Morons

In one of my last posts, I borrowed some quotes from www.ihatepatrobertson.com and now I’m going to do the same with www.morons.org

It’s kind of hard to imagine this level of stupidity, but I guess it’s possible. I’m not going to make comments about it; I don’t think it’s necessary.

You might remember William "Bill" Bennett from such hits as "The Book of Virtues" and "I lost $8 million to high-stakes gambling." Now he's jumped on the black baby bandwagon and told his neo-conservative radio audience that aborting all the black babies would reduce crime.

Here's the transcript of exactly what he said, lest anyone accuse us of taking his words out of context:

One of the arguments in this book "Freakonomics" they make is that the declining crime rate -- you know they deal with this hypothesis-- that one of the reasons crime is down is that abortion is up. [Caller: well I don't think that statistic is accurate.] Well I don't think it is either because first of all there's just too much that you don't know. But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. Now that would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down.

The implication here is of course that black people by their very nature are more likely to commit crimes than others: Bennett singled out black babies to the exclusion of other races, ethnicities, and characteristics and suggested that removing them from the picture would reduce crime.

Granted, if you wanted to reduce crime dramatically, you could abort every baby in the country. This would necessarily reduce crime by reducing the population. (Ignoring for a moment immigration and reproduction by budding.) But note that Bennett didn't say that; he specifically talked about black babies, to the exclusion of all others.

He also didn't attribute this theory to Freakonomics (it does not make a race-based argument about abortion and crime). His words were, "But I do know that it's true..." Not "Freakonomics posits that..." but "I do know that it's true." He is stating this as his personal belief. He did at least acknowledge that actually aborting black babies to reduce crime was a horrible thing to do, but that's not the problem with his remarks; the problem is that he believes it would work.

And this guy used to be the US Secretary of Education.

What am I? What are you?

You are a Social Liberal (68% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (20% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

Cost of War Counter

I just added a counter for the cost of war in Iraq. Now, it’s not that my big concern is money, but I think it’s sick that that money is used for this criminal act instead of something more productive and helpful. Do you know how many people could be helped with that money? Do you know how many other urgent situations could be taken care of? All this is just sick.

Pat, Pat, Pat

I couldn’t help it; I had to write about Pat Robertson again. I don’t want to become http://www.ihatepatrobertson.com/ for two reasons: First, somebody already is doing that noble job (I love that website). Second, that’s not what I meant to do with my blog.Besides all this, there are some things that I just can’t let go.I’m going to cut and paste some quotes I read by Robertson. I don’t understand how a person like this still has a TV show, and so many followers. Some of them are taken from “I hate Pat Robertson”. I’m only going to make comments on a few of them. I don’t think it’s really necessary to say much when you read this kind of thing.

"The strategy against the American radical left should be the same as General Douglas MacArthur employed against the Japanese in the Pacific . . . blast the individuals out of their power bunkers with hand-to-hand combat. The battle to regain the soul of America won't be pleasant, but we will win it."

"Government was instituted by God to bring His laws to people and to carry out His will and purposes."

"Whenever the civil government forbids the practice of things that God has commanded us to do, or tells us to do things He has commanded us not to do, then we are on solid ground in disobeying the government and rebelling against it."

"When any civil government steps outside the mandate authorized by God Almighty, then that government does not have any further claim over its citizens."

"There will never be world peace until God's house and God's people are given their rightful place of leadership at the top of the world. How can there be peace when drunkards, drug dealers, communists, atheists, New Age worshipers of Satan, secular humanists, oppressive dictators, greedy moneychangers, revolutionary assassins, adulterers, and homosexuals are on top?"

I don’t get how your sexual orientation, your political ideas fall under the same category as an assassin (don’t forget that he called for the assassination of Chavez, an elected president) or an adulterer. I’m kind of confused. People, help me out!


"Feminism encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."

Ok, this one’s just hilarious. I don’t think I need to say much about it, but everybody should read it. This shows exactly the kind of person Robertson is. And if a single person believes him, that alone makes him dangerous.


"I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that's the way it is, period."

