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i would like to express my strong disgust and dislike for how things are going in the world today and also in my own personal life. i should probably focus on my own personal life because most of the horrible things going on in the world today do not really affect me and there is nothing i can do about any of them. my life sucks, basically. i am sick and tired of watching time go by. the passage of time is the most pernicious of all evils, it seems to me. all of my faults as a person and all of my misfortunes and bad luck have together managed to ruin most aspects of my life. i am aware that many people actually have it much worse off than i do. but, my dissatisfaction with my life has been a fact of my existence for many years, and it seems it will continue for quite some time.
primarily, my problem is a social one. you see, i was never a very social person, and did not have social skills, due to the fact that i probably have asperger syndrome. when i switched from elementary school to junior high at the beginning of 7th grade, i started having a much more difficult time fitting in, and getting picked on a lot, and i never had any friends. so in 7th grade, when i was 12 years old, i started seeing psychologists because i was having so much trouble socially and had no friends and was so miserable. basically, none of them ever helped, and in 12th grade, the problem was worse than ever, so at that time, i was put on my first psychiatric medication, an antidepressant called paxil, by my pediatrician, at age 17. that occurred in the year 2000, a very important time in my life, soon before i graduated high school. now, i always had the highest grades of anyone in my class and i always took the most advanced classes, and nobody else was even close in the contest to see who would be valedictorian. supposedly the smartest person in my class, i still had no friends and was picked on all the time, considered a nerd, a geek, a dweeb, a weirdo, a loser, whatever. anyway, i was always bad at all sports i tried in gym class, and picked last for the teams. and athletics was much more important than academics at my school, at least in terms of status among peers. the most popular kids were the guys on the football team or the girls who were cheerleaders. i had a great deal of envy towards the other students, who i thought had it much better than me, and i also felt very bitter, and angry, and hateful, and like i was a victim. when i heard about school shootings such as the ones at columbine, i sympathized much more with the shooters than with the people who they shot, because their stories of being bullied and made fun of and not having friends and being loners, it was just like what i faced, even though i was valedictorian and was in all the most advanced classes getting the highest grades. i felt a tremendous amount of attraction towards the pretty girls in my grade, but it seemed completely and utterly hopeless to do anything at all to try to get any of them to be my girlfriend. it seemed like a hopelessly unachievable dream, and that if i ever tried, my rejection would be all but certain, and i would become a laughingstock for being such a loser that no girl wanted to go out with. i was incredibly shy and whenever i tried to talk to anyone (of either gender), if it was a social situation, i would be so nervous i would be unable to think straight or say much of anything coherent. so i never got invited to any parties or anything. well, oddly enough, that changed when i was a senior in high school. i actually got invited to graduation parties when we all graduated, which really surprised me. and for once, in that month when we all graduated, in june of 2000, people were not being mean to me all the time, and they actually seemed to treat me as sort of an equal, with some respect! it was quite strange and unnerving to me and i kept thinking something screwy was going on, and that these people couldn't possibly actually be nice to me and be friendly to me without it being some kind of trick to embarrass me and make me look bad and make me feel miserable. i did not trust anyone at all and was extremely paranoid and thought everyone was out to get me, and i had been feeling that way ever since 7th grade. there had been a number of incidents throughout high school where my paranoia was proven correct and it turned out that everyone really was out to get me, or at least it seemed that way to me. now i had to give a valedictorian speech to all these people i hated who had made my life a living hell, but i managed to deliver a nice speech that sounded like i actually liked these people, although i was so nervous that i had both diarrhea and vomiting from all my anxiety, and i think people could hear the anxiety in my voice when i delivered that speech. for quite some time, i had been getting physically ill, getting diarrhea and vomiting, from the anxiety of social situations, but usually i would just get one at a time, get vomiting right before school or on the extremely rare occasion i am at a party, and diarrhea more often than the vomiting, while i am at school, or at home, or whenever. anyway, i always blamed all of my problems on other people, who i saw as all being out to get me and all evil and nasty and untrustworthy, and even when people acted nice i thought they were up to something devious to try to screw me over. the only creature i had any real trust in or any real love for was my dog mokka, and it seemed to me that everyone else was my enemy. and i thought religion had to be wrong because i thought everyone else besides me was evil for mistreating me so badly, and that they all deserved hell regardless of what they believed, and only i deserved heaven, but since that was not what any religion taught, religion had to be wrong and this meant no afterlife and nothing supernatural existed, no god(s) or magic or anything silly like that. i thought that many people who believe in christianity and go to church are actually evil, nasty people who deserve the eternal torment of hell. and i thought that maybe there might actually be some good people out there who do not believe in any sort of silly religious nonsense, and even if i was the only good person, that at least meant 1 good person who did not believe. but anyway, i was very paranoid and did not trust anyone or have any friends, and still viewed everyone else as my enemy. this did not mean that i treated anyone badly or anything. i was always very nice, since other people terrified me so much and i did not want to antagonize them because i thought they would gang up on me with all the other people who i thought were my enemies. i viewed picking on someone or insulting them or bullying them in any way as a way of demonstrating hostility and evil intent and dislike and basically the fact that whoever is doing the insulting or bullying is the sworn enemy of the victim, and the idea of picking on someone in a friendly way and just joking around was very much beyond my understanding.
now starting around the last month of high school and going up until the end of my first semester of college, i started to change a great deal. i started to actually trust other people enough to think that they are not all really out to get me like i used to think, and that maybe if they act nice, they might actually mean it. but i was still not sure about it, and still thought the chances were about 50/50, and did not want to push my luck by actually showing any interest in other people. i still thought that if i ever showed any interest in a girl, it would mean certain rejection. once i got into college and got courageous enough to actually ask a very small number of girls out on very rare occasions, i found that whenever i show interest in a girl, i really am rewarded with certain rejection, and no girl has ever really shown me any affection or responded positively to my advances. except for one. but the one who did respond positively to my advances, well that was a unique situation and one i would not like to ever replicate, because it was very pathetic and somewhat tragic. but i am getting ahead of myself... that does not happen until later in time. for now we will talk about my first semester in college and the time leading up to it. well anyway, i was starting to become more social around the time of the graduation parties for high school, and at some of them i consumed alcohol, whenever it was available. and i had gone to the senior prom without a date because i was too scared to ask any girls out plus i figured all the pretty ones were probably taken and i had no interest in girls who were not pretty and it just seemed hopeless, and i was actually suicidal back in may 2000 in the weeks leading up to the prom. and then there was the class trip to boston, which was when i started to find myself gaining acceptance socially, and i got drunk with some other students and vomited in the restroom of a hotel room where some girls were staying, where a party was taken place, quite memorably for me. and on the day before my birthday, on june 17, 2000, after a graduation party that happened a little early, i went to a club at 11:30 pm, driven there by 3 very beautiful young women, half an hour before my 18th birthday, and they let me into the club even though you had to be 18 to get in, because i was only half an hour early, and that event was quite memorable. a whole lot of kids from my graduating class were going to that club that night, and these hot girls apparently were one of the few cars going there who had an empty seat available in their car, and somehow i managed to arrange to go with them, at a graduation party that happened earlier that day. this was all extremely unbelievable to me. and anyway, i went there with them and they drove me home and we went to wendy's in the middle of the night and it was just quite odd and made no sense. i wanted to have sex with all of them but i was too afraid to really talk to them about much of anything. so nothing really happened but it still amazed me. and when i graduated high school, the mother of another pretty girl told me how that girl used to come home every day and tell the mother how great i was and how much she liked me, and a few years earlier, that girl had a secret admirer and had been hoping it was me, but instead it turned out to be this other guy who she didn't like at all, but she ended up going out with him because he was so persistent and wouldn't give up, even though he was the most annoying guy in the world. anyway, i was quite shocked that anyone female would actually like me, and found it impossible to believe. but enough of this... anyway, around this time i started not only to drink excessively on occasion, but to smoke cigarettes. i started smoking in mid-august of 2000 because a friend of mine got me started. yes, i actually had a friend, although i had never realized it before, and had always thought of myself as not having any friends. sometimes you do not even notice that someone is a friend, and just feel all alone in the world, forgetting about people who you have done stuff with. so when i got to college, in the first week, i partied a lot with 2 of my roommates (i had 3 roommates), going to frat parties, getting extremely drunk, smoking lots of cigarettes. after the first week i gradually started to get sick of the frat parties and of getting drunk, and i stopped going to frat parties with my roommates, but i kept smoking cigarettes with them and hanging out with them. these 2 roommates were both filthy rich and loved to waste lots of money, and one of them was a real asshole, and the other was a real ladies' man who had a somewhat high-pitched voice that girls, for some strange reason, really found appealing. there were a lot of other strange characters who hung out with us, especially this crazy kid from washington, d.c., who would do anything people dared him to do, no matter how crazy. this kid had no inhibitions whatsoever. on one occasion he was dared to break a glass beer bottle over his head, and he tried to do it but the bottle didn't break and it made his head hurt really bad. so naturally, he tried again, but hit harder the second time, and it still didn't break. he kept trying and finally around the fourth time the glass shatters and there are shards of glass everywhere and his head started bleeding a lot. one of my roommates called 911 and this crazy kid went off to the hospital, his head bleeding, and he wanted to break more bottles over his head to prove how crazy he was, but everyone was telling him no and to stop. another time, someone dared him to hold his arm on the electric stove while it was turned