Fear and Trembling

The Political Landscape

Hmm ... John Kerry wins Iowa ... hooray? Is he really going to bring anything significantly different, and staggering improvements, to America? As much as I would like to hope a democrat-party candidate could do so, it seems unlikely. The only promise in the whole circus is that Bush will be out, and some other puppet will be installed. How can anybody find anything good in this system? Caucuses? Come on. What bullshit. Let's have direct elections. I think the coolest thing for the American political system would be for the presidency to suddenly have as high a turnover rate as most sectors of the economy. Imagine the beauty in the next president quitting cos he [yes, HE ... unlikely a woman will ever get in] gets fed up with how much everything is a sham. The only thing more beautiful would be a truly open playing field, direct elections, having to deal with nobody getting a majority of votes ... goddamn, this system is fucked up.

I find it deplorable that the United States is trying to export such a system into Iraq. I am sure American business would just love to see another two-party system erected into which they can funnel money and promises so no matter who is in office, they will benefit and profit. These days, the only thing certain about democracy is just how predictable it is in this era of corporate dominance in all aspects of life.

The distro of distros, or, The flavor of flavors...

Gentoo Linux. Ever heard of it? Oh my god, it's just badass. No doubt about it. However, it is not for the weak of heart. Nor the ever-ignorant Linux n00b. It is a little less hardcore than Linux from scratch, but it's way the hell more hardcore than any Redhat, Mandrake, Suse, or Slackware many kids who think they're cool cos they run Linux have ever tried. But then, Gentoo also has it's more than fair share of 13-yr-old boys who just got dad's old computer and they heard that Gentoo is what 1337 hax0r5 use to crack the computers of the world ... but don't know how to change the date or list files in a directory. Sheesh. I'm getting so sick of these stupid teenage kids who think they're l33t cos they run Linux. Stupid crackers.

The ever-failing bastard.

I guess that about sums me up for 2003. And 2002. And every year I've been around before. And I don't see any reason why 2004 will be bringing big changes. Some semi-New Year's Resolutions I have thought about picking up for fun:

A] Start chain-smoking and drinking mass quantities of alcohol daily.

2] While unabashedly fulfilling Resolution A, violently deny that I smoke, and profess I am merely a "social drinker."

D] Find a couple more ways to get into debt, and then blame it all on Jesus, claiming it all in faith, and hope I'll believe this is really what God has blessed me with.

4] Seek a cure for being a suicidal nervous wreck.

Au revoir, FreeBSD ... Salut, Gentoo!

Et maintenant, j'ai décidé d'installer Gentoo Linux sur mon ordinateur. A l'origine, il était en raison de mon nouvel imprimeur et parce que j'ai voulu oublier la nécessité dans FreeBSD pour la compatibilité de Linux pour les jeux d'ordinateur.

Maintenant, je suis très heureux avec mon choix et la performance de Gentoo Linux sur mon Pentium3. J'essaye de comprendre des CFLAGS et CXXFLAGS et je crois que c'est possible que je pourrais écrire un HOWTO pour eux.

********

And now, I decided to install Gentoo Linux on my computer. Originally, it was because of my new printer and because I wanted to forget about the need in FreeBSD for Linux compatibility for computer games.

Now, I am very happy with my choice and the performance of Gentoo Linux on my Pentium3. I am trying to understad the CFLAGS and CXXFLAGS and I believe it's possible that I might write a HOWTO for them.

Birth of a manchild

Friday, 12 December 2003 @ 14:35, unto us a child was born, unto us a son was given ... into my hands in the backseat of our car. It was f*cking intense!! It was also the most exhilarating moment of my life, I think ... a manchild ... and his name shall be called Isaac Alexander. It is finished, and yet it has just begun. Amazing.

Somehow, the kingdom of heaven is like this:

Somehow, the kingdom of heaven is like this:

Those who enter never expected to;
Those who expected to never enter.

Somehow, the kingdom of heaven is like this.
Somehow, the truth of Christianity is right here,
in front of our noses; it is so clearly
before us--we who are
too blind to see.

Sojourning ...

Gee golly! It's been quite a while since I have posted. I haven't yet noticed that I have been missed. Just putting up words to fill the monthly quota.

blah blah yada yada pop crackle snap fizzle fazzle fuzz beelzebub.

