X is…

I reference Amway only because I was thinking about some of the people I was surrounded with while living amongst the NTCC.  Mind you, I was not part of them, they just grew up around our house.

The lady across the street sold Amway.  She would often solicit our house looking for us to buy some of the overpriced crap that Amway has been famous for over the years.  Really, and I think we all know this, people who sold Amway were less interested in selling Amway products and more interested in selling Amway as a business.  The more people a person signed up, the more likely they were to be receiving bigger checks as everybody under them has to pay up the pyramid.

I also worked with a couple people who sold Amway.  They drove me nuts.

Could be Mary Kay Cosmetics or I remember some vitamins that people were selling or these water purifiers.  Maybe they were all part of the same company with different branches.  The fact is that people are always looking to get rich fast and easy.  People are always looking for the easy way to success.

I’ve often felt that most churches run the same type of program.  Quite honestly, Amway may have very well learned from the church.

People come to my house all the time, especially since I moved into the new neighborhood, looking to get us to go to their church.  By converting people, they have found themselves a fast track to heaven.  Being good is not enough.  Converting is.  The more people that a person converts, the better.

More realistically, I believe that many churches are based around money.  That’s a huge part of how I felt while watching the NTCC work and operate.  Those at the top of the church had nice stone homes at the front of the road.  The lower a person ranked with the church, then the dorm was the place.  Quickly built and boring to look at, the dorms were a good way to get people into the church and provide them with a place to live without spending too much.

Or I look at Casey Treat.  This idiot preaches out of the Seattle area and is on television quite often.  With drives to get people to the church, Casey Treat runs a pyramid scheme.

The lady across the street blamed our dog for tearing up some of her Amway product dropped off by the UPS guy.  We had to buy some.  It was worthless crap.  We threw it out.

Popularity: 44% [?]

I love baseball.  It’s one of those things that I hold on to from my childhood.

I love that the season lasts so long and that it is the most statistically meaningful sport there is.  Nine players must bast in order.  There’s no strong side or power position that takes care of the brunt of the work.

I used to request the first week of the season off from work.  I didn’t even watch every game I could, but knowing that the season was going and having some games available was relaxing enough for me.  Even if I don’t have the chance to take opening week off, I still enjoy that first game of the season.  Opening night.

Presented in HD on ESPN and brought to us by some car, a deodorant, and a beer, opening night is still opening night.  The season has begun.  Watching that first pitch and not even remembering whether it was a strike or not.  Baseball is baseball.

With that first pitch, I know that there are a couple thousand games to follow.  I believe the number is 2,429 barring any rain outs or other cancellations for various reasons.

It’s peace in my mind knowing that the cold winter is over and that spring has officially begun.  To hell with Easter and bunny rabbits and all other signs of spring.  Baseball is what I need and I relish in that first pitch.

So Major League Baseball has decided to outsource the home field for opening day this season.  To deliver to the another country in a completely different time zone our first pitch.

Disappointment is waking up in the morning, checking headlines and seeing that the game has completed.  That the opening game of the season was an exciting game that went 10 innings.  That game two was a well pitched game by Harden that caused a split between Boston and Oakland.  That I missed it and somehow the season has begun without me.

I suppose I can still enjoy the first game on Sunday night on ESPN sponsored by a car, a beer, and Viagra all the same.  But it won’t be the same.  I can look at the standings right now and there are already a couple games played.

I’ve been cheated.  I’m disappointed.  I’ll probably get over it.

Seems to be the nature of corporations in general.

Popularity: 32% [?]

Strange title for an atheist blog.

A friend of mine is a non-believer, but she has decided that taking her kids to a church is a good way to influence the world that she is a good mother. That’s what a nasty divorce and a Christian society will do to us. I’m bothered by this, yet I find it intriguing.

Years ago when I was going to college, I took a comparative religions course. I found it to be an excellent way to learn about cultures and societies that I am not a part of. Hell, I found it an excellent way to learn about the society that I [I]am[/I] a part of. Let’s face it. Our societal differences are often dictated by the religion that dominates the country or society in question.

The course was great. I actually got a C in the course, but as proof that grades are more-or-less meaningless, I can discuss religion with just about anybody and I often know more than they do about their own faith. I have excellent reference material that I kept from the course and I really did learn a ton.

Back to my friend. She’s trying out several churches in an effort to find a good fit for her children and a good place for to actually make it through a service. She’s been to church a week for the last few weeks and has some interesting opinions.

I’ve always wanted to do this. I want to make a plan. I want to create a course in which I go to a different church a week for six or seven weeks. I want to learn the differences between the denominations. I want to understand how the different churches pray and perform service. I want to go in with a notebook and take notes. The notes would be about the pastor, the congregation, the sermon, and anything else that happens.

As hard-headed as I am against faith, my wife will likely think that I am creating an excuse to go out and have an affair. I don’t believe that my children are old enough to understand what they are witnessing at each church, so I would want to go at it without them.

I will let you know if I go. My friend has asked me to go. She has asked me for my opinion on the happenings. I also would be interested in her take.

Of course, what I really want to say is- religion does not make you better person. Nor does it make you a better mother. But when it comes down to reputation and child custody rights, most people will do whatever they have to.

