This post in obama_2008 is saddening. I can't believe that people are so fucking sensitive to something intended to benefit their cause.

People are actually suggesting that a satirical magazine cover be clearly labeled as satire...and that it's dangerous because some people won't "get it". Someone actually suggested that if it was less subtle it would be less offensive. Something tells me that subtlety is the problem with some of these people.

As proud as I am for the Democratic Party to have nominated Barack Obama, those people are the reason I have such a hard time calling myself a "Democrat". They're worse than their Republican counterparts, too, because I can't simply write off their stupidity as being the product of a flawed ideology. No, these ones and I...we have something in common. *shudder*

I swear, between these Obama supporters and those Clinton supporters trying to swiftboat Obama before the Convention, it will be Democrats who are to blame and no one else if Obama loses in November.

Found that on wtf_nature. Feeling kind of like that octopus lately.

Anyway, if that guy does actually solve the Rubik's Cube I am swearing off sushi for life.

Glenn Quagmire once claimed to have found the legendary "fourth hole". Well, this random ad confirms it:

( Forgot to cut )

For anyone on my flist who frequents politicsforum and is familiar with uberarcanist's infamous obsession with Rev. Wright...look upon the following thread with great amusement:

http://community.livejournal.com/politicsforum/1661541.html?thread=52716901#t52716901

The kid is kind of a one-trick pony. There are other stupid members of the community, to be sure...but I'd say that a great percentage of them still manage to be clever sometimes. Not Mr. Arcanist--he's like that one "special" kid who was too good with the blocks and legos to stay in the slow class, but who can't keep up with the normal students. Mr. Arcanist seems to exist in the community solely for the purpose of saying "no u". He seems to think that being contrary makes him appear intelligent. He tries too hard and I think it's because he likes the attention (I'm helping with this post, I know).

I'd also love to add that this is the same guy who shrugged off the criticism of Sen. Helms yesterday because he says Helms, as a U.S. Senator and massive bigot, had no big influence, but who still cannot let go of Barack Obama's former pastor.

Some people sing "God Bless America" and set off sparklers and firecrackers. I sing along to this song and set off high-explosives:



Livejournal...FUCK YEAH!!

For the Fourth this year I bought one of those little hand-held flags and waved it all proudly in front of all my pinko hippie friends and then went over to my crazy patriotic friends' place and lit the little flag on fire. I have no more friends.

Anyway, I know it's cheesy to say but I do love this country very much--I just wish there weren't so many dipshits in charge of it.

Edit: I almost forgot that yesterday Jesse Helms died. America couldn't ask for a better present for her birthday.

The collective flipping-out in both obama_2008 and atheists over Obama's proposal to remix Bush's faith-based initiatives has amused me greatly. It just goes to show how often it's the people you agree with who will surprise you with their quizzical reactions and attitudes. The knee-jerk stuff is classic. They just see the phrase "faith-based" and they panic.

Rather than rant all night about how his program is actually a good thing and not, as the AP wrongly suggested, a "strengthening" of Bush's program, I'll just say that as an atheist and an Obama supporter who genuinely fears America becoming a theocracy, I am actually a supporter of his proposal. There are enough provisions and requirements for the organizations to produce without discriminating or proselytizing that I'm not worried about greedy clergymen lining their pockets with my tax dollars. We've had far too many "rural" Presidents, and religious charities will play a major role in combating the problems of urban communities and those in extreme poverty. So...sign me up.

FISA...now that's another issue entirely. One I have no intention of rambling about here, because Obama's support of the "compromise" is not an F for me, but a C-. Not my proudest moment as an Obama supporter, but unlike some people I don't actually believe that Obama is going to fix everything that I think is wrong about the Democratic party, let alone our entire government. I would have liked to see him stand out and criticize his own party over the vote, and I don't like the idea of the telecom companies getting away with what they did, but this issue is very low on the totem pole of issues the Democrats have failed to effectively prosecute the Bush administration over. The fact that Bush is going to escape his second term unimpeached is, to me, a damn shame...no, "damn shame" doesn't cover it. It's...unforgivable.

Anyway...I'll post about how my weekend was and how my birthday went, as well as a link to my podcast in the coming days (just need to finish up the mix).

Dear Sen. McCain,

Please get your diminutive little papery-skinned hands off my Livejournal's cock.



Turn that forced smile elsewhere, you charmless limp-dicked ancient interweb carpetbagger. I do not want to buy. Thank you.

