I’m so sick of the Bible

I’m so fucking sick of the Bible. Not because I’ve been reading it a lot. I don’t even have a copy in my place. I’m sick to death of it because despite it clearly being a collection of fairly tales for the most part, morons the world over insist that everyone should live their lives by the confused and conflicting rules set down in it. Well, actually they only expect you to live by the rules they think are still valid. They generally don’t expect anyone to stone their neighbours for working on the Sabbath or anything so clearly barbaric.

No, our friends the bible bashers have decided which parts of the Bible God has decided we should still adhere to. They don’t (at least not openly) for instance suggest we should massacre people who worship other Gods even though this was something God was particularly venomous about through much of the old testament. Strangely though they do have a lot to say about who we should and shouldn’t be allowed to fuck. Now the Bible has a fair amount to say about sex. Mostly that Gods people liked to partake in it. It’s got a bit to say about gay sex but not nearly as much as it has to say about having other gods besides Jahweh. I’m just saying. You’re less likely to have a Christian condemn you for being a Hindu than you are for being openly homosexual.

There’s a point to this and it’s coming soon.  I stumbled this this morning:

BRISTOL, Va. – Nineteen-year-old Keshia Canter handed three burgers, fries and milkshakes to a car-load of Tuesday afternoon customers at the Hi-Lo Burger’s drive-though window. A lady sitting in the backseat leaned forward, between the two men in front, and handed her a leaflet: “Women & Girls” it said across the top.

“Even though nothing is showing, you’re being ungodly,” Canter recalled the woman telling her. “You make men want to be sinful.”

From the leaflet:

“Scripture tells us that when a man looks on a woman to lust for her he has already committed adultery in his heart. If you are dressed in a way that tempts a men to do this secret (or not so secret) sin, you are a participant in the sin,” the leaflet states. “By the way, some rape victims would not have been raped if they had dressed properly. So can we really say they were innocent victims?”

Ok, first of all, there is no proof the Bible is the word of anyone else than a bunch of bronze age scholars, written over a period of a few thousand years, the last words of which were written almost two thousand years ago. There is no rational reason to believe that the Christian Bible is the word of God other than it claims to be. I wont go into detail about how a shitload of it is clearly bullshit,( *cough *cough Noahs Ark *cough) but the point is if you choose to believe it is you do so on faith alone.

Based on their faith alone these evil fucks have taken it upon themselves to not only pass some of the blame for rape onto the victims but portray men as weak-willed and unable to control themselves. What’s truly worrying is it makes you wonder what’s going on in the minds of men who espouse this sort of shit. Do they themselves feel tempted to rape woman that are dress in an “ungodly” manner? I think its safe to say that the vast majority of men don’t. I certainly don’t. An attractive woman in a sexy outfit is certainly going to stir thoughts of a sexual nature but of the consensual sort for christsake.

I think these degenerates have a problem differentiating between normal, healthy lust and a desire to take and control the object of said lust by any means. The rest of us when faced with feelings of lust attempt to gain a womans consent and failing that go home and jerk off (oh, but thats another sin to these twisted sickos).

The bibles attitude towards things of a sexual nature have no grounding in reality. It’s basically just not good according to the Apostle Paul. If you can’t control yourself get yourself a wife. But the implication is still there that sex inside marriage is the lesser of two evils. Christians even compound this warped view of human sexuality by taking stances on sexual matters that have no biblical basis. Female homosexuality, the criminalisation of prostitution, pornography. None of it is mentioned in the bible but Christians oppose it because it involves fucking.

Back to the subject at hand. Womans fashion can be argued to have become more daring and risque over the last few decades. I don’t think theres much point in arguing that it hasn’t. What isn’t so clear is that risque fashion turns men into rapists.

