Words’ Worth

I’ve started noticing something interesting involving the power of words and terminologies lately. Here are a few examples and a clumsy segue:

'Secularism' isn’t the opposite of religion or spiritualism… honestly; it’s the desire for an absence of religion and religion-based value judgments from government. Recently ‘secular’ has turned into a denigration thrown about by the modern religious entities, including politicians. Its curious to me that such a term, its utilization prescribed clearly in the first amendment, can be twisted like this.

Another example of the twisting of a words’ meaning to fit into a political or religious lexicon is the term ‘Liberal’. Politically speaking, it wasn’t until the 80’s that the term picked up its negative connotation, literally stepping up into popular use to replace the term ‘Communist’ when it became convenient.

There’s no doubt about it: words have power. But it’s not always about obfuscation or ridiculous political shenanigans. Sometimes its about trust and mood.

The last example is ‘Civil War’. Recently the mainstream media have decided to call a duck a duck and use the term ‘Civil War’ to describe the sectarian violence in Iraq.

"use the term ‘Civil War’ to describe the sectarian violence in Iraq..."

Firstly, kudos to the Times and NBC news for stepping up to the plate and doing the job by publicly stating that they wouldn’t be a part of a semantic, hair-splitting argument with this country’s imperious leader. Secondly, no one who has been paying attention could, in any honesty, describe the ass-hattery in Iraq as anything but a full-fledged civil war. That being said, I was sorta hoping the subterfuge would hold, at least for a while longer.

You see, when you make a big deal about a name-change or a terminology shift, you tend to create a spectacle and attract attention, which is, I am sure, the point. The problem is this: We, as a national collective, are responsible for the instability in Iraq.

"...one of the greatest falsehoods... is that America is thankful for her soldiers’ service..."

Yeah, we went under false pretenses, yup, the post-war was (and IS being) grossly mishandled and (/sigh) yeah, one of the greatest falsehoods perpetrated on the American heartland today is that America is thankful for her soldiers’ service. None of that changes the simple truth that, like it or not, Iraq is a reality and our nation is responsible. And now, with this latest shift in terminology, we have given ourselves the long lost exit strategy, the ‘out’ from the situation that we have all been looking for: Dubya’s ‘cut and run’ come to terrible reality.

Confused? I will explain. Here’s the power of these words: by definition, a ‘Civil War’ is an INTERNAL matter, resolvable only through internal (see: Iraqi) means and without external influence. As though the west would have ANY viable influence in the area if simply left tomorrow, ja? With the terminology’s popular use comes the inevitable sentiment that we should just leave and let them sort it all out.

Doing this would be madness, just as idiotic as picking the fight to begin with. The long-term humanitarian effects would be catastrophic as there still are not even basic services running reliably and the only independent aid organization, the Red Cross, is a very popular target for kidnapping and murder. But that’s not the worst reason.

"...(prematurely leaving Iraq) would be madness... The long-term humanitarian effects would be catastrophic..."

The most compelling reason is, sadly, strategic. Say that stabilization happens overnight, immediately after we withdraw our troops and in spite of the lack of western ‘aid’. This means that they either subjugated their enemies or, worse, they realized that the differences between their ideologies were slight enough to overlook. You would now have an openly hostile, aggressive nation sitting on 2/3 of the petroleum reserves in the Middle East… sitting next door to an historical enemy of the west with strong religious and cultural ties to its populous. This very situation is the reason why we didn’t depose Saddam Hussein in 1991. It’s also the reason why we helped put him into power in the first place.

Folks, we as a nation have an opportunity now to do what’s right by owning up to our collective mistakes. Its only a sad coincidence that supporting the mission means the same (superficially) as supporting Dubya. Our troops deserve better treatment, their sacrifices should not be diminished through intellectual legerdemain and the people of Iraq deserve their shot at peace and a better tomorrow. Particularly because we are responsible for their crappy 'today'.

p.s.
Speaking of the power of words, Kramer dropping the N-bomb on a couple hecklers isn’t the end of the world, hell, its barely even news. There are more important things we should be discussing atm (see above) and it seems to me that hypocritical sensitivity to idiotic name calling shouldn’t even be on a rational adult’s radar.

Newest T-Shirt Design(s) I Wish I Had

...now, if only I had a contact in a family-run t-shirt printing company… lol.

...and away!!!!

