• Leviticus 25:44-46 | Slavery is Okay
• Numbers 31:17-18 | Moses kills people then divides up the virgin girls
• Deuteronomy 22:28-29 | Rape victim forced to marry rapist.
• 1 Samuel 18:23-27 | 200 foreskins gain David a king’s daughter
• Proverbs 23:13-14 | beating kids is good
• Ezekiel 23:19-20 | Sex organs and ejaculate of harlots’ lovers compared to asses & horses
• 1 Corinthians 14:33-35 | Disgraceful for women to speak in church
• 2 Thessalonians 2:11-2 | God makes people believe lies then condemns them for it
• And it just gets worse

I’m very impressed with how well everything is researched. I’m a little partial because I’m part of the team that hunts these things down. We actually read the entire chapter then the entire book of the bible in question just to make sure that we’re not taking anything out of context. We also do online searches to see what other people are saying about the verses. Any time we can come up with expert interpretations or theists who agree with our conclusions, we point it out.

Remember, if the Devil can quote scripture to his own ends, then anyone can and the bible loses it’s ability to be used as a tool for teaching in righteousness… and that’s the point of this movement. It’s not just a biblical contradiction site either. The idea is to take bibles and highlight in them so that when arguments about scripture arise, they can say “hey, when I had questions I read my bible. If you’ll read my bible here from cover to cover, we can continue this debate.” It also encourages people to take free bibles, highlight them and pass them out again. If you don’t feel like doing that, you can always print out the list.

The interesting thing is that I’ve actually seen them make a post where they mention that the verse is taken out of context.

Luke 14:26 | You can’t be a disciple of Jesus unless you hate your family

They specifically mention that this verse is often used by atheists to mean something which Jesus didn’t intend. While the wording is a little strange for what he was really meaning to imply, it seems as if this verse, in combination with the verses that follow, are suggesting that we give up everything including our families, friends and self in order to follow him. It then goes to mention that even that is a terrible thing and is certainly not common practice among modern Christians.

It’s fun, it’s interesting, you’ll learn, you’ll laugh, you might get angry but that’s okay too. Check it out:
http://www.devilshighlighter.com

Well, I’ve got a few ideas about how the system “should” be set up. I’m no economist, but I do support a few interesting policies that I think are worth noting.

First, I think that the current tax system is WAY to complex. With increased complexity, you increase the likelihood that large corporations will use that complexity to their advantage and benefit from the system more than the lower income brackets. This complexity also requires a lot of government employees review all of that mess and requires the need to enforce it as well. The more complex the tax system, the more resources are required to regulate it. In effect, complex taxes are a mess.

Progressive Taxes can also stunt economic growth. I remember when my mother and father got better jobs, which bumped them up into the next tax bracket (but only just barely). They actually ended up making a slightly higher amount for a disproportionately greater amount of work. I am convinced that the current system discourages economic growth by “punishing” people for earning more.

My solution is not a new one… but I am going to put a twist on it. I am a firm believer in the flat tax. Basically, a flat tax system is a very simple and easy to understand tax. It is a tax on income that is the same percentage no matter how much you earn. Likewise businesses will all be subject to the same taxation of profit. Every company, no matter how much they earn, or how big or small they are will pay the same percentage of their profits to the government. Up to this point, this is just like any other flat tax system. However, I don’t believe that there should be caps for the poor. I think EVERYONE should have to pay.

However, there is the twist I mentioned. I believe that an alternative to making the system more complex by adding exemptions and allowances for dependents and so on… would be to simply have a rebate system that is designed to redistribute a percentage of the nations wealth. Basically, if everyone payed 20% on their income taxes (no matter how much they made or how big their family is), it would make it all very simple to understand. Then the government takes 30% of the total taxes collected, divides that money up evenly, then give it back to everyone as a tax rebate. If we exclude the taxes paid by businesses (for simplicity’s and demonstration’s sake), you can estimate that the average income for an American household is around $45,000. This means that the average tax rebate would be $2,700 (which is equal to the amount payed for those making $13,500 per year). Basically, What this does is encourage growth from those making less than a third of the national average without punishing people for making more money. Because there are no “brackets”, there is no way that making more money could result in you actually earning less because of extra taxes.

The only problem produced is that it might encourage moochers, or poor people who intentionally earn less because they’re getting paid to be citizens anyway. The good news is that the tax refund will be paid yearly and they will likely need more than the average of $2,700 per year in order to survive. Also, if people do decide to mooch, they will bring down the national average income which will then reduce the amount they earn every year.

