flog

The tame version is on Facebook, here you get the unbridled poop and atheism version because I don't have worry about offending neighbors or in-laws (mainly because no one reads the flog).

"So rather than be just another mindless religious robot, mindlessly and aimlessly and blindly believing that all of this is in the hands of some spooky incompetent father figure who doesn't give a shit, I decided to look around for something else to worship. Something I could really count on.

And immediately, I thought of the sun. Happened like that. Overnight I became a sun-worshipper. Well, not overnight, you can't see the sun at night. But first thing the next morning, I became a sun-worshipper. Several reasons. First of all, I can see the sun, okay? Unlike some other gods I could mention, I can actually see the sun. I'm big on that. If I can see something, I don't know, it kind of helps the credibility along, you know? So everyday I can see the sun, as it gives me everything I need; heat, light, food, flowers in the park, reflections on the lake, an occasional skin cancer, but hey. At least there are no crucifixions, and we're not setting people on fire simply because they don't agree with us." - George Carlin

Lauf!
Weil der Meister uns gesandt
Verkunden wir den Untergang
Der Reiter der Boesehaftigkeit
Fuettert sein Geschwuel aus Neid



Die Wahrheit ist wie ein Gewitter.
Es kommt zu dir, du kannst es hoeren.
Es kundt zu tun ist, ach, so bitter.
Es kommt zu dir, um zu zerstoeren
...um zu zerstoeren
...um zu zerstoeren.



Weil die Nacht im Sterben lag.
Verkunden wir den Jungsten Tag.
Es wird kein Erbaermer geben.
Lauft, lauft, lauft, lauft, lauft, lauft um euer Leben!



Die Wahrheit ist ein Chor aus Wind.
Kein Engel kommt um euch zu raeschen.
Diese Tage eure letzten sind.
Wie Staebchen wird es euch zerbraechen
...euch zerbraechen
...euch zerbraechen.



Es kommt zu euch!
Es kommt zu euch!
Es kommt zu euch!
Es kommt zu euch!
(lauft, lauft)
...als das Verberben.



Die Wahrheit ist ein Chor aus Wind.
Kein Engel kommt um euch zu raeschen.
Diese Tage eure letzten sind.
Wie Staebchen wird es euch zerbraechen
...euch zerbraechen
...euch zerbraechen.

I really have a tempestuous love/hate relationship with the BSA. Saturday was devoted to "new leader training" which is a code word for crushing my ass on a metal folding chair trying to ignore LDS propaganda on the walls whilst watching PowerPoint presentations.

The instructor for the first class was this goof-ball who 5 minutes into the lecture gets to the "god and country" part of the Cub Scout Oath. "The BSA is not a religious organization", he says, and I think "Yippee, this is one of my people." He then follows it up by saying, "They [sic] call us a religious organization." Oh, TJ.

Now bear in mind this guy had silver epaulets on his uniform (signifying he works at the district level), so in other words, he should have known better. The BSA labeled themselves a religious organization so they could continue to discriminate against faggots and infidels in defiance of Federal laws, common decency, and the basic principles of Scouting (helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, cheerful). This (and not some imagined prejudice on the part of 'They' against believing in god and country) is why public schools are reticent to charter BSA units anymore.

Oh well, he did have a lucid two minutes while closing where he gave an inspirational message about how the true locus of change is not popular politicians but volunteers in community oriented organizations like the BSA. I hate to love the BSA, but I kinda do.

How strange, I also get hot whilst programming and my balls need to breathe.

This speech gives me a freedom boner. I think it is an example of the best of what rhetoric can be.

"A new technique is presented for illustrating several probability
distributions on the same axes. The density strip is a shaded
monochrome strip whose darkness at a point is proportional to
the probability density of the quantity at that point. These are
ideal for comparing distributions arising from parameter estimation,
such as posterior distributions from Bayesian multiple
regression or meta-analysis. Such distributions are more commonly
illustrated as a point and line representing point and
interval estimates. This may give the false perception that all
points within the line are equally likely, and that points outside
the line are impossible. The density strip represents the entire
distribution in one dimension, giving a fuller description of the
uncertainty surrounding the quantity. The strips fade gradually
to white in the tails of a typical distribution, in contrast with line
plots and strips whose thickness is proportional to the density,
which terminate at a clear limit. This discourages casual significance
testing based on comparing an arbitrary point in the
tail of the distribution to a threshold. Shaded strips can also be
generalized to shaded regions, which illustrate the uncertainty
surrounding a continuously varying unknown quantity, such as
a survival curve or a forecast from a time series."

we are non stop juggernauts
stomp ziggurats
spit manifestos
by terabytes and gigawatts
shock paradigms
give sense to a score
throw thoughts through the sky
activate twenty more
in these high and dry times
expectorate on dogma
pragmatic sycophants
divide and conquer
we build bridges offer
hard work and prosper
with hand made heroes brought to you by no sponsors

we need heroes
build them
don't put your fist up
fill them
Fight with our hopes and our hearts and our hands
we're the architects of our last stand

What is the energy that fuels this kind of hysterical 'activism'?

As I see it these are reasons the petition should be dismissed out of hand. First, according to snopes it is undetermined what the dog's actual fate was - so we're already on the verge of "Forwarded Email" territory before we've even started. Second, the outrage proves the artist point that people care more about the dog because it is in an art exhibit than they would if it were starving on the street. Third, clicking a button on a website does nothing materially to help out the dead dog (i.e., it is a form of prayer).

And yet, people eat this shit up - 219,084 members on Facebook have "signed" the "petition".