Author: weed

So I’ve been AWOL recently. I apologize for missing the big brouhaha in MontgoCo, but the family was vacationing out in Deep Creek Lake, MD.

We’ve also found out I be graduating from 2 children short of a Barnson to 1 child short of a Barnson. Our graduation deadline in January 15th, 2007. I was present for the kickoff meeting but my wife will be doing the hard work and delivering the final product.

Something fun I found on the net…the Political Compass.

My results: Economic Left/Right: -1.50 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.36

Glad to be back My $.02 Weed

How’s that for a grabber title? No, not a Graber title, a GRABBER title 😉

Anyway, I’ve always wondered what the relation between religion and sex was. Are there specific passages in the Bible, Koran, Torah, etc that specifically lay out the rules of sex. I know the commandments specifically denounced adultery, and I’ve read passage in the Bible that lay out some silly adultery rules and punishments, but what about other religions?

My personal belief is that since sex is such a strong motivator and need in humans, religious leaders may have used that to help control the masses. These would be unscrupulous leaders, of course, and not an indictment of the religion or other leaders. But I still think that there are so many rules about food and sex in religion because everyone’s gotta eat, and everyone’s gotta, well, you know. So use those to keep the people in line.

I feel that if you’re old enough to make your own decisions, and the other party is old enough to make their own decisions, and you’re honest with each other, then make like bunnies and get’er done. When it comes to children, you have to educate them to EVERYTHING about sex, because they’re going to search out what they don’t know and figure it out themselves. If you can show them the possible consequences, that’s your best chance to prevent pregnancy and disease.

Of course, these are functions that should be provided by parents, with help from schools and such. NOT by the schools primarily. If parents won’t lay the groundwork, all school education will provide is snickers and titters.

Back to religion, I don’t see why God would care who I sleep with until I make a committment to one person to stay faithful to her and only her. And even then, if we had an open understanding of other arrangements, what’s the big deal? I think the biggest thing about sex is honest and open dialogue. In the USA, it’s such a hush thing unless you’re entertaining or sellling. Sex happens all the time, and there’s proof everywhere. Just look in the mirror.

Is there an argument for religion messing with our sex lives that I’m missing?

My $.02 Weed

Absolutely hilarious and ballsy to do this to the leader of the most powerful nation in the world when he’s 5 feet from you.

Watch my namesake from Comedy Central absolutely skewer Bush right to his face. And do it well.

Note: You’ll need the Google video player (I think, or maybe just Flash) to watch.

My $.02 Weed

Interesting NOVA on TV last night, it dealt with global warming.

Synopsis is that pollution caused less sunlight to reach the earth from 1950-1990 because pollutants made clouds more reflective, by an average of 5%.

However, the trend is reversing over some areas (Europe, US) because we’re reducing visible pollutants. Now here’s the rub. Global dimming may have been saving us from global warming. Basically, the clouds have kept sunlight out, keeping us cooler. But, they may have also prevented the monsoons that usually occur in the Subhara, causing those nasty famines in Ethiopia in the 80s. So, global dimming was responsible for “We Are The World”. ‘Nuff said. If you’re downwind of major pollution areas (Mid-Atlantic US, northern Maltives, etc), then you’re more likely to be cooler because of that pollution.

And the thing is that America is reducing polltuion, as is Europe. The problem is developing countries like India, China, etc. They’re playing catch up in the industrial/economic sector and have no desire to put expensive pollution-reducing measures in place to save the environment. And who’s going to bully China into doing anything?

Another example of how we have very little clue as to how our environment works, from little to big scale. That being said, I’m pretty sure pollution is bad and needs to be reduced. C’mon hydrogen fuel cells.

My $.02 Weed

P.S. Matt: While I understand your “oil is free while hydrogen is not” point about hydrogren extraction, I still don’t buy into its ramifications totally. Yes, oil is already formed thanks to global pressures and such, but it still takes effort to extract it from its resting place. Not to mention shipping it and the political factors. I can take a short trip and find water, tho, as can 99% of the world. It can’t be THAT much more expensive to get hydrogen from water when water’s so abundant and close. Why can’t someone come up with a device that sits at my septic tank, takes THAT water, and gets the hydrogen out of it, powered by solar? What about rain barrels that feed into it? With the $80+ billion we wasted in Iraq plus a nice tax on oil companies profits (sorry, Daniel) we should be able to make that somewhat feasible and cost-effective. C’mon, America, can’t we get inventing???!)

Okay,

Explain this to me: We have a trade deficit, which means we buy more foreign products than we sell to other countries. We also have a budget deficit, which is where we spend more money via the government than we take in. Are we getting these two numbers confused when we talk about how much in debt we are?