God's pattern is for men to be the leaders, both in the church and in the family... "Women should listen and learn quietly and submissively. I do not let women teach men or have authority over them."

I kind of agree with the last two ones. Just kidding!


“Many of those people involved with Adolph Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals – the two things seem to go together.”

Hmm, I thought that Hitler killed lots of gays. Pat confused me again.


“I would warn Orlando that you’re right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don’t think I’d be waving those flags [gay pride flags] in God’s face if I were you.” “Homosexuals want to come into churches and disrupt church services and throw blood all around and try to give people AIDS and spit in the face of ministers.”

Damn, those gays are evil. Thanks Pat for opening my eyes.



This is what was said in “The 700 Club” about 9/11:

Falwell: “What we saw on Tuesday, as terrible as it is, could be miniscule if, in fact, God continues to lift the curtain and allow the enemies of America to give us probably what we deserve.”Robertson: “Well, Jerry, that’s my feeling. I think we’ve just seen the antechamber to terror, we haven’t begun to see what they can do to the major population.”Falwell: “The ACLU has got to take a lot of blame for this. And I know I’ll hear from them for this, but throwing God…successfully with the help of the federal court system…throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools, the abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked and when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad…I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who try to secularize America…I point the thing in their face and say you helped this happen.”Robertson: “I totally concur, and the problem is we’ve adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government, and so we’re responsible as a free society for what the top people do, and the top people, of course, is the court system.”
-The 700 Club, 9/14/05

You have to have a huge imagination to make that kind of connection. The way I see it, it’s just stupid. There’s nothing to even take under consideration in that reasoning. But there are some people that might buy all this, and that idea is what worries me. You just CAN’T create hatred like that. That’s an invitation to persecution, discrimination and intolerance; and if you have those things, then you have an unstable country under democracy. The best thing about democracy is that you get to say what’s on your mind, but you have to be careful. By saying those things, he’s jeopardizing the very system he supposedly stands for. I come from a country where the last dictatorship left 30,000 people disappeared. Those people even today aren’t officially dead; they’re just disappeared. That’s a horrible thing! We still have mothers in Argentina looking for their kids 30 years later. Because you know that a mother won’t give up if her son disappears; she won’t give up until she’s sure that her kid is alive, or dead; but never disappeared. What I’m trying to say here is that democracy is valuable, and needs care and responsibility. Those comments made by Pat Robertson are dangerous. I don’t want to shut him up, because that would go against his freedom of speech. But I do think that not listening to him should be common knowledge. A true “Operation Blessing” will be the one that can bring his viewers from 1,000,000 to 0.

Burning Man

I don’t know how many burners are going to read this, but I had to write about Burning Man. I had heard about this place 5 years ago, and I’ve been dying to go since then. This year I finally got to go, and I have to say that it totally blew my mind! I had very high expectations, but man, I never thought it would be so good.
The place is surreal from the very first moment you arrive. It’s not common to drive into the desert, 30,000 people camping, and when they say: “Welcome home” you just believe it. I know I did, even though I hadn’t been there before.
From the moment you drive in, you can tell that you’re in for a different experience. I don’t know how to describe the way that people treat you out there (but I’ll give it a shot); it’s just amazing. We got there kind of late, so we had to set the tent in the dark. We weren’t even done with that, when a girl came to us and offered us dinner. That’s just the way people are out there. That’s an example of the way that everybody treats each other. It’s part of the whole experience. The best part about it is that you treat people the same way; and you don’t even have to try. It comes out naturally. This is a place where sharing is 100% selfless. You don’t do it to get anything back; you just do it.
It’s kind of hard to believe at first when you walk into those theme camps and you get free drinks, or even food. Some theme camps don’t give away stuff, but you can’t help thinking all the time and work that those people put into them just to have fun and help other people have a better time out there.
What’s really hard is to get used to the extreme weather and the dust. You have to drink around a gallon of water per day. If you don’t, you just dehydrate. It’s that simple. It’s not easy to take care of yourself. You have to remind yourself to eat, drink water and sleep. There’s so much to do that you simply forget about taking care.
Even though the weather is so harsh on you, Burning Man couldn’t be set in a different environment. I know I may sound a little crazy when I say this, but it’s true. Most of the theme camps, the art cars would be lost. That’s not all that would be lost; the landscape just fits perfectly. This probably doesn’t sound all that important, but once you’re there you automatically understand.
I could go on and on for hours, but I think I made a little summary that sort of gives you the idea of what can be found there. One thing, though: if you don’t like any of the things I just told here, don’t go. If don’t feel comfortable in this kind of situations, you can have a horrible time. This is a place that you either love or hate. As you can see, I LOVED IT.

