Preconceived notions based on faulty subjective views

In order to properly disseminate an objective opinion about any topic, one must sever themselves from all preconceived notions they may have about the topic.

That statement above is dedicated to my friend at work, Rick.  When I first met him and managed to sit down and talk to him, it came out that I was an atheist.  His response, to this day, amuses me, “Well, I’ve never met anyone like you.  We’ll work on it and get you back on the right path.”  My first response was laughter, followed by something like, “Yeah right, not gonna happen.”

So since that time, Rick and I have talked about all manner of topics only barely glancing upon religion a couple times but not really addressing it head-on.  That changed this last week.

As I’ve slowly begun to extend myself in friendship to some of my co-workers, it has come to a serious head that I really am surrounded by quite a few very deeply religious people.  What I have learned, and should have expected, was their complete ignorance of what atheism is.  I pity these people because they really have, despite what they say, lived inside a very small box and only been allowed to see just a single small aspect of life.  For some people, that’s the only thing they’ll ever see and they’ll never know anything else, and while the number of those people is overwhelming, I accept that there’s nothing I can do about it, just like I can do nothing about death-rates due to cancer, heart-disease, starvation, war, etc.  I just can’t let myself get pulled down emotionally with that much pity.  Instead, I’ll focus on the people that are starting to peek outside of their box.

In my conversations with Rick, we’ve both sat at his laptop reading scripture, he throws out his understanding, I throw out mine.  I’ve been relentless in my attacks of both old and new testament writings to the point where we both know there is nothing more to say about it.  My last conversation with Rick about this topic was based on yet another complete misconception.  He said, “When you see it in that light, Jim, life is meaningless.  You have to just ask, ‘why even live.’”  To which I spoke most clearly, “No Rick, that is completely wrong.  There is absolutely nothing more important than living, nothing.  It is the most important thing we, as living human beings, have.”  He hasn’t spoken to me at all about the topic since then.  We’ve talked, just not about that.

So back to my first statement about faulty presuppositions, I provided a couple of examples in these previous sentences, now I want to conclude with one more.

Andy and I had a brief ’sharing of opinions’ over an article I posted a week or so ago and his own example exemplifies what I’m talking about here.  He used the history of the Civil War and how in the south it’s taught as northern aggression and in the north it’s taught as states rights and slave ownership.  While both aspects are true, it’s not the whole story and for a northern-man and a southern-man to understand the truth, they have to forget about what they were taught and relearn it from the different perspective.  That’s when the true beauty of the human mind’s ability to puzzle together knowledge into reality comes to light.  It takes discipline to do, something that many of the talking heads on the news have absolutely no clue about.

What I’m talking about here is something that all journalists USED to know but they’ve managed to forget about such a troublesome concept such as fact-checking and being objective.  I’ll pick on Beck, O’Reilly, and Hannity just because they’re some of the well known and worse at it.

I’ve also encountered recently, people who want to argue against a particular aspect of a topic but have absolutely no knowledge of what they’re arguing against.  They don’t do anyone, especially themselves, any favors and instead make themselves look completely foolish.  I don’t want people to look foolish or act ignorantly.  It’s one of the  things that I really want to see changed in this world.

So I’ll end this topic here with the caveat that I am not any better but what I will defend myself with is that I at least try to learn and see things objectively.  Too many people do not.

Random Thoughts

random thoughts

1. Children by nature don’t know anything when they’re born, at least not acquired knowledge.

2. Therefore, children eventually develop the concept of ‘magic’ where all actions that they do not understand, are attributed to a magical force.  I think that is the nature of the developing mind.

3. This magic that children tend to believe in can easily be called, god.

4. The concept of god is independent of religion.  Religion needs god but god does not need religion.

5. Children are so dangerously impressionable about god and religion at such a young age because they have not acquired enough knowledge.  This allows parents or other authority figures to skew the natural development of the brain.  Or in other words, it encourages the children to be afraid of the sense of god that they have come to understand within themselves.  That sense of god is only those things that they do not understand.  For example, sun-rise, sun-set, why the moon remains in the sky, what are the stars, where did people come from, who made the cute little bunny rabbit, etc.  Those things we most adults already know, children do not know and have never known but have noticed that they happen with regularity by a force that is beyond their understanding.

