Thursday, August 28, 2008
Friday, August 22, 2008
Atheist
Atheist
I don't know why this has been on my mind of late, but it has.An ATHEIST is some one who rejects the idea of ANY god not just the Christian one. This includes pagan gods and the like. You can not call yourself an atheist and follow any religious belief, it is the rejection of all of the absurd. Be it Christian, Muslim, Hindu or pagan.
If one wishes to claim such a position (IE Atheist) you must
reject it ALL.I have found most wiccans to fall into a flake category that sits somewhere in between. More concerned with being cool than any actual conviction, pot heads are more dedicated than this. with a few notable exceptions (Yes you K ).
A made up religion with a Madonna complex.
If that pisses you off then put a curse on me (Ha)!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Down at the Tracks
I've got another day
This bed it is breaking
God, it is so damned cold
Damn it is so damed hot
Today is the day?
There is blood on the streets
There is blood on my hands
Let it be done
The clock has struck Midnight
It's time to go home
I am undone
Down at the tracks where the cross roads lay
The Devil awaits me
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Hemp Shemp
Thursday, August 7, 2008
The Chinese Suck
When you buy food with a "USDA organic" label, do you know what you're getting? Now is a good time to ask such a question, as the USDA just announced Monday it was putting 15 out of 30 federally accredited organic certifiers they audited on probation, allowing them 12 months to make corrections or lose their accreditation. At the heart of the audit for several certifiers were imported foods and ingredients from other countries, including China.
Chinese imports have had a bad year in the news, making headlines for contaminated pet food, toxic toys, and recently, certified organic ginger contaminated with levels of a pesticide called aldicarb that can cause nausea, headaches and blurred vision even at low levels. The ginger, sold under the 365 label at Whole Foods Market, contained a level of aldicarb not even permissible for conventional ginger, let alone organics. Whole Foods immediately pulled the product from its shelves.
Ronnie Cummins, the national director of the Organic Consumers Association, emphasizes that most organic farmers "play by the rules." They believe in organic principles and thereby comply with organic standards. Unfortunately, Congress' pitifully inadequate funding for enforcement, including for organic imports from countries like China, "guarantees it'll be easy for unscrupulous players to cheat, and that's obviously what's going on here."
Farms that produce USDA-certified organic food are not personally inspected by anyone from the USDA National Organic Program (NOP). As a small and underfunded agency within the USDA (it has fewer than a dozen employees), NOP relies on what it calls Accredited Certifying Agencies -- ACAs -- to do the legwork. The ACAs take responsibility for ensuring that any farm or processor bearing the organic label meets the strict requirements for certification.
Since the Chinese government does not allow foreigners to inspect Chinese farms, an extra step is involved for oversight of organics from China: Chinese companies, which are allowed to inspect Chinese farms, subcontract with foreign ACAs. Cummins believes "the safest course of action is ... to say we won't certify imports from China because their law won't allow inspections."
For Americans who shop at the growing number of farmers markets springing up around the country, the status of organics from China -- or even organics from faraway U.S. states -- may be irrelevant. Just as the hippies who founded the movement intended, ethical eating extends beyond pesticide-free food for these shoppers, some of whom call themselves locavores, meaning "one who eats food produced locally." They wish to support small farmers and to ensure their food was produced in an environmentally friendly manner by workers who were treated well and paid fairly.
And not matter how strict a law may be, there will always be those who game the system. Even if a Chinese inspector notices illegal pesticide use, he or she might feel pressured to stay silent, says Dr. Robert E. Hegel, professor of Chinese and Comparative Literature at Washington University in St. Louis. "Everybody there is so proud of increased production that few people ask much about the farmer's production methods," says Hegel. "And there's no 'organic' food tradition in China." According to Hegel, in China "everything was just 'food' and it was, until the 1950s, mostly 'organic' by our contemporary definitions -- fertilized with human and animal waste, compost ... and ashes."
