Eye for an eye

Lately in discussions regarding the Casey Anthony thing, I have heard the phrase "Well I believe in an eye for an eye..." as if that means something or is even pertinent to the discussion at hand. When I hear this I want to respond with "Oh did we somehow go back in time 4,000 years? Is this Ancient Babylonia? Are we worshiping Marduk and should I prepare a pleasing sacrifice?"

Modern societies, progressive and free societies do not adhere to the Hammurabic Code anymore. The laws of modern, progressive, free societies have become more subtle and nuanced with reagrds to criminal law, reflecting what we know about human behavior, and it si really for the better. An eye for an eye was a good start for law, it was a foundation. But since then society has evolved, and modern law is to an eye for an eye as a modern human is to it's single celled ancestor.

Yeah i am a lazy blogger, but here are my thoughts on this Casey Anthony verdict

Well the Casey Anthony trial just ended. Not guilty. And before I go on a rant here let me say, I think she may have done it.

But I am glad she was found Not Guilty. Here is why: When a prosecutor brings a death penalty case, or any case for that matter to court they have to have irrefutable evidence. It is their failure to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt that led to this verdict. PERIOD. It doesn't matter how the public felt, it doesn't matter what the media felt. If the prosecution cannot prove their case, the accused, whether they committed the crime or not should be acquitted. This is the price of a free society. And it is a heavy one.

If you find that this is not justice, then I politely invite you to go live in North Korea or China. There a prosecutor doesn't have to prove a damn thing. There if your accuser is a representative of the government you are guilty, regardless of the fact that you actually committed the crime or not.

I myself like the fact that our justice system works the way it works. I prefer a justice system that lets off 100 guilty people rather than convicting a single innocent person (which, unfortunately, happens anyway).

Two things I am sick of hearing about

It's been a while and if I have managed to not lose all of my readers, all one of you,  I would like to take the opportunity to apologize to him/her. Sorry.

There are two things that the "news" media has been pumping out non fucking stop for the last couple of weeks and really I wish it would stop, for serial. One is this whole Trump/Birther campaign that is frankly nauseating and the other is this Royal Wedding as if it had any relevance to the lives of anyone outside of the UK.

Let's tackle this Trump thing. Is it possible for the American "news" media to embarrass itself any further than it already has done by putting this squirrel haired moron in the spotlight, and actually giving him some credence? The answer to that is obviously no. After Trump (hopefully) fades into reality TV obscurity once again, there will be another national humiliation spotlighted by American "news" media outlets. Why in the hell do we give this moron a stage to spout what amounts to basically is a sort of modern day Jim Crowism? I mean to call into question the presidents qualifications in regards to his citizenship is just like the racist voting regulations that African Americans were subjected to in the late 19th and early to mid 20th century. How have we not got past this? Are privileged white men really that ignorant? And then just like they did back in the "good ole' days" Trump moves the goalposts. What a fucking jackass! This shit is just so full of stupid and racism it makes that vein in my head throb....it makes the two Negro-Bots from the Transformers sequel look perfectly racially progressive. And the thing is, he's NOT GOING TO RUN! I guarantee it. This is a publicity stunt. He is, as Obama said in his speech when he released his long form certificate, a carnival barker. All talk no action. If he does run, however, he will quickly drop out I am almost assured of it.

All that aside, what has Donald Trump really accomplished? He is a real estate "mogul" with three bankruptcies under his belt. And the guy owned CASINOS! Those places practically print money! Oh he has a successful TV show, right I forgot that. But really do people tune in to see him glare and say "You're Fired!" in that obnoxious voice of his or do they tune in to see D-list celebs make utter asses of themselves? I say it's the latter. You could put a trained monkey up there on that "Board of Directors" or whatever the fuck it is, and the ratings will be the same as long as those "celebs" keep having meltdowns. And all this tough talk about China and the Middle East, veiled threats and demands. Yeah that's not how it works Donny boy, you see the government is so deeply in bed with the oil producers that no you can't just march over there and make veiled threats and demands and not have them laugh their asses off at your retarded comb over. How it works is this: they fund your campaign through various oil company and energy PACS, you invest your private money in their businesses, and boom you make legislative concessions that favor deregulation and tax breaks and screw over the real Americans you claim to represent. That's how business is done in Washington and it uh well it sorta works? Actually it won't in the long run but who cares? 10 more custom sports cars and five more homes for every wealthy American and politician heavily entrenched in oil money. YAY! Cause he who dies with the most stuff WINS! The Donald....FUCK YOU! Stop making the US look stupid by keeping your fucking mouth shut and save your opinions for that redonkulous, Lowest Common Denominator reality show PLEASE!!!!!! Yeah I know, pissing in the wind. This horse and pony show will never end.