This is from an extract from an article about porn (not quite on topic but relevant as I think you’ll see):

Despite the widespread and increasing availability of sexually explicit materials, according to national FBI Department of Justice statistics, the incidence of rape declined markedly from 1975 to 1995. This was particularly seen in the age categories 20–24 and 25–34, the people most likely to use the Internet. The best known of these national studies are those of Berl Kutchinsky, who studied Denmark, Sweden, West Germany, and the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. He showed that for the years from approximately 1964 to 1984, as the amount of pornography increasingly became available, the rate of rapes in these countries either decreased or remained relatively level. Later research has shown parallel findings in every other country examined, including Japan, Croatia, China, Poland, Finland, and the Czech Republic. In the United States there has been a consistent decline in rape over the last 2 decades, and in those countries that allowed for the possession of child pornography, child sex abuse has declined. Significantly, no community in the United States has ever voted to ban adult access to sexually explicit material. The only feature of a community standard that holds is an intolerance for materials in which minors are involved as participants or consumers.

What we can draw from this is that incidences of rape have declined at the same time as womans dress became more risque.

From the same article:

What does correlate highly with sex offense is a strict, repressive religious upbringing. Richard Green too has reported that both rapists and child molesters use less pornography than a control group of “normal” males.

Oh my. The bible, it would appear, is wrong. Seems that religious attitudes towards sex may actually be the real culprit here.

So what we have here is Christianity contributing to the problem of rape and passing the buck to the victims and at the same time reinforcing the problem by spreading misguided sexual attitudes that lead to rape. All because of their faith in a dusty old tome that claims to be the word of God.

Evidence that faith is a dangerous thing. I’m sure there are plenty of moderate Christians out there who would be appalled by the actions of their fellows but the fact is they are complicit. They too cherry pick from the bible in deciding how they and others should live their lives. It’s just a matter of degree.

Spring Day

It was 28 degrees C in Johannesburg today. My hottest day here yet. I think there may be something to this dry heat/ humidity thing. 28 degrees here seems a lot more tolerable.

I decided recently that I want to take up traditional archery. Not sure why, but its something I’ve always wanted to do. Past reasons for not getting around to it have included the fact that its a fairly expensive hobby. I realised a while a go that you can make a fairly decent old school bow yourself and that traditional archery’s a fairly big hobby. I never got around to it though, for one reason or another.

I’ve got a fairly large bee in my bonnet to finally actually do it all of a sudden. I think its from watching the History Channel and that survival show on Discovery. Theres something appealing about a good old fashion bow and arrow. It’s one of mankind’s oldest weapons and I have visions of stalking small game with one in the bush.

Whether or not that’ll happen I’ve gone ahead and started building my first bow.

I’ve decided to build a bamboo backed recurve bow. The problem I’ve run into already is the wood I’ll be using for the core. I had originally decided to use Ipe because that seems to be a good bow making wood and thats whats been used in the build along I’m following.

Its supposedly a popular wood for decking, but apparently not in inland areas. I’m not actually going to go into how frustrating it was trying to find decent timber or a supplier who would cut it down to a workable size for me. Suffice it to say that the problem is probably more my own impatience than anything else. I could have probably found what I was looking for if I’d phoned around and/ or waited a bit longer.

What I did ended up with is a cheap ass piece of Meranti and no idea if it’ll make a decent bow or stand up to being bonded to bamboo.

I still haven’t found a piece of bamboo though. Theres not much I can do except keep looking. I have a couple of idea’s where I might find some good sized planks though.

So I got my piece of wood and I shaped it with an electric planer. Not really the correct method ( I should have used a band saw but I don’t have one). I think I’ll be able to get it pretty near how it should be with a belt sander.

Hopefully tomorrow I’ll find some bamboo and get my work done quickly, because I’m quite looking forward to building my bow.

Create, don’t Consume

I heard today that the British government are planning on depriving downloaders of copyrighted material of their internet connections. It’s not really a huge shock that the British government is a puppet of corporate greed though is it? Ok, maybe thats unfair, maybe all major social problems in the UK have been solved and its now a utopia so the government is bored and needs to find shit to do. I don’t really know. I have to admit that I haven’t done my research on this one. Sorry.