Also, stop making jokes about beating the wife you called a "cunt" in front of everybody. I feel ashamed that such a dickhead is allowed to make it this far in American politics. Oh, but he was tortured!! *eyeroll* That means he belongs in therapy, not making decisions for everyone in Washington. Is abuse a qualifier for public office? Maybe we should start trolling the state mental institutions for suicidal former sex-slaves and meth addicts.

Also: am I the only fucking person who has seen the Manchurian Candidate!!?

It's not often that I wake up feeling this good. I'm not sore, foggy or exhausted. I need to force myself, even if it means losing sleep, to be up at dawn every day.

I've just started work on a podcast. When I looked at my "favorites" playlist and saw that it was 25.5 hours long, and it was just metal (in fact, just the metal I felt like listening to over-and-over), I figured that I was going to have more ammunition for this thing than I'd ever need. It's going to be centered around what I could call "accessible rock and metal", which are songs that I feel might be enjoyed by non-metal fans and mainstream metal fans, but with a lot of my favorites (accessible or not) sprinkled in. It's funny how--just over the past couple of years--my idea of "mainstream" has done a 180. Now I see bands like Rage Against the Machine, Slipknot, Nine Inch Nails, Metallica, Black Sabbath, System of a Down and Tool as being more mainstream (I do not believe that to be a bad word, mind you) and those were the types of bands that largely made up my collection of "heavy contemporary music". So, for fans of those bands who, like myself, might be curious about what else is out there, I hope that people will discover some new bands to illegally download. For fans of less heavy music, there will still be a good mix of rock, electronic and maybe even classical. I will probably do my share of "talk", but I'm going to keep it around five minutes per podcast at maximum.

I've never felt like my tastes were all that challenging, so hopefully people will get the sense that they can listen to the show and even if they don't like everything, they'll find something every show worth getting their hands on.

The first show is going to have a "first show" theme: all opening tracks. Here's the current list from which I'm going to pick a handful of songs. If anyone who reads this plans to listen feel free to request off the list (or something not on the list).

Alice In Chains "Rotten Apple" [Rock/Metal/Grunge]
Aphex Twin "Windowlicker" [Electronic]
Apocalyptica (feat. Sandra Nasic) "Path vol. 2" [Metal/Symphonic] (technically the first track of the special disc)
Baroness "Rays On Pinion"[Metal/Progressive]
Clutch "Mercury" [Stoner/Blues/Rock]
Dethklok "Murmaider" [Metal/Melodic/Death]
Down "Temptation's Wings" [Metal/Stoner/Southern]
Electric Wizard "Vinum Sabbathi" [Metal/Sludge/Doom]
Fear Factory "Shock" [Metal/Industrial/Thrash]
Floor "Scimitar" [Metal/Sludge/Stoner]
Gojira "Ocean Planet" [Metal/Thrash/Death]
High On Fire "Devilution" [Metal/Sludge/Stoner]
In Flames "The Mirror's Truth" [Metal/Melodic/Death]
Katatonia "Ghost Of The Sun" [Metal/Doom]
KMFDM "WWIII" [Industrial]
Kyuss "Gardenia" [Rock/Stoner]
Lamb Of God "Ruin" [Metal/Southern]
Metallica "Fight Fire with Fire" [Metal/Thrash]
Motorhead "Overkill" [Rock/Metal]
Nine Inch Nails "Hyperpower!" [Alternative/Industrial/Rock]
OhGr "Water" [Industrial/Electronic]
Pantera "Cowboys From Hell" [Metal/Groove/Southern]
Porcupine Tree "Fear of a Blank Planet" [Alternative/Electronic/Metal]
Priestess "I Am the Night, Colour Me Black" [Rock]
Prototype "Live a Lie" [Metal/Progressive/Thrash]
Queens of the Stone Age "Feel Good Hit of the Summer" [Rock/Stoner]
Skinny Puppy "I'mmortal" [Industrial]
Sleep "Dragonaut" [Metal/Sludge/Stoner] (I think I'm going to save this one for the second podcast, it's just too awesome)
Smashing Pumpkins "Doomsday Clock" [Rock/Alternative]
The Sword "The Sundering" [Metal/Doom]
System of a Down "Prison Song" [Rock/Metal/Alternative]
Tool "Intolerance" [Metal/Progressive]
White Zombie "Electric Head, Pt. 1 (The Agony)" [Metal/Groove]
Witchcraft "Walk Between the Lines" [Rock/Psychedelic]

Anything in bold is likely to be kept. Anything in italic isn't likely to make the cut unless requested.