*from latimes.com



On Tuesday, "Superman II — The Richard Donner Cut" arrives in stores.
Most DVDs labeled "director's cut" are different only around the edges;
this one goes in all new directions by lopping out huge chunks of the
familiar theatrical version and weaving in "lost" scenes salvaged from the vaults.
SEEING IS BELIEVING: Screen-test footage of a young and thin Christopher Reeve as Clark.





I can't wait=)

Na na na na na na na na Katamari Damacy

here is the link=)

Me versus The Cosmos

You are The Devil

Materiality. Material Force. Material temptation; sometimes obsession

The Devil is often a great card for business success; hard work and ambition.

Perhaps the most misunderstood of all the major arcana, the Devil is not really "Satan" at all, but Pan the half-goat nature god and/or Dionysius. These are gods of pleasure and abandon, of wild behavior and unbridled desires. This is a card about ambitions; it is also synonymous with temptation and addiction. On the flip side, however, the card can be a warning to someone who is too restrained, someone who never allows themselves to get passionate or messy or wild - or ambitious. This, too, is a form of enslavement. As a person, the Devil can stand for a man of money or erotic power, aggressive, controlling, or just persuasive. This is not to say a bad man, but certainly a powerful man who is hard to resist.

What Tarot Card are You?

Take the Test to Find Out.

Thanks

It being the week of American Thanksgiving I thought I would give a quick run-down of the things for which I am thankful.



My family – the peeps that know me well enough to fit into this category know that to my mind marital and blood relations do not necessarily make a family. Rather, it’s the inexorable bonds that lay between us, intertwining us, that no measure of miles or words unsaid (or even words to UNsay) can change. Whether you are under my roof, just a few blocks away, all the way over in WA or lost out there in the ether, you are my family and I am thankful for the way you all enrich my life.



My health – recently, my doc and I decided it was time to drop my blood pressure medication altogether, an event that, to my mind, is tantamount to beating back the ravages of age and the crappy infirmities that go along with it. While there are still some things that I would like to change and a few things that I have come to accept (albeit grudgingly) I’d still have to say that I am right now in the best physical (lol) health that I have been in ten years. This has led to, among other things, the rediscovery of and a renewed interest from members of the opposite sex. This would seem to fall squarely into the category of ‘Sweet’ and I am thankful for it.



My faith – the varying features of my personal faith are difficult to categorize except in the most general way. You see, I am a Catholic and, by default, a Christian, however there are some important distinctions here. Personally, I am more concerned with spirituality in general and less concerned with established religious doctrines and morals. To me, it’s of greater worth to be striving for inner balance and a spiritual connection with the people around you (including the divine) than to blindly follow rules. It’s because of this perceived relationship between myself and the divine that I was able to make some fairly important decisions lately and, having set those decisions and their consequences in motion, am now feeling better about life in general.



Happy Thanksgiving all,



C.







oh, and btw, To all the aboriginal Americans out there: Sorry for stealing your country and stuff.

Nerd-Gamers FTW!

Recently my friends and I have run into a glut of RPG books in pdf-format. This, when coupled with the use of a semi-capable laptop, allows me to become a mobile encyclopedia of nerd-gaming knowledge, second only (at least in our little circle) to the bookshelf/cabinet located at Danger and Rabbit’s place. When you toss in the automatic dice roller you get from WoTC website and the initiative tracker I’ve been trying to make work you end up with a geek-gaming machine, indeed, a veritable Dork ex machina, that incorporates all aspects of my nerd-gaming addiction. (right, like I’m the only one… raise your hand if you’ve ever killed a kobold.)

Speaking of Danger and his lovely wife Rabbit, these were the nice folks that introduced me to the Steve Jackson line of games including the beloved Munchkin sets. These games are based on the art and humor of John Kovalic, the creator of the web comic Dork Tower. To my delight (and yet, there was no surprise in this at all) I found that these brilliant folks have released their own supplements to the vast D20/Open Game License empire. With wondrous magic items like “Kneepads of Ill-Repute”, “Spiked Codpiece” and the dreaded “Unnatural Axe” you should have no problem at all finding worthy foes and killing them by surprise. Imagine my utter glee when I discovered one of the bad-guys inspired by the Munchkins Monster Manual: You and your party pause at the foot of the low hill as a distant yipping sound reaches your ears. Louder and louder the cacophony builds until the sharp-eyed among you sees them- anthropomorphic dog shapes running at you, but, rather than dogs covered in fur, these all seem to be arboreal creatures covered in grass. Horrors! You have wandered into the forbidden land of Dal-las and face the evil of… The Grassy Gnolls!

