Question of the moment: Will Rush ever be elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame?

Why in the wide world of sports do so many Rush fans care about this? Rush was built on a healthy foundation of not selling out or caring much about what people thought about their music. That's why so many of us claim to love them. Yet so many of us are ready to sell that legacy out to the decision of "popular" opinion---one that consists of what people think about their music.

I don't listen to Rush (or any other music, for that matter) because other people like it or not. I guess this explains how I feel about the critics' opinions, too. I'm the one listening, making personal and emotional connections within me with the music; it's not up to someone else to tell me what to like or how to feel. At the same time, the critics' opinions are their own and they are entitled to them. So in general, I feel that motions taken to get Rush inducted into the Hall or to hate on critics who pan the group are largely a waste of time. In fact, that critics and the Hall don't seem to care for Rush means that the guys are probably doing something very right.

Music is very personal and very often an emotional experience for me. In this parlance, I sure as hell am not concerned about Rush's status in the Hall. That's too much like "conforming or being cast out." That's not what Rush is about, and that's not what I'm about.

Environmental hypocracy...

A quicky I thought up last night: Enviromental wackjobs don't want you to make clothing out of animal or plant products. But they don't want you to pollute the earth by making synthetic materials.

I guess we all should just run around naked! :-D

So-called netiquette & Comic-Book Guy wannabees

This is too much for my feeble mind to untangle, so 'splain something to me: On an Internet forum, if you post a new topic that has been covered previously in a different thread, you've done wrong. If you dare post that topic to a thread that has crossed someone's arbitrary idea of "old", you've done wrong. Regardless, it's obviously more important to waste time & bandwidth pointing out to everyone that you're emo and offended than to stay on topic.

This reminds of the Caps-lock police... a n00b posts a question all in caps and then the next 22 posters feel like they have to chastise the n00b. "It's like shouting," they say. "Get over yourself," I reply. Welcome to the oh-so-useful forum on the friendly, productive Internet.

Or the spell-check police. Here we have purportedly sophisticated humans who never make a mistake but can't cope with it if someone else does. So, the next 31 posters complain that someone misspelled "the". Alot of these folks pride themselves on being l33t h4x0rs. Even worse is when one of these bastions of grammatical grace has found their way into the losing side of a debate... and then they try to discredit the winner by pointing out a spelling error several posts back. Classy!

All this make me view my audiences as consisting of a bunch of Comic-Book Guy wannabees. You know... those guys who trifle over irrelevant details instead of concerning themselves with proper scope? These are the guys that when they speak, 95% of the time the first words out of their mouths are "Well, actually..." (or some derivative). These guys are so great and knowledgeable, but somehow they forgot to learn about human nature and built-in error correction. I work with guys like this, and no one can stand them because of it. What's worse, they have no idea why nobody care to be around them anymore than they have to.

Ever wonder why we don't elect a President by direct vote? Go figure.

We're done.

President Bush signed the housing bill. This constitutes my vote of "no confidence" in the current administration.

Downright fucking disgusting...

Someone want to tell me why I can sit there and deny myself a hedonist lifestyle so I can keep myself financially stable... making proper decisions about how much to spend on necessities like houses and food and also desires. AND NOW I HAVE TO PAY TO HAVE THOSE THAT DECIDED NOT TO MAKE SIMILAR, RESPONSIBLE DECISIONS BAILED THE FUCK OUT?!?!? WHERE IN THE CONSTITUTION IS IT ENUMERATED THAT BAILING OUT HEDONISTS IS THE GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSIBILITY?!?

Yeah. I'm pissed. Once again, the intelligent and reasonable are forced to prop up the inconsiderate buffoons. All in the name of buying votes so the government elite can make a career out of doing so. All in the name of a media-overblown "crisis" that affects a whopping 5% of homeowners.

Thanks be to Congress (truly the opposite of "progress"). I guess it's time for me to stop being responsible for my actions.

FUCKING COME ON!

Seeing a 76-10 vote on this tells me that in addition to the broad Democrat support (no surprise, here), there was broad Republican support (less of a surprise than it used to be). The 10 no-voters were:

Barrasso (WY), Coburn (OK), Corker (TN), Cornyn (TX), DeMint (SC), Ensign (NV), Enzi (WY), Grassley (IA), Hatch (UT), Hutchison (TX), Kyl (AZ), Thune (SD), Vitter (LA)

The non-voters don't impress me... they could have voted "no", but they were too coward.

Thank goodness these ten had the balls to do the right thing. I expect no less from Senator Coburn, who impresses me more and more with every passing day.

I've long supported President Bush amidst all the irrational "Bush Disillusionment Syndrome" perpetrated by the media (except with how he's handled the illegal immigrant invasion problem). However, if he signs this, I'll pull all my support. At that point, I might as well vote for the Democrat Party candidate for President. After all, they'll be the same thing.

American Idol & Hell's Kitchen...

I watch both of these when I have time, and thought I'd jot down a couple observations...

First, if David Cook doesn't win American Idol, I'll be sorely disappointed. He's definitely the most talented of the group. Even if his performance last week wasn't great. Now, like Simon said, if we can keep this from being a popularity contest...