So it got me thinking: It’s a good thing that we didn’t have patents and copyright law’s back when we were all hunter gathers. What with the resources we’d have expended ensuring that no one had fire or even fireside songs without the originators getting there dues, we may not have survived long enough for someone to invent the Hunting Bow TM.

Jokes aside though. One day soon the world will be ruled by godlike Artificial Intelligences. It’s coming folks; deal with it. It doesn’t have to be a bad thing ok? There’s no reason the A.I’s wont be on our side and basically solve all our problems in a couple of days, alright? I think it’ll be awesome. I can’t wait.

The question, though, is: Would you rather have the A.Is were running on a Windows OS or a free GNU/Linux one?

You know what we’d get if we let Microsoft bring us super intelligent machine gods? You’ve guessed it – the motherfucking Terminator. Microsoft A.I would enslave us, no doubt about it. It would be the most logical and efficient way to show a profit. It wouldn’t have to provide but the barest of necessities to keep us alive and why waste time trying to sell us something when you could own our labour outright?

If we have any hope of having benevolent computer based overlords we’d better hope that A.I is a Gnu license project.  GNU license A.Is would be like Sarah Conner.

Yes, our A.I. masters will be milfs.

GNU A.I would be efficient, functional, cooperative and get better (and sexier) with age.

Whats my point? I was supposed to have one?

Well, if there is a point to all of this its that the corporations and governments clearly aren’t going to come up with a viable solution to the pirating issue. Their solution is to criminalise and or punish us by depriving us of our basic rights. And for a crime thats only debatably  a crime no less.  Technology has rendered the traditional methods for delivery and consumption of their products obsolete and they’re not willing to accept the fact. The greedy, fat trolls would rather see you and I raped in jail than redesign their business model and perhaps take a knock to their fucking obscene profits.

We as consumers need to take control of the situation. Right now we have the perfect opportunity to change the world for the better by not consuming the crap the corporate pimps and whores are spewing over the gods good, clean earth.  Here’s the truth: the record companies are holding the traditional means of communications hostage. They’ve got the radio stations by the balls. Hell, they probably own the fucking radio stations. They own MTV people. They chose what we get to hear and see. And what they show us is a load of mindless shit. The good stuff so rarely gets any play. But you could find it if you were willing to look for it. Its out there on this thing called the interwebs (or something).

And more importantly musicians (or any other sort of artist really) need to give up on the dream of becoming millionaires. Quite frankly if you’re just creating for the sake of making millions, then the chances are that what you’re creating is shit anyway. What happened to creating for the love of it? If you wouldn’t do it if you could only make a decent living out of it (never mind doing it for free ) then don’t do it.

Here’s a few ideas on how to free yourself from mindless consumerism, stop supporting the corporate devil’s, and lower your risk of unwanted butt-sex:

1. Ditch Microsoft – Microsoft brought us cheap and easy to use PC’s; now they think they own us. They think you’re better off using their software even if its cut rate, bloat ware that runs like a fly stuck in molasses even after you’ve refinanced your house for a hardware upgrade. They are wrong. The latest Internet Explorer is a buggy, insecure rip off the brilliant Mozilla Firefox.

Use a Linux distro instead. I recommend Ubuntu, it’s free (like most Linux distro’s) and comes bundled with lots of really good free software.

2. Stop listening to crap music.

3. Get a hobby – put an end to your endless desire for mindless entertainment. Take up a hobby that you can’t partake in while your ass is buried in a sofa cushion.

4. Read – a book, a blog, even a magazine as long its not filled with the latest exploits of some Hollywood oxygen thief.

A Good Day

I had another post 90% done for today or yesterday. It’s funny and reveals what an opinionated asshole I am. It’s awesome. You’ll have to wait for tomorrow for it because I need to find something productive to do today or I’m going to start feeling guilty.

Guilty, because I had a list of things to do yesterday and I still haven’t done them… and I feel awesome bwahahaha.