I mean, seriously, how do we NOT play this?

You just KNOW there’s a-gonna be at least one archer-type master-blastered onto the backs of one of these puppies if, for no other reason than to say that there is a lone sniper on a Grassy Gnoll!

Perhaps if the others will go for it we’ll play this a bit this weekend=)

Ninja!

This site is freakin’ hilarious! I discovered this little jewel whilst cruising and foolin around with my new toy-bot. Thx to my good chum Ryan’s cousin for having some cute bits on her site for me to steal=)

New Toys

This is me, just testing out a new plaything I heard about on Sunday. Apparently, Firefox (read: the awesomeness that IE wants to be) has this great addon that lets you post directly to your blog, spamming away as you surf for porn and haxors toolz news and current events.



...you can also drag and drop pics from other websites directly into yer blog. Sweet.

powered by performancing firefox

Advice For My Boyos - Shaving

*please don’t pay any attention to the following article nor to any of the others in this ongoing and critically acclaimed series.

At some point, we all have to make peace with the idea that we are, in fact, not sane. With that in mind, allow me to share with you, my hypothetical reader, another bit of crazy that has been rolling around the pachinko-machine that is my psyche: I rehearse conversations. Entire conversations. From beginning to end and with every derivation I can imagine, if it’s a subject that is moderately important to me, then I will work it out in my mind ahead of time. Alright, maybe its not so strange as all that, but, my lovely wife seems to think it is so there you have it. Its in this vein that I decided to write the following series of articles: at some point, my boys are a-gonna start asking strange questions the answers to which, if I am unprepared, will, at best, provide them with less-than-optimal advice and at worst, confuse them to the point where the advice isn’t understood or heeded.

-Chris’ nightmare example: “Sooo, when Poppy was telling us about underground boxing clubs was he trying to tell us to avoid being ‘space-monkeys’ or was he telling us not to pick fights with strangers just to let them win? Bah, who cares? Lets go smoke crack and get some cheerleaders pregnant!”

As you can see, I have a lot of work ahead of me as the stakes are simply too high to leave those conversations to chance. I should also point out that in my nightmare example-universe, my children both speak with english accents. */shrug*

Shaving-

a... The first thing to think about here is the razor. A good, sharp razor is a godsend.

Razor Rule #1: Never borrow another guy’s razor without asking. Always ask first and even then it’s still a little weird. “Why?” you ask? Well, sons, a man’s razor is a personal thing and you’ll understand that a bit better after you’ve scraped a few layers of dermis from your face with a cold, dull, rusty razor that you thought was as sharp as The Lightbringer himself. The only ways this could have happened is if you either forgot to change the razor yourself after the last time you cut your face off (dumbass) or someone else used it. And btw, if they didn’t tell you they were going to use it, there’s no telling where they used it.

-its at this point we need to pause for a moment and discuss, father to sons, “The Female Exception Rule”. You see, it works like this: Women, for the most part, are exempt from many of the rules which men hold dear. For example, lets take Razor Rule #1, shall we? Women never have to ask permission to use a man’s razor and a man must never, NEVER reveal that he doesn’t want her to use his razor. The reasons are thus:

1… If a woman is in a position to use your razor she must logically be comfortable enough with you to use said toiletries. This says a lot. Don’t screw it up by whining about your stupid razor.

2… If you are friendly with a woman and she goes about using ANYTHING in the house to make herself feel better or be prettier in any way then this can only benefit you. Take my word for it son, you definitely want her to use your razor rather than not shave at all. Remember son, bleaching doesn’t make a mustache go away.

Razor Rule #2: Hot, sharp razor equals good. Cold, dull, hateful razor equals bloody mess in the sink. And while we are here let’s talk about what to do when you inevitably shave some of you chin off. First things first: finish shaving. Someone is paying for the hot water, shaving cream and razors and if it’s me, you damn well better not waste it. If it is you, being wasteful would make you a dumbass. Suck it up and finish shaving. Secondly, if you do cut yourself, do not use little pieces of tissue to stop the bleeding. The only reason guys started doing this in the first place was because there was a cologne commercial at some point which showed a manly-man nicking himself and, rather than get a little blood on his shirt which he stupidly did not remove before starting to shave, (dumbass) he decided to put little pieces of TP on his face just so he could have his commercial-universe daughter pick them off before kissing him. Son, if you finish shaving and finish brushing your teeth and putting on your clothes and you are still concerned about the amount of blood coming out of your face, you may have bigger problems. Hemophilia and leukemia. Google them.

b... Moving the razor.

