Thursday, December 21, 2006

"Affirmative Action" or "The road to hell is paved with good intentions."


So I was just listening to NPR during lunch, and there was a report that the NAACP and ACLU were petitioning the (Michigan?) supreme court to allow affirmative action to be allowed in Michigan Colleges and University admissions.
I say that is BULLSHIT, and for many reasons.

1. Prop2 was Passed by a majority vote by Michigan voters.
2. There is a REASON we vote. Just because you may not like an amendment that passes doesn't mean you can force the laws how you like by using the courts. If the courts can overturn any voting outcome that someone dosen't like, then that'll mean that votes truly have no meaning. That anyone pushy enough to meddle with the laws via courts could alter the books to their liking.
3. The ACLU shouldn't even be against Prop2, since preferential treatment based on someone's race, NOT A CIVIL LIBERTY.
4. One of the arguments of the ACLU rep who was interviewed for the report was that students in educational institutions will gain from an (unnaturally) diverse student enrollment, which will result in better test scores.
BULLSHIT.

I graduated from a Michigan public university, and I'll testify right now that how well I did and how well I understood the material depended SOLELY on how much I applied myself and studied, and had NOTHING to do with diversity.
(FYI, I was in the minority as a showering social male in the Computer Science curriculum. The majority of other CS student's were unkempt, smelly guys or Asian/Indian, or a combination thereof.)

The race of the other students have NO bearing on how well I understood the material, or how well I did on tests & quizzes.
People have shown TIME and TIME AGAIN that how well someone can do in school does NOT depend on their RACE, so why (in the hell) would SOMEONE ELSE'S race effect how well someone does?!
It dosen't.

Having a diverse classroom isn't going to make it any easier for "little Johnny" to learn calculus. And even if Affirmative Action DID cause test scores to rise due to diversity, that alone should be a reason for the ACLU to oppose it. No one should be happy they are 'given a free ride' because of who else was in their class, or who they sat next to. That would mean that each student's scores and grades were artificially inflated by the 'diversity' of the classroom or student populous. Would you feel confident going into the workplace knowing that the only reason you may have passed was because of how many minority students were attending when you were enrolled?
Besides that, some majors are just naturally biased. Statistically speaking, males are MUCH more likely to enroll in Computer Science courses than females. So naturally, the majority of CS students are going to be male. Should the ACLU force CS departments to have a 50% female enrollment? Unfortunately there aren't an unlimited number of seats that are available so if the ACLU were to force departments to wait for enough females to enroll for a full count, then there would be huge number of male students that would be turned away.

It's possible that having a diverse student body would decrease the likelihood that bigoted or prejudicial ideas would be voiced on campus, but it DEFINITELY dosen't help student's learn.

The big problem I have with affirmative action is that it DOES give preferential treatment to minorities. It EXPLICITLY does this. Which is biased, and steps all over non-minorities' civil liberties. This means that the majority of the time, Affirmative Action is DOING exactly what it was put there to prevent. Prejudicial preferential treatment.

In Closing, I'll recap:
ALL DISCRIMINATION based on race, religion, gender etc is MORALLY WRONG.
Affirmative Action (aka "positive discrimination") is MORALLY WRONG.
The NAACP ("National Association for the Advancement of Colored People") is a PRO-prejudicial & PRO-discriminatory organization.

and finally...

How well students do in college depends on how much THAT student applies himself/herself, and had NOTHING to to with whoever else is enrolled at the time (let alone their race).

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Grrr! *Pisses on NAACP and the ACLU's pushy, meddling, prejudicial rep's shoes.*

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Rut Roh!

In keeping with the title of this blog,
I submit for your entertainment/pity...

One__________Sad__________Pup




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Whimper... :'-( *Ear droops*

Monday, December 04, 2006

A VERY Cynical Post


(One) Definition for the "Cynic":

  • someone who is critical of the motives of others.




