Precise language develops clarity of thought and intent.

Choose words and speech carefully.

Things don't turn out the way you want because you're sabotaging yourself in ways you're not aware of.

Make an effort to understand how.

Once again, I'd like Joe Rogan, a standup comic and MMA fan, to be my patron saint.

It still strikes me as oddly pleasant, when I feel completely different from all other folks around me, to find somebody else articulate exactly how I feel. It's actually quite nice.

Go read the full post for further discourse on Bill Clinton's penis being controlled by Satan and other fascinating insights.

blog.myspace.com/talkingmonkey:

"'They dont want you saying hell anymore.'

That was one of the producers of Fear Factor delivering to me the word from up high on NBC that they were getting a lot of complaints from the bible bangers out in TV viewer-land about me saying Lets get the hell out of here at the end of some stunts.

Now, when they first told me that I had to stop saying the word hell, I really thought it was just a joke. The producers of the show are a bunch of fun people to work with, and they kid around all the time, but I could tell after a few minutes of talking about it that they were actually serious.

Wow.

Thats all I could say. Hell is a bad word? I just couldnt believe that the resistance to retarded influence is so weak that theyre willing to listen to the complaints of people that believe that the word hell is a bad thing to say.

Fucking fascinating.

The lowest possible rung of the bad word ladder that describes a fantasyland where the devil lives. Thats being censored In 2006, with the internet and everything.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

...Ive had people get pissed at me for saying that I dont believe in organized religion, and Ive always found that hilarious.

Ive never said that theres no god, and I dont even pretend that Im smart enough, nor blessed with enough data to even begin to answer that question. You would never see me saying that theres no god, because theres no fucking way I could possibly know. [See, that right there? Whole reason I'm agnostic... - Rob] One thing I do know though, is that people are tremendous liars even today with the all the access to information that we have now, can you imagine how full of shit they were 3,000 years ago

The crazy thing to me about religion is that to the people that are following religion, it is THE answer. Just follow the directions, and there you go. Life and death and all its meaning spelled out for you.

Whats really fascinating about that to me, is that it really outlines this insatiable need for the truth that we all seem to have. No matter what culture youre from, no matter what part of the world, the people are asking questions about what the fuck this is all about, and everywhere thats happening, theres a set of directions that someone has created for you to follow. Theyre all different, and theyre all convinced that theyve got the real shit.

Isnt that fact alone amazing?

They all have different stories, and they all have a different depiction of creation.

The point is, people have always been asking questions about the meaning of life, and the only way for their evolving minds to be able to relax with even a tiny fraction of the truth about the great mystery of life and the cosmos, is to let them know that the big daddy in the sky is going to make it all nice-nice. Keep pumping out those babies, keep showing up for work. Everythings gonna be alright."

Torture? What torture?

Lateline - 13/06/2006: Hicks severely damaged, says CIA expert:

"...In the deepest darkest days of the Cold War initially as a defensive move, the CIA launched a massive mind control project to crack the code of human consciousness, a veritable Manhattan project of the mind with research expenses reaching up to $1 billion a year at peak in the 1950s and the first breakthrough in this massive project came at McGill University. It was actually a joint Canadian, British, US effort, top-secret effort, and Dr Donald O. Hebb at McGill University found that he could induce a state akin to psychosis in a subject within 48 hours. Now, what had the doctor done? Hypnosis, electroshock, LSD, drugs? No. None of the above. All Dr Hebb did was take student volunteers at McGill University where he was head of Psychology, put them in comfortable airconditioned cubicles and put goggles, gloves and ear muffs on them. In 24 hours the hallucinations started. In 48 hours they suffered a complete breakdown. Dr Hebb noted they suffered a disintegration of personality. Just goggles, gloves and ear muffs and this discovered the foundation, or the key technique which has been applied under extreme conditions at Guantanamo. The technique of sensory disorientation. I've tracked down some of the original subjects in Dr Hebb's experiments of 1952 and men now in their 70s still suffer psychological damage from just two days of isolation with goggles, gloves and ear muffs. David Hicks was subjected at peak to 244 days of isolation, the most extreme isolation in the 50-year history of these CIA psychological torture techniques. David Hicks has suffered untold psychological damage that will take a great deal of care, a great deal of treatment and probably the rest of his life to move beyond. To say that David Hicks has not been tortured, to say that David Hicks is only suffering from a sore back, a statement that's been made by the Foreign Minister, I think that just flies in the face of a fact. It represents an ignorance of what torture is, particularly what psychological torture is.