6. It is natural for the human mind to quest to ‘kill their god.’  or what I would otherwise call, learn.

7. A baby may not consciously believe in anything but to them, their parents are their gods.

Rambling on about Untrue Histories

To the victors goes the pen to write history.   Funny thing is though, throughout the history of the world this saying hasn’t always been true.  Take Israel for example.  Their history is contained in their Torah or what Christians call the Old Testament.   It is mostly a fictitious writing.  Evidence supporting my claim is provided by the written histories of the other nations in that region during the time that the Jews make their claims.  Egyptian history, a very well studied and documented story doesn’t subtantiate many of the claims made in the Torah and often contradict them.  So the best that the Jewish scholars can do is find places in Egyptian history where their stories could have taken place.  An example of this is who exactly was the pharaoh in charge during the time of the exodus and the whole premise of passover?  Some say it was Ramses but in my study of this topic in particular, the range of possibilities is pretty large.  Such difficulty in providing dates and names for such a profoundly devastating event should by all reasonable standards bring the truth to the event into question.

Today, we have a much bigger problem with rewriting history.  It’s the Christians that are trying to rewrite the history of the United States if not the world at large.  It goes back to the rise of Catholicism in Europe and the very shady and evil methods that were used by these religious authorities to justify killing and torture.  We have  the constant use of untruth to support their positions and because of them being religious, feel that the use of such untrue information is not subject to inquiry or criticism.

Our forefathers warned us about the growing power of these such groups that wished to undermine the very purpose that America was founded upon.  Jefferson did it, Lincoln did it Eisenhower did as well.  Creeping through our history are the small changes that went unnoticed or only slightly challenged like changing the pledge of allegiance to say ‘under god’ and printing money to say, ‘in god we trust’ on it.  These small changes have rode  through history for so long now that today’s generation make assumptions that such a things have always been and provides them the false basis that America was founded on the concept of god or religion or Christian values.  The religious are rewriting the history of the United States, slowly, but the lying mask they’ve put on our history is still there and starting to look more and more like truth instead of the bullshit that it really is.

For the Jews of the time that their book was written, they had no power at all in that region.  They never did.  They were always a part of another kingdom whether it was Egyptian, Hittite, Persian, Macedonian, etc.  It was only in the last 100 years or so that they started to become a political player on a large scale.

The opposite goes for Christians.  Through the more recent history it is only the use of sheer numbers that is allowing such a rewrite of history to take place.  If everyone tells the same untrue story then eventually everyone will believe the untrue to be true.

This is the constant battle between those that seek the truth objectively and those who were spoon-fed their truth through a single source.

Homosexuality

It is true that the child must be taught bigotry.  While neither of my parents ever said to me, “You must hate gay people.” Their own attitudes about it echoed the sentiment quite clearly.  This led me to my own set of wrongheaded beliefs and attitudes.  Those attitudes didn’t really take shape until I was out of high school.  When I think about any time prior to graduation, I can’t really recall having any hate towards that part of society.  Really, in the late 80’s the stigma was still strong enough to keep people in the closet about their sexual preferences, especially kids.

I used the bible to justify my hate, as so many do today.  I thought I was right to do so and nobody could tell me differently.   My big mouth and bad attitude caused me to loose a friend or two over those early years.  I did manage to tame myself about it over the next 15 years or so but I held onto that belief that homosexuality was wrong all the way until about 2006.

In late 2006 I had a massive revelation about religion and god.  I realized that it was all bullshit and that my true love of all things science was where the truth was to be told.  I turned to Deism and found myself participating in a message group on Myspace.  The topic of homosexuality was the first one that I participated in.  I thought I had all the answers, based on nature – it was un-natural to be homosexual, therefore homosexuality is wrong.  Case closed.  The problem was, I couldn’t stop thinking about my reaction.  I couldn’t stop thinking about all that hate I had felt all those years.  My rational and logical mind was relentless about this part of me.  I had a need to destroy that hate.  This was completely unexpected.  The more I listened to the rational voice inside my head, the more I realized that I was so so so wrong for feeling the way I did and that I needed to do something about it.

