George Carlin.

This is a poem George Carlin wrote called, "Modern Man."

Democracy

Pepsico, Incorporated has put up an online poll where consumers can vote for which one of the three new flavors of Mountain Dew they would like to be continued permanently. They call this campaign "DEWmocracy," which would be a mockery of a sacred civil institution in a nation that took such things seriously. It should be noted that while there are three flavors for soda drinkers to choose from, in the upcoming Presidential election, there will be only two choices.

I would also be willing to put money, if I were a betting man, on the chance that PepsiCo's polling will experience less fraud, less voter disenfranchisement based on racial bigotry, and be more accurately tabulated than the American Presidential election. Further, the winner will be determined by a direct tabulation of the popular vote, rather than by an arcane and obsolete affront to democracy.

Two Party System

I ran into an old friend today at work and he told me that he would be voting for Ron Paul. He said, "Call me crazy, but I'm not going to let the media pick who I vote for." Well, I am inclined to call him crazy, because he intends to vote for a madman, but I certainly agree with the second part of his statement. George Carlin pointed out long ago that we have fifty choices for "Miss America," thirty-one flavors of ice cream, and two Presidential candidates. I pointed out that in a nation with perhaps 150 million people eligible to be President we have to choose from two of them, which somebody else already picked for us.

He referred to the two duopoly parties as "Communist Party A and Communist Party B." That is exactly right. There is a narrow spectrum or respectable opinion in this country - within that narrow spectrum there is a great deal of difference. But nobody is allowed outside that narrow spectrum. And most of what is important is outside of that spectrum. And any viable candidates must reside within that narrow spectrum; any viable candidate must be approved by the powers that be. It really is remarkably similar to the Soviet Union.

Free Will

I was listening to Bob Dylan's immortal Highway 61 Revisited the other day, and I noticed something rather interesting. In the title track, Dylan opens with the story of Abraham from Genesis, and makes the following statement:

Oh God said to Abraham "kill me a son"
Abe said "Man You must be puttin me on"
God said "no," Abe said "what?"
God say "you can do what you want but
The next time you see me comin' you better run"

I think this is kind of an interesting observation on the doctrine of free will, whether or n0t it was intended to be. The story behind free will is roughly thus: God created each of us with complete control over our own actions (as opposed to God having control over us.) This is supposedly the reason why God is not responsible when his creations wring evil upon the world. This must be an attractive model for Oppenheimer, Teller, Fermi, and the rest who have exposed us to the danger of nuclear annihilation. But the problem that Dylan has highlighted in the Christian mythology is this - God has given us the choice to either follow his rules, or burn for all eternity in the furnace/lake of hell. It's really not that much of a choice. While God has given us the ability to physically make the choice, he has set out one of the two options as something that no sane human being would ever freely choose. So it isn't really a choice at all.

Pedophile Priests in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia

This is a post that I wrote for my other blog that is now defunct due to the fucking Internet, which I hate. I was really proud of this post, so I reposted it.


I have been reading a book that YCP Chick loaned to me. The book is an anthology put out by Disinformation called Everything You Know About God Is Wrong. It really is an amazing read and I would recommend it to anybody who isn't overly attached to their religious beliefs.

The article I am currently reading is excerpted from the report written by a Philadelphia Grand Jury and released in September 2005 detailing the abuse of children and the resultant coverup by the Church hierarchy. What is remarkable about the report itself is that is was written by a Grand Jury, which is made up of private citizens, rather than professional jurists. These patriotic and dutiful citizens gave up three years of their lives to investigate the systematic abuse and obstruction of one of the world's most powerful organizations. No prosecutions or convictions followed the report, because the unduly narrow statute of limitations prevented any indictments from being delivered. But the report is important because it shows how the Church has created a culture of impunity and even encouragement towards committing sexual abuse of children. If any secular organization, a corporation or a non-profit, had so systemically abused the children under its care and obstructed justice for so many decades, they would likely not be able to further sustain their existence. The people would have seen to it that they no longer had the funds or other resources necessary to continue. But since the Church demands the unwavering allegiance of so many people around the globe, it is able to so blight the people of our nation and get away with it.

The most remarkable event in my mind is described in the introduction to the report (on page three.) A priest who raped and impregnated an eleven year old girl forced her to get an abortion. That says everything you need to know about authority figures. I could not more succinctly illustrate my feelings towards the way our world works than to say that that does not surprise me one bit - in fact, it seems to me certain that that must have occurred several times somewhere along the line.

I hate the Internet.

I just made an email address with the exact same name as the one I had earlier. The previous one got deleted and I don't know why. I suspect this one will get deleted soon too, because this always happens to my email addresses. I hate the Internet. This type of thing happens to me all the time.