Funda-Mentalism


When stupidity collides with weaponry.

I’m not harshing on religion this Sunday. I’d like to. But I’m not. Instead, I just want to present the endless war between Christianity and Islam in a way that we can all understand: by being flippant and uploading some funny pictures. Zionists and Hindu extremists will be left out of this discussion because they’re just not as numerous, vocal or destructive.

NOTE: Before any of you religious folks start flipping out, please understand that this article focuses on religious fundamentalists: right-wing Christian lunatics and cut-throat Muslim absolutists. I’m very aware that most Christians are philanthropic, open-minded, reasonable people and most Muslims are non-violent, well-behaved citizens. Unfortunately, neither mainstream Christians nor rank-and-file Muslims work very hard at marginalizing and denouncing the extremists in their ranks. That job is left to us atheists.

Let’s start by looking at the differences between Christian Fundamentalists and Muslim Fundamentalists:

The names of their Gods

The names of their Holy Books.

Their modus operandi.

OK. Now let’s move on to the similarities:

Fanatical devotion to outdated cultural mores.

Rejection of Evolutionary Theory in favor of Creationist silliness.

Scumbag religious leaders using money and media to advocate war and bigotry.

Using the cosmic carrot/stick to rationalize murder and instill fear.

Infiltrating government in order to formalize fundamentalist agenda.

Belligerent black/white thinking that defies logic and reason.

Referencing ancient historic enmity to rally hatred and pride.

Manufacturing internecine hatred within the greater religious sphere.

Enforcing cultural and political diminution of women's rights.

Stated goal to create global obedience to their narrow belief system.

Fomenting violence and hatred toward religious moderates and critics.

And finally…

Just being a bunch of fucking idiots.

It should now be quite clear that Christian fundamentalists and Muslim extremists are two sides of the same coin. To preserve order and help these twins realize their common ground, I propose we (and by “we” I mean anyone with a brain who rejects absolutist ideology) should allow them to work together in close company so they can create a synergy of peace and harmony. I have the following solution:

The Azores

These are the Azores in the north Atlantic, a Portuguese archipelago with plenty of arable land and room to graze livestock. The current 250,000 inhabitants can be offered the chance to escape to Portugal or Brazil in advance of the resettlement of the world’s fundamentalist assholes. Portugal and the Azoreans will receive an endowment of $8 billion (or 1/100th of our currently planned stimulus package) to oversee the process.

The rolling hills of Faial Island in the Azores. Home sweet fundie home!

With the lunatic fringe left to their own devices in the middle of the Atlantic, we can get back to the serious work of solving the coming energy crunch, easing international tensions and creating sane, egalitarian technological societies.

In the mean time, I’m sure the newly-minted Fundie Islands will serve their masters well. I am quite sure there will be peace and harmony among these super-religious peoples.

(We can check on it every few months to see if anyone is left alive…)

Posted in Cultural, Political Whingings | Comments Off on Funda-Mentalism

Why Marketing Experts Are Useless

Henk Lubberding's latest folk opus.

Henk Lubberding's latest folk-rock opus.

Behold the latest CD from Henk Lubberding. Henk’s soulful, environmentally-conscious music has touched thousands of people, and now his latest album is ready for your pine-floored livingroom. Henk covers everything from traditional bluegrass at a folksy tempo to melancholic guitar songs with a message. Lovers of Gordon Lightfoot or Tom Paxton will feel right at home as Henk invites y’all to a walk in the wilderness.

Ah, I’m just pullin’ yer leg.

Henk Lubberding doesn’t exist, and if he did exist his album would suck ass. This album cover is an exercise in random generation. Here’s what you do:

Get a band name by grabbing the subject title of a random link on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random

Don’t be shy! Your random link is PERFECT. You just don’t know it yet.

Then, get an album title by paraphrasing from this random quote webpage:
http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3

Now you need to do some thinking! Find a section, clause or entire quote that best fits the genre that’s forming in your head.

And now, art! Off to Flickr with you!
http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days

There you go.  Ten minutes in Photoshop and you now have something that would have cost you $5,000 if you had signed with Sony.  There is nothing that some twenty-something graphic “artist” twat in a high-rise can do that you can’t do yourself. Furthermore, you can record and mix your own music as well.

What you DO need, however, is a talented person to master your tracks. Giving $500 to someone with a good ear and nice equipment is a smart investment. Dupe you mastered tracks onto CD’s. Then, fire up your MySpace, give away MP3’s for free, sell your CD at shows and perform perform PERFORM!

If you are any good, you will make a living making music. More importantly, you’ll be doing it on your own terms without some bean-counting suit telling you to tone down the cowbell. Fuck those guys. Fuck the labels.