on, and i think they only dared him to do it for like 30 seconds, but he ended up doing it for like 3 minutes, and he got 3rd-degree burns on his arm shaped like a giant spiral that perfectly matched the burner on top of the electric stove. naturally, he had to go to the emergency room again for this one. oh, and this kid also drank a whole lot and fell asleep on our couch (instead of a dorm room, we had, like, a giant apartment, since it was designed for faculty-in-residence, so we had a lot of parties there), and anyway, when he fell asleep, he would always pee a lot during his sleep, just like how my current dog pees in his sleep on the couch. anyway, i had once been very hard-working at academics and done all my homework, but under the bad influence of my new friends, i started to become a slacker, skipping class, not doing homework, smoking and drinking and misbehaving. around october of 2000, my roommates and their friends started smoking weed, mary jane, grass, marijuana, you know what it is. and i smoked it with them a few times until one time it gave me a really really bad panic attack. i actually thought i was dying. it felt like my heart was going to explode. my heart was beating really fast and i had really bad chest pain and i was sweating a lot and i actually thought my heart had exploded and the blood was coming out through a hole in my chest, but then i put my hands where i thought the blood was coming out and it turned out it was only sweat on my chest. i thought i was going to die that night and i went to sleep thinking i would not wake up the next morning, and that this was the end of my life, and i had so many regrets, and i thought i was going to fade away into the empty abyss of nothingness, that whatever "soul" i had would cease to exist completely, and that my short, meaningless life was all over and that after a funeral and some weeping by people i know, people would all move on and forget about me, and that i never really accomplished anything or got anything i wanted and that everything i had ever done was pointless and in vain, and that i was having my life cut short before i could ever accomplish anything or achieve any greatness or become famous or change history or save the world or anything. so i woke up the next morning and i was alive and actually seemed to be perfectly fine and it was very surreal because for a while i actually wondered if maybe i was dead and was a ghost or something, but no, i was alive and, seemingly, perfectly healthy. i kept having more severe panic attacks where i had chest pains and thought my heart was stopping and i ended up going to the gannett health center on the cornell campus and they were the ones who finally told me that it was a panic attack and i was not in danger. of course, i did not believe them or trust them at all, and thought it was a lie and i was really dying. but after going to the gannett health center a few more times and seeing my psychiatrist and psychologist some more and stuff like that, i realized it was true and it was just panic attacks, even though i had never heard of panic attacks before coming to the campus health center. anyway, i had to quit smoking weed, quit smoking cigarettes, and quit drinking, and i got put on higher doses of psychiatric medications. i kept having really bad panic attacks where i thought i was dying, until i gradually lost my will to live, and then panic attacks no longer worked because when i thought i was dying it actually seemed like it would be a sweet release from the terrible pain of living. then later that year i was obsessed with this girl and asked her out and she said no and i pretty much went insane and had a practically psycho obsession with her, plus she ended up dating the 3rd roommate, the one who did not drink or smoke, who was a worse nerd/dork/dweeb/geek than me who liked star trek, and i thought that was totally retarded and lame and i was all like "wtf?" so i met another girl online on the internet because she found me on the icq instant messaging program and i ended up going to her prom and we were supposed to have sex because we both agreed to it in advance but then she changed her mind, and then 2 years ago, in november 2005, she and i agreed to finally do it and have sex so i drove all the way to new hampshire just to have sex for the first time in my life when i was 23, and it wasn't any good, because she was very obese and i was not attracted to her at all or turned on at all so i was incapable of getting an erection to have the sex since arousal is sort of necessary for that all to work, but anyway, that is four and a half years later than back in the spring of 2001 when i went to the prom with this girl at her high school, and in a way she was just using me because she needed a prom date and went on the internet to find someone, anyone at all, and it happened to be me. and then later in that year of 20001, 9/11 changed everything, because i was sitting in math class that morning on september 11, 2001, and near the end of the class, some random dude who wasn't even in the class came into the room and announced that a plane had hit the world trade center, and everyone was like no way, you are totally bullshitting me, but this dude was like, no i am for real y'all, someone flew a plane into the world trade center, probably just an accident. so i was like wtf? and went back to my dorm to the tv lounge and watched the news there with other people and when the towers fell down and the pentagon was hit i was worrying about whether i had to go to the rest of my classes that day or if i could skip them and if our nation being under attack would be a good excuse for missing classes, since after all our college was nowhere near new york city or the pentagon and maybe we are supposed to keep on attending classes no matter what happens in the news, who knows? eh, so anyway, i sorta got through the rest of college ok, i went to my classes most of the time, did about half the homework, went to all the exams, and there was another semester that i had to leave early and get incompletes in all my classes because my anxiety and panic attacks got too strong for me to handle, and that was when i was working on a computer program to predict the stock market and make lots of money. for a while i was working on the computer program to predict the stock market and i actually thought it worked. but eventually once the project was finished i tested it on a different set of data and it totally failed. the computer program failed to outperform the market average with its recommended stock picks. so anyway, i just barely managed to graduate since i had to finish this artificial intelligence project as one of the incompletes, right before graduation, because i kept procrastinating it, and i was kind of worried about how it didn't work in predicting the stock market, but i figured, hey, at least that will keep my teacher from stealing the source code and using it to make lots of money, and it is probably for the best if other people think my program to predict the stock market doesn't work, but i can continue to work on it in secret and perfect it until it really does work. unfortunately, after i graduated, it turned out i am too lazy to work on the stock market program, although i could really use the money, and being a billionaire could be a lot of fun. imagine... actually having sex for a second time in my life, maybe even a third or fourth... with someone i am actually attracted to... and having my penis actually function properly... naw, that'll never happen. anyway, since i graduated cornell with my double major in computer science and math, things have not gone so well. i have had a few jobs, nothing too good, and spent most of the time unemployed, and still have never had a girlfriend. and i committed myself to psychiatric wards twice in the 3 years since i graduated, both times for being suicidal. see, the problem is quite simple: i can observe the fact that time continues to pass all the time, right? but nothing ever seems to improve or get any better in my life. all of my problems that are unresolved continue to be unresolved. i never actually get anything i want. all my needs remain unfulfilled. and i am stuck because i cannot get myself to actually do anything, to put the least bit of effort into anything in life, and even when i do decide to do something to improve my life, i keep procrastinating it more and more until it is quite late. for example, my computer is broken, because the northbridge fan on the motherboard no longer works, and that is needed for cooling to keep the circuits from getting fried. so what do i do? do i fix it? do i take it to a computer repair shop? do i contact the manufacturer for help? do i pray to god to magically fix my computer while i am asleep next to it without making any noises loud enough to disturb my slumber? no, i just do nothing at all to get it fixed. and my laundry... my clothes are all dirty, but do i wash them? no... i just procrastinate and i am all like, oh i'll do that shit later, but i never actually get around to doing it. i am just incredibly lazy. but i was not always like that. i just started being a slacker back when i was a freshman in college and was drinking and smoking and hanging out with the wrong crowd. but some things have improved, i guess. i can talk to other people without getting diarrhea or vomiting, and actually think and speak coherently, even if they are attractive young women. that used to be impossible for me. unfortunately, there are not that many attractive young women in my workplace where i have a job, except for a few who have boyfriends, and i do not really do much else outside of the house besides go to my job, so there is no way for me to meet people, except perhaps on the internet. but the internet is evil, a creation of satan himself! i don't really believe that of course, but it sounds funny when i say that, at least to me. from time to time, i find myself thinking thoughts like i wish i was never born, i hate my life, i wish i were dead, my life sucks, i am a loser, i hate myself, and that sort of thing. i do not have the energy right now to put quotation marks around all those thoughts. anyway, these negative thoughts and this low self-esteem seem to be a really bad problem for me, mentally, and i can't seem to get rid of these negative thoughts or get my self-esteem any higher. supposedly i am smart and good-looking. smart because i was valedictorian and completed a double major in 2 difficult subjects at cornell. and good-looking because my mom tells me i am good-looking. and once there was actually a girl who told me that (but she had a boyfriend, she was just telling me i was good-looking for some random reason, who knows why). but i think all that good-looking stuff is in the past. now i am fat and ugly because i eat too much and weigh a lot more than before... 200 pounds is what it has been lately... it actually got above 210 a few weeks ago but i got it back down to under 200 and now it is back over 200 again. i hate fat people. it sucks that i am officially categorized as obese because, as someone who hates fat people, this means i hate myself. not that i didn't already hate myself, this just increases the level of hatred. anyway, i really want a girlfriend, but not just any girl/woman will do. but it is strange. i am insane, or at least i think of myself as insane. i actually removed one of my toenails back in april of this year 2007. i was just trimming the edges of it and usually i just cut around the top of the toenails but there was a pointy bit on one of the sides so i trimmed that off and then for some reason i found the bottom part of the nail was detachable so i trimmed the bottom side and eventually most of the nail was gone except for the part underneath, the little part where it comes out of, and then that just came out, it was loose, surrounded by some gooey fluid or something, and once i took that bottom part out, my nail was gone completely, forever. now i have 9 toenails. i feel like vincent van gogh after he chopped off his ear. i am like wtf? and i am wondering why the hell i did this and what do i do now, especially now that i know i am completely batshit insane. ugh. anyway, my life sucks, it always has sucked, and it always will suck. my affection towards potential mates of the opposite sex is never returned, and my ambitions towards financial success are never rewarded with any sort of increased monetary supply in the form of a stable revenue stream of sufficient income to finance the extravagant sort of luxurious lifestyle that i obviously deserve after all of the pain and suffering i have been through in this stupid waste of a life.
