of that question because it is not answered. Sure, religious folk claim to have an answer--but to all us thinking folk we know that the religious answer fails for it merely replaces one unanswerable question with another (that is, why is there God?)

To all y'all out there:

1) Can you find any way to possibly argue against "Something exists" as universal truth?
2) Why do you think there is something and not nothing?
3) Which is more powerful: the question with an answer or the question without?

I'm so tired, I'm feeling so upset
Although I'm so tired I'll have another cigarette
And curse Sir Walter Raleigh
He was such a stupid git.

They always take a cut.

"When repeal of Prohibition occurred in 1933, organized crime lost nearly all of its black market alcohol profits in most states (states still had the right to enforce their own laws concerning alcohol consumption) because of competition with low-priced alcohol sales at legal liquor stores." -wiki

Unsourced. But it makes good sense, now doesn't it?

Let's say it's true.

Who suddenly made all that money?
The govt.

A quote from a letter, written in 1932 by wealthy industrialist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., states:

When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before

{Daniel Okrent, Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center, New York: Viking Press, 2003. (pp.246/7).}

The govt can tax booze. It can tax cigarettes. It can tax cocaine too. And pot. All that pot! The govt is missing out.

No matter what happens--if pot becomes more or less expensive, the govt will stop spending on drug enforcement and it's attendant costs, and it will make some money on the taxation of pot. Which will certainly still be smoked--if decriminalization is any indication, in about the same numbers before and after (or so it seems to have been in Portugal).

But it's not like the govt is so diff from the mob when they take their cut.

If only I could tell the govt what to do with my money when they take it.
Bah.

This democracy thing is quite a gag, aint it? A grand sport!
Are you in the crowd, or a bench-warmer?
If you were in the game, I'd damn well know.
Are you even in the stadium?