No Heaven or Hell

The sign that's been posted at the Washington State Capitol and Springfeild IL City Hall so far...



Of course, somebody stole it from the Washington State Capitol

Roger Ebert v. Ben Stein

Rogert Ebert wrote a genious analysis ( not a typical review ) of Ben Stein's film "Expelled"

Check it out here

If you ever had any doubts about the media

Here's the ultimate proof of how much the mainstream media has stopping caring about their jobs. This article was posted on Yahoo News (via AP) prior to the live debate at 9PM tonight ( I cought it about 15 minutes prior, but according the time stamp it had been up over an hour). Click on the screen shot below and notice past-tense nature of the wording in the first few paragraphs.




























They could have at least waited until the debate started to post the article to make it a little less obvious.

Sicko, It'll Make You Want to Barf on People

I unfortunately didn't have a chance to see this in the theaters, but I just saw it on dvd. Go rent this right now. It'll piss you off, but it a good way. Perhaps the best point he makes in the movie is not about the American health care system, but how afraid we are to rock the boat when we're being exploited and stepped on.

"Hail to the Dancer in Chief"...How Very Droll

Al Gore, Nobel Prize Winner

Ok, now will you listen to him?

Clinton Assails Bush's 'War on Science'

By DEVLIN BARRETT Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton cited frustrated scientists and a comedian Thursday as she assailed President Bush's record on scientific study and pledged to rescind his restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
The presidential candidate also said she would bar political appointees from altering or removing scientific conclusions from government research without a legitimate reason for doing so.
"The Bush administration has declared war on science," the New York senator said. "When I am president, scientific integrity will not be the exception it will be the rule."
Her address to the Carnegie Institution for Science was a preview of what she said would be more detailed proposals in coming weeks on energy and environmental issues.
Clinton focused mostly on policy proposals, but she also drew laughs for paraphrasing the faux right-wing fury of Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert, saying "this administration doesn't make decisions on facts, it makes facts based on decisions."
The speech was timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Sputnik satellite by the Soviet Union. The launch, which caught U.S. scientists by surprise, helped start the U.S.-Soviet space race and led to the creation of National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The candidate said as a little girl she was fascinated by Sputnik, but that today's scientific challenges often come from political ideology instead of foreign powers.
"For six and half years under President Bush, it has been open season on open inquiry," Clinton said. "By ignoring or manipulating science, the Bush administration is putting our future at risk and letting our economic competitors get an edge in the global economy."
She said Bush's limits on federal funds for embryonic stem cell research amounts to a "ban on hope."
Republican National Committee spokesman Danny Diaz countered that Clinton "manipulates basic mathematics in her attempts to explain how she will pay for hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending."
On the campaign trail, Clinton has repeatedly slammed what she calls Bush's "war on science" and accused the administration of allowing conservative political ideology to interfere with research and scientific evidence. She cites administration officials who have questioned the scientific evidence of global warming and who have suggested a link existed between abortion and breast cancer.
As president, Clinton said she would:
- Expand human and robotic space exploration and speed development of vehicles to would replace the space shuttle.
- Launch a space-based climate change initiative to combat global warming.
- Create a $50-billion strategic energy fund to research ways to boost energy efficiency and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.

Worst Theory Ever

I just recently became aware of this. Whoever dreamed this up had too much time on their hands, or was incredibly stupid. I'm supposed to find it amazing that that "20 - United States of America - 20" contains the characters needed (although we're subbing a zero for an O) to spell Osama ?

Admittedly I'm not sure if this was actually originally intended as a conspiracy theory, or if it was just someone dicking around and decided to post it online.

Here's a link explaining the whole thing in more detail.

The Cut-throat world of Chuck E Cheese's

Ashley and I took Samantha to Chuck-E-Cheese's the other day. Normally I don't mind the place. Sure it's obnoxious, but it's skeeball and pizza, two things that I happen to like. It was on this occasion that something occured to me. It's something I had realized as a child but didn't really put togeather what exactly what was going on. You see, we went on friday night and as such it was very busy. We've gone with Samantha a few times over the past couple of years but it was usually during the week and not busy at all. What I realized (stay with me...hear me out...) was that Chuck-E-Cheese was a microcosm of the adult world. At first I thought it was just the corporate world that it resembled, but the analogy can apply to all of it really, and I'll explain how. It hit me when I was waiting in line behind some kids to play skeeball. I was polite and patient and I gracefully waited my turn. I should have known that the kids wouldn't behave as such as they kept just walking up and cutting in front of me. At first it pissed me off, but they're kids; I can't exactly scold them for cutting in front of an adult to play a game at what is cleary an establishment for children. But then I saw these kids cutting in front of other kids that, like me, were waiting patiently to play the games (which brought back wonderful memories of my own experiences at the exact same place). The first thing I did in my mind was jump up on my high-horse and think to myself that us adults know how to behave properly and these kids need to be tought a lesson. Then something else happened in my mind...it almost sounded like the laugh track from Three's Company slowly creeping from my sub-counscious into my counscious mind. Us adults don't do that? I can't remember the last time I was at the grociery store or the pharmacy and some jackbag didn't try to muscle his way in front of me in line (it's usually meatheaded men or really old women). Then I noticed other things going on, kids were stealing tokens from other kids cups, they were stealing tickets that other kids had won. One kid even stole some of my french fries (but in his defence he was like 3 and I think he thought his mom had ordered them). All this behavior was rampant, but what was most rampant of all was the blatent cheating. Mostly with skeeball, but with the soccer ball kicking game and others as well. And were the parents there teaching their kids to play fair? I didn't see a sinlge parent correct their children. So, what was all of this lying, cheating and stealing for? Prizes of course. Peaces of crap that they didn't need. How much of this sounds familiar? All of it I'm guessing. This kind of behavior is commonplace in both the working-class and corporate world. Taking short-cuts, lying to employees, customers, and the public . I'm sick of this attitude that something isn't cheating if you don't get caught. I'm sick of it from kids, people, and corporations. I'm sick of children being tought that it's just the way the world works and you better learn to do it better than the next guy or he'll get a bigger house than you. The world is what you make of it, and I don't think the entire world is like this. We've gotten it burned into our culture's psyche that this is the way it is, and that you have to play the game before the game plays you. This isn't ok. This isn't life. I fully submit that it may be in our nature to be this way, but that we are smarter than this. We can be above this. We can take a stand and say no matter what the outcome, no matter what the other guy is doing, that we're not going to be cheater, the theif, or the liar. We can do better.

(It's late, this is a rough-draft...I will spell check and proof-read tomorrow)

Damn straight, fucker.