| And now for an important question: |
[22 Dec 2005|02:26pm] |
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What would creep you out worse, having to spend an enitre day holding hands with Christopher Walken or Dennis Hopper?
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[16 Dec 2005|08:58am] |
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Matthew Good - Avalanche |
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Na had her post about the death penalty right around the time I started thinking about this. I thought of putting it as a response to her post, but it didn't seem to fit and it was going to be too long anyhow.
Is science and our collective social conscience killing evolution?
Admittedly I'm not an authority on either subject, but everyone's entitled to an opinion and if you don't want mine, you shouldn't be nosing in my blog.
As Tami and I were getting ready for work Wednesday morning, the Life Network was on TV. On it, they had an infant plastic surgeon who specialized in separating the fingers of infants who were born with all their digits fused together. Now, on a small, personal scale it's a great thing to see happen. Here's a young couple whose lives were probably thrown for a tailspin when they saw their beautiful baby boy come out with lobster-claws for hands, now being told by the good doctor that the operation was a complete success and that apart from some minor scarring, that their son would be completely normal and functional. I'm sure it was one of the happiest days of their lives, and it made for some feel-good television at 6:30 in the morning, but it got me thinking...at what point have we started REALLY breaking the laws of nature as far as evolution goes? I'm aware of the fact that the duration of any of our existences is equivalent to half a blink in the lifetime of the world's oldest man, and that we're probably not going to see any substantial evolutionary progress in any of our lifetimes, but I couldn't help but think that if that kid was born a coyote or something and he couldn't walk that he would've a) died of exposure, b) been eaten by his parents or c) been eaten by a predator with a keen sense for an easy meal. That's where the whole collective social conscience thing really kicks in...coyotes and their ilk aren't concerned with preserving life at all costs. They're instinct driven creatures and they innately know that their best bet is to stick with genetic winners. It's harsh to refer to the kid with the fused fingers as a genetic loser, but in this context it's pretty accurate. It's completely unfair too, because he had no choice in the matter...the only way to level the playing field is to fix him to put him on par with the people who were born with everything in it's right place.
Another time this week (I can't remember if it was before or after I saw the Life Network show) I saw a commercial for some Down's Syndrome awareness society. In it, they showed a class full of kids who I imagine were 8 or 9 years old where the teacher was asking them all what they want to be when they grow up. The first few kids said the typical things, "Astronaut! Fireman! Ballerina!" and then they pan to a little girl with a mild case of Down's Syndrome who says, "I want to take pictures!" at which point the teacher offers, "Oh, a photographer?" and it cuts to voice over saying, "Down's Syndrome folks can do something with their lives too." (a very loose paraphrase, but that was the gist of it). A couple of things came to me then...that they very deliberately chose a girl who was going to be mostly functional anyhow instead of a severe case who is incapable of walking and talking (that would've completely ruined the point they were trying to make, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen)...and an old story a stoner buddy of mine from High School told me about the time that he was making fun of the kids with learning disabilities (the carpet kids from D'Arcy) and how their teacher chastised him and told him that they've grown up to be great things, only to have her later admit that the absolute best they ever churned out was a secretary. Not that I have anything against secretaries by any means, but on the totem pole of prestigious jobs, it's pretty low...and that was their absolute BEST.
Then there's that little girl who made the blog-rounds some time last month, the one born with the completely deformed skull (no eye sockets, a closed off mouth cavity that made it so that she had to be fed through a hole in her trachea, etc..) who had been treated with nearly 20 surgeries in her two years of life, who had to be given tons and tons of medication daily to sustain her life and who was going to die at an estimated age of 5 or 6 years old. I've got no real point of reference to talk from when things like this come up because I have no kids of my own, but I think I would've had to have let her die. Then again, maybe I wouldn't if I REALLY had to choose.
Animals have no issues with the runts of their litters dying because they couldn't compete with their healthier, stronger kin. The den-mothers won't go out of their way to make sure they get their fair share of milk and their gluttonous brothers and sisters only concern themselves with making sure that they got theirs. We don't have such a cut and dry system, and I can't help but wonder what the long term effects will end up being because of that, but like I said earlier...it's probably not something that we'll ever see in this lifetime,
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| Pure pain, only $225/ml. |
[01 Nov 2005|03:44pm] |
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Offspring - Not the One |
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http://hotsauce.com/detail.aspx?ID=638
For those of you who'd like to compare, my infamous 'Da Bomb' sauce was only 120,000 scoville units. 16,000,000 is pure capsaicin, which is the pain-making chemical. This stuff could destroy a man.
