Posted in Blog

How long has it been since I last blogged?

Too long. I am sorry. Possible excuses: 1. I’ve been busy. That’s true, but how many hours do I spend in front of YouTube when I’m NOT busy? 2. I’m always too tired. This is also true, but again, there have been plenty of opportunities in which I could have blogged earlier in the day before I exhausted myself. So if it’s not #1 and it’s not #2, then it must be #3… I’m a lazy and horrible webmistress.photo-184 Continue reading “How long has it been since I last blogged?”

Posted in Issues

I know, I know, I’m obsessed

First off, how do you all like the new logo? I like it, but I think I need a different color for the background, instead of orange. Thoughts?

So I just though I’d share this little tid bit of Jason Mraz with everyone. I found his blog last night and got really excited. But shhh. It’s (mostly) healthy.

“My mom sings in the Choir [in her church] and I volunteered my time to sit in at a later service and do the same. If I believe in any God at all, my God exists in music. I know this because music makes me happy and that’s the point of having a God. God isn’t responsible for Wal-Mart or for the War on terror; therefore, I don’t blame God. I believe those things happen by people who forget to look up and see what God is. They kind of ruin it for the rest of us. But then again, maybe their God gives them riches and power and that makes them happy, so who am I to judge?”
-Jason Mraz, 2007

Posted in Issues

Ok….ok….STOP

This is a response blog to The Maker’s gay rights blog.

I did not hear about this blog of his until the morning after, when a friend (who happens to be gay) printed out several copies and handed one to me. “Read this,” he tells me.

Of course, I’m always happy when people go to my website of their own free will, so I gave it a look over. And, admittedly, my first reaction was chagrin and anger. He misquoted and misinterpreted me! The Maker and I have recently had an e-debate over email about this very subject, and all the points in his blog were ones that we’d already fought about. Then I got confused, because the week before, in Trig, he told me that he had revised his opinion because obviously, it’s not someone’s choice to be homosexual, so why should we restrict any rights?

Then I read his blog again. It says he doesn’t “necessarily” agree with the things he was about to write. I’ll admit that this was a badly phrased pre-reading statement, but he means well, guys. In Ford Prefect’s blog about Tolerance, there was a comment from someone asking for The Maker’s arguments AGAINST gay rights, even if he didn’t believe him. True to his word, The Maker posted just these.

HOWEVER, he does not believe the things he wrote. As he said, in speech and debate, we have to be constantly reminded of the “other side”. Those arguments are the “other side” of gay rights arguments. So please, cut the guy a break. It’s perfectly fine to argue against his points, but please, no personal attacks. Especially when he doesn’t believe in those things.

Something else was brought up in the comments section by Adventure Captain Pants, how it would be beneficial for the neutrality of the site if we could get a non-bigoted religious argument against gay rights, because that’s erally the only argument you can use against them. All others, as demonstrated in The Maker’s blog, fall through. So, if anyone is interested in writing a blog from the religious perspective, KEEPING IN MIND that you have to remain non-dogmatic and non-offensive, please let me know. I’m ashamed to admit that neither I nor most of my admins are very religious and cannot offer this other side. If you don’t already have an adminship and wish to write a guest blog, email me at brianna [at] brisownworld [dot] com with your blog. Please check for spelling and grammar, because I’m not going to correct it for you.

So, once again, leave The Maker alone. Argue about his blog, but not about him.

Posted in Issues

Homosexual Rights

Since it was requested, I will lay out my argument against homosexual rights, and I hope it does not leech interest in the much more intriguing Tolerance is Bad blog. Keep in mind that I don’t necessarily believe or support what is listed below.

I will say this again: I do NOT believe or support everything below: I apologize if I offend anyone, and I do know all the fallacies in this reasoning. This is my argument against Gay Rights, since Mr. Prefect asked, and, again, I do NOT believe everything posted below. I know that many of them are partially unsound: hey, everything mostly is, and especially for arguments advocating intolerance.