Popularity: 34% [?]

I’m scanning through some articles this morning while trying to motivate myself to get ready for work.  I come across a headline that catches my eye.  It’s an op-ed piece by Walter Rodgers entitled Liberalism is Gone- Don’t Let Tolerance Pass With It.

This is a fairly well written piece from a very liberal perspective.  It contains some decent lines in a very dull manner about how liberals in America do not exist anymore.  How for years liberals in America were the norm and the driving group.

If I remember my political science course from a few years back well enough to comment, conservatives are the status quo party while liberals are the party of change.  Of course, most people associate the two parties with different words anymore.  There is a certain anger with the other party that shouldn’t really exist.

I will quote one part of the article, though, because it’s the only part of the article that is new and actually means something.   The rest was opinion with no call to action or inspiration for me to do anything more than read the article.

When I was a young reporter covering the House of Representatives in 1968, a very decent California congressman, a liberal named Jeff Cohelan, sat me down in his office late one evening and gave me a tutorial on American politics. “Young man,” he asked, “Do you know what liberalism is?” I had no ready answer. “The essence of true liberalism,” he said, “is tolerance.” And he repeated it, “tolerance.”

I believe that this is the basis of any atheist blog.  Granted, many of them rant and rave like Christian fundamentalists, but, deep down, all they really want is for a tolerant society.  They want atheists to be as recognized for their non-beliefs and Christians are for their beliefs.

At least that’s all I want.

Politics and religion in the United States have both moved in the direction of intolerance for years.  The most popular radio personalities being the most intolerant and the most successful political candidates being absolutely intolerable which drives a feeling of apathy in many people.  I know turnout has been high, but it’s a truly apathetic turnout voting between people who are essentially the same and not demanding something different from anybody.

I believe that if everybody approached life with tolerance and benevolence we would be far better off than how the United States currently displays itself.

There is an overriding feeling of intolerance, especially, in our, seemingly growing, religious right.  I honestly believe that much of the policy that drives this administration and the popular vote is that of intolerance.  That all others are wrong and we’re right.  That you are either with us or against us.

Here’s hoping for a tolerable near future, but I’m not holding my breath.

Popularity: 36% [?]

Holy Fucking Shit!

Cuss Free Zone has been declared in South Pasadena.

So this fucking 14 year old decided that his morals and values needed to become everybody else’s morals and values and he started a no cussing club.

“My mom and dad always taught me good morals, good values, and not cussing was one of them,” said McKay Hatch, the founder of South Pasadena High School’s No Cussing Club, during a recent break between study hall and tennis practice.

“I’ve cussed before, I’m not gonna lie to you,” Hatch quickly added. “But I try not to cuss any more.”

For the same god damn reason that I can’t stand people preaching to me, I can’t stand people telling how to speak. The club I’m cool with. That’s his choice. That’s the choice of all the fucking people on the web site he created. It’s not my choice.

A city can make the first week of March no cussing week, but if they get to the point that violators will be prosecuted, then we have a different fucking problem. The same problem I have with the fucking ten commandments.

Let’s examine why we need such a club.

The list consists of:

1. Shit
2. Piss
3. Fuck
4. Cunt
5. Cocksucker
6. Motherfucker
7. Tits

From George Carlin’s bit years and years ago.  The seven words you can not say on television.

Not that I need a comedian’s rant to get this idea rolling in my head.  The idea that certain words are arbitrarily determined to be “bad” words by some yahoo is absolutely shitty.  The fact is that most curse words are only bad to those who hear them.

Take music for example.

Years ago there was a song called I’ll Make Love to You.  It was a huge hit and played on the radio everywhere.  A few years later a song called Closer by Nine Inch Nails hit the airwaves cut up and edited because Trent Reznor said “I want to fuck you like an animal.”

Where’s the difference between the two songs?  Both are about how much the singer would like to have sexual intercourse with somebody else, but one gets played unedited and the other received giggles and bleeps.  Sex is sex and the terms used to describe it are based on the user’s mood, period.

Here’s the deal:  If you’re offended, turn the fucking station, walk the fuck away, or go make a fucking club.

Don’t give me shit about how you don’t think that blue language is appropriate.

Does replacing fuck with fudge and shit with crap and damn with darn make the words any less offensive?  It’s the same meaning.  It’s the same intent.  Isn’t that really what should be considered?  Intent.

My two daughters thought that the word stupid was a bad word for years.  You know what?  It is a fucking bad word!  When words are used to harm or make a person feel bad, then it is bad.  Or at least it’s not good.

Gomer Pyle said “Shazam.”  Remember?  Should have been censored.

Anyway, there’s my thoughts about a cuss free zone.  It’s fucking ridiculous.  Sometimes, the right word really brings the point home.  Sometimes, non-cuss words are more abusive.  Sometimes, 14 year-old boys are boys and shouldn’t be involved in legislature.

I recommend whole-heartedly FCC-free week.  I think it would be fun.  Tell the FCC to fuck off and go to hell for one week.  Let them sit on their thumbs and see how far it gets.  Let the media do what they want.  People will either turn off or get turned on.  We’ll never know.

Popularity: 41% [?]