of course i am being facetious when i claim i deserve an extravagant, luxurious lifestyle. i don't believe anyone is entitled to anything like that. like kids who have wealthy parents are not entitled to inherit anything. having encountered such individuals in person at cornell, as well as having seen the exploits of people such as paris hilton on television and the internet, i am quite well aware that these little brats don't deserve a penny of the money their parents and/or older ancestors earned (or stole). i just want to be able to make enough money to live on my own and not be stuck living with my parents. it sucks how even though we have economic growth now (a few years ago the economy was much worse, during dubya's 1st term), all the money is going to the top 1%, and the standard of living of people who are average and lower is actually going down. for most people, the united states is gradually devolving into a 3rd world country. all the high-paying jobs are going away and replaced with low-paying ones. people take on second and third jobs just to make ends meet, and more and more people are entering the labor market because it no longer works for one member of a couple to not have a job. people are tricked into getting credit cards and buying too much, or getting loans and buying stuff they cannot afford, getting mortgages and buying houses they cannot afford. most people do not really make that much money, and buy things beyond their means, and our entire economy is based on a stack of cards, on consumer spending by people who cannot afford to pay for what they buy, but the money has to come from somewhere, and then everyone goes bankrupt because nobody can pay their bills. i make barely enough money to pay my bills. and 40% of americans, including me, have never lived without having a bush or clinton in the white house (either as president or vice president). countries like myanmar have repressive dictatorships and use their militaries to massacre their own civilian populations whenever there is any kind of protest, and they kill innocent people, and nobody is punished for these atrocities. the united states is allied with nations such as saudi arabia, egypt, and jordan which do not have any freedom or democracy, repressive dictatorhips... and saudi arabia is just as bad a theocracy and fascist dictatorship as iran (iran, of course, finds the need to put to death homosexuals even though its president knows that homosexuals do not even exist in iran, so i guess the people put to death for homosexuality are all wrongly convicted since there are no homosexuals in iran). i mean why do we have to support these fascist dictatorships? we got rid of saddam hussein and started a democracy in iraq, right? but we just screwed it up royally because we tried to run another country ourselves without having any clue what the hell we were doing. we should have let the iraqis run their own damn country and not messed with them. we should have just gotten rid of saddam hussein and then left iraq completely and let the iraqis run their country without outside interference from us. we ought to overthrow every autocratic, undemocratic, fascist or communist dictatorship in the world, by targeting individual leaders of those nations for assassination. that would work much better than wars against thousands or millions of soldiers who are just following orders. why not simply take out the evil assholes who are in charge of all the evil bullshit that is going on? someone should just kill people like the president of iran or the north korean dictator or the leaders of the junta in myanmar or the dictator of sudan. those people are all mass murdering evil despots who need to be eliminated. or we could go a little more gentle on them, and try something like what we did to the leader of panama, mr. noriega. we could put all those world leaders in prison in miami along with noriega. crazy ones like mahmoud ahmadenijad could be committed to insane asylums. permanently. someone should seriously have kidnapped the iranian president when he came here and shipped him off to an insane asylum for good. maybe assassination is a little too extreme. but that dude is crazy, and should not be in charge of a country. as for president bush, he ought to be declared mentally incompetent and removed from power, and sent to an assisted living facility for people who are mentally retarded idiot morons. and as for dick cheney, i think if someone sprayed some water on him he would melt, because he is a witch. if dick cheney floats in water, that means he is made of wood, and therefore a witch. but of course the water would melt him if he were a witch. anyway, the point is, he is a witch! also, did you notice that in his speech at columbia university, mahmoud ahmadenijad questioned both the holocaust and 9/11? he was actually correct in questioning them! it is a little-known fact: adolf hitler and the nazis were behind 9/11, and osama bin laden and al qaeda carried out the holocaust. people just get them confused! of course the official version of what happened is wrong! everything is a giant conspiracy and only crazy iranian dictators have any idea what is going on! also, there is no such nation as israel: this is a zionist conspiracy. all 6 million jews were wiped out in the holocaust and there are none left. the people alive now who call themselves jews are all liars and they are actually former muslims who were tempted by the great satan america and its hedonistic materialistic culture into renouncing their former religion of islam and embracing a dead religion that was wiped out by osama bin laden in 1945. and they are all homosexuals, which means they do not exist. it all makes sense now, at least to the crazy iranian president. anyway, the military dictatorship of myanmar has been massacring innocent peaceful protestors, and the punishment for murdering innocent people ought to be death. an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. rather than simply having economic sanctions against myanmar, why can't we find the people in charge of that nation and kill them all dead? seriously... why do leaders and diplomats of most western industrialized nations act like such pussies and wimps and pushovers? you know what josef stalin said... one death is a tragedy but a million deaths is just a statistic. if someone who is just a private citizen murders a single person, they are usually put on trial and punished, in most nations. however, if a national leader murders thousands or even millions of people, what is the punishment? there is none! for example, ugandan dictator idi amin got to live out the rest of his days in luxury in saudi arabia, after committing horrible atrocities against his own people in uganda. sure saddam hussein and slobodan milosevic were both punished, but how many other dictators were not? there is no crime worse than the mass murder that only a dictator can carry out, and no punishment could possibly be harsh enough to fit such a horrendous crime. it amazes me that we still have alliances with evil dictatorships despite our nation's rhetoric about spreading freedom and democracy. our government is incredibly hypocritical, since we are quite selective about where we choose to spread democracy and where we help out those who are preventing democracy from happening. i mean seriously, why do we keep helping out pakistan's military dictator pervez musharraf? osama bin laden and the al qaeda leadership are in his country, and he is either incapable or unwilling to tackle this threat. right now, people are trying to re-establish democracy and freedom and rule of law in pakistan, and end the military dictatorship. why is the united states unwilling to support democracy in a nation whose military dictator has failed to stop the terrorists from establishing safe haven in his own country? oh, and how could i forget the issue of private security firms like blackwater operating in iraq. did you know that blackwater is above the law? they do not have to follow iraqi law, american law, or even international law. they are above the law, just like dick cheney, who is not a member of the legislative, executive, or judicial branch, but rather has his own special 4th branch just for him. and people in blackwater are paid much higher salaries than soldiers in our military. why doesn't the state department just use our military soldiers for security? they are paid lower salaries! it would be cheaper! it makes no sense to spend all this extra money for private security when we already have our military in iraq. blackwater is just a scam, war profiteers stealing taxpayer money to make themselves rich while killing innocent people. we ought to let the iraqis put the ceo of blackwater and his henchmen on trial, in an iraqi kangaroo court. why does blackwater get to be above the law? i want to be above the law, but if i kill someone, i go to jail. if blackwater kills some people, nobody gets punished for the murders. that is no fair. so here is what i don't get: iraq is filled with 160,000 american soldiers, yet our state department cannot find any soldiers worthy of defending our diplomats from harm, and the only people good enough to defend our diplomats are in the private sector, and cost a lot more than regular soldiers, plus they are above the law. if our military does not have anyone good enough to defend diplomats in the state department, our military sucks. there has to be someone capable of carrying out that mission. and if there are not enough soldiers, why not get the people in blackwater to re-enlist and rejoin the military, and do the same mission under the auspices of the pentagon? at least that way, the soldiers can be court-martialed if they kill innocent people without provocation, and the uniform code of military justice will at least allow some punishment for wrongdoing. i do not see any reason for us to be paying private mercenaries to do the work our own military should be doing. not just blackwater, but all the private mercenaries from outside iraq should be kicked out of iraq. i have heard news reports about all sorts of mercenary fighters that are being used by our own military in iraq, brought into that country from all over the world, used because we do not have enough soldiers in our own military. we ought to put an end to this nonsense. and bring our own troops home too, of course. but, not all at once. that has to be more gradual, so iraqis have the time to build up the strength to defend themselves. we ought to have a timeline for withdrawal, but not one that is publicly known, instead a top-secret timeline for withdrawal that nobody in the media is allowed to find out about. oh and you know what else in the news pisses me off? george w. bush is holding a fake-ass stupid conference on global warming to compete with the one at the united nations, and bush's conference only invited the nations that are the biggest polluters, the ones who do not want to have to cut carbon dioxide emissions. and he is promoting voluntary cuts in emissions, not mandatory ones, and letting each nation decide for itself what to do, and not forcing anyone to reduce emissions, just encouraging it and hoping for the best. does that work in fighting pollution? if a factory is dumping toxic waste into a lake, does it really work if the e.p.a. tells them "we would prefer if you stopped dumping the toxic waste, and it would be really nice if you did that, but we are not going to force you or anything, and you can do whatever you want." i mean, if a serial killer is going around killing people, should the police, when they catch him or her, ask them politely to please stop but say that it isn't really mandatory to stop killing, and it is up to the serial killer to decide what to do, and then they release the serial killer back into the public again with no punishment? well what the hell kind of policy is that in combatting global warming? we are not talking about individuals dying, but entire species being wiped out! and it is optional, not mandatory, for people to do anything to stop global warming. thanks a lot, george w. bush. and george w. bush doesn't want little kids to have health insurance. he promised to veto a bill that would give sick little kids the health care so they live and don't die. george w. bush wants to kill children, basically. and the democrats in congress pay for this healthcare for kids by increasing a cigarette tax, which would make less people smoke, and less