Stars

I've always been fascinated by the stars. I remember trying to learn some of the constellations when I was younger, and only got as far as the plough (the big dipper to you in the US) and Orion. I can usually find the North Star, and sometimes the Pleiades, but that's about it. IF pressed, I'll give any number of excuses, from I didn't have a telescope while growing up, to I moved to the US and the star patterns are different here, as to why I don't know more constellations. That's actually almost a valid excuse. The North Star, living in Vegas, is much closer to the horizon than it is in England. Everything shifts as you move further north or south.

But somewhere along the way, I stopped paying attention to the stars. I took them for granted. The bastards were always there, hanging in the night sky above me, so I didn't have to think about them much. I lost sight of them. I still appreciated them when I remembered to look up. I spent most of my time looking out, staying at my level. I lived in cities, on cruise ships, where ll the bright lights are within a couple degrees. I didn't have to crane my head back to look at different worlds, I could see them behind the twinkling in the distance when I looked out over the Willamette river, or on a different deck drifting above the inky black ocean, or as part of a cluster in the newest, shiniest, most-advertised hotel Vegas has to offer. Street, room, head, night lights became my stars, and I looked to them.

Well, fuck that. I miss looking up. I'm done looking at a hotel tower, room lights giving a poor impression of a close-up night sky. Having lived in Vegas for six years, I think I've come to know what to expect from the stories behind the lights, and not much of interests me any more. We've become a culture of instant gratification, of misplaced self-importance, and that's what each and and every one of those lights has become. When our VIPs have become people with handles rather than names, with no discernible skills other than making the rest of us worship/hate/envy/mimic/mock them, then what is the point in looking up at a building and wondering what the stories are behind the lights? They're all the same. It's a bunch of people who saw The Hangover, or Swingers, or any one of a thousand movies or shows about Las Vegas, and decided that they could reproduce that when they came here.

I don't want to spend my time looking at lights, and wondering the stories behind them, when I can give a pretty good guess about them. I want to have no chance to guess. I want the people behind the lights to be original, have dreams and aspirations and stories and pasts that I cannot begin to guess at. I'm done with clones, with media-inspired plebes. I want to be able to look at the lights of a city or cruise ship or collection of humanity and find intelligent life, rather than having to turn my gaze skywards and hope that somewhere out there it exists.

Because we're doing a damned good job of killing it down here. We need new role-models, new leaders, and new selves. We need to stop using other people's drama as entertainment, and go out there and let the world entertain us. If you stop to think for a moment, the stars up above have a much better sparkle than the ones we fixate on down here.

Greed

Is what's going to kill us all. Not climate change, or war, or religion, but greed. Now, we might all die because of climate change, but we're helping that along quite merrily because of the greedy bastards out there who want more all the time. We might all die in a planet-wide nuclear holocaust, but I guarantee it'll happen because some smarmy shit in a suit somewhere is trying to get a larger slice of the pie. People claim that religion has killed more people than anything else, but I'd hazard a guess that most of those wars weren't started over belief, but over greed. The crusades were a grab for land and loot and an excuse to levy taxes.

And the probelm is that greed is everywhere you look today. It starts at the top, and goes all the way down. Almost everyone wants a bigger slice of the pie than they've already got, whether it's a bank or an oil company, or even me. I want more than I've got, for sure, but  I don't want more if I'm taking away from someone else. And I would say most people are like that. I'll take a pay raise, but as long as it means someone else isn't having their pay cut.

Greed is royally fucking this country up, but not just because of corporate bonuses and bailouts. It's the greed of the media that is doing more damage to America than anything else, because of people like Limbaugh and Beck. Here's why.

One of the things I hear over and over is that these people are just entertainers. They say what they need to, get their audiences going, and cash in. But there's a problem when the people listening to you believe what you're saying, and start fighting against their own best interests. If they're just entertainers, then where are the disclaimers? It's like we as a country are all calling in to phone-sex numbers, and believing what's being said to us on the other line-- the difference is, the ads for those have discalimers that it's for entertainment purposes.

Right now in the Gulf of Mexico, thousands of gallons of oil are pumping out of a BP well and doing immeasurable damage to an entire ecosystem. Probably because someone somewhere, answering to shareholders, cut a few corners to make a few bucks. And yet Limbaugh has made a point of attacking environmentalism and conservation, because more often than not it conflicts with making money. I'm sure in the next few days he's going to come up with some bullshit statement and convince half his audience that there's nothing wrong with what's happened down there.

