Pragmatism... not Idealism

Man a freaking live I'm digging the Wrens right now. I didn't like them until I listened to their album a few times. Same story with the Rapture. I'm liking the non-prophets too. I'm a little peeved right now though. My cd-burner here isn't working so I can't take any of it back to school with me. Right now Neil is my only hope.

What's up with the accordion? It seems to be coming back with a vengeance these days. Now the Wrens are busting out on it. Also, the banjo has been getting some loving by artists lately. That's fine. That instrument needs to be saved from the depths of bluegrass mediocrity.

Hey guys,

Check out Andrea's new blog- It's pretty neat.

My family keeps bugging me about finding a girlfriend. My brother-in-laws make comments about me being gay. Heck, if I were them, I'd be suspecting I was gay too. Any how, my sister wants me to go out with this girl named Beth Gostlin. Apparently she's a libertarian destined for law school. My sister thinks we would be a good match i guess. Perhaps she is right. Janine didn't even know that I was a libertarian when she made the recommendation so maybe she has a point. She wants me to go to church with her and meet this girl that I've only really talked to once. That conversation was about 30 seconds by the way. Not exactly a strong connection.

Anyhow, I went midnight bowling with some compeneros of mine Tuesday night. I got to my lane, looked around and guess who I saw. There she was with a bunch of crazy Baptists i know. I figured since she was there I might as well try talking to her to see what she was like. For some reason I have it in my head that conversations need to come about naturally. I can't just walk up to a girl I don't really know and start a conversation. Since she was around people I knew, I figured this would be my best chance at really meeting her. I walked up to Tim, the brother of a friend of mine from grade school. She was sitting right next to him so I thought an introduction would be in order. Unfortunately Timbo is socially inept so there was no introduction and no ensuing conversation. I tried plan B. I went through Ray who was nearby and tried to lead him into introducing me to her. "I don't know a couple of the people here. There's a lot of Gostlins and I dont remember who is who." Unfortunately didnt catch on so there was no luck there.

I just gave up. This wasnt happening and I knew i didnt have the cahones just to walk up to her. I knew her father so eventually I struck up a conversation with him. We were into it and eventually he asked me what I could do with Economics and History. I didnt feel like explaining so I said I dont know. To my surprise, he said "hey Beth, come over here." Over she came. "What can you do with Econ and History?" "Be poor," she responded. I didn't care about the response. Her father came through for me. Now was the perfect time to get into a conversation. We have similar interests so I figured I could woo her with my knowledge of Mises and Rothbard. Just after she said poor, my friends started yelling at me. ROTH, ROTH! I turned and glared. Its your turn they said. Man I was ticked. All that mental stress was for naught. After an hour of worrying how to meet her I wasn't any closer at the end of the night.

My Dad got on the computer and went to my recent documents a while back. He saw that there was something about the New Pornographers and proceeded to yell at me about holiness and the sinfulness of porn. I don't know if he bought that it was just a supergroup from Vancouver that plays bombastic power-pop.

I got a call from my church's Sunday school superintendent yesterday. He asked me to teach Sunday school for the college and career this Sunday. That might not seem remarkable to you but I have no public speaking skills. The only skill I lack more is the ability to say no. I'm going to talk about the problem of evil. If you guys have any good insights or Bible verses to share, I'm all ears. Actually in this case I'd be all eyes.

This started off as a response to Jordans comment on my 11/25 post. It got so big I figured Id just post it. After writing this I found it was another rant on politics so if that isnt your thing or you just dont care what I think, stop reading here. After the first paragraph it sort of stopped dealing with Jordans comment.

By saying youre with us or against us, I was trying to use one of Bushs phrases to support my point. I wasnt even thinking of its religious background. Since you mention it, Bush does mix a lot of religious phrases into his speeches. I think especially of when he said "power, wonder working power." I think this helps placate the religious right and gives his policy positions an almost religious tone. With someone like Karl Rove as chief of staff, you know this is quite intentional. He makes a lot of things out to be black and white. Either youre for terrorism or for us (i.e. democracy). That sort of rhetoric is polarizing which he wants, but it leaves no middle ground even though there clearly is.

Bush has defined terrorist as people that practice "a fringe form of Islamic extremism. Im not sure if he meant this to be all-inclusive but clearly someone could be a terrorist and not practice Islam (i.e. the KKK). Technically someone could be against terrorism and against us whatever us means. A person could even be in a terrorist group (i.e. the white supremacist) and support Americas war on terror. Hopefully Ive been able to show the inaccuracy of labeling something a war against terror since terror is hard to define. Saying you are declaring a war against terror is like youre declaring a war against hate, jealousy, greed or any other vice you can think of. Its sort of foolish because the only way you could win is if there were no people on earth. Every time I hear Bush use that phrase it makes me either laugh or cringe.

So lets just say one could declare a war on terror. How do we confine this so that we are not committed to fighting dozens of wars worldwide against despotic dictatorships? What the heck is terrorism anyhow? The FBI says terrorism is the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives. Now the only difference between terrorism and a just war in this definition is that terrorism is unlawful. What the heck does lawful mean? Doesnt this just appeal to a higher standard? You cant say the standard is international law because Americas war on Iraq would be considered an act of terrorism. Besides, I find the entire idea of international law to be laughable. It doesnt mean anything because the UN cant enforce it.

But lets just ignore this. Lets say there is an easily definable thing like terrorism and it clearly includes Al Queda. Thats fine. What does this have to do with Iraq? At first the Bush billed this whole war as an extension of the war on terror because Hussein was harboring Al Queda. That wasnt too convincing because he didnt have much proof of a connection between the Hussein and Al Queda. So then it became a war of pre-emption. We need to go in there before Hussein gets the nukes and gives them to terrorists. This is entirely problematic to me. It makes no sense. Hussein may be evil incarnate, but what does he have to gain by giving terrorists nukes? If they ever used them against us, we would bomb him to kingdom come. But lets assume he does have some interest in giving terrorist WMDs. Why didnt he give them biological or chemical weapons? They could cause us a ton of damage, perhaps even on the level of a nuke. He didnt though because while hes evil, hes not stupid. He likes being alive and in power of his little nation. I think the only reason he wanted nukes was to make sure the U.S. did not invade his country.

This entire war does not make sense to me. An adequate cause for heading off to war hasnt been proven to me. Trust your leader Ive been told. No way. Leaders have committed so many avoidable atrocities because their policies were not challenged. Such blind trust leads to attrocities. The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

For centuries we have used the Just War theory as a guideline to going to war. Lets look at that.

(1) A just war must be a war of last resort where all non-violent option have been exhausted. (2) A just war can only be fought to redress a wrong suffered. A just war can only be fought with "right" intentions: the only permissible objective of a just war is to redress the injury. (3) A war can only be just if it is fought with a reasonable chance of success. Deaths and injury incurred in a hopeless cause are not morally justifiable. (4) The ultimate goal of a just war is to re-establish peace. More specifically, the peace established after the war must be preferable to the peace that would have prevailed if the war had not been fought. (5) The violence used in the war must be proportional to the injury suffered.

(1) Did we have any other options? I doubt it but I cant prove that. (2) I just war regresses a wrong suffered. But wait, we didnt suffer a wrong. For a war to be justified, it has to meet all criteria. (3) We must be able to succeed. Can we win a war against terror? Unless the depravity of man goes away over night, no. (4) Heck if I know. I cant probe anything here although I have reservations. (5) Is this a proportional response? No because we have nothing to respond to.

