Religiosity and the Freaks Wearing Pink Lipstick Married To Fantasy

I think the world has lost it. Stupid world, stupid Bush, stupid Republicans, stupid Democrats, stupid insecure egos, stupid Muslims, stupid Baptists, stupid people claiming to be Mormons, stupid you, stupid me...
Get a load of my weekend: Friday, I found out I got accepted to UT RN-MSN program and start soon. I closed on my house in Houston. I'm getting a hang of my job. The blessings of tithing are paying off. Then, on the OTHER side of the spectrum: One of my brothers got busted with his wife and one year old daughter shoplifting $2300 worth of DVDs from Wal-Mart. DVDs!!! He is already on probation in the state of Texas for two previous drug-related felonies (burglary, etc.) and then he does this in violation of his probation and parole WHILE his daughter was used as 'cover'. His wife was on parole also, but w/out the extensive legal history. Well, rumor has it my brother is going to prison for 25 years. He has track marks up and down his arms and cellulitis related to sticking himself. Fuck him.
At Church, my wife said some woman related a story in relief society about how she heard a friend talking about a time when she saw the Prophet G.B.H. (Grievious Bodily Harm?) talking to a young man who was a returned missionary. This returned missionary worked in a restaurant that promoted men to grow beards and kind of long hair. Supposedly this young man went up to Pres. Hinckley and shook his hand and said, "Hey, remember me? I met you while I was on my mission," to which Pres. Hinckley replied, "Funny, you don't look like a returned missionary." Now, would a prophet say something so condescending? No. There is a vein of 'spooky mormonism' in the Church which is, I think, based in all human nature to some extent. Just in the Church it is flaming gay (not meaning to offend the delicate sensitivities of my homosexual friends-'flaming gay' is not a reference to sexual preferences). Have you heard the one about, "I saw an Apostle speak at a stake conference and he opened his talk by asking by a raise of hands how many families had there food storage gathered and when he saw the meager answer he stated that if the membership of this stake couldn't keep this particular commandment, there was no way they could 'hear' this new message..."? Or, "I had a friend of a friend who overheard the Prophet in an elevator somewhere in the mountains of Utah say, "If the membership of the Church knew what I know, then they would immediately get their food storage together..."? How stupid. Stupid mormons...Hey, don't get mad at me, you know they're there, you're just fooling yourself...I didn't teach the parable of the Ten Virgins...Stupid goosebump theologists...
Anyways, I'm ranting. I am done with the socio-/political arena for a while. FYI: Sen. Cornyn did not reply to my questions regarding Portgate, or whatever you want to call it, but he and Sen. K.B. Hutchinson has come out questioning the deal. Maybe my message got through along with the (hopefully) others...The office of Ted Poe did reply and stated Rep. Poe is 'vehemently' against the Port deal. Thanks Rep. Poe for calling me back. Vote Poe! So there. Count me out for a while...at least until tomorrow. That leads to my next thought: After all of our efforts and activism, if you can call it that, nothing is more socially effective in bringing about change than a morally righteous life and being an example of our Saviour...I have a long way to go...
The reason I'm posting tonight is this thought: A theory exists which states liberals are drug users, and drug usage is morally corrupt, you have to be a liberal to do drugs, etc. and so on...I used to partake of cannabis on a regular basis and I enjoyed it. I don't now because it is empty and it is a lie, I'd rather be with my family, and there is a better way...The point being, I never leaned towards liberalism. I have/had friends who used cannabis who are conservative. Wait, I'm getting sidetracked...
Do people adopt causes in order to placate their feelings of emptiness brought about by denying that which is True and Just, such as the foundations of this Country, the existence of God and a Saviour who loves us, etc? Do people fill the gaping hole in their lives when they are passionately "pro-choice", "pro-gay rights", "pro-animals", "pro-environment", "pro-[letariat?!?]" but anti-Christ? I think they do. I see these people adopting their various causes in order to feel a sense of moral justification for the blatant wrongs in their lives. If the "pro-gressives" admitted to a Higher Power, they would have to admit a responsibility of their actions and choices, and since admitting this would cause extreme pain, they go the opposite direction and 'champion' a cause in order to fill the hole. So to speak...stupid weak cowards...

