Pearl Jam's new album "Riot Act" comes out the 12th of November. I still need the new Counting Crows album, "Hard Candy", and I still have yet to buy "The Eminem Show." This is not good, I'm falling behind here.
Sunday, September 22, 2002
Thursday, September 12, 2002
Wednesday, September 11, 2002
I'm really not trying to provoke a fight but....
When you "Americanize" Adolf, much like when you "Americanize" Diether, (Which is Dether with an Umlaut over the e) the spelling changes. So I spelled Adolf, "Adolph." Or maybe I'm talking out my ass. The Diether thing is true. Maybe it's the difference between John and Jon. But is spelling an argument you want to get into with me? If so, "necisarily" is really "necessarily," jerky. :)
Two, I left the "links" which aren't even links at all but more of a quasi-bibliographic "I-Took-The-Quote-From-Here" thing like that purposefully.
It's all love though, Nopa.
When you "Americanize" Adolf, much like when you "Americanize" Diether, (Which is Dether with an Umlaut over the e) the spelling changes. So I spelled Adolf, "Adolph." Or maybe I'm talking out my ass. The Diether thing is true. Maybe it's the difference between John and Jon. But is spelling an argument you want to get into with me? If so, "necisarily" is really "necessarily," jerky. :)
Two, I left the "links" which aren't even links at all but more of a quasi-bibliographic "I-Took-The-Quote-From-Here" thing like that purposefully.
It's all love though, Nopa.
Monday, September 09, 2002
It's almost September 11th.
What do you think of when you think of an American? Just an American. Who is the stereotypical American?
There are two types of Americans. Two types of people. Those who feed, and those who are fed. America has become in all aspects truly Orwellian.
It's almost 1984.
Those who are fed. Babies. The babies of this country grasp onto popular belief and run with it, because they do not have the cognitive capacity to think on their own let alone create their own opinions. They hear all about the new scandal and run with it for reasons they can't explain, because they cannot come up with the fact that they were fed their opinion. They don't realize the reason they vote one way four years ago is hypocritical and contradicts the way they vote this year. For example....
"Tom Daschle wants President Bush's job more than he cares about securing this country from evil... " --Rush Limbaugh.
And people think, "Ok, so this Tom Daschle guy sucks!" And they jump on the band wagon and attack him. But they were the first ones to applaud Ken Starr during the Clinton administration while the USS Cole and United States Embassies were attacked by Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, because that Clinton guy was sleazy. Those who feed come up with their own conclusions. If it's wrong for Starr to hold Clinton back, then it's wrong for Daschle to hold Bush back, except for a little "what goes around comes around" action (that's just my own little snide opinion.) See that? Logic. Sense. Reason. Whats good for one, is good for the other. My beliefs do not contradict each other. Why? Because they are my beliefs. They were not given to me by someone trying to sell radio time.
This isn't just an attack on Rush Limbaugh. I hate the guy, but he's a means to an end. My point is this. There are 270 million sheep living in this country. All of us being led around by popular belief and majority rules.
Did you know why Viet Cong soldiers hated us so much? Because Americans were evil. We would kill their children and eat them while we raped their wives. Is that true? No, that's propaganda. That's something you say to make soldiers feel a little better about killing us. So let me ask you this. Being that we all saw the World Trade Center fall, and the Pentagon hit, being that we found someone to take it out on in Afghanistan... if we were over there fighting away, and getting our asses kicked day in and day out, do you really think they'd tell us? When we took the capital of Afghanistan and kicked out the Taliban, reports came back that these soldiers who flew a suicide mission into our buildings, and were not afraid to die, actually shaved their beards, dressed like women and left in the middle of the night because they were so afraid of us. America rejoices. We're all like, "Yeah, look at you pussies run now!! We're Americans and were coming to kick your asses!!" It made a lot of people feel really good. But should you believe it's true? Think of if the newspapers reported generals coming out of the fight saying, "Look, I know all you Americans are thirsty for blood after what they did to us, but seriously, y'all, we're getting our asses kicked out there. They got all these caves and everything, and it's really hard to find them... plus it's so goddamn hot. And y'all gotta figure they're about twelve time zones ahead of us, it's like fighting in the middle of the night, we're all jet-laged. Basically, I think it's pretty hopeless." American's wouldn't stand for that. So if we kill twenty of their soldiers, we can always say fifty. Who'll know, it's just a little white lie. If they kill twenty of our guys, we can say it was one. And we can interrupt daily programming so it looks like a really big deal that we lost one guy. And now that we have a Bush in office again, we are of course going to attack Saddham Hussein. Why? What has he done against us lately? But America is hungry for war, hungry for payback, so how do we get them to direct some of that anger towards Iraq? Let's get them to associate Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden with Iraq, let's call them both "The Axis of Evil!!"