I think that the burden of proof is on Bushs hand to prove each of these. So far he hasnt. I believe this isnt a just war. Therefore I oppose it. All the Christians I know just love Bush for his response to 9/11 and I dont understand it at all. I thought Christians were to be the conscience of the political system and yet we just seem drooling all over Bush. I dont get it at all. What happened to being wise as serpents? Question everything I say.

So what are the facts? There is a middle ground. You dont have to be for America to be against terrorism. The war isnt just. Why then is it ok for a pastor to support the war in his sermon? Personally if I were a pastor, I would only preach what is in the Bible. Anything extra would compromise my ability to share the gospel. By throwing politics into the fray, it only degrades the message. Salvation and spiritual growth are so much more important than conservatism and liberalism. Screw the small stuff. Stick with what really counts.

This is not to say you shouldnt include politics per se at all. Clearly pastors in Nazi Germany had every reason to preach against the butchering of innocents by the Hitler regime. However, I would not call this a political issue. It is a moral issue and that is fair game for pastors everywhere.

On a side note, last night I went to a Thanksgiving service at my church. We were talking about all the things we were thankful for. Someone got up and said how thankful he was that we have a God fearing president who was a good conservative. I found the correlation between God-fearing and conservative to be humorous. But that wasnt the funny thing that happened. Some girl raised her hand and said how thankful she was for having the greatest military in the world and how thankful she was for our soldiers. So far no argument from me. I like the troops. Theyre good guys doing good work. Anyhow, she gave all this cliche pro-troop stuff. My pastor looked at the congregation and said "from the mouth of babes." She was in no way shape or form a babe. She was taller than most people in the congregation and I dont think the pastor meant it to mean that she was a babe in the modern sense of the word. She continued to say how she was thankful she did not live in another country where we could like be bombed in like... 3 minutes or something. I almost broke out in laughter. Yeah, good thing we dont live in another country or else we might get bombed by the Americans.

Here's a little early holiday cheer. Maybe I can save my siblings some money if I show this to my nieces and nephs.

Do you ever go to Church and get preached at about politics? Most evangelicals are conservatives and so they don't even notice it but I'm not. evangelicals always say society is going down the tubes. Never mind that whole institutionalized racism thing or the fact that only 35-40%(?) of the population could even vote. And forget women's suffrage or all the other injustices built-in to the system and supported frequently by Christians of those eras.

Anyhow, here i sit in Church listening to the pastor talk about politics and quote highly doubtable statistics and I wonder, what if there is anyone else here who isn't a Christian whose getting a little peeved about the pastor's political opinions? Doesn't this affect our ability to share the gospel? Why include things not supported by scripture in sermons? Doesn't this just demean the salvation message?

You might claim that not all pastor's are like this. I'm sure not ALL of them throw politics into the message, but from my experiance most all of them do. It's wearing on my nerves. I'm tired of the moral majority. Jerry Falwell needs to shut his mouth because the world views him as a spokesman for Christianity.

Case #1- the war Iraq. Does it follow just war theory? no. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either wrong or is privy to information that neither I nor the Bush administration or any Republican that I've heard has. I can't think of one time when Hussein attacked the United States. Sure, he did do things not in our interest, but nothing that would fall within the lines of just war theory.

Case #3- the ten commandments. Would you want a part of the Satanic Bible displayed in the halls of Congress? No, you say? Why is that? Because you don't agree with the ideology and you do not want your tax dollars to go towards to something like that? Because you don't want that defilment of religion to be displayed on public grounds because of what symbolizes? Well heck, why would somone of another religion want our religious document displayed in congress? Do unto other's as you would have them do unto you. At the base of this argument is the belief that the secular state is best so if you don't agree, chances are we won't agree. I'm willing to listen to opposing arguments though.

I think I've presented three reasonably supported cases where Christians can disagree, and yet I get preached at about politics. I know it's niave to think this link between politics and religion will end, but it would be nice if it did.

That afore mentioned weird bump is freaking me out. I was told it might be a cyst. Heck if I know. My family had Thanksgiving Saturday. That was busy. I'm trying to teach Caryn Rose (my niece) the dance moves I know, which shouldn't take long. She doesn't seem to have the patience for it though. That figures though considering she's only five.

Thanksgiving night, my brother (Jeff), my brother-in-law (Mark), and I went over to Mark's to play hide-and-go-seek. That was interesting. It wasn't quite the game I remembered. It was amazing the positions grown men could squeeze themselves into. My brother-in-law is doing a renovation of his house. He's renovating his shower right now and so there was no wall in there, just the frame. I climbed on up the frame and got on top of a cabinet case (in side the wall). It's hard to explain so you'll just have to take my word on it. I sat on top of that case forever breathing in the plaster. It sucked. My brother-in-law searched the shower twice but didn't find me. I got tired of destroying my lungs so started knocking on the wall until he came.

On a side note, my mom is a HGTV/Discovery Channel/TLC nut. I had no clue how many designing shows there are out there. There's Trading Spaces, While You Were Out, Design on a Dime, Designer's Challenge, and Devine Design. Then there's all the makeover shows like Sensible Chic, What Not to Wear, Queer Eye for the Straight guy and the trillion other ones I can't remember. Don't forget a baby story, a wedding story, a dating story, a makeover story, and maternity ward. What the frick?

You know you need to go to bed when you have wierd bumps on your arms and you leg randomly twitches. Alas, I'm still working on a paper, one of the hardest I've written in my college career. I just want to turn it in and get on with life. It's so friggin late, or early, depending on your perspective.

I was rapping in an annoying sycopated rhythm today to an rjd2 song. I asked Paul, "You really like it when I rap, don't you?" "Oh yeah," he responded. "It gives me pleasure, almost sexual."

Maybe I should get into this rapping thing. If everyone has that sort of reaction, I bet you people would be dying to get my CDs.

Listening to I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One by Yo La Tengo

Are these guys high?

LOL- hahaha, get it? because they're from a long time ago so they couldn't be high and yet they are high because the distance between them and the ground is substantial. What a play on words; because the word could be taken in both ways you have to think about it. I'm so funny. I should be a comedian. hahaha.

Since a few people actually read this, I wanted to run an idea past you all. I'm looking for a video camera (digital preferably) to do a music video. The concept right now is to do a little choreographed dance routine around campus to the song "Good Morning" from Singin' in the Rain. There's even a tap dancing section so we could do that part of the video in the lunch room or in hal while people are headed to their classes. I think it could be a pretty funny video and a blast to make.

Just taking a little break to tell you all about the wonder that is my life. Today I woke up at 6:30. I went to bed at 4 though so I'm ready for a break. I was just trying to get some work done that has been slow going. Luckily I put a sign up in the bathroom telling whoever got in there first to make sure I got up. My alarm woke me up but I fell back to sleep while I was studying. Luckily Trolly came to the rescue and saved my keister.

My micro test went fairly well. However that's what i thought with all of them, but I'm only averaging a B+/A- average with the two I've taken so far. It's seems like a load of junk though because we just took a micro test 2 weeks ago.

Besides that I played some volleyball tonight. Our team isn't doing to well. We actually played decent tonight but it wasn't enough. The Caucasian invasion beat us in the third game. Those freaking crackers make me sick.

I was sitting in my room studying when one of my suitmates got the idea to take the towels out of the bathroom and lock the doors so that the Rho who was showering would have to come out naked after being stuck in there for a while. For the record, I had nothing to do with this little prank. anyhow, the guy who actually did it (Faff) eventualy let him out on his side of the suite. Jason O'baby came out buck-naked raving about wanting to know who did it. Faff lied saying that he didn't have anyting to do with it. So Jason still wet and in a towel came running through the suite to my room. He looked at me; I looked at him. He had the "i'm going to get back at you in my own demented woosy sort of way" look on his face. "Jason," I said, "I assure you I had nothing to do with it."

