Series of incoherent tangents... in D minor.

Song: "Where is my mind?" by The Pixies

Define Quality of Life. I just got the new Mercedes SL500, and I feel like my quality of life is so much better. Or... Man, I know I've been working 100 hours a week, but this new promotion will give me a quality of life that makes it all worth it. Quality of life has become nothing more than media-induced happiness. We spend long hours working jobs that we hate to buy stuff that the media says will make us happy, and then try to act how we think happy people are supposed to act. What's even worse, your salary has come to solely represent your human worth. I heard Bob just got promoted to VP. That guy will definately be a catch for some lucky woman. Parents measure pride in their youth by measuring the size of their last paycheck. Trophy wife has become a more legitimate, respected job than a single, independent high-school teacher.

But perhaps my favorite aspect of our culture is the illusion of religion. Over half of the American population is Christian. Over half. Meanwhile, we roll up to our local churches in our brand new $100,000 luxury sedan, nod in pious understanding to the weekly sermon on loving your neighbor and providing service for others, and then look the other way in discomfort as we pass the starving homeless man holding a cardboard sign that simply reads, "Help." It is not possible to be both an American and a Christian. It's a complete contradiction -- and it's perfectly obvious to everyone -- but we simply choose not to acknowledge it because that would ruin this lifestyle that we have come to love. I'm sorry to everyone who reads this for this last comment, but Christianity sickens me...

American Media

Song: "Free Nation?" by Anti-Flag

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/iraq/20040904-9999-1n4abuse.html

What constitutes a front page story? Browsing through today's Google news headlines, one can find stories monitoring the unfortunatley close presidential race, terror scares at LAX, and even two separate articles concerning ex-pres Bill Clinton's upcoming bypass surgery. And then, on page 5 of U.S. headlines (where very few people will ever find it) there is a story recalling the once-popular prisoner abuse scandal at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison. And what's this barely-worth-mentioning story about? Oh, just about how 4 Navy SEALs abused a prisoner... until he died. More specifically, Navy SEALs detained an Iraqi suspected of being involved in a Red Cross bombing and beat him until he died of a cerebral blood clot (not unlike the type of injury one could sustain from being repeatedly struck on the head with the butt of ... oh, i don't know, maybe an M-16). In all fairness, the prisoner may have been a threat to the soldiers, considering he was restrained with handcuffs and a sandbag was placed over his head. Praise the Lord that the soldiers are being charged with "beating a Iraqi detainee." We can't try them for murder; after all, it was only an Iraqi that they killed...

First and foremost, I'd like to rant on the fact that this is on page 5! What the hell? One must wonder if this is a problem with the media or if this is a problem with the general public? Have we become so ethnocentric that the brutal murder of an Iraqi detainee (keep in mind, the victim was a suspect -- without any charges brought against him) is a page five story? If Iraqi officials detained an American journalist for suspected involvement in terrorist activites, our nation would be foaming from the mouth. Oh my God, who do they think they are detaining an American without any charges or evidence? Do you think Iraqi detainees hold the same rights that us Americans take for granted -- I'm sure we would have released him within 48 hours if we couldn't charge him with anything, right? Oh wait, that's why we have the PATRIOT act and martial law -- now we can detain them indefinately. Tangent, sorry... back to the point: ethnocentricity. Now imagine that Iraq beat our detained American reporter to death. Front page -- for at least a week! Shit, we've started wars for less. *cough* Iraq *cough* Actually, if we're following recent trends, we would have started the war if we could muster up enough phantom intelligence to show that they simply had the potential to beat our reporter to death -- they wouldn't actually have to do it. *cough* Iraq *cough* The point in all this jumbled mass of frustration is that us, as Americans, are sickeningly ethnocentric, and we are taught by the media (and by our leaders) to think this way. American lives are more valuable. God Bless America (and no one else). Think about it... the entirety of our social and economic policy upon the fact that the American people are more important than anyone else. Our immigration policy: don't let them in, they may take an American job! Anyway, I would love to see the general public start thinking about this as you're watching Fox News and wearing your metaphorical stars and stripes.

