Ratings Enabled!

Come stroke my ego! Yes, at the top of each article you’ll now see a set of stars enabling you to rate it. I hope you’ll take the time to do so! Thanks!

Living to 1000

On CNN.com there’s an article about the idea of people living to be one-thousand years old. The article asks the rhetorical question of wheather or not this is a good idea.

Well, yes, of course it is. Living to be one thousand, or older, is a great thing! Imagine all that you could see, all that you could do. Imagine knowing that you can’t foist the problems of today off onto the next year/decade/century, because you’d probably live through them.

Me, I’d love to live to be a thousand. That’d have me kicking off in 2972! As long as I’m in decent health mentally and at least able to get around physically, hell yes, I’d love to live that long!

Longer, even. Why stop at one thousand? Why not go to two? Or twenty? Hell, why not live forever?

Sure, people say that death is what defines life, and that’s true to a point, but it’s not what defines living. If I knew I wasn’t ever going to die, or at least that the odds of doing so were very, very small, well… damn! That opens the door for just about anything!

Of course there’s always the doomsayers who go off on the problem of overpopulation (eat it, Malthus!), dwlindling resources, etc, but so what? We’ll overcome those things. Hell, if people living now, knew they’d be alive as we approached the year 3000 you can damn well bit there’d be a lot more concern about solving problems like global warming.

So by all means let’s live to be a thousand. If all goes well, I’ll buy you all dinner on my 500th birthday! April 18, 2472! Mark your calendars!

Wow, Some People Are Very Stupid

People like Indonesian Communication and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring who blamed Indonesia’s recent string of natural disasters on television programs that “destroyed morals”.

From the BBC:

His comments came as he addressed a prayer meeting on Friday in Padang, Sumatra, which was hit by a powerful earthquake in late September.

He also hit out at rising decadence – proven, he said, by the availability of Indonesia-made pornographic DVDs in local markets – and called for tougher laws.

Right, that’s why America, which probably has a billion times the amount of porn, is currently being wiped off the face of the map by all these earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes and the other things that aren’t really happening on a national scale.

This is like Pat Robertson blaming 9/11 on the gays, except that this guy is a government official.

To the good people of Indonesia, who I know read my site, please get together and find a way to get this ass out of your government. You deserve better.

Ein Volk, Ein Führer, Ein Buch!

What matters more to you: content or the way you get it?

I ask this question because Alan Kaufman at the Evergreen Review seems to believe the delivery method is the most important. So important that he even invokes Godwin’s Law on himself when talking about the current trend of books moving from paper to devices like the Kindle.

All physical books must go up the chimney stack. Such was the methodology of the SS who forced their prisoners to run naked races round and round the barracks yard in the Polish winter, a race that no one was meant to win.

The book is fast becoming the despised Jew of our culture. Der Jude is now Der Book. Hi-tech propogandists tell us that the book is a tree-murdering, space-devouring, inferior form of technology; that society would simply be better-off altogether if we euthanized it even as we begin to carry around, like good little Aryans, whole libraries in our pockets, downloaded on the Uber-Kindle.

What an ass.

He seems to believe that e-books are responsible for bookstores closing. They aren’t. The vast majority of the population that reads doesn’t have e-readers, but they do often buy their books online, and that’s what’s killing bookstores.

He also seems to believe that e-readers hearld a new age where only the biggest, most important authors get published. This is nonsense. If that was the case, I won’t have a short story for sale in the Kindle store (for those who don’t have a Kindle, download the free Kindle ap for the PC and then you can read my story if you like).

The writer of the article is simply wrong, and comparing the transition from paper to e-readers to the Holocaust is just insulting on many, many levels.

Further, everything is starting to digital. Does it really matter if the movie you are watching is on cable, on a DVD, on a DVR or some sort of streaming video format? Does it matter if music comes to you as an MP3, a CD, or on a record? The content is basically the same across the various delivery systems. The content is what matters.

For fun, here’s a poll:

Was Jesus Ever in England?

Almost certainly not. Almost certainly, he never actually existed. I say that since the edvidence for either of those notions is the same: none.

Yet that hasn’t stopped some Scots loon from going on about the notion that Jesus visited Britania at some point.

