Mexico, Crime Capital of the World

After reading about the mass-murder of college students, and given the drug war and the massive corruption that is commonplace in Mexico, I would not visit Mexico even if all expenses were paid and $10,000 were offered. I think tourism to Mexico is really suffering, because no one with half a brain would go to that hell-hole of crime, depravity and corruption. Mexico should just abolish itself and become a dependency of the United States. As a country, it is not worth preserving.

Milk Does a Body No Good

Turns out milk is bilk. The government recommended milk for generations just to bilk consumers out of their money. The government provides a lot of things, but objective truth isn't one of them. Look no further than the government's policy on marijuana to confirm that our laws are based upon lies. One goes to jail for longer for marijuana than for murdering someone. People get off scot-free if they kill, like O.J. Simpson did, but if they get caught with enough weed, they can go to the slammer for life. Really many of our laws were crafted with a narrow agenda, simply to boost one product or another and eliminate or reduce competition from another product. This is because politicians sell their hearts and minds to the highest bidder with no regard to what might be good for the country.

NORML's Happy

I'm not too pleased by the Republicans' takeover of the Senate, but NORML's happy, and they have good reason to be so. People may be voting Republican, but they are also voting to legalize marijuana, and it's about time. One day, the U.S. may revert the status of cannabis back to the way it was prior to the 1930s. Weed was never a problem in the U.S. until the politicians got it in their head to make it into a problem. The U.S. does not need any artificially manufactured problems. We have enough real problems to deal with. It is time for the politicians to get their act together and recognize what science says about cannabis.

Religious Fascists

Religious fascists wasted no time condemning a young woman's choice of suicide over daily suffering with a terminal illness. They want to put people like her in jail. I think she was right to make the choice that she did. Culture of death, my foot.

I think that religious fascists are the ones that belong in jail, or at any rate away from civilized society, whether they are Muslim or Christian or whatever that makes them want to interfere in other people's lives. They suffer from a severe mental illness, the compulsion to control other people, and need to be treated psychologically. One doubts that traditional educational methods would work for the religious fascist. Electroshock therapy, administered daily, simulating the pain and suffering the young woman above experienced, is just the thing to get them to understand that sometimes, people want to die and that they should have that basic human right.

We as a species are moving away from a culture of darkness and death, which is religious fascism, and toward a culture of reason, which is aligned with all that is good in the world. The religious fascists know that they have lost. They know they are on the wrong side of history. Some of them even know that they are wrong and that they serve the darkness. They are in it because religion is easy money. Not much work involved, is there, honey?

Climate Change

Now that gay marriage is all but certain to be the law of the land, climate change will be the next huge political issue in the U.S., and as usual, Republicans are on the wrong side of it. The cost to reduce carbon emissions is miniscule, laughable really, but Republicans act like doing anything will destroy the economy. Just like gay marriage destroyed marriage, huh? D'oh! And I suppose legalized marijuana will end the civilized world as we know it. The hysteria just goes on and on. Why do people find it so difficult to think?

The Closet

The closeting of so many gay and lesbian people back in the day meant that there was nobody around to talk to when I was growing up gay. Therefore, like many before me, I grew up believing I was the only one in the whole wide world, despite there being hundreds of millions of us, as we now know for a fact. Back in those days, the occasional gays outed in the media seemed remote and alien, unfathomable, unreal even, impossible to imagine. Meanwhile, the environment at school, where anybody who was gay kept quiet about it, meant no boyfriends and no real friends, no one that could understand me or what made me tick. There were some people I suspected probably were gay, but they were just as confused and uncertain as I was, if not more so.

The one best friend I had in middle school betrayed me in high school, becoming an enemy after he calculated it would serve his interests better. Due to his paranoid, unhappy mother, he belonged to a small church that was crazy and right-wing, and he wanted to please his mother, so he believed it was wrong to smile and good to frown, and all he did served that end. I never recall his mother smiling in all the days I knew her, so she had picked her church well. Now I smile to think that he lives on Queen St.

I used to want to write an autobiography because I thought that the people from my past and myself were important, but over the years, I decided that the opposite was true. I am not important, first of all. There is little from the past I want to remember, and many of the people from my past, that is to say friends and associates in school, were not particularly pleasant, to put it mildly. I am a loyal friend, one who tends to remember and repay good deeds, like a social accountant, and so in my writing, I used to feel obliged to express this loyal, sentimental fondness for old friends, even ones that betrayed me, due to random kindnesses I remembered, and I have a long memory, but like an infatuated lover, I had glossed over their faults, forgiven their sins, only remembering later in bits and pieces that puzzled me at first until I grasped the meaning. They are best left to oblivion. I even have trouble recalling some of their names. Drink deep of Lethe.

What is important is now. Now is the only thing relevant. Now I am out. There is no big deal about being gay. That is an old thing, an established thing, and is no longer important, no more than other physical or intellectual traits. Now I have a husband. Now I have a happy and stable life and hope for the future. Now I have ordered my life in a reasonable facsimile of the way I think things ought to be. Now is fuel for writing, for creativity energized by positive good, rather than drawing upon the powers of darkness.