But for an American looking for high-quality organics, the number one way to ensure that's what you're getting is to buy directly from the farmer. Farmers markets or CSAs (community supported agriculture -- arrangements in which consumers buy a share in a farm and receive weekly boxes of produce) are excellent ways to go as you can often meet the farmer or visit the farm yourself. Even if you can't make the trip to the farm personally, typically a farmers market sets rules around what is and is not permitted at the market (for example, only allowing produce grown within the state), and a market manager visits each farm to guarantee adherence to the policy.
The problem with fraudulent Chinese organics merely drives home the larger problem that sustainable and ethical eating is about forming relationships, and trying to fit it into the global, industrialized mold of the rest of our food system does not work. For example, the Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based watchdog agency, reports on American dairies Horizon and Aurora, which operate organic factory farms milking thousands of cows each. Over the past year, the USDA finally penalized Aurora, supplier of private label milk to Wal-Mart, Safeway and Costco, for violating organic standards.
While the National Organic Program is poorly funded, perhaps it would be more effective if the USDA staffed it with people who felt strongly about organics. Cummins mentioned a North Carolina organic activist and farmer who suggested eating at Nora's, a well-known Washington, D.C., organic restaurant, to NOP staff. He was shocked when they responded enthusiastically that they would love to try it because they had hardly ever eaten organic food before.
Because organics (and ethical eating in general) is ultimately about values and personal relationships, Cummins believes the most important next step is establishing a peer review panel, as called for by law, "so that respected members of the organic community can monitor and police violations of organic standards on the part of producers, importers and certifiers." The USDA acknowledges the requirement of a peer review panel by law but has yet to implement it.
Because knowledgeable members of the organic community who share the consumers' values will be able to look out for their interests, consumers can feel more confident in the organics they buy from the store with a peer review panel in place. Store-bought organics might not be equal to buying directly from a farmer, but in today's hectic world, when you can't make it out to a farm or a farmers market, we need to make sure they are a close second.
Agnostic
"Agnosticism is not a third position. It is the evasion of a position"
- Nathaniel Branden, The Psychology of Self-Esteem
People often say that atheism[1] is a belief in the same way that theism is a belief. According to this view, insofar as we cannot demonstrate the nonexistence of God, the claim that he does not exist represents some kind of negative "leap of faith," an undemonstrable proposition akin to religious belief. Hence, agnosticism[2] is the only true rational position with regard to the existence of "God." Therefore, as it stands outside the scope of our possibilities of knowing, it would be rationally illegitimate to choose clearly between theism and atheism. As Husserl[3] would say, we have to put God in Epochè. This view is quite popular amongst intellectuals, even some of those who adopt a naturalistic worldview.
The purpose of this essay is to show that, insofar as we share a naturalistic (scientific) worldview, this agnosticism is unfounded. It implicitly assumes that the monotheistic idea of God has a special and unique status which preserves it from normal, rational inquiry. I therefore ask a very simple question: why, exactly? I want to show that as long as no good reason is given, we are rationally justified in choosing atheism. In my view, agnostics have to prove that this special status given to the idea of God (and no other) is rationally founded, and is not simply the expression of historical and cultural bias.
Asking this question in a complete and systematic way is the focus of this essay. I have invented no stunning argument, but I believe that if it is correctly construed, this question actually becomes a problem that agnostics must resolve. Here is how I proceed.
First, I define rational attitude. This definition, of course, will be purely operational: I am addressing myself to those who already recognize a similar definition. To demonstrate its validity, some kind of universally accepted superconception of knowledge would be needed, from which it could be derived logically. I think this cannot be done, but I also think that people who reject this definition fail to understand the way in which valid knowledge is actually produced.
Second, I suggest that this conception of rationality leads not to agnosticism but to atheism. The most prudent way of putting this would probably be to say that rationality opens to religion a space of justification that is too limited to be satisfying because it could also be used to justify almost any belief. To my knowledge the only truly valid argument in favor of agnosticism is that we cannot demonstrate the nonexistence of God. Insofar as we cannot demonstrate the nonexistence of Russell’s Great Teapot either, I believe this argument is simply too weak to justify agnosticism by itself. Hence my question: Is there anything else that speaks in favor of agnosticism?