Also, I would like to mention that I was originally pro-gay, and would scream at everone against gay rights, but then I had a conversation with our esteemed webmistress concerning a philosopher we both knew. She brought up that he was not such a good person to believe, amoung other things, and that I shouldn’t follow his opinions. Many other people, including Mr. Aardvarki, who I had know had also attested to his alledged incompetance, and that originally sowed doubt into my opinions. I got better, eventually.

Again, I would like to reiterate that I do NOT believe most of the things down here (except the pollution clause, as pollution messes up so many things, and many chemicals simulate hormones and chemicals that are known to cause homosexuality, as Mr. N will attest. The homosexuality and AIDS clause is a real, if unpopular, theory, as many scientists refuse to admit the possibility that AIDS is not caused by a virus.). I deeply apologize if I offend anyone,

First point, and I have supported this all my life until Mr. N told me it was totally wrong: Genetics has nothing to do with it. The epiginome and prenatal chemical conditions have a little bit to do with it *, but mainly it’s the environmental effects. Tabula Rasa and all that: one’s sexual orientation is determined by choice and what they experience:

Thesis: Homosexuality is bad, and we should not encourage people to be homosexual, or condone homosexuality.

1: Homosexuality is bad because it is not how it’s supposed to work
a) It’s not natural
b) It’s not productive
c) It detrimentally affects both the homosexual individual and society.

a: Species did not get where they are by being gay.
This doesn’t mean homosexuality is not found in nature, it just means that it is not how it’s supposed to work. All species have a 1-2% anomalous population who are chemically messed up,(2) so homosexuality is accounted for, but, again, species did not get where they are by being gay.

b: From a genetic standpoint, the primary point of a species is to reproduce.
Some anomalies, such as sterile people and homosexual people, do exist, but, in a genetic standpoint, they can live normally and then die naturally, not passing on their genes and thus not affecting anyone else. But, now the homosexual population is increasing, so something must be wrong.

c) Being gay hurts everyone.
1: From personal expirience, most gay and lesbian people I have known are perverted and profane, rude, and basically just bad people. I have counted three people who are good enough to accept and be accepted, and every other gay guy I met is a jerkoff.

2: Another edition of Discover Magazine discusses a certain doctor’s theory on AIDS. I have been looking for this article with little success, and I don’t remember his name, but I think it’s German, but I would encourage all interested partys to look into it. Basically, since we have spent so much time trying to find exactly what causes AIDS, AIDS might not be caused by a virus. Back in the 70’s, gay men used a certain type of drug called Poppers to facilitate intercourse. These drugs actually lowered their immune system, and this evolved into AIDS. Coupled with the fact that, back then, a gay person might have had over one hundred companions in his lifetime, AIDS could have spread among the homosexual population and then spread through blood contamination to all sorts of people. This is why the first AIDS victims were homosexual, and while only 10% of the entire population is homosexual, 25% of the AIDS population is gay. There is a disproportionately large amount of homosexuals who have aids.

3: Homosexuality is a mental disorder:
It has been conclusively determined that homosexuals have a reciprocated hypothalamus,
something not normal affecting their brain. Although we do not look down on people with mental disorders, having a mental disorder is not something most of us would aspire to. (Note: this was originally upheld by the American Psychologists Assosiation.)

2: Someone could be born gay, someone could have seen jacked up muscular men so much that they turned lesbian, or someone could be bisexual because they are really desperate. Homosexuality is attributed to choice, social influences, environmental conditions, and a little bit to prenatal chemical conditions. The last one accounts from the 1-2% of homosexual humans, but the actual figure for homosexuality is more around 10%. This can be because:
a) more people are choosing to be gay
b) more people are turning gay because of social or environmental influences.

a) This could be the result of a degenerate culture, which now not only causes gun violence and prostitution, but now homosexuality

b) this could be the result of pollution and chemicals (Heard about Nalgene? Chinese toys? Chinese milk?) that contaminate the earth now more abundantly, contributing to prenatal chemical conditions. So not only does pollution cause cancer and Global Climate Change, it also causes homosexuality.