The Axis of Evil?? Come on! It sounds like something out of an old He-Man episode or a Marvel Comic book. Can we get any more propaganda? How about we make it so bin Laden and Hussein also were secretly behind both the sinking of the Titanic, and the attack on Pearl Harbor. With the help of the Axis of Evil's mad scientist, Dr. Hubenhabber, a man who experimented on Jews in the Holocaust, and used his inviso-belt to stay hidden for so long, they created a time machine and travelled back to assasinate Lincoln and Kennedy before framing someone else. They would have got Reagan too, if it weren't for Captain Bush and the Republican Squad who foiled their evil plans by building their own time machine, constructed by Einstein and Christopher Lloyd, and doing battle in the 80's. Unfortunately the Evil Wonder Twins escaped to 1939 where they pursuaded Adolph Hitler to join their Evil team. Along the way back to the future, they picked up Napolean, Gangis Khan, Judas, Stalin, and they resuced Charles Manson, the Unibomber, The Son of Sam, Jack the Ripper, and Hannibal Lecter before they were ever caught. Even though Hannibal Lecter is a fictional character, I doubt the "babies," (or, not to pick on Rush again, but "Dittoheads") who buy all this crap will even notice. So then they all go back to Afghanistan and start up a massive Nazi, suicide bomber, backstabbing, barbaric, psychotic, cannabalistic army that is made up of absolutely everyone in the entire middle east. So now when we nuke that whole section of the world, it will be justified in America's eyes. Oh and by the way, if you want oil anymore, you have to talk to Dubya.
I'd like to be mad at the government. I'd like to say, "Hey, don't treat us like idiots, just level with us. We are smart, we can take it." But as I look at some of the people I see everyday, I'm not sure I can. Too many people are addicted to "American Idol" and Voyeur TV, too many people are too busy listening to N*Sync, and are too concerned that Lance isn't going to be able to go into space, too many people are too busy buying shoes and getting the latest gossip on pop stars they have no personal connection to whatsoever, too many people are too busy surfing the net, buying Big Macs, playing Everquest, that they don't have time to think for themselves. Ignorance is bliss. That's fine. Be ignorant. But at least admit you're ignorant. I'll be the first to tell you I have no idea what is going on with the Irish Revolution, with the fighting and the IRA. So therefore I should also be the last to try to give you my bullshit opinion over who is right and who is wrong. Unfortunately, a lot of Americans don't see it that way. I remember after the published report on the Clinton Lewinsky thing came out (Which is appropriately called the Starr Report, but I refuse to call it that, simply because the only real reason it came out was so that people would forever remember that asshole Ken Starr.) I remember asking a girl online what she thought of the whole thing. She thought Clinton should be booted from office and put in jail. When I asked why, she said, "Because that was gross!" I'm sorry, I must've missed the memo. Is "Gross" now a federal offense? What is the maximum sentence for "Gross?" I can see it now.
"What are you in for, Bruno?"
"Murder one... you?"
"Grand Theft Auto, how about you, Simon?"
"I farted on an elevator."
