A very funny YouTube video to send your dumbest friends. It’s a real classic.

They say in marriage counsellings that you write down and express your demands and expectations to provide clear communications. So here is a short and far from complete list of things that I feel America needs to change in order for us to avoid divorce court.

1 – Drop this “America is the Greatest Country in the World” shit

We are not. Not even close. The only thing we are number one in would be wealth and number of people in prison (see #2). Any major study has found that in a large number of key areas Americans are far behind the rest of the world. From our eduction system to health care we are falling behind the other industrialized nations with many 3^rd world countries quickly catching up. In a recent poll measuring general happiness we came in 16^th.

As just one example, we work more hours for less money and get less vacations. The U.S. remains the only industrialized country in the world that has no legally mandated annual leave. France leads the world with 30 days off a year. Employees in Britain, German, Australia, Spain and Sweden have 20 or more days off a year, and Canada and Japan have 10 days off, about the same as some American corporations allow their workers. The Chinese get three weeks off a year, and this is only the legally mandated vacation time. Many employees in other countries take six or more weeks off a year (the French average 39 days and the English 24).

Assuming you are prefect leaves little room for change. Saying you are the best at everything (even if false) tends to make people believe nothing needs to be done to improve the situation. America is a good country and we should be proud of her but not to the point of being disillusioned about her less then flattering truths.

A strangely compelling electronica song (and video) composed of sounds from the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland.

By Bruce Friedrich, AlterNet
Posted on May 19, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/85828/

Gone are the days when vegetarians were served up a plate of iceberg lettuce and a dull-as-dishwater baked potato. With the growing variety of vegetarian faux-meats like bacon and sausages and an ever-expanding variety of vegetarian cookbooks and restaurants, vegetarianism has taken the world by storm.

With World Vegetarian Week here, without further ado, are the Top 10 reasons to give vegetarian eating a try, starting now!

1. Helping Animals Also Helps the Global Poor While there is ample and justified moral indignation about the diversion of 100 million tons of grain for biofuels, more than seven times as much (760 million tons) is fed to farmed animals so that people can eat meat. Is the diversion of crops to our cars a moral issue? Yes, but it's about one-eighth the issue that meat-eating is. Care about global poverty? Try vegetarianism.

2. Eating Meat Supports Cruelty to Animals The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past are now distant memories. On today's factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy windowless sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other confinement systems. These animals will never raise families, root in the soil, build nests, or do anything else that is natural and important to them. They won't even get to feel the warmth of the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter.

3. Eating Meat Is Bad for the Environment A recent United Nations report entitled Livestock's Long Shadow concludes that eating meat is "one of the ... most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global." In just one example, eating meat causes almost 40 percent more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, and planes in the world combined. The report concludes that the meat industry "should be a major policy focus when dealing with problems of land degradation, climate change and air pollution, water shortage and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity."

I was a supporter of John Edwards but now he has dropped out I am backing Barack Obama. I was not really against Hillery Clinton when I decided this, but the recent behavior of her and Bill Clinton has soured me a bit on her campaign. When it comes to policy there is really not too much of a distance between the two. My support of Obama would be based primarily on two reasons.

The first being that the people who hate the Clintons do so with little fact-based reasoning. In truth Bill Clinton was far from some liberal boogie-man that Republicans make him out to be, if you honestly look back at his eight years you will see he pushed a very centrist policy. Items such as NAFTA and the deregulation of the media companies were a wet dream of the Republicans, both passed under Clinton. I guess because Bill Clinton brought an end to what Republicans view as the 'Reagan Glory Years' they attacked him far more then he deserved. I do not believe I need to point out the full list of crimes committed by our current President to show the hypocrisy of the Republian party in protecting him when they tried to impeach Clinton over oral sex. When people hate someone for an almost completely irrational reason there is little that can be done to change this. While I believe this force would not prevent Hillary Clinton from winning they would do their best to make her term in office as difficult as possible. This would continue the same divisive politics that have been destroying this country. It might not be Hillary's fault but the negative forces against her will not allow her to unify this nation the way so we desperately need.