3. Even if people were born gay, they can change.
a) DNA changes in real time
b) We suppress genetic impulses all the time
c) The Empirical method.

a) please bear with me, I’m SO tired of explaining to all the ignorant plebeians about genetics. First, genes change in real time: people have studied twins, and their genes are identical at birth but start getting different as they get older and are subjected to various social, psychological, and biochemical influences.

b) We suppress the detrimental genetic impules sexual urges and tenancy to violence all the time, and the government takes pains to treat people who were born violent or addicted to drugs, so why should we condone homosexuality, just because “we were born that way”. I would like to site Mr. Bennett who has only one leg and continually assures everyone that it doesn’t matter.

c) We are not our genes. We are subjected to countless social, biochemical, and stuff whatsit thingamabobs that really determine our being. So what about genetics and all that junk? Be who you want to be, that’s the American idea.

Now consider the analogy of paraplegics:

Paraplegics can be paraplegic because they were born so, they suffered an accident or act of violence and became so, or (I know this is unlikely) they chose to become so.

And one would admit that, while paraplegics are not necessarily bad people, we do not want to many paraplegics rolling around.

So, even if gay people were not necessarily bad, and every population has it’s exceptional people, we do not want too many people to suffer from mental disorders, so we should not encourage people to be gay by condoning them, or offering too much incentive to be gay.

So, we should not encourage people to become homosexual.

Yet again, I reiterate that I do not necessarily believe all these arguments, and I, personally, believe that gay people should have thier rights. I apologize if I offend anyone.

Besides, isn’t the first step to being accepted accepting other people? Tolerate dissenting viewpoints!

I would include the counter-arguments, but I’ll leave that to our devoted viewers and our esteemed webmistress. I do realize that, basically, most of this is irrelevant to why gay people shound’t have rights.

*a 2006 Discover magazine edition revealed that mothers giving birth to male babies still had a bit of testosterone in their womb, which makes subsequent male babies more likely to be gay. The key word is more likely, while prenatal chemical condition effects sexual orientation, it is not conclusive.

Posted in Books

I could have gone home

I finished a book yesterday called Escape by Carolyn Jessop. It’s a true story about a woman who escapes from a polygamy cult with her eight children. When she was eighteen, she was married off to a man of 50, and became his fourth wife.

This book is incredible and disturbing at the same time. It’s an interesting look into the lives of the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saits), who are a more radical version of the more common Mormon church. For the record, everyone at my school can stop being so bigoted; Mormons do NOT believe in polygamy, that’s just the FLDS. Even I find it offensive when people automatically assume that.

The story starts out with Jessop’s escape, but then goes back and outlines her early childhood living in Salt Lake City before moving on into her being brought up further in the FLDS. She struggles to get an education, all the time silently dreading that she might possibly have to marry an old man. The most amazing part of this book is Jessop’s determination to succeed and to make a better life for her and her children; she managed to go to college and get her degree, she managed a hotel, she started a web design business from home, she taught second grade for seven years, and she stood up for herself to her very powerful husband. All of this while she was raising and protecting eight children.

I would reccomend this book to anyone. The writing is somewhat simple in it’s style, but the story is captivating and keeps you interested.

Posted in Issues

I couldn’t get into it (This blog is about gays) (read it)

I’m not going to post a music blog today.

No, no I won’t. Because I’ve got something on my mind. So you all know I’m in newspaper class. One of my articles (big suprise) is about the gay marraige disputes in California, Florida, and another place that escapes me at the moment. Unfortunately, we’re putting it under “news”, meaning that I can’t express my opinion on the dumb people I interviewed.

But then I think… I have a website!! I can dig into the dumb people as much as I want! I won’t mention names, just know… these are exact quotes from actual interviews that I conducted. Keep that in mind.

BRI: What is your opinion on the people polling for the rights for gays to marry?
DUMB KID 1: It’s WRONG. They don’t deserve rights.
B: Why not?
DK1: They’re not real people (laughing)
B: So gay people are not real people.
DK1: No
B: Why not
DK1: Because they’re less than human.
B: What makes them less that human
DK1:They’re gay
B: What defines a human, then?
DK1: Um, that you’re attracted to the opposite sex
B: That’s the only thing that makes you human?
DK1: In my opinion

Ok, dumb kid 1, in your opinion, what makes something a human is that is attracted to the opposite sex. Notice he did not specify physical attributes. Using his logic, the two dogs in the park that you don’t want to look at are human. You know, the ones who are being ignored by their owners until they start making a… scene. They are humans. And the proud duck parents trotting around with their ducklings, they are humans too.

