Is Earth Day Dead?

Today, as many of you probably didn't know, is Earth Day, which was begun about 35 years ago in the United States. Today isn't the real Earth Day. The real one is on March 22. I think we should leave the date on this up to the UN, because in more ways than the USA they span the globe and that organization is useless enough to be associated with Earth Day.

According to the current CNN online poll, only 12% of respondents plan to do ANYTHING for Earth Day. I plan on doing nothing. Maybe I'll try not to through any debris onto the ground or something, but I'm not going to change my life because some liberal will feel better seeing me do it. Besides, the biggest polluter in the United States is the Federal Government and I doubt that they are going to change any policies today. In my opinion Earth Day used to mean a lot more, but has become so politicized that it is not worth it anymore.

Sex Offenders

New legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives in an attempt to prevent repeat sex offenders from being able to harm children. Specifically the law would increase penalties for sex offenders who fail to register at their new addresses.

The State of Florida has gone a step further, with legislation that would give much longer sentences to child rapists and mandate that they wear a GPS enabled lo-jack device for the rest of their lives.

I personally am against both laws.

There is one way to ensure that there are never any repeat sex offenders: mandatory execution. You rape a woman, a man, a child and it is confirmed with DNA evidence you should automatically be executed. If the DNA proves it, appeals could probably be limited.

And fuck that pussy-ass lethal injection. Some type of mutilation followed by hanging would be preferable and would probably serve as a quite a deterrent. Prison and death may not scare some people, but seeing someone's penis lopped off and fed to the pigs while he's let to slowly bleed to death for hours might do the trick.

DONE!

Well finally the all-nighter homework is done... enough. It took a little while to figure everything out, but I learned some of the concepts a few years ago in my optimization class. Remembering that stuff is what was hard! Now all I need to do is have the motivation to drive to campus and turn it in...unless I can find someone nice enough to do that for me. Or else I'll lose 10%, which sucks, although I've done that with a few of the homeworks already.

All-nighters

I think that staying up all night is a unique part of college. It is now 6am and I have been up through the night, doing homework and helping a friend out with some career related issues. I've become almost nocturnal lately, though I don't sleep more than "normal" people. Too bad my future job isn't the nightshift, I sometimes feel that I think better at night, due to the lack of distractions. Or I'm just an insomniac, though I doubt it.

My Favorite Magazine

I have recently added a link to my favorite magazine, Reason. This magazine focuses on current events and politics but has the distinction of being the most widely read libertarian leaning periodical. They bash the democrats and republicans equally, have interesting stories in sections in every issue I've purchased, along with lists of attrocious things that governments all over the world are doing. It is very well-written and has been named one of the best magazines by several major reviews (I believe it was the Chicago Tribune, but I may be wrong). The magazine only costs about $4 at the store, but you don't even have to buy it because they let you read their articles from previous issues FOR FREE online, so I suggest anyone interested to check it out.

< 10 days left

So there are now less than 10 days (excluding exams) left of my undergraduate career. Its going to be very relieving to be done with it all. My classes this semester haven't been too bad, but I feel like they are teaching me the same things over and over again, especially the business courses, but that might be good since it's unlikely I'll forget at least the main concepts (though I doubt I'll be able to price an option in 10 years). The whole experience here wasn't too bad and I'll probably be reflecting on it in the coming days. Right now I'm just trying to get my last few homeworks, projects, and exams taken care of so I can have a month of rest before I start my career over in Fairfax, VA.

Domestic Terrorism

Yesterday was the 10th Anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing in which the Murrah federal building was leveled by a bunch of diesel fuel and shit mixed together in a Ryder Van. This was the worst bombing in the United States since another nutcase blew up a school in Bath, Michigan over 50 years ago.

The Oklahoma City Bombing was a terrible thing to happen and many peoples' lives, including a lot of childrens', were lost in this attack. However, as Mad Ogre correctly points out, yesterday was also the 12 Anniversary of the federal governments act of terror against a religious sect living in Waco; this was the provocation for the Oklahoma City Bombing. In both tragedies there was a senseless loss of life (including dozens of children), but in some ways Waco was worse because instead of two whackos calling the shots, it was the government (especially Janet Reno) using its unlimited power to squash a few people who mainly wanted to be left alone.

Read Mad Ogre's post, he hits the nail on the head.

Heil Pope!

The Holy See has elected a new pope, Joseph Rotzinger (now Benedictus XVI), ironically a former Hitler Youth. Maybe that isn't so ironic though. Considering that the Vatican treats women and gays with about as much respect as Saudi Arabia (minus the beheadings) and has created more wars and deaths than Der Fuhrer could ever dream of. Sure, the Catholic Church has toned it down quite a few notches since the crusades, but it still controls over a BILLION people. Since most delusional (read: religious) people will usually hold their god above their country, it isn't going too far to say that this ultra-conservative pope has control over a good portion of the world. Thankfully out of those billion people a good portion live in the Western World and are less attuned to religious thought (it was widely conjectured that the new pope would be from a third world country, since poor, uneducated people tend to be the most religious)... Alright I'll stop with the religious cynicism for a moment. How the hell can the Holy See imagine to hold on to all these followers while they bash minorities, treat women like dogs, and tell everyone else they are going to hell?