Dear Mr. Bush, Congress, and Courts:

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=34cbfbb7-eb95-4e77-a155-3904297e45de

Isn't this wild? All of my life I've looked at our country, the U.S., as an example to the world of freedom and sanity, although I was born in '72. What happened? Is this not bizarre how Germany, France, and almost all of Europe are taking the rational side of the developments between Islam and the world? Can this be true? Here we are, about to sell the rights to our ports to the United Arab Emirates, a terrorist and Muslim haven (kind of redundant, terrorist and Muslim), and countries I personally thought of as corrupt and cowardly in the face of hard decisions to be made are...being a light to the United States?!? Where are we heading to as a country? Where are our lives going to, because this is serious? I don't believe so much in conspiracy theories, right vs. left, or other similar b. shit, but there is something fundamentally wrong in this country. This is much deeper than the War; I think the War is bringing to light a serious flaw in our culture. Our country has been way too comfortable for too long; it appears we forgot what it is like to struggle for our lives, much less our freedoms and frivolity. Our poor have cell-phones and cable; our poor are obese. Mormon Mommy Wars is depressed over 'body-image' issues...people struggle to be identified by where they want to stick their genitalia; vague ideas of tolerance and society are favored institutions in universities instead of science; you are divided by political party lines when you can't see the hand behind the 'right' is the same hand supporting the 'left'. We are emasculated. We are afraid to admit the truth behind what is going on in our country because of a perception of a lack of sensitivity on our part. Is Islam our Lamanite scourge?

The Calming Yin To My Fiery Yang

Back in 1992 I worked at Target for Christmas. By LDS standards I should have been on a mission but I was depressed, using drugs, and clubbing, and piddling around in the junior college here. I actually did not care what direction my life went or even if I ended up dead. I had a few close friends, and that's all I wanted. I even denied Christ, the possiblity of deity, and the hereafter. Now, this was pretty radical for me. My whole life I played the Mormon game, Master Scriptorian for 4 years in Seminary, Eagle Scout, dating the Bishop's daughter (they're freaks!) and so on...So there I was at Target, and I walked by Human Resources and there was this girl with purple hair, and I was like, "Oh yeah, purple haired chics are hot." At this time, Ministry was coming and I was looking forward to the show. This purple-haired hottie came up from one of the registers and asked me to go with her to the show and to a hotel afterwards for a party. I was like, "Uh, I'm already going with my girlfriend" (I had another girlfriend at the time-girls flock to me for some reason). Ministry came and went, and we talked a little here and there at work, and it turned out we liked the same music and enjoyed smoking pot. So one night after work, we went to this wooded field behind the Community College and got high and were laying down in the woods watching the clouds blow over the tree tops. If this doesn't sound fun, you've never smoked pot. I was kind of describing the scene from the point of view of being on the ocean floor watching the seaweed (represented by the trees) floating and swaying in the currents of the tides. She then told me she wanted to kiss me. I said, "Uh, I have a girlfriend"...and then we made-out for a while. One day, about nine months later, she said, "I'm pregnant, I'm quitting cigarettes, pot, alcohol, and so on so the baby will be healthy". I was like, "Ok." That was a very condensed synopsis of how my wife and I met and our family came to be. Oh yeah, my girlfriend I so sincerely admitted to (yeah right) having and I broke up the next day. So, I am (somewhat) honorable. We don't smoke pot anymore (sometimes I'd like to), we're done having children (yay! 11 year olds are hell), and we are faithful LDS people. I still like Ministry. Alot. Someone asked me, "Is that Chrisian music?" I just laughed...

Mad Daddy Drives A U.F.O

This post is not a serious post. This is what I call Psychic Head Lite, or Diet Head...

I was listening to a band from England called Alien Sex Fiend (they're not bad, although the name may throw you off) and the theme of most of their songs is about not being from the Earth. "With this world I cannot identify, so I don't try..." Then I thought of Styx's "Come Sail Away" which is about alien abduction (on the surface), and I remembered as a child about how I would drift away in thought through the buildup to and through the keyboard solo in the middle of the song. I was prone to daydreaming, and still am. My mom calls it A.D.D., but I think it is a gift. THEN, I thought of my favorite hymn, O My Father, which discusses the feelings one gets which kind of prods us to think, hey, the Earth is not home, right now anyway. In the future, yes, but we are from a different sphere. A more elevated sphere, and with this knowledge comes a certain sense of nobility we can try to reach for which raises us from our filthy state we are subject to right now.