Apparently he didn't believe me. He asked which bed was mine. I didn't respond because I didn't want anything nast done to my bed. Well, Jason decided revenge was his so he climbed up to the top bunk, through his bath towel at me so I could see him in all his wet hairy wonder and then proceeded on humping and rolling around the bed. It was disgusting but fortunately he did it to Paul's bed. Apparently he just assumed the top bunk was mine, and I wasn't going to let him no otherwise.

Music of the day
RJD2- Deadringer
Mum- Finally we are no one
Mum- Yesterday was dramatic, today is OK

When I heard Mum, they reminded me so much of sigur ros. It figures, they're both from Iceland. yet, their music is quite different. Most noticably, I don't have the urge to seclude myself from society or commit suicide like I did with Sigur Ros. That's sort of nice. Some recomended tracks- We have a map of the piano, smell memory, there is a number of small things and green grass of tunnel. I'm probably missing a few but I guess that's a good start if you want to introduce yourself to them.

On another random note, Ramen noodles are so good. They costs almost nothing and yet they're freaking awesome. Thank you Nissin Foods for making this delicious nutrient void product. I probably don't want to know what they make the noodles from though. I'm sure left-overs from Boxer after the glue makers go done with him are in there somewhere.

Roaming the internet, I found an Islamic sight called "Answering Christianity." In it I found an article about how the Jews' talmud allowed for Jews to engage in a fully consumated marriage with a three year old. Funny, I thought. I don't remember ever reading about this before. I clicked on the link and what I found was quite humerous. See if you can figure it out what caught my eye.

Has anyone else noticed that the cast of Predator is quickly taking over our political system? Already three former cast members have run for governor and two have won. Who's next? Of all the remaining cast, Carl Weathers (middle of picture) looks the most governerly. I think it's about time Apollo Creed knocked the snot out of Washington.


I'm not alone. Let's get Carl Weathers in office and make this a Predator trifecta.

I'm not going to put up a new post for the next couple days. I need to get caught up.

Apology #3- Dr. Jonathan Roth

I assure you folks, this photo hasn't been compressed by me at all. This guy really has this horrible photo of himself up on his page.

Dr. Jonathan Roth is a professor of Marine Biology at Goshen College in Indiana. He is also a jerk. Why, you ask. I found this guy's page in 1996 or so and the guy hasn't updated except when he slapped some pictures up of some little trip he took to Florida in 1998. Seven years and he hasn't done a dang thing. Seven years I've been staring at his crappier than heck picture wishing he would update his site. Upon further research into the life of Dr. Roth, I found that he was a member and guest lecturer of the National Association of Mold Professionals. hahahaha. What do you want to be when you grow up Jonny? I want to be a mold professional mommy.

Come on, who studies mold? Members of Al-Queda. Ladies and gentleman, I propose that Dr. Roth was behind the anthrax attacks a while ago. Jonathan Roth you are a disgrace to humanity, mainstream peaceful Islam, the ecosystem, the web and anything else that's wrong in the world that can't be blamed on FDR. I apologize to everyone on his behalf.

As you know from the last post, I am exposing the horrors my namesakes' have caused the world.

Apology #2- Jonathan Roth the "artist"



Like I said before, when I first got the internet when I was 14 or so, I immediately looked for other Jonthan Roths on the internet. This was the first Jonathan Roth I found. I saw that he was an artists who liked to draw anime style pictures of animals. Ok, I thought. Whatever floats you boat. I clicked on his link and found some crapy drawings of animals. I poured over his work and found a lot of cheesy pictures that could have been displayed on Maddox's crappy kid art page. I clicked on the link of his more recent work and found a bunch of fox porn stuff. Jonathan Roth, what the frick is your problem? Your art sucks. You're weird. Everything you do is retarded (no offense to the mentally handicapped, I hope that doesn't offend any of the ADELS's reading this.) I couldn't find any of his old stuff for you all. I guess even he is ashamed of it becasue he took most of it off the internet. I did find one page but I got x-stopped. It was probably for the better.

Therefore, I apoligize to all the other 14-year-olds who stumbled across his little page of cartoon lust and to all the people who will never think of foxess, cats and mice in the same way again.

Sometimes I like to do searches of my name on yahoo to see what comes up. What I found was that Jonathan (Jon) Roth's have been nothing but a plague to humanity. I feel that since we share the same names, I should try and apologize to everyone whom my namesakes may have harmed. There are several more apologies to come

Apology #1- Uli Jon Roth.
.

A long time ago when I was still in high school with my good old 14k modem, I discovered Napster. Out of curiosity, I typed my name into the search bar and I was thrilled to discover there was an artist out there with my name. I looked him up on the internet before I downloaded the song to find out who he was (downloading an mp3 back then was normally a couple hour commitment and I didn't want my parents to yell at me for tying up the phoneline for nothing). Apparently this former member of the Scorpions has a large cult following. Anxious to hear this supposed electric guitar virtuoso mix rock with classical, I started the download and waited and waited and waited and waited… Finally, the download was complete. I turned up the speakers and waited to be enlightened by this neo-Hendrix. What I heard could have reduced grown men to cry out in agony to their Creator for deliverance.

This man is a mozart to brain dead heroine addicts trying to relive their glory days in the 80s. For his refusal to put behind him his glam rock days, for his feeble attempts to make hairbands seem like they played legitamite music, I am sorry world for Uli Jon Roth. He’s a disgrace to the name.

This is the third day since my last blog entry. i don't think I've ever gone this long. I've written four posts since then but i decided not to publish three of them. Sorry guys, I'll get on it. If you want, I posted some interesting stuff last month when I thought no one was reading. It's more towards the beginning.

Ok people, let's face it. Fabio is freaking awesome. There seem to be a lot of naysayers out there, but as the Bible says "the truth shall set you free." In fact, I frequently have people approach me saying, Could you please say it? What do you mean I ask. "I can't believe it's not butter, please say it." Oh, you must have me mistaken for Fabio, the badest guy ever. They look at me in puzzled disbelief. What do you mean, they ask. Your chiseled body and golden locks could belong to no one but Fabio. Please say it so I can tell my grandchildren about this day. I've come to expect this type of reaction from people now. If anyone asks me to do it, I know all they want is "ICBINB." Don't they realize there's more to me than being really, really, really, really ridiculously good looking?

I can see the resemblance now. The other day I went into the gym and a friend took my picture. What resulted was a picture that looked a lot like one of Fabio's. Can you tell which one's Jonny-o and which one's Fabio?

A: . B: . If you guessed B, move to the front of the class.

I'm applying for secular music director of WSAJ for the upcoming year. Basically I would be responsible for getting secular music into the station, reviewing it for questionable content, and inserting it into the computer database. It would be such a freaking awesome job, especially since I'll be somewhat responsible for what gets played on a station that reaches well past Youngstown.

I didn't get the last job I applied for, but let's forget about that. Secular music director for a real radio station is much cooler than being the junior class senator for academic affairs. One other person has applied for the job, but hopefully he/she has the same chance of getting it as me. In my application, I gave a specific vision for what I wanted to see and how I would do it. Hopefully the new program director will like it. I know a couple people on the staff right now so hopefully that works in my favor.

Right now I have almost no access to new music of any sort. I'm trapped behind the school's firewall and there's no way out unless I wanted to pay for a tunnel service, but let's face it, then I would be paying for music and we couldn't have that. Normally, a college kid could rely on his school's low-bandwidth station to provide him with a more esoteric variety of music, but Grove City seems to be the exception to this rule. I would like to change that because a lot of people I know like the same type music I do. I would love to get them the CDs they need so that they can have something new to play every once in a while. Maybe if I do a good job the radio station will become a little more adventurous in its play lists. We'll see.

