Do NOT Turn Jesus On¹

Now we know what they mean by “Jesus is the light of the world”.

1. Creative Commons http://flickr.com/photos/sepultura/2282088722/ [↩]

Its been about a year since Danish newspapers (and subsequently others around the world) published some cartoons poking fun and the religion of Islam. We all know the story: outcry, censorship, violence, destruction, etc.

This week, many newspapers republished the cartoons (posted below) in response to a foiled attempt to murder the cartoonist¹ . Many people claim that such cartoons are hateful and discriminatory. Check a dictionary (or better yet, the koran). They are merely descriptive.

What’s the difference between description and discrimination? Well, discrimination targets people. You might hate country music, but that doesn’t mean you discriminate against country singers. Similarly, these cartoons are not examples of discrimination, they are comments on the tenets of Islam. They do not advocate harming Muslims or hatred against any Muslim - what a ludicrous conclusion. You do not have a right NOT to be offended.

Or perhaps I have the right to kill anyone that challenges my Atheism, musical taste, or gawky posture. Any religious person that claims I deserve to suffer in hell because my beliefs should be murdered or imprisoned. That is hatred; that is musical non-religious bigotry of the highest order. Welcome to my struggle² .

1. Danish papers republish Prophet cartoon. Reuters UK. 13 February 2008. [↩]
2. English for ‘Jihad‘ [↩]

All too often, the case in defense of marijuana is tainted by prejudice, stupidity, and incoherence. In the spirit of political jargon, here’s how to defend your beliefs with more sophisticated wordplay.

Lesson 1 - Deflecting the issue

Q: You think marijuana should be legal? What are you, some kind of pothead?

A: I’ll tell you what I am. I am a firm believer in the philosophical notions of liberty and truth (this might throw off your opponent beyond recovery already). I therefore reject the continuation of a policy that stands in firm contradiction to those notions.

Lesson 2 - Give a little, Take a lot

Q: The truth is that marijuana is a dangerous substance. It causes respiratory illness, psychosis, memory loss, and other problems. How can you possibly call yourself a believer in the truth and deny these facts?

A: I’ll pretend for a moment, that your ‘facts’ are not grossly over-exaggerated and that the scientific support is unquestionable. The truth is that most of these claims are much different than the original reasons for criminalizing marijuana. The lies that it is toxic, creates murderers & heroine addicts, and that it causes permanent psychosis for all users - have long been proven false. If the original reasons for criminalizing it have proven false, there is no longer reason for it to remain criminal.^{1 234}

Lesson 3 - Flipping the Issue; Go on the attack

A: These NEW claims you speak of, pale in comparison to the originals. Should we really ban anything that might increase the risk of common ailments? Should you be put in jail for eating cholesterol?

Lesson 4 - Hardcore logic for weak associations

Q: But marijuana use leads to harder drugs and profits go towards organized crime. How can you possibly support such results?

A: Profits go to organized crime because well, its a crime. If it weren’t a crime, its profits would go elsewhere. Similarly, heroine is a crime. Those people that get heavily involved in marijuana are more likely to get involved with heroine because, the same organized criminals are distributing it. Therefore, marijuana criminalization causes heroine use, not marijuana itself.

Lesson 5 - When all else fails, lie…well

Q: My daughter got into marijuana when she was 16. Today, she’s a crack addict prostituting herself for spare change. Its people like you that allow such things to continue. How do you live with yourself?

A: My grandfather was in the military. He smoked marijuana on a daily basis in order to cope with the stress and trauma, as did many of his fellow soldiers. Without marijuana, the allies would have struggled to defeat the German’s in World War II. I think a world where your daughter is a crack addicted prostitute is more pleasant than a world where each of us is in a slave camp, mutated by genetic experimentation. Don’t you?

