Monday, December 10, 2007

  I found out, yesterday, that my favorite waitress, at my favorite chinese buffet, is getting married and won't be working there anymore.  What a pity.  Oh, well.  I hope she lives well.

  It's a foggy, drizzly night, tonight.  It's only about 6:45 PM, but you'd think it was about 9, because it's so dark.

Friday, December 14, 2007

  I've been sitting on this one for a little while.  There's a woman in England who had herself sterilized (after she had an abortion) because she wanted to reduce her carbon footprint.  She says having children is one of the most selfish things you can do (and the abortion wasn't?).

  Let me just say to any person who believes they will help fight global warming by being sterilized, that I 100% support you being sterilized.  If you are a person who believes that you being sterilized will benefit human-kind, you're probably right.

  There are two issues I want to address, but they are side issues.  No segues, I'm afraid.

  Let's put the physical activies of things like sterilization and abortion aside.  Go deeper.  Things are done under the guise of responsability but it's just emotional masturbation.  If you really wanted to be responsible, then you wouldn't have sex.

  Reproduction is the purpose of sex, but not even that is my point.  How little value do you place on human life that you would have a mindset that views creating a human as an unfortunate side-effect?

  Egg and sperm join.  DNA combines to form a new, unique code.  That code dictates the physical developement of that human.  It's not the mother's body that is telling that new life what to do.  The mother provides nutrition and shelter.  It doesn't matter if it's inside or outside of the parent's body.  That is a living human being.

  But don't let a tiny detail like that stop you from mere physical pleasure.  That's more important than the life of an innocent human being that has all the potential of becoming exactly the kind of person you wish there was more of in the world.

  Next is about the "right thing to do" in life, or just what's smart.  And I'm talking about things that people end up categorizing as universal, whether they realize it or not.  Right and wrong can be evasive things, but may I offer a suggestion to help gain some perspective on any particular issue at hand that can apply?

  Next time you hear someone come up with a bright idea like the woman above, just ask yourself, "What if everyone in the world did it?"

  Look at the specifics of the conditions involved; all criteria and whatnot, and then just ask, what if everyone in the world did it?

  What if everyone in the world got sterilized because they believed having children was too selfish?  End of human race.  Way to go, geniuses.

  The nifty thing is that you can apply it to so many different things.  Or you can tweak it a little to cover more things.

  What if the government always bailed everyone one out of a bad financial descision?  Tax payers would be paying for those mistakes, and it's far less likely that those people would learn from the mistakes.

  Now, what if everyone in the world had sex only when they wanted to reproduce?  No unwanted pregnacies.  Would A.I.D.S. exist at all?  Some people believe the world is over-populated right now.  I wonder what could have possibly contributed to that.  And how about all those kids waiting to be adopted?

  Here's a question for everyone:  If you giving up sex entirely (not giving up having children), for the rest of your life, could be exchanged for one benefit bestowed upon the world or even only one person, what's the minimum benefit to which you would agree?

  Would you do it for world peace?  An end to "hunger"?  An end to disease?  One particular disease?  To cure you mom of cancer?  You dad of alzheimer's.  Your second cousin of MS?

  If a baby on the other side of the wolrd, whom you'd never meet or know anything else about, had a cleft pallet, and would never receive corrective surgery otherwise, would you give up sex to let him/her get the surgery?

  I watched the most recent episode of Pushing Daisies.  Very good show, by the way.  A character was pressing another character on an issue the latter character did not care to discuss.  The latter character spoke a line that stood out to me.  "You're making me uncomfortable."

  I thought a number of things in a very small amount of time, but one of the things I thought was that it was something that I would never say (so to speak, acknowledging never say never).

  My initial thoughts were about victim mentalities and weakness, but as I often do, I though also about the differences between me and other people, and I realized that to say such a thing (with emotional regard), or even to think it, is just not in me.

  I've been in situations where I've been non-physically uncomfortable, and I have never once considered the state an issue.  The cause could be an issue, but never the effect.

  "You're making me uncomfortable."  That's partly like spending a week complaining about the pain of a fork stabbed into your hand, while never bothering to remove the fork.  The rest is just sheer victim mentality.  I'm experiencing discomfort, it's someone else's fault, so I'm going to wait for someone else to make me feel better.