One horse and pony show that will, thankfully, end after today is the wedding of Kate and whatisface....oh William. Yeah the media talks more about her and how beautiful blah blah blah etc she is and barely mentions him. Either way I am trying not to give a fuck. But it gets very hard not to. Because I see every bubbly, blond "news" bobblehead blabbing about it. OK I should chill it's almost over.

Anyway Game of Thrones airs in Costa Rica next week (May 8th how fucked is that?!?) so I do have something to look forward to. I have been fortunate enough to see the first episode as I was in the states when it aired and I must say "MWAH!" it is scrumtrulescent! Go watch it! HBO rules!


EDIT- I just realized this (because I am a half wit): When Douche bag Donald  is asking for Obama's transcripts, what he is really insinuating is that Obama got into Harvard because of affirmative action and not on his own merit.....HOLY SHIT THIS DICK COULDN'T GET ANY MORE RACIST, EVEN IF HE PUT ON A WHITE CLOAK AND WENT "A-LYNCHING NEGRAS WHAT TOUCHED THAT THERE WHITE GIRL!"

I Heart This Poem

Tim Minchin's - Storm. This poem is responsible for my blog title.

I hate everything

Kill it !!!! Kill it !!!! Make it die!!!!!


Thank you ever so much Hollywood for once again dipping into the well of great movies from my childhood and remaking them. This can only be due to utter contempt for your audience and no shame. Gotta fund that champagne and coke lifestyle.  I would like to say this is due to a lack of original ideas in Hollywood, but alas that really isn't the case. Original ideas are killed every single day in Hollywood. And if any independent company decides to use one for a film outside the Hollywood system, they kill it with the MPAA.

I don't even want to touch the Batman reboot already being talked about, even BEFORE THE FUCKING DARK KNIGHT RISES IS FILMED!!!!!!!!! Yeah not gonna touch it, I am out of blood pressure medicine.

The 2012 Election

Well the religio-TeaBagger-Rethuglican stupidity continues and you know what it will make for both a hilarious and yet sad election.

Newt Gingrich has thrown his hat into the ring and had this to say about why:
"I have two grandchildren: Maggie is 11; Robert is 9," Gingrich said at Cornerstone Church here. "I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they're my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American."

If ever there is a truly facepalm worthy statement, that is it.

And lest we forget the other theistard considering a run, Michelle Bachmann .

You know what, I am not as scared as most Americans should be. If either of these two gets elected, I can always run back down here to Costa Rica.

I have known about this for a while now

But I always thought, nay hoped, it would die in development hell....but apparently not and they have gone ahead with casting the Akira live action movie.

Fuck you Hollywood, fuck you very much.

Atheists have our own little parables to

And it's not just Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" either.

I just finished reading Terry Pratchett's excellent novel, "Nation". And it is one of the greatest atheist parables since the aforementioned Pullman series. While it is for young adults, adults will enjoy it as well. The story takes place in an alternate Earth during a time similar to our own late 19th century, and concerns a young man named Mau. At the beginning of the tale, Mau is returning to his island Nation after being on a separate island where boys are sent to become men. During his return a giant tidal wave swallows tosses his canoe around, a canoe he made as part of his coming of age ritual. The wave drops him off on his people's island where he discovers he is the only one left, as the wave has killed every one on the island. Unbeknown to him the wave also shipwrecked a young aristocratic girl, who is only 139 people away from the British throne, and, because of her father holds an interest in all things scientific. After burying his dead people, he and the girl begin to interact, and survive together. I'm not going to go into all the plot details, read it yourself, I implore you. The crux of the story though is Mau's rejection of his peoples belief and patent acceptance that everything is the will of the god, and that "the gods did it so who are we to question" is a common answer to tough questions and inquiry into any phenomena, like the great wave. One of the great quotes in the book comes towards the end, where a descendant of Pilu (one of the characters, who joined Mau's new Nation and was from another island, which had a similar culture to those of Mau's people) is quoting Mau when asked if he believes in god (in this case the people of the Nation believed in a god called Imo) and his reply is "Imo made us clever enough to work out he does not exist"

This book just left me with a case of the wows. I cannot recommend it enough.

