tumble@randem

Fundamentalism is a fallacy

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:40:19 -0400

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?

"Good ideas turn into good designs fairly quickly. If you catch yourself fiddling too much with..."

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:14:15 -0400

“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

"The title of vice president must be the most promiscuous of all in corporate America. Everyone seems..."

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:01:59 -0400

“

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)

Fuck 9/11

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:36:00 -0400

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.

Glenn Beck Raped And Murdered A Young Girl In 1990

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:44:07 -0400

Glenn Beck Raped And Murdered A Young Girl In 1990:

sick bastard.

"President Obama, usually a very perceptive guy, seems to think that bipartisanship is still..."

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 09:29:14 -0400

“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

"Incredibly, Snow Leopard is only half the size of its predecessor; following the speedy installation..."

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:22:25 -0400

“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

"So yes, I think that Obama’s political calculation that he must “look forward” and..."

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:12:54 -0400

“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

"Now, I’m sure many of you have encountered little shits in supermarkets. Little kids running about..."

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:35:14 -0400

“

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

"A truly good man is not aware of his goodness and is therefore good. A foolish man tries to be good..."

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:53:40 -0400

“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

Video

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:30:00 -0400

Photo

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:38:17 -0400

"Discovered in a monastery in the Sinai desert in Egypt more than 160 years ago, the handwritten..."

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:10:47 -0400

“

Discovered in a monastery in the Sinai desert in Egypt more than 160 years ago, the handwritten Codex Sinaiticus includes two books that are not part of the official New Testament and at least seven books that are not in the Old Testament.

The New Testament books are in a different order, and include numerous handwritten corrections — some made as much as 800 years after the texts were written, according to scholars who worked on the project of putting the Bible online. The changes range from the alteration of a single letter to the insertion of whole sentences.

And some familiar — very important — passages are missing, including verses dealing with the resurrection of Jesus, they said.

Juan Garces, the British Library project curator, said it should be no surprise that the ancient text is not quite the same as the modern one, since the Bible has developed and changed over the years.

”

- CNN.com

Awkward with intimacy? - Yahoo! Answers

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:20:59 -0400

Awkward with intimacy? - Yahoo! Answers

via English Russia

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:06:00 -0400

via English Russia

No free hugs…

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:12:52 -0400

No free hugs…

Reasons for using Internet Explorer

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:47:14 -0400

Reasons for using Internet Explorer

Photo

Mon, 25 May 2009 20:03:51 -0400

"If anything, the switch from “erotic” to “adult” [on Craigslist] has only..."

Fri, 22 May 2009 10:49:13 -0400

“If anything, the switch from “erotic” to “adult” [on Craigslist] has only made things worse. Now instead of having defined categories and distinctions between genders and sexual preference, the site is just a come-one-come-all dumpbin for handjobs and more. The code is just a little less transparent, and the photos are a little less explicit. The post count may be down, but the song remains the same.”

- Chicagoist

Super Mario Trombones

Fri, 22 May 2009 09:16:12 -0400

Super Mario Trombones