The other reason I really want to see Barack Obama win is that we need to restore our standing around the world. Bush has completely destroyed American creditably. Hatred against us is at an all time high. We have committed grievous crimes against people of other nations. We have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people. We have held and cruelly tortured people without even allowing them to challenge this in a court system. We have broken countless international laws and rejected treaties signed by past administrations. We have acted like self-righteous bullies, soiled children attacking without mercy anyone that stands against our selfish goals. We have become the new Roman Empire, corrupt and contemptuous of other nations who we view as either puppets or enemies. I can not think of a better symbol of change from this course then having at the head of our nation a black man named Barack Obama. We need to send a message to the world that the time of over-privileged white people is over. A new understanding of what America truly is needs to be projected from our leadership, that we are a melting-pot of cultures and races. We need to make a statement to the world that the Bush years have ended and hopefully the injustice can someday be forgiven. We need to show the Muslim nations that we are not a racist nation. I can really think of no better symbol of what America can become then the election of a black man with a Muslim name. I just hope it is not too late to restore the perception of America as then land of the free, a promoter of justice and order for all.

I guess it is because this is a rainy Monday but I feel like a good old fashion rant

# 1 – Pagans

“The term pagan is from Latin paganus, an adjective originally meaning "rural", "rustic" or "of the country." As a noun, paganus was used to mean "country dweller, villager." In colloquial use, it could mean much the same as calling someone today a 'Hillbilly'.” – Wikipedia entry for Pagan

I hate Pagans, basically they are pack of misfits who think being pagan makes them somehow special. If this was England in a few hundred years ago they would be Christians just to be different. You do not see too many pagan bumper stickers on a BMW, it is always some long haired jerk-off in a t-shirt, well maybe they can have their mom sew them some puffy pirate shirt. I am not referring to those that follow new-age beliefs or eastern philosophy but specifically to those that call themselves Pagan.

You know why pagan sucks?  Their gods are losers and sore losers at that. I can think of at least four times in the bible where they had a "Test of Gods.” You know who wins? God that's who! The Jewish God kicks ass and does not bother to take names because your people will be slaughtered and your cities burned. Just ask the people of Jericho how much help their crappy little dirt god was to them. Constantine did not have his troops draw a tree on their shield....no...they draw a cross and then kicked some freaking ass.

They are just a pack of fruitcakes that want to be spiritual while they are thinking they are too cool for good old fashion Christianity. "The Bible is silly and full of lies.....now quiet while I pray to this leaf." They are basically banging the ugly fat chick because they want to get laid without having to take someone out to dinner.

"Oh you are so silly to think this pentagram necklace is evil, it is a pagan symbol"....."OK then this is not a picture of your mom's vagina, it is the symbol of the life-giver."

# 2 – Religion

“Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully as when they do it for religious convictions” - Blaise Pascal

I have often described myself as a Pro-Religion Atheist. I lost my belief in the supernatural one day in 8th grade science class while day dreaming about aliens. I did not come to this as a rejection of my upbringing or due to some priest molesting me. In fact my experiences with religion up to that point had been profoundly positive. Over the past few years I have found that my view of religion has become more and more negative as belief systems are used to justify outrageous behavior. From Muslims flying planes into buildings to Christians holding “God Hates Fags” signs outside the funerals for soldiers killed in Iraq.  Today I read two news items that really got under my skin.

The first would be the raid on a compound in Texas filled with the followers of Warren Jeffs, the guy that just got jailed for polygamy. These inhuman pieces of trash justify having sex with a 15 year old girl because they claim it is part of their faith. While some steps are now being taken they are still being treated with undeserved respect. If someone reported me for having sex with an underage girl I would be hauled into jail before I could blink. But because these scum claim that it is part of their religion they have been forcing young girls to marry and then be basically raped by 50 year old men. The cloak of religion has been used by too many to justify crimes against humanity and if the moderates of faith will not stand up to knock these people down then all religion needs to be judged. Freedom of religion protects me as an Atheist but it can no longer be used to protect rapist dirt-bags. Let’s just hope this does not end like Jonestown, another bucket of crazy that was allowed to continue for far too long since it started in a church.

The other item that really made me want to take a baseball bat to someone was the story today about an elementary school being blasted for having a day where kids dressed as the opposite gender as part of what they called Wacky Week. Some group calling itself the Voice of Christian Youth America interrupted their radio broadcast as if kids getting dressed up really mattered. I am sure they did not bother to do the same when the death toll in Iraq reached 4,000 or when Matthew Sheppard was beaten to death. What makes it worse is that this was not some plan by a transgender group or anything, the kids voted on what they wanted to dress up as during Wacky Week. I dressed up as a chick for Halloween once and in juror high the boys wore skirts one day to protest that we could not wear shorts to school, those two events did not turn me gay or make me believe that I should be a woman. It was fun, kids tend to like to do things for the simple reason that they are fun and if these religious jerk-offs would embrace that simple idea they might not be losing them at a record rate.

