Monday, May 31, 2004

Why did the chicken cross the road? part II

(warning: some repetitions from a previous post involved. but there are original ones here too, so it is still worth posting.)

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road or not. The chicken is either with us or it is against us. There is no middle ground here.

AL GORE: I invented the chicken. I invented the road. therefore, the chicken crossing the road represented the application of these two different functions of government in a new, reinvented way designed to bring greater services to the American people.

COLIN POWELL: Now at the left of the screen, you clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road.

HANS BLIX: We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed access to the other side of the road.

MOHAMMED ALDOURI: (Iraq ambassador) The chicken did not cross the road. This is a complete fabrication. We don't even have a chicken.

SADDAM HUSSEIN: This was an unprovoked act of rebellion and we were quite justified in dropping 50 tons of nerve gas on it.

RALPH NADER: The chicken's habitat on the original side of the road had been polluted by unchecked industrialist greed. The chicken did not reach the unspoiled habitat on the other side of the road because it was crushed by the wheels of a gas-guzzling SUV.

PAT BUCHANAN: To steal a job from a decent, hard-working American.

RUSH LIMBAUGH: I don't know why the chicken crossed the road, but I'll bet it was getting a government grant to cross the road, and I'll bet someone out there is already forming a support group to help chickens with crossing-the-road syndrome. Can you believe this? How much more of this can real Americans take? Chickens crossing the road paid for by their tax dollars, and when I say tax dollars, I'm talking about your money, money the government took from you to build roads for chickens to cross.

MARTHA STEWART: No one called to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the farmer's market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

JERRY FALWELL: Because the chicken was gay! Isn't it obvious? Can't you people see the plain truth in front of your face? The chicken was going to the "other side. That's what they call it -- the other side. Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And, if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media whitewashes with seemingly harmless phrases like "the other side."

DR. SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, The chicken crossed the road, But why it crossed, I've not been told!

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die. In the rain. Alone.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into question.

GRANDPA: In my day, we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Someone told us that the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough for us.

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart-warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting and went on to accomplish its life-long dream of crossing the road.

JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens crossing roads in peace.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

KARL MARX: It was an historical inevitability.

VOLTAIRE: I may not agree with what the chicken did, but I will defend to the death its right to do it.

RONALD REAGAN: What chicken?

CAPTAIN KIRK: To boldly go where no chicken has gone before.

FOX MULDER: You saw it cross the road with your own eyes! How many more chickens have to cross before you believe it?

SIGMUND FREUD: The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken 2003, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook - and Internet Explorer is an inextricable part of eChicken.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What do you mean by chicken? Could you define chicken, please?

COLONEL SANDERS: I missed one?


from Ahmed & Mohammed's Cave Jokes

Try them...

a blogger claims she's interested in what a certain writer wants to say, yet she abstains from at least browsing the links the writer includes. she argues that although the writer agrees with the articles he cites and links, the articles themselves are not his thoughts. the writer agrees that these articles are, to a certain extent, distinct from his own thoughts. but then again, to consistently read a particular writer's works, one does not preclude the notion that one is also interested in the development of the writer's thoughts. this would entail a study of the origins of the thoughts of the writer from the texts that have aroused his feelings and compelled him to write his own.

an honest scholar of jose rizal's thoughts for example would confess that the national hero did not come up with his thoughts and writings in a vacuum. rizal was influenced by the popular literature of his time, particularly works of european nationalists and secularists. kantian philosophy, for example, is strikingly evident in rizal's works. familiarity therefore of kant and other ideas that influenced rizal does not impair the value of his works, but it puts them into context and helps one to appreciate rizal further in the light of these works.

so the reader should do the same if she is interested to understand a writer's thoughts. to read his work would entail accompanying him in a journey, to familiarize one's self to the context, backgrond and framework from which the writer derives his thoughts. to dismiss them simply because they are not the words of the writer, the reader increases the chances of not arriving at the same point as the writer. for that, the reader must immerse herself in the links since the writer may have considered interpreting the originally text according to his own words a watering down of the powerful testimony of the original text.

as for the value of the contents of the articles, the subject is debatable, but the reader must know by now, that the writer is quite critical of the media. he is fully aware of the sensationalism and inaccuracies that many media organizations present as fair and balanced reporting of the facts. he therefore tries to gather his links from what he considers reliable sources, and tries to discern whether such reports are credible. but then again, citing the failures of the media simply ignores the fact that not all links refer to news items. again, the value of the contents of these remains subject to debate, one however should not dismiss anything so easily, especially when the writer tends to be critically at every level.

by now the reader must also understand that the writer simply wants to elicit debate, discussion and reflection from his readers. he considers this as the main purpose of his blog. once again he is happy and thankful that you have responded kindly to his invitation, but he must admit that he was surprised at the form in which this response took shape. he foresees livelier discussion with you gentle reader soon.

The mind is willing

but the keyboard is weak...

The Christian Origins of the Koran

i've always thought that muhammad borrowed a lot from christian tradition to compose the qur'an. but now here's a guy who thinks that the qur'an could only be properly interpreted and critically studied if one understands syrio-aramaic, which according to him, was the original language of the qur'an. he gives some examples of how one can understand the qur'an in its original christian context if it is read in its syrio-aramaic form.

my comment does little to justify or explain his work, which is also covered by this article. but i would truly enjoy seeing the faces of those suicidal jihadists once they reach paradise (if they ever do get there) once they learn the shocking truth that they will be getting grapes rather than the virgins they were seeking as rewards for their deeds.

Sunday, May 30, 2004

Random thoughts...

i've been wondering what the XP in Windows XP stands for. why not search for it in google? and so i did. one site says it means nothing. another says it stands for eXPerience. in other words, there are no satisfactory answers for my question.

i however, have an idea. in greek you see, the letter X stands for chi and P for rho. those of you who are familiar with statistics would certainly confirm this.

the combination of the greek letters XP is actually a popular monogram in christian epigraphy. the chi-rho stands for the first two letters for the greek word for christ, an english word which also derives its etymology from greek.

could perhaps microsoft inadvertently have introduced christian symbolism into their product? could've one of their marketing people arranged for it secretly?

interesting huh?

Religion of Peace militants kill five foreigners, take hostages

another article relates:
One of the gunmen who opened fire Saturday in separate attacks on three compounds housing oil companies in the eastern Saudi Arabian city of Khobar poked a gun at the face of one of the Filipino victims and asked if he was a Muslim or Christian. It was not known what the man answered, but he was shot in the face, witnesses said...

meanwhile, in doha, someone tells an interreligious conference the usual line that Islam is a Religion of Peace and that Muslims Say Koran Bans Taking of Innocent Life.

gee, i guess those militants weren't reading the qur'an properly, otherwise, they would've been throwing welcome parties to kafirs working in their most holy land, and shooting kisses at some poor worker's face instead.

the "rotten tomatoes" excuse begins to crumble especially when one considers that these people are precisely the ones carrying out the "divine" injunctions of the qur'an regarding infidels, and not just some extreme nutty fringe group. they enjoy massive support from ordinary people who consider them holy warriors defending islam from defenseless kafir workers who simply wanted to earn a living for his family in the oil rich state. they'll soon have their heroics proudly promoted in vcd's sold in malaysian & indonesian sidewalks along with bin laden t-shirts, posters, and bumber stickers.

islam and the ummah therefore have difficult fundamental issues to confront here, but these issues will not solve themselves when islamic leaders frequently deny the connection of islam to terrorism and play the blame game to blame the rest of the world for the ills their own people commit in the name of islam, or when they appeal to the oft-abused and tiring sense of victimhood. these old men should grow up.

The Commandant

if Fear had a face, he would look like this:



My most memorable experience of frightening yet inspiring man was during practices for the Pass and Review ceremonies. it was the moment after we finished parading in front of the honored guests and unit sponsors (some young ladies from st. paul paranaque at that time). as commanding officer of the first platoon of the first company of the first battalion, i was marching in front of everybody, thus i had no way of seeing that my men behind me were marching without cadence. then out of nowhere, his voice amplified ten fold by the portable sound system, he shouts: "brillantes! use your f**king head!!!" and the echo bounced from every corner of the field to the surrounding buildings and i bet, the buildings across the road.

total strangers must've heard this cry and might have told themselves that this brillantes fellow must be a dumb guy or something. it was humiliating, but certainly not the most humiliating thing that ever happened to me. but it was a sobering experience, he hurt my pride you see and that was a big deal for me. but with the benefit of hindsight, i've appreciated the benefits he and corps have bestowed upon me. they've turned a whimpy, scrawny nerd into a formidable, ever more disciplined, confident, battle hardened, deadly, and cunning nerd!

