BLUEJAMIS BLOG

The Bush administration, and to some extent the Harper government here in Canada, make a lot of political gain from the fascists' refrain: if you are doing nothing wrong what do you have to hide?  Well, none of your business.  But, here is an article that puts it into better focus.

The paragraph that I found the most interesting was:

For if we are observed in all matters, we are constantly under threat of correction, judgment, criticism, even plagiarism of our own uniqueness. We become children, fettered under watchful eyes, constantly fearful that -- either now or in the uncertain future -- patterns we leave behind will be brought back to implicate us, by whatever authority has now become focused upon our once-private and innocent acts. We lose our individuality, because everything we do is observable and recordable

I couldn't have said it better myself, because I don't have any patience for the idiots that think privacy is about hiding while insisting they live in the free world.  Privacy is about freedom.

Here is an unusual story on the Onion, in that it is a true story and not the usual parody.  How can I tell the difference?  I read a lot of blogs and read most of the comments and can tell you that this is typically how most people formulate comments.

I mentioned earlier a silly study about teenagers' lack of judgement.  Here is a study which actually is enlightening.  Many steps have been taken in the UK to assist persons with mental illness, and while much more could be done, it seems that they are experiencing some pay offs.  What is disturbing, though, is the lack of coverage this story has received in the mainstream press in the UK.  Ben Goldacre has opinions on that.  One publication that did cover the story was New Scientist.  The story is here (you may need a subscription to view).  The study authors point out the cultural bias in the UK that the mentally ill are responsible for much of the violent crime and show that this is simply not supported by facts.  While the authors will not say for sure what the drop in murders committed by the mentally ill are, they do a great job of illustrating the counterintuitive notion that sane people are safer to be around.

One of those self evident findings in a health study suggests that teens lack judgement while driving.  Anyone who has ever known a teen could have written up that study on lazy Sunday morning.  In fact, that's why they engage in risky sexual practices, over consume alcohol, jump of roofs of buildings, etc, etc.

A link to some pictures taken by a Russian soldier in Georgia.  Wow, is war ever glamorous.

I love playing golf.  I am also a fan of Tiger Woods and believe he is one of the greatest golfers of all time.  However, while golf is undoubtedly a sport, it is only barely athletic, much like bowling.  I do not consider Tiger Woods in the same category as Michael Jordan, Wayne Gretzky or Tom Brady.  These guys had to accomplish feats of athleticism that Tiger Woods simply does not.  And in hockey, you have the added difficulty of doing it on ice while 5 other guys are trying to physically harm you. 

Now, I bring this up because the pinheads on the Golf Channel have been suggesting a comparison between Tiger Woods and Michael Phelps.  What is worse, is they have said it is unfair to Phelps to be compared to Tiger Woods.  One idiot even suggested that Tiger gets the nod as greater because he has been doing it for ten years and Phelps only has to show up for the Olympics.  So let's think about this:  Tiger Woods plays golf to win majors,  he has played in 46 and won 14 has five 2nd and three 3rds and has missed the cut twice.  Michael Phelps swims to win World and Olympic Championships and has competed in 46 since 2000.  He has won 37 gold, 6 silver, 2 bronze and a 5th in his first Olympic games in 2000 and has never failed to qualify for the finals.  One note, Phelps also swims in an average of 7 meets a year outside of World and Olympic games; Tiger Woods plays in an average of 15 tournaments a year including Majors.

Umm...I see quite a discrepancy there.  Also, here are samples of the type of athletes Phelps is competing against:

Now let's look at some of the "athletes" Tiger competes against:

So to summarize:  Michael Phelps has a winning percentage of 80% in major championships versus Tiger Woods 30%; Michael Phelps competes against people who are at the peak of their physical fitness while Tiger Competes against chubby old guys.  Uh...yeah there really is no comparison.

Here's is more evidence that George W. Bush thinks through his ass.  I have another idea, why not let the tax payer decide how much money should go to the government?

The two minute mark is particularly spectacular.

