The Daily Bluster

I have never liked celebrating my birthday. Birthdays only remind me that I am one year closer to dying. Last December 28 was my birthday, and were it not for two old friends who actually made the trouble of going to my house to greet me personally, I would probably spend my birthday just like I did the year before (and the year before that): playing a video game. As it was, the three of us drank and talked about old times.   I’m glad they came; I actually enjoyed my birthday this year, which surprised me.  I suspect I am turning into a grouchy old fart, though. And I find I am content to be a grouchy old fart. What the hell, I am disappointed and disillusioned with the world—and the world is disappointed and disillusioned with me. Might as well live with that , and accept my grouchy old fart persona, even if I am not as old as this old fart: This is probably my last post for 2011. Frankly, I didn’t think this blog would go past this year, given my talen

So, in this season of hope, peace and good will, Catholic League president Bill Donahue has launched a campaign—“Adopt An Atheist,” is what it’s called. Behold : Here’s what our campaign entails. We are asking everyone to contact the American Atheist affiliate in his area, letting them know of your interest in “adopting” one of them. All it takes is an e-mail. Let them know of your sincere interest in working with them to uncover their inner self. They may be resistant at first, but eventually they may come to understand that they were Christian all along. If we hurry, these closeted Christians can celebrate Christmas like the rest of us. As an added bonus, they will no longer be looked upon as people who “believe in nothing, stand for nothing and are good for nothing.”   What he is doing is just perpetrating the bigotry that religious nuts like him have towards people who happen to not share his set of beliefs.  Religion could be dangerous, as it is; combine it with ig

I know I am blogging about an incident that happened several months ago (June in fact), about a topic that is well past its shelf life, but see, I just read about it. And this one really irked me, and affected me enough it made me want to go visit my Shrieking Tree , i. e., this blog, to   rant and bluster, albeit in a somewhat wussy manner. Here’s what happened (as Inspector Monk used to say): A woman was invited to speak at a skeptics ’ conference held in a hotel in Dublin. Later, as she was in the elevator going up to her hotel room after the conference, a male attendee followed her to the elevator and invited her to his room for coffee. She rejected the offer, and that was that.  They both went their separate ways. Should have invited my right hand instead The woman then posted a video that mentioned her apparently creepy and harrowing experience. After the video got posted, things in the skeptics’ and atheists’ blogosphere got interesting, which, as you may have s

Extra! Extra! Iranian protesters storm British Embassy in Tehran!   Thankfully Iranian authorities acted just in time to put a stop to it, thus avoiding a repeat of the 1979 US embassy takeover in the same city . Iranians don’t like westerners much, do they.  One reason may be is that Westerners throughout history have this habit of exploiting countries around the world for their own gain. Not because their very survival hinges on the raping and pillaging of other countries ( especially in Asia ); they do this because of old-fashioned greed; or enterprise, as some westerners call it . Oil in Iran (or Persia, as the country was then known) was discovered in 1908 by a British geologist named George Reynolds who was working for William D’Arcy.  The enterprising D’Arcy had previously arranged an oil concession with Shah Mozzafar al-Din Shah Qajar in 1901. A few months after the discovery of oil, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC) was forme

Somebody once said that us Filipinos’ default setting is a smile . I agree. I actually have several friends whose instinctive response to being surprised is to smile. I don’t really know how that would work, like for example if one is surprised in a dark alley by a mugger. Could one smile one’s way out of that? I don’t think so.  But smile when surprised they do; I’ve seen them do that hundreds of times. I—whose settings range from inscrutable (like a Shaolin monk in a kung fu movie who's just a suit away from being Superman) to downright scowling at no one in particular—am always surprised and mystified every time I see them smile at a stranger who approaches them for any particular reason.   Stranger : Excuse me sir [ we are also polite; we call everybody sir— or ma’am, as the case may be ], what time is it? Friend : ( Smiling as if Scarlett Johansson had offered to have sex with him ) Six po .   Why would they do that, why would they smile at total strangers?