My question goes like this:
1) Recognizing the validity of a scientific conception of rationality that is derived from the basic consensus between pertinent epistemologists (logical empiricism, Popper, Kunh, Laudan, etc.), which conception implies that:
a) We adopt, on the question of the justification of our beliefs, a skeptical attitude which views even scientific knowledge as a rational construction which does not satisfy the traditional conception of truth as the perfect correspondence between thought and things (this conception being inapplicable to human knowledge);
b) Scientific theories are selected (that is, are allowed to enter the body of science and become common knowledge) not on the basis of their truth but because they are the strongest, that is, the most plausible and justified for the time being (some of their implications can be verified at least in principle; they explain phenomena which, up to that point, were enigmas; they resolve more problems than their competitors; they simplify and define the frame of further research in a given field; they allow predictions; etc.);
c) Scientific rationality is the unique source of valid knowledge of the exterior world;
d) Other fields of thought (as philosophy) must therefore be at least congruent with scientific rationality in the sense that they cannot contradict the results, the method and the spirit of scientific research, the superior validity of which is evident, if not demonstrable per se, in view of its numerous applications;
e) We can deduce a definition of a rational attitude as the fact of accepting the validity of a given hypothesis (scientific or other) only if is strongly justified by facts or arguments, in other words if it as a satisfying weight in the balance (we have good reasons to believe it might be correct and no good reason for rejecting it);
f) We are justified to reject weak hypotheses insofar as the weeding of ideas is an important condition of the progress of human knowledge;
2) Distinguishing between the possibility of some form or other of transcendence, which we can say nothing about but cannot discard as an absurd idea, AND the hypothesis of a monotheistic God which is a particular explanation of man and the universe, the formulation of which can be traced to the Bronze Age[2];
3) Recognizing that this particular hypothesis has no satisfying rational justification because:
a)Iit brutally contradicts the basic method of science by explaining natural phenomena with something other than natural phenomena;
b) It is useless because it adds no supplementary layer of explanation to existing scientific models which already account for natural phenomena (for example, astrophysical phenomena gain no superior intelligibility by the supposition that God initiated the Big Bang);
c) The arguments in its favor are systematically counterbalanced by stronger arguments produced by scientific rationality (I give two examples: the need for hope is better explained by psychology than by the idea of a religious intuition; the improbability of complex natural orders and systems is better explained by evolutionary theory than by the postulation of a supernatural creator);
d) It is highly suspect of being a cultural invention because of what we know about psychology (for example, the projection of the father figure, or the need for an ultimate foundation of our moral beliefs) and history (the voting of various dogmas and attributes of God by assemblies of bishops);
4) Why, then, should a rational attitude be condemned to agnosticism and not be allowed to choose atheism, considering that the space of justification for monotheistic religion is extremely limited and unsatisfying (we cannot prove the nonexistence of God),
a) considering we cannot prove either the nonexistence of most human fantasies (fairies, dragons, planet-gods and the like);
b) but that we nevertheless, with good reason, have for long eliminated them from the reservoir of knowledge?
In short, I think that the weight of demonstration is not on the atheist’s shoulders but on those of the agnostic. Atheism is not a belief, rather it is the absence of a belief, and it is beliefs which need to be justified. This is, in fact, basic common sense. We proceed this way in our everyday life.
If, for example, my girlfriend is twenty minutes late for a rendezvous and my friend suggests she has been kidnapped, I will not base my future actions on my friend's suggestion--even if it is a possibility which cannot at present be eliminated. I will not be agnostic towards the possibility, rather I will reject it and laugh about it because I have, for the moment, no good reason to believe that this unlikely possibility has a significant weight in the balance. What would be the sense of my friend noting that I have a belief that my girlfriend has not been kidnapped and then asking me to prove that I am right?
In my view, the idea of God places us in a similar situation. If this is not the case, agnostics need to demonstrate why.
Arming The World
"I'm so sick of arming the world, then sending troops over to destroy the fucking arms, you know what I mean? We keep arming these little countries, then we go and blow the shit out of them. We're like the bullies of the world, y'know. We're like Jack Palance in the movie Shane, throwing the pistol at the sheepherder's feet.
