I will cyberstalk you! I will threaten you with death! I will harass you and call you names! I will try to discredit your life’s work!
…because God doesn’t like you.
August 11, 2009
May 5, 2008
Home row keys
Today was a really good day. We had so much fun together. Heh, just a moment ago my oldest son came in to the room, saw me typing and immediately came over to teach me about the “home row” keys and show me which fingers hit which keys.
“Here, let me show you dad.” He said as he wheeled the laptop toward him, read what I’d written above, and started typing… We had so much fun together. All in perfect typing position and without one errant stroke. He’s such a cute kid.
I wrote this over a month ago but it got marked as draft.
August 30, 2006
Rocky in the ring
“I do think that Rocky is being an ass,” said an acquaintance, “I mean its the President and here Rocky is dissing him. Whoever you are you should at least respect the President.”
Comments like this are quite common around here. I’ve become acutely aware over the past five years of just how pervasive the herd mentality has become in this state. It is not surprising however, given that the majority of people in Utah have been taught since birth that they should give blind allegiance to their religious leaders, and not question the decisions they make. They are guided by the hand of God, and will not lead you astray, or so goes the saying. Unfortunately this same fanatical devotion to religious leaders has spilled over to other areas of life, including political and social beliefs. Most people in Utah today are not very stressed about politics, they are not stressed about the Iraq war, they are not stressed about who to vote for and do not really even care what their positions are as long as the candidate is Republican (and hopefully a faithful LDS church member). Their blindness leads them to believe that whoever is elected will lead them in the right direction, and that they should be allowed to do whatever they want since they are somehow guided by God to make their lives happy.
I am of course not speaking of all Utahns, there are actually a great number of very rational and intelligent people in this state who are extremely concerned about their environment, their state, their nation, and the planet as a whole. These people are the hope for the future, the only hope this state has of breaking the trance that overwhelmingly traps those unwilling to look beyond their nose.
Those who largely fall into this blind herd category are those of the LDS faith, and those with poor education. I’m not saying that all mormons are uneducated, there are some very well educated LDS people with advanced degrees and those who make a lot of money. The common denominator for the two groups however is that both are hesitant to look at the issues without their distortion glasses on. They cannot conceive of a world where issues are not black and white – everything is clearly defined as good or bad. They perceive the republican party as good, and therefore everything and anything that questions the tenets of that religion are evil.
The following is a perfect example of this:
Rocky Anderson, the mayor of Salt Lake City, led an anti-war protest on the day of President Bush’s arrival in the state today. He was lambasted by every republican leader for being un-patriotic and irresponsible for his decision to say anything negative about our beloved President while he is a guest of the state. They decried the lack of manners, the rudeness, the gall of the man who they view as an evil terrorist supporting agent. The hate they leveled at Mayor Anderson was of the same tone usually reserved for the types who kidnapped Elizabeth Smart. The real tragedy, and another sign of how easily the herd is led by the nose, is just how quick the general public was to latch onto those criticisms and take them to heart. Never mind Rocky’s side of the story, it is not important, irrelevent to the fact that he is speaking out against one who is considered holy.
I say thank God for Rocky Anderson. Literally. His speech today, if anyone cared to actually listen, was one of the most patriotic and sincere speeches I’ve ever heard. He is one of the few in this state who sees the lies and deception in our government, who sees the patterns of tyrrany and is desperately trying to do something about it. I admire the man, and respect the work he has done over the past years in office. Those who would slander him and question his patriotism with propaganda and hype are the ones who should really examine their own patriotism and honor. They are the ones who blindly lead this country down to hell.
Wake up, think, look at the world, don’t be afraid to question. Because by doing nothing, by blindly following and trusting your leaders you are being led “like a calf to the slaughter.” It’s no wonder that President Bush enjoys the largest approval rating in Utah… he’s a republican, and he’s a “Christian”. It’s a no-brainer, right?
July 2, 2006
Bennett did good
I was just reading through the Salt Lake Tribune public forum section, and ran into an angry post from a guy who disagreed with Senator Bennett’s vote on Orrin Hatch’s flag burning amendment. The amendment failed by one vote, and Bennett voted against it. I say Bravo Bennett! Way to stand up for our freedoms!
Senator Hatch has been going downhill for a while now. He no longer has (if he ever had) any link to the populace he represents. He is a very skilled manipulator who has played on his LDS faith and brilliant public deceit to get re-elected time and time again. I suppose that spending so many years away from Utah in such a powerful and lucrative position has done what it does to every person in his situation – corrupt his perception of reality.
I am a registered Republican… I think. I’m pretty sure I voted after high school, I should check on that. However I find myself at extreme odds with the way the current nazi-con.. or neo-con party has hijacked what used to be the philosophy of fiscal (if not social) responsibility. Bah.
October 23, 2005
Multiple Dimensions
I’ve always believed that alternate dimensions exist, even as a child. It is something that has dug its way into my vision of reality over the years, a belief that needs no proof, no test, no scientific backing. That is why when I listened to a re-run today of National Science Friday I was interested in the topic: Multiple Dimensions, are they real?
I must admit that the beginnings of my belief in alternate dimensions stem from religious instruction. As a child I learned about the eternal nature of spirits, about how the human soul began before birth and would continue after death. It is a beautiful doctrine really, and an easy one to understand and when I was taught that the spirits of those who’ve died remain here on the earth it started the idea of an alternate “reality”, or dimension. This was backed up by further research into religious writings and through my own logical deductions. I also realized as I got older that the market for voodoo, fortune tellers, palm readers, and “intermediaries” was pretty hot in many societies, and even though most in the scientific community would scoff at the suggestion I believe there is something real about some of these practices.
The problem with thinking about it in a purely scientific manner is that there really is no finite proof that these things are valid. There is no process that one can follow that would reproduce a metaphysical event that could offer any hard proof that spirits exist and can “be” in the same physical space as the rest of us… I’m ok with that. It’s all good. It really doesn’t need proof – in fact if there were proof I don’t think that the scientific community would be able to handle it. Yet.
I love science. Physics has become one of the most fascinating subjects of study for me in recent years, and I plan to follow it up with at least an advanced degree. My new five-year goal is become known as Fred the physicist, with the hard earned pedigree to back it up.
Someday I believe we’ll discover evidence of these alternate dimensions. Someday we may even be able to see into them. There has been some excellent progress of late into the study of these dimensions, but nothing substantial has resulted from it – only the excitement of being on the verge of something great. That, however, is one of the greatest types of discoveries there are. It creates the motivation to continue, the willpower that moves the immovable and discovers the undiscoverable.
Everything is matter. Some things however are just a different kind of matter, a more refined type of matter. Something we just cannot yet see.