Oh and before i forget

It wouldn't be St. Paddy's day without the Pogues

Now I could rant about how St. Patrick subjugated Irish tradition by replacing the traditional pagan faith there with a Roman based one, after all the "snakes" that he drove out were really the pagan priests and priestesses. But if that didn't happen we might not have the Pogues and other great Irish folk music...so um hooray for religious persecution (?)

Red Dawn Remake

Oh man Hollywood you suck balls, for serial.

I don't even want to get into the fact that you are about to release a remake of the classic Red Dawn. One of the greatest, cheesiest, jingoistic right wing paranoia fantasies of the 80's, which despite my left leaning self holds a sacred place in my heart for fueling many prepubescent right wing paranoia fantasies of my own. That is bad enough. No what makes it even worse is now they are shoehorning an unrealistic enemy into the movie, and trying to play it with a straight face. Now don't get me wrong, while I definitely do not believe China is any kind of threat to us (they make too much money off of us, you don't kill the cow that shits gold, that's the saying right?) China is by far a more plausible nemesis than North freaking Korea. I mean Faux Newz (the "z" is cause it's extreemly fair and balanced) fear mongering aside, North Korea could send it's entire population (including children) to take over the US and would fail miserably because we outnumber them 13:1, and I can guarantee you they have nowhere near the military hardware or technology despite their recent nuclear testing. South Korea, yes they are a threat to South Korea, and perhaps Japan, but not the US.

Why can we not leave well enough alone? Why do we have to besmirch the memories of great movies? And then to pile on insulting the average American movie goer with this crap........ok maybe it's not an insult, I have seen some of the more popular movies and their grosses....yeah the majority of the movie going public are morons. I should have realized that when the second Bayformers movie made a shit ton of money despite itself, enough money to warrant Bayformers III: See You On the Dark of the Moon.

It's Ash Wedsnday!!

One drawback to my skepticism

And no it's not that the world is a boring place because there is no supernatural cause, nor is it because i supposedly don't have an open mind (that is patently untrue, if I am provided with evidence that conflicts with a belief I have, I will reconsider my belief). The only drawback to being a skeptic is when I read or watch something fictional, I find that on occasion I have trouble suspending some of my disbelief. For example, I just finished Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. In the book's universe, which is a fictional one, there is talk of god and the devil and the entire story revolves around the Apocalypse. Now the wierd thing is, is I could suspend disbelief for the god and satan stuff, but not for the little bits of woo dripped throughout the book. This is not to say I didn't love the book, I have read it three times, I love Neil Gaiman, I love Terry Pratchett, and this book is funny and compelling and has a great cast of characters. Imagine if Douglas Adams rewrote The Book Of Revelation. But there was mention of ley lines as if they were real, and other things of that ilk that I found myself momentarily irked by, enough so that I would roll my eyes whenever I saw it. This isn't the only time this has happened. I can't watch the X-Files anymore because it's plots rely on so much debunked woo woo nonsense that I tend to get aggravated with the whole thing. And this seems only to happen in works of fiction that are set in a universe almost equal to the real world in mostly every way. For example Star Wars is chock full of unscientific speculation and woo, but I can still immerse myself enough in it to be able to suspend my disbelief because it is so obviously a fictional universe.

This affects some of the entertainment  decisions I make. Take Paranormal Activity. I will not see that movie. There is nothing in this world that will compel me to do so. Ghosts don't exist ergo they are not scary. So what kind of thrill can i expect from that movie? Certainly not the same thrill "true believers" get. Maybe the characters are interesting, maybe the drama isn't all cheap scare. I don't know. And maybe this is my skepticism causing me to actually be close minded. Maybe I am being a bad skeptic.