And these are the people who form popular opinion. And once popular opinion begins, its a snowball effect. The more people who do believe, the more people who will believe. 50,000 Elvis fans can't be wrong... oh wait, yes they can.
By the way, here's a lovely bit of misinformation praying on the ignorant to lobby a further attack on someone who doesn't deserve it. I took a break from writing this to walk around on the internet for a bit when I found it on of all places RushLimbaugh.com. He's talking about an absurd (and I'll agree with him) shot of political correctness when a high school teacher used the word "niggardly" which in all actuality has nothing to do with race, but instead being a rich snob, miserly, uncaring of those around them. For example, "Those who think for themselves believe Rush Limbaugh to be quite niggardly." He goes on to say this, again, misinformation.
"If this is the standard, why are guys like Eminem walking around free when they use the real word – not just a totally unrelated word that sounds like it?" (Internet Quote by Rush Limbaugh taken from here.)
Go here and find a song anywhere where Eminem uses the dreaded N-word. Good luck.
See, and that's just a pet peeve of mine. I hate it when people attack Eminem, because most of them are just completely ignorant, as Rush is in this statement. But people read it. People believe it. People think to themselves, "Why does Em get to spout of the N-Word in ALL of his songs?" and then they go start a protest. If people would actually think for themselves, do a little research and figure out things on their own instead of listening to someone else for all they know, this wouldn't be an issue. And people, that took me all of two minutes to find. Imagine how much you believe that you were fed. Can you think of anything? At this point it's almost indistingushible, isn't it. There is of course the idea of religion. That was fed to you. Why do you believe in God? Because you were told to. Why did you believe your religion was right and others were wrong? Because you were told to. Why do you believe the english were evil when we revloted against them? Why do you believe that they were completely unjustified in taxing us? Because you were taught that.
To me when people fight wars, they both believe they were justified. So you ask why the english believed they were justified, and thats when you learn about the Seven Years War, and the American land expansion. Wait a minute, these things are breezed over in American history books, if they're even taught at all. Why? Because it makes the British look a whole hell of a lot more justified in taxing us, and suddenly the American Revolution is not about bravery, but about a bunch of guys who couldn't choose between the best of A and the best of B and opted to try to have both. And when it didn't work out, we wrote a letter of resignation and started our own club. But why weren't you taught that? It all goes back to propaganda.
In Orwell's "1984," there are three countries. They are always at war, it's always two against one, and somehow, at all times, every country tells their people that they are winning. Morale is always up, every country is filled with a population of proud people. However, in the reality of the situation, not every side could be simultaneously winning, but it doesn't really even matter, because in the reality of the situation, they aren't even at war. But like I said earlier, ignorance is bliss. I'm not out here shouting conspiracy theories to the heavens, I don't really have to. It doesn't take a conspiracy to fool Americans. Those who are fed believe what they want to believe, and nothing short of the hand of God is going to stop them. Not facts, not proof, not eyewitness testimony, not 26,999,999 other people telling them they are wrong. If Rush, or Adolph, or Stalin, or Howard Stern, or Oprah, or Ricki Lake, or Charleton Heston, or Dr. Phil say it's right, then it might as well be carved in stone.
Well I for one, choose to think for myself. I am not a slave to popular opinion. I like Britney Spears, I like Avril Lavigne, I hate kegger parties, I thought American Beauty and a Beautiful Mind we're stupid movies, I laughed twice when I heard Robin Williams at the Met, I have my own ideas of God that are far from most everyone I've met. Do those opinions make me unpopular? Yes. Do I care? No. Because those opinions also make me who I am. I am not Rush Limbaugh, I am not Howard Stern, I am not Charleton Heston, I am not Rosie O' Donnell. I am me. Just me. I am one speck of dust in the grand scheme of things, and yet I'm the only me in the entire universe. I don't need your scandals to have something to talk about. I don't need your reality TV to make conversation. I don't need to keep up with all the hype and all the bullshit to make myself feel more informed. If that makes me different than you, then I am happy to be the freak.
