The New Road

Grand Theft Auto IV

You'll have to forgive me if I don't excited about this latest release in the Grand Theft Auto series. They lost me as a fan when GTA III had a feature where you raped, beat and/or killed, then robbed a hooker. As a developer, if someone ever asked me to write that feature, I would have quit.

Why are we here?

From my understanding of it religion is supposed to answer two questions that are important all of us. The first is what happens after we die. I can certainly relate to that, I think everyone else can to. The other question is; why are we here? I've never really understood the purpose of asking that question. I mean what's the difference? We are here. And if we aren't, it certainly seems like we are, so I can't tell the difference. And thus it still doesn't matter.

But anyway, the question seems to matter to some people for some reason, and they think they can find the answer in the Bible. My question is, where does it answer that question the Bible? I know it talks about how we got here. But not why? The best answer I ever heard is that we are here to serve God. But what does that mean? And why does he need us now? Or 6000 years ago? Why not 1 billion years ago? Why not yesterday? And was it mean to serve God? It's just some task we all have that will get no feedback on until the end, and then boom, you get judged? Sound like a lousy boss to me.

The other answer I hear is that there is some mysterious plan. Which is a copout. That might as well be no answer at all.

So tell me, I'm seriously asking, where in the Bible does it say why we are here?

I mean if there are two fundamental questions that religion can answer that nothing else can, and they provide no answer for one of those, isn't that a problem?

Doesn't effect me attitude

What is it about conservatives that they all share the "doesn't effect me so it doesn't matter" attitude. Here is a video clip of a state house republican calling mexican laborers "illiterate peasants". But the funny part is a the end of the story when another republican tries to convince this moron that they need people to pick crops. But he "doesn't need people to pick crops" because he doesn't have any crops. It's more of the usual "I don't need it, so nobody needs it" attitude.

I don't need food stamps or welfare, so nobody should have them. I don't need civil rights, so nobody should have them. I don't feel like I need my privacy, so nobody should have it. Me, me, me. The world revolves around me.

Conservatives... grow up... we have had twenty eight years of conservative lunatic rule and look where it's gotten us. A dog eat dog, every man out for themselves society where people are willing to fuck each other over for a spot in the checkout line. Grow the hell up. It's not all about you.

The United States of Screw You

Last month it was Wal-Mart, this month it's FedEx. A female truck driver who worked with FedEx was diagnosed with stage for ovarian cancer. She went back to the warehouse, told her boss, he said she still needed to work her routes. She asked for a replacement, and he said she would have to pay for that herself. So she did the routes, with the cancer. And when she finally got home, she was notified that FedEx had fired her. So now she is out of work, with cancer, and no medical insurance, and big bills to pay on her big rig. Nice.

And that's FedEx. I don't see them hurting for money. But then Wal-Mart wasn't hurting for money either, and they still screw people over. What have we come to when this kind of stuff is okay?

I was driving back to work this morning, and a guy cut a lady off of three lanes of traffic, then flipped her the bird as he looked away. I only noticed because I had to swerve to get out of the way of her trying to get out the way of him.

Why are we so damn ready to screw each other over in this country? Aren't we rich enough? Do we really had to screw each other over for just a little bit more? What happened to random acts of kindness? What happened to Christian compassion?

I get the feeling the reason we don't want universal health care in this country is not so much that we think it's a bad idea. But we don't like the idea that we can't beat someone down until they're completely destitute and without anything at all.

What this lady from FedEx do that was so wrong? Get cancer? That's her fault? She got ovarian cancer, the silent killer, and that's her fault? And whose problem is it? Should be up to FedEx? Frankly, I never understood why health insurance is the employers problem. To me, caring for others, is a burden we should all share together. I think we, as a society, should be there for this woman. That's the kind of society I want to live in. That's the kind of society I would want to be there for me, and my wife and my kids.

Whatever the outcome, we need to bring humanity back into the equation. We all need to agree at some point that is the end outcome of a series of events is that some poor little guy gets completely screwed, then that's bad. We are better than that.

I would rather make enough to get by in a society where people care about each other than make a mint in some "dog eat dog" Libertarian nightmare.

St. McCain and the 100 billion dollars

St. McCain was on the talking heads this morning going on about how he could save $100 billion a year in the budget of the federal government. Wow, our hero has arrived. That's almost 1% of the entire government budget! What a savings! That could pay off this year's interest on the Bush debt in... only nine years! Or it could pay for another six months of his beloved Iraq war.

Out of touch? McCain? That's the understatement of the year.

I am iron man

Oh, man. Check this out. I am truly Iron Man.