...Guantanamo itself is a system of torture, OK? The complete isolation, the harsh conditions, the daily harsh treatment, that is a carefully constructed system, designed to break down the detainees."

Ah, the sweet freedom of childhood... and always remember it's never to early to start the fear mongering and paranoia.

Walt Disney Stalks Your Child / Now even kids have GPS cell phones. So much for running away from home:

"I now guesstimate that our radical rebellion lasted roughly six hours. During this time, I do believe my parents had no idea where I was. Not only that, but when I returned, they didn't even realize I had gone. I remember this being rather humiliating, because if there's one thing worse than failing in your defiance of authority, it's having authority smile warmly when you walk back in the door and offer you a bowl of hot macaroni and cheese with little bits of cut-up hot dogs in it. Bastards!

Alas, it is but a faint memory. And it's also a scenario that might well be disappearing from the face of the culture. No more tiny but fiercely independent romps into the unknown for modern postmillennial kids. No more untethered visits to where the wild things are.

And why? Because technology has stomped on in and has taken childhood by the throat and is right now handing a cell phone to every child over 5 years old, telling them it's absolutely mandatory that they be able to call Mom or Dad or the police at a moment's notice because, oh my God, have you seen the news? Child molesters are everywhere. Sexual predators are lurking behind every MySpace page. Leave the neighborhood without telling anyone? Ride your bike to mysterious parts unknown? What are you, insane?"

Great Questions...

Or, why [fundamentalist] religion and thinking rarely mix...

Philosophical Perspectives :: Questions About God, Religion and the Supernatural :: The Infidel Guy Show :: Taking a Critical Look At What We Believe - Audio, Video, Radio, Mp3:

"4. When the believer gets to Heaven, how can Heaven be utter bliss when people they love and care about are burning in Hell ? - The Infidel Guy - [Note: Some say God erases your memories of them, but if God erases your memory, you as Mr. Joe /Jane Smoe ceases to exist.]

...6. Why would God create a place such as hell to torture sinners forever when he foreknew who would disappoint him? - IG [Note: Some say you have a choice, but this misses the point. If God hates sin so much, why create Adam and Eve when he knew they'd sin? The only conclusion I can come up with, if Yaweh exists, is that he wanted sin to enter the world.]

...12. I have often heard from many believers that even Satan has a presence in the church, which is why even in church people can still have impure thoughts. If Satan can find his way in the church, how do Christians know that Satan didn't find his way into the Bible and twist the whole book? After all, men did vote on which books would make the Holy Bible. - The Infidel Guy

...42. Some say Jesus was the all-knowing God. Jesus would have known then that when he died he'd be in heaven in less than 3 days to rule. If Jesus is alive and ruling today, what did he sacrifice? -- Cyndy Hammond

...46. If God has such a tremendous problem with uncircumcised penises, why did he make man with foreskin in the first place? - IG [Note: Some say, "So God can recognize his chosen people." Recognize? Is God so stupid that he has to physically look at men's penises? If not God, do other men need to? lol.]

...48. Why does the omnipotent, omnipresent God need help from man or angels to spread his word or do acts? - IG [Note: Some say God doesn't need help. But apparently he does.] - IG"

Language, religion, hypocrisy and misuderstanding...

The Blog | Jim Rigby: Christians Who Want Democracy Must Stop Bowing to a Dictator Christ | The Huffington Post:

"The word “Lord” was not in the original Bible. It is an English word from feudal times. Whereas the Greek word “kurios” had a range of meanings, from a title of respect, to a title of leadership, to a name for the sacred, the English translation “Lord” refers specifically to a male European land baron. Many people have softened that interpretation in their own minds, but in times of great stress, such nuance falls away and many Christians seek a white male king. He may be called “Pope”, he may be called “the decider President,” he may be called “televangelist,” but the title only masks what he is, a benevolent (or not so benevolent) dictator.