I'm going to have to double-check each one to make sure that they truly are the opening tracks, because mp3s have a nasty tendency to rearrange themselves. Also, those songs alone are 2.5 hours, so I'm only looking to pick about a half-dozen out of there. I'm trying to cut it down to around 40 minutes, which will make the podcast about 45 minutes with my talk-time added. I can already tell that these "themes" are not going to be a theme--I may just create a larger playlist and select randomly from them after this first one.

I concocted a little thought experiment during a thread last night on the subject of laws and whether or not the fear of legal punishment was a deterrent. I was arguing that it was, and I wrote this as one of my responses:

Imagine that you were offered $1 million (or any arbitrary large sum of money) by a competitor for a secret you held regarding the firewalls protecting the servers of the company you hypothetically work for. Say the servers contain contact information for clients or some other data which is useful to the competitor but ultimately harmless to anything other than perhaps your company's bottom line (in other words, harm would be done but not enough for it to weigh heavily on your conscience). Consider your actions if selling the other company this information wasn't considered a crime. How would you weigh your decision?

Now consider the actions of someone else in a similar situation, only the competitor is another nation and the secret regards their homeland's national security and could have a catastrophic impact on the lives of its citizens, either by threatening their lives, the economy or the infrastructure that they rely on. Consider the likelihood of that person turning the information over if it was not considered treasonous. Perhaps it would be unlikely that one individual would do such a thing if they knew the potential harm their greed could do (meaning: there is no difference in the outcome, regardless of the legality of their actions), but consider that ten people know this secret (which seems more likely) and they are all made the same offer. How many of them do you think would hand over their secret? Let's say, for the sake of argument, that three out of ten ultimately hand over the secret (this is a completely arbitrary number). Now imagine that it is a crime--treason--and they're aware of this. Do you think that the results would be identical (3-out-of-10)? Do you think that there would be fewer people, the same number of people or more people who hand over the intelligence? Do you think that the same three would turn over the data?***

Your answer is going to rely on one thing: whether or not you believe that a person would make the same decision under two unique circumstances; one being a reward with no risk to themselves but a great risk to others (call this A) and the other being a reward with great risk to themselves and a great risk to others (call this B).

With a sample-size of one we may not see any difference between A and B, but with a larger sample-size do you believe that we would have identical results in cases A and B?

*** - What I mean by this is, if there's ten people and we call them Persons 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 & 10 and the three which turn over the data in case A (not illegal) are Persons 2, 4, and 10, would the people which turn over the data in case B (illegal) include Persons 2, 4 and/or 10 (subtracting one or more or adding others depending upon your answer)?

That's just a copy-paste job. Now, I'm not trying to prove an argument or anything, I'd like to hear what other people have to say about the experiment. What do you think the results would be? Would the same people turn over the information in Case A that hand it over in Case B (and vice versa)? Would anyone make the deal in the illegal case but not the legal one? If you tested this experiment on groups of people, how do you think politicians, CEOs, police officers, prison inmates, housewives and teenagers would choose? What would you choose?

Say that for five of the ten people the risk is irrelevant, because they wouldn't take the deal either way and that for one (additional) person out of the ten the risk is irrelevant, because he or she would take the deal either way. So, for six of the ten, the law does not influence their decision to do the right or wrong thing. What about the other four? Would the risk of punishment deter them? Which ones does it deter? I think it's simple enough to say that "risk to self makes less people willing to do a thing than if there were no risk to self", but the meat of the subject is asking who is choosing to do what, under which circumstances, and why.

The most romantic, heart-gripping song I know of. Whenever I am married (and that's a big "whenever"), this is the song (and these are the performers) that I want playing at my wedding. Of course, I realize that (being the groom) I will have absolutely no say in the matter. :P



Even more powerful than the original. I wonder if there is a version out there with a vocalist--not that I think you could improve it, but it would be nice to have a version with someone (perhaps Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil?) doing the lyrics. They also have multiple versions of some of their original songs, with "... ver. 2" often having a vocalist. I think those four guys capture the theme of the song better than the original writers ever could (and I'm a big fan of the original songwriters, believe me).

