::INSERT SWEAR WORDS::

(Trigger warning. I never give trigger warnings, SO BE FUCKING WARNED, ALL RIGHT?)

What the fuck?

No, really: WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK!?!


...people do some fucked up shit in war. (Not to mention in the name of God.)

For one second, I was able to peak past the horror and go, "Wow, that is devastatingly effective." Then I went back to being horrified. Whattheshitshitshitshitshit!?!

I need better news after that last post

Ah, here's some:

This tax evasion thing sure is nabbing a lot of people, isn't it? At least in this case, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. (Even writing that ironic-like made me shudder because there is nothing remotely nice about this douchebag.)

Stephen King = MADE OF WIN Not that he's saying anything earth-shattering, but because it's him saying it, it's all good. I like his sense of whimsy about these things. He's someone who was constantly derided as being low-class when it came to literature but who has come to be better appreciated with time. So he knows quite clearly that finding fault with certain writers' abilities isn't a knock on them, really--they suck, but hey, they sell books, and the benefits all writers, really. Especially given the way publishing has been circling the drain.

I got your intermediate fossils RIGHT HERE!

I have nothing else to offer!

Have some videos. ( I am so bored, you have no idea. )

Yesterday's UNFORTUNATE MUSICAL SELECTION from the guy two benches behind me also puts me in a mood to make a poll. So, true believers, what do you think?

[Poll #1344187]

Creatures of habit or creatures of comfort?

In his short story "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe," Stephen King proposes, via his smoker protagonist, that there is a very clear and definite hurdle that all people seeking to quit a bad behavior or take up a good one face. This hurdle is the three-day mark. Once you hit and pass that limit, you're home free. The first three days are the test to see if you can make it in the long run.

I don't know that I agree with that exact limit, but I do think he's onto something. ( My thoughts )

The odds of slovenly recidivism are high, in other words. So high that I then have to question whether I do agree with Stephen King's notion of point-of-no-return adaptation. What do you all think? Feel free to conjecture about my own will power, I won't take offense, or your own if you prefer or muse on human will power in general. I'm interested in every angle, really.

Ugh

Getting up this morning to exercise was arduous because I slept poorly last night. I dreamt about bombs landing in my home town. At one point, I looked up the street and so what looked like a torpedo landing and perching on its nose on a neighbor's lawn. I shoved everyone inside, including my former roommate and down into the basement. I then commenced panicking because I knew this was coming and yet had failed to stock up for it. Now all the food up above was irradiated and inedible. I confirmed this by emerging from the basement with my USB key held out. It miraculously functioned as a Geiger counter. Everything I pointed at that was irradiated would make it beep more. (I don't recall wearing a suit to protect me and I was definitely in the hot zone since I was still in my house.) I spent the dream panicking about how we would survive without clean food and woke myself up a few times.

Arrrrgh.

Why am I thinking of Mandy Moore right now?

For being a suspected atheist, a teacher in Texas has been put on administrative leave (and has every reason to assume the school board is looking to fire him).

The part that frightens me most is that this man wouldn't even confirm his religious standings and they roasted him anyway. It's not him being fired for being an atheist; it's him being fired (probably) for being suspected of atheism. Firing someone from a public institution for their religious beliefs is illegal and actionably so. The fact that this district thinks it can fire him because those in charge and one student who reported on him think they don't like his religious beliefs says a lot about the chutzpah these conservative, religious fuckholes have worked up over the past eight years. They're not used to people telling them they can't command the religious values of their public servants. That is very, very scary folks.

And yet one comment from a puported student makes me almost laugh:
The girl who made the accusations against Mr. Mullens is also trying to get several students kicked out of Brookeland for supporting Mr. Mullens. This past Friday she had the police officer talk to them because they were "harrassing her" even though two of the accuse haven't spoken to her since Mullen was suspended.She has said to me and several other students "I got Mr. Mullens fired, I can get them kicked out too."

It reminds me very much of the movie Saved!, where Mandy Moore's more-religious-than-thou behavior dictated who rose and fell in popularity her Christian high school. She thought she could shame and denigrate and even expel anyone who dared to refute her personal beliefs about and interpretations of the commandents of Jeebus with their sadly ordinary, human failings. Although Mandy Moore got served some justice as the film's villain, the point of the movie seemed to be less about punishing her than making the points that a) nobody is perfect and faulting people for being human is monstrous no matter how you cloak your evil in faith (as I posted about recently); and b) if your faith cannot withstand contrary opinions existing (let alone being voiced aloud), you must not have a strong sense of faith and perhaps that, not the other person, is your real problem. You cocksucker. (Sorry, I went too long there being polite.)