This little twist simplifies the system and has a few other benefits. It will help close the gap between the rich and the poor instead of widening it. It will not encourage or discourage people from getting married for tax reasons. It will not encourage the poor to have more kids for tax reasons. The last one is very important because the ever-increasing population is a huge burden on this planet and personally, I would rather see a progression towards the middle class rather than a progression towards the poor. Essentially an increase population of the rich (because they can afford to have more kids than the poor) would cause their wealth to spread out, causing them to move towards the middle class. All while the poor are discouraged from having large households while providing them the economic assistance they need to move into the middle class.

The other cool effect is that it will boost the economy. Small businesses will have the same opportunity as the big guys. This will increase an individuals opportunity to compete and prosper. Also, because the refund checks will be issued yearly, it actually encourages people to go out and spend it fairly quickly, injecting money back into the market and ultimately benefiting both the consumers (because they get more stuff) and the producers (because they’ll sell more stuff).

The only problem then is the issue of “Marginal Utility”. Basically this means that the more money you have, the less it effects your survival. If a retail worker earning $15,000 had to give up $3,000 in taxes, it would be a very big deal and would certainly effect their livelihood. However, if a CEO of a major corporation earning 10 million had to pay 2 million in taxes, they’ve still got 8 million to live comfortably on. Also by removing deductions, you can discourage the small businessman from working because a large percentage of his profits might be spent on items necessary for his business (which are deductible). Granted, the big businesses will have the same issues but they’ll have much more money to throw around. Graduated tax rates are supposed to compensate for this by taxing the rich more. However, the result is that the rich hire professionals to figure out how they can pay the smallest amount possible (something the poor cannot afford). The end result is often that the rich pay a smaller percentage of their wealth than the poor because they can use the complexities of the system to weasel out of paying what they owe. A flat tax would make it impossible for these big businesses to get out of paying. Additionally, using the money gained from the flat tax to fund programs to help provide relief from poverty would offset this major issue.

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Besides the flat tax, I also support a carbon tax. This is basically a tax that forces companies to pay for polluting. In its most basic form, it is a tax on oil and coal. Companies will have to pay more for these products and would be rebated if they manage to reclaim/capture carbon or otherwise do not release it into the air. For instance, plastic is made from petroleum products, but much of the carbon from these products is stored in the resulting plastic. These companies would get money back from the taxes they paid on the petroleum they used based on the amount of carbon that is fixed in the end result.

The cap and trade system is just too complex and would cause the market to become extremely volatile. It is also far too complex and will encourage big polluters to find loopholes and cheat the system. I really don’t want my power bills or my gas prices to be going all over the place just because they managed to complicate the market. I want things to be simple and easy to understand. I want the system to result in stability and sustainability. The cap and trade system just doesn’t seem like it could do that.

It is suggested that the carbon tax would put an increased burden on the poor. If it became more expensive to drive our cars or power our homes, this could indeed cause much more hardships in lower income homes. However, the more affluent rich tend to spend more on carbon emitting products such as gas and power. If you use a percentage of that tax to help lower other taxes, then the benefits will be felt most by the poor, especially if in a flat-tax system. If 50% of the carbon tax went to lowering other taxes or was added to the yearly tax rebate (as discussed earlier), it would significantly lower the impact of the carbon tax on the poor. If you put the remaining 50% aside specifically into incentives, grants, and compensations for producing or using zero carbon energy sources, you could drastically increase the rate at which we shift to green energy. Imagine that more green energy research could be performed because more government grants will be available to them. Imagine that installing solar cells on your roof will be cheaper because the government will refund a percentage of their cost.

The carbon tax will have several effects. It will begin reducing carbon emissions immediately. It is simple and easy to implement. It will encourage energy companies to research less carbon expensive methods of energy production. And it would encourage the general public to be more carbon conscious, because carbon emitting products will be more expensive.

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The system I’m propsing is simple and easy to understand. It may be flawed (simply because I’m not economist). However, I think it would work fairly well. All I know is that the current system is broken and current efforts to fix it are like putting duct tape on a crack in the Hoover Dam. Something drastic needs to be done soon before the entire economy collapses.

Read more about the flat tax by clicking here.
Read more about the carbon tax by clicking here.

Make money, lose weight, or kill yourself! Google makes suggestions for what you might be searching for based on trends. The image below shows Google’s suggestions when “top 10 best ways to” is typed in.