 Print This Post

1. You can also suggest that marijuana has medical applications. Here’s some references to get you started: [↩]
2. “We conclude that this CBM [cannabis-based medicine] may represent a useful new agent for treatment of the symptomatic relief of spasticity in MS.” -Christine Collin, MD, et al. “Randomized Controlled Trial of Cannabis-Based Medicine in Spasticity Caused by Multiple Sclerosis”. European Journal of Neurology. Vol. 14, No. 3, Page 290. Mar. 2007. [↩]
3. ”Smoked cannabis was well tolerated and effectively relieved chronic neuropathic pain from HIV-associated sensory neuropathy The findings are comparable to oral drugs used for chronic neuropathic pain.” -Donald I. Abrams, MD et al. “Cannabis in Painful HIV-Associated Sensory Neuropathy: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial”. Neurology. Vol. 68, Pages 515-521. Feb. 2007. [↩]
4. “Treatment with cannabinoids had been shown to reduce the invasiveness of cancer cells, but the cellular mechanisms underlying this effect were unclear.” -Burkhard Hinz, PhD, et. al. “Inhibition of Cancer Cell Invasion by Cannabinoids via Increased Expression of Tissue Inhibitor of Matrix Metalloproteinases-1″. Journal of the National Cancer Institute Vol. 100, Number 1, Page 51. Dec. 25, 2007. [↩]

Scientology Pamphlet¹

Protest the Church of Scientology? Why not.

Anonymous or not, online oganizers decided to change the news, focus on a powerful organization, and show distaste for it. The nice thing about action: you don’t have to worry about libel or hate speech. It’s curious vocalized criticism of doctors, pharmacists, or homosexuals² doesn’t qualify as hatred/discrimination (But thats another issue).

For weeks anonymous videos have been threatening the church and organizing a modern media crusade. Some people went further, sending fake anthrax letters to Churches in Los Angeles³ .

Why you ask?

It definitely isn’t due to fraudulent and criminal activities, secrecy, destructive beliefs or opportunistic emotional brainwashing. So what then? Why the anger?

Maybe people in their 20’s just have nothing better to do with their time. They need some senseless, random, cause. There just aren’t enough causes for concern to keep us occupied. We crave senseless discrimination. We are legion.

I am what? Babling? No. I am fair and balanced - scientific even. I told you the what, but what about the why?

Why not? Get up off your as this Sunday. Forget about your exams, work, mass?, or hangover nursing for a day. Embrace the opportunity. Save your political passivity for Monday. Drop some acid with your MAOI’s and Ritalin while smoking a joint outside Scientology headquarters; just cause that’s your right⁴ . Do what’s right.⁵

 Print This Post

1. Creative Commons http://www.flickr.com/photos/groovymother/527216967/sizes/m/ [↩]
2. Just threw this one out there, not that its necessarily Scientology related [↩]
3. Mailings to Scientology sites probed. L.A. Times. 31 January 2008. [↩]
4. To find a location nearest you click here [↩]
5. Not Wendy’s [↩]

Fetus in a tube¹

So the age of human cloning has begun… A scientist clones himself.

And, as expected, a moral battle has ensued. Its important to understand exactly what is at issue. We are not dealing with the actual birth of any clones - the idea is to use cloning as a means to obtain stem cells for patients suffering from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, transplant patients, diabetes sufferers, and many others. It isn’t The 6th Day or The Island people; the embryos only live several days.

But some people panic (surprise!). They think that this akin to breeding for spare parts, playing god, genetic engineering, or a small step towards much more serious experimentation. Richard Doerflinger, a representative of the Catholic Church says,

It does not answer the ethical or social questions about the mass-production of developing human lives in order to destroy them. . . . It only tells us that these questions are more urgent than ever.²

Fortunately for Doerflinger, most science does not make ethical arguments. Nonetheless, nobody is ‘developing human lives in order to destroy them’ - except maybe god.

We are attempting to develop pre-human lives, in order to save actual lives and benefit those around them. Where did this ludicrous idea of associating mysticism to the moment of conception come from anyway? If it wasn’t for the sciences of biology and anatomy, Doerflinger might accuse people of ethical malpractice for building mud sculptures. As far as religious texts are concerned, God is ignorant of fetal development.

