It's quite simple, logically, ignoring for the moment the fact that most people are as far away from logical as possible. Of course, the other and equally bad extremely is being nothing but logical...
Anyway, Christians, Muslims, Jews, and various other monotheistic God-of-Abraham sects believe in something they cannot see, and will never see in this lifetime - their god. Yet they believe - or claim to believe - in this god. So they take on faith something they cannot see, and even claim to feel the effects of. I believe this is pretty much undebatable. This is what faith implies, however you implement it.
What else on "God's green earth" cannot be seen but you can feel the effects of?
Air.
Well, I know these people believe in air because they breathe it and will die in moments without it. What I want to know is, if these people believe in their god and think this god should be treated with the utmost respect, shouldn't air, which we also cannot see but feel the effects of, be treated with respect? Yet, there are Christians who want to dirty things up as much as possible to bring on something called a "rapture", which I and other rational people call "disaster".
Another point: these believers believe their god created everything, ergo this god created the air we breathe. Excuse me, but isn't it disrespectful of said god to foul and pollute His Work and Creation?
Hm.
14 July 2009
Verizon Voyages
About six months ago my girlfriend and I decided to change the way we handled our internet service from Verizon and put it in her name instead of mine.
And that's about the only thing that went smoothly.
Sure, we continued to receive DSL service, but that's probably because of incompetence on their part, to be objective about it. That worked in our favour, of course, but I think that's the reason. If I ran a business, I wouldn't let a customer go 6 months without paying! Still have the same DSL service as I'm typing this, still haven't paid, although we'll get to that part of the story soon.
So, six months ago, my girlfriend called Verzion and they were happy to oblige us by changing the service over to her name and sending her a paper bill in the mail. She gave them her name, confirmed our address as the correct billing address. At this time, I must note that the old billing info contained the same address and I saw it when I used to check the account online.
Months go by. No bill. We wonder what happened, but we continued to get service, and frankly, we had more important things to worry about. We weren't going to be bothered by Korporate inKompetence.
This morning, I check my catch-all email inbox and there's a "past due notice" from Verizon, to the tune of about $250 or so. I told dear GF about it and forwarded the email to her so she could look at it from her day-job office and handle it if necessary. When I checked the account online, the bill was in her name, so she called them.
The first thing that Verizon fudged up was the phone number in the email - not in service. Imagine. A phone number from the phone company not in service.
The second - and bizarre - thing Verizon fiascoed was the address. Rememeber what I said about the billing address earlier? Verizon had on their records a PO box I had rented - and discontinued - LONG before moving into our currently lovely abode. I never gave them that PO box, since it wasn't mine any longer, not to mention irrelevant to my current digs. So I have no clue what happened on that one.
The third thing they have done wrong to screw this all up is outsource their customer service. Yes, I know everybody does it, blah, blah, blah, save it. You just NEVER set up your customer service center on the other side of the world from your customers. That's just Good Business 101. If as a business you do not know this, save yourself the hassle of going out of business right now.
Anyway, at the moment, we haven't figured out what to do with this amusing little mess. If we had a good alternative to internet service in this area, we'd just ditch them and report them to any relevant consumer protection organizations and maybe the FCC, for their massive incompetence.
You know, the billing address thing is what gets me. Why is my name stuck to a old PO box that isn't mine and hasn't been for 2 or 3 years? What is wrong with people? Idiocracy, here we come!
And that's about the only thing that went smoothly.
Sure, we continued to receive DSL service, but that's probably because of incompetence on their part, to be objective about it. That worked in our favour, of course, but I think that's the reason. If I ran a business, I wouldn't let a customer go 6 months without paying! Still have the same DSL service as I'm typing this, still haven't paid, although we'll get to that part of the story soon.
So, six months ago, my girlfriend called Verzion and they were happy to oblige us by changing the service over to her name and sending her a paper bill in the mail. She gave them her name, confirmed our address as the correct billing address. At this time, I must note that the old billing info contained the same address and I saw it when I used to check the account online.
Months go by. No bill. We wonder what happened, but we continued to get service, and frankly, we had more important things to worry about. We weren't going to be bothered by Korporate inKompetence.
