Mark Twain and naked people.

Mark Twain is given credit for saying: "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."

Well, I think that may be true but let's face it, naked people have a massive effect future generations and societies.

Those who camp, suck.

Are you the type of person who really enjoys nature? Do you like to go camping? Well then, I'm not really sure you have a good idea of what nature is actually all about.

You know about natural selection -- and you were taught about the food chain (animals eating animals) back when you were a kid. My question is, as a caring human being, why aren't you disgusted by it all?

For example, let's take this beautiful idea of the "circle of life" -- animals killing and eating other animals out in nature. (And this activity only happens about a zillion times a day on this planet by the way.) Countless animals, many of them sentient creatures with the ability to feel real fright and with nerve endings able to produce massive amounts of genuine pain, are hunted down, terrorized and eaten alive.

There you go, take a few moments now to mediate on the horrible, terrorizing, painful demise those furry little guys are experiencing.

So the next time your neighbor tells you he's taking the family camping to experience the glory of nature, just say, "Oh, yeah? Well have fun -- you twisted, demented fuck!!"

Cheers! It's a new start!

You've heard it before: "Today is the first day of the rest of your life." And it's really just so true when you think about it. So don't feel bad about going out there and getting drunk as all heck today. Just consider it a big kick-off event/celebration!

Antigeneticism

If you care tremendously about who specifically your ancestors were, you may allow that to define you as a person to some extent. And if then, for whatever reason, I happen to not like you as a person I indirectly then judge negatively the person you've become because of who your ancestors were.

If, however, you don't really care that much about who your ancestors were, you will define yourself and become the person you become independent of who your ancestors were. In that case I will like or dislike you entirely without any correlation to who your ancestors were.

So I say, for all those folks involved, let's not get too hung up on dead people with whom we share a few genes.

Do NOT drink wine while cooking.

My friends, please learn from my mistake. Drinking wine, even a little bit, while preparing dinner for your kids on a Friday night is a very bad idea.

Case in point: last night while attempting to preheat the oven to 400 degrees for frozen pizza I accidently pushed the "0" button one extra time, making it 4000, and when I went to put it in the oven both the pizza and my right hand incinerated instantly.

Do you think you have free will? You do not.

Do you think you have free will? You do not.

Oh now don't start getting all indignant on me. Just settle down and let me ask you a question. If you had been alive back before the civil war, born a son or daughter to a wealthy slave owner in the South, would you have gone along with the program, or would you have said: "No! Slavery is wrong. You can stick your legacy where the sun don't shine Dad. I'm moving to the North!"

Please have the intellectual honesty to say you likely would have become a slave owner too.

And don't be all sad now. Just because you realize you have no free will doesn't mean you can't become more enlightened. In fact, you just did!

Natural Intelligence?

Wouldn't you agree that Nature as a whole is more intelligent than the collective human consciousness? Of course you would. So if there really is no God, why do we see praying mantises?