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Jon_El
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Name: Jonathan
Country: United States
State: West Virginia
Metro: Fairmont
Birthday: 5/14/1989
Gender: Male
Interests: Writing, RPing, Reading, Foruming, Playing Adventure Games.
Expertise: Writing, Reading, Information Gathering, Being Totally Awesome.
Occupation: Student.
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
1/5/2005
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I'm getting just a little bit tired of the "pro-life" distinction. Look. Everyone except emo kids are pro-life. It's the Hobbesian universal: most reasonable people have a desire to be alive. It's what we're used to and it's what we're good at (to varying extents). By calling yourself "pro-life," you're effectively saying nothing. Bully for you. So am I. So's that pro-abortion dude down the street. So's about every other person on the planet not actively killing themselves/other people wantonly.
What's the alternative, anyway? Pro-choice is not the opposite of pro-life. That doesn't even make sense. You're pro-choice, otherwise you wouldn't be promoting the choice NOT to get an abortion. I'm pro-choice because I can decide whether I want to go to the PCSU or the dining hall when I get hungry. Etc, etc. Y'alls is using sloppy terminology, and I can't support that. If you want to designate your position on a certain subject, clarify what position you're getting ready to grandstand on. I know it doesn't have happy PR values to say you're anti-abortion, but at least it's accurate and will save you a lot of grief from comedians (Bill Hicks may be dead, but his routine on pro-lifers blocking cemetaries is still funny. "There's options!")
Something funny next time. | | |
| Today was a marvelous day: I got in an argument with a libertarian. Haven't done that in years (since TPS, in fact) and coming at it from an opposite side was nothing short of entertaining. The subject in question was the gold standard. He believed that there was nothing more magical than gold-backed currency, whereas I didn't give a fat rodent's posterior and frankly felt it counter-productive. And since this is MY blog and he doesn't know about it, I feel entitled to explain exactly why I'm right. The Internet is such a fair and balanced place.
The argument for the gold standard is deceivingly simple. My opponent (we'll call him Jerry, since that's an appropriately amusing name) argues that any currency that is not backed by a commodity is destined to fail, since it can be printed and distributed with damn-the-torpedoes efficiency and grace. Meanwhile, there's a fixed amount of gold on the planet, and people seem to agree that it has value of some variety, so backing currency with that would just be BRILLIANT. As I believe he put it, replete with Guinness voice. (Not really)
The problem with this logic, of course, is that it doesn't bear up to careful scrutiny. In all honesty, what makes gold the magic material that solves all our problems? Is it (as dear Jerry believed) "5,000 years of human history?" I believe that it was something entirely separate. I think that the only reason the gold standard lasted so long (and even started in the first place) is because gold is shiny.
That's it. Gold was and is a luxury item because it's pretty and had various features that made it artistically useful. Seems kind of a silly thing to base an entire currency on, if you ask me. What if we based the worth of our money on the theoretical work Paris Hilton could do? And on a less satirical note, why gold? Why not silver, or diamond, or even lead? All are finite resources, after all. Here's one: how about uranium? That's pretty rare. Another question: why do people agree on the price of gold anyway? It's not really based on supply and demand - they used to "fix" the price of gold for the dollar anyway. So why gold? Because it's SHINY.
See, personally, I don't see any need for a gold standard. An economy can tank with or without it, and a pile of dollars is about as worthless in apocalyptic situations as a pile of gold. Unless the future also creates hordes of mutants who are easily distracted and will provide slave labor for you if you give them shiny things. In which case the economy will end-up being glitter-based, so never mind. My point is, however, that there is nothing special about gold. Anything that can be done with a gold based economy can be done with a fiat economy, provided one has the willpower for it. Conversely, anything that can be done fiat could be done with gold. No big differences for me.
tl;dr People like gold because it's SHINY. | | |
| In case you spent the last year underneath a very large rock in northeast Saskatchewan, there is a new and particularly insidious fad sweeping our great nation - and probably the rest of the world, though no one cares about them. This is Rev. Harry Halston, and I refer to Stephenie Meyer's supposed epic cycle Twilight. People who hear from God are of course aware of the mighty evil attached to these books. However, I realize that not everyone is as spiritual as I am, so I'm taking the time to rescue you from the depths of hell that you aren't aware you've plunged into. You're welcome.
Before I destroy them, I must first point out that the books do, on the surface, condone and encourage abstinence from sex before marriage. However, that's about the only nice thing that I can say about them. Ms. Meyers manages to sexualize abstinence, something I didn't believe possible. The entire point of abstinence is to escape sex entirely! If you present abstinence as this charged emotional state that gets people all hot and bothered, *cue nervous church laughter* that's almost as bad as the act itself! Can't we save the attraction for marriage and cut the drama before hand?
And, of course, let us not forget the subject matter at hand. These are VAMPIRES being discussed. Hellish creatures with a bloodlust. Does not the Bible teach us that the life is in the blood, and therefore ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh? Yet demons whose whole existence stands in violation of this commandment are somehow highly regarded among otherwise pure Christian girls. It's enough to make my blood boil.
