Things I find interesting and want to share.
14 Oct 09

Fundamentalism is a fallacy

Fundamentalism is flawed. It simply can not work. Why? Because it at it’s very core, fundamentalism is an ideology that ignores change while promoting stagnance. It ignores progress. Fundamentalism, by definition, can not evolve.

Let’s think about that for a second.

Religion is one obvious example. If we are talking about religious beliefs, fundamentalism would mean strict adherence to the oldest teachings of their particular belief. For Christians, that would include killing your own children when they misbehave! I don’t know any Christians — even fundamentalists — who are willing to do that.

Another obvious example is conservative politics. If we were talking about government, fundamentalism would mean strict adherence to the documents upon which your government was founded. For Americans, that would mean that black people were only 3/5 of a person, and women couldn’t vote. Good luck with that platform.

And why stop there? Let’s also apply fundamentalism to sports. It would mean that football players wore leather hats and no pads, and that boxers didn’t have gloves. If you’re a fundamentalist, you’ll toss out your fancy new Ping golf clubs. A true fundamentalist would throw away the Nike running suit and get back to jogging nude, or perhaps with a well-placed fig leaf.

Examples like these really start to make it clear how ridiculous fundamentalism sounds. And yet fundamentalism is well-represented in every aspect of life. Why is that?

21 Sep 09
Good ideas turn into good designs fairly quickly. If you catch yourself fiddling too much with colors, borders and treatments to bring a design together, chances are the problem lies somewhere deeper.
— Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals
16 Sep 09

The title of vice president must be the most promiscuous of all in corporate America. Everyone seems to be a vice president these days. Some companies having hundreds of them. Are all of these people truly capable of standing in for the president or CEO of the company should it come to that? Are they really just one step below that person?

Of course they’re not. Vice president is mostly an “all title, no lands” concept that serves as a cheap way to make someone feel important without the authority to actually be important. It’s classic over-promise, under-deliver. “You’re oh-so-important, but please fill out this expense authorization report for your laptop”.

Titles are mostly bullshit at the best of times, but “vice president” seems to be bullshit all the time.

— (37signals)
11 Sep 09

Fuck 9/11

Seriously. I say fuck 9/11.

Why should we celebrate the terrorists? Why don’t we instead celebrate October 7th, the day when we declared war on Afghanistan? Or May 1, the day when the “Mission” was “Accomplished”?

You’re not supposed to celebrate the day you LOSE. You’re supposed to celebrate the day you WIN. Pearl Harbor was a tragic day, too — in many ways, more so than 9/11 — but the difference is, on Dec 4, I don’t have to put up with everyone I know talking about Pearl Harbor. In fact, as sad as that was, it was just one event in a WORLD fucking WAR.

By contrast, 9/11 was simply the day that some Islamic extremists managed to kill a bunch of Americans and the completely get away with it. 9/11 was the day that the Bin Laden family was chauferred around in a private plane while the entire airspace over the US was closed down. 9/11 was the day that our President stared blankly at a children’s book while our country was under attack.

In other words, 9/11 is the day that the entire United States was caught with its pants down by some guy in a cave halfway around the world.

The problem is, everyone talks about 9/11, not because it should be remembered, or commemorated, or celebrated, or anything else. They talk about it because it keeps “national security” at the front, as a hot topic. It keeps assholes like Dick Cheney relevant. It justifies torture, and it influences elections.

Jesus Christ himself does not get the press that 9/11 gets. Even on Christmas day.

Well fuck that. And fuck 9/11. I don’t want to remember the day we lost. I want to remember the day we won. That’s what history is, after all, right? It’s written by those who won. The fact that we’re still talking about 9/11 is proof that we have failed and we continue to fail.

08 Sep 09
Glenn Beck Raped And Murdered A Young Girl In 1990 →

sick bastard.
31 Aug 09
President Obama, usually a very perceptive guy, seems to think that bipartisanship is still possible. He assumes that at some fundamental level politicians can be reasonable people. Unfortunately, our politicians mirror the nation at large, which is full of dogmatic, uncompromising, my way or the highway, plain unreasonable people. As in the book 1984, today we perceive ignorance to be strength. In doing so we merely hasten the time when our country moves from a first-class country to a second-class country.
— Occam’s Razor
27 Aug 09
Incredibly, Snow Leopard is only half the size of its predecessor; following the speedy installation (15 minutes), you wind up with 7 gigabytes more free space on your hard drive. That, ladies and gents, is a first… That Snow Leopard’s looks haven’t changed at all, in other words, betrays the enormous changes under its pretty skin… Either way, the big story here isn’t really Snow Leopard. It’s the radical concept of a software update that’s smaller, faster and better — instead of bigger, slower and more bloated.
— NYTimes.com
26 Aug 09
So yes, I think that Obama’s political calculation that he must “look forward” and allow criminals to escape without punishment is a serious mistake that should have devastating political consequences. I will go so far as to say that there is no way I can support a second Obama term if he persists on this course.
— Atheist Revolution
24 Aug 09

Now, I’m sure many of you have encountered little shits in supermarkets. Little kids running about and knocking things over, being rude, walking all over their parents, you know the kind. But the worst are the biters. Yes, those little cunts that feel it is okay to bite you whenever they feel like it.

Okay, here’s the best part. A biter got me today when I was grocery stopping. He broke the fucking skin, too. This was when the gears started turning, the moment I saw a tiny sprickle of blood on the little shit’s teeth as he was grinning at me like the little cunt he is. I made my eyes get wide, and started screaming “SHIT! SHIT!.” Now, my good friend, Tom we’ll call him, was there too, and he instantly picked up on it. He started shouting “FUCK! MAYBE HE DIDN’T GET IT! FUCK!.” By now, the kid is scared shitless and starts crying, and instantly, Mizz Mom appears out of nowhere and starts getting pissy at us for yelling at her kid.

Here’s the kicker, I look her straight in the eye and say, “Mam, get your son tested as soon as possible, he just bit me and I’m… I’m FUCKING HIV POSITIVE.”

And now there is silence. Not a peep in the entire store. The brat knows he just fucked up big time because his mom isn’t defending his ass. She just stares at me wide eyed. I walk away from them, buy my shit from the wide eyed cashier, all the while blood is dripping from my calf, making a nice little trail on the floor. And, just s we leave, we start to hear the mother sobbing. Sobbing like the cunt she is.

I have never felt any more satisfaction than the moment I heard that sob.

— Anonymous
18 Aug 09
A truly good man is not aware of his goodness and is therefore good. A foolish man tries to be good and is therefore not good. The master does nothing, yet he leaves nothing undone. The ordinary man is always doing things, yet many more are left to be done. The highest virtue is to act without a sense of self. The highest kindness is to give without condition. The highest justice is to see without preference.
— Tao Te Ching