Boy used chat room to get himself killed

John, who surfed the net for seven hours at a time, had spent six months manipulating Mark until he felt he was ready to commit murder. It emerged that John had introduced himself to Mark on the internet as a teenage girl. Mark performed sexual acts for the girl on a webcam which John watched. Later John introduced a series of other characters to the chat room, including a second girlfriend, a stalker and two secret service agents modelled on Bond films. One of the agents, identified as Agent 47695, told Mark she had been assigned to protect John. Later she ordered Mark to kill the boy, promising him a gun, a large sum of money and a meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair as a reward.

like s**t, it happens. and thoughts come into mind.

these kids are spending way too much time over the internet. don't they have normal lives, or is this what they mean by normal lives?

do people actually take internet friendships so seriously that one would be manipulated to commit murder?

although the internet has increased the availability of information, it probably reduced the availability of wisdom, common sense and critical thinking.

the case tragically highlights what internet abuse can lead to.

A related random thought

what if your confessor, was:

(via jimmy akin's blog)

yep, the Rev. Fr. Incredible Hulk himself.

tired of being hunted and seeking the peaceful life, dr. bruce banner decided to join the priesthood where he learned the virtues of self-control, temperance, and anger management. his control over his emotions however didn't stop his habitual transformation into the Hulk. however, the gift of the priesthood affected the Hulk as well, and so the uncontrollable rage of the monster has disappeared and what is a left is a gentle green giant, serving as a mild mannered rural parish priest.

boy, he and my sumo-wrestling guardian angel in the previous post would be the best tag team ever! they'll beat the crap out of the devil for sure!

Saturday, May 29, 2004

Random thoughts...

i've read somewhere that the depiction of angels as a cute, androgenous babies with litte wings and curly blonde hair is quite inaccurate. angels are actually really, REALLY HUUUUGE beings, extremely powerful, fearful to behold, and one that you would never reckon challenging once you see one in its real form and majesty.

so i wondered, could my guardian angel actually look like the guy below?

that would be SOOOOO cool!!!

Never fear - emergency condom man is here

"We need to increase the usage of condoms," said Carl Osvald, marketing manager for the Swedish Organisation for Sex Education, the non-governmental organisation behind the initiative. "It is 50 percent about pregnancy and 50 percent about sexually transmitted diseases."

and greater chance of death for all who use it (see related posts below). who wouldn't want that, right?

The incidence of sexually transmitted disease is increasing rapidly in Sweden and not enough young people use condoms, Osvald said. "We need to change attitudes to condoms," he said. "If we need to get out in to the bedrooms to make things better we will do it."
folks, the best solution is not to encourage risky sexual behaviour at all. promoting condoms will simply instill in these young people's mind that sex under any circumstance is ok, thus leading to more risky sex. then again, i'm pretty sure that these condom ambulances will be initially popular since people would want to try out something novel, but will soon fade because 1) nobody wants to wait for condom delivery when the they're already "there" in the middle of it, and 2) nobody would want any attention on their sexual activities since condom deliveries would obviously attract attention from neighbors.

Clarifications...

certain thoughts, actions, words and/or writings maybe misconstrued to mean something they did not originally mean. the same is true with the posts in my blog. i write my blog entries and provide links therein assuming and hoping that the reader will visit and read the links. those links provide the context, background and supporting evidences to my posts. it is therefore necessary that you, my reader, visit them in order for you to understand my viewpoint. plus, in the case of parody, as i have often done in many of my prior posts, i make the links the punchline to my jokes.

From the "sexual promiscuity could kill you" dept.

Study Says Condoms Contain Cancer-Causing Substance

it's another reason to stay faithful to your partner or just abstain.

Mel Gibson should make a movie about these guys


what? don't you know who they are? you should better see them in their full gala uniforms.

Someone else's Audi alteram artem

yes folks, it seems someone else had that as a blog title before i did, although he changed his url here. darn!! i was too late!!

anyway, i think the blogger's a law student from singapore and this is probably where he discovered audi alteram partem. it seems the phrase is actually a legal principle:

Audi alteram partem (or Audiatur et altera pars) is a Latin
phrase that means, literally, hear the other side or hear both sides. It stands for the principle that no one should be condemned without a hearing in which they are given the opportunity to respond to the accusations against them. It is considered a principle of fundamental justice or fairness in most legal systems that afford the accused the right to confront the witnesses against the accused and to examine the evidence presented by the state or prosecution in the process of determining one's guilt or cuplability.


(gasp!) i didn't know that it had all that legal mumbo-jumbo attached to it. i just found the phrase in a dictionary and i thought it would be a cool blog title.

anyway, i think i'll keep the title, unless he sues me.

Friday, May 28, 2004

4:25

sa pagiisa
pawis, luha'y dumaloy
nangungulila

Muslims are the real victims

muslims are not the enemy, non-muslims are the perpetrators of all the violence.

yes, i have come understand what verlaine is saying about the terrible suffering of a multitude of muslims throughout the world under violent, despotic rulers. yes, muslims are an oppressed people. i was merely keeping my eyes shut to that obvious and shocking reality. enlightened by that article, my prejudices have diminished, and my compassion for the muslim oppressed has grown a hundred fold!

oh how i wish to do justice to those i have wronged. i wish i could take back all that i blindly utterred in my ignorance. yet, it is easy, all i need is to delete my posts, but i would rather let my readers see the wonderful conversion i had. so in lieu of deleting them, i have instead compiled below some sample news about the oppression muslims around the world.

1) muslims being forced to convert, here & here.
2) state discrimination against muslims, here & here
3) violence against muslims, here & here

now that we've discovered our own faults, we must, therefore, never let our prejudiced ignorance blind us again. let us realize that the desperate acts of muslims who do violence are simply caused by the intolerant, arrogant and imperialistic ways of the west which has robbed the muslim world of its dignity. we must ask for their forgiveness and mend our ways so that the violence will stop.

Hot new stars discovered

move over, viva hot babes. scram sexbomb dancers... here are 2 very hot, newly discovered stars that will rock your universe. i hope they arouse your curiosity as they have aroused mine.

Thursday, May 27, 2004

From Will & Grace:

to determine your drag queen name, you take the name of your first pet and the name of the first street you lived at/in.

my drag queen name: maggie capinpin.

what's yours?

Debunking another myth

I got this email from my yahoogroups:


Have a history teacher explain this if they can!

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.

Both wives lost a child while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.

Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Now it gets really weird.

Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.

Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.

Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Now hang on to your seat !

Lincoln was shot at the theater named "Ford."
Kennedy was shot in a car called "Lincoln" made by "Ford."

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here's the "kicker":

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe,Maryland.

A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

Lincoln was shot in a theater and the assassin ran to a
warehouse.
Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and the assassin ran to a
theater.

Creepy, huh? Send this to as many people as you can, because:
Hey, this is one history lesson people don't mind reading!!!

having learned my lesson about the date-rape drug email i got, i decided to a google search about it. i wasn't surprised to find that it's another one of those myths being spread through email. a site which offered explanations to debunk this particular myth is found here. i also found another version of this article in this site here.

most people find it easy to just believe in such things without taking steps to determine their veracity. but then again, i'm not like most people. i think i've found another purpose for myself in this blog: professional skeptic.

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

New Information Indicates Attacks in U.S.

the terrorists have smelled blood, and they want more. they knew they managed to score victory in madrid, for their efforts have led to the fall of the spanish conservative government, which strongly supported the US's war on terror. in its place now is a left-wing party, which not only opposed the war in iraq, but also intends to appease the terrorists by withdrawing spanish troops from iraq.

now they want the same for america. the mood about the whole war on terrorism has changed especially with the controversies on the intelligence used for the iraq war and the prisoner abuse scandal. american thought has shifted from blaming the terrorists, to blaming the government.

but 2004 offers the terrorists a real opportunity for them to create significant trouble by attempting to duplicate the effect their bombings had on the spanish people on the americans. i won't be surprised if they launch their attack on the eve of the US elections. i mean, the parallels are so uncanny. they have a right wing party in power, then there's a challenger whose main issue against the ruling party is their "unsuccessful" and "ill-strategized" execution on the war on terror. if terrorists attempts were successful, then there could be a backlash on the bush administration since the american electorate would perceive this as utter failure of the bush government to prevent such terrorist attacks. in that scenario, the republicans may look "incompetent" and be replaced by the democrats.

i however doubt that their strategy will work on the american voters on a massive scale. it could may even have the opposite effect, making bush more "necessary" rather than irrelevant. but then again, they wouldn't mind that, since as long as they get to kill innocent civilians, they're happy.