Does anyone notice a hesitancy on my part to mention the name of the band, the song or who wrote the original? It's because I just want people to watch the video with no preconceptions. It's just too gorgeous for people to be scrolling past just because they say to themselves "well I don't like that song/band". Listen to it--it's 3.5 minutes of your life and I guarantee you'll love it.

Accompanying lyrics to the original behind the cut, because for some reason I'm in a romantic mood.

( Cut for her pleasure )

I know that probably 90% of the music I listen to is aggressive, loud and unkind, but it's the really beautiful stuff that affects me deeply--the stuff that doesn't take up much of my music collection, but that I turn to when my mood is (or needs to be) just so.

Edit: leave a comment with a link-to or embed-of a song that affects you similarly--or just the name, if it isn't on the Web.

A group of Indians are planning to present a statue of the revered Indian monkey God, Hanuman, to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The group decided to order the idol after they read a magazine report saying that Mr Obama carried a good luck 'monkey king' charm.

They say that a Barack Obama victory would be good for India.

Hindus revere monkeys which they believe are descendents of the monkey God Hanuman.

The two-foot tall, 15kg gold-polished, brass idol has been made as a present for Mr Obama because "he will be good for India if he becomes the next president," according to Brij Mohan Bhama, leader of the group.

Mr Bhama belongs to the ruling Congress party and also runs a textile mill in the western city of Mumbai.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7468662.stm

I can't fucking sleep. I'm strongly considering just doping the fuck up. Even if it means I lose my creative spark, it would be nice to feel like a human being for a change.

I'm looking up at the moon--it's half-lit, gray-on-gold and shaped like a peanut. Every time I look up at it (and I mean every time) I think about the fact that people once stood up there and looked back down. I feel inferior for not being there myself.

I was asked a random question recently; one meant to be quirky and yield an interesting answer. "What's your last happy memory?" I had no answer, and I was so caught-off-guard by this that I couldn't think of a proper lie, so I just stared blankly at the person asking it. My mood just hasn't been the same since.

The truth is, I don't know if I have any happy memories, just moments that are better than average, and the average is pretty low. I was a depressed and anxious child; I'm a depressed and anxious adult. I'm starting to resent my parents for never having me checked out, because my problems were obvious to them at an early age (they've told me as much), but they had their reasons--not that they're any good. I feel, in a way, that they owe me...like this was their responsibility before it was mine. That's irrational, and yet at the same time I've had to learn completely on-my-own what it is I've had. It was only over the past few years that I even started to suspect that what was wrong with me was more than just a lack of discipline or self-esteem. It was always, in my head and theirs, something I could fix. Well...why can't I fix it? Why can't I just think happy thoughts or sweat it out like most people can do to fix a bad mood? And when I find a temporary reprieve, why does it keep coming back? It feels like digging in the sand. Hand-over-hand, hand-over-hand, over-and-over-and-over. And then, somewhere in my mid-teens it starts to hit me physically. I can't sleep, my joints ache, I feel physically exhausted all the time, and I have a constant "brain fog". I quit everything. I self-medicate with alcohol, drugs and even food (or a lack thereof), I attempt suicide, I keep banging into rock-bottom and I feel like a part of me has been there ever since.

I keep moving up in life, trying to make something happen for myself, but the further I go with that the more it feels like an elastic tension between what is moving up and what has remained stationary. It becomes more of a struggle each step I take. I look in the mirror and I don't see myself. I don't feel so much separate from that image, but rather trapped within it. I see a dull gray image--the result of a colorless existence--but I try so hard to bring the full spectrum to the surface. I just can't do it.

The only part of me that ever feels colorful is my writing. When I write I feel peaceful; aware of my own colors. But it's a love-hate relationship. Writing feels like the only thing there is to me, and yet it's a strain. It feels like flexing the same weak muscle over-and-over again and it never gets any stronger. It's all I have and yet I get nothing out of it. I'm disappointed in myself when I don't write, I'm dissatisfied with my work when I do, and I'm too much of a perfectionist to ever share it with the world. One author wrote about this and said that a writer chooses between two anxieties: the anxiety of writing or the anxiety of not writing. I understand exactly what he meant by that. I am not confident in my ability to overcome either, so I weakly teeter between the two.

Right now, I'm doing everything wrong and I'm more dissatisfied than I've ever been. I feel overwhelmed.

