I should be doing homework, but it's been far, far too long since I wrote one of these and much awful shit has gone on in the world that I need to bitch about. Let's begin:
Fighting Bigotry, One Golden Statue at a Time: "Crash" shouldn't have won the Best Picture Oscar. It handles the complex issues of modern race relations with all the grace and prowess of an adolescent boy groping his first tit. "Brokeback Mountain" was the clear masterpiece this year, but "Capote," "Hustle and Flow" and "A History of Violence" (the latter two of which weren't even nominated) were also worthy of Best Picture honors. I would love to go on, but it's all been said already in some brilliantly-hilarious-yet-poignant articles here and here.
One If By Air, Kiss Your Ass Good-bye If By Sea: I'm sure you've heard that our administration has announced the sale of our major terminal port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia to Dubai Ports, a company controlled by United Arab Emirates. The United States raised concerns with the UAE seven years ago about possible ties between officials in that country and Osama bin Laden. Check it out here, then the next time King George tries to assure you that there is no threat or that he cares at all about national security (instead of power and American imperialism), tell him to shut the fuck up.
Straight Out Of a M*A*S*H Episode: Anyone who still believes the White House supports our troops should talk to U.S. Army 1st Lt. William "Eddie" Rebrook. The Army told him that before he could receive his honorable discharge, he had to pay $632 to replace his body armor vest, which medics destroyed when he was wounded because it was soaked with his blood. Rebrook's friends helped raise the money, but now after a senator asked questions and the story's gotten national coverage on NPR and AOL News, the Army promises a refund. In other Iraqi news, while everyone was celebrating the Olympics and scrutinizing our redneck vice president's hunting accident, the situation in Iraq has been deteriorating into sectarian civil war. We also reached another important milestone: the majority of U.S. troops now support immediate withdrawal. Also, the numbers are actually beginning to come in (since the government won't keep them other independent groups had to step up) and they show that Iraqi civilian deaths are double the number of Iraqi law enforcement and military deaths. And despite disbursing $16 billion of U.S. taxpayer money in the Iraq reconstruction program, of the six Measures of infrastructure performance presented to a Senate committee hearing, only one -- hours of power available outside Baghdad -- has surpassed pre-invasion levels.
Roe v. Wade v. South Dakota: Now that Roberts and Alito are sitting snugly in their robes and high chairs on the high court, the evangelical neo-cons have fired the first shot across the bow of the 33-year-old court decision that legalized abortion. In always-forward-thinking South Dakota, a near-total ban on abortions has been signed into law by the governor, who himself admitted it was a deliberate, "direct frontal assault" on Roe v. Wade. It would make an exception to save the woman's life, but not for cases of rape or incest. Of course, Planned Parenthood plans to challenge it, but the conservatives in South Dakota don't care with Bush's buddies now on the court, they believe it is now more likely to overturn Roe than it ever has been before. This is the big one folks, the one people like me warned everybody about back in 2003 when we began campaigning against Bush's second term. Hate to say I told you so, America.
That's all I can think of to bitch about for now, I've put off my homework long enough. Eventually I plan to write about the sickening expansion of executive powers which I believe may be this administration's legacy (that, and, you know, that whole 9/11-war-on-terror-invasion-of-Iraq thing) and the press' total lack of responsibility or loyalty to anything except brainless jingoism in this post-9/11 world. So, look forward to that I guess.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
Vindication never tasted so sour...
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Pipe Dreams?
Here we go with my first blog ever. Let's see what I can do...
The issue at hand is immortality. I have been looking into this recently because I'm a megalomaniac/elitist. Anyway, immortality, long believed to be something of dreams and something sought after by ignorant fools, a la Ponce de Leon, will be a reality. On the condition that everyone gets past the taboo of stem cell research and their fear of the movie iRobot, we'll be good to go. First of all, cryogenics is stupid and is not immortality, it's just being frozen to death since your brain basically dies when it freezes so fuck cryogenics. Genetic engineering is the true first step. Consider plasmids for a moment. If you don't know what they are look them up on wikipedia. Basically, scientists could, in theory, isolate a gene for regenerating body parts as found in the newt, inject it into a plasmid, let the plasmid replicate the gene and then the scientist can go remove and purify this gene and inject into humans via a virus (most efficient method) thus potentially allowing humans to regenerate limbs and whatnot. This is one of many examples of the potential of genetic engineering and everyone reading this should read up on it.
The next step is molecular nanotechnology. Basically really small robots that could be injected into the bloddstream that have been pre-programmed to seek out and destroy diseased cells such as cancer cells and the aids virus. Think radiation therapy without the side effects. Again this is one of many uses for nanotechnology.
It has even determined that the only things which lead to the deaths of humans are aging, disease, and trauma. Genetic engineering solves for aging with it rejuvination processes. Nanotechnology solves for disease as previously mentioned and also solves for tramua in the form of nanobots that can run to the problem area (ie gunshot in the head) and administer first aid while the paramedics rush to the scene, thus effectively saving the lives of everyone. Immortality is a reality.
The problem is all the fuck head people who oppose stem cell research. Stem cells are the logical first step toward full blown genetic engineering and rejuvination. Why is this research so taboo? Apparently it's "unethical." Just because a human embyo has to be the source of the cells? That's ludicrous when you consider a "human embryo" is just a slightly more developed blastula (a compressed ball of cells). Damn you for wanting to kill some cells and save millions of lives in exchange! Seriously people are fucking ignorant on the subject, yet they want their opinion to matter so much. Maybe if it wasn't for that fallacy called religion it wouldn't be such a problem. Sure this is generalizing the general population of criticism, but when was the last time an atheist denounced any kind of science? Feel free to educate me on this topic if you can...
The next objection is even more ludicrous and is based upon the fear that robots will overrun the human race. Critics think there will be self replicating nanobots created that can overrun the earth. Yeah, I'll be sure to look out for those 2-3 micrometer robots overrunning our planet. Shit. I have lost my faith in a portion of humanity. Stupidity on this scale, the iRobot scenario for world destruction, rivals that only of perhaps H & R Block. This TAX company fucked up when reporting its own TAXES. They understated their state income taxability by roughly $32 million. Wow.
In case you just skimmed this blog or skipped right here to the end because it looked too long then fuck you, read what I have to say. Anyway the general idea here is I'm campaigning for the extension of human life because I believe in the importance of the individual. No one deserves to die and I'm tired of all the death in our world. Sure there are some fucked up people out there, but death is never just.
How was my first blog? Was it what you
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