Author: Aaron Weber

Choose Death

Bookdwarf is at an event tonight with Jared Diamond, where he discusses his new book, Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed. His book is about how societies collapse and die: Rwanda, for example. Or Easter Island. When some guy chopped down the last tree on Easter Island, what was he thinking? Or that Viking settlement in Greenland which starved to death without eating any of the abundant fish in its waters. These societies chose a cultural imperative over survival. Whether it was creating giant stone statues, or sowing salt into the earth of a rival tribe, or killing all the Hutus around, or just plain refusing to compromise on the taboo against fish, they more or less chose to die.

I decided not to go to the event. I know, looking at our consumer products, that we have already chosen death.

Oooh, want to see something funny? Here are some of the top Google results for “Choose Death:”
Weird art site about death aesthetics
Anti-abortion screed

Good news, bad news, fake news

Good: One church refuses to marry anyone until gay people can marry equally. They are encouraging all heterosexual couples to postpone marriage until marriage is free for everyone. (Well, they say they will encourage all of the average of five straight couples that get married in that church each year…) It’s a step.

Bad: One village in Acheh is apparently just… gone: all but one of the houses is and around 80% of the people have completely vanished. The house in best shape has only two walls standing; the rest are brae foundations. And the inhabitants? They haven’t even found bodies.

And Bookdwarf pointed me to the fake news: Armstrong Williams, when he appeared with Cheney to complain about biased, unethical media coverage was actually a paid shill for the administration. Now, while it might sound like a great idea to get paid by two people for doing one job, it’s usually too good to be true. In fact, it’s probably right there in the contract or rule book– it certainly is in my case. You know, the employee handbook. The one they gave you when you got hired? You didn’t read your contract or terms of employment or any of the company policies did you? No, you didn’t. I bet you didn’t even sign up for the 401(k) and stuck with the default health insureance. Dumbass. You’re too stupid to live, let alone be a journalist.

Demo

Anybody (not working with me) who wants a demo DVD of Novell Linux Desktop, let me know and I’ll mail you one. If you work with me, you can get it internally.

Truth-based Processed Information Product

Via Low Culture, an indication that Our Leader is one of those people who can’t distinguish their own opinions from indisputable fact. These are the people who say “my belief isn’t based on what a religious text says, it’s based on the Gospel!”

The quotation: “I think people attack me because they are fearful that I will then say that you’re not equally as patriotic if you’re not a religious person,” Mr. Bush said. “I’ve never said that. I’ve never acted like that. I think that’s just the way it is.”

Dream Dream Dream

Confession: I keep back issues of Dwell magazine. And they have sticky-notes stuck on the pages with things I covet. My dream home would have a kitchen where the sink is not tucked in a corner and therefore does not cause back pain when used. Or maybe even a dishwasher. That’d be nice. Also a sink that doesn’t explode, and flooring that doesn’t peel up when the sink explodes. Grr.

Total Disconnect from Reality

So, some people went down to a gay rights march in Philly to insult the marchers. Some of them were disorderly, loud, or whatever, and they got arrested. What does the AFA do? Blame it on the gay.

According to WorldNetDaily, “Homosexual attorneys from the U.S. Justice Department Civil Rights Division not only attended (the) large homosexual event…but they advised police on the scene who arrested 11 Christian protesters, says a source in the agency.” (Charges against some of the Christians have been dropped.)

The WorldNetDaily article went on to say the U.S. Justice Department is “not likely to take up the cause of the five criminally charged Christians who believe Philadelphia officials violated their civil rights.”

Did you catch that? The Justice Department will refuse to investigate the treatment of the arrested Christians because some homosexual attorneys from the Justice Department were advising the Philadelphia police on how to arrest the Christians!!!!

Now, the Philadelphia police don’t exactly have a good track record in protest-arresting: they pre-emptively jailed a bunch of RNC protestors back in ’00, delayed their processing until the convention was over, and then let them go (lawsuits still pending). But this message still conveys a total disconnect from reality.

These people are totally shocked that the force of law is not on their side, that others have rights, that their behavior is not acceptable. They’re shocked that there are, dear lord, homosexuals in the Justice Department! What has it come to? The next thing you know, they’ll be letting in atheists and socialists!

Also, if you want a look at what passes for news on the right, check out the spin on WorldNet: the UN is always bad, the ACLU is stealing your money, illegal immigration is destroying our hospitals and our culture. And they always put the word gay in scare-quotes, because they want you to know they don’t accept or believe gay people exist. Or something. Their shopping site promotes books on investing in gold, biblical child-discipline, Clintons-caused-9/11 conspiracies, and a bunch of things on the End Times.

For extra credit, compare and contrast WorldNetDaily’s coverage of The End Times with the Economist’s year-end study of end-of-the-world beliefs among religious and non-religious groups.