Do you know how I'm right about music? Listen to Fabio- he knows all.

It seems like my blog has transformed a bit since it went "public" earlier this week. My posts don't seem to be as introspective. The original purpose of this blog was to try and put into words whatever I was thinking or feeling at the time. I guess I wanted to confront myself with my own beliefs and share them with a small number of others. It's intimidating to have people you don't know especially well read something really personal. I guess that means I should grow as a blogger/writer/person/whatever.

It's about that time for all you grovers to hit the hay. Here's a poem to send you to sleep even though most of you will probably read this in the morning.

I'd like to rest my heavy head tonight
On a bed of California stars
I'd like to lay my weary bones tonight
On a bed of California stars
I'd love to feel your hand touching mine
And tell me why I must keep working on
Yes, I'd give my life to lay my head tonight
On a bed of California stars

I'd like to dream my troubles all away
On a bed of California stars
Jump up from my starbed and make another day
Underneath my California stars

They hang like grapes on vines that shine
And warm the lovers glass lke friendly wine
So, I'd give this world
just to dream a dream with you
On our bed of California stars

-Woodie Guthrie

If you'll cast your eyes to the right (no, your other right) you'll see I added a photo log section. If you want to see pictures of my family and friends, go there.

Major kudos to Bryan. He helped me make the separations between my posts more clear with the line thingy. Thanks!

Apparently Amy Martin's evil anti-cow tipping minions have corrupted even the most trustworthy of individuals, Bryan Turner. The other day, he swore that he had successfully gone cow tipping. I saw him around campus and he seemed different, like someone or something had changed him since I last talked to him. Now he swears that his cow tipping story was a farce, but I know better. As I saw him stare distantly into the distance in Hicks tonight, I came to realize he had in fact been brainwashed. Brian, I know you've been cow tipping. Let someone help you undue the damage that has done.

Let's face it, anything can be tipped over. Let's take my first completely plausible scenario for a cow tipping. Say Fabio, the baddest guy in the universe ever, grabbed a bat and knocked the crap (or cud) out of a cow's head. The cow would die and the force exerted by Fabio through the bat would then cause the cow to tip over, therefore proving that cow's are killed when their tipped. While cows run away from most people, they would be so enamored with Fabio's chisled body and golden locks that they wouldn't know to run.

Also, a wrecking ball with the right trajectory could do the trick.


Further evidence for cow tipping:

The statics of cow tipping
Even straight dope can't come up with a conclusive answer
Join Friends Against Cow Tipping (FACT)

One time when I was younger I was getting ready to leave work late at night. As I walked up to my car, this guy came out of nowhere and started begging me for drugs. I told him I didn't have any. He was like, "Come on, please you have to at least have some weed. Help me out!" Being a 16-year-old, this sort of freaked me out. I told him no again and got my keys out to get in my car. All of a sudden he jumped over the small fence that separated us and tried getting in my car. By this time I was in my car putting my keys in the ignition. I turned the old Buick on, put it in reverse and slammed on the accelerator. My tires squealed as I backed up, but the guy kept coming after me. Heart pounding, I slammed on the accelerator and drove away as fast I could trying to keep as low as possible, just in case the lunatic had a gun or something.

I needed some money so I headed off to the bank. Since I worked at a hotel, I figured I should go back and tell the front desk guy so he could call the cops. I pulled into the driveway of the motel and all of a sudden the guy came darting across the parking lot. I was thinking holy crap, the guy's coming back to get me. He kept running though and went into the Dairy Queen next door. I went inside the hotel and told the front desk guy about the incident. Apparently they had already received complaints and the cops were on their way. He told me to stick around so the cops could take my report.

By this time, it was getting around midnight and I didn't feel like filling out a police report and risk having to testify or something stupid like that. The police came and started taking reports from the customers. I walked up to one of them and told him that I saw the guy sprint into Dairy Queen. The officer said, "Yeah, yeah, just stand over there and someone will be with you shortly." That sort of ticked me off. I thought these cops were here to get a bad guy, not to take notes about some lunatic harassing customers. This is not to say that all policemen are jerks, but that one was. I started talking to one of the customers about my experience with crazy dude and how I saw him run to Dairy Queen. About 10 minutes later, all the cops ran to Dairy Queen to arrest the guy. I could have saved them a little time if they guy just listened. Hopefully he felt like a dweeb later on.

Now that I think about it, that very weekend, another incident occurred at good old Best Western. A couple of my buddies, a cook named Mike (henceforth known as butthead II or BII for short) and I went out to chuck some rotten fruit out back into a dumpster 60-70 yards away. I tried throwing an orange or something but I almost hit a semi no where close to the dumpster. I figured I'd stop there and go back inside to get some cookie-dough from the walk-in freezer. I walked out and Leon Chu, the manager of the hotel, was standing right in front of me while I had about four things of cookie-dough in my hand. He looked around the kitchen trying to figure out where everyone was and walked towards the door. He stared at the guys chucking fruit for a while, shook his head and walked away.

Well, eventually my buddies and butthead II all got called to Leon's office to get chewed out and reprimanded. BII was ticked off for some reason that night. He got off work and headed for the bar where he proceeded to drink large amounts of alcohol. Around 10, the bartender came running out of the bar to get us. BII was trying to get in a fight with a customer and nothing could calm him down. Apparently as a dishwasher, it was my job to stop bar fights. I ran in there with my friends and asked BII to leave with me. Eventually I got him out of there and got someone to lock the door behind us in case he tried to get back in. He was so ticked. We could not get him to calm down at all. He kept on yelling at my friends about how the guy was a jerk and deserved a beat down. In his drunken state he got really serious, looked at me and said, "Roth, I trust you. Don't you think the guy is being a jerk? (+ A lot of swearing)" The way he said it really hit me. It was like he was saying I was the only person in his life he could trust. It's hard to describe, but anyway, on with the story.

We were told to escort him off the premises. They wanted him to drive back home in his state, but there was no way I could let that happen. My two buddies ended up driving him home while I held down the fort. Apparently they had lots of fun taking him back. Neither one knew where he lived so they had to take directions from him. They pulled into his neighborhood and he pointed out his house. My friend Jordan walked up to the door so that BII's wife could come out and take things over. To his surprise, he did not find a wife but two drunken 20+ year-old girls who were quite surprised to find some random kid on their door step. Jordan asked them If BII lived at this house. They laughed and told him he lived across the street. Meanwhile BII was back in the car laughing it up. Apparently the girls invited Jordan in, a detail which he never failed to leave out when telling the story.

I never saw BII again after that night. Apparently his girlfriend/common law wife that he had lived with for years had left with his child earlier that day. That must have been why he was in such a bad mood at the bar.

The cow tipping debate continues. I now know someone who has gone cow tipping. Brian Turner said the trick is to go with a couple other people, treat the cow kindly, and the push it over as fast as you can. This avoids the cow running away thing and helps with their low center of gravity and heavy weight.

At a little party over the weekend, the topic of cow tipping came up. Someone asked if it was really possible. Now I don't personally know of anyone who did it, but I was pretty sure that it was possible. One girl, Miss Amy Martin, believed that it was in no way possible to do so. "What makes you the expert on cows?" I asked. "I grew up on a dairy farm, " she replied. Yeah, I felt dumb.

I just wrote a blog entry, but I lost it somehow. So now I start again, frustrated.

