For my next tirade, I'll address national security and the right to bear arms. As someone who promotes freedom, I have to be completely against government banning of guns...however, I don't want most psychos to own guns and I never want to own a gun. My attitude is "it'd be great if guns didn't exist, but they do, the government shouldn't have banning power and even if they didn't they can't take them away from people (try to remove the kool-ade powder from the glass of water...you can't get it all) so let's at least try to promote proper use. I think people who say "we need guns...for sport, like this 50 cal rifle for when I'm shooting rabbits" are idiots, it's like a college student saying he bought his whole mp3 collection...it's a deception that is too difficult to uncover. In truth, the constitution gives people the right to bear arms because back then there wasn't such a large, organized army; when the needs of national security came up (true needs, like an invading army) the people could then band together and creat a self-defense force, rather than sitting there waiting for the calvary to arrive to save the day. How far we have come - now we have conservatives who spend thousands on guns for hunting and sport but won't help the hungry, who rather than go to war themselves would conscript others and spend MORE money BEING the invading army. If I found out that all nations of the world came together to invade American soil, THEN I'd buy a gun to fight a true threat to national security at my doorstep.
  But this brings us to the topic of individual contribution to national security. I firmly believe that it is not the government's responsibility to bubblewrap the sharp corners of the world; When the government makes it their responsibility to ban marijuana, baby turtle sales, or drinking to people under 21, one may ask why they don't also ban cars (which kill more people than terror attacks), kitchen knives, or poisonous chemicals? The government is reactionary, they don't do anything on their own. Rational or not, to look like they're doing something, they act. And we follow. I read a great article here regarding the sacrafice of freedom for security. As Benjamin Franklin said, "Those who would give up a little freedom to get a little security shall soon have neither." Let me tell you for absolute certain: I believe it would be simple to get an explosive on a plane. And if it happened to a plane I was on, I (and I hope any other American) would have killed him with my bare hands before he could even think about touching the detanator. If someone stood up on a plane with a match, which apparantly is not a security threat, and began lighting a laptop battery on fire, I'd have his teeth embedded in my knuckles. That's homeland security, not having to walk through a metal detector without shoes on after waiting in line for 2 hours.

Dear George Bush...

I know you led this country into an ill advised war. I know you hijacked faith and patriotism in order to further your personal agendas. I know you've filled the government of this country up with so many personal friends that it will be decades until we're rid of them all. I know you've used signing statements and the vito to extend your reach far into the legislative branch, and I know you've used pardons, denied subpoenas and fired opposition to gain reach into the judicial branch. I know your cohort Cheney has taken the opposite approach of removing himself from different branches he is supposed to be in. Under your care, Habeus Corpus has been suspended, freedoms have been restricted, speech is censored, opposition is squashed, America's position in the world has disintegrated and the general distrust for the government is at an all time high.

Mr. Bush, you've had quite a presidency, but there's one thing I ask you to accomplish as soon as you can.

Please get your dick sucked so we can finally impeach you and clean off the slate for the future of this nation.

- Joe

  Far be it to me to reference the Pope as an authority, but in this article he discusses how the debate between evolution and creationism is BS. As I've noted many, many times before, enthusiasts in creationism are dumping on their own faith by saying that truth and faith must be mutually exlusive and cannot change, and evolutionists must acknowledge that you can't disprove god (though I'll be the first to say that not knowing how something originated does not give one permission to default to the "see, it must have been god!" argument) I applaud the Pope in this move which to me is a great step in the direction of ending animosity between creationists and evolutionists. Hopefully, one day people who are all just searching for truth can stop hating each other and just say "you have your explanation, I have mine, and until we see otherwise let's just be friends."

  P.S. Mom, how's that for "you're only willing to look at your perspective and jump to conclusions too fast?" I'm the anti-catholic, agreeing with the Pope. That's why I can vote for Ron Paul, a Republican, when I'm a freaking anarchist.