Second... I'm counting the seconds until both Jen and Jason are eliminated from Hell's Kitchen. Jen talks to much and makes no sense. Jason is a woman-hating idiot and worthless in the kitchen. I reckon they'll both be shown the door soon enough... no way Ramsay's going to give a quarter-megabuck job to these schmucks.

Corey, while being strategic, likely screwed herself over when she picked Christina and Jen for elimination, when Sharon was clearly the worst. In doing so, Corey indicated to Ramsay that she's more concerned for herself than the good of her team. I'm quite certain that Gordon's intelligent enough to pick up on that.

BTW, WTF do we call this reality TV? These and their ilk are little more than groupwise game shows. Like auto racing and marathons, everyone plays at the same time. Because of the setups, there's really nothing about them that makes them reality. Especially since in reality, most people would shrink at the idea of competing to be the best.

Morning logic...

Ever notice how many people there are out there that are just never wrong? Seems like it's prevalence is on the rise. This attitude goes hand-in-hand with such wonders as frivolous lawsuits, class warfare, lack of personal responsibility, etc.

Funny how no one ever stops to consider this:

1. People who refuse to learn are idiots.
   
2. People learn primarily from their mistakes.
3. People are imperfect, thus they make mistakes.
4. Thus, it's human nature to learn as you go.

However, for the people that can never do wrong:

1. They must know it all already.
2. Thus, they can't learn anything new.
3. Thus, they are cretins and become more cretinous as time goes on.
   

Prison's full of innocent people, right? What about the presidential campaign?

One other thought: If people can do no wrong (and thus they know it all), why does it piss people off so much when you point our that they know it all?

WTF kind of BS is that?

The best way to handle mistakes is to:

1. Be on the the lookout for them.
2. When they occur, admit them, learn from them, and move on.
3. Use what you learned to prevent the same mistake from happening again.

If you don't do this, the mistake will just repeat itself. Is that what you want?

Boy... that's one classy lady...

By now, I'm sure y'all have heard about Jane Fonda's use of the C-word on a live national television broadcast. If not, have a look at this clip from NBC's The Today Show:



What's the reaction been? Some very calm reporting. You've got to remember, when I was told Jane Fonda said "C-word" on TV, I thought that they meant she said "Commie". After all, she is a leftist icon. And this is why she'll get away with this without much more than a slap on the wrist, if even that. I mean, she couldn't even apologize for her sexist remark in person... NBC had to trot out one of their people and come up with some half-ass deal.

Let me tell you, this was much worse than a Golf Channel saying the word "lynch" or Imus saying "nappy-headed ho's" (and I hate Imus). But remember, these people gave an opportunity for the media to put up stories about someone hating on those in their favored protected classes. Those kind of stories sell. But Jane Fonda... well, she is a member of the very protected left her slur was against.

Now, you might think that I'm being a touch ridiculous about all this, and perhaps I am. But damnit, I get tired of this bullshit double standard.

This is all the more reason to believe that today's sexism and racism are driven largely by people who (1) have no idea what they're talking about, (2) are looking to take advantage of the situation for their own gain, (3) won't shut the fuck up, and (4) are too naive or ignorant about the problem. In other words, if we could get those that bring gender and race into every consideration they make to stop, then racism and sexism would largely go away. Yes, I know there will always be people who will hate regardless. But the influence they have will go away through natural selection if we IGNORE those who hate but don't commit a crime, and PUNISH those who do commit crimes. You self-proclaimed progressive liberals who love to hate intelligent design should be able to understand this.

When "Atheism" really is just another religion

Now I'm certain that this post will be enough to stir lots of people into a thick, rich lather. Good.

I am atheist. No, not "atheist" like the anti-religious crackpots out there who hate on religious folk as much as religious folk hate on them---but in the literal sense of the word: "without theism". I'm not "anti-theist", which is really what the non-religious haters are, I'm just without religion. And I'm very happy and secure in my spiritual beliefs.

Now, I have to say that it does irritate me that the anti-theists have really screwed it up for us atheists. I mean, when you actually mention to someone that you're atheist, you get looks that are normally reserved for the Jehovah's Witnesses that roll up on your doorstep or the terrorists who kill in the name of (wonderful, peace-loving, tolerant) Islam. Anymore, today's atheism is just the other side of religion's mystical coin.

I found a refreshing treatise that not only points out some of the more ridiculous aspects of today's atheism (anti-theism), but also shows that many of those are so analogous to the views they claim to oppose. If you like, take the jump:

10 Things Christians & Atheists Can Agree On

PS. Yes, I was quite surprised to find such a coherent read on Cracked.com. But it is what it is.

PPS. For all you anti-theist religion-haters out there: if you can provide a properly cited quotation from the founding documents (the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence) of this country where "separation of church and state" is guaranteed, please enlighten me. BTW, The First Amendment states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, ... ". Putting religious quotations on public buildings does not constitute making a law, last time I checked.

PPPS. My post-postscript reminds me of those who believe that this country is a "democracy", although there's no mention of this word or derivatives thereof throughout the founding documents (but this is another post for another day).