Google Suggests Suicide

Now, I know that Google isn’t actually suggesting that I should kill myself. What it really means is just that there just happen to be a large number (379,000+) pages that are about the “top 10 ways to kill yourself”. Likewise there are a similar number of pages (360,000+) that are about the “top ten ways to commit suicide”.

I am encouraged by the fact that there are about 82 times more pages on the “top 10 ways to go green”. Although this is somewhat balanced out by the fact that apparently more people want to destroy the Earth than want to commit suicide (about 163,000 more)… although I suppose you could consider the destruction of the planet as a form of suicide… unless the plan also involves an escape strategy so that they could survive on another planet.

It seems, however, that the majority of people simply want to make money. This is not surprising when you consider the distribution of wealth in a world where 1% of the world’s population controls 99% of the world’s wealth. Perhaps the poor are just depressed by their financial standing. I know I am. That’s why I dabble in internet marketing and work as hard as I do while going to school full time. At some point, reality sinks in and you realize “none of my dreams can come true because I just can’t fund them.” That is rather depressing isn’t it?

A friend of mine was trying to do a search for “top 10 best ways to make money” and when he did it, the very first suggestion was “kill yourself”…. immediately followed by “kill someone”. Seems like the results change fairly frequently, but it’s still very illuminating. Seems like a lot of people are angry and depressed, likely over money problems or social problems. Admittedly, I have a word document that I add to occasionally that details my many plains for the destruction of the planet (evil super-villian style). But it’s more of a cathartic stress-relief and an exercise in creativity, than an actual blueprint. Who knows, I may want to create a cartoon series, or a game that involves such elements in their story-line.

Based on these results,I think people are angry and depressed mostly because they feel poor, unattractive, unimportant, unwanted, or otherwise disadvantaged. I know Google is just trying to be helpful, but should it really be putting this kind of ammunition in someone’s hands? Especially the young children who might be searching for “top 10 ways to ruin the first day of school”. I suppose when it comes right down to it, it’s not Google’s fault. People are angry and depressed, so they create content that relates to that. In fact, they are probably less likely to commit an act of violence (against themselves or others) if they are capable of releasing such emotions by creating such content.

I think the burden lies with us as a society. We need to step up and address the issue of suicide. It is up to us to recognize the early warning signs that someone might be or become suicidal and to help try to prevent suicides. As for myself and my wife, we both use a very powerful strategy for quelling suicidal thoughts. We live for other people. In other words, my life is not just mine, it is shared by all of those around me. My friends and family are invested in my life, the loss of which will cause them harm. Additionally, you top it off with a promise to such individuals “I will not kill myself because I know it would hurt you.” This method does have one flaw, however… what if they have nobody to make such promises to? Go out and get some friends, that’s my suggestion. We are social creatures and we require some degree of social interaction. you may find that you feel better just by gaining a friend.

This Article, gives great advice for the recoginizing the early signs of depression and suicidal thoughts as well as ways to help somone through their troubles. It also urges people not to assume full responsibility for the suicidal person’s emotion support. They need professional help. The thoughts may go away, they may get worse. The depression could be caused by something as simple as a vitamin deficiency, but you won’t know unless you get checked out by a doctor. The Samaritans are also a great resource for those who just need someone to talk to. They offer completely confidential and non-judgmental emotional support 24/7/365. I have personally used them to work through some of my own depressions.

Additonally, the causes of this anger and depression need to be addressed… such as money making methods that actually work and ways to increase social equality without destroying capitalism. Pipe dreams, I know. But one can still dream, even if it is idealistic hippie-dippy commy garbage.

First, you cannot get more energy out of a system than you put in without losing something. In other words if you use electricity to break water into hydrogen and oxygen, and then burn it, then you’re putting in energy from the batter and producing power from the engine. Not only that but the engine loses quite a bit of that energy as heat. Because the battery is charged by the alternator (which is run by the engine… which in this case is run by the battery), the battery will run down. It’s basically like trying to recharge an electric car by running it. It simply won’t work. This might work if the water was broken outside of the vehicle and the gas was burned in the vehicle. Basically a station would make the fuel and your car would consume it. That might be thermodynamically possible, but it’s still not very practical.