  Life is pretty good. North Carolina is just dandy, the house is perfectly liveable, I have not one but two jobs (kinda) and a new baby puppo named Rygel! Let me start from the beginning.
  The house is all set up, all the electronics are all together and painting has definately been progressing. I have a video tour of the house which shows off what it's looking like right now. There's more to be done, but it's at the point that if we don't do it immediately, it's totally fine. Upkeep is nuts, I've never had to mow a lawn before (I miss cheap crews of 6!) and we have a big one.
  I spent 3 weeks working with a staffing company. Right at the time I started working there (I did administrative/secretary type stuff) they were in the process of being bought out and a lot of the old office staff quit, resulting in the office being very understaffed and having a lot of confusing new policies. Long story short, they knew I was still looking for another job and I was able to help them out in a time they just needed bodies. For a lot of my 3 weeks I was the only person in the office at all, and I ended up working 60 hour weeks which I got paid for. None of that "Work 60 and get paid for 20" crap. I will continue to stay on their payroll to help them out on an as needed basis, for example, checking new employees in at 6:30 in the morning or helping with weekend paperwork. Long story short, I was there for the three hell weeks that were the perfect storm of old people leaving, all working employees (100 or so) having to come in to refill out paperwork, and the people who will be staying there going to a new manager's conference and having to be gone.
  I then took an AWESOME job at UNCGreensboro in the office of Adult Students. I'm the "Office Manager and Web Designer" which is a fancy word for Program Assistant. The cool thing about this job though is that the director and I are the only full time staff in the office (there's some work study students) and she would like to grow the office, but can't get funding for another person. My Higher Ed background is great for the director because if I do some higher-ed type work, which she made sure to tell me is not part of the job description, it will benefit the office and possibly pave the way for making a new position in the office if a need is demonstrated. Either way, this job is really really ideal for me seeing as it has a large tech and web component, has a lot of organization to it, has room but not demands for programming and professional development, and works with a population that truly appreciates the value of education, something I sorely miss (and have already seen is in abundance here). Oh, and it doesn't hurt that I applied to this job being staggeringly overqualified (required a HS diploma) so I am at the top of the pay scale :). No one else would even interview me since I had no experience, so when I leave here in a few years or so, I'll have years of office experience, more Higher Ed Experience, and IT and web experience (which held me back from getting a job in IT, since I've never worked in an IT specific position, and web developer is in the job title here). I'll be perfectly rounded out and set to get whatever job I want, and until then I'm making plenty to start saving and live comfortably.
  Speakin of liivin comfortably, we got a puppy! His name is Rygel, which in my brain is short for Dominar Rygel the 17th, Dominar of the Hynerian Empire and over 600 billion loyal subjects. Read about his namesake here. He's 100% puppy! His date of birth is June 4 so he's 7 weeks old today. He loves to chew and explore, is still learning his name and to not pee everywhere, and loves a warm person to sleep against. If you're in the area, come see him!
  For the last 6 years, things have been good and bad on and off, but the one thing that stayed the same is that everything changed all th etime. To explain, I moved every 9 months or so in undergrad, changed majors 3 times, went to grad school, moved 3 times, shifted this and that, had my car blow up, changed jobs several times, pretty much had very little sense of normalcy. Now, I have a stable job, a reliable car, a home I will be in for at least 2 years, very comfortable responsibilities, a puppy and everything. I finally feel like this is a place to just put some roots in and enjoy for a while. I know it's not good to be stagnant, but the thought of living in a place and not having "I could paint but I have to unpaint in 8 months" hanging over my head, or "I should set the stereo up so it's easy to tear down in a year" is so nice, I just am so happy to just sit still for a while, to rest. I hope that makes sense, for the first time in many years I feel like I'm taking a true breath.

  I like that Ron Paul vehemently wants to end the war. I don't like that he's anti gun control. I like that Obama is pro stem cells. I don't like that he's anti gay marriage. I like that Kunich is pro net neutrality. I don't like that he's anti death penalty. So who do I want to vote for? John Kerry. Wow, that's dumb, you must be saying. Not only isn't he running, he couldn't win the last time. I saw something back then that made me want to vote for him that apparantly no one else saw and I stand by him to this day. Rather than choose a candidate because their personal opinions align closely with yours, and then expect that candidate to act along their own personal interests resulting in an agenda roughly aligned with your own, John Kerry believed in democracy. It's been a while, if I find the article I'll post a link, but I think on the issue of church and state, John Kerry said something that gave me hope and still does to this day. Essentially, he said "I have this opinion, but my opinion is not what is important, it is the will of the people so even if I disagree with that I will support it if it's what the people want." Think about it people, are we really electing people so that they can pursue their personal agendas? If that's the deal, then more power to Bush and Cheney for this war, they hit the nail on the head. I am looking for a candidate who says "this is my opinion on these issues. Any policies made will reflect national interest and the will of the people to my best ability to gague it, not my personal opinions." I hate the election process, I hate political parties who feed us their own short list of people to select from, and I hate that we're sitting around! At the risk of bringing FBI agents to my door (see you tonight guys) in the olden days of this country the actions of the current government would have resulted in a militia with muskets to storm the white house and revolutionize! Maybe that's what it takes, an army of 1000 citizens to storm the white house and take the government back! Phooey to those people who say voting can change things, we thought we did that by voting a Democratic majority into congress and all they've been able to do is prompt the executive branch to become more absurd with their power wielding (The vice president isn't in the executive branch, the security committe members can't access security information, and checks and balances is a pretty word for executive branch is in charge.) If a militia formed to take back this country and reinstate the constitution with democracy at the forefront of the intent, hand me a musket and make me a soldier with something worthwhile to die for rather than an ill-advised reach into a hornets nest.