Now everyone thinks that John Paul II was a good guy, but he was a little too prude for most of us, now wasn't he? Women have had the right to vote and property in almost every country for the last century, yet the Catholic church finds them so repulsive that they are denied all higher positions and their beloved clergy are forbidden to dirty themselves by sleeping with them (so they turn to little boys, who they hope to convert to priests someday...). It should be noted that the new pope blames the priest molestation charges on the media, not the church's rules.
Thankfully to those who would like to see major changes in the Catholic Church (since, unfortunately, it isn't going away soon), Ratzinger is the oldest pope in over 250 years so he will hopefully meet his god sometime soon.

Links Section

I have added a links section to my blog on the left. Any link I mention in my posts that I really like will probably be there for at least a while. Check 'em out, I prescreened them for you.

Carnivale Weekend

CMU had its annual Carnivale weekend from Thursday-Sunday. As usual there were a lot of lame events; basically all of the frats and sororities and other special interest groups design "booths" which usually contain some kind of games. They also compete in a soap box derby called "buggy." I didn't really experience any of these wonderful (ha) events.
Carl flew in on Thursday and spent the weekend here. It was really fun. We went bowling at Forward Lanes, a pretty retro place. We also went shooting at Anthony Arms. I had never shot a revolver before, it was a lot different from my semi-auto. I didn't shoot too well in it, but I did pretty well with my P-01 (see a previous post for that). We also partied hard on Thursday and Friday. Carl drank a lot of cheap vodka. I stuck to mixed drink and beers. Everyone had a really good time chillin' at Danny's. I slept most of the day Sunday after Carl left because I was pretty exhausted. This was definitely one of the best of my 4 Carnivals here, but I can't say I'll really miss the whole thing.

CMU gets campus outrage award

The folks at Campus Magazine have given CMU a "Campus Outrage" award for 2005 (on the website look for third place). The award was given for my university looking the other way while a racist "New Black Panther" leader, Mr. Shabazz, brought weapons onto campus (something I can't even do though I'm licensed by the state...), discriminated against all non-black students, and made racist comments about white people. I urge anyone reading my blog to send an email to CMU president Jared Cohon (go to cmu.edu/directory and type in his name to find his email) congratulating him on this award.

New Forum

There's a new forum for those (like me) who like CZ firearms: www.czshooters.com I recommend anyone interested in them check it out. Looks a lot better than the "official" CZ forum and is growing everyday. Join up, its free!

Another peace of my childhood disappears

Back in America's only Third World City, a vestige of my childhood has been closed: The Belle Isle Aquarium. I visited this aquarium (America's oldest) several times during preschool and elementary school. I will never be able to take my children here, to show them the exotic fish, the electrified eel who turns on a lightbulb, or the architecture of this building, Kwame Kilpatrick has closed it for good. While I understand that the city of Detroit is quite a hellhole, and in quite a lot of shit with its budget, how did the less than $1 million to keep the aquarium afloat (if you'll pardon the pun) for a year really harm the city?

The answer is that it didn't. Kwame would rather spend the money (and much more) on his "African Town" following former mayor "The reverend" Coleman Young's practice of sending all the white people and "crooks" to the "other side of 8 mile road." Doesn't "African Town" sound like one of the most discriminating neighborhoods ever, or is it just me? They will only give city money to black people who own businesses there. If I came up with a business idea that would save Detroit and wanted to locate it there, I would receive no help simply because I am white. The newspapers seem to favor his idea, especially some of the more liberal columnists. What would they be saying if Howell opted for a "European Town" where only those of European descent would receive public funding? I have a feeling Kwame would look down on that.

The Belle Isle Aquarium is just another casualty of this mayor's inaptitude. I don't know much about him, but I can guess why and how he was elected; most likely by following in Mayor Young's footsteps (or bribes...). He is known as the "Hip-Hop Mayor" known for sporting a large diamond earring. I think this title might be misleading. Snoop Dogg would be a better mayor than this guy, at least he would probably decriminalize weed, giving Detroit's largest economy some sort of legitimacy and possibly saving the whole fucking mess of a city that its become...
Here's my solution: get rid of all government programs in Detroit, except the police, which Detroit desperately needs. Let everything else such as businesses, the People Mover, and Casinos revert to a state of anarchy. I have a feeling the casinos will survive and probably gain a lot of business, while things like the People Mover (one of Rev Young's favorite projects) will die a slow death like the Belle Isle Aquarium.

A nice obituary (with less of the bitching) was eloquently written by John at: detroitblog.blogspot.com

Busy Week

This last week was very busy for me. I had a few steps in a project for Decision Analysis to complete as well as a tough test in Corporate Financial Reporting. Not sure how the test went it was a lot harder than I expected, but our survey for the other class was probably the best one that any group came up with, I was pleasantly surprised.

In other news, Kenzie and I were approved for our new apartment in Centreville, VA. It is a very nice place with lots of amenities and they had a reasonable special. Problem is that Northern VA is still very expensive... but there's not much I can do about that.

Sensible Self-Defense

At least some states are getting it right. A new law passed in Florida allows an individual to use force whenever threatened with force, whether it be at home (currently allowed) or on the street. Currently, in most states, you are supposed to attempt retreat too, which is a very good way of getting shot or stabbed in the back. If someone pulls a knife or gun on you on the street, it is your RIGHT to shoot back, no matter what any liberal in CA or NY tells you. Maybe if we someday live in a peaceful world that would no longer be necessary, but try telling the guy on PCP who is running at you with a knife that you should try to outrun him too, god forbid you escalate the situation by pulling a gun on him. I think it would be more beneficial to society to put these people where they belong: on the ground, surrounded by chalk, eaten apart by hollowpoints.

I urge all my readers to contact their state and national representatives to push for legislation like this in all states, so we don't have to see loved ones die because they were afraid of breaking the law in self-defense.