Mr. Speaker shut up!!

cong. dilangalen: you're wasting our time mr. speaker shut up!
the speaker : you shut up also!
majority leader : mr. speaker, i move...
cong. dilangalen: shut up majority leader! shut up! shut up! shut up! shut up!

this ain't no joke. you'll probably see this incident getting attention in the news tonight or tomorrow's newspaper. it's democracy folks. be patient, no matter how nutty those guys are. they are, after all, our representatives. they represent how nutty or onion skinned we too can be.

by the way, david celdran of ANC calls it the "shut up episode." i would count this as another interesting incident in our history that would be counted along miriam's "contempt show" at the impeachment trial, and cong. gonzalez's slapping of the house sergeant-at-arms.

couldn't dilangalen have just ignored the note? it didn't contain any threats after all. there was no need for such an outburst from a legislator.

and as of this posting, the session has been suspended until 2 pm tomorrow. great....

Mr. Speaker! Si Joanna, oh!

the session was suspended. a sideshow has taken the place of the debates. cong. dilangalen raises an issue about a private note passed to him from the gallery. the note, it seems, contained something like "cong. dilangalen, shut up. you're wasting the taxpayer's money." the congressman cries foul over this and exposes the note to the rest of the floor. according to the latest but sketchy reports, the note was traced to a young lady, i think her name's joanna... weird. i'll comment later when i get more facts.

Mr. Speaker!

the debates regarding the canvassing of the certificates of canvass continue as per publication. on ANC, we see cong. dilangalen interpolating sen. pangilinan and cong. nachura, and then ANC quits for an interview with a former member of the 1986 constitutional commission. he actually agrees with the current practice where a committee composed of members from both houses of congress. it would take months for the entire congress, lower and upper houses, to scrutinize all the coc's.

anyway, although i find the opposition's strategy of questioning the manner by which the the coc's are authenticated and appreciated, a rule which has already been practiced in prior elections, annoying and debilitating. i mean, there has already been a precedence on the exercise of the rules on the appreciation of the coc's. why question them now?

however, i appreciate that democracy, filipino style, is working. yes, the opposition's rantings and questioning of every detail of the election maybe prolonging the election process, but nevertheless, the system works. the minority is still heard, despite their small number. nobody's rights are being denied. yes, they are annoying, but that's how it is in a democracy. we better learn to live with it and be happy with it.

Jihadis = religious warriors

i finally found an ex-muslim who (gasp!) uses the words that i use! imagine that! yes virginia, the word jihadist exists. although you need to approach the contents of the site with a grain of salt.

Mar Roxas flirting with the Devil herself

i pity the fool -- mr. t

Since it's ok for gay couples to get married...

perhaps incest ain't so bad after all...

it's the domino effect folks. if one falls, the rest will follow.

An Apology to the Pigs of the World

i have to agree with the author on this matter. these "things" clearly have obliterated any molecule of goodness within them. although the author felt outrage and distress over the horrific act of barbarism those "things" perpetrated, she nonetheless remains, surprisingly, charitable and optomistic. her attitude is totally the oppostite the people from this site have, which clearly endorses the violence that is obviously spreading the whole world. i'm beginning to rethink my position after seeing that site. i was shocked to see such a website. it was my first look into a jihadist propaganda material. although it is propaganda, it is nevertheless being incarnated into real, deadly actions. i think it is time we should all wake up and smell the coffee.

Took it right out of my mouth



ok, ok... i admit, this is quite "offensive" to many of you guyz out there. i know, i'm insensitive, prejudicial and irresponsible. i must confess, i was really LOL when i first saw it. but seriously, i know i have the duty to apologize to the people i've hurt with this post, especially the group of ex-muslims running the site where i got it. i should've asked permission first. my blind prejudice against ex-muslims has driven me to the point of rage and insanity! so, here, i apologize to all of you, and ask for your forgiveness...

Super Lucky Girl, for real

"Lucky" Barbara survived 4 air crashes, 7 car accidents, 12 times the floor and steps she was standing on, broke through. At one point the balcony she was standing on, collapsed. In addition, she experienced gas explosions, attacks of criminals, sinking motor boats, the fell of the huge chandelier in Warsaw Opera House, 2 train crashes.

correct me if i'm wrong, but her survival of all those disasters and accidents simply couldn't be possible, but she has proof to show that she did experience them all. boy, she does give the term "Iron Maiden" a new twist. she's either extraordinarily lucky, or there's a divine being watching over her and keeping her from harm. hhmmm... i wonder...

Man can die because of committing adultery, German scientists say

"The majority of the men who died during the sexual intercourse, died when having sex with mistresses, not with their wives"

folks, this yet another proof for saying that sexuality morality tends to save one's life. wow, the church got it right all along then. faithfulness, sexually fidelity that is, will not only save you from hiv/aids, but from heart attacks as well.

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

The Passion in the Middle East

the passion of the christ has been shown in several islamic/arab countries, which include qatar, iran, eqypt, and the uae. this happened despite the fact that it is forbidden in islamic tradition to portray prophets in art, especially when it portrays the prophet in a way that differs from the islamic view. for muslims, jesus was just a great prophet who never claimed to be the son of god; he was never crucified but rahter was rescued by god and an impostor was crucified in his stead. however, it seems only malaysia and saudi arabia remain in upholding that tradition, even though pirated copies of the film have been selling briskly at those countries' black markets. to what then would one attribute the success of the film? it seems these countries allowed the film mainly because of several jewish group's opposition to the film. "many Arabs were interested in seeing the film only because of the anti-Semitic controversy surrounding it" one report said. one could argue that these guys went to see the film hoping to find new dirt on the jews but came out discovering something else. "This film is generating huge interest in Jesus and the Bible," the report added.

hhmmm... could this perhaps be another american conspiracy hatched with the help of the zionist jews in order that such a film subvert islam right under the muslims' very noses? could gibson have asked the jews to make so much negative publicity about the film that their enemies would find it delectable for their own prejudices, and that resistance against it be minimized? gibson's a genius! hhmmm....

My keyboard prayer

(my adaptation of the rifle prayer)

this is my keyboard,
there are many models like it, but this one is MINE.
my keyboard (though crappy) is my best friend. it is my life.
i must master it as i will master my life.
my keyboard without me is useless, without my keyboard, i can't blog.
i must blog with my keyboard true.
i must type quicker than my opponent who disputes against me.
i must shoot his arguments before he shoots mine. i will...
my keyboard and myself know what counts in this debate.
it is not the sophisticated words we use, the rationalizations we make, or the confusion we create. we know that it is the truth that counts. we will be truthful...
my keyboard is human, even as i, because it is my life.
thus i will learn it as a brother.
i will study its defects, its uses, its components, its shortcut keys and their functions.
i will even guard it against the ravages of keyboard rage and typing abuse.
i will keep my keyboard clean and ready, even though i'm not.
we will become a part of each other, we will...
before an unknown creative being out there, i swear this creed.
my keyboard and myself are the defenders of my blog.
we are the masters of our opponents. we are the saviors of my sanity.
so be it, until triumph is ours, and there is no dispute but understanding

A new hoax's in town

Got this email from my high school class' yahoogroup:
A woman at a nightclub on Saturday night was taken by 5 men, who according to hospital and police reports, gang raped her before dumping her.

Unable to remember the events of the evening,tests later confirmed the repeat rapes along with traces of rohypnol in her blood, Progesterex,that is an essentially a small sterilization pill.

The drug is now being used by rapists at parties to rape AND sterilize their victims.

Progesterex is available to vets to sterilize large animals. Rumour has it that the Progesterex is being used together with Rohypnol, the date rape drug. As with Rohypnol, all they have to do is drop it into the girl's drink. The girl can't remember a thing the next morning, of all that had taken place the night before.

Progesterex, which dissolves in drinks just as easily, is such that the victim doesn't conceive from the r ape and the rapist needn't worry about having a paternity test identifying him months
later.

The drug's effects ARE NOT TEMPORARY - They are P*E*R*M*A*N*E*N*T

Progesterex was designed to sterilize horses. Any female who takes it WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO CONCEIVE. The weasels can get this drug from anyone who is in the vet school or any university. It's that easy,and Progesterex is about to break out big on campuses everywhere.

Believe it or not, there are even sites on the Internet telling people how to use it. Please forward this to everyone you know, especially girls. Be careful when you're out and don't leave your drink unattended. Please make the effort to forward this on to all you know...

Guys, please inform all your female friends and relatives.

i decided to blog about this warning and so i wanted to find out more about this drug Progesterex to so i did a google search on it.

it turns out that the whole thing was a hoax. a reliable site, the Trendmicro site, even showed a version of the email above. other sites are here, here and here.

although this particular email is a hoax, and that progesterex is myth, Rohypnol is very real. the National Women's Health Information Center of the US, clearly warns women about such "date rape drugs." so the threat remains.

so in order to clarify any confusion in this post, let me repeat, Rohypnol is very real, and is used as a date rape drug. so ladies, beware!