Just think for yourselves, it's amazing. You know how you second guess yourself briefly when you doubt something Oprah says? "Don't eat red meat? But I like red meat. Oh well... Oprah said so, I guess it's tofu from now on." That's gone. Now when Oprah says don't eat red meat, you just say, "Screw you, hippie." and change the channel. Believe me, it's very liberating. But as long as you buy into everything you're sold, it's never going to get any better.
And please, read "1984" by George Orwell. It wasn't a requirement for me, it was just something I picked up. I highly recommend it.
And though I have issues with this man because of basically everything I just talked about, and no one but Jackie and I thought Socratic Method out...
"The unexamined life is not worth living." --Socrates.
Goodnight everybody.
-Joseph
What do you think of when you think of an American? Just an American. Who is the stereotypical American?
There are two types of Americans. Two types of people. Those who feed, and those who are fed. America has become in all aspects truly Orwellian.
It's almost 1984.
Those who are fed. Babies. The babies of this country grasp onto popular belief and run with it, because they do not have the cognitive capacity to think on their own let alone create their own opinions. They hear all about the new scandal and run with it for reasons they can't explain, because they cannot come up with the fact that they were fed their opinion. They don't realize the reason they vote one way four years ago is hypocritical and contradicts the way they vote this year. For example....
"Tom Daschle wants President Bush's job more than he cares about securing this country from evil... " --Rush Limbaugh.
And people think, "Ok, so this Tom Daschle guy sucks!" And they jump on the band wagon and attack him. But they were the first ones to applaud Ken Starr during the Clinton administration while the USS Cole and United States Embassies were attacked by Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, because that Clinton guy was sleazy. Those who feed come up with their own conclusions. If it's wrong for Starr to hold Clinton back, then it's wrong for Daschle to hold Bush back, except for a little "what goes around comes around" action (that's just my own little snide opinion.) See that? Logic. Sense. Reason. Whats good for one, is good for the other. My beliefs do not contradict each other. Why? Because they are my beliefs. They were not given to me by someone trying to sell radio time.
This isn't just an attack on Rush Limbaugh. I hate the guy, but he's a means to an end. My point is this. There are 270 million sheep living in this country. All of us being led around by popular belief and majority rules.
Did you know why Viet Cong soldiers hated us so much? Because Americans were evil. We would kill their children and eat them while we raped their wives. Is that true? No, that's propaganda. That's something you say to make soldiers feel a little better about killing us. So let me ask you this. Being that we all saw the World Trade Center fall, and the Pentagon hit, being that we found someone to take it out on in Afghanistan... if we were over there fighting away, and getting our asses kicked day in and day out, do you really think they'd tell us? When we took the capital of Afghanistan and kicked out the Taliban, reports came back that these soldiers who flew a suicide mission into our buildings, and were not afraid to die, actually shaved their beards, dressed like women and left in the middle of the night because they were so afraid of us. America rejoices. We're all like, "Yeah, look at you pussies run now!! We're Americans and were coming to kick your asses!!" It made a lot of people feel really good. But should you believe it's true? Think of if the newspapers reported generals coming out of the fight saying, "Look, I know all you Americans are thirsty for blood after what they did to us, but seriously, y'all, we're getting our asses kicked out there. They got all these caves and everything, and it's really hard to find them... plus it's so goddamn hot. And y'all gotta figure they're about twelve time zones ahead of us, it's like fighting in the middle of the night, we're all jet-laged. Basically, I think it's pretty hopeless." American's wouldn't stand for that. So if we kill twenty of their soldiers, we can always say fifty. Who'll know, it's just a little white lie. If they kill twenty of our guys, we can say it was one. And we can interrupt daily programming so it looks like a really big deal that we lost one guy. And now that we have a Bush in office again, we are of course going to attack Saddham Hussein. Why? What has he done against us lately? But America is hungry for war, hungry for payback, so how do we get them to direct some of that anger towards Iraq? Let's get them to associate Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden with Iraq, let's call them both "The Axis of Evil!!"