Voting

As far as I'm concerned, anyone who doesn't vote has no business complaining about the government. The government doesn't require that much of citizens in comparison to Ancient Egypt. If more people voted, then more people would pay attention to what is going on in politics. People who aren't paying attention are the reason this country is in the mess it is in.

How to Handle ISIS Volunteers

When British or American ISIS militants return home, they should be treated as armed enemy combatants on the front line in a time of war. If their families take them in, then their families are clearly armed ISIS militants and should be treated in a similar fashion. Since ISIS cannot be trusted to abide by anything, there is no point in negotiating with them or allowing surrender.

There are too many radical Muslims in the West. They came over just for money with no other reason. They have no morality. Their loyalty is not to the West, but to their primitive and evil cult of savagery, which is based upon the acts of murder, looting and rape. Revoke their citizenship, but get them out of the West. Dropping radical Muslims from bombers along with bombs would be the most economical way to repatriate them with the Middle East. America does not have all the money in the world to be spent upon educating radical Muslim barbarians. We need to be spending more taxpayer money for the taxpayer's benefit and not to compensate for the lack of Muslim birth control.

More News from Putridity

Putin's Putridity, Russia, having invaded and conquered a neighboring country without any cause but greed, is increasingly flying bombers near Western cities. I think there is an increased potential that the West may have to nuke Russia at some point, with Putin or his cohorts in charge. The world would not much miss a region that brought us only communist dictatorship, war, vodka, Russian Orthodoxy, bad manners, bad art, and bad music.

Give Judge Douglas a Break

I think it's wrong to give blackmailers the time of day. The Canadian justice system is considering whether to kick a judge off the bench because a low-life, lying, double-dealing, blackmailing scumbag posted nude photographs of her on the Internet. I think she should be exonerated, and the case dismissed out of hand. Who cares about nude photographs anyway? Is society not past that yet? I don't think seeing Obama nude or the Pope nude would fundamentally affect my opinion of either one of them. Is it so extremely difficult to imagine what people look like without clothes? I think the entire situation is preposterous. Dismiss the case and let the judge go on about her business. A big fat WHO GIVES A DAMN applies here. Tell the blackmailer where he can go!

Light Charges

I don't know what's wrong with the justice system that murder is counted so lightly in today's courts. Apparently one can kill a person and either get off scot-free or just serve a few years. The case where a college student died during a so-called "hazing ritual" should result in capital murder charges against all of the defendants, who should be put to death if found guilty. Manslaughter, my foot. When someone is beaten to death on a bus, you can squirt all the sugar-coating on it you like, but it is still a stinking murder, no better than if the victim were shot to death at point-blank range in broad daylight.

Comcast

One thing's for sure, I'm not signing up with Comcast. If even half of what O'Rourke says is so, Comcast looks as bad as they come. The Public Relations cost alone is probably in the millions, in terms of potential lost customers.

Neanderthals

The Register writes about everything, including Neanderthals, in an amusing way.

Fine France

France should be expelled from NATO for making ransom payments to ISIS. Alternatively, they could be fined one thousand dollars for each dollar they paid to the terrorist organization. As an enabler that finances terrorism, France must be compelled to pay reparations to the victims of terrorism. At this time, American taxpayers are victims of ISIS, because our money is being used to attack ISIS. France should therefore pay American citizens.

In another story, turns out France is getting millions of euros in welfare. Of course, France plans to use all that money to finance terrorism around the world. Britain should abandon the E.U. and join instead with a trade union with the U.S. It seems to me that taxpayers in the U.K. and the U.S. have to pay the bill for the mistakes committed by other countries. We should instead demand reparations and receive dividends from every war.

Media Should Focus on Heroes

The media should focus on heroes, such as Mr. Vickers, rather than terrorists or insane criminals. The reason some people have a false impression about the world is that the media trumpets negativity rather than an accurate and mostly positive depiction of reality.

Purchasing Test for Computer Hardware

What do I look at when I need to purchase computer hardware?

The key word here is "need." Do I really need the damn thing after all? I hate spending money. Everyone should. The world would be a financially sounder place if the rest of the human race would stop and think about their purchases before making them. If the benefit to me outweighs, in my view, the cost, then I proceed to the next question. If I can afford to make a discretionary purchase even after saving for retirement and medical expenses and the proverbial rainy day--then and only then I'll buy. I do not believe in using credit for anything other than a home mortgage, even for the sake of the stupid one per cent rewards that credit card companies offer. No. Cash money up front, every time. No exceptions. Go by that rule, and you will live a calmer life. Credit card companies are parasites feeding upon the mentally feeble.

The first thing I look at with computer hardware is what other people are saying about it. Reputation matters. If a lot of people are having problems with a product, then there is probably something wrong with it. The other thing I look at is Linux compatibility. If a piece of hardware is not Linux-compatible, then it is a piece of garbage in my view. When computer systems reach retirement age, they evolve from Windows systems to Linux systems. I don't want any nasty surprise waiting for me ten years from now with a scanner, printer, video card or external enclosure for a hard drive. The #1 thing I look at is does it work in Linux. If not, pass.