Here is a link to a post from a blogger at the Seattle Post Intelligencer on line.  She usually writes about business issues for women.  In this particular instance, she had gone to see the movie The Dark Knight and decided to review the movie by comparing it to mistakes normally made by a start up business.  I feel she cleverly juxtaposes the two quite effectively and makes the point that in The Dark Knight the director appears to have tried to use too much in terms of plot, talent, special effects etc.  And compares this to companies trying to use too large a team or make so big an impact that they overlook the principle "less is more." 

For the record, I think she makes a good point and is not the only one to have suggested this, yet in the case of PZ's review it seems to me no one made death threats or insulted his gender as was the case with Ms. Royse (though some Catholics got a little bent out of shape about a cracker).  I will go farther and say that The Dark Knight is emblematic of the industry's inability to follow up a great movie with a great sequel.  As examples: Terminator (thought Terminator II was done well but III was horrible), The Matrix (I was great, II was good, III was WTF?).   In each instance the directors felt a need to outdo the visual effects, the depth of story lines and the amount of dialogue of the originals and the movies became so "over the top" that they lost what made the first ones so great: imaginative narrative.  We loved those original movies not because they spent billions making them, but because they were outside the main stream and unlike anything we has seen before.  I am not the only one who thinks this way.

But, as PT Barnum used to say, "there's a sucker born every minute" and no matter what Hollywood (or any commercial business for that matter) is selling, these pinheads are eager to buy.  I can imagine the idiots that sent in death threats against a woman for a movie review, sitting in their seats at the cinema pulling their little man toys every time Bruce Wayne pulled on his rubber suit.  Most are probably men in their twenties who have never gotten passed pre-pubescence and will never work at anything other than their current position as assistant manager at Best Buy.  These are the same idiots who found punk rock late in the era and bought any band that played loud music and claimed they were punk, only to ruin the genre for those of us who grew up on it; they're the ones who have reduced the "Great American Theatre" (wrestling) to nothing more than a steroid infused light show with the chance of a glimpse at a woman's breast.

To you pud-pounding losers who would threaten a woman for expressing a viewpoint:  you will never know cool, but here's a hint, if you're into it it probably isn't.

This won't happen often, I can assure you, but I do agree with Mr. Day's decision to keep a bunch of hypochristians out of Canada.  The group planned to protest at, get this, the funeral of the Greyhound bus killing victim.  Why?  Because he deserved his fate for being immoral of course.  This they claim without ever having met Mr. McLean.  How Christ like these people are.  Make a judgement based only on a picture and description of a man.  Well, I can play that game and will now give my opinion of Shirley Phelps-Roper: she's a cunt!

How anyone with half an intellect can take people like this seriously is beyond my capabilities of understanding.  If you are someone who shares this outlook you need to seek immediate psychiatric help.  By all accounts Mr. McLean was a nice person with many of the same problems we all have.  He is nothing more or less than a human being, imperfect and capable of improvements.  And though he died in a horrific manner, his family deserve to be left alone to grieve and remember him in their own way.  To be so presumptuous as to think you can pass judgement on others is an audacity that only a truly demented and damaged person could manage.  Not to mention, doesn't the bible tell us that God will be the one to judge and anyone who does so on his behalf is committing a little blasphemy (James 4:12).

In general, I prefer if all Americans stay the hell out of my country's business right now, but in particular the theistic pricks who think they know better than anyone else, when in fact they know fuck all.

Read what Amanda Peet had to say recently about taking advice from celebrities:

“I’m not a doctor, which brings me to another point. It seems like the media is often giving celebrities and actors more authority on this issue than they’re giving the experts and that’s a sad fact. And I know that’s a paradox - that’s part of why I wanted to become a spokesperson, so I could say, ‘Please don’t listen to me, don’t listen to the actors, go to the experts.’”

Well, I have been with the new love of my life for a few weeks now and have been enjoying my time with her.  I've really enjoyed running around town with her till now but was apprehensive about the long term commitment I had made.  But this weekend, we went away to Michigan for our first overnight trip.  We all know how these kind of trips can ruin a perfectly good relationship.  Sometimes one person wants to stop every 30 minutes while the other wants to drive straight through.  And if one gives in then the other isn't the same the rest of the weekend.  Or, someone you felt was a great fit for you turns out to be less comfortable the longer you are with them.  Or, if a little rain starts to fall sometimes that could put out the fires in a heated relationship.