The only rule here is to be sure and move the razor up and down only, NEVER side to side or laterally across your face and never, EVER against the direction your facial hairs are growing. As a matter of fact, if anyone ever tells you to do any of those three prohibited things, you go ahead and punch them in the eye as this person is not your friend. In fact, he’s probably the same asshat that used your razor without asking in the first place.
He owes you blood.

Well boys, that’s pretty much it as far as shaving goes… stick to these simple guidelines and you’ll be just fine.

And always remember that your Poppy loves you.

My Kind Of Pie-Chart

...when I ran across this I just had to re-post it=) t'would probably make a decent t-shirt, lol

btw, how unnerving would it be to have Pac-Man look at you and grin salaciously? ug

Music Memes

Tell me a song that reminds you of the following tastes (one song for each taste):

Sweet
Frente’s cover of “Let The Sunshine In” from The Flintstones. It must be the lead singer’s exaggerated little-girl lisp.

Sour
“Santa Monica” by Everclear.

Salty
“I’m Alright” by Jo Dee Messina. Lately for me ‘salty’ has come to mean an exciting, unusual good time and I cannot help but smile and sing along when I hear this one.

Bitter
“The Blower’s Daughter” by Damien Rice. Soulful and pathetically sad, it tells a story of unrequited love… I think we’ve all been in that place.

Bland
“Don’t Cha” by some corporate band. When I’m in the mood for slutty, anonymous porn from a generic source I can’t help but think of these women. And Ann Coulter.

Spicy
“Oops! Oh My” by Tweet. The unadulterated version of this song is simplistic, provocative and very sexy.

Many Me's

CHRIS TAYLOR

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 1,031 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

...but theres only ONE thats fast like a wet ninja=)

Newest T-Shirt Design I Wish I Had

Are We Ready To Start The Bloodless Revolution?

I swear all I want to do is protect myself from Alzheimer’s.

Truly.

Well, good news for all of you who smoke pot... apparently, along with being able to help relieve the debilitating side-effects of chemo therapy, HIV drug cocktails and glaucoma, THC is now thought to help fight off Alzheimer’s disease. Add to that the fact that it’s non-addictive (certainly no more addictive than nicotine), use of which is generally non-violent and that something like 30% of Americans have smoked or regularly DO smoke M-J. BTW, that percentage seems to get quite a bit higher when the people sampled are in the 20-40 year old range. It positively skyrockets when the question is changed to the less self-incriminating, “Would you smoke marijuana if it were perfectly legal to do so?”

"The overall physical effect of THC is far safer than what happens to my liver every weekend."

Would I? You bet. To me, this isn’t one of those moral dilemmas where if you commit a crime, it will adversely effect someone else like mugging someone to feed your family. No, this is the very definition of a victimless crime, or, at least, it would be if there were not already criminal enterprises built up around circumventing the law. Nope, smoking M-J is a crime because someone has declared it so. There are lots of asshat reasons for it but what it all really comes down to is specific injury or the reasonable danger thereof and when taken in that light, the arguments simply don’t hold water. Physicians and studies the world over have declared alcohol and tobacco more dangerous by a wide margin. The overall physical effect of THC is far safer than what happens to my liver every weekend. In fact, from my layman’s point of view, the biggest health hazard associated with smoking pot is getting arrested and having to share a bunk with a 480-pound guy named ‘Shirley the health inspector’.

Anyways, that’s why I don’t smoke pot. But now I’m really wishing that I could without the chance of arrest or failing a physical. Anyone with even a semi-close relationship with an elderly person is gonna be wishing the same thing before long. Alzheimer’s is simply a fact of life with these people, whether the person is afflicted or not. It only takes one instance of obvious memory loss to get the wheels turning in that direction… and once they start, they DO NOT stop.

Oh, and as far as the ‘getting high’ aspect of the whole thing? Pffft, that’s why I have, like, four bottles of flavored vodka running around this place.