that other guy’s thoughts

If you were to describe the most sick, twisted, and despicable act you could possibly think of, where would you start?

Killing innocent children I would guess. Not just any kids though, they should be happy kids, like a kid who just got a puppy.

Also, you wouldn’t do it yourself, you’d use somebody else to do it. You’d want to use an unwitting and unsuspecting accomplice. You’d lie about it to them, and trick them into believing they were going for a nice stroll amongst the happy children and puppies.

That’s obviously not evil enough, so you’d have to pick a gullible and innocent accomplice, like a mentally handicapped girl. Or better yet, two of them. To really bring it over the top, you’d kill them too, just for spite.

Now that is what I would call evil.

Unless I lived in Baghdad, then I’d just call it yesterday.

I don’t know, but humorous ridicule is a good place to start.

If you’re not following the Burmese protests, you should be. It brings stark relief between the best and worst powers of humanity.

From where else? Venezuela.

The measure…would limit parents to a list of 100 names established by the government, with exemptions for Indian tribes and foreigners

Can you imagine an entire country where everyone has one of only 100 names? That would be so freaking boring.

Also is there any possible government effort more wasteful than worrying about your citizens having silly names?

A little while ago, some whack-jobs from California stuffed a golf-cart into a giant tin can because the wanted to play some interstellar D&D on the surface of mars. So they wrapped the thing in packing peanuts, flung it the 88 million kilometers towards a tiny red dot in the sky.

The original plan was to burn through 820 millions dollars worth of stuff on the greatest summer joyride ever, or at least until daddy took the T-Bird away. The problem is; these were really smart whack-jobs, rocket scientist whack jobs. So they don’t often swing and miss. So here we are, 3.5 years later and the crazy rock jockeys are still tooling around the Victoria Crater on the other side of the solar system.

So the next time you hear about Paris Hilton getting out jail and want to shove a pencil in your brain. Stop, think about the little golf carts that could, and be secure in our future.

How do you raise a child in the midst of civil war? How can your child play without fear or grow without malice in their hearts?

I don’t know, but the scouts is a good start.

A keen summary from everybody’s friend, the International Herald Tribune. It’s a microcosm (or maybe even a macrocosm, considering the scale) of what is fundamentally wrong with the UN.

Interestingly enough, it translates to the flaws of democracy. Genocide is Genocide even if a majority call it a Wednesday afternoon stroll in the park.

Quoteth the father of our Constitution, James Madison, from Federalist Paper 10:

“In a pure democracy…there is nothing to check the inducement to sacrifice the weaker party or the obnoxious individual.”

Democracy sucks, and it’s letting millions die in an African genocide…again.

If you could live anywhere at any point in the past, where would you choose?

I thought about this question while watching a rerun of the Patriot on TV over the weekend. Aside from all the patriotism and battle tactics, all I could think about was how menacingly confusing a time it must have been.

The forefathers had such noble inspiration. Just reading the constitution, declaration of independence, the Federalist papers, and anything that ever came out of Thomas Paine’s head and you’ll be convinced of their conviction. They believed in the goodness of their ‘great experiment’ But they surely were realists and students of history. Even the most prosperous nations with strong leaders and mighty militaries couldn’t stay together for more than a few decades without Coup d’état’s and upheaval. How long did they honestly think their nation would endure? 30, 40-years tops? Their children’s children could want a King, and that would be the end of the Republic and there’s nothing they could do about it. How frustrating.

I also thought about living in time of Jesus. But I don’t think I would like that either. You could follow the guy around for 3 years, watch as he performs dozens of miracles, including his own resurrection, and that’d be it. Not as much of a exercise of faith if you met the guy, you’d just sort of know. After that, the remainder of your life would feel like cheap dinner theater. You’ve met the most influential soul in human history, but maybe tomorrow something cool will happen too. Makes me wonder what the incidence of depression was in people Jesus every met.

The renaissance or enlightenment would be pretty cool to witness. You could hangout with Michaelangelo or Issac Newton, witness the emergence of great beauty and knowledge, but then you’d probably also get Cholera and die at 34.

Personally, I don’t think I would go back. I’m way too curious about the future. I want to know about what changes are coming. I think about the progress we’ve made as a species and think, “why would I live at a times when we were less than I know we could be?” That’s be a depressing omnipresent fact hanging over me. If I could I jump into the future, but that’s not the mental exercise now is it?

As in: drop in the bucket.

21,500? What, is that suppose to be funny? Like that will actually do anything except prevent 21,500 families from sleeping soundly at night. If you’re going to get serious about this now, then get serious. Propose 80,000 more troops, an M16 on every street corner. Now that would affect some serious change. Until then, you’re just wasting time, blood, and money; none of it yours.

Stop quarter-assing around.

Saddam Hussein is dead. The world is a slightly better place for it. It’s a rarity to see a dictator served justice by a court of his own people, and that is where the betterment lies. Surly there will be retribution, but that doesn’t make it any less than justice.

But I’ve got to ask, What kind of a perverse life are we living when I have to act as a moral compass?

From Forbes:

U.S. troops cheered as news of Saddam’s execution appeared on television at the mess hall at Forward Operating Base Loyalty in eastern Baghdad

Photographs and video footage were taken, al-Rubaie said.

From Reuters:

Shi’ite Muslims, oppressed under Saddam, celebrated in the streets.

President Bush hailed a “milestone” for Iraqi democracy

State broadcaster Iraqiya…promised to air film of the execution later.

I can’t help but feel as though its a sad day for humanity when there is so much joy over death. It is a just fate. But we shouldn’t gloat, we should never gloat. Such revelry seems inappropriate; it had to be done, but that should put us all in a sober mood. A man of such cruel acts and heart existed, that near unanimity concedes that he should be ended. We live in that kind of world.

Not my kind of cause for celebration.