Swedish Moose Runs Off With Bicycle

yeah right!!! lies! all lies! this a mere fabrication of the americans. undoubtedly, they have committed yet another grievous atrocity, this time (gasp!) in sweden! see how they have made such falsehoods to take away our attention from their corrupt and evil ways. how long must we put with such malicious tricks? the next thing you know, they will feed us lies about golf in afghanistan as another desperate attempt to sow more propaganda about their freedom loving ways and good deeds! we are on to you americans! we see through your deception.

New senators proclaimed

i'm happy that the senate will be having fresh new faces on the floor. mar roxas, dick gordon, pia cayetano, bong revilla, alfredo lim and yes, even (sigh) even jamby madrigal and lito lapid, ought to be, and hopefully we pray, injecting renewed vitally into the senate. perhaps, this batch will be able to restore some sembleance of credibilty to the senate as well, seeing that they've bumped off some of the troublemakers seeking reelection, and maybe even neutralize the acidity of the ones left there. i also expect much from roxas and gordon in particular. their experience in the cabinet, as well as their proven work ethic, would be invaluable.

i'm also happy that many of what i perceive to be trouble makers, failed to get in, especially carlos padilla (whew!), ernesto maceda and john osmena. these guys thrive in controversy and media attention, which really doesn't help the country at all but does so much for their PR efforts.

but my excitement is tempered by the fact the there will be two estradas in the senate, and that once again we'll be dealing with miriam and enrile soon... who knows what and where they'll take their new term as senators.

considering mar roxas' performance at this election, i'm pretty sure he'll be the next president. hhhmmm... do you find any emerging pattern here? would we then expect that the next president after him be, perhaps, kris aquino?

Monday, May 24, 2004

7:00 pm

katotohanan
unang umaga'y halik
dalisa't hubad

6:35 am

halimuyak mo'y
uhaw, napapawi sa
tamis ng tinik

Too much ranting...

so little sense...

i finally did something i've been planning for weeks now. i dipped my feet into the blogosphere to find new and interesting blogs whose owner/s i may find amiable.

i first decided to look at blogs with peculiar names. yes, i know, most have. but i tried visiting blogs that had latin titles like mine first, hoping to find a kindred spirit of sorts out there (as if latin makes us!). well not really. i was more in need of a sparring partner as verlaine has wonderfully been. although there were some interesting blogs out there, they were more of publicly accessible cyber diaries. it's not that i abhor them, they're just not really the type of blogs i was initially exposed to, which were more or less editorials and running commentaries about everything, as i would like my blog to be.

then i found this blog, from the bottom up, which reminded me of what verlaine recounted about her rather successful attempt at erotica. it had great piece there, made me appreciate the genre; i do appreciate good literature if i see one.

speaking of literature, i spent some time wondering what compelled this person to put up this "language blog" bisaya101. yep, i'm not kidding. he must've been gunning for the bisayaphile niche out there.

if there were good blogs, their evil twins were around there too. i came across something that would make my "offensive" ramblings sound superhumanly charitable, like this blog here. i hope the contents of my blog doesn't go as extreme as the ones here, although we do have the same exceptional taste for templates.

i must point out, however, that i endorse none of the things contained in that site, they are in fact extremist ideas that equal that of any jihadists anywhere, and people who subscribe to such things are no better than the evil they claim to fight against, especially if they entertain thoughts of nuking whole cities to eradicate the problem. the only difference then would be that the jihadists used airplanes and car bombs, and these "good" people have nuclear technology at their side.

i must admit that i truly fear militant jihadists. they could strike anywhere, anytime. i could've been one of the victims of the rizal day bombing, if i wasn't fortunate enough to be late to take that train. so i fully support any attempt to beat the crap out of militants, but leave the innocents alone. my thirst for blood ends where the sufferings of the innocent begins. the biggest mistake that blogger committed is to view the islamic world as a monolithic society bent on killing everybody. this view is just shattered by something as simple as this blog.

Management 101

-Lesson One

An eagle was sitting on a tree - resting.. doing nothing.

A small rabbit saw the eagle and asked him, "Can I also sit like you and do nothing?"

The eagle answered, "Sure, why not?" So, the rabbit sat on the ground below the eagle and rested.

All of a sudden, a fox appeared, jumped on the rabbit and ate it.

Management Lesson:
To be sitting and doing nothing, you must be sitting very, very high up.


-Lesson Two

A Turkey was chatting with a bull, "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree; but, I havent got the energy," sighed the turkey.

"Well, why dont you nibble on some of my droppings?", replied the bull.. "They're packed with nutrients."

The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch.

Finally, on the fifth day, he found himself proudly perched at the top. There, he was promptly spotted by a farmer who shot him out of the tree.

Management Lesson:
Bullshit might get you to the top; but, it wont keep you there.


-Lesson Three

A little bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold, the bird's wings froze and he fell to the ground in a large field. While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him.

As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, it began to realize how warm it was. The dung was actually thawing him out!

The bird lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate.

Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird under the pile of cow dung and promptly dug him out and ate him.

Management Lesson:
(1) Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy.
(2) Not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend.
(3) And, when you're in deep shit its best to keep your mouth shut!

This concludes our two-minute management course 101

via Reissite Madrid's email. great new use for a genre popularly mostly to kids

Sunday, May 23, 2004

10:58 pm

cool breeze on the bed
the dream ends, eyelids open
the pc beckons

This morning...

raindrops on the roof
lightning, thunder, howling wind
lazy to wake up

Another great American conspiracy

two weeks ago, a horrific video of the beheading of the american hostage nick berg was made available by his terrorist captors over the internet. however, a prominent arab news channel questioned the authenticity of the horrific video of Berg's beheading - "suggesting it's a fake to divert attention from the Iraqi prison abuse scandal."

following this highly developed sense and art of theorizing of "conspiracies" among arabs, i may have stumbled upon yet another great american conspiracy.

it appears that just recently, a major critic of the bush administration, the american film director michael moore, won the top prize at the cannes film festival. this news is surely a blow to the bush administration, as his film would further expose the truth on "how America and the White House reacted to the September 11, 2001, hijacking attacks and the links between the Bush family and prominent Saudis, including the family of Osama bin Laden."

so in order to once again divert such negative publicity from bush, who is seeking reelection to the presidency, the white house blatantly managed to stage a biking accident for bush, who supposedly suffered "minor abrasions and scratches on his chin, upper lip, nose, right hand and both knees."

evidence of such a huge conspiracy is so obvious. the timing alone says so much. it would have taken a great deal of intelligence gathering resources to manage to create a perfect timing to coincide with moore's cannes victory. indeed, the incident bears the hallmarks of the CIA, of course, no one would doubt the hand of the CIA in orchestrating the staged accident. in exchange for his little injuries, bush will profit much.

and of course, you first learned all about this cynical conspiracy theory here, right before any your favorite arabic news channel.

Believe it or else!

will somebody tell me if that contents found therein are actually what they purport to be?

Lemme clarify...

there's a flaw in my argument, and it lies in whether minor surgery should be banned in the same manner as abortion since the probability of the surgeon botching the operation and the possibility of unexpected complications still remain like that of abortion.

for this, we should not confuse abortion with something like a Tonsillectomy. the latter is therapeutic, it seeks to remove a defective organ in the body, which may cause further complications for the individual. the former, on the other hand, seeks to destroy a distinct, living, whole and complete being, even if appears to be just a mass of fleshy tissue, and not just a defective organ peculiar to the mother. there is no therapheutic effect here, it's just plain infanticide. my arguments, here and especially in the preceeding post, simply aims to expose the fallacy behind the justifications for the legalization of abortion under the guise of safer surgery for women.

WHO official admits abortion not "safe" for women

international pro-abortion advocates often claim that only illegal abortions are unsafe. Thus, to address maternal deaths due to unsafe abortions, they argue that nations should recognize a broad right to abortion.
but recently,
Dr. Gunta Lazdane, European Regional Advisor to WHO on Reproductive Health and Research, said that, "up to 20 percent of maternal deaths are due to abortion, even in those situations where abortion is legal... there is a question whether 'safe' abortion is safe."
i have long found the pro-abortion excuse that only illegal abortions are unsafe and that legalizing it would make it safer, just plainly weird and unrealistic. i mean does making something legal necessarily make it safe? of course this perspective would stem from interpreting that argument in its narrowest sense, but even if legalizing abortion would provide for a more regulated and supervised *industry*, the risk of the death of the mother still remains. merely transferring the venue of the operation from a clandestine location to a mainstream clinic or hospital, or providing the abortionists better tools, or making sure that the abortionists have the proper training to perform their art, doesn't necessarily make them safe. the very fact that there are half-baked, malpracticing (does the word exist?) doctors out there, means that there would always be botched up operations resulting in death or permanent injury even if the operations would be so mundane and very legal like a Tonsillectomy or an Appendectomy. and even if the best surgeon happens to be the one performing a young lad's minor surgery, unseen and unpredictedable complications still have the habit of showing their ugly, unwelcome heads around to ruin the child's life. so the logic behind the pro-abortion groups' arguments is simply laughable.

now we learn that 1 in 5 women die from "safe" and legal abortions. this is a very significant number, no small number one may easily dismissively ignore. the solution for the reducing the number of maternal death from abortion will never be found in legalizing that which causes their deaths in the first place. the arguments for legalizing abortion are just counter intuitive. would a sound, reasonable person ask that crack cocaine be legalized since keeping it illegal merely encourages an addict's perpetually addictions to drugs? if you answer "heck no!, that's just plain stupid" then you basically get my point. the solution then would have to be the totally eradication of abortion, that is, making it illegal, creating the social conditions to make it unacceptable to have one, and making all possible abortion alternatives available to mothers. could this be possibly done? answer: yes! this course of action is in no way unprecedented. back in the days of the roman empire, abortions and infanticide was a common, acceptable practice. it vanished and became taboo when christianity became the prevalent faith among the romans. the church did implement the action i have described above. now if the ancient peoples were capable of doing it, couldn't we advanced, sophisticated, modern humans do better?

