Random thoughts, etc.
Hmm, looks like I might have to rewrite that book report I did in third grade. They’re digging up Harry Houdini’s body to see if he was murdered. Apparently it’s possible he didn’t die from a blow to the stomach like everyone thought.
Everyone has probably heard about the kid, Shawn Hornbeck, who was kidnapped and recently found alive. It turns out that a few years ago, shortly after his kidnapping scam artist and phony psychic Sylvia Browne predicted it all. Well, that is except for the part about him being alive and recovered. This worthless woman told his parents that he was dead. It is truly beyond me why anyone gives this woman any attention or money. She prays on families of crime victims.
As I’ve said before, I can’t figure out why Montel Williams, who seems reasonably intelligent, gives this predator time on his sybdicated show.
Read more on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 Blog then head over to StopSylviaBrowne.com to learn more about the havoc this terrible woman has caused.
While browsing Digg tonight I happened upon this clip on YouTube of supposed psychic Sylvia Browne on Montel Williams’ show pretending to be psychic and upsetting families who have already suffered tragedies. Personally, I think there just aren’t enough people in this world who kick others when they are down. If more people went to hospitals and punched the ill or went to animal shelters and stepped on kittens the world would be a better place. Wait, you say that doens’t sound right? Well, that’s what Sylvia Browne does!
The thing that baffles me is that Montel gives this creature a platform from which to spew her crap. He always seemed like a reasonably intelligent guy to me, but yet he lets her on his show. Maybe he thinks that if people see her in action, they’ll realize exactly what she is.
Anyway, I could go on and on about this, but I think that stopsylviabrown.com does a better job than I could. (and you jsut have to love his logo!)
This is the funniest picture I’ve seen all day. These turkeys were spotted at a train station in Ramsey, NJ. They appeared to be waiting for a train to get out of town for Thanksgiving. I’m sure glad I got my turkey from Acme already!
This time last year the news was full of stories about retail stores that were boycotting the word Christmas in their advertising. They were saying “Happy Holidays”, “Season’s Greetings” or some other rubbish. Now this year after listening to their customers those same stores are announcing that they are going to stop pretending the holiday is not called Christmas.
While they say that they are doing it because of the complaints of the religious folks, I think that the reason reason to do this is that Christmas is NOT just a religious holiday! No where in the Christian mythology does Santa come sliding down a chimney!
There are two versions of Christmas. There is the one that the religious folks celebrate by going to a church and then there is the sectarian holiday that we all celebrate with Santa, reindeer, christmas trees etc.The ability of people to find new ways to be offended is truly amazing to me. There are many injustices in this world. Taking the time to create imaginary ones is such a waste of time.
I should note that there is one obviously exception to this new found realization that people like Christmas. Best Buy has decided to continue to attempt to be politically correct by making themselves look ridiculous and banning the word Christmas. Well, I never did like the store all that much anyway. I’ve been a loyal Circuit City customer for years now.
Here’s an odd picture. Someone captured a close-up of their cat’s tongue. Will make me think a little more the next time Fluffy licks my hand.
When I carve a pumpkin my tools are generally a few knives, spoons, etc. But now there’s a special pumpkin carving attachment to clean out your pumpkin. It it sort of like a egg beater. It’s called the Pumkpin Gutter. It seems like overkill to me, but hey, each to their own.
Check it out at http://www.getcarvingquicker.com/PumpkinGutter.htm while i go find my sawzall to cut out the eyes.
I forgot one thing in my previous post about The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. A lot of “devout” religious people have sent the author many e-mails. Reading them can only lead you to one concusion… Apparently, in order to be a religious person, you also have to be a foul-mouthed moron. Not saying that’s true, but that is the impression these people give in their letters.
You can read the various letters by clicking here.
In case you haven’t already heard about this, let me give you some background in the shortest way possible… In order sidestep the separation of church and state some school districts have tried to allow the teaching of “intelligent design.” The Christian mythology of creation cannot be taught, so ID stops one step short of endorsing the creation mythology. It says that some things in nature are too complex to have been created by evolution so “something” else must have created them. It stops right there but you can figure out what it implies.
So, if schools are teaching ID they are basically teaching Christian specific beliefs. This means that they should also teach the mythology of other religions. This is where Bobby Henderson comes in. He wrote a letter to a few school districts requesting that they teach his religion, Pastafarianism or the worship of The Flying Spaghetti Monster. It very quickly snowballed into a very popular topic and many people have seen it as a great oppurtunity to point out the faults with the argument for ID and point out that every religion sounds silly to those who aren’t a member of it.
Today his book finally hits stores and we’ll get to read all about the Flying Spaghetti Monster and his noodly appendages.
Buy the book now at Amazon. Read the story in USA Today. Learn more at his site, Veganza.com. I definately need to buy this book.
If you haven’t been living in a cave for the past year or so you’ve probably heard of MySpace.com. Unfortunately, unless you are someone who uses it, the only way you’ve heard about it is probably through the media in the form of stories about how it is evil.
Just in case you aren’t familiar with it, MySpace is a website that allows you to create a profile and share it with the world. This profile is basically a mini-website which can include a photo gallery, personal facts, work and school information, a blog and more.
One of the things that has helped it grow in popularity is the fact thatit offers some useful networking features. You can link to a network of friends. This network allows links to your friends’ pages to be displayed on your homepage and it also allows you to broadcast alerts to all of your friends to keep them up to date on your life. Your friends are also able to leave comments on your homepage.
MySpace was originally created for the purpose of sharing and exposing new independent music groups and artists. However, the general public took a liking to it and it’s now one of the most visited sites on the web. While a lot of children use the site, a lot of adults do as well. Personally I have no real use for the site since I run and maintain my own website. However, if I were someone who did not know how to create my own site without using a tool such as MySpace, then I would most definately use it. Anything that allows people to easily express themselves online is a good thing, in my opinion.
Here’s where the rant begins… Like I said earlier, MySpace gets a bad rap in the media constantly. It’s blamed for people publishing too much personal information on it. It’s blamed for criminals using it to find victims. It’s blamed for kids posting threatening or other inappropriate messages. Are you seeing a pattern here? The website and it’s owners are blamed for everything that people do on it. In other words, the site gives people a forum and people use it in improper and negative ways so naturally it’s the website’s fault. It couldn’t possibly be the fault of these people who are posting on the site. Why get mad at your kids or teach them about personal responsibility when you can get mad at a total stranger who created and maintains a useful website?
The riduculous thing is that MySpace is not the first website that allows people to easily create websites. Geocities, Tripod and Bravenet have been around for years, and newer ones like Face Book and Friendster are extremely similar to MySpace. But because MySpace is so popular it’s the new popular target for anyone who wants an easy way to avoid taking responsibility for their own actions or the actions of their kids.
Oh well, I’m sure if you’re someone who really believes that a website is responsible for the actions of its users, you’re probably not reading this. You’re probably way too busy trying to find a way to sue the owner of the wall you spraypainted last night.