Now there are kits you can purchase that claim to increase your fuel efficiency by using this process as an additive to your air intake. The battery is now used to break water into hydrogen and hydro-oxygen, but instead of being used purely as a fuel, it is used to increase efficiency. This works by piping these highly flamable gasses through the air intake. Some claim that this can drastically increase your fuel efficiency, with some claiming to reduce your fuel consumption by 60%. I find that to be highly unlikely but I do think it is possibly to increase fuel economy in this way.

What is happening is actually very simple. You’re just making a chemical battery. Yep, that’s it. Your alternator uses energy from your engine to recharge the battery. When the battery is fully charged this energy is completely wasted, it goes nowhere. Alternators are designed to provide much more than enough energy to recharge the battery so this can be quite a bit of lost energy. In these systems, it simply takes that extra energy to break water. You’ve then stored that energy, which would have otherwise been wasted, in these gasses. Those gasses are then fed into the fuel system and burned. All the energy is still coming from the gas. You’re just recapturing otherwise lost energy and feeding it back into the engine.

I’ve also heard of engines that use water directly for combustion and work in combination with gasoline. Basically, they combust fuel in the engine and use the residual heat to combust water in the next stroke. It hits the hot cylinder and simply turns to steam. This reduces the temperature of the engine, making it run more efficiently and reclaims some of that heat energy to produce power for the engine. This has shown a lot of promise, but I’m concerned that the water will damage the engine. Also, if the water and steam isn’t completely ejected from the cylinder, it will make the combustion of the gas less efficient and cause the engine to chug and knock.

All in all, this has led me to believe that water can indeed be used as a fuel if it is produced outside of the car, it can be used to increase the efficiency of your gas by reclaiming otherwise wasted energy from your alternator, and it might be useful for generating steam power alongside gasoline. It’s possible. But I don’t know if all the scam artists out there selling kits are really telling the truth. This might be something worth looking into though.

Just me musing some stuff over. What are your thoughts?
Type to you later,
~Nathaniel

Now, she goes into a little side rant about cigarrette ads and smoking that I don’t really agree with. But the most important message is fairly clear. Now, nicotene is an appetite suppressor… but I certainly wouldn’t suggest anyone smoke to loose weight.

To see my opinion on the matter of the idea of “thin=attractive” check out this article.

This isn’t so much a rant, as it is a simple statement… but I’ll put it under rants because well… this is my site and I can do whatever I want with it. so :P

Type to you later,
~Nathaniel

If you’ve got ADD and can’t sit through reading all of this, scroll down to the bottom, I’ve got a nice summary for you. :P
In no other country in the world does ADD exist. Yep, it’s entirely American. How is it that only Americans are affected by this? Probably because the FDA and pharmacologists just made the whole thing up to sell pills. The teachers jumped on it because if they had any trouble students, they could always just suggest that their parents dope them up into becoming conforming zombies

I’m going to go through the symptoms of ADD really quickly:

* Often fidgeting with hands or feet, or squirming while seated.
* Having difficulty remaining seated.
* Having difficulty awaiting turn in games or group activities.
* Often blurting out answers before questions are completed.
* Having difficulty in following instructions.
* Having difficulty sustaining attention in tasks or play activities.
* Often shifting from one uncompleted task to another.
* Having difficulty playing quietly.
* Often talking excessively.
* Often interrupting or intruding on others.
* Often not listening to what is being said.
* Often forgetting things necessary for tasks or activities.
* Often engaging in physically dangerous activities without considering possible consequences.
* Being easily distracted by extraneous stimuli.
Obtained from here on 9.11.07

A glance over all of this shows that I could have easily stated “… symptoms of being a child…”
The fact of the matter is that everything that makes a kid a kid, is listed there. Kids are impatient, they are adventurous, they don’t like to sit still, they have boundless energy, and they aren’t going to understand or play by a great deal of the adult rules. That’s what it’s all about, people label a kid as having ADD when that child does not conform to the adult expectations that are being forced upon them. When we can’t brainwash or discipline the kid out of them, we decide to dope them up so we can control them. It’s just insane is what it is.

An Academic Excuse:
The fact of the matter is that yes, people with ADD are chemically different from “normal” people. However, I argue that this is a natural deviance. The brain simply operates in a different way than the average person. In fact, the so called “attention deficit” seems to only concern things that are boring. These same children could probably play video games for hours on end and name all of the Pokemon by memory… and tell you a little about each one. These are not children who cannot pay attention. They are simply bored with all the things we’re trying to get them to do. People with ADD learn a little differently, lazy teachers do not attempt to teach these kids as best as they can, they dope them up so that their flawed teaching methods will work on them well enough for them to pass standardized tests (another rant best saved for later). In other words, these teachers need to learn how to teach these children. Additionally, these children need to be taught how to learn. That’s about it. Also, I’ve found that the discipline found in martial arts is a great way to help teach these kids self control.