Saturday, May 22, 2004

My crappy keyboard:

the only thing keeping me from writing lengthily

The bishops are just interfering

i found some interesting letters (or rather emails) to the editor in the inq7 site. one letter which caught my attention was a letter from some guy in los angeles. it read:

Once more, can we ask the Catholic hierarchy to please refrain from intervening in local government affairs, especially politics? Don't they have so much to do in their own yard to make the faithful more religious rather than rebellious? Why be the first to obstruct justice in the guise of being pro-poor?

i agree wholeheartedly! the bishops should just shut up & let the powerful trample the rights of the lowly & the oppressed, the very people they are called to serve. they shouldn't be interfering with politics by doing their jobs and defending their flock against the abuses of the government and teaching them about non-violent struggle. heck, we don't want anything like a people power revolt to happen because of those meddling bishops.

oh, by the way, the 1986 thing was just a spontaneous gathering of a massive number of people who mysteriously found themselves in edsa for no reason. the bishops had no hand in it. in fact they should've remained mum about the massive electoral fraud of the 1986 snap elections, instead of issuing that pastoral letter condemning the marcos administration for cheating. now that was just plain politicking which made some military folks decide to launch a mutiny.

cardinal sin's call for the faithful to protect the mutineers from the marines to avoid bloodshed, obviously fell on deaf ears, because we all know that the filipinos hate it when their cardinal interferes in one of the most incredible moments in our history.

the cardinal plainly violated the principle of the separation of church & state when he sent nuns, priests and seminarians to pray in front of the marines' massive amphibious vehicles. the people who went there for no apparent reason may have found the scene interesting so they probably joined the nuns in front of the tanks to satisfy their curiosity. but they clearly didn't want to be involved with something called people power. anyway, the marines were there to carry out a legitimate government operation to crush a rebellion, ordered by the competent and legitimate authority. the mere presence of these church people to stop the military operation shows the contempt the church has for the laws of the land which clearly upholds the separation of church and state.

that was 18 years ago but until now these bishops are just obstinately putting their hands into the cookie jar of politics. they should just stop it.

yep, they should quit fielding in personnel for groups like the national movement for free elections, which purpotedly guards against counting fraud by doing silly quick counts. wouldn't it be better and simpler if we don't have them around? their quick count simply confuses the public. who cares if the comelec count is full of crap? the poor should just accept it as it is, because wealth & might are always right and the bishops are just interfering.

they should also abolish the pastoral council for responsible voting because we all know that educating filipino voters about their electoral rights & obligations, and guarding their ballots are just blatant violations of the principle of the separation of church and state. and we don't want that right?

in fact we should get rid of our bishops and have them replaced with spineless ones like the bishops many american catholics are complaining about. those people are so lucky to have such spineless men to govern, teach and sanctify them, yet they remain ungrateful and dissatisfied that they even setup a blog to find people like our bishops who interfere with politics, and they praise bishops who actually condemn US catholic politicians who support abortion. i mean, hasn't this gone far enough? shouldn't they just let the state do its job and allow millions of babies to be killed? isn't it the right of the state to kills its citizens?

the bishops are just interfering. they should refrain from intervening in government affairs.

Ever wondered why the Irish and Brits are at odds?

let's see now, the Brits do this, whilst the Irish do this. enlightened?

President calls again for review of blasphemy laws

Yet Maulana Fazal ur Rehman, general secretary of Muttahida Majilis-e-Amal Pakistan (MMA), an alliance of six Islamic parties, told the press in Islamabad that the alliance will not allow the government to make any changes in the Hudood Ordinance or blasphemy laws. The MMA won the third-highest number of legislative seats in the 2002 election. According to the Urdu-language daily "Khabran" in Multan, Rehman said all Islamic religious schools of thought are united on Islamic laws, "so we will defend these laws strongly."

A long road ahead for President Pervez Musharraf

Cutting edge 16th century technology

The Halberd, the multifunctional lance developed by the corps in the 16th century. The pointed end serves as a conventional lance, the curving crescent shape pulled riders off horses and the blade end dispatched the enemy once dismounted. A kind of early Swiss Army Knife, maxi size.


Friday, May 21, 2004

GHOSTS

6:01:57 - i was reading some posts on a blog, when a came across a post with only an enigmatic comment as title and the link to an article which the comment was based on.

06:02:00 - right clicked the link to open it in another window.
computer's slow, internet explorer opens slowly. site contents slowly load.

06:02:44 - started reading the article.

06:04:26 - finished it with a smile.

06:04:27 - strange whisper-like sound from direction of my window (as in the real window).

06:04:29 - focus shifted to my speakers.

06:04:30 - sound becomes ghostly chant.

06:04:31 - my speakers are haunted! i quickly stood up

06:04:32 - staring at speakers with wide opened eyes. strange, unexpected music, though choppy, still audible.

06:04:34 - looked at network connection icon. data transfer taking place. virus/worm attack discounted because of firewall. choir voices heard

06:04:36 - went back to article's window, scrolled up. found ad for this

06:04:38 - relief. heard the word "weather" from the speakers.

OPEC helpless as oil boils near highs

Analysts agree that low stocks of gasoline in the United States ahead of peak summer demand are leading prices now. But they say OPEC has helped create the conditions for an overheated market by restraining supplies so tightly that crude stocks are failing to rebuild as normal during the second quarter, the seasonal lowpoint for demand

meanwhile, at the OPEC website we read the following:

The OPEC MCs coordinate their oil production policies in order to help stabilise the oil market and to help oil producers achieve a reasonable rate of return on their investments. This policy is also designed to ensure that oil consumers continue to receive stable supplies of oil.

well they do a fine job of stabilizing oil supplies and prices for the benefit of us consumers...

on the other hand, why not get rid of OPEC? in the era where free markets are fashionable, shouldn't the oil market follow suit and get rid of a cartel?

In Philippine elections...

there are no winners and losers, just winners and victims of electoral fraud.

i think FPJ and his devilish advocates are still working with the premise that popularity=votes. being a famous movie actor whose career extends through several decades, his popularity with the masses does indeed exceed that of pgma, so there is a strong impulse on his part to actually believe and expect that popularity will bring in votes and, at least, give him an edge over pgma.

but i guess he didn't count on the many changes that could happen, one of which is the shifting attitude of the electorate as one study has suggested:

"The discussions indicated that celebrities are not necessarily preferred by poor voters and that the rich and famous do not necessarily have the edge. Neither do the educated. In fact, while many among the focus-group participants said they value educational qualifications, they were also suspicious about those with superior education."

they actually do consider other factors in making their choices. yes, it does suggest growing maturity among the electorate belonging to the poorer sectors of society. i honestly feel that instead of being thrilled at FPJ's candidacy, they may have been insulted by it, since they knew that they would've been casted as mindless fans electing him into office. i guess i finally found in this election the confirmation of the study that i was asking for in my prior post. a sign of hope indeed.

FPJ and his backers probably believed thier own propaganda and believed that the everyone would be voting according to class: the poor for FPJ, the middle and upper classes for PGMA. they probably didn't count on the phenomena of regional voting as suggested by the SWS exit poll, which shows that much of luzon voted for FPJ while much of visayas and mindanao voted for PGMA. this is supported by the study above, which also states that PGMA had massive support from the poor when she ran for vice president.

and what's the purpose of destroying the credibility of the comelec and of the namfrel? is he going to win if he berates the namfrel? the namfrel merely does a UNOFFICIAL quick count. if one wins in the namfrel count, it doesn't make him/her the president-elect. even if their allegations of trending were true, it wouldn't matter since it is unofficial, the results will never determine who goes to malacanang palace. although its results will eventually become basis for supporting or questioning the comelec's official count.

not even the comelec canvassing determines the next president. nope. it's the congress' job to declare who the president-elect would be. the funny thing is that they seem to be alone in their allegations of cheating. the philippine media, the freest in southeast asia, exposes nothing; and the Philippine Church, which has been the institutionn most vocal against such things and which has its own electoral watchdog, is silent.

what then if FPJ turns out to be the real winner in the elections? wouldn't his constant allegation of a failed election actually work against him? he couldn't be the real winner since, as he alleges, the elections were marred by fraud. and, if so, wouldn't he be the cheater?