people would get lung cancer and other lung diseases. but george w. bush wants people to smoke cigarettes and die, after going through childhood with no healthcare. what a great president we have... what a great role model for the kids to look up to. all these bushes and clintons... i am sick of it! why is hillary clinton doing so well in the polls compared to other democratic presidential candidates? those polls make me sick. dennis kucinich should be #1 in all the polls, because when he talks, at least it makes some sense. back in the 2004 elections, i actually cared who won, and supported a candidate, namely howard dean. this time around, i don't even know who to support, because i am so disgusted with the system. i think iowa and new hampshire can go fuck themselves. i hate the elitists who think people in those states are better than everyone else and ought to decide who the presidential candidates are, and that people in states like mine are unimportant and our opinions do not matter. why should someone in iowa get to decide who the democratic or republican nominee is, and not someone in new york, for instance? it ought to be one person, one vote, in a national primary that is not done state-by-state, but is instead a national popular vote. and we ought to use instant runoff voting in that national popular vote presidential primary. the current system is undemocratic and i hate it. i hate iowa and new hampshire. the idiots in iowa chose john kerry and decided howard dean sucked. well guess what? john kerry lost the election because he sucks, and howard dean is way more awesome than john kerry could ever hope to be. i remember john kerry condemned howard dean for opting out of the publicly financed system of matching funds to be able to raise more money privately. and then john kerry did the exact same thing he had just condemned, pretty soon after. what an asshole and jackass and hypocrite! that is like larry craig condemning homosexuality and then turning out to be gay! the idiots in iowa chose john kerry after john kerry demonstrated his idiocy and hypocrisy, after john kerry demonstrated the fact that he sucked and howard dean ruled. we should have just had a national election to pick the democratic nominee for president, so we could have picked the best candidate, namely howard dean. so this time around, for 2008, i am pretty glum. i think the people in iowa and new hampshire do not represent the interests of the country as a whole and should not get to decide who the next president is, and i think people in those states are too conservative and tend to choose the wrong candidate, and there is no hope for progressives to win presidential elections if they have to win caucuses and primaries in iowa and new hampshire first. i am sick of conservative southern governors becoming president! and i am sick of republicans, the party of greed and hypocrisy, who want to increase the gap between the rich and the poor, and regulate the sex lives of individuals, the party of war profiteers who make money off mass murder and bigoted fundamentalist preachers who in past generations said blacks were inferior and currently say homosexuals are evil hellbound sinners. republicans unfortunately have enough votes in congress to block congress from overriding any vetoes from president bush the retard. so congress cannot accomplish anything meaningful because these assholes are blocking the way. no wonder most people disapprove of congress. congress would need much bigger democratic majorities in both houses in order to really improve things in this country, but the republicans are currently able to keep anything good from getting done. and every veto president bush has made so far has been unjustifiable and the wrong decision, bad policy, indefensible, etc. most people who disapprove of congress have no idea how it works or how difficult it is to get things done with hundreds of people all with their own opinions and ideas who all disagree with each other. and of course, congress is by definition the opposite of progress. but at least congress does not actively promote evil like the bush administration has been doing for 7 years. at least i know that many foreign regimes exist which are much more evil than our own bush administration. we are certainly not the worst, but we are the most powerful nation. the regimes of china and russia, for example, are both quite evil and nasty, especially in how they prop up evil dictatorships like in north korea and iran and sudan and many other smaller nations. the united states government is nowhere near as awful as the chinese government. but they are both bad. i think more than half of the countries in the world should probably have regime change, including the united states. we need revolutions all over the world against tyranny and oppression. in our case, we are luckily a democracy, so we can replace our misleaders through voting. under dictatorships, often the only solution is a violent overthrow, a coup. i know the cia is responsible for many revolutions around the world, and there is nothing wrong with that in general. i just disagree with many of the specific revolutions they carried out against democratic governments. but in general, there is nothing wrong with having the cia overthrow foreign governments, and i would like to see more of it. they overthrew the iranian government in 1953... time to do it again. 1953 was also the same year as the divine emaculation of j.r. "bob" dobbs, by the way. praise "bob"!
Friday, September 28, 2007
this sucks
i would like to express my strong disgust and dislike for how things are going in the world today and also in my own personal life. i should probably focus on my own personal life because most of the horrible things going on in the world today do not really affect me and there is nothing i can do about any of them. my life sucks, basically. i am sick and tired of watching time go by. the passage of time is the most pernicious of all evils, it seems to me. all of my faults as a person and all of my misfortunes and bad luck have together managed to ruin most aspects of my life. i am aware that many people actually have it much worse off than i do. but, my dissatisfaction with my life has been a fact of my existence for many years, and it seems it will continue for quite some time.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
god got sued
ok, so a nebraska state senator has sued god. it is in wikinews, the associated press, fox news, and wired news. in the lawsuit, state senator ernie chambers of nebraska accuses god and his followers of making numerous terrorist threats against him and his constituents, and of countless natural disasters causing untold death and suffering to humanity. i am all for this lawsuit even though it is obviously just one big joke, since the defendant is a fictional character. now all the time there are articles about atheism. here is one on the washington post, and here is one from an awful evil republican website called worldnetdaily.com. basically the point of the articles is this: atheism has been getting more and more popular since the attacks of september 11, 2001, because people are realizing that religion is evil and is ruining everything. ok, here are some examples from the recent news about how evil and stupid religion is: the polygamist leader warren jeffs is in charge of a cult known as the fundamentalist church of latter day saints, an offshoot of mormonism that still practices polygamy. and of course, people in this evil cult of warren jeffs do awful things to each other. it has been all over the news lately. osama bin laden put out a new video recently. he is evil, and a devout muslim. and his terrorist followers are all very evil, and very devout muslims. and madonna was in israel recently and declared herself an "ambassador for judaism", even though she is not a jew and never was, and is instead a follower of some superstitious bullshit nonsense called kabbalah that comes from judaism. and jewish rabbis have condemned her for studying kabbalah and said it is forbidden to non-jews. madonna is an idiot and so are these rabbis! who cares about this kabbalah bullshit? and what about scientology and tom cruise and john travolta and all those other idiot followers of l. ron hubbard? that is a bunch of bullshit too, and they are all idiots. scientologists have to pay tons of money to their stupid cult, just to gain access to secret bullshit so they can brainwash themselves into even bigger idiots. and what about the republicans and their stupid fundamentalist christianity that teaches them to hate people who are different from them such as homosexuals but also including many other groups? rather than fighting injustice and intolerance, fundamentalist christians promote bigotry and hatred, and they are very closely tied to the republican party. so senator larry craig, the gay homosexual faggot from idaho who likes kinky butt sex up the ass, pled guilty to trying to solicit gay sex in the men's room of a minneapolis airport a few months ago, and he got all up in the news for lying and claiming he was innocent and not a flaming homosexual. what bugs me is not that this guy is totally gay, but that he is a hypocrite and a liar, who hates homosexuals because he is part of the christian fundamentalist belief system that teaches people to hate homosexuals, and that even though he himself is a homosexual, he has to lie to himself and everyone around him, and he still can't get over his own bigotry and prejudice. meanwhile, another republican senator, david vitter, has been fucking prostitutes, but none of the republicans wanted him to resign, even though that shit is totally illegal. republicans just can't stand gay people like larry craig, mark foley, ted haggard, jeff gannon, and probably thousands of other right-wing self-hating-homosexual political hacks like those losers. the fact remains that plenty of high-ranking republicans are gays, and republicans, no matter how much they hate gays, cannot eliminate them all, because these republican homos are so good at staying in the closet and pretending to be straight. i don't hate gays but i do hate republicans because they are hypocrites and they are evil and they have ruined this country and their entire ideology is based on hatred of anyone who is different, and greed for wealth and power, and pretending to be moral and righteous when really they are the most immoral of all. now, i do not really hate all republicans, just some, and i do not hate them that strongly, just a bit. i know most republicans are just brainwashed into it. it is like a cult. you see, all religions are just like cults. the big established religions just have a lot more members and are able to intimidate people into not criticizing them by accusing them of being bigots. muslims accuse people of islamophobia, jews accuse people of anti-semitism, and christians really haven't come up with a good term to label those who criticize christianity yet, but they are probably working on it. anyway, i see no difference between any of these religions or cults. and the republican party is so closely tied to the cult of right-wing christian fundamentalism that the republican party itself is basically a cult. a cult of personality. a cult of pretending to believe in so-called "conservative principles" that are little more than window dressing for bigotry and greed, an ideology of divide and conquer, of promoting hatred against those who are different, and letting rich people keep all their money, and doing nothing at all to help those who need it. osama bin laden could talk about his islamist principles and how noble and righteous they are, but would you be gullible enough to believe his bullshit? of course not, unless you are a terrorist or something like that. in all of osama bin laden's videos, he acts like he is the most noble and righteous person in the world, and like he is leading the fight against evildoers, who he defines as anyone who opposes his extremist version of islam. but even if we ignore the extremist and fundamentalist and hateful versions of all the religions of the world, and ignore all the dangerous and stupid and wacky cults out there, if we just look at the religions that preach tolerance and peace and nonviolence and social justice, well that stuff is all well and good, but i still do not agree with their wacky beliefs about supernatural powers! i am all for the quakers spreading peace and tolerance and