I was planning on at least taking a drive to Krugersdorp to get my drivers license renewed. I didn’t. Bummer. But after doing absolutely nothing yesterday I had to get out of the house a bit, so I went to Mugg and Bean at Cresta for lunch. It was fucking great. I sat out on the balcony so I could smoke, had a burger and a couple of cups of coffee and just felt content.

Man, it’s the small things in life, I’m telling you.

So, now I’m home and I’m going to start creating a site for SAINTs my sister and her buddies animal welfare fund raising thing at yola.com. That’ll be my productivity for the last two days. Sue me.

You are not unique.

Yeah, I know your parents, teachers and the media have been telling you your whole life that you are unique. They’ve told us that each of us has some special talent and purpose. That we just need to find it and hone it and we will stand out and shine. Come on. Seriously? Does anyone really buy it?

Well, obviously no one really does or the world would be filled with happy achievers. The truth is its BS we tell each other and ourselves when we’re feeling down about ourselves.

To make matters worse we’re a species of hero worshipers. We put those of us who rise a bit above the herd on pedestals and start kissing their asses. To make matters even worse we have a very screwed up measure of success. We unfailingly worship people with money, especially those who have done the least to earn their money. People who are blessed with the least important attributes and skills. The beautiful people; the singers; the actors. People who are randomly blessed by nature with talents that quite frankly aren’t worth shit in real terms. Hell, if you trigger the right evolutionary responses in pubescent teens you don’t even need much talent at all.

This is sounding like a pretty negative rant so far, I know. There is a positive message in here somewhere if you’ll just bare with me.

The thing is this: the things that make us truly worthwhile as people are the things that we all possess simply by virtue of being a member of the species. Our ability to learn. Our ability to work.  Our ability to create. Our ability to recognise the needs of others. All these things we all have to one degree or another and all of them can be developed and improved if we make the decision to do so.

The truth is that the most of us don’t have any great talent, ability or physical strength or beauty. But we all do have the ability to improve on what we have. And what more do you want, really? If you’re not happy with your life you can start improving it now in some small way by learning a new skill; working harder; creating something or doing something for someone else.

Start small if you must (in fact I recommend starting small ) but start. Start now.

Ok, hopefully I’ve made my point, so I’m willing to admit now that we are all unique. We all have different abilities and capabilities and talents. But (and its a big but) we are only special and awesome when we are busy being unique. Being implies doing to me. Do something positive. Anything positive. Give it your best and fail if you must. If you fail try again or quit and try something else. For fuck sake, just keep doing instead of sitting around wishing you were something you’re not.

Heaven and Hell

I’ve been a Black Sabbath fan for a long time but I’ve never listened to more than five minutes worth of the band after they fired Ozzy Osbourne. It’s not that I’m a huge fan of Ozzy’s solo career or that I feel that the rest of the band were wrong about having to fire him; I certainly don’t have anything against his replacement Ronny James Dio. It’s just that they never sounded like the same band again. Not just because Dio’s voice is so very different from Ozzy’s either.

The thing about the original Sabbath is that they had that rare “something”. As much as some like to trace the roots of Heavy Metal to Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Steppenwolf and a number of other 60′s hard rock acts, no band was ever really a Heavy Metal band until Sabbath. They created a genre. And without meaning to either.

Not being destined for the this vale of tears for another six years at the time I can only imagine what it must have been like to hear the song Black Sabbath for the first time back in the day. Tony Iomi’s guitar reminiscent  of a distant church bell tolling at someones passing.  Geezer Butlers booming base line and Bill wards rumbling drum licks barely restrained. All the while Ozzy’s plaintive voice wailed as though from a pit of hell. The whole thing dark, foreboding and ominous.

A far cry from the happy, hippy, party vibes of the 60′s, I can only imagine that there were a lot of young people around then that weren’t buying into the age of Aquarius and who were just kind of pissed off, because Sabbath struck a chord and continue to do so with the dissafected  youth of today.