A clash of ignorances, not of civilizations

this is a very insightful take on the israeli-palestinian conflict. the latin rite patriarch of jerusalem, Michel Sabbah (who i believe is palestinian) observes that the real deal is that the perpetual violence in israel and palestine is fueled by one's "ignorance of the other's civilization and that is why he is regarded as an enemy."

i guess this is true since much of the violence has been nourished by largely ignorant and bigoted incitement and rhetoric, which for many instances, have formed the consciences of the participants of the conflict, and fanned the fanaticism involved.

after a google search, i found some examples and reports of these, although some merely allude to their use. i labored to include equal representation for each group here, here & here from one side, and from the other, here, here & here.

there is truth to the patriarch's words. i think we should also consider this truth not only with the israeli-palestinian conflict, but also in the violence in iraq, indonesia, and others.

anyway, while trying to pick the good ones, i was pleasantly surprised to encounter this, another voice of sanity in the arab world. i hope i could see more of him out there.

hmmm... i made another reference to arabs, muslims, etc... oh well, i guess i'll be expecting the wrath of verlaine upon my blog soon... her opposition to my views on the subject, especially in my apparently constant association of islam to violence, however, is very much welcome, although i deny being an anti-muslim bigot.

Thursday, May 20, 2004

QUESTION: WHY DID THE CHICKEN CROSS THE ROAD?


KINDERGARTEN TEACHER: To get to the other side.

PLATO: For the greater good.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross roads. To actualize
its potential.

KARL MARX: It was a historical inevitability.

CAPTAIN JAMES T. KIRK: To boldly go where no chicken has gone before.

SADDAM HUSSEIN: This was an unprovoked act of rebellion. We were
justified in dropping 50 tons of nerve gas on it.

JOHN LENNON: Imagine there is no chicken, it's easy if you try...

HIPPOCRATES: Because of an excess of phlegm in its pancreas.

NEIL ARMSTRONG: "That's one small crossing for a chicken, one giant
leap for chicken-kind."

GOETHE: Es irrt das Huhn, solang es die Stra?e übergeht.

HAMLET: To cross, or not to cross, that is the question: -Whether 'tis nobler in the mind, to suffer; The slings and arrows of outrageous side; Or to take arms against a road of troubles,

DAVID COPPERFIELD: I made the chicken disappear and reappear on the
other side.

ISAAC NEWTON: Chickens at rest tend to stay at rest. Chickens in motion tend to cross the road.

KARL POPPER: To disprove the hypothesis that chickens could not cross roads.

DARTH VADER: To get to the Dark Side.

OPRAH WINFREY: He was reacting to a repressed traumatic caponisation in his childhood which he will now share with us in detail.

ARTHUR, KING OF BRITONS: To seek the Holy Grail.

IMMANUEL KANT: The chicken, being an autonomous being, chose to cross the road of his own free will.

OBI-WAN KENOBI: Because the force was with it.

LUDWIG VON BEETHOVEN: What? Speak up.

JOHN LOCKE: Because he was exercising his natural right to liberty.

GREGOR MENDEL: To get various strains of roads.

NIETZSCHE: Because if you gaze too long across the Road, the Road gazes also across you.

GEORGE ORWELL:Because the government had fooled him into thinking that he was crossing the road of his own free will, when he was really only serving their interests.

THE POPE: That is only for God to know

RASTAFARIAN: There were grass on the other side mon.

SAPPHO: Due to the loveliness of the hen on the other side, more fair
than all of Hellas' fine armies.

JEAN PAUL SARTRE: In order to act in good faith and be true to itself, the chicken found it necessary to cross the road.

OJ SIMPSON: You'd run too, if you had just killed two people and tried to frame an inoccent man

BF SKINNER: The external influences which had pervaded its sensorium
from birth caused it to develop in such a fashion that it would be driven to cross roads, even while believing these actions to be of its own free will.

STALIN: I don't care. Catch it. I need its eggs to make my omlette.

MAE WEST: I invited it to come up and see me sometime.

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: I envision a world where all chickens will be free to cross roads without having their motives called into
question.

LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN: The possibility of "crossing" was encoded into the objects "chicken" and "road," and circumstances came into being which caused the actualization of this potential occurrence.

FOX MULDER: You saw it cross the road with your own eyes. How many more chickens have to cross the road before you believe it?

DANA SCULLY: It was a simply bio-mechanical reflex that is commonly
found in chickens

ZENO: To prove it could never reach the other side.

RICHARD NIXON: The chicken did not cross the road. I repeat, the
chicken did NOT cross the road.

RENE DESCARTES: It had sufficient reason to believe it was dreaming
anyway.

CHARLES DICKENS: Tis a far, far better road than chicken has e'er
crossed before.

EMILY DICKENSON: Because it could not stop for death.

MACHIAVELLI: The point is that the chicken crossed the road. Who cares why? The end of crossing the road justifies whatever motive there was.

SIGMUND FREUD: The fact that you are at all concerned that the chicken crossed the road reveals your underlying sexual insecurity.

SHERLOCK HOLMES: It was running to catch the Edinburgh train at
Victoria Station at 3:15, my dear Watson. Observe the patina of dust on the dropped feathers, bespeaking long hours in a library, surely reading about Scotland. Remark the Baker Street boys' report that it was humming "Bonnie Lassie" while waiting to cross. Note the ticket stub marked Edinburgh. Of course, we both know the only train to Edinburgh leaves at 3:15 from Victoria...

DAVID HUME: Out of custom and habit.

CARL JUNG: The confluence of events in the cultural gestalt necessitated that individual chickens cross roads at this historical juncture, and therefore synchronicitously brought such occurrences into being.

DR. SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes! The chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed, I've not been told!

BARBARA WALTERS: Isn't that interesting? In a few moments we will be
listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heartwarming story of how it overcame a serious case of molting and went on to accomplish its lifelong dream of crossing the road.

VOLTAIRE: I may not agree with what the chicken did, but I will defend to the death its right to do it.

JACK NICHOLSON: 'Cause it (CENSORED) wanted to. That's the (CENSORED)reason.

TS ELIOT: Weialala leia / Wallala leialala.

LEDA: Leda: Are you sure it wasn't Zeus dressed as a chicken? He's into that kind of thing, you know.

JOHN MILTON: To justify the ways of God to men.

THE SPHINX: You tell me.

JULIUS CAESAR: To come, to see, to conquer. It came, it saw, it
conquered.

ALBERT CAMUS: It doesn't matter; the chicken's actions have no meaning except to him.

JACQUES DERRIDA: What is the *difference*? The chicken was merely
deferring from one side of the road to other. And how do we get the idea of the chicken in the first place? Does it exist outside of language?

BILL GATES: I will soon release the new Chicken Office 2002, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your checkbook.

OLIVER STONE: The question is not, "Why did the chicken cross the
road?" Rather, it is, "Who was crossing the road at the same time, whom we overlooked in our haste to observe the chicken crossing?"

CHARLES DARWIN: Chickens, over great periods of time, have been
naturally selected and evolved over time in such a way that they are now genetically endowed with the capabilities required to cross roads.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road moved beneath the chicken depends upon your frame of reference.

BUDDHA: Asking

EPICURUS: For fun.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON: The chicken did not cross the road. It transcended it.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY: To die. In the rain.

ROBERT FROST: To cross the road less traveled by.

BILL CLINTON : I did not, repeat, did not have sexual relations with
the chicken.

ERAP: Ang media ang may kasalanan diyan!

MIRIAM DEFENSOR-SANTIAGO : " Aha! I know it! That chicken crossed the road to provoke me. I move to permanently hold in contempt that chicken. I request for a restraining order, your honor, so that the chicken would not be able to cross the road again!"

RAMON REVILLA: "I concur, your honor. You see, may timbangan ako ng
manok sa bahay. Doon ko nga nalaman na 96 grams ang 1000 na bills ng 1000 pesos to make 1 million pesos. See 96 grams? 96 grams talaga! Malapit yun sa isang kilo...eh sa 96 grams talaga eh...Pero huwag nyo akong tanungin kung ilang kilo ang manok na nagcross ng road.


