Sophistry's delight

I'm not sure if I am capable of a relationship. It is something that I am loathe to actually think about. I've certainly had ample opportunity. And life is what you make of your circumstances. I am significantly disadvantaged compared to people I have known. I am also significantly advantaged compared to people I have known. I have had ample opportunity. I could have. And yet I never did. God provides the opportunity, but it is up to you to take it, to accept it. I'm not sure why I never accepted it. I'm not a homosexual. I could see myself in certain circumstances becoming one. It would be too easy, scarily easy. But I simply do not intellectually accept it for myself. I don't even really think that it is a legitimate aspect of people, ie people are not really born this way. People are born as they are, but it is up to them to make of it what they will. It is a choice, either way. And you can respect other's choices or your own choices. The shame an

Today is December 24th. I went to church today at the Unitarian Universalists. I have not thought about religion for a long while. My current position on religion is basically the same as the Alt-Right. It is something that I had been developing for far longer than the alt-right has been active. That is: Christianity is a cultural vessel of European culture. Religion is a language in which people pour their spirit and desire. Religion takes this impulse and it shapes it in certain directions. Likewise, Islam is a cultural vessel of Middle Eastern culture. And there is such a thing as Islamic nationalism going on, and it is a negative force in the world inspiring scores of terrorist attacks. It was this issue which made me decisively break with the Left, as they were taking Islam at face value and accepting their claims as absolute truth without any skepticism. Skepticism which they did apply to Christianity. What I really think is going on is a deranged elite centered in Wash

It appears that Ta-Nehasi Coates ragequit Twitter after being burned some by Cornell West . I am aware of Coates' writing. It has genuinely disturbed me. I view his elevation by The Atlantic Monthly to be a profoundly irresponsible choice which has harmed the social fabric of America. The Atlantic Monthly is edited by Jeff Goldberg, who is a Jew. Goldberg has said in interviews that he was picked on by white Italians and it was blacks who saved him. I doubt it. In my experiences with blacks, they are not noble savages in the least. They pick on the weak and they respect the strong. They are just like everyone else. I myself have interacted with Coates. I found him to be short-tempered. Worse were his fanbase, who were cult-like. They called themselves "The Horde." That alone is a sign of their moral debasement. The Horde might be an aesthetic choice that is appealing to some in a fantasy universe, but when it comes down to it, the Horde is a destructive force tha

I really don't mean to give them attention, as that is what they want. I don't particularly have any animus towards people who think that they are the wrong gender. This isn't something that I'm eager to really engage in. You are defined by your friends and your enemies. Having trans people as enemies is like being an enemy with a homeless person. They're so far beneath that it is punching down. That is the truth. No one really believes in their crap. But no one really wants to engage in it. So they just play along. What irritates me is when the activism starts to enter the political and cultural realm which affects everyone. So no, I don't want it in the schools. I don't want it in the culture at all because glorifying it and portraying it in a positive light will encourage vulnerable and impressionable young people to pursue it. I also get the feeling that I'm being gas-lit whenever trans activism comes up. I feel like a fast one is being pulled ov

The Last Jedi is coming out this weekend and so I tried to rewatch the Force Awakens. I saw the Force Awakens in the theater and it was okay I thought, kind of by the numbers. It made me miss George Lucas's whimsical side. I'm a little weird in that I think that the Phantom Menace was the best of the prequel films. I thought that the last two were some of the worst films ever made. The reason is that the Phantom Menace has soul that the last two do not. The last two get serious. But George really is a softie at heart. He's not so good at messed up stuff. Yes, people hated Jar Jar. Jar Jar is not my favorite character, but he doesn't particularly bother me either. He is a non-entity to me in the films. Just an odd creature in the universe. Finn, oddly enough, is far more jarring to me because his character is so badly acted. He goes from being traumatized by a fellow soldier's death to wholescale killing his own in the tie fighter. Something isn't quite

Last year, on Election Day, I remember it quite vividly. I was doing ride sharing that evening. One passenger I picked up talked about the election. I may be amalgamating them, but bear with me. He said that if you're starving, you pick whoever may help you, even if it may lead to war. Anything to prevent starvation. Then he said, "I'm going to watch Hilary win," as I dropped him off. I took the night off as well. I opened up my laptop and turned on the New York Times. And I watched in horror as the needle moved steadily left. Or was it right? I voted for Hillary. Well, in actuality, I voted for Jill Stein on my ballot, but that was because I traded my vote for Stein in West Virginia for a vote for Hillary in Colorado. Clever. She won Colorado too, if I recall, so my part of the gambit worked. You could even argue it was the move of a super-Hillary supporter who very much did not want Trump to win. I did not want Trump to win. My dislike of Trump is very v