wherein the half-assed attempt to explain away my absence is taken as read

I've got a stem between my teeth. I can feel it. See, the doctor told me I had to stop smoking pot, but I gotta tell ya, this ain't working

I love public transportation, even though it seems to hate me. In Massachusetts, there are four kinds of lies. Lies, damned lies, statistics, and bus schedules.

I was on the way to a friend's house to play a pretty cool game called 1000 Blank White Cards. Essentially it's a card game where the cards are made up on the fly. Wikipedia, as it is wont to do, elucidates

one of the cards just said "Beer Time!" Though in truth we didn't really need to be told that. That was one fucking well stocked apartment. I emerged from it with scratch marks all over my back.

No Comment.

The evening ended with a long walk, under heavy influence. I was filling my role as designated large, looks-scary-in-the-dark guy. Recommended heavily over those personal alarms. We passed some pubgoers on a smoke break.

Hey you three! Come and make out with the Jew!

This turned our heads, but our legs were very decidedly moving forward. We didn't really get any sort of explanation.

---

Normally this is where I'd make a quip about news, but as Cooper has said, there just isn't anything worth paying attention to. Three things though

1 Patriots: 16 - 0

2 Celtics: 26 - 3

3 Motherfucker.

A producer from the Daily Show who writes columns in the Boston Metro from time to time said that 2007 was nothing but a 2006 hangover waiting for 2008 to begin, and I have to say I agree. Let's make this year count.

---

For the first time in ten years I'm addicted to a Mario game. I understand that the people who read here aren't much into all of that, but Super Mario Galaxy is fuck-all of good times. They finally managed to capture what made the originals great in a 3D environment.

Sweeney Todd: Yes.

I came into it with reservations that Tim Burton was just going to be Tim Burton and Danny Elfman was just going to be Danny Elfman and Johnny Depp was just going to be Johnny Depp. But it worked.

Party in about 20 hours. I was invited by one of the people I walked with after the card game, actually. Promises to be a good time, and I beilieve this will be the first time I've gone to a New Year's Eve party that wasn't a family party. Which itself is odd. Actually there was a New Years party with my extended clan earlier today, from 2 to about 8, which was odder still.

hmm...

Anyways, hope everyone has a good New Year. Let no lives begin or end as the result of consumption tonight.

Later

Hmmm...

Shayna posted an article by Ben Stein. Normally I plead out of the War on Christmas as an atheist who celebrates it but isn't a fan of the commmerce. But this piece speaks to something different. If I didn't have enormous respect for Shayna, and, you know, a bit of respect for Stein (Shayna doles out the awesome in a far less assuming way and never asked for her own TV show), I might not say anything. Some people hold their tongue out of respect. I challenge that notion entirely. If I hold my tongue it either means, (a) you don't matter, or (b) it's not worth the trouble to say anything.

I'm a delight at parties, I'll tell you.

I guess the central assumption of Ben Stein's piece is that there's some overarching persecution of people of faith in this country, where people of faith are in fact the majority, and people with no faith are one of the most universally distrusted minorities. A country that had a state funeral for Jerry Falwell. In my lifetime, the elected leader of the free world said that he didn't believe it was possible for someone without faith to be a true American, and Ben Stein is saying that the secular are the persecutors? He's smarter than that.

Katrina as the withdrawal of divine protection as punishment for separation of church and state? "Insight" is the last word I'd use to describe that. It's less offensive than "gays, feminists, secular Jews and the ACLU are responsible for 9/11," but it's in the general rhyming vicinity.

The majority of people who lament the departure of God from our culture are the same ones who themselves are guilty of glossing over the teachings of the man they call their Saviour and greatest prophet. A man who got nailed to a tree for saying that it would be great if we could be compassionate and non-judgemental. Who, depending on one's interpretations of "Render unto Caesar what is due Caesar, and unto God what is due God" was in favor of separation of church and state, and certainly wouldn't have been nailed to anything if there was any such concept in his day and age.

I say Merry Christmas, and scoff at those who adorn the sentiment in PC sobriquets because the idea that the birth of a man who died for expressing those ideas isn't worth celebrating whether or not you believe he was the son of God is absurd.

The world is going to hell in large part, though not entirety, because of the twisted fanaticism of people who believe that they are doing God's work. This is, I suspect, the real intent behind the words of the God-bashers he refers to. They're lambasting the hypothetical character who allows his own words to be twisted when he used to shout them aloud from burning bushes. A character who says that if two guys kiss it's totally gross. I say this because I myself have gone on the record that if this God person does exist, he's got some fucking explaining to do

I don't ask people to change what they believe, only not to use it as an excuse. Citing a belief doesn't magically erase the label of bigotry from the persecution of Jews, gays, witches, and non-beleivers, nor does it erase the ignorance of rejecting scientific evidence. Surely when Stein scorned the ban of Bible study in public schools he wasn't saying Intelligent Design was the way to go, was he?

And if one was truly bothered by the backlash that does exist against organized religion, the constructive thing to do as a person of faith is to loudly and notoriously disown and disavow the apish purveyors of faith-based hatred and ignorance; to burn the pedestal out from beneath their feet. Not blame society's ills on the people who are sick to fucking death of those swine and sometimes make the mistake of painting with too broad a brush.

Fuck You, Rudy

Rudy Giuliani, you have stepped into the spotlight. And no, saying that you were rooting for the Red Sox while campaigning in Boston does not excuse you. Your latest campaign ad?



Seriously?

A man seeking the highest office in this country is trying to make the claim that the Iran hostage crisis was resolved by the mere presence of a B-list actor turned politician. So what, indeed, does it take to deal with these tyrants, Rudolph?

Let the opposition negotiate with terrorists and then claim victory?
--Jason, the internet's Zenformation Professional

Do not let into office the assholes who rewrite history to suit themselves. Kick them to the fucking curb.

Yeah... I may have been banned from posting responses to Youtube videos put up by the Giuliani campaign...

The GOP primary in general has been wrought of bullshit so far. And on the other side, Hillary is playing the same game. Fuck that noise. Obama ftw.