I was reminded of this while I got lunch today.
TB was nice enough to not print their "survey" on the back of the receipt. Instead they made the extra effort to print it on a separate piece of paper, and include it stealthily all ninja-like in with my napkins, either as a "SURPRISE! You could be this week's winner to be awarded $1000,... from this uber-cheap-ass fast food establishment, where it'll take a year for our employees to save up $3000 themselves, just for visiting this website or call (888) 731-9645 and take a survey, for which we either explicitly tell you the survey is anonymous or hope you don't notice you aren't given any form of receipt or ref number to claim any prize (and hence hope you don't realize that even IF we WERE to give away ANY money, we'd have no way of locating, let alone determine the identity of the winner). Enjoy your taco!",...

*letting all that sink in for a moment...*

... OR as a nice "Hope you enjoyed the taco, here's a surprise paper-cut while you dab the grease from your mouth."

Maybe it's just the cynic in me talking, but something tells me that no REAL person ever was awarded that prize.

If your bored, you can see this BS for yourself.
If you don't know of a valid TB store number, use 001738.
It's the one for Novi, MI on Grand River.

Fill the survey with whatever info you want (it doesn't matter anyways) and you'll note that at the end of the survey no contact information is collected, nor is a survey reference number given for you to tell if you were a winner.
Additionally, in the Official Sweepstakes Rules, under the Winner Selection section, they state "No one will know who the winner is until after the weekly random selection."
I think by " until after the weekly random selection." they actually mean "". (nothing)
Also, the WayBackMachine's archive of the winner's page is quite interesting.
Apparently Yum decided somewhere down the line that the winner's full last name was WAY too much information to be posting.
Also it seems that Yum decided it had the wrong date logged for all of these "winners", since most of the dates posted change from archive to archive.


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Whimper! *Sits patiently at door, waiting to go outside.*



toothpaste for dinner
toothpastefordinner.com

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Wait'in on '08...but voting not(R) in the meantime.


WTF.
Mirroring my previous post's title, Bush's ignorance must be absolute bliss for him, since it's agony for the rest of us. This story about Bush & Kerry annoyed me to no end. Bush is a f'in idiot.





Reading Kerry's comments to the college students, I totally understood his 'botched joke' being target at BUSH, and bush alone. I didn't see it as a comment about the soldiers at all. Bush though, in his infinite idiocy, WOULD be likely to misinterpret his words, and twist it to be a bash against the soldiers.
Personally I don't believe Kerry has anyone to apologize to, but should probably do some damage control and explain that it was intended towards Bush, and not the people in the military.
Bush on the other hand was the one who turned Kerry's joke into soldier-bashing political propaganda.
I think Bush should apologize for voicing remarks on a joke he obviously misinterpreted, and for any suffering he may have caused by his misinterpretation of a joke. The president, with the public spotlight so much on him, should know better than to try to explain the meaning in someone else's speech.
I mean, if he can't correctly interpret clear concise debate questions, then why the hell is does he think he'll be able to correctly interpret secondhand reports of a botched joke.

If ANYTHING good came of Dubya's idiocy in this issue, it was it lit a fire under me to vote anything BUT republican in this mid-term election. I was going to skip this election and not vote (especially since I just moved and would have to deal with driving back to my old town to vote since my registration won't transfer over until AFTER the election), but the Republicans obviously can't control their own party members from making retarded comments, plans, decisions so they NEED to lose control of Congress.

That being said, why can't we get rid of the partisan bullshit that seems prevalent in elections? The world IS NOT black and white, so why do people think politics should just be red and blue? Congressional Reps should make their vote decisions based upon their state’s general consensus on the ISSUE, not what "their party's" stance on the issue is. A state may have elected a republican, or democrat, but that doesn’t mean EVERY decision on EVERY issue will reflect that party’s statnce. Congressmen who vote on important issues, basing their vote ONLY on the party stance, and not the views of their representative state, should be kicked out of their position, since they obviously aren't doing their job (which is to represent the state’s views in which they were elected).

