What are you most controversial opinions
Offline I am in the mood to vent. I have opinions that I can't talk openly about at work and in my conservative area, would get beat up for discussing since this is a place where advocating using nuclear weapons against Mecca is not all the controversial.
- As an atheist and a bright, simply admitting that I do not believe in god is deeply offensive to some people, particularly ones whose religious beliefs indicate that everyone should be converted to their religion. The planet as a whole would be better off without religion, especially Islam and Christianity.
- I am a white person and I agree whole-heartly with Kanye West when he said George Bush doesn't care about Black people and all the things he said leading up to that. For five days George Bush did absolutely nothing to help the victims of Katrina, he remained on vacation, even going out to play guitar with some celebrity for a photo op. After the city went to total chaos he ordered the national guard to shoot those looters, meanwhile white families caught up in the disaster were said to be "finding" supplies. We know George Bush doesn't care about black people because we he finally got off his ass to do something, he CONGRATULATED the man responsible for hundreds of dead and dying people in New Orleans as doing a "heck of a job."
- George Bush stole the election by illegally disenfranchising black voters with a list of "felons" that had an absurd number of false positives because the criteria for being on the list was being the same race, and having the same name as a felon. Only we can't talk about this because bringing up this historical fact labels us conspiracy theorists despite being well documented.
-There are dozens of crimes committed by the Bush administration that should warrant impeachment and all of them alone are far worse than cheating on your wife with a fat Jewish intern in the oval office. Republicans are massive hypocrites and Democrats are tiny cowards for not impeaching this fuck head. Bush's overwhelming incompetence is proof that 9-11 was not planned by him or anyone working for him since the towers actually fell.
-George Bush is a liar. His administration lied about weapons of mass destruction. They went by intelligence that they knew was false because they had been wanting to conquer Iraq and its oil for years. Even now the future oil revenue is being divided up amongst the oil corporations and is going to be used not for the benefit of Iraqis but for the benefit of George Bush's friends.
-Our use of depleted uranium is a war crime and I hold the pentagon responsible for every birth defect that happens in Iraq. Someone needs to give shaking the evil out of the pentagon another try.
-Hilary Clinton and other democrats were not deceived by Bush, they voted for the war knowing he was full of shit but were to cowardly to call Bush out on his lies, which is pretty much the same reason they voted for the patriot act.
-Crack Cocaine was intentionally let into this country by the CIA under Regan because we had alliances to maintain with right wing drug lords. The fact that it devastated the black community was convenient source of revenue and labor for the increasingly privatized prisons that tend to support the right wing
-Reagan was a miserable excuse for a president and it is a pity that he didn't spend his last days homeless and alone like the thousands of mentally ill people he threw out on the street to build more bombs, or die penniless and broken like the black single mothers he vilified, or die in a blazing inferno or from chemical burns that would cover 100% of his body like the children of Iran killed by weapons he supplied to Iraq.
-The longest running failure of policy is the war on (some) drugs but no one, once elected, has the courage to admit the nakedness of the king and do something to stop it. DEA agents and the police in general have become increasingly militarized because kicking down doors like jack booted fascists is pretty much the only way to enforce drug laws. The war on drugs had racists motivations as an excuse to lock up Mexicans and Asians, served as a useful tool to lock up young critics of the Vietnam war who had also expanded their minds by experimenting with altering the consciousness, and continues to be used as a weapon against minorities. Blacks account for 15% of the users of pot and about 80% of arrests, and the children of the wealthy are given far more lenient sentences in the criminal justice system.
-Sodomy and Fornication are healthy natural and normal and it is ludicrous to think that we can stop teen pregnancy by teaching only abstanence. We also should teach tolerance of homosexuality and sex ed should cover issues relevant to gay sex.
- I do not pledge allegiance to the flag, the united states, or the god it is under.
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Probably besides atheism my far-left socialist views. I basically feel Capitalism is one of the worst ideas of all time and money needs to be redistributed from the top down. I agree Reagan was a terrible president (though comparing him to GWB would be like comparing getting a plunger handle shoved up your ass to getting a running chainsaw shoved up your ass.)
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
I think that most likely the creatures collectively referred to as Bigfoot are in all actuality real. No 100% mind you. However, the evidence is convincing if you really research it. However most crypto animals by far are complete bunk.
"I am an atheist, thank God." -Oriana Fallaci
Preach it, brother!**
My controversial opinions:
- I agree with virtually everything you've posted, so that shortens my list considerably.
- I am pro-abortion. I'm not just pro-choice. I believe abortion should be encouraged, particularly to underprivileged teens. I think the government ought to pay for anyone below the poverty line to get an abortion. I think people should only have a child when they are financially and emotionally prepared, which is virtually never. To that end, I think abortion is awesome. I love it.
- I believe children should not be sheltered. They should see Janet's boob. (Well, maybe that's a bad example, but you get the point.) They should see human sexuality as a natural part of being human. I don't think we need X-rated tv during daytime or primetime hours, but I've never met a person who was scarred by seeing healthy sexuality, or even healthy sex. (I think people are scarred by their religious reaction to it, but that's different. Seeing it didn't scar them. Their indoctrination scarred them.)
- Speaking of abortion, I believe that humans have already killed themselves as a species, and we're going to take every other major species with us when we go. There will be a mass extinction event soon (in geological time). We will not decrease our birth rates, and our lifespans will stay long. We will not reduce consumption, nor will we construct ecologically sound food production industries. We will fish the ocean until there's nothing but jellyfish left.