nonviolence and love and all of that. but leave god out of it! leave jesus out of it! leave allah and mohammad and l. ron hubbard out of it! leave the kabbalah out of it! leave out the stuff about ufos and aliens and human cloning that the raelians believe in! look... when he was alive, jesus christ tried to spread a message of peace and love and tolerance, and he befriended those who society wrongly condemned, such as prostitutes and tax collectors. do you really think jesus would hate gay people? where do these right-wing christian fundamentalists get off? their entire belief system is bullshit, because if jesus were alive today he would condemn them and everything they stand for. jesus believed in sharing and helping out those who are less fortunate. jesus believed in socialism. he did not advocate letting the wealthy keep all their money while the working poor don't have any health care. the republicans in congress and the white house and those who are running for president are trying as hard as they can to keep america's uninsured from getting access to quality health care. the white house has promised to veto a bill that would help get health insurance to children. not even adults! just kids! that would be cheap! but republicans would rather let poor kids die from lack of insurance than show any signs of human decency. and i have not seen michael moore's new movie "sicko", but i do know that cuba has pretty much the best health care system of any third-world country with a per capita income as low as it is there. rudy giuliani has said that hillary clinton's new health care proposal is european-style socialized medicine and not what's right for america. well guess what? europeans are not complaining about their health care system and saying it gives them too much coverage, and asking to have less coverage like those of us here in the united states! europeans are not asking for their politicians to put an end to socialized medicine! on the contrary, they love socialized medicine and any politician over there who takes a stance against it has basically committed political suicide. health care costs in the united states are going up much faster than inflation and people cannot afford it and neither can businesses and it is insanity to say that our system is better than what they have in developed nations in europe. i personally am having to get off expensive prescription drugs and go onto cheaper ones instead to treat my panic attacks and anxiety, because my new insurance that i am paying for myself (with help from my parents) does not cover mental health at all. and does my job offer health insurance? i think it offers a plan that is cheaper than what i have now, but with even less coverage. i need drugs dammit! now who is going to pay for my drugs? i am paying money to an hmo every month but it won't pay for anything because everything is too damn expensive! and the republicans think we have the best health care system in the world! ha! maybe for wealthy assholes like them the system works! you know this blackwater security company, this private army of ex-special ops soldiers who used to be in the u.s. military, who just got kicked out of iraq? their ceo is a billionaire who inherited all his money from his dad. i hate people like that!!! seriously, i really do!!! and this asshole used to be a navy seal or a marine or some kind of special ops soldier or something. and his dad basically bankrolled the evil asshole james dobson and his organization focus on the family. james dobson and focus on the family are an incredibly evil organization of right-wing christian fundamentalist zealots and bigots who basically should do the world a favor and commit suicide because all they ever do is make things on this planet worse, not better, and we would be better off without them living on this planet with us. oh, and did i mention fred phelps, the evil evil pastor of the westboro baptist church in kansas? he is like the evillest of all the christian fundamentalist preachers. he even hates the united states because he says we are a nation of "fag enablers", and says we are all going to hell. i think people like fred phelps capture the true essence of religion and demonstrate to everyone the true nature of religion, what religion is all about. isn't it really all about hate? but the only religion that actually comes out and admits that it's all about hate is the church of the subgenius. we subgenii hate the pinks, and everyone who is not a subgenius is a pink. pretty much all religions teach their followers that their religion is good and anyone who is opposed to it or does anything against it is bad and evil, and that people who are followers of it are better than everyone else, and that all the other religions are wrong and only their religion is right. you know, right-wing christian fundamentalists are correct about all religions except one. they are correct that judaism is wrong, correct that islam is wrong, correct that hinduism is wrong, correct that buddhism is wrong, correct that scientology is wrong, correct that zoroastrianism is wrong, correct that all non-christian religions are wrong. unfortunately, they are blind to the fact that their own religion is just as wrong as all those other false religions. a true subgenius knows that the church of the subgenius is yeti nother false religion, and that all its teachings are complete bullshit, but chooses to follow it anyway, not in spite of the teachings being false but because they are false. a subgenius embraces the false beliefs with full knowledge that they are completely wrong. the ultimate purpose of this enterprise is to win back the slack stolen away by the conspiracy, or, in layman's terms, to parody and make fun of the rest of the world and pretend you are better than everyone else, which is a parody of how other religions are full of followers who actually believe they are better than everyone else, except because the subgenius knows that the whole thing is one big joke and nothing but bullshit (or as we prefer to call it, bulldada), the subgenius actually realizes that they are not really better than anyone else, and it is because of this humility that the subgenius actually is better than everyone else. the pink, the person who is not a subgenius, is not as humble, and is not willing to admit that all their beliefs are basically bullshit (excuse me, bulldada). the subgenius savior is j. r. "bob" dobbs, a fictional character just like god, who is admired not for his good traits but for his flaws, his sacred follies. as the saying goes, "bob" makes a million bucks every time he makes a mistake, and boy does he ever make a lot of mistakes. he is the greatest salesman who ever lived, or perhaps the greatest salesman who never lived. by worshipping "bob" in pursuit of slack, the subgenius abandons rationality and pursues stupidity, with complete awareness of what is going on, complete understanding of how stupid and pointless it is. there is no such thing as enlightenment or higher awareness or a spiritual realm or an eternal soul. god is actually called jhvh-1 and is an evil space alien from some corporate sin galaxy, and in 1953, in the divine emaculation of "bob", j. r. "bob" dobbs saw a great vision while being electrocuted by an amateur television set of his own design, and made a covenant with the men from planet x, the x-ists, to have all the subgenii of the world liberated on pleasure saucers by alien sex goddesses on july 5, 1998 at 7:00 am. while this may seem like a stupid and ridiculous belief, at least nobody actually believes it, we just pretend to. so we are better than all those fools who actually believe nonsense like if they fly a plane into the world trade center they will get to fuck 72 virgins because allah loves mass murderers like the prophet muhammad, peace be upon him, wrote in the koran. you know, terrorists actually believe they go to heaven for killing innocent people, and they think their victims are the ones who go to hell. in reality, heaven and hell are both made up, and we need to find out who these potential mass murderers are before they kill, so we can kill them before they kill us. atheism is god's honest truth. in fact, i am going to go out on a limb here and say that not only is god a fictional character, but so is "bob"! now i have committed heresy against my own religion! the punishment for heresy is sainthood, so now i am a subgenius saint. what other religion operates in such a peculiar manner? the church of the flying spaghetti monster? i am starting to think that maybe god does exist after all, though, because i just noticed that he has a blog. sure, god shares his blog with some other gods too, but i guess that just means they all exist. let's all worship zeus, or thor, or ra! who cares? it is not like anything we do will change reality. whether or not any of these gods or bobs exist, nothing we do will change the situation of their existence of non-existence. and if there really were an all-powerful god, do you really think he would be dependent upon people believing in him for his continued existence? would he really have such a frail ego that he would require constant praise, and that anyone who questioned him would have to be severely punished? why should god even care about us? what have we ever done for him? he probably tells the terrorists to attack us and unleashes natural disasters on us for fun, just to enjoy watching our suffering. that is why i am glad somebody finally sued the bastard. i am just surprised it happened in nebraska, of all places. anyway, it is fucked up that the u.s. military is being privatized and our soldiers are quitting to join private mercenary armies like this blackwater group, and then our own state department hires this blackwater group of psycho assholes to be their security, and the blackwater bastards go on a couple killing sprees against innocent civilians, and then it turns out the blackwater people are not accountable to any law, not iraqi law or american law or even international law. why the hell does our government need to hire private mercenaries instead of just using our own goddamn soldiers like normal? these mercenaries are paid much higher salaries than our soldiers. there ought to be a law against the united states government using private mercenaries. we have a military so we might as well fucking use it. you know what? even god agrees with me. and so does "bob". why should some psycho who inherited over a billion dollars from his wacko christofascist james-dobson-bankrolling daddy get to have his own private mercenary army with close connections to the republican party, and then have the u.s. government pay his conspiracy corporation taxpayer cash money in exchange for having the blackwater bastards shoot people dead? to hell with blackwater! i am glad the iraqis kicked them out! i hope the iraqis kick the u.s. military out of their sorry excuse of a country. it used to be a halfway decent country until we totally fricken destroyed everything. they have more than half the population unemployed, like maybe 4 hours of electricity a day, no clean running water, and everywhere there are people trying to kill you, no matter who you are! i guess the national rifle association is happy though. everyone in iraq has guns, so according to the wacko theories of the n.r.a., iraq is the safest country in the world, since everyone has a gun for self-defense. i guess that means gun control laws are bad and we should vote republican because jesus says so. then again, muhammad is telling us to be suicide bombers and blow up infidels. i guess that proves that religion is a good thing, and the 9/11 hijackers should be admired as heroes because of their religious faith. anyone who has plenty of religious faith, like a terrorist, is obviously a model citizen and someone who should be admired. that is why i love hearing presidential candidates talk about how faithful they are in their various religions. if only the presidential candidates had as much religious faith as the terrorists! then they could really be righteous, like james dobson, or the guy who owns the blackwater group, or fred phelps, or george w. bush, or osama bin laden! faith is good! since faith is the exact opposite of logic, and logic is an evil tool of the devil, faith is obviously good. praise god! i hope he wins that lawsuit against that evil heathenous nebraska state senator. remember, jesus votes republican, and god hates fags. praise "bob"!
