Did we NOT just reform Iraq’s government because it was based on religion?  Do we NOT have seperation of church and state?  We’re throwing out our OWN RULES and showing our utter hypocrisy.  Both McCain and Obama showed how they really don’t understand our government by appearing in the debate.

America no longer even keeps its own values straight.  Maybe that’s why our citizens no longer do either.  I don’t know, but it was terribly irresponsible and an anti-patriotic sentiment for the church to even SUGGEST hosting, let alone go through with it…and grand finale…for the candidates to PARTICIPATE.  All around bad behavior.  Mike Gravel really still does have my heart <3

PS- Don Werner of Northfield has to be one of the most ignorant neo-conservative religious right members that I have ever heard.  If anyone reads the Northfield News, you know you can count on him to be there to not only screw up American politics, but also the religion he claims to be a part of.  Two for two Don, keep ‘er up!

Lack of religion is causing our country to lose their morals. Nope, wrong again.  There’s a lot of factors that play into this, including bad parenting, misguided government control, etc etc.  I think a lot of what happened here is that people started to take advantage of our ‘freedom’ without fully taking on the included responsibilities.  We’re supposed to WATCH THE NEWS.  We’re supposed to FOLLOW CAMPAIGNS.  We’re supposed to be ACTIVE IN OUR COMMUNITY.  But of course as long as we GET WHAT WE WANT as SOON AS WE WANT IT, we’re happy.  We’re a fat culture, in more ways than ever.

Our government cannot be trusted. That actually sounds like something someone on the right wing would say.  The fact is, it’s Bush that can’t be trusted.  I am so gung ho about people getting their faith restored in our government it’s not even funny.  I want people to see tangible effects of the government doing positive things here and abroad.  We don’t need to help anyone else right now (Iraq), what we need is to clean up our own country and take the initiative to help out.

There will be change once a new president is elected. This one I’m really worried about.  I’m not so much against a conservative president, but McCain?  No.  People…how has Bush helped us?  Really?  It’s ridiculous that we’d even consider a presidential conidate that has so much in common with our current caricature of a president.  Obama at least should’ve gotten a decent rival.  One that wouldn’t make me want to leave the country if he were to be elected.

As a closing thought, do we really exist?  There has yet to be proof.  One day at a time.  Live and then die.  Let’s not squander our time making artificial rules that mean nothing in the grand scheme of time.

In perspective, I can’t get married.  Why?  Because the religious right thinks it’s an abomination.  I didn’t choose to be gay.  To put it bluntly, I do not want to procreate.  As in I have no interest in doing what is required.  That is definitely a genetic trait that is abnormal, seeing as how most males want to get as much tail as they can, but it’s not something to cry witch over either.

I will die.  Whether or not I die happy in the arms of my husband does not seem like a choice that is fair to make by another person.  I hate how people choose these witch hunt topics that never have anything to do with what’s really going on.  Love is biological, it’s not religious.  Don’t make it something it’s not.  And last time I checked, love was not offensive.

I’ll detail tomorrow, it’s ten to three and I want to sleep.  But I had a lovely day and I love my boyfriend.  Plus a random chick told us we were a cute couple while we were walking past.

PLAYSTATION 3 ::  It’s amazing.  I bought this awhile ago, back in the beginning of June, but I never really updated on it.  I had a huge thing about PS3 vs 360 ecetera.  In the end I decided to go with the newer console, a lot to do with the fact I had been waiting since January for the Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle pack to come out.  I never wanted the 40GB model because of no backwards compatibility.  I have no PS2 so I wanted to access to (most) of that library.  Plus the pack came with a DualShock 3 vs SIXAXIS (lacking rumble support for games).  I could’ve cared less about Metal Gear Solid 4, but just the hardware that came in the deal… it was $500 though.  I got it at Target though so that saved me $100, after employee discount and opening a credit card.  Hey, gotta get my credit score up as well, so mindaswell.  Only a $200 limit because it was my first and such, but not to bad considering I got approved.  Already payed that off, I had all the money just wanted the extra discount.

After playing the included game, Metal Gear Solid 4, I fell in love with it.  That game is pure genius.  Yes, it is more like an interactive CGI movie than a game, but WOW.  The storyline (I went in knowing nothing about the previous 3 games) was so enthralling.  I actually cared about what happened to the people.  Deep storytelling lead to emotional involvement from the player.  So anyways, that was amazing.