- Speaking of extinction, global warming is real. It will kill us. We won't do anything to stop it.
- Speaking of mass extinction, I think it's next to criminal to have more than two children.
- Speaking of mass extinction, I think it's criminal to go to extraordinary lengths to keep babies alive when their bodies are trying really hard to die. Natural selection, bitches. It's fucking selfish to keep a deformed or sick baby alive just so you don't have to cry for a few weeks because your baby died.
- Marriage should be avoided until you decide to have a child, or are getting old enough to think about passing on your things. People should have several relationships, and getting married too young is just asking for unhappiness. Expecting a single relationship to last through your 20s, 30s, and 40s, is naive. If it happens, great for you, but most people are not so lucky. When a relationship sucks, you should leave. You should always practice birth control so that you can leave if you need to.
- Speaking of divorce, the science is clear. Staying together "for the sake of the children" is bullshit. Children are better off in a household where both parents like each other. When money is not a factor, children from single parent families are just as well adjusted as those from two parent families. If you don't want to raise a child by yourself, wait until you're at least 30 to have a child. Marriages tend to last a lot longer when both people are above 30.
- Everyone in America is fucking fat. I am so fucking tired of muffin tops. I am turned off by big asses. I don't like huge saggy boobs. America is fucking fat because the food industry wants us fat, and they keep marketing low-nutrition, high fat foods, especially to children and poor people. Children need to be outside playing. Video games and potato chips are making us fat. The boogie man is not going to abduct your child. Make them play outside.
- The pharmaceutical company is nearly a criminal organization. Their goal is not to make us well, but to keep us sick. Fuck "Restless Leg Syndrome." When there are ads for a psoriasis medicine that has "melanoma" listed as a potential side effect, it's time to reevaluate the industry.
- Alcoholism is not a problem. People have problems and become alcoholics. The legal drinking age should be 18, not 21. Parents, if they were smart, would go have a beer with their children on their 21st birthday.
That's all I can think of at the moment. Gee. I feel much better now. That was a good rant.
** In this context, I mean "brother" in the racial context, with all of its implications of Southern Black churches, Hammond B-3 organs, and potlucks with fried chicken. I'm white, and I love fried chicken. How's that for controversy?
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Let's see.
1. I love capitalism.
2. I'm annoyed when people think I should be impressed that they have a kid.
3. I'm disenchanted with democracy as a system to put the best people in charge of things. I'm reminded of this when I see a top 40 list and see what our voting populace considers good enough music to buy. (and that politicians just win by catering to this bullshit-loving crowd)
I got in real trouble at a party once when I shrugged and said, "Congratulations. Your dick works."
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Speaking of which, I'm annoyed when people expect special treatment because their genitals work. I'm not a parent. I don't particularly like kids, and no, I don't think your kid is the smartest and most charming thing in the universe. When I throw parties, they're for grown ups. I'm sorry if you can't afford a baby sitter. I can afford to throw the party because I didn't spend ten thousand dollars on diapers. We all make our choices. I'm glad you are happy with yours. I'm happy with mine.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Also to go with what you said earlier.. Marriage could probably just be avoided altogether, and if nothing else wait 'til you're at least 28 so you have plenty of time to figure things out first. I don't see why most people wouldn't just want to have the long term relationship, the family, etc. without the piece of legal paper giving away half your shit to your partner. (over-simplifying of course)
At the moment the only thing I can think of is agreeing with Hamby's. I don't like kids, and I cannot understand why people insist on having them. We have enough people in the world right now thanks, and there's more than enough orphans for you to adopt. If you can't care for a child just because it doesn't have your genetic material, you'd probably suck as a parent anyway.
Same with marriage. Getting married and popping out a kid sounds great right? Every little girl's dream. Except 10- 20 years later you will more likely than not get a divorce. Said kid's life is about to get pretty screwed up. If you're determined to get married, have some sort of plan.
Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible
Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.
Most controversial?
hmm...
LIFE IS NOT SACRED!!!1!
(pretty much everything stems from that ^_^ )
What Would Kharn Do?
I think what's got me on this little kick at the moment is a RL situation. My GF and I are throwing a party this weekend, and on the myspace announcement, it said something like, "Parents, please try to find a babysitter, as this is a grown up party." Well, one set of uberparents got their panties in a twist about that, as if we're obliged, by virtue of having them as friends, to only throw kid-friendly parties. Don't get me wrong about them -- if anybody is a good set of parents, it's probably them -- but they are definitely caught up in this kind of "I'm a parent. Kiss my ass," thing. These are the people who will show you pictures of the woman's swollen vagina ten minutes after giving birth, as if this is in any way interesting to anyone.
What irks me is when people think it will strengthen their marriage. Shows what they know. There's nothing to drive a man to his secretary like a haggard and tired wife who lost interest in sex after the baby was born, and nothing to drive a woman to resentment like a man who has to work extra hours to pay for all the disposable diapers.
Oh, and speaking of disposable diapers, do you know how long it takes those damn things to degrade? Do you have any clue how much of our landfills is diapers? I'm pretty sure we could build a tower to the moon with dirty diapers.
I'm all for a woman's right to choose whatever career she wants, but the only responsible thing to do with a baby is put cloth diapers on it and hold it enough so that you know when it's got to take a shit. Not only will you save tons of money, but you'll have a healthy child because it will have actually received enough human contact in infancy, instead of always being in a stroller or playpen.