The loon in question talks about how it’s not out of the question that Jesus would’ve come to England, and I suppose it’s technically possible. But it’s highly unlikely. Most people even in Roman times, heck, even up until just a few decades ago, didn’t go more than a few miles from where they were born.

Favorite quote:

“He needed to go around to learn bits and pieces about ancient wisdom, and the druids in Britain went back hundreds if not thousands of years. He probably came here to meet the druids, to share his wisdom and gain theirs.”

Yes, because if there’s one thing that we know about the Romans, it’s that they just loved the druids. I seem to rememer Julius Caesar, in particular, was a great fan. Plus we all know how much Jews and Christians have loved learning wisdom from other religions.

This concept is not just bad history, it’s not even good theology.

Gobble, Gobble! Time to Gobble!

Not bothering to post much today. I have to work. I get what amounts to double-time-and-a-half, though, so that helps. Having to be there at 7am when I normally don’t even wake up until 9:30 does not help.

I am making dinner! I’ll be having a tasty turkey, some mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, Jell-O for desert and the usual snacky things like olives, some veggies and deviled eggs. Most importantly, I’ll have my friend Rob over for dinner!

So a bit of today, but mostly ! Meantime for a bit of fun, check this cute article on Snopes about some of the problems some turkeys have had making their turkeys.

Vampires in Heat

Yeah, not much to say about this, other than if Robert Pattinson actually opened his eyes all the way at any point, I think his career would end.

Well… Ouch…

This is perhaps just a little on-the-nose for me. It’s Quagmire from the most recent Family Guy explaining to Brian exactly why he dislikes him so much.

“You are the worst person I know. You constantly hit on your best friend’s wife. The man pays for your food and rescued you from certain death, and this is how you repay him? And to add insult to injury, you defecate all over his yard. And you’re such a sponge. You pay for nothing. You always say, ‘Oh, I’ll get you later,’ but later never comes! And what really bothers me, is you pretend you’re this deep guy who loves women for their souls when all you do is date bimbos. Yeah, I date women for their bodies, but at least I’m honest about it. I don’t buy them a copy of Catcher in the Rye and then lecture them with some seventh grade interpretation of how Holden Caulfield is some profound intellectual. He wasn’t. He was a spoiled brat. And that’s why you like him so much—he’s you. God, you’re pretentious! And you delude yourself by thinking you’re some great writer, even though you’re terrible. You know, I should have known Cheryl Tiegs didn’t write me that note. She would have known there’s no ‘A’ in the word ‘definite.’ And I think what I hate most about you is your textbook liberal agenda, how we should ‘legalize pot, man,’ how big business is crushing the underclass, how homelessness is the biggest tragedy in America. Well, what have you done to help? I work down at the soup kitchen, Brian. Never seen you down there. You want to help? Grab a ladle! And, by the way, driving a Prius doesn’t make you Jesus Christ. Oh, wait, you don’t believe in Jesus Christ, or any religion for that matter, because ‘religion is for idiots.’ Well, who the hell are you to talk down to anyone? You failed college twice, which isn’t nearly as bad as your failure as a father. How’s that son of yours you never see? But you know what? I could forgive all that, all of it, if you weren’t such a bore. That’s the worst of it, Brian. You’re just a big, sad, alcoholic bore. I’ll see you Brian. Thanks for the fucking steak.”

Ouch, indeed.

To be fair, I’ve never tried to seduce one of my friend’s wives (girlfriend or boyfriend, maybe, but does it count if me and he and she have a threeway?), and I’ve never read Catcher in the Rye. Oh, also, I don’t have a Prius. As for yard defecation… well…

*shuffles feet, looks awkward*

I do hope I’m at least not a bore.

1,000th Post!

On top of my recent 100,000th hit, I am pleased to report that this is my 1000th post on this blog! Ok, it’s not much of a post… but it’s number 1000!

“The End of Time” – Preview!

Have a look at this! It’s the first few moments of the upcoming Doctor Who Christmas special, “The End of Time”! I’m looking forward to seeing it, and from the trailer and what I’ve picked up over the months, I’ve a sneaking suspicion an entire race from the show will be returning…