Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Red Flags Galore

K, so I was browsing a social networking site based on movie tastes (pretty cool site, actually). I was taking a look at a potential "friend" or whathaveyou, and I saw this message on his page. (the site apparently posts all your msgs to the person's page you msg.)

If this wasn't so clearly phishing or an attempt to spread a virus, it'd be downright scary for that dude. Enjoy.

"Hello My name is imran am single,30yrs beautiful and lovely,submissive,loyal,honest,caring,lovely,understandable,faithful,sincere. I like your profile and i decided to contact you to have a serious relationship with you even if involves marriage so far there is real love, i wouldnt mind..You can contact me through my e-mail address,sugakineandimran@yahoo.com,i can send you my foto and for us to know each other better and not only that i have something important to tell you. hugs! i wait for your reply through my email sugakineandimran@yahoo.com or hudsugakine@hotmail.com Love from imran.....
hi baby i love you. <====not something you should tell someone WHEN YOU RANDOMLY MESSAGE THEM and you've never even talked before!

So many red flags in such a small paragraph. The first one that stands out to me is describing herself as "beautiful". Anyone who describes themselves in such manner is likely to be severely self centered, in my experience. The picture on the profile the spammer made was actually pretty, but describing oneself as such is very unattractive to moi, never mind the fact it's not the spammer in reality anyway.

Then there's the "submissive" business. I never really got the submissive fetish thing. I mean, there's definitely an appropriate time/place for gender roles to manifest themselves, but to describe your general personality as "submissive" is just sad.

Moving onto the best of the lot, she says that, the few brief descriptions he gives of himself, coupled with the movies he likes, is enough to warrant her "deci[sion] to contact him to have a serious relationship with [him], even if involves marriage". Wow. Just wow. I mean, when you are dating someone it's kind of fun to compare tastes in music/film/art/literature/etc, but I'm not sure that's really the best thing to base your decision to marry someone on. I know plenty of happily 'married' couples (using the modern intent of the word) that have extremely different tastes in many things. But they seem to mesh well together, complimenting each other. At least it seems so from an outside perspective.

And that's overlooking the glaring grammatical errors throughout.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Simply Beautiful. All hail the light capture box.



via sleepycity.net, a great cache of good photo-graph-isms

Sunday, August 17, 2008

"Government Paid Evangelists"

If this video doesn't scare you, you're probably someone who I couldn't have a civil conversation with concerning religion.



More information on the campus crusade for christ's military ministry can be found here.

(from the group's website)
"Young recruits are under great pressure as they enter the military at their initial training gateways," the group has stated on its web site. "The demands of drill instructors push recruits and new cadets to the edge. This is why they are most open to the 'good news.' We target specific locations, like Lackland AFB [Air Force base] and Fort Jackson, where large numbers of military members transition early in their career. These sites are excellent locations to pursue our strategic goals."

Pursue our strategic goals!?!

Interesting Quotes




"The really dangerous American fascist... is the man who wants to do in the United States in an American way what Hitler did in Germany in a Prussian way. The American fascist would prefer not to use violence. His method is to poison the channels of public information. With a fascist the problem is never how best to present the truth to the public but how best to use the news to deceive the public into giving the fascist and his group more money or more power... They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective, toward which all their deceit is directed, is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection."
-- U.S. Vice President Henry A. Wallace, quoted in the New York Times, April 9, 1944



I hope I live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!
-- Rev. Jerry Falwell

Secular schools can never be tolerated because such a school has no religious instruction and a general moral instruction without a religious foundation is built on air; consequently, all character training and religion must be derived from faith.... We need believing people.
-- Adolf Hitler, April 26, 1933

Our job is to reclaim America for Christ, whatever the cost. As the vice regents of God, we are to exercise godly dominion and influence over our neighborhoods, our schools, our government, our literature and arts, our sports arenas, our entertainment media, our news media, our scientific endeavors -- in short, over every aspect and institution of human society.
-- D. James Kennedy, Coral Ridge Ministries and Bush advisor.



A person who is guided by God will never be misguided by anyone.
-- Osama Bin Laden

We’re being guided by God.
-- Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson

No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God.
-- George Bush Sr., to a reporter in 1988

via H.E.R.B.
The site's header is a bit hostile toward religion, something I don't wholly endorse (as I believe in everyone's right to freedom of religion), but I do vehemently oppose a theocracy. No state should, in my opinion, define it's society by a religion. Religion's influence on society is naturally occurring and should not have to be bolstered by laws. If a religion is too weak to have support from the common person, then it should fall by the wayside like the horse-drawn carriage.

Many more quotes and some political cartoons, etc. on the site.

-Dave

Friday, August 15, 2008

I'm coming out of blogger retirement!

After nearly 3 years of hibernation, I'm back. That's right, I found my login info! F yeah!
Listed on BlogShares