Babies are meant to be held, people. If you don't have time to hold your baby all day, you don't have time for a baby.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
At least after 12 years, they'll have a teenager to fight with instead of each other.
You know, I had cloth/towel nappies as a child and I didn't turn out horribly deformed or anything. And how damn expensive are those things! It's over R100 for a medium-ish sized package. Babies are little money black holes, and middle class people want two? The world really doesn't need them, so kick back and enjoy your money and adult life. Don't worry, there's plenty of other people who will have them.
Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible
Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.
- Presidential candidates should have to submit to a series of televised debates that are completely unscripted and where journalists and constituents can ask them any questions they want. No more hiding behind pre-prepared, questions speeches and scripts. - "No, Mr. Bush, Michelle Bachelet is the President of Chile not some chick you tried to bone while drunk at Yale"
- Anyone under the age of 25 who gets pregnant should be required to take parenting classes (and this includes daddy).
- Ronald Reagan should be remembered as the guy who thought he had experienced combat in WWII until someone reminded him that he was recalling a movie he was in, rather than a great leader.
- Faith healers should have to submit to Randi's challenge (or other reasonable testing process) and when found to be fraudulent, should go to prison like any other common criminal.
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
George Orwell
YES!
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
Yes too you all.
Sue the Pope, all evangelists, the FCC, the White House, the FRB, the mega corps, the military, ..... ummm, this list will get quite long .....
Atheism Books.
I agree with everything that has been said except the capitalism thing. I think there has to be some kind of balance between capitalism and socializing essential needs for a given society. Rampant, unregulated capitalism that increasingly distributes a greater portion of wealth into the hands of a minority with greater access to power because of their financial capital is ultimately an unsustainable system just like communism, it just seems to take longer for the true colors and deleterious effects of the system to emerge.
As for parenting, I remember a few people in high school having kids and thinking that there ought to be mandatory classes on raising children along with extensive sex education to prevent unwanted children. Children and teens should know the options available to young people about how to terminate a pregnancy if so desired, without getting forced by their parents into having a child they didn't want.
The government should not subsidize and tacitly support the Faith Based Initiatives. It is a clear violation of the separation of church and state and really pisses me off.
I'm sure there is more, but thats all I got now.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
I've a couple that get me dirty looks:
Eight years working in juvenile behavior management have really pressed those home for me.
"Anyone can repress a woman, but you need 'dictated' scriptures to feel you're really right in repressing her. In the same way, homophobes thrive everywhere. But you must feel you've got scripture on your side to come up with the tedious 'Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve' style arguments instead of just recognising that some people are different." - Douglas Murray
- No one is as smart as they think they are. This goes double for anyone who reads that statement and goes "yeah, but at least I'm smarter than (FILL IN BLANK)". Yes, even you.
- Americans are fucking pansies. Bill Maher said it best: "We used to win to feel good; now we feel good to win." If the US is ever going to get back on its feet and be the world leader it still thinks it is, this must change.
- A corporation, if it is entitled to many of the same rights as a person, should be subject to the same penalties. If your company kills someone, everyone actively involved should go to jail for manslaughter. Being one of many killers does not in any way absolve you of the guilt of their death; guilt is a state, not an amount to be apportioned.
- I agree with Simone Weil: the idea of rights is inherently destructive. The concept of rights needs to be replaced with one of obligations.
- Catholicism is a total mindfuck, expressly designed to keep its adherents so mentally off-balance they have no time to realize the insanity of the institution and just accept whatever is told to them in a calm, strong voice (even if that voice goes on to contradict itself). People who have taken a vow of poverty should not control the largest land owner in the world. Pre-marriage and sex ed classes should not be taught by anyone who has ever even considered taking a vow of celibacy. People who have taken a vow of celibacy should not expect temporal or everlasting forgiveness after raping a child (actually, that goes for anyone). It's like the whole organization is built on irony and contradiction, and that this is a "mystery" to be "pondered". A virgin mother? "Dr Freud; paging Dr Freud."
- Stop trying to make me not responsible for things. If I fucked up, don't tell me it's because I have Rectocranial Dysplasia Syndrome or because I wasn't breast-fed enough (or too much); it's because I misjudged and/or made bad decisions.
- Adults should not be treated like children, and children should not be treated like adults.
- Childhood is not something to be extended; it is a stage of life, not an ideal. A parent's job is to raise a functional adult who isn't an asshole. Anything more is gravy, anything less is criminal.
- The drinking age is too high and the driving age is too low. If you are legally allowed to sign contracts or get conscripted, you should be able to have a beer to celebrate your mortgage slavery or not getting you nuts blown off by shrapnel. Maybe we wouldn't have such a DUI problem if we addressed people's behaviours as bad instead of a substance as bad.
- Guns and drugs are not evil, but people who use them can be.
(edited; putting articles into sentences increases readability!)
--
maybe if this sig is witty, someone will love me.
Wiser words have never been spoken.
While we're on the subject of DUIs and responsibility.
- The way they bust underage drinking is ass backwards and creates an adversarial relationship between bars and the cops. It's a money trap, not an attempt to make anyone's life better. If they really want to stop underage drinking, they should stop trying to entrap bars by sending underage agents into bars. If they would penalize the people who commit the crime, I would give the cops a comfy chair, buy them donuts, and get them refills on their coffee. They can sit outside of my bar and ID everyone who comes out, for all I care. If you're found with an underage or fake license, YOU are the one who is trying to commit a crime, not the bartender who's trying to keep track of a hundred people at once.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
1.We should put every one's social security number in a huge bin and randomly pick out a couple hundred thousand SSNs (every month until the population is more stable than every 4 years or so), and whoever is assigned to those numbers should be killed. If it is ok to kill animals becuase they are overpopulating an area it should be ok to kill humans for the same reason.