Pictures

These are some pictures that I took. Let me know what you guys think!

Katrina

Disasters will happen. That’s something that we just can’t change. The only difference that can be made is the way we respond to them. We can’t make the catastrophes smaller, but we can make the consequences less terrible.
In Argentina we’ve had some natural disasters. They weren’t as big as this one going on right now in the Gulf area, but they were pretty big. The last one was in Santa Fe, a beautiful and important province. The thing about that situation was that the same critics, the same (valid) complaints took place. And it turned out that the whole country, and the world showed their solidarity. The same thing happened, the biggest help came from people and their time and donations. I’m not saying that the authorities didn’t help, but they were late, too late (and not enough?)
This situation made me realize something: the response, the chaos, everything is the same no matter where the disasters happen. They can take place in a third world country, or a first world country, but the images are awfully similar. Therefore, the questions arise, is anybody really ready for something like this? Are we prepared to respond? Should we be surprised that this is the way things turn out? What can be done to be better prepared?

Worst movies ever

I know that there are some terrible movies out there, but there are two that totally caught my attention. Man haw can you make such a bad movie? Come on! I’m no filmmaker, but I would have done a better job than these guys. These are the movies I was talking about, and I know that I’m short with the list. Tell me what you guys think!

Never Been Kissed
Crossroads

BOOKS

Like I said, I worked on a little list of books. I know I haven’t read 1/100 times what I should have, but I (slowly) work on it. Now, this is a little list of my favorite books so far. Some of the names are in English, and some are in Spanish. The reason is that I read most of them in Spanish, so I don’t know the actual name that was used in English for those books.

Any Cortazar book
Crime and Punishment
Resurrection
Flash
100 years of solitude
Memorias del subsuelo
Todos los nombres
Brothers Karamazov (still reading it)
The Godfather
The Social Contract (I know, not fiction)
Nunca Mas (about the last dictatorship in Argentina)
The Da Vinci Code sucks, and so does Paulo Coelho

COMEDY

I’m a big fan of Comedy Central. The best show, by far, is South Park. I know that some people don’t like it, but it’s simply the best. But this is not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to talk about comedians there.
I like stand-up, but not all of it. And in that category I have to say that nobody made me laugh like D.L. Hugley in “Shocked and Appalled”. That’s probably the best stand-up I’ve seen so far. His jokes and critics at the same time make the whole show a total must-see. There isn’t a single part about it that isn’t worth it.
The other comedian that I like a lot is Carlos Mencia. This guy makes very, very good points. There isn’t a single ethnic group that isn’t teased. That’s the best part about it. The other good thing about the guy is that he always tries to get people to study, to improve their education. The only thing I don’t like about him is his big support to Bush, the invasion to Iraq, etc. But since that’s not the main subject of his show, then it’s all good.
The other show I started to watch not long ago is Reno 911! That show is just amazing, and it’s becoming a favorite very fast.
I like Adam Carolla too. I have to say that I only watched the show a couple of times, but his questions about ridiculous stuff are just hilarious.
That’s it for Comedy Central. There is very good comedy going on in other channels. Another favorite is Penn & Teller: Bullshit! (I don't know if I should put this one under comedy, but it makes me laugh) Now, if you want to hear some people criticizing today’s society and what’s “politically correct”, this is the way to go. I absolutely recommend this to everybody.
Ok, that’s it for comedy (for now). Let’s see what you guys have to say or recommend.