The PS3 is also amazing in my opinion.  The main selling points for me were the wireless (pay an extra $100 on the 360?! No thanks!) and the Blu Ray support.  Now that Blu is the standard for the next gen disc based media I don’t need to wonder if I’d have a useless pile of junk on my hands.  Plus obviously the games can be huge and only need 1 disc.  Final Fantasy XIII may be coming out on the 360, but who wants to switch discs?  =p

In short I consider it one of my best purchases.  Online support is great too.

New laptop! With my graduation gifts I put it together with my parents to buy a new laptop for college this fall.  My last one was nice but was a bit bulky and getting slow.  I needed an upgrade.  So I got a wonderful new HP which has an amazin bit of art coveringm well, all of it.  Outside…inside…it’s really snazzy and themed after Asian art, so it looks fantastic.  Plus it has bluetooth, wireless n support, webcam, etc.  The new 14.1 size is SO MUCH BETTER for portability too!  I don’t actually feel like using it for a desktop anymore because it’s so nice and light to carry around.

Oh, and it has Vista.  Honestly…don’t believe all the crap people give it.  I knew it wasn’t bad, hasn’t treated me badly, and really just takes some getting used to (as do all new things).  It is a step in the right direction for Microsoft’s OS.  Whether or not that’s what goes down in the history books is another matter, but mainstream media rarely has anything positive to report on.  That’s not what sells.

E3 - Electronics Entertainment Expo What can I say?  Wholly underwhelming.  Microsoft by far did the best job, but even that wasn’t like OH MY GOODNESS AWESOME.  Nintendo gave a lackluster showing focusing mainly on casual games appealing to the ‘whole family’.  Frankly, Ninty needs to hold back a bit and make some new games for people who actually bought the Wii to play things that DON’T involve personal avatars you created.  Wait, buying a Wii for actual gaming?  Yeah…that is silly.

Sony really didn’t reveal anything amazing either.  It was mostly just trailers, nothing too new.  HOME still needs to be released, as does LittleBigPlanet.  On the horizon we’ve got Resident Evil 5 to look forward to, as well as the Final Fantasy XIII game(s).

Yep.  That’s it on the tech horizon right now.  Waiting to upgrade my phone until Google’s Android software makes its official debut.  Yes…I still save money too after all these gadgets.  My boyfriend thinks I work too much.  I probably do.  Target does expect a lot out of you for really very unimpressive pay.  I’m constantly looking for new jobs, probably going to go into Web design soon which is much more profitable because of the specialized skills needed.

OH!  Almost forgot.  Bought a book on game programming for XNA Studio, which is sweet.  Got one for beginners because I know very very little about C++ and nothing really about C#.  That’s my career of choice though, so I really want to begin learning on my own.  Little steps.

Next blog: religion.

I think I was too optimistic.  I don’t think America will last much longer frankly as the world super power.  This post actually has 5 good points.  We can’t cooperate with each other, we’re dedicated to holding our own beliefs and not budging.  Why?  Probably because just like the Middle East we have hugely religious backing in most areas which leads to people believing something without knowing why they are or how to actually understand what they believe in.  Whatever.

Also there are now rumors that Congress met in March to discuss the imminent collapse of our economy in late 2008.  Right now I’m not going to vouch for the authenticity of the news article…but that’s scary.  It was apparently a closed door meeting (which would be the 4th in our 200 year history) which discussed the possiblity of a civil war breaking out as a result.

Oh yeah, and in addition, the news source above discussed an advance round up of insurgent US citizens.  Sounds like we’re headed towards a Police State.

Well, good luck.  It’s not like anyone would rescue us anyways because we’ve stocked up on so many weapons.  So basically we beefed up our defenses, but turns out we were only locking ourselves in.  Haha.  In a way I kind of like the irony of this possible situation.

<3 Paul

PS- Bush has ruined our country.  I want to send out a special thank you for those of you who voted for him.  Twice.

I’m not sure if many of you have heard, but Viacom sued Google for all the user’s information on YouTube because of some copyright issues.  This is why I don’t like the current set of Media Conglomerates.  They don’t care about the consumer. All they care about is the profits they’ll make off of you.  Obviously any sane company would work with Google to get copyrighted video clips off of YouTube.  Money crazed media companies however want to play big brother and monitor every single video you watched and every single video search you performed.  And sadly, they won that suit.  How can such a gross violation of privacy like that be allowed?