Things like this really just make religion look stupid and out-dated. Kids getting dressed up as another gender is not going to cause some transsexual virus to be spread. I hope every member of the Voice of Christian Youth America have their kids grow up to be pagan so I have a reason to hate them too, trying to force this kind of religious bullshit on them is a good start toward that goal.

# 3 – Ain’t It Cool News

“Tonight was the my first work out. I pedaled for 20 minutes – followed by about an hour and ten minutes on the various weightlifting equipment doing reps.” – from movie review for The Ruins

I am so sick of the web site Ain’t It Cool News. Founded in the late 90’s it was one of the first web sites about movies and television shows from the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror fan point of view. Being one of the only sources of information the site was allowed to indulge in senseless ramblings about things that have nothing to do with the subject. Now that other much better sites provide this information in a concise and clear format it is time for the plug to be pulled on Ain’t It Cool News.

Maybe it is because of my near famous lack of patience but I am so sick of trying to read a simple movie review on the site because more then half of the post is about the minutia of that person’s day. I do not care what you got in the mail or that you just got back from lunch at some piss-hole restaurant in your town, I am clicking on that item to learn about the movie. But after making you scroll past that crap they have to give you their complete history of movies by the same director and actors as if to provide you some kind of unnecessary insight into their review. Often I can not even tolerate this outpouring of useless information long enough to make it to the actual movie review. As much as I believe the mainstream media is horrid, sites like Ain’t It Cool News just shows why we need professional writers and editors.

Those that CAN - make movies.  Those that CAN’T - spend all day writing a post to Ain’t It Cool news about how they got the Batman TV show DVD in the mail and hanging out with their equally jerk-off friends at the Bowl-A-Roma.

# 4 – Tom

“From Hell's heart, I stab at thee; For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee” - Herman Melville – as spoken by Khan

Just because he deserves all the contempt the world can muster.

Below Is a detailed list of Iraq "by the numbers" released by Senator Harry Reid's office:


The Cost to Our Forces in Iraq

3,990: American troops who have died in Iraq since the start of the war. [icasualties.org, 3/17/08]

29,395: Number of U.S. service members that have been wounded in hostile action since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq. [AP, 3/11/08]

60,000: Number of troops that have been subjected to controversial stop-loss measures--meaning those who have completed service commitments but are forbidden to leave the military until their units return from war. [US News and World Report, 2/25/08]

5: Number of times the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment has been sent to Iraq. They are the first Marine Corps unit to be sent to Iraq for a fifth time. [San Francisco Chronicle, 2/27/08]

2,100: Number of troops who tried to commit suicide or injure themselves increased from 350 in 2002 to 2,100 last year. [US News and World Report, 2/25/08]

11.9: Percent of noncommissioned Army officers who reported mental health problems during their first Iraq tour [Los Angeles Times, 3/7/08]

27.2: Percent of noncommissioned Army officers who reported mental health problems during their third or fourth Iraq tour [Los Angeles Times, 3/7/08]

Terry Reid

Faith to Arise

Without Expression

Eldar

Blackbird

Martin Sexton

Diner

Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings

100 Days, 100 Nights

How Do You Let a Good Man Down

My resolutions this year were to be more active and try to be nicer to customers at work. Even with this vegetarian thing I am still way too heavy so I need to start doing something more to get my weight under control. Over the years I have really built up the reputation of being a total jerk to angery customers, I just do not react well to negative people. As my manager once told me, "The only good thing about you taking a Supervisor call is that customer will never ask for a Supervisor again."

I am starting 2008 feeling as mentally and physically healthy as I have in a long time. Things in my life have for the most part been going well and I have a very positive outlook for the year to come.

Originally sent to Tom to win a political debate:

• You so ugly your mamma would to put you in the corner and feed you with a slingshot.
• You so ugly even your shadow has given up hanging out around you
• You so ugly the doctor is still smacking your ass
• You so ugly you can make an onion cry
• You so ugly that when you throw a boomerang it refuses to come back
• You so ugly the zoo asks to you visit to stop the chimpanzees from jerking off
• You so ugly your birth certificate was an apology note
• You so ugly when you look out the window you get arrested for mooning
• You so ugly your mom had to get drunk to breast feed you
• You so ugly when you walk into the bank they turn the surveillance cameras off

The other thing this clip shows is how pitiful the Republican line-up is that Ron Paul is the only person making sense on that entire panel. Now I know a lot of liberals are getting behind Ron Paul right now but that is mainly because they have not looking into his views on the free market and privatizing government services. He is right about so many other things such as restoring personal privacy, ending the war, and balancing the national budget. But he is completely wrong when it comes to how the important services of this country should be controlled. He would turn basically all our important infrastructure over to private companies which history is proving does even a worse job of handling them then the government. 