"Pick it up."
"I don't wanna pick it up, Mister, you'll shoot me."
"Pick up the gun."
"Mister, I don't want no trouble. I just came downtown here to get some hard rock candy for my kids, some gingham for my wife. I don't even know what gingham is, but she goes through about ten rolls a week of that stuff. I ain't looking for no trouble, Mister."
"Pick up the gun."
(He picks it up. Three shots ring out.)
"You all saw him - he had a gun."
Suicide Girls
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
What I can and can not Say
I can't say a lot. Only what I know or don't.Do i love my past or do I hate it? Both. My past with Shannon, I am still trying to work out, my past with Joy I understand now better than I did but I am still working on that tool. My Future? God or gods or no gods I am very much still working on
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The Third World is Just around the corner
It may have been camelot for jack and jacqueline
But on the Che Guevara highway filling up with gasoline
Fidel castro's brother spies a rich lady who's crying
Over luxury's disappointment
So he walks over and he's trying
To sympathise with her but he thinks that he should warn her
That the third world is just around the corner
In the soviet union a scientist is blinded
By the resumption of nuclear testing and he is reminded
That dr robert oppenheimer's optimism fell
At the first hurdle
In the cheese pavilion and the only noise I hear
Is the sound of someone stacking chairs
And mopping up spilt beer
And someone asking questions and basking in the light
Of the fifteen fame filled minutes of the fanzine writer
Mixing pop and politics he asks me what the use is
I offer him embarrassment and my usual excuses
While looking down the corridor
Out to where the van is waiting
I'm looking for the great leap forwards
Jumble sales are organized and pamphlets have been posted
Even after closing time there's still parties to be hosted
You can be active with the activists
Or sleep in with the sleepers
While you're waiting for the great leap forwards
One leap forward, two leaps back
Will politics get me the sack?
Here comes the future and you can't run from it
If you've got a blacklist I want to be on it
It's a mighty long way down rock 'n roll
From top of the pops to drawing the dole
If no one seems to understand
Start your own revolution and cut out the middleman
In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room
So join the struggle while you may
The revolution is just a t-shirt away
Waiting for the great leap forwards
Fuck Bush, Fuck the government, they have whipped their asses on the constitution and deserve nothing but rebellion from me FUCK THEM they have lied and tore the American people apart.
But on the Che Guevara highway filling up with gasoline
Fidel castro's brother spies a rich lady who's crying
Over luxury's disappointment
So he walks over and he's trying
To sympathise with her but he thinks that he should warn her
That the third world is just around the corner
In the soviet union a scientist is blinded
By the resumption of nuclear testing and he is reminded
That dr robert oppenheimer's optimism fell
At the first hurdle
In the cheese pavilion and the only noise I hear
Is the sound of someone stacking chairs
And mopping up spilt beer
And someone asking questions and basking in the light
Of the fifteen fame filled minutes of the fanzine writer
Mixing pop and politics he asks me what the use is
I offer him embarrassment and my usual excuses
While looking down the corridor
Out to where the van is waiting
I'm looking for the great leap forwards
Jumble sales are organized and pamphlets have been posted
Even after closing time there's still parties to be hosted
You can be active with the activists
Or sleep in with the sleepers
While you're waiting for the great leap forwards
One leap forward, two leaps back
Will politics get me the sack?
Here comes the future and you can't run from it
If you've got a blacklist I want to be on it
It's a mighty long way down rock 'n roll
From top of the pops to drawing the dole
If no one seems to understand
Start your own revolution and cut out the middleman
In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room
So join the struggle while you may
The revolution is just a t-shirt away
Waiting for the great leap forwards
Fuck Bush, Fuck the government, they have whipped their asses on the constitution and deserve nothing but rebellion from me FUCK THEM they have lied and tore the American people apart.