Yes, I have a beef with November ; then again, this November is a great month for PC gamers. Just look at this month’s releases: Modern Warfare 3, from the franchise that has left many wives and girlfriends doubting the wisdom of having a relationship with a gamer; and Skyrim. I needn’t go beyond Skyrim. The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim (to give the game its full name) is as immersive as any video game can get. It has a vast, complex game world, numerous quests, and in-game details that can turn a gamer into an obsessive-compulsive asshole .  Yes, pretty standard for an RPG, but this game compels you to actually finish it. I’ve played Bethesda ’s Morrowind and Oblivion (both in the Elder Scrolls universe), but those games quickly turn into a bore-fest, at least for me. The time I played Morrowind, I followed the storyline for awhile, did a few side quests, and when I realized that I am not getting paid to do this mind-numbing chore (I already have my job for that), I quit th

I read about one Tommy Beard, aka Tommy the Leprechaun through Neil Gaiman’s blog . It’s kind of fitting that I should learn about him from Neil Gaiman, as Tommy sounds like a character from one of Neil Gaiman’s works of fiction. An excerpt from the Tommy the Leprechaun article in Missoulian.com :  Sunday, June 14, 2003 Missoula fixture Tommy the Leprechaun dies By ROB CHANEY of the Missoulian The man known as Tommy the Leprechaun died Friday at his home in Hillside Manor in Missoula. Tommy, whose real name was Terry Beard, was 53. For more than a decade, he was a regular fixture of Missoula's downtown streets. In a big green hat and black boots, he'd greet people with riddles, balloon animals and occasional magic tricks. When the sidewalks were sparse, he'd sit with a battered guitar and belt out "If I Had a Hammer" or other folk songs, strumming with a thumbless right hand. He'd hand out business card

I don’t get that some bloggers (and I guess writers in general) can write about their innermost thoughts and intimate details about their personal lives (and knowing those would be read by faceless strangers) like it was the most natural thing in the world.  Somehow I find the idea too intrusive, and a little self-indulgent.  There are things about ourselves that we simply can’t share with others. In my case, a great many things . For years, I can’t even talk about my son who died at just two months old. I kept my feelings bottled up. When somebody asks me about it, I just shrug and say, well that’s just the way it is, and promptly change the subject.   Seven years after Jedidiah (that was his name) died, I woke up one morning sobbing and bawling; I was crying my goddamn eyes out for a son that died many years ago. It wasn’t as if I dreamed about him, or that his “spirit” visited me or any of that nonsense; I just opened my eyes this one morning and bam! Wept and cried like King

The Philippine political scene is a mess.  Crazy, dirty, skanky, embarrassing, corrupt politicians lord it over a people who couldn’t care less, except those very few who have access to the internet—those very few who show their concern by assiduously posting their inane and idiotic observations about their inane and idiotic politicians on any website that has a comments section.  And the politicians are actors/famous athletes/famous for whatever reasons--and their spouses and relatives and their spawns, legitimate or not.  …and let’s not forget the political clans . No self-respecting village, town, city, province or entire island/region is without a clan to rule over them—the Philippines’ own version of royalty, plus their rival clans. Yes, they have rival clans. They make every elections very exciting , especially in the provinces.  (Note: image is from here ) The current President—who incidentally is from such a clan—is a former senator who got elected to the top

I am not a fan of Gadhafi. All I know is that he was one of the world’s “insane” dictators, as portrayed by, well, almost everybody, what with his all- female virgin bodyguards and outlandish lifestyle and wardrobe. Not to mention the fact that he coddled terrorists. But the way he was killed is soul- shakingly , disturbingly savage . That scene reminds one of wild animals feasting on a prey.  But the animals are killing for food , because they had to eat .  What's these people’s excuse? The man was already helpless, wounded, bleeding, and being dragged on the ground. And they fell on him, like in that Shirley Jackson story. You can read more about his killing here . Granted, the man did worse things to his subjects;  he certainly inspired such a monumental outrage and hatred on his fellow Libyans. But still .  Viewing that video leaves me shaken up. People are scary enough as they are; put them in a mob, and they become the stuff of nightmares. We

Khwarezmia was a bustling Islamic empire during the 1200’s when it made the terrible mistake of pissing off Genghis Khan.  Then ruled by Shah Ala ad-Din Muhammad, Khwarezmia was a huge, sprawling empire that encompassed the lands of Greater Iran . The Shah had at this time just extended the empire’s borders, and was involved in a pissing c0ntest of a sort with the Caliph of Baghdad. Many historians agree that the Mongolians originally had no intention of obliterating the empire, but were only interested in trade and even saw a potential alliance with the Shah. After all, the Empire was the Mongolians’ first contact with the Islamic Middle East. In fact, Genghis Khan sent his messengers to the empire with a message that basically acknowledges the Shah’s authority: “You rule the rising sun and I rule the setting sun,” which is like having the biggest, meanest bully in the schoolyard ask you politely if it’s all right to, you know, hang out with you. So how did the Khwarezm