2.We should also bring back the Ancient Spartan tradition of discarding babies who are deformed.
3.The UFC should return to its roots of having no weight classes and no rules.
4.If prison inmates show no sign of improvement in psychological states after 3-4 years they should be killed. It does us no good to keep non-functional humans alive.
5.We should figure out a way to power cars off of dead babies as well as full adult corpses (being that on my system there will be alot of these)
6.If you are going to call a show Survivor, the winner SHOULD be the one who didn't die, not the one who was not voted off. Thats not surviving. Thats the Prom. Furthermore, you should have the contestants try to hunt each other as opposed to working together and forming a community. It would be more entertaining due to there being a higher sense of urgency.
7.All Brocoli should be destroyed as wella s brussel Sprouts.
8.Mcg, and similar directors who manage to ruin fun ideas like three secret agent chicks who kick ass, should be burned at the stake without quesiton or hesitation. If you happen to like CHarlie's Angels: Full Throttle, seek help immediatly and if you don;t change your mind in 3-4 years see 4.
9. Wars should be ritualized since fighting for noble causes or for no cause whatsoever only results in utter complete chaos and mayhem and extremely sore losers i.e. Hitler. Also, it will help control the population.
10. Everyone involved with American Idol should be hung and this event should be seen all over the world by people who call in to bet on how long it will take each individual to keel off from suffocation.
" Why does God always got such wacky shit to say? . . . When was the last time you heard somebody say 'look God told me to get a muffin and a cup tea and cool out man'?" - Dov Davidoff
Now that's controversial.
Anyway, I forgot another one of my kid-rants.
- I hate when parents use the whole, "You don't have children, so you are unqualified to talk about anything to do with having children." We don't ask psychologists to do drugs before treating drug addicts, do we? That's because we've got big brains, and we can understand abstract concepts even though we haven't experienced the events behind them. I am qualified to talk about it because I study human nature, via evolution, biology, psychology, and sociology. I know all about cognitive development and socialization, and oddly enough, I've been a child with parents. I know all about childhood. I hate it when people use their parenthood to discount what other people say just because they don't like it. It's just like "Unless you believe in Jesus, you can't understand why you ought to believe in Jesus."
Oh, and my vegan rant...
- Veganism is stupid. It's unhealthy. The reason humans have society at all is that our brains got big because we hunted meat to give to our women so they would have sex with us. You don't have to like it, but it's true. Our entire society formed as a result of hunting meat. We are omnivores. It's very telling that there is not a single natural ecosystem in the world where a vegan diet is possible from indigenous plants. Veganism is only possible in a global economy. If you're a vegan and a neo-primitivist, you're exceptionally stupid.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
I have to object to number 3 on principal
3.The UFC should return to its roots of having no weight classes and no rules.
The UFC is much better than it was in the beginning. The rules are there to gain sanctioning by state athletic commissions as a sport that is averse to serious injuries by and to its competitors. The weight classes create more champions(ie more exciting contender/championship fights), make fighters pick a niche of what size they want to stay at, and if they so wish, can move up and down to win more more belts(breeds more competition).
However, instituting an underground league of gladiatorial deathmatches that don't have to be sanctioned by state athletic commissions could be a fair compromise to this rule.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
High-Fucking-Five! *clears throat* Allow me to expand. Another spectrum which my esteemed colleague did not get into are the other aspects for our species and it's immediate antecedents engaging in the activity of eating meat.
The human brain makes up only 2% of our bodies. However it uses 20% of our calorie intake. This is an ENORMOUS drain on our available energy that we receive from our diet is and one of many reasons why animals of our level of intelligence are so rare compared to other species.
To speak plainly, having a large brain is a very tough sell in evolution. There must be a VERY good reason to do so. And no...it doesn't really look like we need big brains to obtain and eat meat. That currently seems a little ass backwards. Our brains grew large due to social interaction within our group. Pretty much...I hate to say it...the drama...we had to understand the drama. Who was friends with who, who fucked who over in some situation, etc. Humans are the inventors of drama. Shit sucks, eh?
Anyway, as our brains slowly became larger to figure out what the fuck was going on within our little groups we started trying our best to exploit our environment for any available food source. At first this was probably just chewing a few tendons of the lion's or other predator's leftovers. After a while Homo Habilis appears to have started making Oldawan pebble tools to crack open scavenged bones for the bone marrow. Excellant food source.
After another million years or so came Homo Erectus with the Acheulean biface tools that are so impressive at that time. The "swiss army knife of the Paleolithic". Could have been used to hastily hack off limbs of prey or dig for tubers or whatever else.
So now, sitting where we are after millions of years of eating meat, and only having our extremely inefficient brains (calorie wise) achieving so many amazing and horrific things, some smug people want to say that eating meat is wrong. Well shit. Guess you should have been born a fucking rabbit.
However you are a Homo Sapiens with millions of years of a family tradition of eating meat. It's part of your nature and evolutionary direction. Eat it or get out of the species. Otherwise you come off to me as some holier-than-thou, elitist prick.
Meat. Its what's for dinner.