(FYI... I don't support the war, but DO support the troops. But I DEFINITELY don't support the idiot in the white house.)



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Yarf! *Chews on rawhide*

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Ignorance MUST be bliss.


Maybe it's the cynic in me, but I'm not really surprised that there are people that are still THIS STUPID in the world.





Now I'll admit right now that I'm no medical professional.
I DO know people who ARE professionals in one medical field or another.
In fact I have a couple of friends who are full-blown, all-out doctors.
But even without all the medical knowledge, I know enough to know that this sort of procedure has LITTLE to NO medical benefits, and is outright STUPID to be performed or even CONSIDERED as it is in the above (linked) WEBPAGE.

On first glance at the URL, I thought, ok cool. A "Biomedical Engineering Magazine" article. Then I realised it was actually "Body Modification 'Ezine'".
First off, lets get the petty out of the way. It's a WEBPAGE, don't try to be f'in trendy and coin a new phrase "Ezine". Just admit what it actually is, a website. WIRED is a legit magazine, and they have a webpage with most of their mag's content posted, but they aren't so delusional as to try to pass their website off as a Web-Zine, let alone lemming along with all the trendy "alphabeters" ('I'-POD, 'E'-mail, 'X'-treme tortilla chips etc) and call it a "EZine".
... :-8

That aside, and after reading the article, it's exasperating to know that people STILL practice trepanning. WTF.
Aside that these people think it's safe, and safe to let a unlicensed NON-medical NON-professional layman perform this type of medical procedure (using 'procedure' loosely).
And these people think that this is going to "permanently increase one's consciousness". ... yeah... the only way this is increasing ANYONE's consciousness is by the sudden consciousness to what they just did. ...When the person realizes "why the fuck did I let this guy DRILL A HOLE, into my skull!?!"
I mean one small slip and it's a free lobotomy procedure in addition to the trepanning.

Ignorance MUST be bliss for these people.
I mean the guy even outright SAYS that the guy who performed it was NOT a medical professional.
And anyone with half a brain would have noticed the red-flags being thrown up by the guy. At least it would throw up some for me, noticing that the guy's friend put up tarps up EVERYWHERE to protect the room from bio-splatter, but the 'patient' just got a glorified shower-cap, face mask, and a piece of paper to cover his dirty t-shirt.
Nice.
Then again, maybe that was part of the 'patient's goal... To become 'one of those smart people with HALF A BRAIN' so that he can stop himself from doing such stupid shit in the future.

Lets see if I (with my total lack of medical study) can make my own list of risks of this insanity.
Risk of:

  • Infection (patient)
  • Infection (person performing it & those witnessing it)
  • Meningitis
  • Brain hemorrhaging
  • Future fear of any and all pencil-like objects
  • Brain damage / Accidental lobotomy
  • Blood clots
  • Increase risk of stroke
  • Scalpel/facial nerve damage
  • Epilepsy
  • Death
  • Risk of death post-procedure from mere bump to 'spot'
  • Lawsuit (from the 'patient's friends and/or family
  • State AND Federal prosecution (for MANY offenses, including performing a medical procedure without a license)

At least the guy admits after the fact that the benefits were not worth the risks.
(So who knows, maybe the guy now has half a brain after all. :-\ )

Don't get me wrong, people have the right to do to their own body what they please. You can pierce, implant, color, enlarge, tattoo, split, cut, slice, remove, lengthen, enhance, or modify till your heart's content, but you won't catch THIS sad pup letting ANYONE near me to perform a procedure that at one point in time could be performed by professional like Roy Underhill or Norm Abram.


Articles:
?! *Tilts head*

Monday, September 18, 2006

Seriously

Seriously, WTF is wrong with people today? Some Evangelical Christians are just plain stupid.
They're trying to censor parts of a private exhibit on evolution saying they don't want young African Christians from being taught falsehoods.
What one-sided bigoted idiots.