My brothers fiance Danielle and I were talking today. She seemed to think I've matured substantially since I started at Grove City. I'm sure I have. It seems like each year I look back at the person I was a year ago and blush. Hopefully that continues to happen though. I think it signifies personal growth.

I changed a lot over the summer. I got a job with a mason named Rich. It was by far the worst working experience I've ever had in my life. The guy was an easily angered xenophobic mason involved with a cult called the apostates. He was also a liar. When he hired me, he said I would make $10 an hour, but two weeks into the job I was only making $8. When I found out, I was furious, but I stayed with the job reasoning that $8 an hour is better than nothing.

The guy made a conversation with your average sailor seem edifying. At first I took his comments seriously, but eventually I figured out why he made them and they had nothing to do with me or my work. He was just an angry guy who probably realized his life had no meaning. The only two things he found joy in were his elderly dog and the "Apostates," his little cult. He enjoyed telling me of how "niggers" had been destroying the neighborhoods he worked. Zionist conspiracy theories were always fun to hear about. I also worked with an alcoholic co-worker whose brain was fried by the acid, crystal meth, and heroine he did during his teen-age years. Also, there was his alcoholic homosexual brother who worked with us for two weeks. Truth is stranger than fiction.

I worked my keister off for that man and he didnt appreciate it one bit. Towards the end of the summer I was used to his raving. He would yell at us and I would have to try and keep from visibly laughing at him. Oh, I should tell you what I did this summer. I waterproofed basements. Basically this involved driving all over creation to get to the jobsite. We'd get there, unload stuff from the truck, and start digging. Then we dug and dug and dug, took a half-hour lunch, and then dug a lot more. Since there was normally only one person working with me, we had to climb out of the hole and load our own barrels on the truck, which made things go slow. We dug until we hit the drain tile which was normally about 8 feet down. At this point, my feet were soaked because of the water lying around the foundation of the house. Once we got done with the hole, we put in new drain tile, tarred the wall, dumped literally tons of gravel into the hole and filled the rest with topsoil. Of course, while we were digging, there were the occasional cave-ins which were a little freaky. Also, you had to worry about the crappy barrels we had falling back in on us. I almost had one knock me in the head, but luckily I dove out of the way.

I would get home tired and ticked off. Normally my co-worker Nick would go back to his house and get wasted. This wasnt an option for me so when I got home, I tended to share my frustrations with my parents (much to their chagrin.) When I went to bed, I generally had problems getting to sleep even though my body needed rest. I usually woke up at least 4 times during the night because of body pains. When I woke up, my fingers would be cramped together. I couldn't move them without using my other had to force them straight. I think I understand how Eleazar's felt when his hand lost all stregnth and froze to the sword after fighting all day against the Philistines.

Lessons Learned:

1. I learned to not take criticism personally. Of course, if a friend told me to go die, I wouldn't like it. But still I have thicker skin.

2. I learned how to be more assertive. Working with a guy that has no compunction about speaking his mind rubs off.

3. I learned how to be less tactful. I used to think it was best to try and always handle things tactfully. However, I think if you try and be overly polite and not step on any toes, you won't have many meaningful relationships.

4. I learned how to work hard for your wage because it is the right thing to do, not because if who you work for.

In the past 4(?) weeks, I have written 12,351 words in this blog. Pasted in word, it all comes out two 45+ pages. I've only just begun too. I can't believe how much fun writing random things about my life is. Hopefully someone out there is reading.

I've discovered something recently. There is an extrovert in me that is just dying to bust out. I took the personality tests and came out an INTP, but I think I'm half-way between I and E. It seems to vary with the situation.

That was random, and so is this: I think I should have tried acting in high school. I think I might have been good at it. Trolley and I have been doing really weird, random acting type things recently. Normally he comes into my room and says something random and then we go from there. It's a lot of fun.

Another random thing: I've used the word random four (make that five) times in this post alone. Maybe it's time I expand my lexicon?

Today Trolly (a guy from my hall) and I got into a bit of a friendly fight. I was waiting to use the shower. The guy in there got out and so I grabbed my towel and headed for the bathroom. Even though Trolly insists that I'm being dishonest, the events that followed went something like this:

Trolly came dashing through the bathroom wearing nothing but an evil grin on his face. He pushed me away from the shower and jumped in. After an evil bwahaha or two, he began telling me how stupid I was and how he bet my mother was sorry for having ever brought me into this world. I couldn't believe the vehement filth spewing forth from his mouth. I don't think they swear as much on Sout Park as he did then. I was really disappointed that I wouldn't get to take a shower and all, so I went into his room and grabbed his large bowl. I filled it with fairly warm water that I was planning on dumping on him, the purpose being to show him that I had the power to get back, but that I was above that sort of thing. He caught me before I could do it, so I dumped the water and tried to go back to minding my own business. Well, he started cursing at me and calling my mother a dog. I couldn't believe that he would say such things so I filled the bowl with WARM water and dumped it on him. He pulled back the shower curtain to show himself in all his glory to the world while giving me the finger. Finally he got out, went in my room, laid on my bed, and told me he would dump ice cold water on me while I was showering.

So I grabbed my towel, proceeded into the bathroom, got my soaps, turned on the shower, shut the curtain, and ran out of the bathroom. I sprinted down the hall wearing only my bath towel and tried to shower in the other back suite bathroom. I ran through a room, looked at the bathroom and saw there was a person in there showering. "Crap," I said as I walked back through the guy’s (Duton's) room. As I started to leave, I heard a girlish giggle. Shocked, I turned around and looked at Dutton’s face. "Is your girlfriend in here?" I asked. He gave me a puzzled look and glanced down. Only then did I realize that it was intervis and that Dutton had been making out with some girl before I walked in. Needless to say, I felt like an idiot. I ran back to the hall bathroom and jumped in the showers there. Once finished, I ran back to my room as fast as I could so that none of the girls on the hall would see. It turned out the Trolly fell for my ruse. He had tried to dump a nasty concoction of cold water, liquid hand soap, toothpaste and whatever else he could find on me.

I just played poker with some Rhos. I left the night with $10.70 which was more than anyone else and yet I thoroughly didn't enjoy it. The rule was that no one could leave until 12:30 unless you went all in and lost. So, when you factor in that I played for 2.5 hours and I only really won 8.20, which equals $3.28 an hour. You could say it's fun to gamble so not only did you get three hours of playtime, you also got to make some money. Truth is, after an hour it wasn't fun anymore. The good thing about that though is that I know I wouldn't ever make a good compulsive gambler. I get ticked off when I lose 25 cents on a hand. I could never imagine losing $50.

The preceeding post is meant to be comical. The girl in question I do like some, but I've only talked to her a few times, and as they say, she is most deffinately out of my league. I asked her the stupid small talk questions like, "how was your week?" To my surprise, she didn't give the obligatory reponse. Her week wasn't going well for reasons personal and academic. I thought it was cool that she was so transparent and honest, especially since we don't know each other. From what I've heard, she made a comment to someone about the Cava performance. Apparently she liked it.

The little diddy I wrote wasn't meant to be serious. I listened to Philip Glass' "Einstein on the Beach" and there seemed to be some inter-play there and so I went with it. I had to take some "artistic" (if you can call it that) license so don't take it too literally.

.

Place: the coffee grove
Time: 9:30ish
Purpose: to see Diana play
Enciting moment: when a certain someone walked through the door.


The day with its cares and perplexities is ended and the night is now upon us. The night should be a time of peace and tranquility, a time to relax and be calm. We have need of a soothing story to banish the disturbing thoughts of the day, to set at rest our troubled minds, and put at ease our ruffled spirits.
And what sort of story shall we hear? Ah, it will be a familiar story, a story that is so very, very old, and yet it is so new. Is it the old, old story of love?