(from an email my friend sent me)

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

DLSU & THE FORD FOUNDATION

after writing and publishing the post below, i decided to make a short visit at de la salle university's (dlsu) website just to check out what's new. after waiting for the flash components to load, something caught my attention: THE FORD FOUNDATION (TFF). it rang a bell. i thought i've read some bloggers discussing FORD FOUNDATION for reasons i couldn't remember. so i did a google search and i came up with some sites here, here and here.

it seems the foundation has been supporting pro-abortion groups, especially the pseudo-Catholic group *Catholics For Free Choice* (CFFC). having this background and reputation, i find dlsu's acceptance of a grant from the foundation very suspicious, if not totally surprising. in fact i think dlsu was the one that initiated everything. the foundation by nature is passive. it doesnt prowl the world looking for people, organizations and projects to fund. it simply stays put and let's them apply for the grant. then the move, the application for the grant most probably was initiated by dlsu. one then may ask why ford foundation? there are other foreign and local foundations out there. was dlsu aware of the foundation's pro-abortion stance?

but i could be wrong. perhaps the foundation may have initiated the contact. i'm not sure. i'm not familiar with the circumstances. but i'm troubled with the message this relationship sends. it is good that they get to help people, but what are the nuances behind this help?

reading further into dlsu's newsletter, i found that the relationship has been around since 1993. when i saw this, i thought i jumped into conclusions again and that dlsu and tff may have had this relationship prior to tff's support of cffc. it turned out that tff supported cffc prior to dlsu. so the suspicion remains.

and check this out *The Health Social Science Graduate Program of the Behavioral Sciences Department has been a TFF beneficiary since its inception in 1993. In the past decade, students of the program from outside Metro Manila benefitted from more than US$1 million worth of TFF scholarships... The 14-month graduate training course aims to impart a holistic understanding of the cultural and social dimensions of health research, health program design, implementation and evaluation and also instill sensitivity to gender issues.* this really bothers me. now let's see... the foundation supports abortion groups. abortion is considered a health/medical issue. now the foundation supports dlsu's medical graduate program. it's up to you to connect the dots. but i say that a conflict of interests exists here.

i'm not sure if dlsu is doing the *take the money and run* strategy, that is, to take the money without turning its back to the principles on life that the worldwide institution its claims to represent and serve upholds. even if that is the case, dlsu's actions would be still be morally objectionable.

plus, the very fact that tff grants money, it puts itself in a position to pressure the university or at least persuade it to take up a stand which may not be in totally violative of the church's teachings but still tolerant of the anti-life policies of ford foundation. and the pressure would not be on the university alone but also on the beneficiaries of the fund. this would not be fair to students, especially when the organization funding their studies might lead them to consider abortion as a medical good in their studies.

i wanted to be fair, so i tried to understand what ford foundation is all about, particularly its policies and positions, especially regarding life issues. but i couldn't find it in its website. although it states its fundamental mission, it is silent on other issues, issues like abortion.

something's wrong indeed. but then again, i'm not that fond of dlsu. i never actually felt at home within its walls. my friends could attest to that. but i am pro-life, and when i see the ugly head of pro-abortion groups popping out, i'm gonna scream bloody hell at them. but i doubt dlsu will listen. too much money at stake you see, and dlsu knows how to set its priorities.

And there it was...

i was watching an old episode of will & grace at ETC. one of the scenes took place in the bathroom, grace was in the bath tub hidden under so much bubbles, and will comes in to apologize for something. they were so into a dramatic scene, then i saw something at the upper edge of the tv screen. there it was... the tip of the overhead microphone. that's it.

BEFORE I CAME TO COLLEGE I WISH I HAD KNOWN...

- that it didn't matter how late I scheduled my first
class coz I'd sleep right through it.

- that I would change so much and barely realize it.

- that you can love a lot of people in a lot of
different ways.

- that every clock on campus shows a different time.

- that if you were smart and popular in highschool -
so what?

- that I would go to a party the night before a final.

- that you can know everything and fail a test.

- that you can know nothing and ace a test.

- that I could get used to almost anything I found out about my roomie.

- that home is a great place to visit.

- that most of my education would be obtained outside my classes.

- that friendship is more than getting drunk together.

- that I would be one of those people my parents warned me about.

- that Sunday is a figment of the world's imagination.

- that psychology is really biology, biology is really chemistry, chemistry is really physics, and physics is really math.

- that it is a really good idea to go places alone.

- that it's possible to be alone even when you're surrounded by friends.

- that friends are what makes this place worthwhile!

- don't be dismayed at goodbyes.

- a farewell is necessary before we can meet again, and meeting again, after moments or a lifetime, is certain for those who are friends


i got it from an email my friend sent me last year. i find many of the items hilariously true.

To my fellow Bosconians

Do you still have your diaries with you? I mean all the diaries you had since you started schooling in Don Bosco? If not, why didn't you keep them?

I've kept all my diaries, from Prep to Senior year high school. In fact, I still use one of them, my diary from my junior year in high school. I use it primarily as a paperweight. But once in a while, I find other uses for it, especially when I need to know conversion factors, time conversions, or domestic zip codes. Yes, it is still practical and useful.

Once in a while I also look at the morning prayers (but don't pray them). Are you aware that morning prayers 3 to 5 are actually simplified, chopped-down versions of the Lauds, the official morning prayer of the entire Church? In other words, we have unknowingly prayed the Divine Office when we chanted alternately the psalms in choir. Didn't you have fun shouting your part of the psalm against the other half of the assembly?

I find it funny to reminisce with my diaries. The first entry or rather remark in my Prep diary was made by my adviser, Ms. Diaz on June 17th 1987. It says: "nameplates given today" [hehehehe]. After that comes the repetitive entries: "see N-7, practice writing, hear Mass on Sunday." My 4th year diary is a lot more complex. Among the entries in the latter pages of that diary were lists of customers and the items they paid for: "Ibarle - P70 - suspender, assault pack; Masangkay - P220 - mess kit." KAKA wasn't the only one making money in the corps [hehehehe]. If LtSG. Trillanes and his gang knew of this, they would probably have staged their mutiny in DBTI [hehehehe]!

The diary is perhaps the most important paraphernalia for the Bosconian. We don't go anywhere without it. From the classroom, to the gym or pool or even outside the campus, it is as essential part of us as our own uniform. Much like an ID card, we used the diary to borrow stuff, to make use of school facilities or simply to gain entry to sensitive areas. But the diary, as utilized in DBTI, basically made IDs redundant and useless. We were issued IDs, [we had to get our photos taken for it remember?] but we really never got to the point of really using them, or even bringing them, have we?

In college, the ID gave us access to university facilities and the right to borrow stuff. But it wasn't as useful as the diary. It couldn't make things like prayers, the student handbook, maps, conversion tables, world time conversions, time zones and tables, calendars (especially the perpetual calendar), useful bits of trivia, and other stuff, available for us anywhere, anytime. Plus the ID, being smaller, tends to be an item that's easily misplaced or forgotten. I think I have experienced forgetting my diary at home. I just don't remember how, when and what happened because of it. But I have never lost one. I still have them all here.

In DLSU, there's something similar to the Diary: the student planner. It's of bigger than the diary, but there's not enough inside to make it interesting. Plus you can't borrow stuff with it. You can't pray with it. Nor try to find conversion factors for that simple equation that escaped your head momentarily. 'Twas just a waste of paper! I pity those trees…

Of course, who would forget the fact that the authorities would impose their authority upon us through diary? The diary was also a sign of their domination over us. The remarks area where our parents would be forced to monitor our conduct and performance in school was much feared. I'm sure many of us tried to make our parents sign our diaries without them looking [hehehehe]!

You might ask me: "you ninny, what sort of stupidity crept in your head this time for you to extol the virtues of that damn diary? Don't you have anything more important to do?" Well, Frankly I don't. I just have a nagging pain in my nape that "inspired" me to stay up at 3 am to write. Yes, it is debilitating, but it can be freakishly inspiring as well. Anyway, I told myself, who's going to read this? I certainly don't read the entire posts, especially ones with the uninteresting headings… So I'm fairly confident that nobody will read this at all. And if they do, they would probably lose their interest in this reflection while reading the first paragraph [hehehehe].

RP polls a model for Afghanistan elections

finally, a foreigner who appreciates our electoral process and culture. but he notes that in Afghanistan, if the president is dancing to music, he would not be able to attract votes. they really live a strange culture, they would rather stick to debating issues than go dancing in their campaigns. i guess they have to, since they don't have the Viva Hot Babes or the Sexbomb Dancers to enunciate the real, important issues of the times for them. it really shows how advanced we are.

Lacson: if GMA wins, so be it

if Lacson meant it, then it would radically change my impression of him. it would perhaps even make his staunchest supporter i know less annoying. but i don't think this would be the last time we hear of Lacson. as the article suggests, he'll still be a big headache for the president. i doubt he'll have a real reconciliation with her, since he would continue his *fight against graft and corruption*, of course graft and corruption could mean *anything* like, let's say, a front and reason to malign and destroy somebody's name. of course, he doesn't have to do it himself, he could have his political adviser bark out what he really means. i don't know. i hope he's sincere and would be really to accept the hand of reconciliation the president offered him. we'll see...