...Today’s church lifts its arms to praise Christ wearing liturgical garments woven in sweatshops. So called “Christian America” is still a nation built on the work of slaves. We do not see them because they toil invisibly in other countries. Today’s church doles out bits of charity from booty stolen from God’s powerless people the world over...

I realize that most of the church consists of wonderful and compassionate people, but that does not matter if we turn over our power to those less charitable. The moderate mainstream church is helpless against fundamentalism because it is built on a nuanced version of the same cracked foundation of a theology of power."

The meaning of success...

The Lazy Way to Success: Lazy Advice to This Year’s (or Any Year’s) Graduates:

"If you study something or pursue something for the money that it may bring, you may make your money, but you will end up being one dull, unhappy dude and, the truth be told, quite unfulfilled because the money that you thought would be great, will turn out to be not enough. I can guarantee it.

...Instead pursue your passion. Love something with all your heart and soul. That is the key to great success... Success (defined however you like – in terms of wealth, name, fame, power, love, health, happiness, knowledge, and any combination) comes as a side effect of doing what you love.

So studying or pursuing law/medicine/accounting because of some desired future salary will doom you to a lifetime of hard work and drudgery. And emptiness."

You just can't argue with logic.

Overheard in the Office | 4PM Prepping for Happy Hour:

"Administrator: Here's my theory on drunk driving: People get caught drunk driving because they never learned how to drive drunk when they were kids."

Fuck "Normal".

Why I read Warren Ellis: On occasion I come across some small bit... some observation made almost in passing... that resonates as meaningfully for me as anything else.

And he writes "fuck" a lot too.

Warren Ellis - SUBMUNITIONS: Storm Clouds Gather Round:

"Your definition of 'normal' is in fact so small a thing as to have no useful application to life as it is lived by humans."

"Report claims most Guantanamo prisoners never saw battle"

But... but... but... Evil! Terra! Dark people!

Daily Times - Site Edition:

"* Only 8 percent detainees are characterised in govt documents as Al Qaeda fighters and 16 percent as Taliban fighters

MIAMI: The majority of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay naval base are not accused of committing hostile acts against the United States or its allies, and only a small percentage were captured by US forces, a review of government documents has found.

“The large majority of detainees never participated in any combat against the United States on a battlefield,” concluded a report compiled at Seton Hall University’s law school, in New Jersey, and given to Reuters on Thursday.

The report analysed unclassified government summaries of evidence the military used in 2004 hearings to decide whether 517 Guantanamo detainees were enemy combatants."

Reality is how you interpret it...

Backs to the Future:

"Contrary to what had been thought a cognitive universal among humans – a spatial metaphor for chronology, based partly on our bodies’ orientation and locomotion, that places the future ahead of oneself and the past behind – the Amerindian group locates this imaginary abstraction the other way around: with the past ahead and the future behind."

I'm an intellectual agnostic 99% of the time, but in my more optimistic moments I want to grow up to be a pantheist.

Pantheism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"Pantheism (Greek: πάν ( 'pan' ) = all and Theos = God) literally means 'God is All' and 'All is God'. It is the view that everything is of an all-encompassing immanent God; or that the universe, or nature, and God are equivalent."

Look! Up in the... huh... wait a sec. [Very Cool tho']

wcbstv.com - Pizza Man Dressed As Superhero Comes To Rescue:

"Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spiderman and Luke Pie Rocker?

All of the above have done their part to rid the world of criminals and Luke Pie Rocker is Minnesota's own.

Luke Pie Rocker, a pizza delivery guy in costume in the Uptown area of Minneapolis, spends most of his time tooling around town, making pizza deliveries in his little electric car.

Tuesday night, Luke Pie Rocker became at least one woman's superhero, as he came to the rescue of a robbery victim screaming for help."

Pic via Treehugger