Sunday, September 2, 2007
everyone is resigning
so what is up with karl rove, alberto gonzales, and tony snow all resigning from the bush administration? and idaho senator larry craig is resigning too. larry craig, like michael vick, pled guilty to a crime. michael vick, of course, is an nfl quarterback that ran a dogfighting ring. and larry craig was trying to solicit gay sex in a public men's bathroom in a minneapolis airport. karl rove is most notable for his divisive propaganda that excites the passions of a minority of the american populace known as the religious right. the religious right hates gays, and larry craig, like ted haggard, is a self-hating homosexual from the religious right. well ok... we do not know for sure that larry craig is homosexual. he could be bisexual, and be attracted both to females such as his wife as well as males that he meets in illicit sexual encounters in airport restrooms. now there is not anything wrong with being gay or bi, but there is something wrong with anti-gay prejudice like the kind that we see from the religious right. and why were republicans so quick to want to get rid of this larry craig guy from the u.s. senate? i think it is not because he pled guilty to a crime, but rather because he was publicly exposed as a self-hating gay hypocrite who practices homosexual acts in his private life while publicly being a staunch opponent of the gay rights movement. but it is not even the hypocrisy that republicans are upset about, i think. i think they are just upset about it because of their anti-gay prejudice. after the whole affair with mark foley and ted haggard, they are just sick of gay republicans that make them look bad. i guess that is the heart of the matter, that having someone like larry craig represent them makes them look bad. it is all about public relations and the public perception of republicans. they are more concerned about their poll numbers than anything else. now karl rove won elections by appealing to the religious right, to people who hate gays, with the whole issue of gay marriage, with all the gay marriage ballot initiatives across the country. it is shameful that the republican party relies upon stirring up the passions of hate and bigotry in order to win elections, and tries to divide people instead of uniting them, turning straight against gay, white against black, christian against atheist, man against woman. we ought to allow people of all sexual orientations, races, belief systems, and genders to participate in politics equally, and to unite with others who are different from them in support of common goals. it disturbs me how politicians keep talking about faith and religion and they keep trying to sneakily make christianity the official state religion of the united states just because the majority of americans are christians. in iran, the majority of people are shiite muslims. in india, the majority are hindus. in israel, the majority are jews. should governments officially support some religions and not others? this makes people who are not part of the majority religion feel left out, excluded, discriminated against, and politically irrelevant, like they have no power and nobody in power is listening to them or cares about them. i don't want the government telling me which of the many religions out there is the correct one that i should believe in. i don't want my taxpayer dollars going to "faith-based initiatives" to promote theocracy and indoctrinate people into belief systems i disagree with. if the government just stayed out of this business of interfering with religion, and left the whole issue of religion alone, things would be a lot better, and i would not find myself forced into the position of becoming such a staunch opponent of religion. i don't want the government forcing religion down my throat. if people want to believe something i personally disagree with, and go to a church or synagogue or mosque or temple or shrine or whatever, that is fine, as long as they do not interfere with me and force me to do anything i don't want to do. that is what freedom of religion is all about. but religion is not an excuse to hate people because of which sexual orientation they were born with. you see, although i am not a gay, i do not like how certain minority groups become the objects of hate, and society condemns them, and it becomes a divisive issue. when the majority is oppressing a minority, i will always take the side of the oppressed minority, because i am opposed to oppression. i do not believe in a government of wealthy white christian heterosexual males who only care about other wealthy white christian heterosexual males, even though i am a white heterosexual male too (but not wealthy or christian). it should be a government of all the people, of all the people, and for all the people. it is funny how these religious right types used to condemn "niggers" as inferior or say that all the jews were going to go to hell, but nowadays, they have reformed their ways slightly and have abandoned racism against blacks and anti-semitism against jews, in favor of hatred against gays, atheists, muslims, and mexicans. political correctness seems to only apply to bigotry against blacks and jews but not any other groups. and as for sexism, it is open season on feminists, and everyone likes to attack the so-called "feminazis". it sure is strange how arbitrary it is which groups of people cannot be criticized and which ones everybody is strongly condemning. can you imagine what it would be like if people were not constantly criticizing islam, and had the same attitude towards "islamophobia" that they have towards "anti-semitism"? now, the word "islamophobia" is poorly chosen, if it is supposed to get people not to criticize islam. we have every reason to have a phobia towards islam and fear islam. after all, islamic terrorists keep attacking and killing people all across the world, from the 9/11 attacks in the united states to the attacks in london to the attacks in madrid to the ones in indonesia to the ones in morocco and the ones in turkey and in russia and almost every country in the middle east. you would have to be insane not to be afraid of islamic terrorists. now it is true that only a small percentage of muslims are actual terrorists, but is that really a good reason not to be afraid of them, not to have islamophobia? we have no way of knowing which muslims are terrorists and which are not. like in england, doctors actually became terrorists! and these are people who put in years going through medical school and everything, people you would expect to act civilized, people who were living in a wealthy, industrialized country with good jobs. when your enemy is attacking and killing you, it is insanity not to have any fear. so this term "islamophobia" is quite poorly chosen because i think pretty much everyone ought to have some degree of islamophobia, even most muslims. i mean in iraq, muslims are killing other muslims because shiites and sunnis hate each other. and now, there is actual fighting and killing by shiites against rival shiites. if i were an iraqi, i would almost certainly be afraid of these gangs of vicious killers who happen to be muslim. now is this fear of islam itself or just fear of murderous terrorists that happen to be muslim? it seems like a matter of semantics to me, because you cannot tell which muslims are terrorists. you could be a patient at a hospital in england and have a doctor who is muslim who later on turns out to be a terrorist... it happened earlier this year. but i suppose it might be better to focus on being afraid of terrorists in general rather than being afraid of muslims in general. now anyway, so what about the people who resigned? like larry craig, who said he is not gay? larry craig does not have a lot of credibility. after all, he pled guilty to a crime and then claimed he was innocent, even though he signed a legal document that states that he is guilty. so by claiming he is innocent now, he is contradicting himself. as for alberto gonzales, he was an incompetent yes-man who wrote an infamous torture memo and basically had no idea what he was doing, answering "i don't know" to almost all the questions people in congress asked him, demonstrating that he was clueless and had no idea what was going on in the justice department he was supposed to be in charge of. an incompetent fool who had no idea what he was doing, just like former fema boss michael brown. the government should have the best and the brightest in charge of things, not blundering idiots like these fools. and back when tony snow was hired as white house press secretary away from his job as a fox news anchor, he put the final nail in the coffin of the myth that fox news is "fair and balanced". fox news is republican party propaganda, plain and simple. if only people like bill o'reilly and sean hannity resigned from fox news, maybe someday fox news might become a legitimate news organization, instead of a pravda-esque partisan propaganda machine. but i think at the end of the day, the republicans were right to call for senator larry craig of idaho to resign. after all, with his lying about not being guilty of a crime after he pled guilty to it, larry craig showed that he has less honor and integrity than michael vick, the nfl quarterback that ran a dogfighting ring. at least michael vick apologized to everyone and admitted he was wrong, rather than maintaining a holier-than-thou attitude like larry craig. people with big egos like larry craig really get on my nerves. i much prefer people with low self-esteem who dislike themselves, because at least those people have realistic attitudes about themselves and are not pretending to be better than everyone else. now tony snow said he was resigning because he was running out of money. his salary is $168,000 a year. what the hell is this assclown wasting so much money on, that he goes broke on such a high salary? i make less than one tenth that salary and i can still manage to pay my bills, somehow. my message to tony snow is pretty simple: if you are running out of money, quit spending so much of it on stuff you don't need, you idiot. it's pretty simple. in third world countries people survive on less than $1,000 per year. tony snow is making 168 times as much as that and he still can't pay his bills? what a retard. you know, the gap between the rich and the poor is getting bigger and bigger all the time, and it is not a meritocracy at all. rich people do not earn their money. they do not deserve their money. their money is not earned based on merit at all. many of them are actually idiots who have no clue what to do with money. i mean, just look at all the big businesses that go bankrupt after getting lots of loans, or after giving out lots of loans to undeserving people who obviously would not pay the money back. i think the companies that gave out subprime mortgages were run by idiots and had bad business plans and they deserve to go out of business, and anyone dumb enough to invest in them deserves to lose their money. the government should not intervene at all in something like the subprime mortgage market collapse. and now that home prices are finally going down and the housing bubble is bursting, we are finally seeing some sanity restored to the market. people shouldn't act like idiots and think this is the end of the world or anything like that. it is good when housing prices go down, because it makes homes more affordable to buy, and people don't have to pay so much in taxes on their homes. i keep hearing news stories about this where people are all worried about the price of homes going down, and i don't have any sympathy for people who are worried about something so stupid. people don't get worried when the price of gasoline goes down or the price of food goes down or the price of computers goes down. people usually worry when the prices of things go up. when stuff gets cheaper that is almost always a good sign. and as for people who suddenly have to pay a lot more on their variable-rate mortgages that used to be much cheaper for them to pay... again... they are idiots. they should have known what they were doing when they signed up for it, and they should have realized that interest rates could not stay so ridiculously low forever. if someone has no clue how to manage money, and they screw everything up by buying stuff they can't afford, they deserve to lose all the stuff they bought on credit that they could not afford in the first place. people should quit whining about self-inflicted problems and asking other people to bail them out because of their own stupidity. i work hard at my job and i only buy things i can afford, and i can only afford to buy very little because my job pays such a small amount of money. if some idiot works as white house press secretary and makes more than ten times as much as me and still can't pay his bills, he should do what i do and not waste money on things he can't afford. i hardly think it could be that difficult. it is an insult to me and other hard-working low-paid people for a wealthy person such as him to claim to have difficulty paying his bills. and then he and other republicans don't want to do anything to help out us poor people, to help raise our standard of living and shrink the gap between the rich and the poor. rich people do not deserve their money. they ought to pay higher taxes. i wish i had lots of money like them. they ought to share the wealth and stop keeping it all for themselves. there are tv shows where wealthy celebrities show off their mansions and all the expensive stuff they wasted money on, and it just disgusts me to see people showing off their wealth, as if that makes them better than everyone else. no it does not make them better than everyone else. it shows off their selfishness and their lack of caring about people who are less lucky and well-off than them, and demonstrates the fact that they do not deserve their wealth at all. their materialism disgusts me. if people want to spend lots of money on things, they ought to at least spend it on things that are useful and can serve some sort of purpose. what is the point of "pimping your ride"? people who are dumb enough to waste money on silly pointless things do not deserve the money in the first place. anyway, i do not think any of the people who resigned deserved to have their jobs in the first place. there ought to have been democrats in those jobs, not republicans. and of course, the democrats who should have had the jobs of karl rove, tony snow, and alberto gonzales ought to have been working for a democratic president, rather than the the most incompetent fool of all, george w. bush. now democrats are not immune to this problem of hiring incompetent fools for top positions. john kerry's top campaign adviser for the 2004 campaign was bob shrum, an incompetent fool who had mismanaged a large number of previous presidential campaigns that all lost miserably. bob shrum's track record of nothing but failure should have barred him from being the top campaign adviser to john kerry, and john kerry should have instead hired someone who actually knows how to win elections. politicians need to stop rewarding failure, and hire people who actually have talent and know what they are doing! you know, people like me!