Also, I can see how it’s bad that we send out more money than we take in, trade-wise. But it’s simply bad economics to pay a US worker $6 an hour plus benefits to manufacture something that they can make in China paying $5 a day. We’re a victim of our own standard of living…we need to make too much to live in our country and still compete against manufacturing in other countries. Give China some time, and when their standard of living goes up, they’ll be hard pressed to find $5 a day workers. (Note: numbers are pulled from thin air to make a point).

So what’s the solution for the trade deficit? We can’t compete with the prices. Embargo? That would leave us out of the world trade economy.

Now, with the fiscal deficit, that’s the gov’t spending more than it’s bringing in. That’s bad. But the problem is that to reduce the deficit, the gov’t would have to reduce spending. However, the choices to do that are: reduce spending or bring in more. Obviously, spending less in Iraq is a great choice, but what about the part of the economy that feasts on military spending? Do we spend less by cutting programs? Do we eliminate bloated gov’t jobs? Those things tend to weigh against you in election years. But not nearly as do the opposite approach, which is bringing in more via taxation.

While I don’t advise the US to totally withdraw from global concerns, I think for a period of time it would be wise to pull back. if you overextend yourself financially, you stay home, cook your own food, and save money. I think the US should do that as well. Pull out of Iraq. Concern itself with getting its own house in order before taking care of the neighbors.

But then, if we do withdraw from global affairs, when we look to come back in 5, 10 years after we fix things (oh my hopeless optimism!), do we see our place filled by China?

My $.02 Weed

She has me frozen, daring to breathe This magic spell she conjures to weave Envelops me, carries me back in time To a place I could never find on my own

I am trapped, happily I am caught In this web of hers I have sought Peace, contentment, joy, life She is all or these, she my wife She my home

I couldn’t run, I couldn’t leave To try I lose the air I breathe Her sweet scent keeps my blood warm Her shelter harbors me in the storm Find me calm

Of her my greatest creations came Born of her and passed my flame As we fade, inevitable, from the earth They remain as our love’s rebirth Forever on

As I wake, she lies in our bed This love 5 years ago I wed Still perfect, still pure, angel Her face, her voice, her smell Caresses me

When I’m tired, when I’m broken She heals, nurses, until I’ve woken Starlight sparkles, her eyes alight As she carries me away this night She, my Amy

You all have a fun couple of weeks. I’m taking a break for a while to enjoy my anniversary and birthday.

Happy St Paddy’s day to you all!

My $.02 Weed

Does anyone have any comment on the following thought:

Doesn’t it seem like humans, as a collective, are growing up, with respect to religion and science? Before, we belived in religion as the answer to our questions. Why do we die? Because God made it that way. What are lightning and thunder? God’s bowling. Where did we come from? God made us.

But suddenly, we start to challenge that authority. Hey, lightning and thunder aren’t God bowling, or even God being mad at us. It’s a function of the powerful energy in the atmosphere as convection occurs which charges the atmosphere. Once the atmopshere has a high enough charged, a path to the oppositely charge ground can be made and the energy discharges as electricity (simplified answer). Thunder is just the atmosphere expanding rapidly from the heat generated by the electrical discharge.

It seems to me that we’re outgrowing religion for MOST of what it provides. Not all, but most. It seems to me that religion is now only appropos (sp?) to personal beliefs. Who cares if God created the world? Who cares if He parted the Red Sea? What’s important is how God relates to you personally. Sorta like growing up to realize the you parents teach you simple things to make it easy for you when you’re young, but they don’t apply when you’re 21. When you’re 21, you find your own rules and your own way, but you find your parents were right on most of the time.

The silly things in religion are like that. Creationism, meat on Friday, bans on birth-control, these are things which we’ve outgrown as a society, as a people. Love your neighbor like you love yourself, this we should keep forever.

Does this make sense? Weed

So this may sound like a stupid question, but how does music work? Seriously. I know about notes and rests and scales and all the basic theory, but it still seems like a sort of magic to me. When I sing, it sounds okay to me. But when I hear a recording of it, it makes cats cover their ears.

To learn music, would it be to just practice scales and chords and such over and over and over until they become rote? Then start putting those “building blocks” together to make songs and such?

I’ve asked Sam this before, but all I ever get from him is “I don’t know. I just do it.” Which annoys me but I understand it, because that’s the same thing I say when someone asks me about computers. I’ve labeled myself a “computer idiot savant”. I don’t know how I know so much about computers, but I do. I mean, I do research and keep abreast of things, but on same basic level I can look at a computer and just “get it”.

I look a keyboard, and I don’t “get it”. I know it’s in there, and it’s in me, but I have no idea how to get it out.

Make sense? My $.02 Weed

So I thought this article was funny as well.

Note: This article was written by Rob Borsellino. He is a known rapist, racist, dog kicker, wife beater, New York Yankee lover, and doesn’t signal at turns. 😛