I went back to the group on Myspace and explained myself to everyone and told them all how wrong I was, how wrong I had been for so long and that I was sorry for harboring such vile thoughts.  The fundamental ideology that began to dominate my entire being was that we are exactly who we are, there is no right or wrong way to be yourself.  I really began to see just how terrible the power of religious conviction is.

I am no longer an deist but now consider myself an atheist.

While I may not be homosexual, as an atheist I can certainly relate to the self-righteous bigotry and contempt that they receive from the world at large, mostly from those who are religious.  I thank deism and atheism for freeing me from that world full of hate.

I offer sincere apology to those who I have hurt directly or indirectly as a result of my hate.  I thank my friends for forgiving me for my acts of stupidity.  I also offer my sincerest consolation to those that still have to deal with such brainless bigotry.  A day will come when society will have grown up enough to accept that we are who we are.

(disclaimer: i never directly hurt anyone physically because of my hatreds, it was all purely attitude and exclusion)

Freedom of Speech

First, read or at least skim through this article:

Fox News gets OK to misinform public

Now, here is where the Judgement was wrong.  Yelling ‘Fire’ in a loaded theater just to see the reaction is not considered ‘free speech’, the reasons for this should be pretty obvious.  There is no difference between yelling fire and deliberately misinforming the public.  Both result in causing unfounded histeria which may or may not cause injury, either mental or physical.

Obviously, this case needs to be pressed on towards a higher court.

Yay!

Well, after having the State of Michigan Thieves raid my bank account of every fucking cent I had, a month and a half later, I have pulled myself out of that goddam hole.

I have a big middle finger for those pricks.  Like I said all along, they’re going to have to steal that money from me because I do not give it willingly to pay for a law that is unconstitutional.

So, all my bills are now paid in full again, my rent was paid on time, I have no worries right now.

Drivers Responsibility Fee in Michigan

The federal government has always supported the citizens right to travel among the united states.

The federal government has granted the states the priviledge of regulating who should and should not drive on the public roads.

The states advertise that driving is a priviledge and not a right. If you are capable of driving on the roads safely, then you have the right to drive.

The responsibility of keeping the roads safe is that of the states, counties, and cities. This includes making sure that the people driving on the roads are doing so safely, and that the roads themselves are in a good enough condition in which to drive on.

This costs money which the states, counties, and cities recoop by enforcing that cars are registered with the states each year, that you also have a drivers license that shows you are capable of driving on the roads, safely. There are other taxes that go along with creating monetary income for the states such as the tax on gasoline.

Fines are put into place, as well, which help distribute money to the budgets which are used to keep the roads safe for everyone.

It’s pretty simple. You break a law, you pay a fine. Each fine has its monetary value which is set by (i don’t know who sets these).

My first question is what is the guideline for setting the value of each fine? I would have to assume that there is a fine line between maximizing the value of the fine and exceeding the value, making the fine itself unconstitutional.

The US Consitution says the following in the 8th amendment:
“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”

Michigan has a copy of this amendment in their own constitution and I would assume that the other states do as well.

The DRF was challenged in the Michigan Supreme Court as being a violation of the double-jeopardy portion of the state’s constitution. The court did not see it as a violation and knocked down that ruling, stating that the fine and fee are all a part of the conviction.

That is where the DRF is wrong, since it is all of the same conviction, and the fines themselves are set to not violate the 8th amendment, any additional fees attributed to the crime is a violation of the 8th.

I’m not argueing against the fines that must be paid when a person breaks the law while driving. I agree that this type of regulation needs to be there. But the fines are set at the value they are for a reason, to maximize punishment while not breaking the 8th.