An excuse for bad behavior:
I have heard far too many people proclaiming “It’s not my fault, I’ve got ADD”. I was actually in a chat room once where someone was typing like a moron, being very rude, and when confronted they responded with “shut up, I got ADD. U cant descrimate against meh!” If I where able to reach through my monitor, through cyberspace, through their monitor, and slap them, I WOULD!

When I was young, I was diagnosed with ADD. After being diagnosed everyone let me slide through school without even trying because as everyone had pointed out to me “something was wrong with my brain.” So I did whatever I wanted to, caused a lot of trouble, and when they asked me why I was acting out, I told them that I forgot to take my pill that day.In fact, I rarely took my pills, I would hide them inside the water fountain. ADD became an excuse for bad behavior. The point is, I was capable of controlling myself, but I didn’t because I found a way to get away with it. I had no idea, at the time, what kind of damage this would would do to me.

I learned, years later of course, that my treatment and behavior caused a great deal of damage to my self esteem. Imagine this from a kid’s point of view:
1) there was something wrong with my brain
2) it made me stupid
3) I was so stupid that I had to take pills to fix me
4) people treated me like I was stupid
5) I came to the conclusion that I must be a mentally handicapped moron who would never amount to anything.

Yep, that’s the train of thought. Lucky for me, I snapped out of it. As soon as I learned that I could actually get help on my schoolwork I decided that I was not stupid and took it upon myself to do whatever I had to in order to get by. Yes, I had to DECIDE that I wasn’t stupid. It took years and years before I was able to think of myself as an intelligent person.

I have also heard people use ADD and dyslexia as an excuse for bad spelling and grammar. Now I actually do have both fairly badly. However, I have learned to work with my shortcomings. Right now I am using Mozilla Firefox, which has it’s own built in spell-check feature. I also read and reread everything to make sure my point comes across the way I intended it to. In other words, I’m not lazy about it.

Treatment: learning how to cope with ADD
One thing that really helped me was martial arts. It taught discipline in a fun and engaging way. I was able to pay attention to it because I had a man with a big stick threatening to hit me if I didn’t do what he said. Just kidding, it was fun and challenging and I really enjoyed getting to fight and not get in trouble for it… or have to be angry to do it. I also had to learn how to apply myself and I had to learn how to learn. I figured out, eventually, that if I wanted something bad enough, I had to do whatever it took to get it. If I wasn’t willing to do whatever it took, I just didn’t want it bad enough. I am currently enrolled in online classes with the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Online Chapter. It takes quite a bit of discipline to apply myself and get my work done. But I do it. Why? Because I want to design games for a living, I want it so bad that I’ll overcome any obstacle, including the ones in my own brain, to get there. Pills only treat the problem, they do not solve or cure anything. There may not be a cure for ADD but you can learn to cope with it to the point to where it becomes second nature. Once I overcame my need for the pills, I was able to function as a somewhat normal individual.

Conclusions:
ADD is not a disorder but rather a natural deviation of the human mind.
ALL CHILDREN need to be taught how to learn
ALL TEACHERS need to learn how to remain interesting enough to keep the attention of these children.
Children can learn discipline well from martial arts
Treating children with ADD differently than normal kids will damage their self esteem
Treating children for ADD by medicating them will damage their self esteem and make them into zombies
ADD is a Fictional American Fad that is being used as an excuse to dope kids up so that we can control them

In other words, get them off the pills, be interesting, teach them discipline in a fun way, let them know they are smart and give them the chances to prove it, encourage intelligent/academic endeavors, but do not discourage so called childish behaviors, let them have fun, let the kids be kids and stop doping them up!

Type to you later,
~Nathaniel

To me, the only body types that are unattractive are anorexic and obese. So, if you’re Skeletor or a pumpkin patch kid, you might want to reconsider your diet. Otherwise, you’re healthy enough and that’s what really matters. Big women, little women, women of all shapes and sizes, I guarantee you that your confidence and how you carry yourself is what matters the most. I can also guarantee that the vanity of a woman who whines about a few extra pounds is FAR more repulsive than that supposedly extra weight.