BRI: What’s wrong about gay marraige?
Dumb Kid 2: Uh, a guy liking a guy is…. way beyond belief.
B: Why?
DK2: I can’t wrap my mind around it… I dunno. It’s just my opinion
B: There has to be a reason for your opinion.
DK2: I really don’t know
B: Is there a basis for this opinion of yours?
DK2: Actually, no, it’s just a choice I made
B: Choice? You don’t have to be gay to be pro gay marraige.
DK2: Yeah, but, I’m not FOR gay marraige
B: Why not?
DK2: I hate gays
B: Why.
DK2: Because they’re gay

So this interview with Dumb Kid Two just went into a circle. I was getting very frustrated. I thanked him and walked away, then lamented to Bart about it. He just laughed.

PLEASE NOTE: I am not making fun of people who are against gay marraige. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I am making fun of the people who are against gay marraige for reasons they don’t even understand, and the people who have silly arguments. I mean, come on. The what is a human argument should be enough to tell you that some people just don’t get it.

The reason I don’t take these people seriously is that they
A. Have no basis for their opinions, or
B. They can’t back up their arguments

Now, I want to address one more thing. Dumb Kid One told me that marraige should be between a man and a woman, because it’s in the bible. Because it is his belief, and because I know other people who agree, I’m not going to make fun of this. I wouldn’t have, anyways, because hey, if that’s what you believe, I respect that.

But here’s my problem; people forcing others to believe. In our Constitution, we are awarded the “freedom of religion”. The religious people against gay marraige recognize the right for others to worship in their own way, or not worship at all. And yet they still expect everyone to abide by the rules of THEIR religion. Does this make any sense? No, no it does not.

So, citizens of the United States, here is my proposal. Give us unrestricted religious freedom, or take it away altogether. Stop withholding my rights as granted to me in the Constitution, or force me to convert! There is no middle ground, America!

Posted in Books

My Name is Asher Lev

Why did I like this book?
I don’t know.
It’s the only book I’ve been forced to read in school that i actually enjoyed.
First of all, this is a very character driven novel. And I love Asher Lev. He is the greatest. I connect with him in some weird way. He’s a Jewish boy trying to find a balance of religion and family and passion, struggling to find a point where it doesn’t feel like you’re going to fall of the edge of a cliff if you move too quickly.
His passion is art (if you don’t like art I don’t think you’d get as involved as I did). It’s more than his passion, it’s the substance of his existence. He doesn’t like the things the Jewish religion allows him to paint, however, he’s not sure if he wants to give up his tradition and way of live to pursue some vast, unknowable, dangerous dream.
This books takes him from a young boy to a man, and every step of the journey he is met with confusion, fear, opposition, and enlightenment. His father is overbearing, his mother is haunted, and he is much too good for the world.
Now that you’re hanging off a cliff, I won’t give away the ending!! hah hah. This is not a cliffhanging book, but it’s a thoughtful portrait of the life of a Jewish boy in America during WWII who loves art.
and that’s all.

suggested for: bored people, artists, atheists, Jews, Mormons, Catholics, WWII veterans, Protestants, Buddhists, hungry people, relaxed people, mature people.

and here’s a joke

how many mystery writers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Two, one to screw it in almost all the way, and another to give it a surprising twist at the end.

Posted in Entertainment

It’s TOO LATE TO ‘POLOGIIIIZE

I don’t understand why people like that song so much…. it’s alright I guess, but not brilliant.

    Ok, so I was thinking today about all the controversy over movies, their writers, books, and their religious overtones/undertones. And it occurred to me that I honestly never notice.

    The Christians are getting all upset over The Golden Compass and the atheists are getting angry over the Chronicles of Narnia. I’ve read both of these books (admittedly I didn’t make it past the third book of Narnia, but I did read the second one about fifty times), and to be quite frank, I never noticed the religious implications in either of them. Now that I look closely I can see it, obviously, but the first times I read them, well, I read them for the stories, not the symbolism. What kid is going to become an atheist from reading the Golden Compass? It’s an excellent book, and although it does mention the Church, -a lot- it also depicts bravery, love, adventure, and friendship. But obviously, the fact that it was written by an atheist and it suggests that we should make our own heaven is too awful to allow the other ideas to spread.