Just look at Iraq, one of the biggest underlining problems was that we attempted to make that country the model for free market and privatized government. The vultures swooped in to pick that place apart, now billions and billions of dollars are completely unaccounted for. While the unemployment rate in Iraq is at an unacceptable level the private contractors are literally kidnapping people from other countries for cheap labor. Want another example of how the free market does not work for everything just take a look at the state of health care in America. We pay five times more then other counties while study after study shows we are not receiving the best care. Millions of Americans are basically one slightly bad medical emergency away from financial ruin, people with health insurance. In my own home Steven is barely able to walk some days but without insurance there is no hope of being able to afford the operation to help. It was not too long ago that health care was affordable to almost anyone. When I was a kid very few people ever thought about health insurance, now many can not live without it.

When a private company takes over an important service profit becomes the number one priority. There is nothing wrong with making a profit and building a company but there are just some things that are far too crucial for profit to ever be a factor. An uncontrolled free market society only really benefits those with the wealth to never directly require the government services.

So one month has pasted since I made the change to consume a mainly vegetarian diet. To be honest it has really not been too bad. Today I had a BK Veggie Burger and some onion rings. Over the weekend I did some bean curd and veggies up in the wok with some thai peanut sauce which was amazing. The burrito bar down the road which has become my new place offers boca fake meat. I do really miss sonic double cheese burgers. I did pick up some humane eggs but have yet to get around to cooking them up so it has been a full month since I had any kind of meat.

The biggest bump in the road has been convincing my mom that I was not doing this because something was wrong with me. Others have a theory there is some new chick in my life that is pushing this on me which would also be false. But women do love it when they find out I am vegetarian so I really wish I had thought of this years ago. When people ask my why I have made this decision my favorite replies are either, "well Hitler was.....he might have been an evil little dude but he sure got a lot done in a day" or "they tell me it makes my man-juices taste better and if I am anything it would be a gentleman." I am not really militant in my belief and do not give too many people a hard time for eating meat around me. I have been pushing Tom a bit to go vegetarian but that would be due to his known health problems and because he is already most of the way there already. Rebecca has also gone vegetarian after declaring, “I can not be out healthy-ed by Bryan!” plus she is trying to get down to 135 lbs which the doctor has told her would greatly help her with passing in public.

I feel like I have lost some weight since this started but can not really tell since I did not check what I was at before going vegetarian. I weighted in the other day at 296lbs but I might have really gained a lot of weight when I fell off my diet a while back. I was totally pigging out on Sonic a couple of times a week and ordering the giant combo fest at the Indian place.

This year I attended the Neptune Festival with the Bulla and Caudron families. It has been years since I  went down there and had a nice time. The place was packed with food vendors which did tempt me into cheating on being a vegetarian but I ended up getting a gyro filled with grilled veggies and then a funnel cake.  The kids started to get tired and once the fireworks started they were both wanting to leave. That allowed us to beat the traffic out. I posted some pictures from the day on the Photo Gallery along with the latest ones from the Kung Fu Gamers meetings.

The best part of the day had to be what Brent has named, The Wall of Shame. A few years back at the Haunted Hayride they had this portable rock climbing wall which Tom insisted he could climb. Lucky for him it was already closed that night so his claim would go unchallenged. Shortly after getting to the Neptune Fest this year we saw another rock climbing wall setup just off the boardwalk. Once again Tom would make the boast that he could do it no problem. As the video below shows he could not even really get off the ground. That dummy picked the trick wall to climb that offered $50 if you could make it to the top....Tom would not even make it fully off the ground. I believe the minimum requirement to be considered climbing would be to not have a foot touching the ground. 

I can not believe I am saying this myself but I have recently come to the decision to change my diet to consume mostly vegetarian foods. The goal will be to make about 95% of what I eat to be veggie but when I do have meat or eggs that it will be free range. This has been building for some time now, already in my attempt to live a more healthy life I have been adding vegetables and health foods to my menu. I am not going to go totally vegan but since I am already unable to really digest diary I am not consuming much milk now. My three main reasons for doing this would be:

My Health - I am an obese man heading toward 40 that has a family history of health problems including cancer and diabetes. I have friends, family, and Maddie.....it is unacceptable for me to cash out early from this crazy game called life just because I can not stop eating Sonic Breakfast Toasters. The simple fact is that a vegetarian diet is one of the best ways to lose and keep weight off without greatly reducing the amount of food you eat. I am also very concerned with the hormos and antibiotics that industrial farms pump their animals with. You also have a number of cases with chemicals being added to meat to make it look fresh or to preserve it longer.

