My friend sent me a link to 10 weird recordings. The one here is of Anneliese Michel, the girl whose demonic possession and exorcism are the basis for the movie "The Exorcism Of Emily Rose." This recording gave me the heebie-jeebies.

It made me think about some existential things though. Good vs. Evil, God vs. Satan, religious faith vs. atheism. I think everyone will agree that good and evil exist, though not everyone believes that there are divine or demonic forces behind them. Even the Catholic church, in the end, reversed it's position and said that Anneliese Michel was simply a weird little mental patient. After listening to the recording, it's easier for me to believe she's possessed than unbalanced (to be fair, she is speaking German so the effect is extra creepy).

I'm not an extremely devout person, but I do believe in God and I have seen a couple of things that I have hard time explaining away. I also see a larger hand at work in the design of the human body, in the way that right down to the cellular level the body is essentially a machine, with each component performing a predetermined task. With over a trillion cells working in harmony, how can that be chance? How can it just have 'evolved?' I know this is not a logical argument, but I prefer it to the alternative.

As for good vs. evil, there has to be that balance. One question I have heard is "How can you believe in a God that allows bad things to happen to people." The cop out answer is "Everything happens for a reason." I say it's a cop out because it doesn't go deep enough. If someone has a choice - say, whether or not to pull the trigger while robbing someone - there's not much of a point to making the right choice if there's no alternative. The "reason" someone gets shot may have nothing at all to do with the victim and everything to do with the violator. Of course, that point of view is of no comfort to the victim's family.

Anyway, I guess my point is that I have seen enough to believe that there is something beyond this world, something that I cannot touch or see, that influences the world I can touch. For lack of a better term, I'll call that something 'God,' and I think that makes my belief 'faith.'

Have you had any experiences that have led you down one path (faith) or the other?

Not Enough Time

I am really annoyed with my job right now. It's gotten so busy that it's interfering with my ability to blog on a regular basis. Since I don't have time to write, I'll point you to someone who does. Some of this guy's comics are pants-peeing funny. One of my favorites is "How to give a child a story they'll never forget."

http://www.basicinstructions.net/

Enjoy!

Research threads

I'm starting to get some work going on the research for my first non-fiction book. I'm looking to get feedback from people about if they could change anything in their past, knowing what they know now, would they change it and what would it be? Alternately, if they would not change anything, why not? I chose to start a thread on Topix (http://www.topix.com/forum/news/weird/TT8JMI7DJNGPLJECN) to seek feedback because it's a passive way to solicit information while I work at my day job. It's actually up to 21 comments now (nothing in thread size, really) and getting a couple of hits every hour or so. I think it's kind of like SimCity, where to be self sustaining you have to get it to a certain size. Since the forums sort by the most recently updated, you have to go in and enter a comment now and then to bring it back to the top. Once it has a serious number of hits, people keep coming back to see the replies to their comments, or drop in to see what all the fuss is about.

What's funny to me so far is the things that people would change are not at all what I had expected. No one is interested in going back and doing things differently financially (so far) like investing in Google or anything like that. No one is sorry they had an abortion, or that they didn't have an abortion. Of course there are a couple of trolls who have to make some weird comments, but that's to be expected in forums like this.

Now that I'm getting a little more savvy at these things, the next move is to try this in different forums and see which ones thrive better and which ones have different opinions. For instance, I would expect people to have different opinions in the African-American forum, the Guns&Ammo forum, the Abortion forum and the Cancer forum. In this way I can target audiences a little better. Eventually I'll be able to point peeps back to my blog (or a different themed blog) and have people seek me out. This could get fun.

JFK Was Conservative!

It's Sunday so I'm in a political mood. Have you heard this quote before?

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

If it sounds familiar, it should...but not because it's recent. This quote is from JFK's inaugural address in 1961. It's amazing how it fits today just as well as then. He also said, regarding allies: "United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do -- for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder. " Again, this is very poignant in today's world. While talking about allied nations, he may as well have been talking about the American political climate.