This morning, I check my catch-all email inbox and there's a "past due notice" from Verizon, to the tune of about $250 or so. I told dear GF about it and forwarded the email to her so she could look at it from her day-job office and handle it if necessary. When I checked the account online, the bill was in her name, so she called them.
The first thing that Verizon fudged up was the phone number in the email - not in service. Imagine. A phone number from the phone company not in service.
The second - and bizarre - thing Verizon fiascoed was the address. Rememeber what I said about the billing address earlier? Verizon had on their records a PO box I had rented - and discontinued - LONG before moving into our currently lovely abode. I never gave them that PO box, since it wasn't mine any longer, not to mention irrelevant to my current digs. So I have no clue what happened on that one.
The third thing they have done wrong to screw this all up is outsource their customer service. Yes, I know everybody does it, blah, blah, blah, save it. You just NEVER set up your customer service center on the other side of the world from your customers. That's just Good Business 101. If as a business you do not know this, save yourself the hassle of going out of business right now.
Anyway, at the moment, we haven't figured out what to do with this amusing little mess. If we had a good alternative to internet service in this area, we'd just ditch them and report them to any relevant consumer protection organizations and maybe the FCC, for their massive incompetence.
You know, the billing address thing is what gets me. Why is my name stuck to a old PO box that isn't mine and hasn't been for 2 or 3 years? What is wrong with people? Idiocracy, here we come!
09 July 2009
Choose - or die
The reasons for global warming, as touted, are too general and vague. Car emissions, factories, illegal dumping by corporations, big oil and gas, etc.
Baloney!
Before you think I'm one of those idiots with their heads in the sand, let me say that I know for a fact global warming is true. I just want people to acknowledge the real reason for it.
And the real reason is the individual choices of billions of people.
Billions of people choose to buy gas for their cars, lawn mowers and other machines.
Billions of people choose to buy and use products that are unnecessarily made with oil-based plastic.
Billions of people choose to simply throw things away.
Billions of people choose to simply not bother with re-using or recycling things.
Billions of people choose to use their gas-powered cars to drive somewhere they could walk.
Billions of people choose to buy gas-powered cars.
Billions of people feel the affects of increasingly aberrant weather patterns and choose to ignore them.
Billions of people choose to listen to people who fill their heads full of fecal matter.
Billions of people choose to eat food-like substances that are not food.
Billions of people choose to eat beyond what they need to be healthy.
Billions of people choose to acquire far more than they will ever need.
Billions of people choose to make money a priority when everyone knows, deep down inside, money cannot buy true happiness.
You get the idea. Billions of people choose to create unhappiness and destructions in their lives. We choose these things even if we deny we have chosen them, for otherwise we are all just instinctual bits of plasma and are worthy of nothing at all. I realise now that on some level I choose to be with my abusive ex, because I learned a lot about life and modern society from that experience. I would not consciously choose to get into an abusive relationship, but much of the time we make decisions on sub-conscious levels.
I say perhaps it is time we stop choosing to destroy our only planet. Perhaps it is time for humanity to bring those sub-conscious decisions to light and learn what it is we need to learn from our destructive attitudes. Perhaps it is time to evolve to the next stage, for the current stage of human evolution is not sustainable and will result in our extinction.
Baloney!
Before you think I'm one of those idiots with their heads in the sand, let me say that I know for a fact global warming is true. I just want people to acknowledge the real reason for it.
And the real reason is the individual choices of billions of people.
Billions of people choose to buy gas for their cars, lawn mowers and other machines.
Billions of people choose to buy and use products that are unnecessarily made with oil-based plastic.
Billions of people choose to simply throw things away.
Billions of people choose to simply not bother with re-using or recycling things.
Billions of people choose to use their gas-powered cars to drive somewhere they could walk.
Billions of people choose to buy gas-powered cars.
Billions of people feel the affects of increasingly aberrant weather patterns and choose to ignore them.
Billions of people choose to listen to people who fill their heads full of fecal matter.
Billions of people choose to eat food-like substances that are not food.
Billions of people choose to eat beyond what they need to be healthy.
Billions of people choose to acquire far more than they will ever need.