Disclaimer: All information is to be taken as basically correct on current information and theories concerning human evolution and are subject to change at any time with future discoveries.
"I am an atheist, thank God." -Oriana Fallaci
I'm pretty libertarian except I don't believe people should be able to own nature. We should only be able to own things man- made and not own land, oil, minerals, forests, oceans, etc... Use of natural resources should be the only form of tax. Income and sales taxes are wrong. People should only get rich through work and investment and not exploitation of earth's natural resources.
The only socialism/welfare is support is education. I think the poor should have a way out of poverty through educational opportunities but no other welfare. All other government services should be a pay as you go system.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
1) Thats what pissed me off about boxing. Too many title belts to keep track of. 2) Then the UFC should change their name to Fighting Within Reason Championship.
If its underground, its not institutionalized and this already happens quite a bit in Southeast Asian countries.
" Why does God always got such wacky shit to say? . . . When was the last time you heard somebody say 'look God told me to get a muffin and a cup tea and cool out man'?" - Dov Davidoff
Indeed since we I would maintain that we should not grant immunity for any reason.
Might as well kill them off too. They are eating all the primary producers that convert unbreathable CO2 into breathable O2. Considering that the concentration of CO2 is rising in our atmosphere, it is criminal to eat the very things that produce it.
" Why does God always got such wacky shit to say? . . . When was the last time you heard somebody say 'look God told me to get a muffin and a cup tea and cool out man'?" - Dov Davidoff
Instituting...creating...same concept to me in that context. And yes I have seen Bloodsport too. OK USA! Put up your dukes!
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
Agreeing with Hamby, I also am sick of fat people. Get off your ass and run you fat bastards. It would be a miracle, but maybe the rising gas prices will force people to walk/run/bike more places instead of driving their stupid Hummers everywhere.
I'm sick of preachers who try predicting the date of "Jesus' return" and end up tearing people's relationships apart because one of them is brainwashed into believing this unsupportable shit. I am also sick of the perfectly normal lives that these preachers take with them on their road to hell.
I hate Creationists who laugh at evolution but then support no evidence for their side. I'm also tired of their tactics of being "fair in schools" while preaching science. If we're going to teach that bullshit in our classrooms, we ought to also teach every other theory out there, including the Spaghetti Monster and everything else anyone wants to propose as a "theory" for intelligent design. Mine will be that we were created by a giant race of penguins. However, I doubt that most fundies will realize the satire of the situation.
America is stupid for wanting to police the rest of the world. We have military bases virtually everywhere, but if another country, say Germany, built a base in the U.S., nearly everyone here would throw a fit. Let the other nations take care of themselves you bastards running our government.
Americans are so fucking stupid and can't use two cents of common sense. There's something in your head called a brain people.
Putting a yellow "Support our Troops" ribbon on your SUV doesn't do a damn of good. You're still supporting the shit that our government constantly tells us.
Fuck the RIAA.
Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
Religion: These are the idiots who tell the worlds poorest people who REALLY need to control their breeding that birth control is a sin... These are the ones who tell you that killing a fetus is wrong, but waiting until it's 18, and sending it off to have it's head blown off is good. These are the people who destroyed an entire generation of native people, then bitched when the courts made them cough up restitution...
Politics and Patriotism. We are told that we must support the troops even if we don't support the war. BULLSHIT. These are presumably adults, who by their conscious decisions and actions uphold a criminal act commited against another nation. Anyone who volunteers to aid in commiting atrocities can't be held blameless for those atrocities.
Bush and his band of profiteers should be tried for crimes against humanity, high treason and if (when) found guilt, hung with the same rope used to execute Saddam.
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what's for dinner.
Sexuality: Anyone who spends more than a moment contemplating or actually worrying about what someone else is doing with their genitalia is an idiot. Those that obsess over what others are doing with their genitals should be locked away.
Marriage is no more and no less what the involved parties say it is. No person, no group, no government and no band of primatives waving a book of myths has any right to define how any one else chooses to live.
Vegetarianism: All creatures have a place... right beside the mashed potatos.
If we aren't intended to eat animals, why are they made of meat?
Do vegetarians really love animals, or do they really hate plants?
Why does PETA hate fur more than leather? Because it's a lot safer to attack little old Jewish ladies than bikers...
A stalk of celery is no less alive than a bunny. Vegetarians draw an arbitrary and false distinction between the two.
Guns: The 2d Amendment does NOT authorize every cracker assed clown in the country to own an Uzi. It simply and CLEARLY says that if you are in the National Guard (the only legally recognized militia) that you can take your gun home with you.
LC >;-}>
(Did I mention I'm all for the baby seal hunt?)
Christianity: A disgusting middle eastern blood cult, based in human sacrifice, with sacraments of cannibalism and vampirism, whose highest icon is of a near naked man hanging in torment from a device of torture.
I may be in the minority here as someone who goes shooting at least once a week(sporting clays, trap, wobble trap with shotguns), but I am a fan of the second amendment meaning the right to bear arms by individuals.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
That being said, certain restrictions like not buying tanks, RPGs, automatic weapons, and (the far reaching term of WMDs) for personal use are fine by me. Just let people be able to hunt(as the game and fish laws allow), shoot recreationally, and use them for personal protection(while obeying current laws regarding licensing, private businesses, and conceal/carry regulations). I don't carry my handgun anywhere with me unless I am using it for target practice, because I don't feel the need to be armed at all times, nor do I fear for my personal protection as much as some people claim to. There is something to be said for people who see their gun as an extension of their dick, but most people I know who shoot regularly don't seem to have that complex.