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What is the theme of Frindle with examples?
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The primary theme of the book Frindle is that words have power. Nick asks his teacher, Mrs. Granger, who invents words. He asks who decided that the word "dog" referred to the pet. Mrs. Granger tells him that she, him, and "'everyone in this class and this school and this town and this state and this country'" are the ones who decide what words mean. She tells him that people "'decide what goes in that [dictionary].'"
With this information in mind, Nick invents a new word, frindle. This word describes a pen. He and his classmates start calling "pens" "frindles," much to the annoyance of their teacher. The word becomes more and more popular. Soon all the kids at school are using the word frindle. Nick becomes famous. He goes on the radio and television to talk about frindles. There is frindle merchandise and a licensing deal. Nick becomes wealthy from frindles.
Nick proves that words have power. He starts with a simple word, but in the end he becomes a person of influence. He becomes wealthy and powerful because of one word.
The main theme of Frindle by Andrew Clements is the fluidity of the English language and how one word can surpass the structures of tradition and educational authority if adopted by enough people.
Though Nick only creates the word as a way to rebel against Mrs. Granger and her love of the dictionary, the term frindle actually catches on with his classmates and his elementary school as a whole. By the time Nick's principal asks him to stop using the word in an attempt to end the conflict between Mrs. Granger and her students, the word has become so popular that it has started to gain media attention and is eventually spread nationwide.
While Nick does become famous for creating the word Frindle, the true value of his success comes from taking a concept and making it so recognizable that it can't be censored or suppressed. In the epilogue, it is revealed that Mrs. Granger fought against the term so bitterly in the hopes that she could prove exactly how powerful language truly is.

subset: commoncrawl


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|750 sq ft
|Property type
|Minimum Stay
|2 - 4 nights
Walk 2 blocks to the beach and enjoy air-conditioned comfort when you return. Guests enjoy exclusive use of this charming beach home and it's tropical gardens. An affordable and well-kept vacation rental on the north shore of Kauai.
Fenced and gated property is reserved exclusively for guests to enjoy the privacy of tropical indoor/outdoor living. Just a short walk to world-class, white sand beaches stretching for miles in both directions. Experience the the beauty of this special area nestled between emerald mountains and azure seas.
A charming home surrounded by tropical foliage. The top floor has two remodeled baths, new furnishings and flooring.
The bottom level features a 600 foot outdoor room, BBQ area ,otdoor dining, gaming table and seating for quiet reading. A outdoor gazebo has been tucked away in a quiet corner for sunning or reading.
Enjoy an 'unplugged' beach environment AND all the convenience of air-conditioning, wireless internet, 2 flat screen TV's.
The beach home living area is elevated 10 feet above covered outdoor room and is accessed by a short flight of stairs. The elevated living area is surrounded by red hibiscus and tropical foliage . The home has new ceiling fans and air-conditioning in both bedrooms and living area. The open floor plan features vaulted ceilings throughout and lots of light.
The top level living, kitchen and dining area offers air-conditioned comfort and entertainment options including flat panel HD-TV, Blu-Ray DVD and high speed, wireless internet. 2 sofas provide comfortable seating.The living area has an 8' sliding glass door that opens to the covered lanai.
The kitchen includes island work space, open shelving, microwave, stove and oven, dishwasher. There is an indoor dining nook for 4. The built-in bookcase stores indoor and outdoor glassware and small appliances including blender, food processor, toaster, coffee maker, coffee grinder, K-cup coffee maker and new cookware
The larger bedroom offers a king bed with quality linens, air-conditioning, flat screen TV, DVD player. The adjacent remodeled bath has tiled shower and a double vanity with glass top.
Second bedroom offers a queen bed with quality linens, air-conditioning and access to the hall bath with claw-footed tub/shower.
On the top level deck, there is full-sized washer/dryer. The out door storage under the deck has beach chairs, beach mats, snorkel gear and an assortment of beach toys.
Indoor/outdoor living options galore. The top floor covered lanai has outdoor dining for 4 and reading area with red hibiscus flowers as a tropical backdrop. The covered bottom level includes 4 burner gas BBQ and outdoor dining table for 6, seating area and lounge chairs. Tucked away in a quiet, perimeter garden area is a sunning gazebo with umbrella and sunning chairs.
This home is located on the corner of a residential cul-de-sac and a well-traveled, 2 lane road that runs a few miles to a glorious end at Ke'e Beach and the base of Makana (Bali Hai). Check the map for the location. The road has beach traffic during the day but there is little traffic at night.
This beach access is just a short walk across the road and 2 blocks to the beach. From this location there are many nearby outdoor activities including: swimming with turtles at Tunnels Beach, sunbathing at Lumahai Beach and Kepuhi Point, hiking the NaPali coast, watching the sun set behind Makana (Bali Hai).
This is a Kauai County licensed vacation rental, ID: TV 5153. State tax number TA-087-152-0256-01
Keywords: House,cottage,beach cottage,walk to beach, air conditioned/updated,beach home, Privacy, licensed by Kauai County.
This partner has demonstrated and is committed to fast response times, the best rates, and a great guest experience.
We have an active vacation rental id TV 5153 We pay the required state tax under State tax number W00680950-01
We have removed the "about you' section to comply with VRBO rules.
Donna purchased this house in 2001
Thank you. We loved the house and our first stay in Hawaii and, of course, did not want to leave. I've included some feedback below that I hope you find helpful. They are all little things and we absolutely loved the house and will stay there again.
1. Kitchen organization. I have stayed in many vacation rentals and yours was the first to really have a clear, organized system for kitchen utensils, pots, etc. We appreciated it very much.
2. Trash/recycling/composting. Perhaps we just overlooked it in the binder, but we were not clear which cans outside were for trash vs. recycling vs. composting (does that ven happen on Kauai?). Inside there was only a trash can and we would love to recycle and compost if possible — we are aware of the landfill/water issues in the islands.
3. Laundry. We washed our towels at the end of our stay. During the week, it would be nice to have a drying rack (and for swimsuits, too) to hang things on.
4. Since there was only two of us, we never went in the second bedroom and did not notice the closet there (we found beach towels the last day). I think there might have been a broom there, too? If you mention those in the binder, it might eliminate confusion.
5. More info about the Geckos. There were several in the house (not a problem for us), but I was worried that perhaps we let them in or something? Or they were not supposed to be there? Just a note in the binder letting visitors know that geckos get in from time to time and not to worry about it.
Thank you so much for a wonderful time!
This house was cute, comfortable, wonderfully relaxing and had everything anyone could want including beach gear. We loved getting to stay so close to Tunnels Beach, interesting lava caves, Ke'e Beach, Ha'ena State Park, the trailhead to Kalalau Trail and in one of the most lush, green and tropical parts of Kauai. If you want to be away from the bulk of tourists this is the place to be. Although the house is on a main road, there is absolutely no traffic at night and it is very quiet. The owners are very conscientious and thorough. It was nice to have air conditioning; we were able to use it to bring down the general temperature in the house, and then rely only on the ceiling fans all night to keep us comfortable. The beds were a perfect combination of support and softness. The house felt very private, and it was always a joy to return to after exploring the island. My kids got a big kick out of the lone adorable gecko that showed up in the shower periodically. I will always return to this rental in the future.