Today we follow our unsuspecting subject, the ever fallible Jon Roth.

Unsuspecting he sits on a bench, with arms holding each other, relaxed and calm. Unexpectedly the room grows cold, breaking his concentration. Over he looks towards the doorway and becomes visibly shocked. His muscles tighten; his brow sweats. He shifts his weight, brushes his hair with his hands, and collects himself. The night should be a time of peace and tranquility, a time to relax and be calm. But not for him that night. Someone had walked through the door.

Acquaintances they are, but none the less her physical beauty has caused him duress. Yes, he stresses of what to say. What business of hers did he have that day?

Weighing in mind of what to do next. Be aggressive, but not too aggressive. Be smooth but not disconcertingly so. Be funny, be perky, act like all is ok. What should our man do on this day? Ah yes! Small talk, thats the way. He struggles of what to say without coming off as inane.

Hi, he says. OH YEAH THAT WAS IT! Now she would certainly melt in his arms. Surely this was how Romeo began his discourses with Juliet. By went the time our Romeo spent. Little did he know of what was said or what was meant.

A new performer graced the stage. This guy is great, he says with a grin. His humor is odd, but enjoyable none the less. Up walks her friend, asking to leave. No, lets stay, this guy should be sweet.

"Gosh darn mother freaking son of a mother. What the frick was I thinking. I am a stupid mother fricker. What the heck. What is your malfunction son, you dumb putz?" he thinks. Now his fate hangs in the hands of the unknown, one that is even despised by his own.

"Umm, uhh, I am going to start off with an Irish like folk song with Greek influences so if you arent Irish or Greek, then I guess youre screwed." But none of these words found there way to our friend. He was still raving at himself. "Are you Irish?" she asked. "Why yes I am, quarter Irish to be more exact." There she stands, with red hair blazing. Our friend should ask, "are you Irish too?" But alas, not only did any limited social skills our friend have leave with her presence, so have any powers of reason.

The song begins, our subject is moved. Moved to beat his head repeatedly into the nearest wall. As Cava croons, our friend swoons. Seconds pass like hours. By the time Cava ends his song, our friend is eligible for social security. Goodbye she says, as looks for his cane.

This is the story of our ever fallible subject and his hopes dashed. Nights are times of relaxation, not vexation, and yet one person has caused him distress to spare.


Adapted somewhat from Einstein on the Beach

Just for future reference, the previous piece is why Im not an English major.

This weekend was pretty fun. On Friday I went to a surprise birthday part for a friend of mine. It's sort of ironic that every single birthday party we have here at GCC is a surprise party. After a while, it's no longer a surprise. Either way, the party was a lot of fun and she seemed genuinely surprise by the extent of it. It was basically like a little kids birthday party, but it was fun. We played pin the lips on Amy, some semi-violent duck duck goose, a little catch-phrase, hit the crap out of a piñata, and this one game where you tie a balloon around your ankle and run around the room trying to pop other people's balloons.

Saturday I raked a bunch of leaves as a service project with my housing group. Later I went to a party at a friend of mine's house. Her father is an engineering prof at Grove City. I left briefly to go see a friend of mine perform at the coffee grove. I went back to the party after the Peter Cava performance ended. Keeping in tradition with his utter randomness, Cava sang an Irish folk song, a Latin number, and a "negro spiritual" as he called it. Paul and I went back to the party, talked with some people around a camp fire, and went back to the grove for his friend's birthday party.

Today I skipped church and played football for a couple hours. That was my weekend. How exciting, you say. I know, it was a little boring. That is why I don't like answering the question, "What did you do this weekend?" Most people really don't want to know what you did. They just want to hear funny tidbits. I'll work on that for you next.

Recently I've had a short film/alternative music obsession. In an attempt to find humerous videos, I stumbled across blumpy.org. The guy is hilarious. It's not really dirty humor at all. There's swearing and such, but generally the humor is intelligent. Also, the work isn't overly processed or refined. The videos aren't serious but they still have an endearing quality, I think. Especially the video on alcoholism and the Ginch episodes (especially the second part.)

I can no longer see my floor, and thats not because of any inebriation or narcotics usage on my part. my roomis the dirtiest it's ever been eber. I' too tired to work on it. I'm also too tired to keep my etes open while I write this. Hopefully I'm hitting the right keys. If nor, forger you I'm going to bed.!

Peter Cava, the Ubermensch? I believe so. This man is one of the pre-eminent artist of our times. For those of you not fortunate enough to catch his performance during Salt company's java jam, he sang a Bowie-esque original piece with an accompanying self-choreographed dance numer. This was the type of dancing that would put Vaslav Nijinski to shame. Needless to say, I have been a Peter Cava fan ever since. I get as giddy as a teeny bopper at an N'Sync concert when I'm around him. Though I see him frequently, I have yet to gain the courage to actually speak to him. Let's face it, he would never want to talk to the likes of me.

Since he's awesome, I want to start a Peter Cava fan club. "Finally!" you say? We have no advisor, but let's face it. This revolution is underground and will never be televised. Grove City College would never let the media get to him. They just don't want to share his greatness with the world. Selfishly they have kept him from the world. Never more Peter Cava. They can't control you forever. The world shall know your greatness, and I, as the supremely benevolent, all-knowing, all-sensing, all-feeling, all-caring, all-concerned, hooked on oxy contin err uhh, Maha Rothie, acting as the most excellent emperor Rothus Augustus, first among equals, second only to one, shall labor so that all will have the opportunity to share in the Cava experiance.

If you want to be a member, email rothjh1@gcc.edu.

"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.
For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same:
For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."

Ok, this is the passage that people use against libertarians all the time. See, they say, just look here and it says that the government is here to punish evil, and if you do good, you have nothing to worry about. That's absolutely wrong. Anyone with an elementary level of education of history can look back and easily see that governments are a terror to all, good and evil alike. What evil did the Jews do to merit the holocaust? There are numerous exambles of the government being a terror.

They also you passages like these to justify moral laws. Why, your beliefs go against the Bible. If you don't think the government should be able to legislate morality, you can't be a Christian. Jon, you say, come on, no one is saying that.
Yeah right! I had a professor tell me I couldn't be a Christian and a libertarian because of this very reason.

Never mind that Paul didn't subject himself to the higher powers. Perhaps he knew that the Christians he was writting to would know he meant powers ordained by God and God alone, ie. church government and whatever else. Otherwise, what Paul said could have been easily debunked. Here's a guy saying the if you do good, they'll have nothing but praise, and yet he's in jail for doing nothing but good. And the only reason he wasn't dead at that point was because he was a Roman citizen. If he hadn't been, he probably would have been executed much sooner.

I think I figured out why some of my apostrophes turn into ’. They happen late in my long posts. I guess I'll just continue to leave them out.

You know what really bugs me? Sometimes I just feel like I'm alone. No one knows me and no one ever can. If man is a soul, body and mind, there is a part of me no one can experience. Our bodies are bound by physical laws. Our best evidence shows that many of our actions are determined by biological causes, and yet we still believe there is something in us that is unique and indetermined. One could call this thing our soul. We commonly believe that this part of us is immaterial and not constrained by the laws of nature. Ok, say that's true: this would be our inner being, that which is truly personal. This immaterial inner-being has to use a biological shell called our body to communicate with other bodies with souls in them. So any private thoughts our immaterial being has must be made material and then consumed by a biological shell with an immaterial being. First of all, this seems a little complex and a little strange. How does this soul hook up to the body? Second of all, we could never truly experience another person's inner being. Are we doomed to go through our entire lives without ever truly knowing anyone? That really sucks. I mean, I could be married a woman for 50 years and never really get to know her. A part of me is almost relieved. Do I really want someone to know me too well? Then they might not find too much, or what they find might scare them. On the other hand, does this mean I'm doomed life long acting gig? By this I mean, am I going to have to constantly try to translate my immaterial being through my material shell. If this is the case, there's a lot of room for error in the transfer. Then when the other person gets the message I'm trying to convey, he/she has to interpret it which makes room for more errors, and then they have to transfer it from their material shell to their immaterial soul, which also leaves room for misunderstandings due to biases.

