Another Job I probably would not do

These guys must have ice in their veins. I wonder what they do in the event of an emergency or if they need a bathroom break. The strange thing is I can't find any evidence that this type of work is highly paid. Seems to be around 50k a year at best.

Wikileaks

This stuff is all interesting but where is the good stuff. I mean like whats in area 51? Were the moon landings faked? Who really shot JFK? Nobody outside of news geeks, anarchist and government officials care about this stuff. Not that they shouldn't care but they don't.

Whats wrong with Tradition?

Why does every traditional story have to be updated and retold in a contemporary light? Now we have the Nutcracker 3D. You know the original story was just not good enough. Last night I turned on the TV, which I am doing less and less these days, and up popped "Shrek the Halls" and before I could change the channel my son saw it and wanted to watch. I think I am getting old. I don't want to see a Shrek Christmas special. From what I read about the Nutcracker it seems like it may have a shot at beating Troll 2 for worst movie ever. Then there is the Rapunzel movie. I'm not sure how many more fairy tale movies with rock and roll soundtracks I can take without becoming nauseous. Its not that I dislike the genre but its a little too much of a good thing. Will future generations remember the original stories? I hope so. I kinda think they will. By making stories contemporary they become fads and lose the timeless quality. It probably doesn't hurt to put a contemporary spin on old stories now and then. Shrek, a good movie by the way, is entertainment. Stories like Pinocchio, Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, Hansel and Gretel, and The Three Little Pigs are morality tales told and retold for hundreds of years.

In support of Hillary

Everyone seems to be dissing Hillary Clinton for ordering State Department employees to do spy stuff. As best I understand it the rationale is that the state department are not spies and asking them to act as spies endangers their diplomatic status. I would bet the diplomats from most other countries do the same thing, they just don't have it leaked to the press. In many other countries the leaker would have woken up dead one morning.

I never liked the Clintons, never voted for the Clintons. I even voted for Dole for Christ's sake. But in my minor unimportant opinion, Hillary was having the state department do what it should have been doing. Its just that no one should have found out about it. Its what the Clinton's are good at. Finding dirt on the opposition, leverage. Remember the missing FBI files? Now granted Hillary was likely looking for stuff for personal gain as well that could be used to generate generous donations to the Clinton library but at least she was taking the initiative and we don't need a sunday school teacher as secretary of state, we need a shark.

TSA Big Brother Plot?

So, are the recent changes to the TSA pat down procedures part of some evil master plan to dehumanize the population and get people used to baring all for the government when requested? I think this is more the effect than the design. It may be Big Sis's dream but I don't think Obama is sitting up nights thinking of ways to do humiliate people. The Democrats in general are less opposed to nanny statism than Republicans although not by much. I think the real goal of Obama is to be a one term president without much bad happening. Terrorism on a large scale would not be a good thing for him and given the people around him I don't doubt he feels this is the best way to prevent this. The reason I think Obama wants to be a one termer is because being an ex-president is a pretty good job. You get to do the things that Obama is good at, giving speeches, raising money, writing and selling books. Most of all you get to make a lot of money. Especially if you are Obama. Imagine Al Gore times 10. Al Gore is a very wealthy man, a lot of it comming after leaving office as vice president. He sits on the boards of several companies and received a lot of stock from companies such as Google and Apple. According to various sources his net worth prior to the 2000 election was around $1 million dollars and now is around $100 million. Al Gore is no Barak Obama. Al Gore may have briefly been a rockstar after leaving office, but he is Pat Boone and Barak is Elvis. So if Barak can become an ex-president in 2012 he stands to make a crap load of money. He can also take over the Jimmy Carter role, he can be the advisor, the wise one, the elder statesman that everyone listens to. He may also seek a higher office such as secretary general of the UN, a position with all the prestige and little of the risks associated with being POTUS. The catch is that he needs to come out unscathed. Being President these days is a mine field with a lot that can go wrong and very little that can go right. He needs to get out before the wheels come off in a way that can be directly attributed to him. So if you are Obama do you really want to win in 2012 and have 4 more years trying to avoid disaster? I'm not saying he will throw the towel in or tank an election but given the circumstances why not push the most liberal agenda possible and be perceived to go down fighting?

Anyway, I've gotten off track. Obama is not allowing Big Sis to push mass humiliation as a policy to prep people for the big brother government of the future, he is just doing what he thinks is best to get to 2012 without an incident that would endanger the most important thing, his legacy.

Do Atheist Ever get Possessed?

Saw this this morning on Drudge and it occurred to me, when is the last time you heard of an avowed atheist being possessed? Seems like it happens more to religious people and people who believe in the occult than those who don't think there is a god. And I think that being an atheist would also mean you don't believe in any sort of magic so I don't think that Wiccans can be called atheists. Sure atheists may get depressed from time to time about there being no afterlife but we don't get processed. We may wander in search of a greater meaning for our lives but we don't get possessed. We might have a moment of terror in the last seconds of our lives worrying that we were wrong but still we don't get possessed.

Atheist Employment Opportunities

Always looking for job opportunities, I found this site. Being an atheist myself, or at least an agnostic I wonder if they have an opening. I have severe pet allergies but then again if I am forced to honor the contract at some point I guess that will be the least of my worries. I wonder if agnosticism is sufficient or do you have to be a full fledged atheist to qualify for a position with this organization?