    And the Chronicles of Narnia? Sure, like Animal Farm, a lot of the characters are allusions to people, namely religious ones (Aslan=Jesus), but does that mean that every child that sees that movie or reads those books is going to become an avid member of their local congregation? No! When I was a kid, I read it because

    A. I enjoyed adventure/fantasy stories

    B. It was well written

    To be fair, I’m sure not all kids read it because it’s a good story, and I’m sure not all kids don’t care about the religious implementation. But just because these books have these symbols in them, does that make them any worse or better than a book of the same genre but without the religious/non-religious messages imbedded? NO!

    Another thing; HARRY POTTER. A lot of people hate these because, quote, “The books have a serious tone of death, hate, lack of respect and sheer evil,” said Elizabeth Mounce of Columbia. Of course, the serious tones of friendship, family, bravery, courage, love, perseverance and tenacity, responsibility, being the underdog but achieving success, and hard work aren’t relevant in her analysis. And for the record, if you show me where lack of respect is a theme in ALL of the books, not just the one scene Ms. Mounce read, let me know.

    Theist, deist, or anti-theist, it doesn’t matter. You all worry about the same petty things. Look, if you don’t want to go see a movie, read a book, or allow your children to watch or read those books, don’t do it! Just stop encroaching on everyone else’s right to enjoy good films and literature. And remember, Philip Pullman and C.S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling didn’t just write books to tick people off, they wrote these books to make you think, but more importantly, be entertained, which is the entire purpose of writing fiction books.

    Oh yeah, my other point. It’s fiction, and furthermore, it is an opinion.

Posted in Issues

Abortion: My final view

*This is just a copy of my original blog. I didn’t want to delete the other because it had comments attached to it. You can still view the comments on my original blog, but I just needed to get into the habit of the whole re-orginization thing. If you want to post comments non-related with the ones on the original, you can post them here.*

Okay, there are pobably many people who are going to be unhappy with me bringing up this subject again. “But I thought we were all done with this contraversial crap!” you’ll say. Sorry, but we’re not. At least not for now. And I’m not really saying that you have to leave comments, this is just my view, and if you see a flaw, please comment and I will answer you as best as I can. And, if I cannot prove my point, and you prove your’s instead, well, then you will know that you have changed my mind. But let me remind you: my mind is very hard to change; you will have to make some very good arguments for your cause. So, enough blabber-jabber, here it is: the final, unedited, unrated, unsomethinged view:

I think that abortion should be kept legalized because of several reasons. The most important of these is that when it is made illegal, abortions will not stop. Just like what was seen when cocaine was made illegal, and ecsacy, and LSD, an marajuana, abortion will not just dissapear, instead there will be a pluthera of illegal abortions. And illegal abortions will not be sanitary, they will not be performed correctly, and, just as in many third-world countries like Nepal, they will be fatal. And, just to clear something up, I am against abortion. I think that it is wrong to kill human beings, born or unborn. But I think that legal abortion is the lesser of two evils. And I believe in being pro-active rather than reactive. I also think that women have the right to choose what to do with an unwanted baby; it should not be just decided for them. Isn’t that the meaning of freedom, after all? To have the freedom to choose without fearing for our lives; isn’t that the priciple that this country was founded upon? I think that the best way to fight abortion is to be proactive; discouraging it, supplying a pluthera of choices, and, in the case of teenage pregancies, make sure that there is a nearby clinic that can offer counseling and set up a way to put the child up for adoption or put it into foster care. And, I guess if you wanted to be truly proactive, educate teenagers not to have sex. And you know that there are a lot of kids at your school that have sex; ther’s no turning a blank eye to it. The best way to make abortion obscure is not to have the baby in the first place, athough that probably will never happen. There is something about an hour of sexual pleasure that humans are so willing to risk the rest of their lives over. Bloody stupid, if you ask me.