Furthermore, we could never communicate our inner beings very well anyhow. If were unique, then there is no adequate lexicon on earth that could describe our essence. Try to answer the question who are you. You could say, “Im Jon Roth� but that gives me absolutely no idea who you are. You could say Im a Christian libertarian leaning towards anarcho-capitalism that likes obscure music, artistic films, writing blogs late at night, and studying economics at Grove City College. Thats a pretty specific description. I doubt this would describe anyone else in the world and yet you still dont know jack about my essence. Heck, if I don't know myself, how would anyone else be able to? Do these questions even matter?

Im guessing they do, but Im not sure why. Perhaps its a way of preserving ourselves. I may not be overly afraid of death, but I dont want to leave this world and have people say “Jon who?” when Im gone. It seems like a desire for immortality of sorts.

One alternative could be that our bodies have no souls and no real essence except that which is caused by biology. This just doesnt seem to be the case. Surely our bodies have a tremendous effect on mental states, but sometimes people purposefully dont act in their own best interest. There seems to be some other compelling motive like a call to duty. This implies that there is a part of us that isnt ruled by the surly bonds of this earth.

These doubts naturally lead one to doubt his perception of ethics, purpose in life, and duty to others. If you dont have it all figured out, how can you act? It seems to cause despair about the future and anguish over how we know what were doing is right. This seems to naturally lead to a crisis in faith.

Part of the time Im told its natural to doubt ones salvation. The other part of the time Im told that anyone who is a Christian knows that everyone else is wrong because of the Holy Spirit within. Im a little less emotional than many people when it comes to a lot of things. I feel like an idiot on the dance floor. I look around at the people and wonder what the frick are you so excited about. Dancing is silly and yet I do it because other people like to. Thats not to say I dont enjoy doing it, I just recognize there is an absurdity to it. My point- people get hyper-emotional sometimes for little reason. No offense to Paul when he reads this, but when I go to Pentecostal churches or watch them on TV, its the same feeling I get watching people dance. Theres a silliness to jumping around the aisle yelling Thank you Jesus. It seems to me that God is more concerned about you internal condition. Can you praise and worship God without making a sound or moving around? I think so. Its the internal state of worship that matters. Anyone can fake the outside manifestations. Many Pentecostal Christians Ive known in high school would go out, have sex, do their crazy stuff and then go to church, dance around the aisles yelling thank you Jesus. They arent sincere, and yet they were always the first people to go up during alter calls. Man it annoyed me. They werent penitent. At best they were getting caught up in the emotion of the moment and behaving irrationally.

This has a point. These emotional experience that we Christians point to as affirmations of our salvation could just be us getting caught up in the moment. Dang it, the diatribe on unpenitent Pentecostals seemed to fit in somewhere in my argument. It just seems like I am like the kids at my high school who would get overly emotional, run up for the alter call, and then have no real change in my life afterwards. Ive come to the point where I cant go to church and get into singing the songs like everyone else. I feel like its insincere. I want to be sincere, but I know Im just going to screw up. Implied in repenting is turning away from your sin. Can you be truly penitent if you know you are just going to do the same thing over again? I mean, Ill have fits of conviction, but sooner or later, Im going to do it again. So people around me sing God you are my God and stuff like that. But is he really my God if I dont let him have total control in my life? If he did have total control, my life would have to be radically different. Ive tried turning over my life completely to His control before, but after a week, I just start acting like my old self. It ticks me off. I want to be honest and sincere. I just dont think I can sing those lyrics honestly.

It feels like Im just lying to God, spitting in His face, and minimalizing His Sons sacrifice. Ive confessed with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in my heart that God raised him the dead, so I am saved. I know I dont deserve it. Its just living it. I know I cant. Its impossible. One might say thats the point, we are new creations created in Christ Jesus with a Helper who aids us in living this new life free from sins power. I just cant totally turn over my life. It feels impossible. Were supposed to submit ourselves daily but I know that wont happen. It seems so futile.

Sometimes Christians seem to try and make becoming a Christian more complicated than what the Bible says it is. If you meet the above criteria of Romans 10:9, it says you will be saved. Doesnt this include Catholics, all flavors of Protestants, Eastern Orthodox, etc. Heck dont the Mormons and Jehovahs witnesses believe that much? People make it seem like the following scenario will occur:

(Peter coming out of the Pearly Gates to address all supposed Christians.)
Peter: uh, hi folks. Um, Im sorry to disappoint a lot of you but Fundamentalist Protestant Christian was the right answer.
Jerry Falwell: yee haw, I told you the moral majority was the right way to go
Peter: sorry Jerry, but theres been an exception made for you. All others who didnt pass, please return you tests and proceed to Hell.

Well, this post has been long and rambly if thats a word. Maybe ramble-rific would be better.

One last thing. Perhaps the representationalists have something going for them when they say there is no material world and that all that we see is just stuff God is thinking of and allowing us to manipulate. Heck if I know. I cant prove them wrong though. All I can say is that their argument seems goofy, and that wouldnt exactly be enough to disprove the theory.

I'm studying for a test tomorrow so of course I'm getting distracted. One of the things I'm studying is John Stuart Mill's view of pleasure quality. Basically quality and quantity should both be assessed when determining which course of action to take. It's not what brings the most pleasure. A life time living as a pig in a pig paradise where you have all the mud and oats a little pig could wish for is still inferior to living as a human being with all the trials and tribulations associated with life.

My radio show was Tuesday night and I played my normal "weird" music that Grovers can't seem to stomach. I remember when I liked the radio and enjoyed music quite a bit. Now, I hate most anything that gets radio play and I can't get enough of music. It's such an incredible form of communication, self-expression and exploration.

John Stuart Mill says that someone who’s been to both "worlds" is in the best position to decide which is better. The "artsy" music scene is sweet. When you listen, you aren't just enjoying good music. You're hearing innovation and the future of music. Every once and a while you hear someone who makes you forget to be critical and just get lost in the album. You don't just listen to good music, you experiance it. And to be honest, I hardly know jack about the music world.

So we want to fight terrorism? Ok, how can we best do that. How about legalizing drugs. I agree that more people will use them and that's bad. However, let's try and get rid of our short sighted focus and look at the big picture. When the United States government started a prohibition on alcohol, my guess is that alcohol consumption went down despite the popular belief it went up. Why? Prices for alcohol went up therefore quantity demanded would go down. Also, it wasn't as readily available and there were risks involved in drinking it that some people wouldn't have been willing to take. However, an underground economy formed and flourished satisfying the wants of frustrated demanders. Because of this underground industry, senators, governors, policemen, etc. were bribed for favors. We basically had bad men who were willing to sell something illegal gain a lot of power through selling alcohol.

What happened when FDR said nuts to prhibition? The mafia had to try and satisfy other demands that weren't being met. They built legitamite casinos in Vegas. They began to see profitability in selling drugs. Now, much of the mafia has turned legit. They don't control distribution of narcotics anymore so they've lost much of their power.