Generally I buy the absolute minimum that I need and only purchase hardware that has been around for a while. Newly introduced hardware has two problems. First, it is more expensive. Second, it is untested and may have as yet unidentified problems. I know exactly how much testing many manufacturers do. The answer is not enough. The rush to market is insane, and quality controls just don't matter to the manager-types looking to boost sales figures. Again, I want to see a lot of positive reviews from respectable sources about a product, and then I might buy it. If other people are having a problem with the product, and the problem is not related to their ignorance, then I don't want that product.

In summary:

-I can afford it
-I really need it
-Good reputation of the manufacturer and the specific product
-Linux-compatible AND moreover, works very well with Linux (positive reviews help here)
-Been out for a while, not brand new
-Good price

How Much to Spend for an HTPC

An HTPC really requires very little in computer hardware, I've discovered. A low-end Intel Haswell Celeron cpu (~$50), with its built-in Intel HD graphics, paired with 2 gigs of RAM is ample to render 1080p using any free Linux distro, though I'm partial to XFCE desktops such as Linux Mint Xfce. Anything more than 2 gigs is overkill, pure and simple. I stripped my HTPCs of their 4 gig sticks and reduced them to 2 gigs and noticed absolutely no difference in performance.

Linux really shines as an HTPC, and I don't understand why anyone would want to use Windows for that purpose. There's no reason at all. Why pay the license fee? Why wait twice as long for startup? Why bother installing an anti-virus? Also, if you go the Windows route, you certainly will want 4 gigs as opposed to 2 gigs. Windows is just more expensive all the way around, and there really is no need for it when the computer is intended to be an HTPC.

I steer clear of any AMD chips nowadays for two big reasons. One, AMD is wasteful when it comes to energy efficiency. Their low-energy offerings are pathetic and simply aren't worth considering against an Intel Celeron. Two, AMD's ATI graphics are horrible on Linux. I've run into nothing but problems trying to get their Catalyst driver working in Linux, to the point where I say "Never again." I won't even buy AMD chips for a Windows system, and why? Because eventually that Windows computer may one day be converted to Linux, and I don't ever want to have to deal with installing Catalyst in Linux. I don't think Catalyst runs that great in Windows either. The only video graphics I am willing to consider are Intel and Nvidia.

An SSD isn't really required for an HTPC in any way, shape or form, although I rather like using SSD for the operating system, simply because it allows fast booting. I consider an SSD a luxury.

Everyone should have an HTPC, and nowadays cost is not a barrier. Used computer components are amazingly cheap these days. There's only one component I will never buy used, and that's a hard drive. I have learned from hard experience to always buy new with a lengthy warranty. Refurbished or used hard drives just seem to fail at an extremely high rate in my experience, and I avoid them now. I think the main reason anyone would sell a hard drive is that the seller has doubts about its longevity. Well, the seller knows best. If he's selling his drive, it must be on death's door. Word to the wise.

Good for the Bishops

I'm pleased the Catholic bishops nixed welcoming gays in the Church. Anything to decrease the number of Catholics, I'm in favor of. Don't stop there, bishops. Please alienate more minority groups. Lack of social skills, social awareness and basic intelligence is the main reason that the Catholic church isn't what it used to be, and that's a good thing, because the Catholic church is a bad thing. Anytime someone with a little bit of brains tries to do something good in the church, the overwhelming majority of nitwits will veto it, because that's what Catholicism is all about, being a nitwit. The non-Catholic countries are all doing better in every possible way than the Catholic countries and have done so for a very long time. Perhaps having fundamentally the wrong idea about human existence has a catastrophic effect on a lot of other things in a society as well. Having a good philosophy has a lot of benefits--measurable benefits.

Turkey

To the extent Turkey assists ISIL, Turkey should be treated in exactly the same way as ISIL. More and more, Turkey seems like Iran, and less like anything approaching a modern republic. It is devolving into another terrorist state, perhaps the final destination for all Muslim countries. The only way Islam spreads is through violence, because it is inherently a violent religion based upon rape, murder, and fascism.

I Credit the Pope for Brains

The Catholic Church certainly seems to be acting in its own self-interest to stem the bleeding of numbers. Yes, Pope Francis, play nice with the gays and quit the quibbles over contraception. Then the Church might, might just, be able to stem the tide a little bit.

Once a soul has been disenchanted with the Church, pretty much they are free forever, shod of religion altogether, in my experience. There was a long, long horrific period when many churches pretty much declared themselves the enemies of gays, for no scriptural, moral or rational reason, but for pure prejudice and ignorance, which was stupid. Result? A considerable percentage of gays are atheists, agnostics or at least non-traditional in their spiritual beliefs. Thank you for that. That was a gift, the liberation of many minds, including my own. Who knows, I might be tithing otherwise. Now that the Church is getting intelligent for a change, the atheists are going to have to step up their game. It used to be that atheists had to do nothing to make converts. The Church made converts to atheism on its own.

In the future, we will see, but my money is still on the atheists and the spiritualists. The Church always seems a generation behind the times, doing the right thing only when it doesn't matter anymore and their position has already become irrelevant.

The Goddess just laughs at all of this drama.