Billions of people choose to make money a priority when everyone knows, deep down inside, money cannot buy true happiness.
You get the idea. Billions of people choose to create unhappiness and destructions in their lives. We choose these things even if we deny we have chosen them, for otherwise we are all just instinctual bits of plasma and are worthy of nothing at all. I realise now that on some level I choose to be with my abusive ex, because I learned a lot about life and modern society from that experience. I would not consciously choose to get into an abusive relationship, but much of the time we make decisions on sub-conscious levels.
I say perhaps it is time we stop choosing to destroy our only planet. Perhaps it is time for humanity to bring those sub-conscious decisions to light and learn what it is we need to learn from our destructive attitudes. Perhaps it is time to evolve to the next stage, for the current stage of human evolution is not sustainable and will result in our extinction.
06 July 2009
The 4th of What?
I went with my girlfriend to visit some friends on Independence Day, and I noticed some very disturbing - but not surprising - things.
On television, there was, of course, a lot of fuss being made about "the 4th of July". Not "Independence Day". "The 4th of July." When the POTUS came on, all he did was regurgitate some boring, trite shite - and wished Sesame Street a happy birthday.
Sesame Street? Fucking Sesame Street? Although characters from Sesame Street were part of the festivities on the national mall, what the hell does Sesame Street have to do with Independence Day, and thus with the president's all-too-brief spiel? Why didn't the president talk about what the day stood for and what the founding fathers meant the US to be? Why didn't he talk about freedom?
Another thing that bothered me was that the television cameras showed a few black kids in the crowd, but I didn't notice any black adults shown by the camera. It was all whitey-tighty up in here (note: I am "white" - a word which means nothing to me as applied to me, hence the quotes). The only black folks I saw were Aretha and Barry My-Face-Doesn't-Move-Anymore Manilow's backup singers.
Further, all the musical performers except Aretha were not only white, but the most lame-ass "popular" singers in white America. Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond and re-enacters of white-bards-of-America-past. Lame. Lame, lame, lame! No rock'n'roll, and nobody singing about freedom or independence. The white crowd was shown by the cameras to be sucking it all up, getting all excited about Can't-Move-His-Face Manilow and Can't-Clap Diamond. I guess afterwards they all went home and got excited about mayonaise.
I don't think most Americans know what their country is really all about. They've been brainwashed by the Puritan Right and their mass-media hypnotism. This country was founded with the intention of forming a government with the sole purpose of protecting the rights of individuals. Almost since day one, the government of this country has been increasingly anything but protective of individuals (except those who have power and money).
Let's not forget the sickening repetition of "My Country 'Tis of Thee", which is massive, barf-inducing hypocrisy. Let freedom ring? For fucking who? It wasn't for the Africans whitey kidnapped and forced into slavery. It wasn't for the people who were already fucking living here. It certainly isn't for the non-white immigrants who are here - legally or not - today. It most definitely isn't for people with disabilities, who get left out of everything and are forced to pay taxes for the things they get left out of. That leaves, drumroll, please, RICH WHITEY! For rich whitey, let freedom ring!
I wasn't impressed with the fireworks display either. Sure, they're pretty, but that's all most people think about. Both the national anthem and the fireworks represent the battle of Fort McHenry, which Francis Scott Key observed and thus inspired, wrote what became the national anthem of the US. So right there, the date for the display of fireworks should be in mid-September, or at least on both July 4 and in mid-September, so that Americans remember exactly what the hell all this hoopla is about. And while the fireworks are pretty, they represent a battle in which people fought and died, so the grave counterpart of the pyrotechnics display should not be overlooked.
My fellow Americans, you have forgotten your country and don't even know what your country is all about. Some of you sit on your asses all day. Some of you preach hoighty-toighty values. Some of you insist on stuffing everyone around you into safe little boxes so you can sleep at night.
All of this is un-American. Dude, where's your country?
On television, there was, of course, a lot of fuss being made about "the 4th of July". Not "Independence Day". "The 4th of July." When the POTUS came on, all he did was regurgitate some boring, trite shite - and wished Sesame Street a happy birthday.