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[04 Oct 2005|04:54pm] |
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TOOL - Eulogy |
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Here it is, guys. It's more gruesome than most people's histories are, but then again, we're talking about Pusrot here.
( Pusrot's Story )
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[05 Jun 2005|09:21am] |
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Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc. |
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| God Wars |
[19 Apr 2005|06:59pm] |
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Open Hand - Tough Girl |
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Episode I: The Roman Menace
Episode II: Attack of the Egyptians
Episode III: Revenge of the Jews
Episode IV: A New Pope
Episode V: The Roman Empire Strikes Back
Episode VI: Return of the Messiah
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[14 Apr 2005|07:28pm] |
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Von Bondies - C'mon C'mon |
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| Awesome Friday! |
[25 Mar 2005|09:34am] |
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Gwar - War Party |
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It's come to my attention that members of a devout religious sect are shunning meat today for Good Friday...I figure, I should celebrate as well. Consider this my first annual Awesome Friday celebration, where instead of eating NO meat, I eat ONLY meat.
Remember, no meat may be a Good Friday, but ALL meat is an Awesome Friday.
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| Do I hear bells? |
[03 Mar 2005|05:58pm] |
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Wil - Mama |
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Indeed I do...wedding bells, in my future.
Tami and I got engaged on the 26th of February, much to the joy of all parties who know us.
No date's set yet (we're getting our move out of the way first), but when we do decide, you can read about it here.
That is all. :D
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| Spirit of the Proletariat |
[19 Jan 2005|05:43pm] |
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Dead Kennedys - Pull My Strings |
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Stock options were grim
The board had decided
Their profits were going down the tubes
"Trim the fat!" cried a suit
Feeling duly excited
At the prospect of canning some rubes
"Why pay two men?" he asked
"When one would suffice?
If he gave that much more for the cause..."
So the foreman was summoned
And tongue lashed to a chair
While the upper crust laid out the laws:
Thou shalt choose half thy men
To be lambs for the slaughter
Their wages dumped back in the pot
And tell those who stay
If they like it that way
That working like slaves ought to keep them a spot
And finally, foreman
Thine pay's being docked
Thy lunchbreaks examined
Thy ins and outs clocked
Be the neck to our head
Thou shalt make this bird soar
Bear thy cross with a smile
For thou shalt be abhorred.
Dismissed with a flourish
Walking stiff as a corpse
The foreman chewed over the news
Satisfied, the board waited
With breath all but bated
For the stellar financial reviews.
That night proved restless for the foreman
As red lights and mayhem danced 'round in his head
The idea of discarding his workers like trash
To line the board's pockets nigh filled him with dread
So much that his thoughts turned to poison
A fitting solution became crystal clear
In his mind's venom he rationalized
The reasons why all the board members must die.
The next morning he gathered the workers
And explained their dire straights
Through a lunatic's eyes
A silver tongued speaker
And dead set psychotic
Made the plan feasible
They KNEW they were right
Into the boardroom they trampled
The suits were then tied to their chairs
"Like lambs to the slaughter?!" the foreman erupted
"Let's see how YOU like being expendable fodder!"
With a sledge he smashed out all the windows
Of the twelfth story boardroom
The board's eyes grew wide
Their screams rang out through the industrial sector
Till the corpses below snapped the men from their lull
They locked up the factory and scavenged supplies
Preparing themselves for the longest of hauls
The police were en route
Blood-soaked hours would pass
Before the workers would be forced to leave
But the skewed sense of justice
That was born in their hearts
Allowed them to hope they'd be granted reprieve.
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| Accurate, no? |
[08 Sep 2004|08:16pm] |
Wackiness: 64/100
Rationality: 36/100
Constructiveness: 48/100
Leadership: 44/100
You are a WEDF--Wacky Emotional Destructive Follower. This makes you a Menace to Society.
Well, whether you're actually a menace depends on how you choose to channel your energies. You chew your fingers and have an addictive personality. Properly guided, you can be enormously productive--otherwise you run amok, stir up trouble, and generally have a hell of a good time.
To your friends, you are a source of relentless entertainment. You often get into trouble, but you almost always find a way out. You are strangely popular and feed off others' energy. You live hard, seize the day, and although your more sober friends would like to see you settled down, you generally have fewer regrets and better memories than they do. Your tenet is that, at the end of the day, one regrets only what one didn't try. You are right.
You could benefit from outside help in balancing your highs and lows. Or perhaps cutting back on the caffeine.
http://hokev.brinkster.net/quiz/default.asp?quiz=Better+Personality&page=1
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