I don't know, maybe it's not so much a regret or a drawback, I can't say I miss the X-Files, though I know I really used to enjoy the show. I just wish I could let go and take off my literal pants and enjoy something even if there are psychics and ghosts and ley lines etc.

Ah fuckit, I think I will rent Paranormal Activity, after all as a self professed skeptic, I should gather my own evidence before drawing a conclusion....but it just looks so damned boring.

On body modification, cherry picking from the bible, and some other personal stuff like circumsision

Recently the atheosphere has been a buzz with this news item: Gay Bashing and Leviticus Tattoo . It is a sad state of affairs when a person gets beaten for a perfectly healthy sexual orientation (or gender, race, ethnicity etc.) and I hate to say it, but I can't help but smirk at the irony of that tattooed lunk head. He is typical of certain bigoted, gay hating Christians. They like to cherry pick their bible (technically most if not all religious types cherry pick) . Yes the OT Leviticus verses prohibit homosexuality. But do you know what else it prohibits? Tattoos . Yes this moron has committed a sin, in the eyes of his god, on par with being gay. And while in the mind of certain anti gay bigots homosexuality is a choice, a tattoo is relatively permanent. It can only be removed by methods that require more voluntary mutilation, which according to the OT is a no-no.

There is a reason that body mods, save for involuntary male infant mutilation, are forbidden. Pagan cultures at the time and in that area of the world were very heavily into ritual body modification to honor or become more like the gods they worshiped. In order to distinguish themselves from the Pagans at the time and to eschew any heathen practices, the Hebrews of the OT made a point to include body mods in their list of "abominations".  But apparently the ancient Hebrews had no qualms about ritually mutilating 8 day old infants as stated various times in the bible and codified into law in Leviticus 12:3 . An adult getting a tattoo or piecing bad, causing pain and nigh irreparable damage to a boy's best friend when they are not old enough to feed them self, let alone consent to a barbaric medical procedure, that's perfectly fine.

I myself am a practitioner of voluntary body modification. I have several tattoos and a couple piercings. I like the "ritual" of getting a tat, the pain releases endorphins and adrenaline which can be a hell of a rush, and I like the idea of having a personal symbol or work of art permanently etched into my skin. What I do NOT like is the fact that as a child of (relatively secular Jews) I was mutilated on my genitals, without my consent, scarred for life and stuck with nerve damage on an area of my body that has, since middle school, been my best friend. My penis was given severe nerve damage, something like 50,000 fine touch nerve cells destroyed, and I had no say in the matter whatsoever! Why?!?!

We all cringe at the thought of female circumcision, why is it we are ok with male circumcision? I am not one to scream reverse sexism, mainly because males have had the upper hand for thousands of years of human culture. But this is a classic case of sexism. Why is there not the same outrage for the mutilation of a male child as there is for a female? Several reasons are given and not one is any justification for this brutal practice. I won't even touch the religio-cultural reasons, because they are silly, there are a great many religious traditions and laws we have eschewed in the name of progress, the practice of legal slavery is one. How about this one: males are sexual beasts, and if left unchecked they will focus on that area of their bodies. This was used by Maimonedes as a justification for circumcision. Now granted I will admit, I am a horny motherfucker, most of the time. But I have learned self fucking control! I do not pressure women into sex, I do not rape, I do not play pocket pool in public (in private yes there are times when i can get into a total wank fest, but that is between me, interweb pron and the ever stiffening gym sock). OK but I am circumcised one may say, yes true, but desire stems from my brain not from the sensitivity in my dick. The worst of the worst reason is "it looks nice", "it's aesthetically pleasing",  or "I want my son to look like his father" (and these are the NUMBER ONE reasons given for having a non Jewish child circumcised). It's aesthetically pleasing, or it looks good? Really? So was, according to the Chinese, foot binding, I don't see an across the board acceptance of that. And because he should look like his father? Yeah the facial and other structural characteristics aren't enough, we have to chop off the head of his penis. And finally the out and out lie reasons: it cuts down on AIDS transmission and prevents penile cancer. Oy Vey. First off are there any reliable stats on these claims? And prey tell how does it cut down on AIDS transmission? Is that like the belief that raping a young virgin will cure a man of HIV?