The Environment - This would be the straw that broke this elephants back. I recently saw one of the founders of PETA talking about the damage that industrial farming is causing to the environment which is a subject that I am growing increasingly concerned about. From the PETA site: Nearly half of all the water consumed in the U.S. is used to raise animals for food. A totally vegetarian diet requires 300 gallons of water per day, while a meatbased diet requires more than 4,000 gallons of water per day. Eating meat causes global warming. The massive amount of animal feces produced in factory farms is the largest source of airborne methane. According to the EPA, methane is more than 20 times more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Farmed animals produce about 130 times as much excrement as the entire human population of the United States. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the run-off from factory farms pollutes our rivers and lakes more than all other industrial sources combined. Of all the raw materials and fossil fuels used in the U.S., more than one-third are used to raise animals for food.

I am sure that right about now Bill is laughing and reading this site out loud to his wife using the "Bryan voice" that he does. Congrats on this semi-victory you Irish monkey.

PETA's Vegetarian Starter Kit

When speaking with people who claim to be a Republican I often reply that they are really a progressive and just do not know it yet. This would only really apply if I am not talking to a rich heterosexual white guy since they are basically the only ones that benefit from Republican efforts. Some new research data has shown that I am not just being a jerk but in fact most people when asked about individual issues side with the progressives such as me. Since this study does cover a range of years it would also seem that over the period the liberal side has been gaining support. When asked on specific issues more people believe that government should provide aid and support to people in need. They trust the government to handle this over the free market. By almost 2 to 1 the average person thinks that free trade has harmed more then benefited the American economy. They understand that economic recovery is best achieved by spending on infrastructure and not by cutting taxes. This left-leaning would also apply to social issues such as stem cell research and abortion. Most people support gun control, protecting the environment, and having the government actively working to find a solution to energy concerns.

But still most people believe they are conservative. My guess as to why would be that since Reagan the term "liberal" has been used as an insult by the Republicans for so long that people now believe it to be a negative label to apply to themselves. The Republican noise machine has made it seem that only they are the true Americans. Liberals such as me hate this country, blame America for everything wrong in the world, and do not support our troops. Al Frankin once talked about how Republicans love America much like a child loves his mother, a blind unconditional love lashing out at anyone that would dare speak ill of her even if the truth. Progressives love America like an adult, we understand that it has its flaws and committed mistakes in the past but love the end sum of America. Much like a human loved one it is bound to disappoint you sometimes but you keep hoping for the best. Maybe that pure childish love just has a stronger appeal.

"...all Americans value freedom and faith and family. We all honor the service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform in Iraq, Afghanistan, and throughout the world. We all want good jobs, good schools, health care, safe streets, a clean environment. We all want our children to grow up in a secure America, leading the world toward a peaceful and prosperous future. Our differences are in how we can best achieve these things in a time of unprecedented change. " - William Jefferson Clinton

One of the things I miss in being an Atheist would be the Ten Commandments. Not only do they have their own movie staring Chuck Heston but just the visual of the word "The Ten Commandments" is impressive. Ten would also be the best number for any list as the basis of our western numeric system. I have decided to compile my own Ten Commandments for life. While the original list does cover many valid points things like having no false gods really do not apply to me. Even the one directing you to not kill is just too obvious and open ended to be worth listing by itself. I have found a number of sites that also offer a new Ten Commandments list from which I have compiled my favorites and added some of my own.

Bryan's Ten Commandments

1. Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you.
2. In all things, strive to cause no harm.
3. Make all rules as if you are not sure if you will be on the top or bottom of the social hierarchy.
4. Do not overlook evil or shrink from administering justice, but always be ready to forgive wrongdoing freely admitted and honestly regretted.
5. Be ready to discard even a cherished belief if it does not conform to facts.
6. Keep your agreements.
7. Never seek to censor or cut yourself off from dissent; always respect the right of others to disagree with you.
8. Form independent opinions on the basis of your own reason and experience; do not allow yourself to be led blindly by others.
9. Seek neither rewards nor recognition of good deeds.
10. Strive to live life to the fullest by taking care of your physical and mental health.

Now I will be the first to tell you that I currently do not meet many of the goals set in this list but the point of creating it would be to bring out the best in yourself. I know I am far from perfect with the last part about taking care of your physical health being pure comic gold when reflecting on how poor of a job I have done up till now on it.