MOVIES

Since nobody can tell you what to write about in your own blog, I’m going to write about whatever I feel like. Right now I was thinking about movies, so all I’m going to do is list some movies that I absolutely love and consider must-sees. I’m not going to make comments about each of them, because I don’t think it’s necessary unless somebody cares enough to ask (so if anybody does, I'll happily answer any question). I’m sure that I’ll forget a ton, so I’ll just add them when I remember them. I’m also sure that some of them are obvious, but that’s not a reason not to list them.
Soon I’m going to add a similar post about music and books. Let me know what you guys think!

Dancer In The Dark
The Godfather
Snatch
Lock, Stock And Two Smoking…
Talk to Her
Magnolia
Fight Club
American History X
Bad Education
Sleepers
The Remains of the Day
ANY Tarantino movie
The Usual Suspects
Un Oso Rojo
Nueve Reinas
The Girl on the Bridge
Dead Man Walking
American Beauty
Forrest Gump
The Royal Tenenbaums
Being John Malkovich
The Sixth Sense
Amores Perros
ANY Michael Moore documentary
As Good As It Gets
Trainspotting
Cinema Paradiso
A day without a Mexican
Amelie

I know, I know, the list should be a lot bigger. Don’t think that I don’t have more, because I’m going to keep adding movies to this list. You guys do the same!

Simply Manu

In this post I wanted to talk about this amazing player, Manu Ginobili. This is a guy that won a gold medal in the Olympics, ended up second (that game was robbed!!!) in the World Cup and won and NBA title. That’s what most people know, but that’s not it. This guy was also MVP in Europe, and many other things.
His style isn’t the most orthodox. I have to say that sometimes it seems like he’s just going break a leg or fall before taking two steps. But besides that, he’s a player that can penetrate, shoot, defend, and the most important one, he is not afraid of anybody. Just like all the players, he has his good and bad days. But no matter how bad he’s playing, he’ll still run until he’s out of breath. Now, that’s a team player.
Ok, I admit it, I’m Argentine, but that’s not the main reason why I’m writing this. I just think that Ginobili is an amazing player, period.
In the finals this year, Tim Duncan had to be the MVP. He’s simply the best of the team. He was, is and will be the spine of the Spurs; but without Manu, no ring for Tim. I don’t want to make this too long or start going into details of his statistics, so I’m just going to cut and paste some that you can find in http://www.nba.com/

Finished fourth in voting for the 2002-03 got milk NBA Rookie of the Year Award
Voted to the 2002-03 got milk? NBA All-Rookie Second Team
Named the Western Conference got milk? Rookie of the Month for games played in March, 2003
Named 2001 Euroleague Finals MVP
Named the Italian League MVP in both 2000-01 and 2001-02
Named to the All-Tournament Team at the 2002 World Championships leading Argentina to a silver medal
Led Argentina to a second place finish in the 2003 FIBA Americas Men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament , earning All-Tournament honors after averaging 14.1 points and 4.4 assists in the team’s 10 games

Pat Robertson vs. Chavez

I still can’t believe what I heard when I saw the clip where Pat Robertson calls the US government to kill Chavez. This is a man that’s supposed to be a man of God. Do you think that Jesus would be happy to hear that his followers call for assassination? (especially when you talk about a man that represents no threat, whatsoever, for the US) I am not American, but that kind of statement is just wrong no matter what country you come from.
The whole thing is based on lies. The first and most important one is calling Chavez a dictator. Let's not forget that Chavez was chosen by his people. He won the elections with something like 70% of the votes. Therefore, attacking the president of Venezuela would mean attacking the people, the country. This "man of God" should respect the will of the people of Venezuela.
The biggest problem isn’t if Pat Robertson thinks he’s right. The biggest problem would be if other people thought he was right. He is creating a culture of hatred towards anybody that doesn’t share his “right” point of view. Like I just said, I don’t think that hatred and assassination is what Jesus wanted. I’m not the biggest religious person on the planet (I don’t really go to church, even though I was raised catholic), but I know that that’s not Jesus’ message.
I have a lot more thoughts on this matter, but I’d like to see what people have to say about it first.