"...for the land of the free, and the home of the brave." America is dying, and I believe there is no greater proof than airports. Allow me to explain. Our country, the "land of the free and home of the brave," responds substantially to terrorism and fear by removing personal liberties. We always hear the word freedom used to inspire us to patriotism, but what does it mean? To me, it's the ability to go where I want, do what I want, say what I want, think what I want, believe what I want and do so with as little oversight as possible, so long as I am not interfering with the freedoms of others. At the risk of editorializing (well, nevermind, this is an editorial) I'd like to point out that I've yet to see how Al Quaeda blowing up 50 buildings will stop me from being able to say or think what I want. Actually, the actions of our government in response to Al Quaeda's actions has removed more freedoms that Al Quaeda has (and killed more American citizens in Iraq), and it seems that through relationships with contractors such as Halliburton and KBR that they've profited supremely off of this chain of action, but that's besides the point. The airport is the greatest example of freedoms snatched up in the name of freedom. The plane, a convenience which makes travel easier, used to be just that, a vehicle, but now it has become a symbol and a weapon. Ignoring the fact that cars are also vehicles that can and have been used intentionally (and accidentally) as weapons to end many more lives and damage many buildings is apparantly the business of the policy makers. But, planes are the new symbol so that's where the government is acting. Close your eyes for a second, and think of what freedom means to you. Now, remove the ability to carry anything pointy and metallic. Now, imagine you have to be inspected, scanned, and potentially remove clothes for a government official to use something you paid for through a private company. Now, imagine that you can be arrested for saying the wrong thing, or even making a joke. Now, imagine that any time someone comes up with an idea to make something benign a threat, it gets acted upon with a dramatic overreaction, such as having to take off your shoes (even flip flops) when some dumbass tried to light his shoes on fire, and having to throw out toothpaste and shampoo since someone planned to use liquid explosives. I'm not sure what part of this scenario is resulting in me being more free, or even being the same amount of free, since the government is doing this to protect the freedoms we in theory already had. I'm certainly not sure which part of this is being done by the brave; for being brave we sure respond strongly to a lot of fear. My question is this...how come the billions of other ways to kill people haven't been addressed by the TSA? If somehow stopping bad people from hurting people on planes is going to protect all of our freedoms, why aren't glasses banned, or pens? I've seen "The Godfather," a pair of glasses can quickly be used as a weapon. Also, anything glass can be shattered or broken and then be used as a weapon, why is glass allowed on a plane? I've seen plastic knives, not only is there a very sharp plastic lettuce knife which is sold that can bypass security, but once I tried to cut myself with a plasticware knife given to me in an in-flight meal, and I was able to do so easily with one swipe (get over it, I was trying to see how sharp it was, I'm not into hurting myself). We all know the movie snakes on a plane, and on the last flight I was on a woman snuck a parakeet on the plane in her pocket since she was afraid the flight attendants would take it, and it got out. How easy would it be to bring poisonous or dangerous animals onto a plane, especially since many cold blooded reptiles will hibernate if they get too cold and reanimate once they warm up. The point is, we can't plan for every contingency, and shouldn't have to. Yea, some people blew up planes, but it caused enough of a reaction that no plane full of people would ever let three guys with box cutters take over a plane again, especially if instead of box cutters they had a nail clipper, a lighter, and a can of aftershave. If this is the land of the free and the home of the brave, I'm not afraid of Al-Quaeda bringing planes down on my head and suddenly having every woman I know having to cover their knees when they go outside. I'm afraid of the government hijacking patriotism in order to satisfy personal agendas that give them more power and give me less freedom. Remember, the government bailed out most of the airline industry, and not only are taxes on flights now higher but I still have had a disaster in one way or another on 8 of my last 9 flights, and the government controlled FAA prevents airlines from operating their own better services outside the structure of the existing and defunct airport system. Welcome to the land of the free and the home of the brave.