I am happy to say we are still together and our relationship is stronger than ever.  We did endure a very stormy moment on the road, but I insisted we press on and together we stayed the course.  Sure, she was a little apprehensive when a I got a little close to others much larger than her, but didn't complain too loudly and I tried to be sensitive enough to avoid them when I could.  Once on the road I like to get to my destination as soon as possible and rest awhile once there.  I am happy to say my girl is the same way.  The longer we were on the road the more comfortable we got with one another and she fit me better with each passing kilometre.  I didn't once get jealous at the stares she received from others, but rather I beamed with pride and showed her off to anyone interested.  Michigan had never seen anything like her before.  She was a big hit with the relatives,too, and I even let some of them try her on.

She took very little of my money and allowed me to do a little shopping for myself with the money I didn't have to spend on her.  She carried the luggage without complaint.  I think she might even have had something to do with getting through customs so quickly, I saw the way they looked at her.  But that's ok, because in the end it was me she was thinking about.

All in all, it was a great trip and I feel a lot more comfortable about my decision now.  I would recommend her to anyone who needs a reliable, low maintenance relationship.  If you are unsure just ask and I will let you take her for a test ride.  We have that kind of a relationship, baby.

The blog Effect Measure has a wonderful post suggesting a new word for our vocabulary.  Go read the etymology of this word and their suggested treatment.

If you haven't heard of Longbets.org, it is a site where you can bet on just about anything.  Someone has decided to bet that the Large Hadron Collider will create a black hole that will destroy the universe.  Without getting into the merits of his argument, let's assume he is correct:  how will he, or the organizations named in his bet, actually go about collecting the money?

In the past, certain high profile conservatives have condemned hip-hop music and video games as promoting violence and have suggested that they be censored.  In an ironic twist a right wing nut has shot up a church in Tennesse.   Knoxville police have found several books by the biggest right wing pundits in the American media at the suspects home and believe they played a key role in his motivation for the shooting.  It is obvious that these same pundits were as responsible for this shooting as any hip-hop artist or video game was for any previous shooting.  I am sure they will do the honourable thing and remove themselves from the airways.

http://cbs13.com/local/drowning.fears.delta.2.781229.html

I still think you're crazy to fly but sometimes cool things can happen on an airliner.

Read this and keep in mind how many times you have heard someone claim incompetence of a surgeon in the death of a loved one.  I am not saying that doctors don't make mistakes, but all too often we tend to listen to only one side of a story.  When you read this story ask yourself how it might sound coming from the family of that girl and what you would have thought of the doctor without hearing his side.  The part that caught my attention the most was:

When you close an abdomen after a failed rescue, the OR is silent. No beeps from monitors, no sighs of the ventilator, no small talk. You use a large suture on a giant needle, taking big bites of tissue, making it quick. On a thirteen year old, with a baby's beautiful skin, healthy tissues giving more resistance to the needle than usual, perfect organs disappearing from view, you are sewing through tears. You feel the loss as if it were your own.

For all the money some doctors make, the work sure does take a harsh toll.

I think anyone that voluntarily flies any airline is a glutton for punishment and needs some help.  But this video is unbelievable and demonstrates why you should not fly Delta and you should not fly in or out of New York.  In fact, you should not fly.

Every time this jackass opens his mouth it seems to be to accuse someone of being like Hitler.  How anyone can possibly give this piece of shit any respect is beyond me.  If his movie didn't ruin his credibility certainly his political ramblings will.  Ben Stein is still a retard.

According to this story the Bosnian Serbs will pray for Karadzic.  If memory serves me, didn't they pray to defeat Kosovo independence?  I don't like his chances.

Meet Edith Widder, a marine biologist who was featured today on Nova Science Now.  Edith has been studying marine life in the deepest and darkest parts of our oceans.  The problem is, our senses are not best suited for studying species in this environment.  The only sense we can really use is sight and that requires light.  Life forms in this area have grown rather wary of bright light and tend to avoid it.  You can see the problem.  Edith has devised several instruments to help monitor species in this environment.  She is also engaged in studying the way species use light to attract mates and lure prey.  So drop by the PBS site and give a read.