“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Yoda
Thanks for all that you all
Did I say I love you ? , well I have again ..... wow ! 
Atheism Books.
I've never understood this about America. You have 16 years olds driving cars! Kids in the tenth grade.How does everybody not get killed on the road? I wouldn't trust 16 years olds I know with a toy car.
Then the drinking age is at 21. It's like they want people to drink underage.Who the hell will wait until then? And if you're going to drink underage at 18, why not at 16?
Here in SA when you're 18, you drive, drink(not at the same time) vote, and are for all purposes an adult. Even so, underage kids are always drinking. What is the point of a 21 restriction?
Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible
Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.
I just have one thing to contribute. It's not exactly contraversial, I guess, but so far I've only been able to find two people who actually feel the same way.
I FUCKING HATE CELL PHONES.
No, really. I hate them. Forever. I sincerely wish they did not exist. At all.
They're annoying as fuck, they make otherwise normal people annoying as fuck, and they're socially awkward.
If they absolutely must exist, there should be some kind of psychological test to prove that, once you own a cell phone, it will not turn you into a complete fucktard.
I used to be able to sit on a park bench and read a book in peace. Now some dickhole always sits next to me and has 47 thirty-second conversations in a row.
While using a public computer lab, renting movies, or getting fast food, I'm tired of listening to high school/college hipsters snickering into their phones about how totally wasted they were/are going to be.
I'm tired of cellphones going off in movies. And I'm especially tired of the assholes that let their cellphones go off in movies and then, instead of just turning them off, they try to "answer it quietly." ("Call me back, man, I'm in a movie. I'm in a movie, man!" )
Texting is slowly becoming the bane of my existence. People wandering around like zombies with their faces stuck to the tiny little screen, thumbs clicking, clicking, clicking, clicking. The worst part is that they can assign custom rings for every text message they receive. This is how, just last night, I was able to sit in a computer lab and listen to the same song intro every thirty second for a fucking hour. My ears are still ringing with "NO! SLEEP! TIL BROOK--(click, click, click, click)"
And everytime I'm talking to a person and their phone rings, and they tell me to hang on a second while they answer their cellphone, I want to break it. I really do. That is the most asshole-ish thing ever, and probably one of the biggest reasons I hate cellphones. They ruin social events like it's their job.
And let's not forget how every semester professors tell their students on day one to never bring their cellphone to class, or---if they do---to turn it off beforehand. Do they listen, though? Do they? Fuck no. Every god damn day, one goes off. I'd maybe understand if it happened for a little while, but no. It's all semester. And, strangely, it's always one of three or four people. Like they "forget" EVERY DAY. Argh.
Or what about the apologizers? A bunch of people sitting in a quiet place, and then an extremely loud ring tone begins blaring. The apologizer scrambles frantically for a purse or lunges into a pocket to retrieve the cellphone, apologizing profusely. "Sorry! Sorry! I got it!"
But then.... "Hello! Heeeey! Whatchoo doin?"
Yeah. Thanks.
And then there's the vibrate option. "Put your phone on vibrate so it doesn't annoy people." Brilliant strategy. Instead of annoying the piss out of me with the same 3-second clip of your shitty music every thirty second, put your phone on vibrate and let it rattle noisily across a floor or desktop every thirty seconds. That's so very considerate of you.
I could go on and on. I fucking hate them. When people I know tell me I should get one, I give them the finger.
If I had it my way:
A place common to all will be maintained by none. A religion common to all is perhaps not much different.
Couldnt agree more Archy
Cell phone are one of the reason that i seriously contemplate bringing paintball guns to movie theaters... (i settle for shot-sticks instead)
Oh oh! i got another one!
SKATEBOARDS!
Ya... every one who uses skateboards... please fall and break your neck
Seriously...
At the very least learn how to use one properly... i dont like that sound of a skateboard screaming down a hill doin 35km behind me, only to brush my jacket! do it again and ill fuckin clothesline ya! (ive was known to do that in school >.> )
And thats another thing! DONT FUCKIN TOUCH ME
The sidewalk/mall/parking lot is BIG !!!1! why must you walk in such a way that you ALWAYS brush up against me?! i hate it!
give me some damn room! im the only other dick on this side of the mall! isnt not like we're in a damn submarine >.<
*In the words of George Carlin*
"I dont have pet peeves... i have morbid fucking psychotic hatreds"
/rant
that felt good... (but ill still clothesline you skaterboarders... i swear )
What Would Kharn Do?
Drunk teeny bopper drivers I must work with, but to date a girl with her cell phone, no way .....
Atheism Books.
Most controversial? Those would be my various views on free market capitalism. With one caveat, that I think someone else brought up already. Corporations, if they're to be treated as individuals under the law, should be subject to more than just fines. Public corporations already have a built-in shelf-life by virtue of the fact that they're forced to grow (by statute of law!) to serve the needs of the stockholders, but they need to be punished when they do unscrupulous things. But liberalism (or more the culture that would develp as a result) deals with that problem implicitly.
Full disclosure: I run a (very small and private) hedge fund. Mostly commodities, some securities. To the list:
1. I don't think retail investors should be involved in the market any more than I think Joe Average should be in the NFL. Markets take (and kill) everybody. They don't care who you are. If you were into Enron, and you thought you were going to be a millionaire, and didn't diversify at the first chart dip, you're playing quarterback in the NFL, and you just got sacked. You're not like a quarterback who worked his way towards playing in the big leagues, so you're not shaking it off and getting up. You're down with broken ribs, a crushed pelvis, and nobody there to give you a hand up.