The Democratic Party won back majority in the House and Senate this past election, and Nancy Pelosi from San Francisco is now the speaker of the house. The first 9 months of their rule has been aimed at one thing: tear down everything Bush has built. It doesn't seem to matter what it is, whether it has benefit or not. If Bush did it, it's bad. The GOP, on the other hand, is forced into a filibuster mindset where they're trying to block the Dems at each turn. Frustratingly, nothing is getting done to improve our lives.

The bridge collapsed in Minnesota, and within two days faithful dems and libs were pointing out that this is yet another failure on the part of the Republicans. Ed Schultz even went so far as to say that the only reason Bush is talking about fatalities is because he didn’t give MN enough money to maintain the bridge. Others have said that it's because for too many years now, we haven't been paying enough in taxes. Never mind the facts, let's blame the president and raise taxes right away before everyone figures out the truth. Wait - the truth is already out. The bridge was declared "structurally deficient" in 1990 (SEVENTEEN YEARS AGO). The state on Minnesota allocates their transportation spending via their congressmen - the president has nothing to do with it. And lastly - in 2001, the Minnesota state transport agency deemed that the bridge needed to be replaced...by 2020. But let's blame Bush and raise taxes.

That's (one of) the problem(s) with this country. Every issue gets politicized and shoved at people before they have a chance to learn any of the extenuating circumstances. Studies show that once someone has developed an opinion on something they are not likely to change it, no matter how much evidence to the contrary they are presented with. Hence the urgency to bombard people with rhetoric 24x7.

Which brings me back to the beginning of this post. JFKs words seem to line up pretty closely with the actions of our current president. Yet the Democrats, who revere all things Kennedy, will pay any price (with our tax money) and bear any burden (as long as it's not long and difficult, like a war on terrorism) and meet any hardship (with partisan rhetoric) to assure (THEIR) survival and success of (replacing our) liberty (with the nanny state).

I therefore submit that JFK was, in fact, conservative, and he would have agreed with the conservative viewpoints today. There it is, write it down, get your friends to write it down, and we might convert a few of the Kennedy faithful.

I hope this story is true. I really do.

My friend sent me the following link. He's also the only one currently reading this blog, so this is for the benefit of future readers. Take a minute and read the story, then come back.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/WeirdNews/2007/08/03/4392738-ap.html

There are so many things I like about this story for so many reasons.

1. Inspirational - this man has suffered more personal loss than just about anyone I can think of. While MSBs (men seeking boners) spend a literal fortune on Viagra and Cialis and "natural male enhancement" products because they can't sprout wood, this guy has to navigate the world with one leg a stump of an arm. Still, for 22 years he's tried to do something that most adults take for granted; drive a car. 22 years! For more than half of my life he hasn't let the man get him down...until now. We should all try so hard to get what we want.
2. Frustrating - he obviously has a marginal ability to drive, since he's lost his license so many times. The fact that he ever had a license in the first place is amazing. Yet through this 22 year long struggle to master the road, he's kept at it. He even led police on a chase for eight minutes - how many of us can say that? - at which point the police gave up the chase for fear of endangering lives. He has one leg and a stump arm - that's it! - and he outran police and made them give up the chase. What's frustrating is that the jackass in front of me the other day - with two good arms (I couldn't see his legs) - couldn't manage to use his fricking turn signal as he made a right turn from the center lane of traffic while going 10 under the speed limit. I would have thought he was drunk, but drunks drive better.
3. Funny - This guy - again with one leg and a stump arm - spent time in prison for, in part, KICKING A STATE TROOPER! Can you imagine the scene in the courtroom?

Judge: Mr Wiley - who only has one leg and a stump-arm, mind you - is charged with habitually driving without a license and with...um...it says here 'kicking a state trooper.' Is that right?

Prosecutor: Yes, that is correct, your honor.

Judge: Really? Kicking? He has one leg!

Prosecutor: We're aware of that your honor.

Judge: And we're prosecuting him? Seriously? He's not David Beckham or anything you know. He's only had one leg since he was thirteen.

Prosecutor: Your honor, it's still assault. That one leg is really strong.