The only good thing about my circumcision is that it makes a great excuse for my voluntary body mods. Whenever my mother laments a new tattoo, I remind her that well at least it was MY decision. Unlike the decision that was made for me when I was 8 days old.

Oh and a Post Script: I have been mulling over a tattoo of Lev. 19:28, just to be a smart ass. But then again much like how holy water, or religious texts and symbols burn my skin, it may burn me until I die or remove it.

NONONONONONONONONONO!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just heard a terrible rumor that Hollywood, that stagnant bowl of freebase residue and spray tan runoff  is remaking one of my most beloved Science Fiction movies: "Logan's Run". It is set to star Ryan Gosling, who I only have so far liked in the movie "Lars and the Real Girl" and maybe "Fracture", altough his role in that could have been portrayed by any Hollywood pretty boy, like Channing Tatum.

Why do they do this? Why do they just keep taking old crap and making it pretty with vapid actors, and hot new directors, who maybe had one good film, but were most notable for something like music videos? Seriously I really thought the dumbed down PG-13 version of slasher movies I loved was bad enough, but for chrissakes!!!!!! This is a classic. Michael York was and will always be Logan 5. I can only imagine who they would get to play Jessica, a role, like York's in the movie, that was so perfectly played by Jenni Augutter. Probably Megan Fox, ugh an empty, vapid expressionless face and no talent.

And you know what is the worst? I reference this movie at least once a week. When the remake comes out, what the hell am I going to do, especially if it sucks. It's like Bowie and Mercury's "Under Pressure" all over again. Ever since Vanilla Ice sampled that song, I was forever shamed into playing it at low volume.

Dammit Hollywood, I hate you oh so very much.......and yet I can't live without you, you worn out old twat.

Never drink unfiltered water in Costa Rica

I am currently recovering from a nice case of intestinal parasites from drinking unfiltered Costa Rican water. How could I have been so monumentally stupid you may ask. Well the thing is we have a refrigerator that dispenses cold water, and since the ice maker in the very same refrigerator was not functioning properly, and our bottled water dispenser does not have a cold water feature, I decided to go ahead and use the dispenser not knowing it was unfiltered. After taking a sip I noticed some floating "things" in the water. Which is odd because there is never any kind of debris in the ice when I use it. Anyway, parasites, pain, fever, and other very nasty stuff occurred. So it may be a bit before I post again. I have medication and am recovering.

Bill O'Reilly's tides and how sometimes it's ok to say i don't know.

Well ol' Papa Bear has done it again, said something so immensely contrite and stupid. And of course when called on the carpet for it he said he knew that the gravitational pull of the moon causes the phenomena of the changing tides. And I have no reason not to believe that. In fact I think Bill O'Reilly is a smart guy, he has to be to manipulate the masses with such obvious falsehoods espoused on the O'Reilly Factor. What Bill eventually asked was "Where did the moon come from?" this is a little more complicated question, but about five minutes on Wikipedia could have resolved this for him. Eventually every time someone with knowledge answers him, he will ask "Well then you explained A is caused by B then where did B come from?" So eventually in our hypothetical back and forth with Billy Boy we come to the singularity of compressed matter, space, and time, the thing that would eventually rapidly expand and begin the formation of the universe, and he of course comes to the question "What started the Big Bang?". The penultimate question in the theists god of the gaps argument.

The fact is as far as I know, science doesn't have a perfect answer for that. And guess what? That is ok. One of the things I had to come to terms with when I became an atheist was the humility to accept "I Don't Know" as an answer. Because when one says I don't know, they can then begin to maybe get a little curious, maybe actually find evidence that supports a hypothesis of what was there "before". And when one says "God dun it", well one is just making a baseless assertion and is perhaps cutting off any further inquiry into an unexplainable phenomenon, and perhaps in a more philosophical sense cutting off the one "purpose" that I can see for the whole of human existence. The purpose to divine the secrets of the world and the universe around us. To be the mind of the universe, to allow the universe to understand itself (props to Carl Sagan for inspiring that idea in me).

Tura Satana dead at 72

The universe of cult films has lost an icon. I am gonna go watch "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!".