2. Mutual funds and IPOs are a way to call in retail investors like a siren song with tales of market riches. It's a big, fat lie. Invest in mutual funds, and you're not going to retire. Period.
3. My financial advice is usually controversial. It's this: read everything you can, and learn to fight like a scrapper before entering into ANY market. Otherwise, keep it in the bank. Think you're missing out by keeping your money under your mattress? Better in the bank than at the hands of someone who doesn't know what the hell they're doing. And ... that would be you. It took me three solid years of reading everything I could and watching markets just to decide how to trade them. When I did, it took another year before I could trade without being an idiot. After that, it's awesome. Before that, don't be crazy.
4. Financial advisors can only show you how to be as rich as they are. Are they incredibly wealthy? Of course not. Financial advisors are like homeopathic medicine: go for the placebo effect, stay for the justification of effort.
5. The ownership of everything would not be as bad as everyone thinks. Municipalities and provinces/states are (and would still be) corporations which would own parks and natural feature land. The voters of the area therefore remain in democratic control of natural resources by popular movement. If a regional government considers it okay to strip the hills of coal and ruin the beautiful landscape, and so do its voters, then that's the way it's going to be.
6. Minimum wage should not exist. It further disadvantages the poorest (counter-intuitively) and encourages the belief that it's cheaper to outsource to other countries.
ps - on the crack cocaine thing, it's really not necessary to come up with a conspiracy to keep a visible, underpriviledged caste at a disadvantage. Crack cocaine was made to make the cocaine trade produce even more money. Keeping the black population down in the US wouldn't exactly be a challenge anyway, since there are PLENTY of mechanisms that do that already.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
You just found the third person that agrees with you.
Fucking annoying little machines should be shoved up the ass of the people that created it.
"I am an atheist, thank God." -Oriana Fallaci
OH speaking of Reagan, I think he was GREAT in that Genesis video...his best performance as an actor and president
Land of Confusion
Slowly building a blog at ~
http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/
I love cellphones
Someone had to say it
At the risk of inviting harm, I'd say I grew up with them, while most of you didn't. So where you see it as an intrusion into everyday life, I see it as a fact of life.
Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible
Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.
You grew up with them? How old are you? 15?
"I am an atheist, thank God." -Oriana Fallaci
18 actually.woo..
Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible
Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.
I guess this is how cranky old people are born.
A place common to all will be maintained by none. A religion common to all is perhaps not much different.
Cranky old people like cellphones?
Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible
Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.
It's like giving people a portable Facebook/Myspace machine, only you can't walk away from your computer or close your browser to escape them anymore. You have to sample their favorite music whether you like it or not. You have to listen to their conversations whether you like it or not. I've lost count of how many times I've seen signs that say NO CELLPHONES or PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CELLPHONE and people just fucking ignore them. They don't care.
I wouldn't mind cellphones so much if there were some kind of system in place that forced people to be respectful with them. With payphones, the phone-users were tied to a certain location. You could escape them. They couldn't leak into other places.
I mostly just hate them because it's like people think they get to be as loud as they want, wherever they want, and hey, it's the 21st century where everyone has cellphones, so that's okay.
This isn't like previous inventions, like when old people got cranky about television and radio. You could at least choose to buy or not buy one. You could get cranky about people owning/using them, but at least they were stationary. You could escape them.
It's nice to know that other people agree with me that they blow hardcore. I've had a few people agree with me that their socially awkward or that SOME people are annoying with them etc, but I'm starting to feel very unique in my special flavor of contempt for them.
I feel like one of those "I'm not crazy! The world is crazy!" sorta guys.
A place common to all will be maintained by none. A religion common to all is perhaps not much different.
I have a cell phone and i grew up with them as well... That being said i hate cell phones... i keep my cell in my car and i have it there for EMERGENCIES ONLY... I don't Fucking understand why these ass hats don't turn them off in public places... I usually tell people when I'm at work and they ask me a question while on their cell phones that if they can't give me their full attention what is the point of asking me for an answer that they probably wont remember 5 minutes from then... Other things you can do when someone is trying to talk to you while on their cell phone is pretend like your are having a conversation with yourself and tell the person on their cell to hold on a minute that you are haveing a conversation here... Cracks me up every time!!!LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
What majorly pisses me off about them, besides hearing someone babbling on one, is that you can be near someone and they start talking so you turn to them like they are speaking to you, but no, they're on the damn fucking cellphone. And now they have the little earpieces so they look like crazy homeless people talking to thin air. Then you have all the idiots trying to talk on the cellphone and drive at the same time which makes them about as safe as a drunk driver.
Now we have texting. I seriously wonder if I'm going to die in a carwreck because some kid is trying to text OMG while they drive.
"I am an atheist, thank God." -Oriana Fallaci
Ya i can see it now
the police discover a text message dating to moments before the collision... sent from the driver, to a passenger in the back seat >.>
*zOMG BBF w3 r s0 g0nnA DY*
What Would Kharn Do?
I've never invested in commodities, but I'm thinking of getting started with a bit of money. Here's my theory on how to do it, tell me where I'll go wrong.
If the long term average price of production of a commodity greater than 125% it's current value, buy the commodity.