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Fun stuff

i found some links to some particularly enjoyable flash animation sites, via jeff miller, here and here. i would also love to recommend the life of maritess with some of her american friends.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

A great man, Karol Jósef Wojtyla, celebrates his birthday today. you may send him your birthday greetings through email.

A reader reacts

an anonymous reader reacts to the my use of the term jihadist.

it's not jihadists but mujahideens. thought you might wanna know these terms.


i'm familiar with the term mujahideen. i simply chose to use jihadist instead of it. of course this leads one to ask if the word itself exists. a quick google search of the word gives 22600 results, confirming that i'm not alone in the usage.

it seems the term has some political connotations (similar to islamists as opposed to islamic) and may have been coined to reflect these.

i also prefer this term over mujahideen since i don't want to recognize its so-called *holy* attribute, since it simply isn't holy.

Sunday, May 16, 2004

If the PNP gets one of these...

then i'll join them. it would be the coolest reason for being a cop. i doubt however that the PNP will ever get one of those.

Tuloy.org

this is another reason why i'm proud of being a bosconian.

if you guys want to make a difference in the lives of many unfortunate kids... or if you simply have all the time in the world and in need of something worthwhile to do, you could join the Volunteer Enrichment Program of Tuloy and be part of a very enriching experience. i highly recommend it. it's fun and highly *rewarding* (i'm applying a very loose definition of the word in case you expect big rewards). i volunteered for a period of about a year. it started out as my fulfillment of my Community Service requirement in school, but i liked the work so much that i stayed on for beyond my required 16-hour program. if you're curious why i liked it and stayed on, then try it for yourselves.

I stand corrected, but...

verlaine from ephemeral state reacts to the lapses she detected in my post below. she contends against some of my opinions on several points. i appreciate the time and effort she took to rebutt some of my opinions. let me therefore take this opportunity to clarify and rectify some of the statements i made:

I) on the matter of terminologies applied to jihad, she rightly points out that *there is only kinds of jihad. not levels. it's the smaller jihad and the greater jihad.* the jihad against the individual muslim's self is referred to as the greated jihad and the war is the smaller jihad. on this matter i stand corrected.

II) she also questioned the fairness of the following statement i made:

i really doubt the sincerity of the statements made by some muslims that condemn terroristic acts, it simply doesn't fit the precedent patterns of islamic expansion where violence against non-muslim civilians are tolerated.

here is her response:

now, now. base on whose interpretation of right and wrong is this particular post associated to? and violence against non-mulsims? the moors occupied spain for 500 years, has history stated any inhuman acts committed during this period? many, that's my educated guess... so what particular actions against non-muslims are being tolerated by the muslim world?

with regards to this issue, i admit that a) i failed to clarify that the *precendent patterns* i refer to were the islamic conquests of christian lands in the middle ages, and b) i failed to provide documentary evidence in my original post. to rectify this, let me quote Thomas F. Madden, associate professor and chair of the Department of History at Saint Louis University, who authored an article on this issue published in Crisis Magazine, which basically forms many of the premises of my arguments, premises which i may have failed to disclose. i suggest that the reader reads the entire article for a deeper understanding of my views:

Christians in the eleventh century were not paranoid fanatics. Muslims really were gunning for them. While Muslims can be peaceful, Islam was born in war and grew the same way. From the time of Mohammed, the means of Muslim expansion was always the sword. Muslim thought divides the world into two spheres, the Abode of Islam and the Abode of War. Christianity—and for that matter any other non-Muslim religion—has no abode. Christians and Jews can be tolerated within a Muslim state under Muslim rule. But, in traditional Islam, Christian and Jewish states must be destroyed and their lands conquered. When Mohammed was waging war against Mecca in the seventh century, Christianity was the dominant religion of power and wealth. As the faith of the Roman Empire, it spanned the entire Mediterranean, including the Middle East, where it was born. The Christian world, therefore, was a prime target for the earliest caliphs, and it would remain so for Muslim leaders for the next thousand years. With enormous energy, the warriors of Islam struck out against the Christians shortly after Mohammed’s death. They were extremely successful. Palestine, Syria, and Egypt—once the most heavily Christian areas in the world—quickly succumbed. By the eighth century, Muslim armies had conquered all of Christian North Africa and Spain. In the eleventh century, the Seljuk Turks conquered Asia Minor (modern Turkey), which had been Christian since the time of St. Paul. The old Roman Empire, known to modern historians as the Byzantine Empire, was reduced to little more than Greece. In desperation, the emperor in Constantinople sent word to the Christians of western Europe asking them to aid their brothers and sisters in the East.

war is undoubtedly violent, and even in the era of smart weapons, civilians are caught up in war. now let us consider that the those wars, especially in those days, were particuarly violent and they took place in the absence of any international convention governing the rules of war as we have now (i am unaware of any back then), i would pretty much surmise that violence was indeed inflicted upon civilians, and in this case, non-muslim civilians with the aim of converting them to islam.

i leave it to the reader to decide if i was fair in this regard. and so in the spirit of fairness and full disclosure, let me say the war was not the only cause of the rapid expansion of islam, for example, it spread in south and southeast asia through the evangelization efforts of arab traders and missionaries. but my focus however in all about jihad, particularly the minor jihad.

III) on the paragraph, which for the sake of brevity, starts with these words:

although this is highly speculative and i haven't heard of any muslim teaching this...

she asks:

and where is this speculation based on?

my answer: it is purely a product of my own personal speculation. i admit that i do not hold any evidence on this issue, and i am not aware of anybody else who has made the same observations or holds the same opinion. in my post, however, i have emphasized the fact that is purely a product of speculations on my part.

IV) on the following statement i made:

anyway, i think people should overcome their hang-ups with the crusades and really seriously consider the prospect of another crusade in this age.

she declares:

another crusade??? doubt that... g8 would be busy disarming countries with nukes. but it sounds inevitable if religious hatred breeds more religious hatred.

my answer: i'm not promoting any form of religious hatred. thus let me declare that i am in no way advocating or promoting violence against individual muslims. i am however against violence being used a means to promote or advance an ideology or religion. such things ought to be proposed and not imposed on an individual or groups of people.

on a personal note, i do have relatives who have converted to islam. i love and respect them and certainly do not wish any harm to befall on them simply because of the religion they accepted and hold on to.

V)on the following statement in my post:

but then again, after cosidering my own conflicting views, i maybe wrong. in the philippine scenario, muslim groups have been doing their own brand of jihad for years, even during colonial times, and we've managed to survive even when our forefathers didn't call for our own crusade.

she replied:

well, francis, people manage to co-exist.

my answer: although i do believe that communities possessing different traditions, religions and culture may co-exist in harmony and that i hope that such things can be present everywhere, my statement above was not about that. i grievously failed to reveal the context of that statement. in philippine history, the moros, who were muslims, were not under spanish colonial rule. they, however, managed to keep themselves free of colonial rule by frequently launching offensives against christian settlements. this is evidenced by the fact that seaside towns usually had highly fortified churches to guard against muslim pirates who raided them. on the whole, as what i've learned in my freshman history class, although military forces were totally unable to defeat these pirates because of inferior sea vessels (the moro's vessel were actually superior to spanish made vessels in terms of speed), lack of military supplies, and corruption within the ranks (there was actual collusion between some spaniards and moros), they nevertheless prevented total destruction of christian settlements. so christians and moros, for a long time, were not *co-existing* peacefully. this came about only through the intervention of the americans who crushed the defiance of the muslim south and united mindanao into what is now the present republic.

to conclude, let me stress again my total opposition to any form of violence for the sake of advancing or promoting anything. i therefore do not promote nor condone violence against muslims, or of any person of any creed or race.

the point that i wish to point out is that certain elements of islam (*rotten tomatoes* as verlaine put it) are bent on the destruction of non-muslims for the sake of the another worldwide expansion of islam. these people are promoting and spearheading their own form of jihad which patterns itself to the jihad of the middle ages which wiped out the christrian civilization from the middle east. such being the case jihadists worldwide constitute an imminent threat, therefore a modern version of the crusades may be necessary to ensure the survival of the christian world. as the articles i've cited in the previous post and this one, the crusades were largely a defensive (and should always remain defensive in nature) reaction to an iminent threat to the very existence of a medieval christian civilization.

let me also point out it was not my to pretend to be an expert in islamic tradition nor was it my intention to misrepresent islamic doctrine. i will my best in my succeeding posting to include documentary evidence to my allegations. although let me also stress that this is after all 'blog, and the statements i make here are purely personal and never does claim to speak on behalf of other people. there. now, like before, my comment boxes are available for further reactions.