"Requiem for a Dream"

Song: "Shirts and Gloves" by Dashboard Confessional

To add to a pretty much worthless day, I plopped down on the couch for a viewing of "Requiem of a Dream". Two hours later, I was ready to curl up in a ball and cry for the world. It was a very well-done and emotional film, but be prepared for some post-movie down-time. It really makes one rethink our current drug policy (medicinal, too).

Anyway, I don't feel like ranting or ruminating so I'm going to do what I do best, grab some food and ponder life... or watch TV.

Bush is a man sent by God?

Song: "Fuck Authority" by Pennywise

"George W Bush is a man sent by God to lead this nation in challenging times."

This is an actual quote by Florida Republican chair Carole Jean Jordan, stated at a meeting of the state's delegates as the Republican national convention got underway. Frustration and disappointment builds within me as I read these words. I'm so sick of hearing phrases such as "God Bless America" and "one nation under God" strewn throughout the speeches of our nation's leaders, displayed prominently on our nations currency, and chanted mechanically by youth throughout the nation every morning of every school day. For a nation which has been explicitly built upon the ideals of separation of church and state, this is completely unacceptable and inappropriate. Unfortuantely, it doesn't seem like a trend which is remotely close to shifting.

The most recent legal precedent regarding the subject was recently dismissed by the California courts. An Elk Grove father -- and atheist -- challenged that "under God" was an unconstitutional establishment of religion. How is this not an establishment of religion? Unfortunately, the courts denied his claim stating, basically, that the phrase is unoffensive and the child is not required to recite the phrase with the rest of the class. Unoffensive? Fine by me, I'm going to start performing all my actions verbally in the name of Lucifer. Hey, I have an idea: how about we start reciting the pledge of allegiance with the phrase "under Allah" instead of under God. I bet the phrase would be removed before G.W. could say "we have smote the axis of evil that has invaded our pledge."

Here's something to ponder. For those unaware, "under God" is not a legacy phrase which celebrates the origins of our nation. In fact, most of the founding fathers were atheists and deists (look it up if you don't know what it means... Christians need not apply -- if you could learn new things, you wouldn't be a Christian). The phrase "under God" was added at the height of the cold war to further illustrate our separation from those damn atheist bastards (see Soviet Union)... grrrrr. Interesting...

While I'm bitching about social policy, dare I venture into the oh-so-fabulously-popular issue of gay marriage. Why not? Does it make your marriage any weaker? Do you now feel less free to exercise your right of straight marriage? Or perhaps it contradicts your religious beliefs... oh wait, we don't care because we are the state, not your church, so shut-up and sit down. Lastly, and my personal favorite, marriage is traditionally stated to imply union between a man and a woman. Holy shit... is this even an argument? Can you imagine if we were debating the issue of slavery and somone stood up and said, "well, colored people have traditionally been freely exploited (and beaten and traded and... ) to support our agricultural economy, and abolishing slavery would contradict that tradition." Or actually, it would be more like, "Them thar negros hav bun pickin my and y'alls cotton since ours pappy's was little, and that's hows its always dun, and we'all dont wanna change it." If anyone could offer a reasonable explaination of why homosexual couples should be denied the basic rights afforded to a straight couple, could you please enlighten my feeble little mind. I'm out...

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff

Song: "Timberwolves of New Jersey" by Taking Back Sunday

So I spent a large part of my day finishing a book I've been reading - "Lamb" by Christopher Moore. Absolutely hilarious... I'd recommend it to anyone; although, it helps a bit to have a fairly solid knowledge of Christian mythology (yes, it's mythology... but ANYWAY). It's basically a very fictional account of the life of Jesus told from the perspective of his hilariously obnoxious and lude best friend, Biff. I'm going to have to cut this account a tid-bit short though because I'm teaching the SO how to use blogger. I'll need to elaborate later...