Who are they to say what OTHER PEOPLE'S children are taught?
Exactly who do they think they are? If they get their way, I say a petition should be put together to censor Sunday school classes so young scientists, and/or any youth who want to grow up with a mind of their own, or the ability to think for themselves won't be taught "falsehoods".

So here's a note to all the 'fundies' out there;
Contrary to what you may have been taught, other people CAN think for themselves.
You're no better/wiser than ANYONE else.
Everyone had the right to raise their own children with the morals and beliefs that they deem appropriate.
So stop trying to impose your religious beliefs on others.
There are DOZENS of religions in the world, and the worst atrocities committed throughout history were nearly all done to impose religious beliefs on others.
Seriously people! Stop trying to meddle in other people's lives!
Go worship your (allegedly ascended) human idol or whatnot. Teach your OWN kids what ever you want.
But f'in STOP being so righteous about trying to change aspects of other people's lives!
F'in GET YOUR OWN LIFE! Stop trying to change everyone else’s.

On that note,
Dance monkeys, dance. (Mirror)


Articles:Grr! *Poops in a habit*

Thursday, March 09, 2006

Libertarian. Yep that's me.

The more and more I read about Libertarianism, or the Libertarian political party, the more I find myself agreeing with the party's views, and the views of the DFC.

[From Wikipedia]
"A libertarian is a person who believes in the Non-Coercion Principle and libertarian goals"

I do believe, that I would consider myself a Libertarian.
(Or at least a democratic Libertarian.)






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Yarf! *Chews on rawhide*

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Penn & Teller

Penn & Teller are two famous comedians/magicians. I have TONS of respect for them now that I've seen a few of their "Bullshit!" Showtime Episodes.
Penn & Teller have brought back a bit of my faith in celebrities having common sense.



Who is my NUMBER ONE annoyance, and pretty much ruined my faith in celebs having any common sense? Who do I credit for me losing pretty much any respect for anything celebrities say?
Not Paris Hilton.
Not even Mis 'is tuna fish,..or chicken?' Jessica Simpson.
Nope, it's the flaming scientologist loony Tom Cruise.
Just listening to him now a days, he sounds like a textbook brainwashing case for scientology.
But that's a subject for another post all together.

Penn & Teller.
Mindful, intelligent guys who make VERY good points on their show "Bullshit!".
Here's an episode for ya, (Brought to you from our good friends at Google Video).
Enjoy!



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Yarf! *Chews on rawhide*

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

SHHHHH! It's a SECRET!

Ok.
Here's something that kinda annoys me...
Why do people insist on calling passwords: "SECRET passwords"


Like seriously...who has a password that ISN'T secret.
That's the point of passwords...to be SECRET.

Also, why do people say "DNS server" when DNS is an acronym for
Domain Name Server. It's like saying Domain Name Server server.

I guess the same could be said for "SCUBA gear". You really only have to say: "I'm putting on my SCUBA, not SCUBA gear.
"Put on your Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Aparatus gear."
It all just sounds funny because it's redundant.
*sigh*

Yet another phrase from the offices of
The office of redundant offices of redundant redundundandancy...offices.


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Yarf! *Chews on rawhide*

More RIAA bullshit

So, the money grubbing companies of the RIAA are again trying to vye for more legal fuel to power their law machine. The same law machine that tries to siphon money out of innocent consumer's pockets. Fucking greed.

This time they are trying to say that AFTER you've BOUGHT your CD, you can't rip it for personal use on your audio device.
Seriously! WTF.
CD player sales are nearly nil in comparison to digital media sales.
How the Fuck are consumers supposed to listen to OUR legally purchased property? HMM?
What's more infuriating is that they testi-fied (testi, because all that can come out of these dick-suckers mouths are the balls of the artists they are employed by, and the politicians they have to do 'favors' for to get THEIR laws enacted), ...
...ahem....they testified last year in front of the SUPREME COURT the following:
"The record companies, my clients, have said, for some time now, and it's been on their website for some time now, that it's perfectly lawful to take a CD that you've purchased, upload it onto your computer, put it onto your iPod."