My case is as thus:
I drove with lapsed insurance and got pulled over. Got the ticket for NPI. I didn’t pay the fine. I got pulled over again and got a second ticket for NPI and since I hadn’t paid the fine, my license had been suspended, so I got that ticket as well, which is a misdemeanor and required me to go to court.

Having learned the lesson, I never again have lapsed on my insurance, not once.

I had to take time out from work in order to go to the courthouse in Mason and sit in front of the magistrate and plead guilty to the driving on suspended and the other tickets. I was required to pay all the fines right then and there. This cost me upwards of 750 dollars, cash I had to beg for.

That was it. I felt good about doing the right thing and getting my shit straight.

Then came the DRF letters. First year, 900 dollars, second year 900 dollars. Failure to pay will result in the suspension of your drivers license.

So now the culmination of all fines and fees together totals 2550 dollars. Had I been in the court room and been told that this is what I owed, I would have freaked out but I would also have done what needed to be done to pay it off. However, that is not the case in Michigan.

There was nobody else in the court room with me while I pled guilty to the crimes.  The magistrate that was sitting there did not charge me with these fees.  It’s like the state suddenly decided that it has the right to send you a bill for services that you had never requested.

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I would also like to add that 2 states that I know of have tried to emulate this same thing. Virginia and Texas. Both states have since repealed them.

Fucking Economy (cont)

So my last blog was about the economy and how I had just learned about the future layoff.

What has happened?  I moved to Kentucky.  I avoided the layoff.

For now.

Instead of working under GM’s setting, I’m working under Ford now.  Still facing the same uncertainty but at least I’m working.

It also looks like I have the stability that I was missing.  Only time will tell, however.

Fucking Economy

This bullshit that is going on with the economy is … bullshit!

How the fuck is our economy going to get any better when people by the thousands are loosing their jobs?  It’s absolutely crazy.

I’m about to loose my job as late as February.  My curse?  Working in IT in an automotive manufacturing environment.  I work for a supplier of General Motors.

GM is pissing all over my quest to be happy in this life.  Now it looks like I will have to either move to a different company and learn a whole new environment all over again or take the massive risk of taking another 2nd shift position down in Kentucky working again for the automotive industry.  I want some fucking stability to my career but haven’t had too good of a run on it.

I love what I do as well.  I’m good at it and my goal was to move from IT into an Engineering position along with taking classes to get another degree but again, that plan is coming to a crashing halt.

The alternative view that I’ve begun to take up is the idea of opening up my own goddam company and put a shit load of people to work.  Doesn’t that seem a little odd?  Opening a business in order to put people to work instead of trying to make money?  Yeah, probably is but I’m open to all ideas that would fulfill both ideals – making money and keeping people working.

The green energy market doesn’t seem all that booming to me at the moment.  What on earth could I do in that area that would put 300 people to work and give them a future?  Stem Cell research is definitely something that interests me but where the hell would I start to open a lab and get something like that going?  Now that Marijuana is legal in Michigan for medical use, it seems to me that there could be a great case for farming and processing the stuff.

Ideally, I would like to just build shit.  I love the technology and the dance associated with putting shit together.  To me,  it’s art and it’s life.

Some gals I work with

Ok, I started writing about this earlier today (yesterday for you day shifters).  The topic was inspired by my first close encounter with one of the really hot ladies that work in my plant.  Her name is Ashleigh.   She’s also the niece of one of the supervisors… eeek.  She’s younger than me by something close to 17 years which means a couple things, first she’s not that old and that I’m not too old.  Of all the people that I know at work, she’s the best looking by far.  Now, that doesn’t mean there aren’t other hot ladies around.  Gina is the next on the list followed by Dolores, then I’d have to say Jacintha(sp).  After that the ladies are nice looking but nothing that tugs at my heart-strings.

What makes this different is that I’d never had a reason to talk to Ashleigh before and oddly enough, she’s the one that instigated it while I was trying to fix a problem at their line.  Man, when I looked up at her I nearly lost my knees.  She’s so adorable.

Yes, I’m being a dork.

Oh well.