The Axis of Evil?? Come on! It sounds like something out of an old He-Man episode or a Marvel Comic book. Can we get any more propaganda? How about we make it so bin Laden and Hussein also were secretly behind both the sinking of the Titanic, and the attack on Pearl Harbor. With the help of the Axis of Evil's mad scientist, Dr. Hubenhabber, a man who experimented on Jews in the Holocaust, and used his inviso-belt to stay hidden for so long, they created a time machine and travelled back to assasinate Lincoln and Kennedy before framing someone else. They would have got Reagan too, if it weren't for Captain Bush and the Republican Squad who foiled their evil plans by building their own time machine, constructed by Einstein and Christopher Lloyd, and doing battle in the 80's. Unfortunately the Evil Wonder Twins escaped to 1939 where they pursuaded Adolph Hitler to join their Evil team. Along the way back to the future, they picked up Napolean, Gangis Khan, Judas, Stalin, and they resuced Charles Manson, the Unibomber, The Son of Sam, Jack the Ripper, and Hannibal Lecter before they were ever caught. Even though Hannibal Lecter is a fictional character, I doubt the "babies," (or, not to pick on Rush again, but "Dittoheads") who buy all this crap will even notice. So then they all go back to Afghanistan and start up a massive Nazi, suicide bomber, backstabbing, barbaric, psychotic, cannabalistic army that is made up of absolutely everyone in the entire middle east. So now when we nuke that whole section of the world, it will be justified in America's eyes. Oh and by the way, if you want oil anymore, you have to talk to Dubya.
I'd like to be mad at the government. I'd like to say, "Hey, don't treat us like idiots, just level with us. We are smart, we can take it." But as I look at some of the people I see everyday, I'm not sure I can. Too many people are addicted to "American Idol" and Voyeur TV, too many people are too busy listening to N*Sync, and are too concerned that Lance isn't going to be able to go into space, too many people are too busy buying shoes and getting the latest gossip on pop stars they have no personal connection to whatsoever, too many people are too busy surfing the net, buying Big Macs, playing Everquest, that they don't have time to think for themselves. Ignorance is bliss. That's fine. Be ignorant. But at least admit you're ignorant. I'll be the first to tell you I have no idea what is going on with the Irish Revolution, with the fighting and the IRA. So therefore I should also be the last to try to give you my bullshit opinion over who is right and who is wrong. Unfortunately, a lot of Americans don't see it that way. I remember after the published report on the Clinton Lewinsky thing came out (Which is appropriately called the Starr Report, but I refuse to call it that, simply because the only real reason it came out was so that people would forever remember that asshole Ken Starr.) I remember asking a girl online what she thought of the whole thing. She thought Clinton should be booted from office and put in jail. When I asked why, she said, "Because that was gross!" I'm sorry, I must've missed the memo. Is "Gross" now a federal offense? What is the maximum sentence for "Gross?" I can see it now.
"What are you in for, Bruno?"
"Murder one... you?"
"Grand Theft Auto, how about you, Simon?"
"I farted on an elevator."
And these are the people who form popular opinion. And once popular opinion begins, its a snowball effect. The more people who do believe, the more people who will believe. 50,000 Elvis fans can't be wrong... oh wait, yes they can.
By the way, here's a lovely bit of misinformation praying on the ignorant to lobby a further attack on someone who doesn't deserve it. I took a break from writing this to walk around on the internet for a bit when I found it on of all places RushLimbaugh.com. He's talking about an absurd (and I'll agree with him) shot of political correctness when a high school teacher used the word "niggardly" which in all actuality has nothing to do with race, but instead being a rich snob, miserly, uncaring of those around them. For example, "Those who think for themselves believe Rush Limbaugh to be quite niggardly." He goes on to say this, again, misinformation.