At least BP posted record profits last year, so they can afford the clean up bill this is going to cost, right? They've got money lying around, they'll take care of their own ballsup, right?

Wrong. That's not going to fly with the shareholders. What's going to happen is they'll ask the government to help. The government will help, but the cost of deploying the coast guard and national guard, and whomever they throw at this problem, well, that's going to come out of tax money. Meanwhile, BP will lament the damage that this has done to their bottom line, and ask for tax breaks from the government. The government, whether you think it should be bigger or smaller or non-existent, is ultimately there for us. That's why we get to vote. That's why when something like this oil spill threatens to devastate a chunk of the country, they are duty-bound to do something about it. But I'm fed up paying taxes so the government can use that money to clean up the fuck-ups huge corporations make over and over. I want better roads and education. I want universal health care. All should be easy to pay for if we stopped giving these companies tax breaks and incentives. Guess what? If you can't afford to do business without tax breaks and incentives, then you're a casualty of captialism, deal with it.

And if Beck keeps going on about how the businesses need incentives to create jobs and fuel the economy, well it just so happens that there's one business that looks like it just destroyed hundreds of jobs along the gulf coast. Or maybe he'll explain that the oil spill is a good thing, because the clean-up is going to create jobs.

BP: Admit that you fucked up, and pay for the clean-up yourselves. Don't take it to court, just accept responsibility.

Limbaugh and Beck: If you don't truly believe what you're saying, then accept that you've got enough money and admit it was all for the ratings. If you do believe what you're saying, well the you're fucktards.

Too many disclaimers

I've been quiet on here for a couple of weeks now. It's not that I haven't had anything to say-- you should know me by now and know that I don't shut up. I just don't know what TO say. I'm disheartened by the way people can be convinced to be against something that would be nothing but beneficial for them. I'm frustrated that people will blatantly ignore facts that are easily accessible. I dislike that people will first pick a point of view and then go out and find evidence to support it, ignoring anything that is contrary to their pre-picked point of view. I'm disgusted that people can take what is a very good message and corrupt it to such an extent as to be unrecognizable.

Disclaimer #1: I'm not Christian. Not any more. I was raised Church of England, went to a C of E infants school, went to church one Sunday a month-ish. I was baptised in a Church that was built in the 15th Century, confirmed in said Church, and even served as an Altar boy for a year or so there.

There's a few reasons I don't consider myself to be Christian any more. Growing up, religion was always a comfort. I enjoyed the ritual, the sense of community and belonging it gave. As I got older, I didn't find that any more. But until recently I was comfortable enough just debating religion with people without necessarily coming out on one side or the other.

Now I find I cannot, in good conscience, profess any bond to Christianity. Not until those Christians who I believe are good, decent people, stand up and take back their religion from the people who are bastardizing it.

Pastor Steven Anderson. Nowhere in my knowledge of Christianity is someone like this man acceptable. Please, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Christ preach love and acceptance? Wasn't he sent to show people the way back to God? I doubt Christ ever prayed for someone to die, even as he hung there on the cross, his breathing more and more laboured, blood seeping from his wounds. 

Disclaimer #2: I do believe that there was a historical figure that Christ is based on, and I think that he had a pretty good message that it wouldn't hurt us all to live by. You know, love they neighbour. Be excellent to one another. And party on.

It's the hatred that some Christians preach these days that disgusts me. The willingness to judge in a loud, clear voice and hold themselves up as morally superior. This Steven Anderson, that he would pray for the death of ANYONE, is foul. That someone would be proud about walking around with a gun and talking about using it, well that just baffles me.

Disclaimer #3: I hate guns. Didn't grow up with them, don't need them. Having said that, I'd love to go on a Pheasant or Grouse shoot. But I have no interest in taking another human life, and the majority of guns were designed to do just that.

I understand it's in the Constitution and it's your right to own a gun. And I understand that it's your right to free speech. But to claim to be a Christian and to use your pulpit to preach hatred? The two just don't mesh for me. There's a few people I do hate, I'll admit. And if people ask me I'll tell the truth about how I feel. I hate people like Pastor Steven Anderson. But not once have I wanted the death of these people.

If you believe in the power of prayer, and you pray for someone to die and they do, are you responsible for their death?

I was going to mention a couple of other things here, but can't think about it any more right now. It pains me that all the good people who consider themselves Christians have to share their ranks with the hate-filled, the xenophobic, those who prey on the insecurites of others. I know that the bigoted arseholes out there are the vast minority, but I'd love to have it proven to me.