It pains me to do this, but I yield the floor to a hellbeast of another skin - one Joss, a wretched wolf-man amalgam (or werewolf as they call them now). I do not necessarily agree with his arguments, but I will allow anything that steers you off your collision course with destruction. Just consider that even the real forces of hell don't like these books. Consider it well.
May I first note that I have no affiliation with the above commentator and that I hope he dies, proving his preconceived notions as to my evil. I won't waste too much time on introductions, so let's just cut to the chase. I know vampires - the pampered nancies that Ms. Meyers has concocted bear so little resemblance to the real McCoy that Stoker would cry. I mean, come on. The only problem these things have is SPARKLING in the sun and they think they have life hard? Poor Renee catches on FIRE if she ventures out in daylight without protection. I notice a fundamental disconnect here.
And let's look at what all these vampires can do. Hmm, super strength, speed, beauty, agility, endurance (must have been handy for the last book), hypno-scent, and for most of Meyer's little pets, super mind powers. What is this, the World of Warcraft edition of vampiric abilities? I think that someone might have missed the memo, so I'll spell it out real quick: When you write a vampire novel, you're following in a long and venerable tradition. If you are going to change things, you'd best make damn sure that you give it a good reason. Meyer's vampires are OP SOBs, and the only reason I can discern is that she wanted to make them cool. Not good enough.
Oh, and did I mention that it reads like really bad fanfiction? God. | | |
| After today, I've decreed that my school will have no mulch. I mean, honestly. That stuff just stinks. If you really need to mulch something, bag your freaking grass clippings.
Also, the cafeteria. This place is something of the model of inefficiency. A cafeteria at my school would hire both outside staff and a small army of student workers trying to pay off their tuition. It'd run from like seven (no one eats breakfast earlier than that) to midnight, except during breaks, at which point the school would provide Hot Pockets and other preparable foods ala carte (you get a certain number for your meal ticket and out you go, ya' bum).
You'd think that planning a college was hard work or something the way these places go at it. I mean, sheesh. =P | | |
| Yes, indeed. It's time to commit to paper the Internet a fun and reasonably time consuming hobby - designing your ideal college! ...What, you never thought of this as an entertaining activity?
Keep in mind that one of my life's dreams is to someday open up my own higher educational facility, where every aspect is custom-tailored to pleasing the students, the faculty, and myself. That being said, let's get to work!
The overall theme of the campus will be Byzantine. One can expect gloriously excessive architecture replete with rotundas and skylights and LOTS of windows. Somewhat imposing (and no doubt incredibly expensive), but I believe that it creates an atmosphere conducive to learning - one that inspires awe and reverence, possibly even humility (or pride if you happen to take it too far the other way).
^^^A good example of an average building in my plan. This was/is an 11th century monastery in Greece.
Also central to the architecture of any good school is the use of TUNNELS. Why the frakk don't most schools have secret tunnels? I mean, seriously. What do they expect their students to do in their free time, study? Any school that I built would be sure to have secret tunnels between buildings, dorms, and whatever else happened to be on campus. It adds a sense of gravitas to the school, suggesting an age that it (unfortunately) does not yet possess.
While on the subject of buildings, I'd best address the dorm situation (makes a smooth transition). I support coed dormitories for a variety of reasons. One, as a secular institution there's no reason not to have them. Two, my experience at Lee has taught me that if students particularly want to have sex, they will find a way. No ifs, ands, or buts. And three (most importantly), it seems to me that coed dorms build a sense of community that you just can't equal in a homogeneous dorm setting.
This aside, though, what is a school without some student rivalry? Dorms would therefore be divided up (more or less) by department. That is to say, the Comm majors have their own dorm, the science majors their own, political science/history here, English here, etc. The dorms are pitted against each other in friendly competitions throughout the year, with occasional not-so-friendly competitions as well. Each dorm will also be given/lose points based on behavior in and outside of class. The winner at the end of the year has bragging rights until next year. It's awesome. And, yes: it is a combination of Lee University and Hogwarts. I am well aware of the irony.
Now, as we all know, I'm an environmentalist, hence any college I were to pioneer would reflect this. Where possible, buildings would be self-sufficient within aesthetic value (geothermal and insulated windows, solar panels in unnoticeable places, etc). But there's so much more than just that.
I dislike concrete. Let's start there. Sidewalks are ugly, hard to maintain, and heatsinks. In my ideal campus, we'd see stone walkways elevated enough that your feet don't get muddy when it rains, but not so much that it's just another nasty sidwalk. You'd see no streets or parking lots on the campus either. Cars and parking lots need to be left off campus, because there's no excuse for driving everywhere on a reasonably small campus. My time here has left me fairly disgusted with the people who drive to the cafeteria because they're too lazy to walk five minutes. Rage.
Depending on the climate of wherever I build this thing, a communal garden would be nice. Like monks in a monastery, growing your own food brings a sense of tranquility and peace with God and man that's hard to come by.
I suppose I could go on about academics and all that, but it's dread hard to predict that without naming names. How about y'all? What would YOUR dream college look like? | | |
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