Let X= X
The Ugly Truth
You don't want to die
But the living gets you down
We want you to act like northing's wrong
Even though you heard a sound
And then you're ripped right out of the ground
Like a fucking root
Ah, you simply cannot hide
From the ugly truth
You feel you must be wise
Cause you could find yourself
Among a sea of smiling faces
It's a way I've never felt
Yeah, it kinda flies right into my face
And out the other side
The ugly truth leaves nothing to decide
The ugly truth makes every one of us a liar
Ugly
If you can dig a big enough hole
To bury all your youth
No you still won't be prepared for the ugly truth
No you'll never be prepared for the ugly truth
You simply cannot hide from the ugly truth
Ugly
But the living gets you down
We want you to act like northing's wrong
Even though you heard a sound
And then you're ripped right out of the ground
Like a fucking root
Ah, you simply cannot hide
From the ugly truth
You feel you must be wise
Cause you could find yourself
Among a sea of smiling faces
It's a way I've never felt
Yeah, it kinda flies right into my face
And out the other side
The ugly truth leaves nothing to decide
The ugly truth makes every one of us a liar
Ugly
If you can dig a big enough hole
To bury all your youth
No you still won't be prepared for the ugly truth
No you'll never be prepared for the ugly truth
You simply cannot hide from the ugly truth
Ugly
No New Tale To Tell
As told by Love and Rockets
You cannot go against nature
Because when you do
Go against nature
It's part of nature too
Our little lives get complicated
It's a simple thing
Simple as a flower
And that's a complicated thing
No new tale to tell
No new tale to tell
No new tale to tell
AHHHH
My world is your world
People like to hear their names
I'm no exception
Please call my name
Call my name
No new tale to tell
No new tale to tell
No new tale to tell
AHHHH
When you're down
It's a long way up
When you're up
It's a long way down
It's all the same thing
No new tale to tell
No new tale to tell
You cannot go against nature
Because when you do
Go against nature
It's part of nature too
Our little lives get complicated
It's a simple thing
Simple as a flower
And that's a complicated thing
No new tale to tell
No new tale to tell
No new tale to tell
AHHHH
My world is your world
People like to hear their names
I'm no exception
Please call my name
Call my name
No new tale to tell
No new tale to tell
No new tale to tell
AHHHH
When you're down
It's a long way up
When you're up
It's a long way down
It's all the same thing
No new tale to tell
No new tale to tell
Bonn
Poem for You
You always wanted me to write about you, well now I am. Does that please you? You never knew how much I wrote about you. How I felt about you. How I cared how I wept. I am past all that now and stronger if sadder. I have perfect vision when I don't use my eye's.
I know you don't give a fuck, but I do. This is all to surreal. Every one I meet every one I sleep with, everyone I speak with, everyone I talk too. It's raining here and I will be gone soon but DAMN...all I have to say is DAMN.
A moment sits suspended in time what I a time I had with you
Living in your fantasy world, well there ain't much of a view
I rarely stepped outside of myself, always caught up in between
Some place I thought was good for my health and the place I've always been
So let me tell you now
Oh, you better stop your crying
'Cause you're feeling so damn happy
You try to make me feel like dying
Oh, you better stop your crying
'Cause the tears that are running down your face
They don't make me feel like dying
I guess I never wanted to crash in the wave of your emotion
I walked away from all of the trash looking for a perfect ocean
But lately I've been finding myself fighting upward int he stream
And who could tell that I'm living in hell? Lord, I must be dreaming
Oh, you better stop your crying
'Cause I don't listen to you anymore even when you know you're lying
Oh, I see the story on your face
Stop your crying, 'cause you can't make me feel like dying
So now the party's come to and end and to end a perfect time
I send you love and all of the best, and all the rest is mine
And I'd rather sit and talk to myself after all is said and done
What happens next, hey no one can tell, and I ain't tellin' no one
Oh, you better stop your crying
'Cause the tears that are running down your face
They don't make me feel like dying
Oh, you better stop your crying
You ain't even trying, you better stop your crying
Monday, August 4, 2008
About me
- I'm Saint Tuesday
- From Elberton, Georgia, United States
- Crabby and clever. I am both kind and crunchy. Though many think John was the Walrus in truth it was Paul, me? I am the Grey Mouse.
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