Change of Venue (updated)

I'm making a 'new' blog and copying all of my posts to over there.

Fuck robots.txt

I can't figure out why google refuses to index anything. This is my attempt to fix that.

Update: No, I'm not doing that after all. This is still going to be the blog. Sorry for the drama.

'Mechanized' is a second profile I've created. I'll mostly be using that profile from now on.

Only Korans? - Part 2

[04/16/2012] - I feel like I've learned a lot since I wrote this, and it now no longer 100% represents my views on the subject; they aren't enraged because we burned some books.


Funny story; my internet died about an hour after I posted last time.

I really am starting to hate Charter Communications with the type of passionate dislike that I usually reserve for classmates who, upon buying hot chocolate, proclaim that it tastes, "Too much like coffee."

Anyways....

I guess what I was trying to say before is that burning the Koran = bad

Threating to kill people over burning the Koran = Worse

I hate to boil it down to a doltish formula like that, but over the last week I realized that I really don't care. I much prefer drawing the Prophet; rather than destroying something Islamic you are creating an image so as to express yourself. And when I see how upset the global Islamic community becomes over petty insults I honestly believe that the only reasonable response is to continue the petty insults in the most benign way possible.

The fact that Molly Norris has had to go into hiding is an absolute travesty. I don't care that most Muslims are great people. I don't care that they will be insulted too. And it doesn't make sense to say that we should all treat Muslims with respect rather than insult them. Until the Islamic faith and community can be freely mocked or critiqued without fear of death it is impossible to truly communicate with them in a respectful way. Politeness at the point of a gun is a survival mechanism, not respectful dialog.

So I say that drawing the Prophet Muhammad is a good thing. It's a peaceful way of saying, "Welcome to the civilized world. You will be mocked. You will be insulted. And until you learn to deal with it in a civilized way nobody will have any respect for you at all."

Nobody should be exempt from that either. Freedom of speech is not a promise not to be insulted.

More importantly Halo: Reach is a quality product that I readily endorse :D

I'm going to go play it now.

Only Korans?

[04/16/2012] - I feel like I've learned a lot since I wrote this, and it now no longer 100% represents my views on the subject; they aren't enraged because we burned some books.

*******
Original:

FROGBLAST THE VENTCORE!!!!!

Now that I have your attention; I have a very serious addiction to Bungie's games and am ultra amped up for the release of Halo: Reach tomorrow. The joy is slightly bitter-sweet* though since I'm certain that all future Halo games will just be cheap knockoffs now that Bungie is moving on to bigger and better things.

I just spotted something shiny; I'm gonna change the subject now.

Regarding the
Ground Zero Death of the Infidel Victory Monument
Manhattan community center I can't stress enough how much I absolutely don't care about it being built. What angers me is how agitated people are getting about it. I'm much more pissed at our support of Saudi Arabia.

The Florida Koran Burning League that you've probably heard about in the news; it took me a long time to sort out my thoughts on that whole fiasco. At first I was very conflicted. The burning of those Korans is reckless, offensive, and immature. That type of behavior is perfectly acceptable if you're a little know-nothing blogger in an obscure corner of the internet; I believe, however, that a prominent a community leader must be held to a higher standard of social conduct.

I have more to say, but my brain just shut down (caffeine crash I'm sure) so i'll update this post later today to finish my rant : )

Good to know I'm not paranoid.

Haven't made a post in a while because I haven't been able to think of anything particularly interesting to say. However, I feel that it would be a case of gross negligence if I didn't take a moment to ask, "What the fuck?"

Micro-update: Beck sounds like he's talking about a Disney-style theme park.

Both links are to clips from mediamatters.com's coverage of Glenn Beck's big evangelism stunt today.

Classy

The official website for the Texas GOP is pretty amusing. The front page contains all of the dignity of a tabloid; a huge picture of Bill White (I assume, I don't live in Texas) accompanied with "Keeping up with LIBERAL BILL!"

Also of good comedic value are the comment sections [update - 07/22/2012: removed a link here, they deleted the page it went to] on all of their posts. Every single one has "0 comments" listed. I don't know if it's always been that way, but I'm going to assume that they locked and deleted everything shortly after experiencing the horror of what happens the "t3h 1nterwebz!" speaks its mind.

The best part though is their party platform. There isn't one. They had it up earlier today and you can still find where people have mirrored it. However, at the moment their website remains mysteriously platform-less.

I've been a little heavy on the name-calling so far with this blog and some day I intend to force myself to stop that. Until then may I suggest, however, that the Texas GOP is a bunch of cowards. They spew hatred and intolerance, preaching homophobia and misogyny with pride.

And then they cry and lock the comments when people respond with what's on their minds.

At least they deleted that diseased manifesto they were calling their platform. Otherwise they'd be worse than cowards. If they didn't allow comments because they didn't want people using obscene language and left their platform up for all to read they would be hypocrites .


Edit/Update: Apparently the big banner on their front page is randomly selected every time you load, so you may not experience the delight of viewing the 'LIBERAL BILL' thing until you refresh the page a few times.

Update 2: I was stupid, my original post had a link to Theocracy Watch's analysis of the 2004 Texas GOP platform. My bad.

Yay!

Ok, I'm not going to link to Pharyngula all the time; I just felt like after my last post I should be a wuss and point out some positive things in the world. This is a post which suggests that warfare is a relatively recent phenomenon in human history and isn't something that we're hardwired for.

And also this "Slayer Goes To Church" video, makes me very happy.

It's Here Already

Allow me the pleasure of introducing you to Mankind 2.0, courtesy of the wonderful blog Pharyngula.

My reaction can be best summed up using the infinitely wise words of Our Glorious Leader, Ofu Kahn of the band Red Harvest:

(From the song 'Teknocrate')

It's here already
It's after all of us...
you're fucking next
Tekno-logical domiNation
Create or modify TeknoLogical Productions
A constructed pre-defined community

You are programmed to believe
That this is what you want

All things are coded
It's just a matter of construction
Our eyes are changing By (our) Trans-Mutation
...and life keeps slipping away...
Anti-humanized nature
Anti-life Cyborgian conditions
What was human anyway?

(We are) bio computers
Re-Configure yourself
The Teknocrates have spoken

Okay, so I may be a little quick to cry "Dystopia!" on issues like this. It's just that I get paranoid about the possibilities for the future when I start thinking about what will happen when we as a species have the ability to completely reshape what we are. Can you imagine anything more terrifying than a corporation like Unilever or one of the major religions being able to actually create their ideal human being?

Books like 1984 and A Brave New World suddenly seem so tepid and uninspired compared to what I think the human race is actually going to be capable of.

I just wish it didn't sound so paranoid. I wish that my first instinct wasn't always to curl up in a ball and listen to Sic Transit Gloria Mundi a few times.

I feel better after writing this though. I think that blogging is like secular prayer; you don't actually do anything but you feel like you took some kind of action.

Anyways, I want to finish with a couple of side notes. First of all, if you haven't noticed, I really love the music of Red Harvest.

More importantly though I am really addicted to Machinarium (careful, there's music on that webpage) right now. If you're into indie gaming and immersive adventure games, you should at least try the free demo.

Thanks for reading! Over and out.