I wish I could say I was bionic man, but then I would need some sort of electronics in my arm. At the moment all I have is a plate and some bolts. Looks like something I would do in the woodshop with two by fours. Of course I'm sure it's a heck of a lot more expensive than that, but we haven't gotten the bill yet.

Why Aren't We Good Enough?

Another question I have is; why aren't we good enough to be in the Bible? A whore has a central role in the Bible. There are people who cut babies in half. And talking donkeys. But at a certain point the Bible just closed up and no new gospels were added. Why? Shouldn't there be a gospel of Martin Luther King, or Mother Theresa? Why is the story of humanity today less inspirational than the stories of people who lived two thousand years ago?

I realize that stories about a super hero who could change water into wine (was that white wine or red?) are thrilling. But wouldn't stories about regular people overcoming their human foibles and limitations to make an extraordinary impact on a larger world be even more inspirational?

My, albeit limited, understanding of the Bible leads me to conclude that Matthew, Luke, John and the rest of them were regular people, just like us. They didn't live to be 900 years old. And they couldn't perform miracles. But they are in the Bible all the same. So when did we become 'not good enough' to make it into the pages of the Bible? And if we are not good enough to make it in, perhaps the Bible is not good enough for us? Eh?

I broke my wrist

Well it turns out I liked skating so much that I broke my wrist doing it. That's the fourth time I broken a bone. But it's the first time in 25 years. And I'm a lot older now. Which really sucks. But thankfully technology has advanced. For example, I'm writing this blog entry using voice dictation. Which they say from typing which I really can't do because my I broke my right wrist. And let me tell you it's what we usually good.

The good news, if there is any, is that I'm not in a cast. I had to have surgery, and the result is a wrist harness thing. I may even be able to work out this weekend. Which is pretty amazing. I mean nothing serious, just 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer, but that's more than nothing.

Man, I really love this "dictate" software. It's far better than the stuff I saw five years ago. Which was completely unusable. It could easily save me a 80% of my typing, at least in articles, which is all I really need it for.

Ah well, off to my Vicodin fueled recovery.

Within the next sixth months

Iraq is always at a 'turning point'. Victory is always 'around the corner'. Always 'within six months'.

We have spent almost a trillion dollars in Iraq so far. And that's just the up-front costs. The project costs, if we were to leave today are three trillion. How much are we willing to spend for this? How much money is too much money? How many years are too many years? How many bodies are too many?

What do you call a war without a clear path to victory? A war which will never end?

Shouldn't these be the questions we can answer? I never hear the people who advocate to stay there talking about these issues. There was some point to the Iraq war, right? Something that we accomplished? Removing Hussein I guess. How many years of occupation was that worth? How much money was that worth? If you can't answer those questions I don't see how you can call your opinion on the war responsible or informed.

Roller Skating

When Lori mentioned that I should take Megan roller skating my initial reaction was kind of so-so about the idea. I figured Megan would love it because she is such a good ice skater. But I'm not a great ice skater and I haven't been roller skating in fifteen years. And my last experience with inline skates was a disaster.

But I figured we would give it a try, so I took her this afternoon. The first nice thing was that we were given a choice of quad skates (the old school four wheelers) and inlines. We took quads. I was pretty unsteady at first but within about five minutes I was sailing around like I had never left the rink. Megan, in the meantime, was clinging to the side for dear life.

I loved it. I could have staid for hours had I not poorly chosen a sweatshirt to go out in, and had Megan actually liked roller skating. I was having a ball. The music was great. They were playing games at one point. They turned off the lights and did a disco ball thing. I want to go again! And again! Roller skating is the bomb!

Nineteen eighty freakin' seven!

McCain was in Memphis yesterday on the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King. When he gave his speech he apologized because he had been vociferously against the MLK holiday in Arizona. Arizona, as it turns out, was one of the last states in the union to honor MLK day. Who knew?

Anyway, some of the liberal pundits were making hay about this but I was about to give him the pass. Why? Well, I figured it was like 1972 or something. So way back that one could conceivably be forgiven for being an idiot. But then I found out when McCain made his anti-MLK protests. 1987! Nineteen eighty freakin' seven! Are you kidding me?

I was 19 in 1987. MLK was a legend for me at that point. He was an icon! A legend! Even the bigots I knew gave him props for being a great orator. What the hell was McCain thinking? 1987! In '77 MLK was posthumously given the medal of freedom. Live Aid was in 1985! In 1989 both parties in Congress took a stand against apartheid in South Africa! Who was against MLK in 1987? Nobody. Except McCain!

1987! Wow. That just blows my mind. I'm sure McCain would argue that he was a young man at the time. Yeah, no. John, 50 is not young. When McCain was 50 he voted against the MLK holiday. That's not young impetuousness. That's just old racism.