And yet, there is something odd about this cloning business isn’t there? Though somehow I doubt it has anything to do with ‘killing’ anything worthy of our moral consideration. Maybe Hollywood did it to us; maybe it’s the danger of a black market; or maybe our prehistoric ego’s can’t accept the fact that each one of us is just a natural, duplicable, machine.

Or what do I know? Maybe there is a divine plan behind rape pregnancies, miscarriages, deformed children, and conjoint twins. But if that’s intelligent design, I’m proud to be a moron.

 Print This Post

1. Creative Commons http://www.flickr.com/photos/thaumata/317263639/ [↩]
2. Mature Human Embryos Created From Adult Skin Cells. Washington Post. 18 January 2008. [↩]

In the aftermath of Vancouver’s recent RCMP taser killing tragedy, the rug-sweep press extravaganza has taken full charge. If you haven’t seen this yet, see video below.

We begin with the Vancouver Airport Authority attempting to divert any blame towards management or personnel responsibility. Why didn’t anyone offer help, support, or translation? We all know how frustrating the airport can be… imagine 12 hours of delay, confusion, getting lost, and a complete inability to communicate. Think you might get a bit agitated?

Apparently the problem is infrastructure. According to Chief Executive Larry Berg,

“I think that we’ve lost a little bit of the human touch, the ability to reach out to people, individuals who may have different, unique circumstances, such as this individual did.”¹

No shit. When a foreign visitor gets lost for 12 hours in a major international airport that is preparing for the Olympic Games, I would expect some concerns. But despite the god-awful absence of systemized customer assistance - it is a sickening realization that the airport personnel did not step up to diffuse the situation. Anyhow, the Vancouver Airport Authority, in all its divine wisdom, decided to throw some consumer money on the issue in hopes of concealing this rather ugly scar. I’m sure $1.3 million will give their hollow apologies a voice.

On to the RCMP, who, do indeed have a tough job. Which is exactly why such a job shouldn’t be taken lightly. A few days ago Big Shot Mounties announced new regulations to restrict the use of tasers for individuals who are “combative” or “actively resistant”. Well ummm… do you really need a regulation that says that?

While admitting that tasers have been used inappropriately in the past, no clear indication was given whether the death of Robert Dziekanski was one of those circumstances. Hard to get greedy I suppose; its difficult enough to have the RCMP admit they make mistakes, let alone point one out in particular.

The simple answer to all this hubub is responsibility. Questions about whether tasers should even be used or whether they are torture are ludicrous. If you want a proper police force then they must be equipped to enforce… but if you want them to make sound judgments, you have to equip them with training and responsibility. The attitude of superiority and the mindless reflexes of these officers should be our prime concern.

But nobody wants to talk about that. So let us move on. Let us sweep these grains of infuriating incompetence beneath us. Sweep it away. Now repeat after me “the government and RCMP is only there for my protection.”

Good.

Feel better?

You won’t after watching this:

 Print This Post

1. Vancouver Airport Authority spending $1.3 million in wake of Polish man’s death. Canadian Press. 7 December 2007. [↩]

Well its been a while, a 4-month while, since my last post. Sorry for the delay but things have been crazy: working overtime, full course load, worshiping satan, etc. And lots has happened:

• Pickton was found guilty
• Marijuana laws are again found unconstitutional in Canada ¹
• I temporarily converted to Mormonism
• Warren Jeffs found guilty (the reason I joined)²
• RCMP Taser a Polish Man to Death
• Rise of Ron Paul³
• BitTorrent Crackdown

Good news is I have some time off. But I’m also working to get some freelance clientèle so if you need some web work either let me know or fill out my quote form. In the mean time I will be finishing up some drafts that I’ve put off for months and also looking for new material. Not sure about my yearly Christmas article as yet, but we’ll see; otherwise I’ll post an oldie.

That’s it for now.

 Print This Post

1. Pot Activists Hail Pot Victory. Canadian Press. 19 November 2007. [↩]
2. Jeffs’ charge, trial, sentence ‘unjust’ says lawyer. National Post. 20 November 2007. [↩]
3. see RonPaul2008.com [↩]