So, the question I have, would Eliza Snow like Alien Sex Fiend and/or Styx?

P.S. If you have a problem with the name Alien Sex Fiend, I have a version you could call it: Non-resident Gender Fanatic...?

What of Power?

"Mohammed had not only religious doctrines descend from Heaven and placed in the Koran, but political maxims, civil and criminal laws, and scientific theories. The Gospels, in contrast, speak only of the general relations of men to God and among themselves. Outside of that they teach nothing and oblige nothing to be believed. That alone, among a thousand other reasons, is enought to show that the first of these two religions cannot dominate for long in enlightened and democratic times, whereas the second is destined to reign in these centuries as in all the others. "

-Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy In America, 1835. (my bold)

"We believe that all religious societies have a right to deal with their members for disorderly conduct, according to the rules and regulations of such societies; provided that such dealings be for fellowship and good standing; but we do not believe that any religious society has authority to try men on the right of property or life, to take from them this world's goods, or to put them in jeopardy of either life or limb, or to inflict any physical punishment upon them. They can only excommunicate them from their society, and withdraw from them their fellowship."

-Doctrine and Covenants 134:10, 1835. (my bold)

"...Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thine honor...Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord God, had given him, and also, that I would give unto him mine own power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be cast down; and he became Satan...the father of all lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice."

-Moses 4:1-4, Pearl Of Great Price (my bold)

http://islam.tc/ask-imam/view.php?q=12128

http://islam.tc/ask-imam/view.php?q=7676

http://islam.tc/ask-imam/view.php?q=7104

http://islam.tc/ask-imam/view.php?q=6519

http://islam.tc/ask-imam/view.php?q=6403

http://islam.tc/ask-imam/view.php?q=5115


And so on. On and on it goes. What of power? The division between those wishing for total power (and the weak whom enjoy being slaves) and those wishing to be free and 'live and let live' is coming to a sharp point. What side are you on? I finish with these thoughts:

"And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it--In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children--and he fastened it upon the end of a pole...and he took the pole, which had on the end therof his rent coat, and he called it the title of liberty..."

-Alma 46:12-13, The Book Of Mormon: Another Testament Of Jesus Christ (my bold)

"And it came to pass that the people of Limhi began to drive the Lamanites before them: yet they were not half so numerous as the Lamanites. But they fought for their lives, and for their wives, and for their children; therefore they exerted themselves and like dragons did they fight."

-Mosiah 20:11, The Book Of Mormon: Another Testament Of Jesus Christ (my bold)

"Bring it."

-George W. Bush, President of the United States of America (my bold)

House Party

Finally, after 4 years of school, and 6 years of hard work, the idea of a house is looming large and possible w/in the near future. Spouse and I have negotiated a contract for a 2500 sq. ft. house w/ 4 br, 2.5 baths, brand new hot-tub, and an outdoor kitchen with no neighbors behind us in the exclusive community of ______ in Houston for just under $155 K. Everything is ready, we're just waiting on the IRS check to go ahead with the mortgage. We're excited of course, but also, I am very tired. We've been renting for the past 6 years since I've been out of the Army, and it would be nice to actually stop throwing away money every month and feel a sense of 'home' instead a temporary dwelling. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for what the Lord has put in our lives, but I'm ready. Getting home from the hospital, soaking in the hot tub, sipping on some Barq's, listening to the soothing tunes of Al Jourgensen...Sorry, Islamists, you thought you had me, but Hah, I be a smart cracka-Christian honkey Great White Satan...Oh yeah, there is no Palestine. Jordan is Palestine. Egypt is Palestine. Your parents are actually Jewish, Islamists!

My Brain is Fried! Otherwords, I had a day off...