My point? The prohibition of drugs is causing a lot of pain that well intentioned Americans don't seem to be aware of. Look down south to Colombia. It's a nation torn by paramilitary and guerilla groups financed by and large by narcotic sales. The government is too weak to stop them. You know what would help the Colombian government? If the United States stopped funding their terrorists. You know what would keep gangs from having so much power and financial resources? Do you know what the profitability of going into the underground economu would be for a teen if drugs were legal? I totally agree drugs are bad and life would be better without them. However, the laws haven't helped stem the tide and they've had tons of undesirable side effects.

We must re-legalize drugs in order to pull the proverbial financial rug out from under all the transnational criminal, narcoterrorist, domestic terrorists (crips, bloodz) and international terrorist organizations that benefit from drug prohibition. These are the organizations that pose the greatest threat to U.S. national security. They cannot be deterred by our nuclear or conventional forces. They have no territory for us to occupy, but often operate within the sovereign territory of states too weak to crack down on them. We cannot threaten the Russian Mafia militarily, but we can take away one of their most profitable businesses.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/06/politics/06INTE.html?ex=1068699600&en=22a0faae00efd352&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

That doesn't sound good for Bush, not that I care. It totally sheds light on why there are no WMDs. I can't help but wonder whether or not Bush knew and decided to go for it anyhow. War is always the option of last resort. If he knew and ignored it, than he made a horrible choice.

Of course, if this does become a big news story, Republicans will probably say we were there to liberate. Bull crap. The argument all along given by talking heads and implied by Bush was that there was an immanent threat. Therefore, it still jived with Just War theory.

However, if this lebanese-american got to Bush before hand, then the entire basis for the war of pre-emption will crumble.

Jeff,

One thing about money is that economists do not want to treat it like a good. It doesn't seem to be a producer good or a consumer good because it isn't either. The use value from which its subjective value is determined comes from it being a medium of exchange (its value doesn’t come from it being consumed or being made to sell for a profit). Without going into a long treatise, I wish economists would treat money as a good. Values of particular goods vary. A dollar may buy two candy bars one day and only 1.5 later on. Likewise, the value of money fluctuates. This is just part of the market system we're in. We know money is worth less when it can't buy as much, i.e. we measure the value of money against goods and the value of goods against money. That economists would believe that the laws of supply and demand work only for goods and are irrelevant when it come to money seems preposterous. They say that demand for goods rise and fall, but implicit in that statement is that the demand for money would inversely rise and fall since their values are being measured against each other.

My point? Values for goods inflate and deflate but it's no big deal. It's not any bigger of a deal for money. That economists say 3% is the natural rate of inflation is preposterous to me. They need to link that assertion to individual action and value scales before I'll buy into it, and I doubt they ever could. I know my beliefs are in the minority and are heavily influenced by my profs, but they jive with my political views and empirical evidence seems to be on my side. They think that the business cycle is natural because it consistently happens. Indubitably there would be expansions and contractions in a free society, but not as frequent and not as severe. Everything I've seen elsewhere in the economy tells me that the free market is the best way. I don't see why it should be any different with the fed.

My proposal- get rid of the fed. Let banks go back to what they were doing before the government intervened. Let them make money substitutes (no fiduciary currency because that's theft). People too frequently forget that there was a time when the government didn't control things and somehow people got by. (http://www.townhall.com/columnists/walterwilliams/ww20030723.shtml) Likewise, money arose via the free market and the government took it over.

Inflation and deflation are symmetrical changes in supply and cause income redistribution. This is a market driven process, but when the state arbitrarily changes money supply, its effects are pernicious and detrimental to society.

I really hate small talk. It's absolutely pointless. Every day someone asks me how I'm doing. I say fine and ask them how they are. Do we really care that much? Not really. I could be having a horrible day, but if someone asks me how I'm doing, I'll usually just say fine. If I responded otherwise, it would be a bit odd unless I knew the other person well. It's like we don't want to get too personal with people. We just want to stay at a safe distance in life or something. This is why I love blunt people. They can say things I want to say (generally of course) and are completely confidant in themselves while saying it.

Poison of choice- M83- Dead Cities, Red Seas, and Lost Souls
That last post wasn't personal enough. Hmmm

Do you ever wake up in the morning and just get pissed off at yourself for being an idiot. Don't get me wrong, I'm deffinately not going to run off and commit suicide. I'm not depressed or anything. I'll just be sitting there and I'll get angry at me for being lazy, untalented, unproductive, etc. Perhaps it's an inferiority complex. For me, it seems like no social relationship is normal. I've never had any close friends who were normal girls. The closest female friend I had was a bi-sexual bi-polar suicidal trekkie involved in witchcraft with a dying lesbian mother and a father she's never known. This wasn't your typical relationship. Normally, I tried helping her through whatever crisis she had, and she had many. I hope she's doing alright.

My point is, when it comes to me and the ladies, I have difficulties. I mean, frick. I haven't ever gone out with a girl and I'm 20 years old. That's sad. My brother-in-laws call me gay. You know, if I were them. I would make fun of me too. Grove City isn't exactly the easiest place to go out with someone though. There seems to be a fairly long drawn out pre-dating process. Also, I did go to college during high school so there weren't too many college girls interested in dating an 11th or 12th grader.

I feel like I'm out of the game now. I don't know jack about dating rituals or how relationships work. I guess it can't be too complicated if everyone on earth for the most part has been in one. Heck, even my niece Caryn has a boyfriend. I told her I wouldn't tell her mom if she told me if she had one so I'm not going. However, if Jeff or Danielle were spread the word and it happened to get to Janine, I don't think I'll have broken any promises (hint, hint.)

This post seems disjointed and incoherent so I'm ending it.

I talked to Danielle, my brothers fiance. Apparently personal posts are more interesting than my economic treatises, even though the latest GDP figures are complete crap. I mean, if you factored out the production changes caused by artificially induced expenditures, you wouldn't have much. Anyhow, I'll try to think of something personal. hmmmm

Ok, I was sitting in class the other day thinking about anything other than what the prof was talking about when it hit me. Lions have claws. Deer have antlers. Humans have instinctual defense mechanisms. What the frick? How does this fit in with a 7 day creation? I mean, I was always told when God created everything, everything was perfect. All the animals were vegetarians since death didn't exist. Why then did God create lions with claws? Their only purpose is violent. Likewise, why do deer have antlers. They would have no need for them since their purpose is defensive. Also, didn't Adam and Eve get their reproductive abilities after the fall? If they were created with them, what if they hadn't fallen so quick. You would have a bunch of people on the earth that lived forever. That would make for one crowded earth.

my point? Maybe fundamentalists are full of crap. If you don't take creation literally, what can you take literally. It just seems to open a whole new can of worms.

I realized something the other day. 24 is just a male soap opera. For example, I was describing Nina and Jacks relationship when he asked why he hated her so much and why Tony was the way he was. "Well, they used to work together. When he and his wife separated, they became lovers. Once he got back with his wife, she started dating Tony which pissed Jack off. It turned out the Nina was selling secrets and when her cover was blown, she killed Jacks wife.' Intense stuff. The way the characters interact, it's just like a violent soap opera where the characters are expendable.

DEA be warned, there is a new highly addictive drug out there called 24. It is a show on Fox that has been known to cause people to bienge watch for hours on end. In fact, users have been known to get the "shakes" until they get their next 24 fix. Furthermore, I personally know that the show affects behavior. After watching the show, one becomes bossy and paranoid. I'm sure it's killing my QPA as well. So friends, don't let friends start watching 24.

Bush better watch out or all his Republican supporters might flock to Iraq.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A50031-2003Nov1?language=printer