"If this is the standard, why are guys like Eminem walking around free when they use the real word – not just a totally unrelated word that sounds like it?" (Internet Quote by Rush Limbaugh taken from here.)
Go here and find a song anywhere where Eminem uses the dreaded N-word. Good luck.
See, and that's just a pet peeve of mine. I hate it when people attack Eminem, because most of them are just completely ignorant, as Rush is in this statement. But people read it. People believe it. People think to themselves, "Why does Em get to spout of the N-Word in ALL of his songs?" and then they go start a protest. If people would actually think for themselves, do a little research and figure out things on their own instead of listening to someone else for all they know, this wouldn't be an issue. And people, that took me all of two minutes to find. Imagine how much you believe that you were fed. Can you think of anything? At this point it's almost indistingushible, isn't it. There is of course the idea of religion. That was fed to you. Why do you believe in God? Because you were told to. Why did you believe your religion was right and others were wrong? Because you were told to. Why do you believe the english were evil when we revloted against them? Why do you believe that they were completely unjustified in taxing us? Because you were taught that.
To me when people fight wars, they both believe they were justified. So you ask why the english believed they were justified, and thats when you learn about the Seven Years War, and the American land expansion. Wait a minute, these things are breezed over in American history books, if they're even taught at all. Why? Because it makes the British look a whole hell of a lot more justified in taxing us, and suddenly the American Revolution is not about bravery, but about a bunch of guys who couldn't choose between the best of A and the best of B and opted to try to have both. And when it didn't work out, we wrote a letter of resignation and started our own club. But why weren't you taught that? It all goes back to propaganda.
In Orwell's "1984," there are three countries. They are always at war, it's always two against one, and somehow, at all times, every country tells their people that they are winning. Morale is always up, every country is filled with a population of proud people. However, in the reality of the situation, not every side could be simultaneously winning, but it doesn't really even matter, because in the reality of the situation, they aren't even at war. But like I said earlier, ignorance is bliss. I'm not out here shouting conspiracy theories to the heavens, I don't really have to. It doesn't take a conspiracy to fool Americans. Those who are fed believe what they want to believe, and nothing short of the hand of God is going to stop them. Not facts, not proof, not eyewitness testimony, not 26,999,999 other people telling them they are wrong. If Rush, or Adolph, or Stalin, or Howard Stern, or Oprah, or Ricki Lake, or Charleton Heston, or Dr. Phil say it's right, then it might as well be carved in stone.
Well I for one, choose to think for myself. I am not a slave to popular opinion. I like Britney Spears, I like Avril Lavigne, I hate kegger parties, I thought American Beauty and a Beautiful Mind we're stupid movies, I laughed twice when I heard Robin Williams at the Met, I have my own ideas of God that are far from most everyone I've met. Do those opinions make me unpopular? Yes. Do I care? No. Because those opinions also make me who I am. I am not Rush Limbaugh, I am not Howard Stern, I am not Charleton Heston, I am not Rosie O' Donnell. I am me. Just me. I am one speck of dust in the grand scheme of things, and yet I'm the only me in the entire universe. I don't need your scandals to have something to talk about. I don't need your reality TV to make conversation. I don't need to keep up with all the hype and all the bullshit to make myself feel more informed. If that makes me different than you, then I am happy to be the freak.
Just think for yourselves, it's amazing. You know how you second guess yourself briefly when you doubt something Oprah says? "Don't eat red meat? But I like red meat. Oh well... Oprah said so, I guess it's tofu from now on." That's gone. Now when Oprah says don't eat red meat, you just say, "Screw you, hippie." and change the channel. Believe me, it's very liberating. But as long as you buy into everything you're sold, it's never going to get any better.
And please, read "1984" by George Orwell. It wasn't a requirement for me, it was just something I picked up. I highly recommend it.
And though I have issues with this man because of basically everything I just talked about, and no one but Jackie and I thought Socratic Method out...
"The unexamined life is not worth living." --Socrates.
Goodnight everybody.
-Joseph