Sesame Street? Fucking Sesame Street? Although characters from Sesame Street were part of the festivities on the national mall, what the hell does Sesame Street have to do with Independence Day, and thus with the president's all-too-brief spiel? Why didn't the president talk about what the day stood for and what the founding fathers meant the US to be? Why didn't he talk about freedom?
Another thing that bothered me was that the television cameras showed a few black kids in the crowd, but I didn't notice any black adults shown by the camera. It was all whitey-tighty up in here (note: I am "white" - a word which means nothing to me as applied to me, hence the quotes). The only black folks I saw were Aretha and Barry My-Face-Doesn't-Move-Anymore Manilow's backup singers.
Further, all the musical performers except Aretha were not only white, but the most lame-ass "popular" singers in white America. Barry Manilow, Neil Diamond and re-enacters of white-bards-of-America-past. Lame. Lame, lame, lame! No rock'n'roll, and nobody singing about freedom or independence. The white crowd was shown by the cameras to be sucking it all up, getting all excited about Can't-Move-His-Face Manilow and Can't-Clap Diamond. I guess afterwards they all went home and got excited about mayonaise.
I don't think most Americans know what their country is really all about. They've been brainwashed by the Puritan Right and their mass-media hypnotism. This country was founded with the intention of forming a government with the sole purpose of protecting the rights of individuals. Almost since day one, the government of this country has been increasingly anything but protective of individuals (except those who have power and money).
Let's not forget the sickening repetition of "My Country 'Tis of Thee", which is massive, barf-inducing hypocrisy. Let freedom ring? For fucking who? It wasn't for the Africans whitey kidnapped and forced into slavery. It wasn't for the people who were already fucking living here. It certainly isn't for the non-white immigrants who are here - legally or not - today. It most definitely isn't for people with disabilities, who get left out of everything and are forced to pay taxes for the things they get left out of. That leaves, drumroll, please, RICH WHITEY! For rich whitey, let freedom ring!
I wasn't impressed with the fireworks display either. Sure, they're pretty, but that's all most people think about. Both the national anthem and the fireworks represent the battle of Fort McHenry, which Francis Scott Key observed and thus inspired, wrote what became the national anthem of the US. So right there, the date for the display of fireworks should be in mid-September, or at least on both July 4 and in mid-September, so that Americans remember exactly what the hell all this hoopla is about. And while the fireworks are pretty, they represent a battle in which people fought and died, so the grave counterpart of the pyrotechnics display should not be overlooked.
My fellow Americans, you have forgotten your country and don't even know what your country is all about. Some of you sit on your asses all day. Some of you preach hoighty-toighty values. Some of you insist on stuffing everyone around you into safe little boxes so you can sleep at night.
All of this is un-American. Dude, where's your country?
30 June 2009
24 June 2009
A Word About Insurance
I want to chime in on the scams known as insurance. I know that if you end up with a medical emergency, it could cost thousands of dollars. But let’s say you have to pay, from your pay check, $250 per month. After one year, you’ve paid $3000, plus any amount in co-payments, depending on your plan and how often you use your plan. Let’s say nothing serious happens over 5 years. That’s at least $15,000 you’ve just given away. Let’s say the “something serious” costs $10,000. You’ve still given away $5,000. Let’s say you’re real good about your eating and exercise and you’re always quite healthy. Over 20 years, assuming you pay about the same for health insurance every month, you’ve given away $60,000, and if you keep your head about diet, exercise, no substance abuse, good driver, pays attention in general, and even if you only have that one $10,000 emergency, you’ve simply given away $50,000.
The insurance scammers are laughing all the way to the bank.
Money doesn’t mean anything to me, but I would like that $50,000 because I could help out my mom and girlfriend with the homes they own and other useful things.
Plus, no other animal on Earth gives a damn about insurance. What happens to all living, earth-bound creatures is, regardless of species, we age and die. NOTHING prevents this. People with insurance have died horrible deaths early on, and those without have lived long, healthy lives. You just. Do not. Know.
So I would advise anyone to be in charge of their own lives and do their own thing and not sweat the insurance too much. If anything, have a little compassion for those who have the “insurance” neurosis that greedy corporate fascists infect many of us with.
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