Today is almost over. What did I do today? Today was my day off from work. I work four days one week, and three days the next week, then alternate accordingly. I worked full time while going to school full time, and now I have a hole in which to fill my time with since I'm only currently working fourteen days a month. Wild, isn't it? This is what I read today:
Our Title of Liberty: Latter-day Politics for Latter-day Saints by M.J. Snider
This is a really good book and soon to be in Deseret Books, so I urge everyone who is interested in world affairs and politics to add this to their library. It's not about the end of the world, or signs of the times, like a lot of political Mormon voodoo books are, but legitimate comparisons of scripture with current U.S. political trends. Google the title to find where you can find this book now before it hits Deseret.
The Book Of Mormon, specifically Alma 43 and 44, and verses under the topical guide listings of Agency, Liberty, and Freedom.
The Doctrine and Covenants, also scriptures relating to liberty and free agency, and specifically Section 134.
The Pearl of Great Price, specifically Moses 4 on how Lucifer became Satan and how that specific incident set the precedent for mortal-era wars.
Democracy In America by Alexis de Toqueville, specifically those chapters dealing with religion and war (of course!).
The Life of Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq from around the time of the 'Prophet'. It is not a biography but a collection of recorded traditional stories of Muhammad from his time.
The Founders' Constitution, Vol. 1. A multi-volume set of debates, early charters, essays, and letters written by our (U.S.) founding fathers which illustrates their thought processes. Includes the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, etc.
The More Than Complete Hitchhiker's Guide by Douglas Adams. Awesome!

And then supplemented this with websurfing CAIR, anti-CAIR, various news agencies, this blog, Ted Poe's website, and my email accounts. I taught my sons about the war in heaven and how it extends into this realm; talked to two wonderful friends for about an hour or two each. Played video games with my 4 year old. Spanked my wife multiple times as I walked past her. Played app. two hours of racquetball. Observed the repentance of Joseph Butler. And now, good-bye, it is time for FHE and then 24. Good night!

Come to Texas, Militant Islamists, Please!

Why won't the cowards try the same thing here in the U.S. as they are in Europe? Man, I wish they would come to Texas. Try that crap here, please. I volunteer to fufill your martyrdom. I am beginning to think Bush is right; this is a war between good and evil. The politicians just muck the message up to suit their own political needs. Both sides of the fence are guilty. This war started many eons ago before this Earth was created. On this side of the veil we are seeing the culmination of the work before us, the good and the bad, and the consequent polarization. Forget the socio-politico-psychological reasons the terrorists use, or the excuses the weak of our society make up to account for the terrorists' behavior. The time to act is now. Write your representatives in Congress. Spread the word to your friends. Live a life of decency and up to the standards our country was founded upon. Gird up your loins, brethren...

Allahu Akbar

My God is great, as I take your life
My God is great, I tell my wife, when I break her neck
For the way another looks at her
My God is great, as I lust for post-mortal virgins
My God is great, evidenced by the way your baby's blood
Runs down my hands as I worshipfully slice through
Her neck.
My God is great, for I choose to stay poor, and subject
Others to poverty in the name of my God
To prove to the world
My God is great.
My God is great, as there is no other choice
But mine to make
You have no choice, your freedom is false,
Only my way is great.
My childrens' honor is in their death
So I raise them to die
In accordance to my Priest (praise be to His name)
My God is great, for better than love,
It is easier to hate,
To spread freedom, and uplift the poor,
It is easier to enslave
Because my God is great.

Why I liked the Smashing Pumpkins

How do you approach music? Music to me is straight emotion. It doesn't control my feelings, but I see music in three-dimensional terms. I hope I'm not sounding flaky or weird, but then I really don't care. I love good music. I first heard S.P. in 1991 when I bought Gish based solely on a snippet I heard on a Rice University radion station. It grew on me, and I found a rare (at the time) single, I Am One which had Plume and Starla. This was on Halloween 1991 in Austin. The music was...mind-blowing. You know a song is a gem when you don't even have to hear the singing. B.C. nailed that concept hard, and I've rarely found it elsewhere (see Flaming Lips, Polyphonic Spree, early Cure, Richard D. James, any Rephlex). Do you remember Zero? Every winter I descend into a deep blue funk which lets up around Januaryish-Februaryish, and it gets to a point where I don't get out of bed and just pull the covers over my head until it's over. Anyway, this reminds me of the song Zero: Intoxicated with the madness, I'm in love with my sadness, bullshit fakers...she's the one for me, she's all I really need...want to go for a ride?" Now, I mentioned the Pumpkins didn't need singing, but Zero captured the essence of depression with both lyrics and music, along with depression's subtle nuances of narcissism and hopelessness. Billy Corgan, poet and a prophet, Billy Corgan, told me how to off it...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,183464,00.html

Yay, I was wrong! Vive le Revolucion de sanity! http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,183464,00.html