It’s just like the RIAA.  They sue everyone who they think has downloaded music illegally, sometimes winning and sometimes not, but artists have seen none of the money.  The whole point of the suits, according to the RIAA is because bands, artists, performers, etc are losing money.  Yet any money they win does not filter back to the artists at all.

Our American economy is out of control.  Just like the artificially inflated gas prices at the pump.  How can the oil companies be taking in record profits if they’re only raising prices because of global demand?  That would only result in the same profits coming in if they were taking the same margin.  Obviously they’re not.

Money makes the world keep spinning <3

Get an opinion and keep it folks.  This is why I find commenting there useless, the people have no brains.

Is it my faith you seek, because you already had it, or was it just my simple starry eyed admiration that you wanted to keep with your propaganda machines constantly telling me over and over what my ideals are and what my beliefs are and who I should hate and who I should love and who deserves the war that we bring to them, only because they have brought it unto themselves in the first place, is it that or did you just want me content as you went on your little rampage taking me for granted, trying to keep me in a coma as the chaos ensued around my hospital bed but you kept my ears plugged and my eyes covered, well, you tried but somehow I got the remote and turned on the TV, and even with the poor reception I saw what you never intended me to see and what you never wanted me to hear, and I saw how you deceived me and I heard the illegitimacy of your lies and suddenly my mind was clearer than it had ever been before and I was simply a slave and you were my master and the whole situation was no longer something innocent it was a rape of my innocence and you were over me panting and I still had it in my head that no meant no but there comes a point when your voice just stops working because you’ve been screaming so much and through it all you never heard me you covered my head and did you work and somehow everyone else looks past me and looks to you and supports you and I shout out again for help but people tell me to be quiet and I look in your eyes and wonder how I could’ve been one of those people who told others to hold their tongues when they cried for help and I wondered how I was the one who saw your bloody hands and somehow managed to be silent when mothers screamed that their children were being slaughtered and after all I’ve been through who am I to ask for anyone else’s help, who am I to expect anyone else to listen and suddenly the responsibility is falling on my shoulders because now I sit back and do nothing as your followers bow and bow again, defend you as the blood pools around your feet, fight for you as the blood pools around the world, and they just keep on chanting in time with you and I can’t for the life of me understand this madness that everyone is caught up over, I can’t understand why I’m no longer in the land of the free, I can’t understand why people are holding guns up to their heads and pulling the trigger when they could swear to god they’re pointing it at the enemy.

Honestly though, what does it hurt?  This is just about as moronic as men striking down women’s rights in recent history, or looking back, the South supporting segregation.  Or just look at any idiotic motion to support any sort of discrimination at all throughout history.

Gay marriage does NOT affect straight marriages AT ALL.  The biggest complaint I’VE heard is that people will just do it for tax breaks.  Well you know what?  There are a great deal of white (majority) straight (majority) couples popping out kids for welfare money.  There are a great deal of straight couples that can stay married just to get tax breaks.  Is this a game of who can outsmart the government and who can’t suddenly?  Frankly people who would do this sort of thing are going to find a way no matter what.

Seriously.  These people look like monsters.  “Ok, yes, this is the land of the free.  But what about FAMILY VALUES?!”  Yeah?  What about them?  Last time I checked this was not a country that was supposed to have a government influenced by a SINGLE religion, let alone any religion at all.  The founding fathers did NOT approve of that model and that is what we ESCAPED from in England.  He who fights the monster must becareful lest he become one.  America, observe said proverb.  In fact we make a big deal about the Muslim government in middle eastern countries…yet we’re fine with being hypocrits.

I think at some point during my travels abroad I saw how backwards Americans really are.  No wonder almost every other country in the world hates us.  There’s a reason folks.  I’m not even sure if we can reverse the pervasive ignorance around us.

Grow up folks.  Intolerance was so 1800s.  We’ve made it through slavery, we’ve survived through women suddenly wearing pants (GASP- THE HORROR!), we’ve stumbled through Japanese internment, now we just need to jump through the recent immigration discrimination and the treatment of homosexuals.  I still think love is love and people are people.