My thoughts on the situation in Egypt

As a self labeled progressive, I fully support the people's uprising in Egypt. Men like Mubarak are anathema to everything I believe. Through the use of intimidation, imprisonment, torture, manipulation and suppression of opposition Mubarak has held for 30 years his seat of power in Egypt. It is high time he was ousted, and even better, because the revolution is so widely televised, it is happening in such a humiliating way, where every day he just looks worse and worse in front of the world as a whole.

But with every revolution since the French one 200 years ago, we have to be wary. We should throw our support behind those who are calling for freedom, but beneath them there likely is lurking an insidious threat more dangerous to freedom and liberal representative democracy, the head choppers. It was probably during the French Revolution that those who craved power for their own nefarious agenda learned a very valuable lesson, if one's views are not taken seriously in a new government established after a revolution, then start cutting of heads. If one starts committing a campaign of atrocities, the people will become intimidated and one's power will increase. Another great example of this is the Russian Revolution. After over throwing the czar the Menshiviks shared power with the Provisional Government and a leader in the Socialist Revolutionary Party Alexander Kerensky eventually ascended to the position of Prime Minister. While in power he promoted freedom of speech and had many political prisoners released. And while there were still wrinkles to be ironed out, it looked at if the revolution was headed in the right direction. But there was a little bald bespectacled man who was living in exile in Switzerland, and backed by Germany, who feared he might turn his own revolutionary sights on them, began a campaign of terror in Russia, and eventually through a campaign of violence and manipulation managed to wrest control of Russia and enact his own personal vision of the prefect people's state. That man was Vladimir Lenin.

My point is we have to be wary, and I hope that when and if the US government puts any kind of real support behind these revolutionaries, they do it with full knowledge of what may be lurking beneath. And please understand I am in no way implying the Muslim Brotherhood is that shadow, they are very much in the forefront of things, they have done nothing to hide themselves. Also they are not considered a radical terrorist group, and even al Qaeda considers them to be "sell outs". In my limited knowledge I don't see them as the threat. However there could be a threat we do not know about. Not because this is a Muslim country, but because it has happened time and again. Do I have any answers? No. The only thing I can say is support those who wish to wrest power from the tyrannical, and establish a free, representative democracy, but be careful. And to those who are laying their lives on the line to win their freedom, I say keep your eyes on the prize, but watch your backs.

Go Read Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

Seriously, not just because the creator Zach Weiner did this . But because it is one of the funniest webcomics I have ever read.



And seriously what he did to N.O.M. was super sweet.

The Roomate

Is it me or does it sometimes seem that Hollywood is a black hole vortex where good original ideas are sucked in and compressed into a singularity, while terrible ones manage to somehow escape, perhaps propelled by the rancid sushi farts and excessive cocaine use of Hollywood pitchmen and money grubbing movie executives?

Case in point: The Roomate. I could rant about the recent state of horror movies, but i have been smoking chocolope since i got off of work and I am just too damn lazy to go into it right now. But really the remake, reboot, or just plain fucking rip off and then dilute into PG-13 wussitude to grab the teen/tween buck is just enough to make one's asshole suck up so far into their body that they burp farts. I saw this movie when it was called Single White Female, and it was awesome.

Maybe it is because I had a massive crush on Bridget Fonda, or because I first rubbed one out to Jennifer Jason Leigh when she was all nekkid in Fast Times At Ridgemont High (Interesting Fact #1 i get a half mast every time i hear a couple bars of Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Babe), or the fact that Stephen Tobolowsky plays such a creepy guy so very well, but I loved S.W.F.. And the fact that they went and ripped it off for the teeny bopper crowd annoys me to no end.

You want some advice, if you plan on seeing this blasphemy, save yourself the 13 bucks and rent Single White Female.

Hi everybody!

Yeah that's a real original title.

Anyhow, welcome to my blog. On it I will voice my opinions on various topics like movies, tv, atheism, skepticism, certain aspects of pop culture that really piss me off/entertain me....basically any stupid thing that pops into my head. Kinda like every other blog on the interwebs.

I am technologically stupid, I do not know much about computers, cell phones, or any other gadgets. There will be no discussion of that type of thing here. Unless of course i bitch about how bad I managed to fuck mine up.

Welcome, I hope you find what I say at least entertaining, if not insightful.