I've wasted far too much time in a certain community. I'm done with it. It was good for laughs for a while, but not long ago I started to realize that it was basically nothing but the extremes of either side of the central discussion, with neither side interested in a middle-ground. I was ready to give up on it then, but I started to have fun just jerking people around. That evaporated quickly. There's a gang mentality over there; a handful of barking, toothless dogs and a whole chorus of nodding heads. Pretty much everyone left agrees with one another on everything to the point where no one actually bothers to back anything up, they just differ to the mob. It's the most perverse little hugbox I've ever seen...and I'm a member of obama_2008. So, rather than keep banging my head into the wall, hoping for improvements that will never happen, I'm just going to stop. The community's about dead, anyway. I give it til the end of the year.

I don't know why I hesitated and didn't do it a few months ago when I first started to get annoyed with it; it probably has to do with the fact that I started forging friendships with a lot of the members, even the ones I butted heads with. But now, when it isn't boring, it's frustrating, so I'm done. Probably not even worth posting about, but since there are some members of the comm who are on my flist with whom I interact with mostly within that community, I figured I'd give you all a heads-up as to why you won't be seeing me around there anymore.

Now I need a good community. Someplace where the lulz are ripe for the plucking and not everyone is in total agreement with one another or intellectually xenophobic. debate is dead, stupid_free is an ironic title, and ohnotheydidnt seems like nothing but starfuckers. Maybe I'll just avoid the wank entirely. I'm in love with communities like wtf_nature, though (although there is no wank, just cool shit 24/7). Anyone have anything like that?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/23/AR2008062300074.html

Really? Fuck. The man was on my short-list of people I had to meet in my lifetime...now I guess I need to revise it.

I'm not going to bore anyone with eulogies or tributes. The man was a legend and a genius and a huge influence on my sense of humor, which I consider to be the most valuable part of my being.

George Carlin...not a shit-head...dead. Why couldn't they take Larry the Cable Guy instead?

Click on the image for the "story".

"Funny conservative" is an oxymoron.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25188169/

Okay, only 48 left to go!

John McCain as Kuato from Total Recall. This is just...too funny.

This one might be even better:

My shadow's
Shedding skin and
I've been picking
Scabs again.
I'm down
Digging through
My old muscles
Looking for a clue.
I've been crawling on my belly
Clearing out what could've been.
I've been wallowing in my own confused
And insecure delusions
For a piece to cross me over
Or a word to guide me in.
I wanna feel the changes coming down.
I wanna know what I've been hiding in
My shadow.
Change is coming through my shadow.
My shadow's shedding skin
I've been picking
My scabs again.
I've been crawling on my belly
Clearing out what could've been.
I've been wallowing in my own chaotic
And insecure delusions.
I wanna feel the change consume me,
Feel the outside turning in.
I wanna feel the metamorphosis and
Cleansing I've endured within
My shadow
Change is coming.
Now is my time.
Listen to my muscle memory.
Contemplate what I've been clinging to.
Forty-six and two ahead of me.
I choose to live and to
Grow, take and give and to
Move, learn and love and to
Cry, kill and die and to
Be paranoid and to
Lie, hate and fear and to
Do what it takes to move through.
I choose to live and to
Lie, kill and give and to
Die, learn and love and to
Do what it takes to step through.
See my shadow changing,
Stretching up and over me.
Soften this old armor.
Hoping I can clear the way
By stepping through my shadow,
Coming out the other side.
Step into the shadow.
Forty six and two are just ahead of me.

Well I put together a brief video of some of the flooding along the river beside a small town to the south. The river has yet to touch the buildings, but it is expected to by Monday or Tuesday. Additionally, being nearly submerged and with a fast-moving current carrying large debris (some of which can be seen in the video), there is a danger that the bridge could collapse or suffer serious damage.

( Large picture behind the cut )

Here is the video (if anything watch it for the lovely soundtrack):



Not bad for my first time with MovieMaker, eh?

Gen. Clark on McCain. He's talking like a VP...and a damn good VP. I think, with Clark, Obama can make up whatever perceived gap there is between himself and McCain on foreign policy and the war - alleviating whatever fears some people might have about this "untested" Senator from Illinois getting us out of Iraq and protecting us from the bad guys. He can then keep the focus on his strengths and McCain's weaknesses, which are economic and domestic issues. If he can keep the dialog about his proposed tax cuts, job creation and healthcare, Obama will do much better in November.