The future is here, people. Dive in.

Don’t believe me? Then suck on THIS:

Ramelton's sophomore effort "Drama is Life".

The second album from Bay Area Dark-Metal quintet Ramelton is the newly-minted Drama is Life. Smashing their way through the rubble of contemporary culture, Ramelton have finally come of age. This album combines the furor of their maiden effort “Wait for Them to Self-Destruct” with a new sensibility that infuses analog synthesizer sounds with a trembling wall of heavy guitars. Vocalist Ray Olins rips open the assault with the opening track “Insania” and refuses to give way until the somber, bass-heavy track “Defensive”. This album is a must-buy for fans and should be on the list of anyone interested in modern, heavy music.

Arcadia's "The Chance of Living"

Fresh from a North American tour, Liverpool trip-hop duo Arcadia have released their latest EP, The Chance of Living. Mixing straight-up beats with a galaxy of carefully-tweaked aerial envelopes, Arcadia weaves their usual web of 60’s retro and Mersey electronic chill. Guesting on this 5-cut diamond are vocalists Kate McAllister and French siren Dominique Cotillard. The standout track is clearly Never Fail, with Cotillard’s angelic voice rising and falling on the gentle sea of Arcadia’s smooth, dreamy beats. That song alone is worth the price of admission.

Well, there you go. I just manufactured three worthy album names and cover art (with inside cover review) in about 30 minutes at a total cost of $0.00.

Obviously, there is more to it. But this exercise shows that you don’t need to entrust the look and feel of your band to some dork who spent 12 months studying graphic art in community college. Granted, you can’t just lift cover art from Flickr. It’s bad form. Instead, you can either snap your own photo, create your own scribblings or run off to sxc.hu and ask nicely to nick someone else’s hard work.

With that off your plate, you can concentrate on making great music. And that’s important, because your band really sucks.

Posted in Music, Technology | 2 Comments

Fudgie Speaks!

Finally! A word in edgewise!

Oh, man. I’m so glad that idiot left the house long enough for me to vent on his stupid webpage. Yes, STUPID. As in “leaving the login password cached in the browser” stupid. But that’s typical. Don’t get me wrong – Ted’s not a bad guy. He just isn’t very bright. And it drives me crazy!

Take last night, for instance. He comes home from work like usual. And like usual, I’m kinda wound-up. I’ve been alone all goddamn day. I want some action! But does he break out the remote-control mouse or the bird wand toy thingie? No. He just got Beowulf on DVD and wanted to see how it looked on the new HDTV. Asshole.

So he bakes up some stupid hippie pizza from the co-op (fat and stupid is no way to live your life, son!) and vegges out in front of the TV. What the fuck? So I just lay down in front of the fire and mind my own business. Bo-ring!

This one's for you, asshole!

Hey, I’m not ungrateful. There’s no way I want to go back to the fucking Humane Society. The place is a fucking prison, I swear to Christ. And the noise! Those fucking dogs drive me nuts! So goddamn stupid. And LOUD. I hate ’em.

So yeah, he saved me from that shit-hole. And life here is pretty good. The food’s alright, and he actually cleans my box every day. (Good thing he does – I am more than willing to piss all over his backup drive if the litter box fails to meet my standards of cleanliness). When Mr. Important isn’t at work, he’ll keep me entertained with toys, provided there isn’t an “epic” thread on fark.com or some gay-ass MP3 from whatever Euro-trash chill-out crap he’s listening to nowadays .

Yeah, he’s a dork. But we do go for walks sometimes. I LOVE the outside. Birds, man. I thought Ted was stupid, but birds? They’re fucking DUMB. They all but fly right into my claws. The only ones that freak me out are the owls and the eagles. I mean – Ted pays his taxes and shit. Can’t the city do something about these flesh-eating terrorists in the sky? They’ll give some asshole a variance to build some cookie-cutter faggot-ass development in precious forest land, but they can’t keep marauding monsters from swallowing local pets? Pffft. Politicians are fucking useless.

In all, life ain’t bad. I just wish Ted would wise up and start being a little more attentive. After all, I’m totally awesome. Just look at me! Know any cuter cats? No. I’m the shit, yo. It’s high time I started earning a little more respect around here.

Oh, shit. Here he comes. I can hear him struggling to get groceries out of the car. What a dumb fat-ass! LOL! Hopefully, he won’t get a cardiac on the way in. HAH! That’s right, asshole. Drag your sorry ass back home from another day in the rat race. Fuckin’ LOSER!

Let’s see if Mr. Dumbfuck remembered to pick up some litter from the Petstop. Any guesses?

Alright, I’m out. See you on the flip side, yo.

Posted in FAIL. | Comments Off on Fudgie Speaks!