When my wife asks me if her butt looks big in whatever she’s wearing, I respond with “Yes it does, and it’s super hot!” The funny thing is, that’s is TOTALLY contrary to how I was raised… which was to never mention/guess/comment on a woman’s age, weight, or pregnancy status. If a woman asks you if she looks fat she wants to hear “no honey, you look beautiful, those pants are really slimming.” but I found that to be dishonest.

In any case, women, get over it. You look fine. You don’t have to compete with the women on TV so there’s no use trying. As long as you’re happy and healthy, who cares? Be proud of what you’ve got. There’s no need to feel self-conscious. As I’ve always said “If a person cannot see you as beautiful, it does not mean that you are not so. It only means that they do not really see you.” and “If truth is beauty and beauty truth, then as long as you’re true to yourself, you’ll never be anything less than beautiful.” and it’s true! It is so true. It is my sincere hope that one day, the women of the world will discover that they don’t have to listen to the media and realize that they are beautiful.

Just remember, the clothings stores, the makeup manufacturers and quite a few people in between all make money by making you feel bad about yourself. They make you think that you need their products/services in order to be attractive and it’s just not true. Don’t fall for their dastardly advertising/brainwashing tactics. Be your own woman and be proud of who you are. Trust me, we’ll love you for it.

Type to you later,
~Nathaniel

Personally, I think that many game development companies are too focused on how a game looks and not focused enough on how the game plays. As games become better and better looking, they seem to lend less to the realm of game play. Almost as if the player is forced to sit and watch the artists show off their work instead of playing a game.

I used to program games on my TI-83+ graphing calculator. These where ugly games, written in a very limited programming language. But I made them fun. Why? Because if they weren’t fun, no one would play them! I didn’t have the fancy graphics and options that modern games have because of the language limitations. However, that didn’t stop me from making very addictive versions of tic-tac-toe, slolum, FPS, maze, guessing, and memory games. I had a blast, and so did the students who I gave the games to. So much so, that the teachers tried to erase all the programs from every calculator in an effort to curb these distractions. Good thing we had them backed up on our computers… or they might have been lost forever. My point here is that even an ugly, option-low game can be very fun and addictive. Games don’t need to be pretty, they don’t need extensive storyline, THEY NEED TO BE FUN!

That being said, graphics and storyline are VERY important for the immersion of a game. Games like Halo 3, Bioshock, and Heavenly Sword are all examples of engaging graphics and storyline. They’re also extremely fun to play (I’ve only personally played Halo 3 and read very good reviews about the other two). Hopefully, as graphics becomes easier for us to utilize and making games pretty becomes super easy, we will be able to focus better on making games fun again. I’ve got good hopes for the game industry. Also… if I ever manage to break into the game industry, I can guarantee that my main focus will be on fun… unless I’m an artist. Nah, fun is king.

Let me just put it this way: People didn’t wait so long in line for Halo3 just so they can see how neat the graphics where. They waited that long so that they could buy the game and blow stuff up in cool new ways! End of story.

Rant to you later,
~Nathaniel

First it is important to know the method through which the vaccine is developed. Scientist track statistical data to guess at which strain of the flu will be the most common the the next year. They then take that strain and culture it inside chicken eggs to mass produce it. So when next year comes, they’ve got a whole store of the flu virus that has been growing exclusively inside chicken eggs. They then neutralize these viruses by boiling, freezing, acids, and/or bases. These dead viruses are then made into the final product, the flu vaccine.

Some facts about immunity:
1) Our immune system produces and releases antibodies that attach to the protein sheath that surrounds the viral DNA.
2) The genes responsible for that sheath mutate so quickly that we cannot remain immune to it… it’s always changing.
3) The virus that the doctors thought was going to be the big strain is always different from the wild type strain (since it developed in people instead of chicken eggs under the strain of different environmental factors as well as an actual immune system).
4) The process that they use to kill the viruses isn’t fool proof. Some survive and they can still make you sick.

Alright, so I’ve established a few things:
1) The flu vaccine cannot give you an immunity to the current flu because the viruses are so different (due to mutation and genetic drift) that an immunity to one does not mean immunity to the other.
2) You might just catch the flu from a vaccine because it contains small amounts of live virus.
3) If you do manage to catch the flu from such a vaccine it will be from a virus that was cultivated in a laboratory, inside chicken eggs, without the hindrance of an immune system, and that survived being boiled, frozen, and/or burned with acid/melted with bases. In other words, you just caught some nasty bug.