..yeah.
And now they are taking that back.
So apparently it's ok to lie in court in order to get your way, then later say the EXACT OPPOSITE to screw consumers.

Whatever happened to THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT?

Again people,
BOYCOTT THE RIAA & THEIR ARTISTS.


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Sploit! *Makes another personal review of the RIAA and their products*

Monday, January 30, 2006

Boo!

This is too cute.
I know this isn't news, but I thought I'd share.
This is "Boo" he's a character in the online web-comic "Megatokyo".
The site has had a great following and so has had a online store (MegaGear) up for a while now.


This "Boo Plushie" is one of their new additions, and I really like it.

Hidden birthday present hint! Hint, Hint! ^_^
5qu34k!
(Note the strap-on wings. Nice attention to detail.)

If you are confused, the "Boo" is a conscience sidekick character to "Seraphim". Seraphim is the main MegaTokyo character (Piro's) conscience incarnate.
It was in MegaTokyo comic #79 in which Boo made his first appearance. (#79 will also humorously explain the strap-on wings. ...well, kinda.)


Articles/Links:

Yarf! *Chews on rawhide*

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Well No Kidding.

Duh.Bush is reported by CNN as commenting on the legality of the NSA's surveillance by saying, "There's no doubt in my mind it is legal."

(Ok...I know that just sounded like the beginning of a middle school rumor; "My friend's sister's cousin's co-worker's daughter heard from a classmate that..." :-p :-/ )


Anyways,
Is anyone really surprised that this is Bush's response?
If he said otherwise, he'd immediately be a hypocrite.
(Although I’m surprised he was smart enough to realize it.)

Yet another story that falls in my "Duh" category.

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Yarf! *Chews on rawhide*

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Bin Ladin: "Truce, please."

A Bloomberg article reports that Osamma Bin Ladin is requesting a 'long term truce' between al-Qaeda and the US.

ehh, too little info at this point to comment.

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Yarf! *Chews on rawhide*

330mpg car! Well, kinda car....kinda fish.


It's no mini cooper,
but I'd get one.

Under $20,000 ~330mpg, 2 seater coup, diesel engine (meaning probably compatible with bio-diesel).
Yeah, definately worth it.


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Yarf! *Chews on rawhide*

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

The Fundies - Reloaded

They just won't give up, will they?
This just goes to show that putting all you belief in religious based ideas, is a dead-end for you mind, and will not open you up to new ideas and cultures.
The creationist ‘fundies’ (fundamentalists) tried altering their creationist idea, and re-branding it "Intelligent Design". Then they tried to hoist it on taxpayer-funded schools. It didn't work.

So, so now they AGAIN re-branded it and tried again in another state.
Failed AGAIN.
Creationism = "Intelligent Design" = "Philosophy of Design."
Religion != Science and does not belong in public schools.

What part of "Separation of church and state" DON'T they understand?!

Man…*sigh*
These religious fanatics sure are putting the MENTAL in fundamentalists!


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Yawn! *Bored of this*

Friday, January 06, 2006

Dumb

Dumb people should not be given power.
Or at least the should be REQUIRED to consult a knowledgeable person before ruining other people's lives with their stupidity, or face WORSE charges than those they attempt to pass.


When I say "dumb" I'm referring to whatever uneducated school administrator filed the charges on behalf of the school. Just because the student LINKS to their system, doesn’t mean HE should be held responsible for the insecurities of their system or it's instability. Whoever set it up should be reviewed and/or canned.
Not the student.

Ignorance is NO excuse for stupidity, especially for the people working in A SCHOOL.
Laziness is no excuse for ignorance.

I
HATE
DUMB
PEOPLE.


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Yarf! *Chews on rawhide*

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Zen Style. Nice.


A new watch.
A new STYLISH watch.
Want it.
Mmmm Tasty.







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Yarf! *Chews on rawhide*