If the long term average price of production of a commodity less than 75% it's current value, sell(short) the commodity.
So for example, I read that gold on average costs $500 and ounce to mine and produce. It was selling at over $1000 an ounce, so obviously it would go down(as it did). I may have missed the boat on this but it seems like if the production cost is true, shorting gold in the long run is still a good bet. How could I get accurate information on commodities price production?
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
This is actually still in the "controversial ideas" theme, given the following answer.
K, how much are you going to bet? When do you get out of a loss? When to you get out of a win?
The "when to buy/sell" question is the easiest part. You could flip a coin at noon if you want a "buy/sell" answer. Money management is way more important, regardless of whether you're using mean reversion techniques or trend following. If you're interested in "all the fundamentals", then get your Masters in Commerce first, then get a job at a bank trading bonds.
My biggest suggestion is to use a VERY small amount of money that you can afford to lose. Trade with that for a while, lose it (because you will, and you'll lie about it), and then you'll know more than I could ever tell you about fear and greed. It's the biggest mind-fuck you will ever, ever, EVER experience. Bar none.
For gold, I would suggest you fly to every gold mine in the world and ask. Then estimate shipping and storage costs, then the industrial demand, then current stores of every nation and large bank, then the fiscal policy of every corporate and political entity that holds gold.
OR
You can look at the price, and trade on that. It's the only thing that can't lie to you. Read Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, too.
If, however, you enter the market trading blindly, I'll just take your money. You can write me a cheque if you like, for whatever amount you'd like to lose. Most traders call it "market tuition". There's no way to tell you what it is until after you've lost it.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
I really have no idea why the driving age is so low. Some of it may be the complete paucity of public transit in most American suburbs and rural areas, which contained the majority of the US population until recently. So if you didn't live IN a city and wanted to get somewhere, you either hopped on a bike or got in a car. Most (western) Europeans understand that the US/Canada is large, but just not now COMPARATIVELY large the North American countries are. You can get in a car and drive at 100 km/h in one direction ALL DAY and not leave your state/province, never mind change countries. Most places in Europe, this is not possible. Heck, South Africa could fit completely inside any province west of (and including) Quebec.
Did you ever see the movie Stripes, with Bill Murray? He has this great bit in it about how America was founded by the screw-ups that were kicked out of all the countries in Europe. This explains quite a bit about us, in tandem with the fact that many of the earliest new residents were Puritans, one of the biggest no-fun denominations the world has ever seen. The US has had a love/hate relationship with alcohol ever since believers in the temperance movement got involved in government. Hell, for a while there the manufacture, distribution and consumption of liquor was actually ILLEGAL.
Just another inanity perpetrated by religious conviction.
--
maybe if this sig is witty, someone will love me.
Oh boy. Where to start...
Eugenics. Big fan of the concept, to tell you the truth. There's nothing in the definition of the term that suggests anything about eliminating a race, so shut the fuck up about that right now. What I'm talking is government funding of mandatory genetic counseling sessions for every couple looking to have a child and similarly funded mandatory amniocentesis of every accidental pregnancy. And federal/state funding for the abortion to follow if the fetus carries the genotype of any syndrome that will lead to death prior to the age of 25 (MS, for example) or mental retardation. I've worked in human genetics (hated it, by the way, humans are boring) and in close proximity to genetic counsellors. We have the technology, we have trained people, we should be doing it today. The mentally retarded and similarly afflicted are a net drain on our limited resources and creating a specialty class of educators to train them for menial tasks removes intelligent and compassionate people from the workforce. Remove the alleles and the next generation will thank you.
Education is a joke in this country. Because we attempt to educate kids who are incapable of sitting still and shutting up and who haven't been read to in their formative years. In most of the rest of the civilized world you're allowed to drop out and get a job at fifteen, sometimes already having had training during school hours not wasted on esoteric subjects. An educated public is important, so dropping out would result in a delay of voting age until 30 or so...old enough to have developed some sense that a real education would deliver in a much shorter time. In the meantime the kids who have parents concerned enough to keep them in school might grow up (in the absence of the crazy ones).
Dave Matthews sucks. I do not have to admit that he is a talented musician. And the next frat boy who tells me how amazing his drummer is will be made into a lampshade.
Dumping AIDS drugs into countries where there is no education regarding safe sex practices is like shoveling money into a furnace. Actually it's worse. It's risking the efficacy of your own medicines by exposing them to a situation where re-infection is common enough that two or three different strains of the virus might get a chance to mutate into resistant strains. Smart.
Along the same lines, functioning antibiotics need to be kept behind lock and key in some kind of tamper proof explosive safe. Tetracycline was a damn near guaranteed wide field cure until some asshole dermatologist started using it to cure zits. This may not sound particularly controversial at first glance, but it effectively means sending every kid with a cold home empty-handed. People will be pissed.
Freeing Tibet ain't worth the pain in the ass. We all know the country was run by a totalitarian hereditary priest class before the communists took over.
And now, a few points on energy.
Utah and Nevada must be paved with solar cells. Good job for unskilled immigrant workers. If an Islamicist run government attempts the same with the Sahara, they must be bombed.
Nuclear power was irrationally forced out as a going concern in the United States. We need to start working on solutions to the waste problems, not demonizing the energy source.
And finally, regarding alcoholism and DUIs...Hambydammit can attest to the fact that some people are actually really good at driving drunk.
"The whole conception of God is a conception derived from ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men."
--Bertrand Russell