Owners have done a great job stocking the house and ensuring guests don't have to sweat running the store for snorkels and sand toys, cooking utensils, laundry and dishwasher detergent, etc...house is tastefully decorated. Bikes didn't have air in the tires, so that was one extra we couldn't take advantage of, but with little kids it would have been hard anyways. Loved that we could close gates and not worry about kids. Only real challenge is walking across the road with little ones since it is quite a busy road at times, but It was quite an easy walk! Would recommend this house.
We really enjoyed our stay. The house is cute and very tidy. There are ceiling fans in every room which definitely helps when the temperature creeps up and the humidity is high. We had everything we needed enjoyed the space, inside and out. Do be aware that part of the property is on the highway, it is low speed but there is steady traffic throughout the day.
We loved our stay at Haena! The location couldn't be better if you are staying on the North Shore. The space is great! Lots of sitting areas and completely stocked with whatever you may need. Donna was very sweet to work with and very accommodating! We were here for our wedding and honeymoon and had some special needs. She couldn't have been nicer! Thank you Donna for making our stay even more special!
We had a really lovely stay here. Loved listening to the birds singing in the early mornings and evenings. A beautiful area with nice beaches nearby. Definitely recommend staying here.
We spent 5 nights in the Haena home. The house is comfortable with extremely well equipped kitchen,, outdoor and beach supplies!! Beds are comfortable, and each different ( one hard, one pillow top which worked well for us). There are numerous ceiling fans and AC to counteract the humidity. Lots of outdoor seating (although we didn't use it because we were there in the midst of severe tropical storms). We enjoyed being in this location very much but the street noise is very load during the day and views are all blocked by trees and house ( small views of mountain tops from bedrooms and dining). We are used to homes with more openness to the landscape so felt a little closed in by the surrounding and adjoining properties. The owner is available and gracious!
Luau and Mediterranean restaurant within 2 blks. Minutes to two botanical gardens. Helicopter Tours, Ziplining, ATV tours, Sunset Boat Cruises, Gateway to hiking on the Na Pali Coast. Day spa within walking distance. Explore wet and dry caves nearby.
|Rental Period
|Minimum Price
|Additional Nights
|Weekend Night
|Event Price
winter spring 2017
15 Dec 2017 - 30 Apr 2018
4 night minimum stay
for 4 nights
2018 summer
1 May 2018 - 31 Dec 2018
2 night minimum stay
for 2 nights
1 Jan 2019 - 31 Dec 2019
4 night minimum stay
for 4 nights
My Standard Rate
3 night minimum stay
for 3 nights
|Tax Rate
Permitted rental licensed by the County of Kauai. 'TV-1669'
Taxes paid on vacation rental income. HI State tax id W00680958-01. Support Kauai's roads and beaches, rent a permitted vacation home.
Cleaning Fee per stay is $175.


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A couple of hours after the cross-country skier Justin Wadsworth made the Olympic team, he began mentally packing his car for an ultimate road trip on highways that would unfold before him like red carpets.
Wadsworth would soon be on his way to the big moment -- a chance to leap out of obscurity and into celebrity -- on his dream journey from Bend, Ore., to Salt Lake City. All the essentials would be along for the ride: favorite down comforter, an espresso machine and his longtime girlfriend.
''I can drive to the Olympics,'' Wadsworth said earlier this month. ''How sweet is that?''
It would seem so. As NBC rolls rowdy Olympic promos that proclaim, ''This is my house,'' and with the post-Sept. 11 intensity bound to be behind the therapeutic chants of ''U.S.A.! U.S.A.!'' by spectators, American athletes have the opportunity to latch onto an adrenaline rush that could carry them past the United States Olympic Committee's promise of 20 medals at next month's Winter Games.
''Wearing the red, white and blue has never meant so much after everything that has happened,'' said Emily Cook, a freestyle aerialist whose cousin was a flight attendant on the first plane that crashed into the World Trade Center. ''You always want to do your best. But I want this more than ever before.''
Cook may have lost the chance to do her best next month. She sustained a serious ankle injury Thursday at Lake Placid, N.Y., jeopardizing her chances of competing in Salt Lake City.Continue reading the main story
One athlete's source of inspiration, however, could become a burden for another. Beyond topping America's best medal tally in a Winter Games -- 13 twice, in 1994 in Lillehammer, Norway, and in 1998 in Nagano, Japan -- and dealing with the unsettling prospect of performing in a backyard with high security fences, United States skiers, skaters and lugers have been cast in the role of spiritual healers for a nation in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.
Salt Lake City organizers have talked of an Olympics that could restore America's hope. Olympic officials have offered up the Winter Games as a symbol of peace.
''It's hard enough for an athlete to stand up to the pressure of an Olympics without the extra issues that will be special to these Games,'' said Sean McCann, director of sports psychology at the United States Olympic Training Center. ''To win one for the country, or to do it for national pride, it's a great opportunity, but it can be a daunting situation, too.
''Some athletes will see the flag as an awesome sight. They will find it helpful. Others will think they have to do something extraordinary to live up to the moment.''
The scrutiny of each moment will be intense, not just from the media, but from U.S.O.C. officials. Last spring, Olympic committee executives looked at America's potential at the Salt Lake City Games and boldly decided the talent existed to produce a record haul of medals. Not only did officials tie staff bonuses to the 20-medal goal, they bumped up the financial incentives for athletes, as well: $25,000 for gold, $15,000 for silver, $10,000 for bronze.
''The athletes don't really get into the '20,' '' said Lloyd Ward, who was elected chief executive of the U.S.O.C. in October. ''They're into their own space, their own competition. They just want to win a medal, just one. I don't sense it is pressure. I sense that it is motivation and inspiration for the athletes.''
A 20-medal total is not likely to challenge the Winter Games superiority of countries like Norway -- where skiers are treated like folk heroes -- but meeting the medal count would restore some respectability for an Olympic family that has been damaged by past infighting at the executive level and unbecoming behavior on the part of a few athletes. Members of the United States men's hockey team set a new precedent for embarrassing episodes when they ransacked their Olympic housing at the 1998 Nagano Games.
In some ways, it's almost as if Olympic officials, as well as Salt Lake City organizers, are trying to recreate the select images of the 1980 Winter Games at Lake Placid, where the cold war provided the backdrop to America's incandescent upset of the Russians in the Miracle on Ice, where the speed skater Eric Heiden won five gold medals, then a record for the Winter Games, and where the United States finished among the top three countries in the final count. Only once since then has the United States placed above fifth: the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo, when it also finished third.
The U.S.O.C.'s lofty target may be as much a marketing strategy as a prod for better performances. But the issue could hover as a distraction for athletes depending on the initial successes, or failures, of Americans at the Games.
''If there are a couple of medals right away, it makes everything easier,'' McCann said, adding that that was what happened in Lillehammer in 1994. ''It goes by the sport, too. The ski team has goals. They're shooting for 10 medals. But let's say the U.S. isn't doing well in the Alpine speed events. Then, there is this shift in thinking. It becomes, well, all of the U.S. hopes are riding on Kristina Koznick or someone like that. Suddenly, she's asked to be the savior.
''I am a believer in goal setting. But my bottom line is that this is not the time to be talking about medal counts. For an athlete right now, it's how do you do your job. Skate fast on race day. Keep it simple.''
The American athletes' ability to compartmentalize, to snap a sort of Tupperware lid over their distractions when the competition begins, will be crucial in dealing with the heightened emotions and unusual elements of this Olympics.
A high-profile athlete like figure skater Michelle Kwan is accustomed to moving around an event with ease. If her father wants to meet up with her at a certain spot in the arena, it's not usually a problem.
But with the increased security measures, such freedom may be restricted, routines may be hard to maintain and stress could result. Areas previously open to family members may be closed without notice. Routes to event sites may change. And screening procedures may delay spectators and even athletes as they enter sites.
There are also the logistical problems that are always present when an Olympics is staged at home. At the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, sports psychologists like McCann studied how some United States teams turned the home field into an advantage, while others could not control the auxiliary issues.
''It's a challenge,'' McCann said. ''So many family members and friends will show up and ask an athlete, 'Hey, can you get me tickets?' ''
The situation is worse for athletes who train and work in the Salt Lake City area. Friends, co-workers and neighbors mean well, but their casserole-dish deliveries may only add to the mental chaos. Erik Schlopy, a medal contender in the slalom and giant slalom, does not intend to answer too many doorbells at his home in Park City, Utah.
''My cell phone is going to have a message saying, 'I appreciate the support, but I won't get back to you until after the Games,' '' Schlopy said. ''Thanks for calling.''
While they are grateful for the thousands of Americans who will line the race courses and pack into the stands, United States athletes will have to find a way to convert the surreal atmosphere of patriotism and the increased expectations to do well into a positive vibe.
''Being at home has its advantages and disadvantages,'' said Todd Eldredge, 30, a figure skater in his third Olympics. ''The advantages are that there will be a lot more American fans here, and they will be cheering a lot louder. And the energy will be a lot higher for the athletes.
''Being in the United States and wanting to do better to win for your country, especially in light of everything that has happened recently in the world, I think we have to go out there and do our normal routines and not think about those added pressures. I think if we do that, knock on wood, some of our skaters will come out with some hardware.''
In Wadsworth's words, how sweet would that be for many athletes? In the U.S.O.C.'s eyes, it would be a mission accomplished.Continue reading the main story