Now, I don’t know why they are trying to sell this stuff so much. It doesn’t work, it could get people sick, and they’re suggesting that all people with “weakened or compromised immune systems” get the shot. To me that sounds a bit fishy. I would argue that ANY evidence of the flu vaccine having a beneficial effect is rather the effect of “working out” the immune system and giving it some practice rather than any actual immunity. It would be much easier, and cheaper, if we just occasionally ate some dirt… or just use less sanitizing cleaning products and antibiotics.

If I where a conspiracy nut I would be all over this mess. However, I’ll leave such musing up to the rest of the overly paranoid population. I’m more than happy just to let everyone know that I am never going to have a flu shot and that everyone should think very long and hard about whether or not they will either. I have actually wanted to argue this point with a doctor for a while… (but I rarely go to the doctor) There’s no getting around it though. The logic and the science back me up. They are only backed up by hype and fear.

The next time someone tries to tell you that you should get a flu shot, stop, think, and remember that it makes no sense. If it’s your doctor, question their motives immediately. They may have been dazzled by numbers and charts, forgetting their basic biology lessons… or they may be getting money from the pharmaceutical companies that develop , distribute, and sell these vaccines.

I hope that I have opened some eyes. The flu vaccine is a scam, don’t be fooled, get all the information. Just because your doctor has a medical degree doesn’t mean they have your best interest in mind.

In case you’re interested, I’m no the only one that sees this mess for what it is. Check out this article for a bit more information.

Type to you later,
~Nathaniel

There is also the issue of the gothic fashion genre. These kids wear mostly black and often have elaborate costumes and makeup that must take hours to prepare. Yet these kids say that they don’t care about their appearance or what people think of them. Now, I live in Texas and it is fairly hot down here. When I see a “runny goth” (my phrase for a goth whose makeup is running from all the sweat), I know that they don’t suffer through that heat in all that black because they enjoy it. Trust me, if given the choice between walking to work wearing all black, or wearing bright pink, I would pick the bright pink because I would rather not have a heat stroke. One of the most amusing days of my life was when I went to Edgefest. There where a ton of borderline goth bands there and there was no shortage of “runny goths” I just found it HILARIOUS that these kids where so vain that they would risk heatstroke under piles of black leather and metal studs so that they would look “cool”. Well, let me tell you, there is NOTHING cool looking about a runny goth, it’s actually quite pitiful.

What’s more funny is that these extremely vain kids want to turn around and bash the “preps” for being so vain and caring about their looks. That’s just hypocrisy. I would argue that the goths that spend hours putting on their makeup and “costume” are MORE vain than the prep that spends 2 minuets putting on his Tommy Hilfiger outfit.

Lets recap:
The things I don’t like about SOME goths are as follows: Exclusion, forced conformity to gothic stereotypes, limited and impractical wardrobe, vanity, and hypocrisy. I think that pretty much sums it up. If you consider yourself a goth, or rather, if you identify with the gothic subculture, please, don’t do these things. Not because I don’t like them, but because it makes you look like a stupid jerk kid. BE YOURSELF!!! if that includes wearing all black, listening to death metal, having tattoos/piercings, being fascinated with death, etc… then more power to you. If you’re vain, that’s you’re problem, I’ll just laugh at you when your makeup starts running from the heat. It’s not healthy to dress in all black in the southern states, if the heat doesn’t get you, the rednecks will. For those of you in the northern/colder areas of the US and the world, go for it. I would wear black every day if it wasn’t so damn hot. Also, if you are depressed, seek help. If you want you can even contact me and we can talk about it. I also suggest http://www.samaritans.org/ they’re a free, non-judgmental non-profit organization that specializes in emotional support. You can call someone up, or email them 24hrs a day, 365 days a year. They’ve actually helped me through a few rough spots.

As far as my frustration with these supposed goths goes, I decided to create a piece of artwork that pokes fun at this particular type of goth. We’re all PINK on the Inside! is a direct stab (pun intended) at this particular facet of the gothic subculture. If you’re a goth and don’t like “skin goths’ or if you’re anyone who just doesn’t like goths you’ll get a kick out of it. Also, if you’re not against wearing a bit of pink, you can buy these as t-shirts (in a variety of colors and styles).

Let me reiterate: I am not against goths, I do not hate goths, I am against conformity, labels, exclusion and vanity.

That about covers it for now,
Type to you later,
~Nathaniel