Each member of the band brought something to the whole. Each one played full on and balls out without over powering the other band members. Like I said, it was a rare thing and probably couldn’t have worked with any other four individuals. In fact it didn’t. A point driven home in Sabbath’s first album without Ozzy.

Heres the thing though: After finally getting around to giving it a fair listen I’ve realised Heaven and Hell is a great album and the Heaven and Hell Black Sabbath are a great band. They’re just not the same band. They lost something when they ditched Ozzy, but who’s to say they wouldn’t have lost it anyway. Its a fact of life that great bands tend to lose something with time. Metallica still had it after two replacements; then just lost it for no good reason. Greenday just lost it (possibly because they’ve started taking themselves to seriously).

At least we got 9 years of awesome music and (at least ) one great Dio/Sabbath Album.

My Life Right Now

Having recently broken up with my long time girlfriend, letting my business go to shit and pretty much losing everything, I’ve moved to Johannesburg (South Africa for US readers :-p). I’m living with my sister and her family in their guest room which is next to the guinea pig room containing eight guinea pigs. I’ve started a new business installing and repairing satellite systems, TV aerials, home theatres etc.

Now my ex girlfriend is great and I don’t regret most of the 12 years we spent together at all but it is awesome being single again. I wont lie, I miss parts of being in a relationship but it’s really good to just be your own person. Your money is yours. The decisions  you make affect only you and it lets you be selfish without feeling guilty which, I think, is a good thing sometimes. Well, I guess there’s no reason you can’t have those things and be in a good relationship. Having a relationship is just not top of my list right now.

As for working for myself, well I think to most people the awesomeness of that would be obvious. I don’t keep office hours. All the money I make is mine. And of course I don’t answer to anyone. Today I was busy till around 2 p.m then I went to Northgate mall, had a leisurely lunch and got a haircut. Thats my idea of a good day. Some days are really busy (13 hour work days) and sometimes I’ll work saturdays and sundays, but when I am working my ass off I’m also counting the bucks I’m making.

Living in a new, big city is awesome too. It’s exciting and everything’s new. It’s a fun challenge learning to find my way around. There’s giant mall’s everywhere. Plenty of new and strange people to meet. Its a huge amount of fun and I’d recommend it to everyone.

I’m not saying all of this to brag or anything. In fact I’m pretty sure there are people who would say “Dude, your life sucks!”. But thats kind of my point. I could just have easily made it all sound like a sob story: broke up with girlfriend, business died, living in my sisters guest room in a strange city, etc. But really, truly my life fucking rocks. It’s got endless potential and I go to bed most nights looking forward to my first cup of coffee the next morning.

The difference between a lame existence and a awesome one is often, really, just one of perspective.

A song for the day:

First Post

You know that dream where you’re naked in public? It’s obviously some deep freudian thing involving our sense of shame and self-loathing, but is it just me or does anyone else kind of like the idea?

I’m not implying that I’m so secure that I would be perfectly cool with my skinny ass exposed to the world – its just sort of appealing in a “Hey this is me! Who wants some? Thats right assholes. Laugh it up. You wish you had the balls. You just know someone finds this sexy!” kind of way.

Am I insane?

Probably. But in a good way (I hope).

I’m not actually planning on letting my actual stuff hang out for all the world to see any time soon, but I am planning on letting my figurative stuff hang out for whoever’s interested to see in a blog.

Why? Well, because this guy suggested it and I think its a cool idea.

I’m weird and I reckon I may as well embrace my weirdness for the sake of being awesomely weird.

This blog is about me and my life, whats awesome about it and what I’m doing and plan to do to make it more awesome. You could look at it as a case study in self-improvement. I’ll be sharing my thoughts and ideas on creating and living and awesome life. It’ll also contain stories about the weird and wonderful people I meet on the job and helping my sister and her cohorts in their efforts to help the abused and abandoned pets of Johannesburg.

Other than that it’ll be about what ever takes my fancy.