The Cult of Wal*Mart.

So after adding a personalized message to a petition to keep Wal*Mart out of New York, it struck me. I think people may, whether they want to admit it or not, WORSHIP Wal*Mart! I mean, how else do you explain why people will try to defend the biggest sweatshop corporation in the world? They can get away with it because Wal*Mart has everything people are looking for, and all at a low price! People don't understand the economics behind it. They don't see the sweatshops in China, the wage slaves in the U.S., and the amount of discrimination that happens in some of their stores. All they see is they're getting what they want cheaper at Wal*Mart. And even if you told them, they either wouldn't believe you, or they wouldn't care. I should know. My family is one of those families that worship Wal*Mart. And it bugs me.

In response to this, I felt inspired to create my own, home-brewed website to hang a lampshade over how much people worship the corporation. Well, people have already made sites. Plain text and stuff, nothing fancy. But I would take it a step further. I wanted to make it the OFFICIAL site of the cult of Wal*Mart. So, the premise was something like this; You would enter the site, and you'd see a little welcome screen, talking about the Cult of Wal*Mart, and you'd see the smiley. On the bottom you'd have an about button, and it would give you the amount of members, people who worship Wal*Mart (it could even be based on actual research, you never know!) Further into the site, you'd hear about their mission, and then you'd start seeing symbols littered across the site. It's no longer the smiley, now, you'd start to see different religious icons. Christianity, Islam, Judaism, stuff like Ying Yangs, and other spiritual stuff, it's all going to be there. And then you venture further, and you start seeing much darker icons, pertaining to the Illuminatis, the Freemasons, and finally, the disembodied head of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, for good measure. Maybe even a mural of the flying spaghetti monster at the very bottom of the page. Finally, you would arrive at the initiation video. It will consist of one of those hypnotic swirlies, complete with a flashing smiley, which would be a simple 2-frame animation of the Wal*Mart smiley, one normal, and one with the colors inverted. Also, throughout the site, you'd be hearing chanting. I chose Dies Irae, an old Gregorian chant, since I doubt anyone would have the copyrights to it (and if it IS, copyrighted, well, then, whoever you are, you're a piece of shit for privatizing CHANTING, and I wish an eternal life of pain and suffering on you!) Then, on the initiation video, I'd use "Giygas' Intimidation" from the Earthbound OST, because no one really CARES about that copyright anymore since NoA apparently can't defend its Mother games (Dali's Clock being the official key reason. Fucking copyright laws.) I would also probably throw in a demonic-sounding version of the Wal*Mart cheer, to drive home the effect of being brainwashed.

... But it looks like the site will never be made. I was hoping for my own domain name, something like thecultofwalmart.com or something to that effect. But you have to pay for those. The only way to do that for free is to set up a computer as a server, and I can't even begin to tell you how complicated the process is, let alone the risk to not 1, not 2, but 3 computers that share the same network with the would-be server computer. Say some right wing zealot decided that they love Wal*Mart with all their heart like some blind zealot, and decides it is in his best moral interest to hack my site because I offended their god. I would be putting my entire home network in danger! So, there goes my inspiration to bring a corporate Goliath down to size. I guess I'll have to find some other way to subvert the corporation. Or maybe even the "dominant paradigm" my late friend turned me on to...

Here's a reason you should never lie to your kids.

Today I was reading the Friendly Atheist's blog, looking in the section on death. I was wondering if anyone else had been through what I have been through, losing someone that you cherish deeply, and feeling that they are "lost forever". It's a horrible feeling and no one should have to go through it. But the first thing I noticed was a question, raised by someone who lost his mother. The thing is, he's an atheist, and he's trying to explain to his kids what he believes.

What happened is I was reminded of a certain event from my childhood. Now, I never used to be an atheist like I am now. I grew up in a Lutheran family. We used to go to church all the time (until they started getting greedy with tithes, or so my parents claim) but the fact that I was on that site, at that time, feeling the way I felt, made me put my life experience into perspective. I think I know why I'm a skeptic. It's because of Santa Claus.

Who knows if I'm the only one who thinks this, but I'm sure 99% of the people reading this remember at some point in their childhood, the myth that is Santa Claus. He's fat, he rides a sled pulled by 9 reindeer led by Rudolph (which was actually created by Montgomery Wards, believe it or not) and he hops down the chimneys of all the good boys and girls in the world, filling their stockings with goodies, and leaving presents under the Christmas tree, all for the measly price of a plate of milk and cookies. Not a bad deal, really, since money wouldn't really be that useful to him. And if you're one of those 99% of people, then surely you remember being told that him, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and all those other fantastical creatures you might have believed in as a kid, were just things that your parents made up. Complete BULLSHIT! I don't know how most people would feel about it, as I don't get many chances to REALLY socialize with people, but I can tell you how I felt. It was as though I was lied to, and even though I know I'll never have kids, I can say that if I ever did decide to have kids, I would never tell them a bald-faced lie like that. Ever. I still give my parents crap about leading me on about this "Santa Claus" person. They try to say it was for fun or whatever, but then my response is usually "How is LYING to me FUN!?"

More recently, though, that's how I've been feeling about religion. Too many unanswered prayers and a heartbreak later I'm completely confident that God, or whatever else you want to call it, is a lie. Just like Santa Claus, or the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy, or anything like that. But this isn't just some kind of lie that your elders will tell you doesn't exist when they think you outgrow it. Even the elderly believe it. After all, your average person probably would tell you "The Bible" is written by God or some crap. It was written by various people, over different periods of time. The Bible has several different authors, and they just happen to write about the same thing; God. But the impact that THIS lie has on entire groups of people is more widespread and perverse than Santa Claus will ever be. Groups of people get killed for lies like these! (Native Americans, anyone?)

Well, now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'm going to go detach myself from this screen for a little bit to take a breather.

Think nuclear energy is safe? Think again.

Surprisingly, this is one of the few instances where the news media actually care about something important. I saw something on PBS about the disastrous earthquake that hit Japan a little bit ago, and it looked horrible, there was all this rubble where people used to live. Plus, all their nuclear reactors are going haywire, on the verge of a meltdown! The people who constructed those plants should have known that nuclear power is more danger than it's worth. In fact I can't believe India wants a piece of the nuclear pie, either, why would they want to sink to that level. Still, America's not perfect, we have that shit in our country, too. But I HATE nuclear energy! The waste never goes away, and then you have this! The threat of a nuclear meltdown! People can say "Oh, but they have better safety standards now." Well, what happens if a tectonic plate shifts, or a tornado hits, or some other act of God/nature? As long as you have a nuclear reactor, there will always, ALWAYS be the threat of a meltdown, nuclear terrorism or otherwise. People need to realize, there are other, safer, cleaner, renewable sources of energy out there. Japan's disaster is a tragedy, and I'd like to extend my sympathy to the people that have been hurt by the recent disaster. But I think it should also be looked at as a warning to everyone that nuclear fission is NOT as safe as some people will make it out to be. In fact, the people that tell you it's safe probably work for these places and are more concerned about the money in their pocket than anything else. We have the technology to harness the energy of the earth, the wind, the sun, and the water without seriously harming ourselves, or any of the other creatures on this planet. So, LET'S USE IT ALREADY! Everyone on this planet would be all the better for it!