First Sunday Post Thanksgiving

Well, I survived another day that was apparently created for one thing but has so adroitly been turned into another by gizmo-making corporate powers-that-be. Ah, yes. The Thanksgiving. It seems to just be the day before the Day After Thanksgiving more and more. Less and less giving thanks. The W makes a super hyper no-way-did-anybody-know secret trip to Bag-Dad. More diplomats have died in Iraq. The US says Iraqi police are behind some/many/how many of these attacks. About the only thing great about the whole weekend is that I bought nothing on the day after Thanksgiving. I thank Adbusters for thinking up this whole Buy Nothing Day. I think I should buy the Black Spot shoe, but worry I am just chasing after another bit of consumerist branding, even if it is supposed to be anti-Branding anti-Nike, etc. etc. Maybe the day before the Day After Thanksgiving should be changed to Salewaiting Day. Could be cool. Sounds kinda catchy. Salewaiting. Yeah. Yeehaw. Woohee. Hooray! In fact, we could keep calling the day after Salewaiting Day the Day After Thanksgiving, and I bet nobody would even notice. I think. Except for the actors who re-enact Pilgrims and Indians on that day. Maybe Macys could write a new play for Salewaiting Day. I dunno. Maybe I need to go take some pills to pick me up. What does that purple pill do? I better ask my doctor if it's for me. Oh, crap! Alias is on.

The Latest Breaking News You Will Not Want to Miss

I'm such a dork. A doofus. A clown.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Happy Turkey Feasts to all and to all a good night!

A One-Act Play

Govt: Hey, CitizenOne. Who are you? What do you do for your country?

C.One: Well, I'm a heterosexual, obviously.

Govt: Well, who cares about that? Who are you? What do you do?

C.One: Oh ... well, I'm a father, a husband, and a factory worker. I shop at Wal-Mart, and support the president.

Govt: Oh, I see. Well, keep up the good work, citizen!

... [brief interlude plays...CitizenOne shuffles offstage]

Govt: Hello, CitizenTwo. Who are you? What do you do for your country?

C.Two: Well ... I'm a homosexual.

Govt: Well, alright then! Gay pride! Hooray! Keep up the good work!

Pain and Suffering

I sense a disturbance in the force. Pain. Suffering.

Okay, really, my back just hurts a whole effing lot today. The force is not helping me overcome.

On Preachers ... and Sermons ... and what to do with them?

What are we to make of these men and women who exact a living off the "preaching" of the Gospel? Is this that Christianity of the New Testament for which we are asked to forsake all worldliness--which requires a greater measure of the teachers than the laypersons?

Why do we need sermons? Christ's words are abundantly clear. Yet, imho, they are too often sermonized away. We permit our priests and teachers to "explain" the subtle nuances of the parables, and yet demand no accounting for the glossing over--or premeditated ignoring--of the clearest of Christ's demands:

Religious Convictions, Political Debate

It's from an essay written by Robert Audi in Religion in the Public Square: The Place of Religious Convictions in Political Debate, p.21:

"I should think, moreover, that in some cases, good secular arguments for moral principles may be better reasons to believe those principles to be divinely enjoined than theological arguments for the principles, based on scripture or tradition. For the latter arguments seem (even) more subject than the former to cultural influences that may distort scripture or tradition or both; more vulnerable to misinterpretation of religious or other texts or to their sheer corruption across time and translation; and more liable to bias stemming from political or other non-religious aims. Granting, then, that theology and religious inspiration can be sources of ethical insight, we can also reverse this traditional idea: one may sometimes be better off trying to understand God through ethics than ethics through theology. [ . . . continued]

Title Contest: Will you be the winner?

Hey there bloggers. This is a little poem I wrote. I'd like to open up a title contest. That's right--you guys get to offer your choices on the title. I might even hold a little democratic vote after some titles are submitted by all of you. Or I may offer it up for consensus. Or perhaps the more wealthy and positioned among us will choose in a nice aristocratic move. Yet again, perhaps I shall just make the call in autocratic fashion. I cannot guarantee I will go with one of your suggestions, but I just might, since I have been unable to come up with one for six months. Anyway, go ahead and click below to read the full text of the poem. Then comment away--and, of course, your comments don't need to be just title suggestions.

All able-bodied home erectuses, hark!

Hey, chattabloggin' cats. Gotta question for all of you, or those who know and are willing to respond, rather. Many of you have those great additional side menus with neat lists of what you are listening to, reading, drinking, smoking, looking at, smelling, washing, drying, dyeing, selling, buying, and overall employing as parts of your daily, weekly, or monthly lives. How do you do it?

Gouging out my eyes...

I am seriously about to gouge out my eyes with bitten-down fingernails, stuff them in my ears till it hurts, and then do a little slice-and-dice and mail them to the Whitehouse, if only to let the W know that there is at least one thinking American who is oh so tired of listening to and reading the same b.s. in the news everyday.

Bob's Dead...

It seems Bob won't be keeping a blog here anymore. The GRE killed him yesterday. This is his ghost, bidding all a fond farewell for the good times, the bad times, the fun times, the sad times, the all in all brief times. Alas! Alack! Ack! Hack! [*coughs blood*] What time is it? Oh crap! I gotta go to work. I have dreamed a dream and now that dream is taken from me. Uff-da. [*cries*]