Judge: What, did he kick him in the vagina?

Is This Funny?

I saw something last week that cracked me up, but in retrospect I don't know if it's funny or not. I was walking out of Walgreens and saw their marquee by the road, and it said "We rent breast pumps." Isn't that something you may want to buy? I typically rent things that I am only going to use once. A Ditch Witch for when I put in my sprinkler system. An impact hammer for mounting the joist brackets on my deck pilings. But a breast pump, I think, is something that you're probably going to use more than once. How does one decide to rent it vs. buy it?

Store Clerk: "What can I help you with sir?"

Billy-Bob: "I need to rent me one of them breast pumps."

Store Clerk: "How long will you need it?"

Billy-Bob: "Just the weekend. We're gonna tap 'er and bottle up as much as we can this weekend and see where that takes us."

Hey Amigo, Let's Party!

Actor Sean Penn hates his country. He proved it this week by going to Venezuela and meeting with Hugo Chavez, the dictator who is diametrically opposed to our government.


What does it matter if Sean and his fellow left-leaning ilk flaunt their allegiances? After all, they are not our elected officials, they don't make policy, and they don't control our government's decisions. Well, it is a problem of influence.

A large number of people in this country only get their news from "infotainment" channels, and those channels use these images of celebrities to get viewers to watch. People, especially young people, tend to put a lot of stock in their role models, and like it or not, celebrities are role models. Unfortunately, they are also often completely disconnected from the real world.

Cuban-born actress Maria Conchita Alonso, who grew up in Venezuela, and as such is actually qualified to speak about life in the South American country, said Penn is lending support to a "totalitarian" leader who wants increasing control of society. Alonso said although she respects Penn as an actor, she hopes he "comes to his senses and he realizes that he's being used."


And that's the crux of their role. Their position among the glitterati gives them a platform from which to preach, and their status as role models gets them into people's homes. If it were Hillary Clinton talking, people might change the channel. But George Clooney makes people linger for a minute. It's no surprise that the liberals use celebrities to their own ends.

A recent Democratic fund raiser was covered by all the major media outlets, including the TV tabloids. Most of the coverage I saw was voice overs of the candidates, quick cut with smiling celebrities like George Clooney. The message that is being implied is clear - if you're hip and cool in Hollywood, you support the democrats, who by their association with hip, cool Hollywood, become hip and cool themselves. By being seen with politicians, the celebs raise their image from actor to activist. Never mind that most of them have no more education or political savvy than the average person working in corporate America. The only difference is that someone in paycheck to paycheck corporate America has a lot more at stake than your left leaning actor.

Does anyone support the Republicans in Hollywood? Ah-nold does, and Bruce Willis used to. Though in Willis' case, it was only news after he switched his registered political party to Independent, as in "Willis comes to senses, leaves Republican party." It's almost a sin to be anything but left if you're in pop culture.

Patricia Heaton of "Everyone Loves Raymond" had a hard time getting work after speaking out that she was pro-life vs. pro-abortion. Hollywood is aghast at the 3000 American soldiers who have been killed in Iraq, Sean Penn and Hugo Chavez consider the war to be genocide on the part of the US, Madonna wants the US to stop the genocide in Darfur, and if it were up to her and Angelina Jolie we all would be raising an African orphan. But Hollywood has no concern for the 27 million abortions performed worldwide so far this year To say, as Heaton did, that she thinks abortion is wrong landed her on a black list for years. The left preaches tolerance for all, but only practices tolerance for their own, which may explain why people like Sean Penn are so comfortable in the company of dictators.

The great thing about this country is that everyone, including celebrities, are free to think as they please. But it would be a tragic thing if anyone in America thinks that the opinions of Sean Penn or Alec Baldwin or any of their left leaning brethren matter more than their own. I just hope people can see through the glitz and make their minds up for themselves and not let the media do their thinking for them.

[UPDATE 08/24/07: Here's a link to an interesting article by Gustavo Coronel, former member of the Venezuelan congress until it's dissolution in 1999 by Hugo Chavez. http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=21930]