Religion of peace?

The tragic events in Mumbai made me remember one story from the Danish cartoon craze couple of years ago. Some people in London, demonstrating in front of Danish embassy, held up a banner, which said: "Behead those, who say Islam is violent."

I wonder how it feels to be a moderate Islamist reading today's news.

Social net-WORK-ing

I'm now starting to understand that some people in the west are hiring other people to do their social networking for them. I'm currently registered on three sites: draugiem.lv, Facebook and LinkedIn, and i start to feel the pressure. When it's only the closest circle of friends you're linked to, you don't feel any pressure, but when it gets bigger and you're getting invited by people whom you don't know personally, it gets tougher since, what's the point of accepting their "friendship" if you afterwards don't socialize with them at least on "small chat" level? 

Now, should i accept the friendship of the guy who invited me today, or just pretend i'm dead?

On why religion is a terrible thing

I'm a fan (if you can say so) of writings of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. Both guys are atheists as much as it is epistemiologically possible (Dawkins is a scientist, after all). "God delusion" and "End of faith" have shaped my views on religion. It's too difficult to explain in one post, read the books yourself. 

But what i wanted to write about is that all the silliness of religion got condensed in one little detail i was reading this morning. It's from Tom Wanderbilt's "Traffic" - a book about modern... traffic. And he writes that in L.A. many of the pedestrian crosswalks where you have to press a button for traffic lights to switch to green light, after the request of Rabbinical Council of California operate under so-called "sabbath-timing". Which means, that in time of sabath, pressing the button wont affect the light, since "sabbath-observant members of Jewish faith are not supposed to operate machines or electrical devices" in time of sabath or in selected holdays. Hebrew calendar is even programed into controller computers.

Because of handful of people who have blind trust in the piece of ancient literature (and other people who have limitless respect to these silly views) many more can't cross the street or have to wait at a crosswalk with no pedestrian in sight. I think i should finally start with inventing the religion of my own: the possibilities are truly boundless.

Jokes with a beard

Expression "joke with a beard" is usually used for old, not-funny-anymore jokes. But one professor William Berg has translated 1600 years old book of jokes from ancient Greek into modern English. So they're jokes with a reaaaaally long beard. What's surprising that the topics are largely the same: farts, sex, driving (the chariott) and ugly, annoying wifes. Same things, in short. Some things don't change, do they?

Curse of weekends

Listening to a radio programme yesterday evening. Anchor asked to send in messages about what good has happened to people today. One girl wrote: "Monday is over, so i'm one day closer to weekend."

I do know the feeling, i've been in a crap job for a little while ten or eleven years ago: grinding through the week in anticipation of the two free days. But i was smart or lucky enough to move away very quickly, however many, many people are working in crap jobs and paradoxically, perhaps the only thing that keeps them in the paid job are free days. Now, what would those people do, if you took those two free days away? Many would reconsider what are they doing with their time and if it's something they want to do.

Someone's got to do the crap job, i hear you saying. But i have this naive and idealistic view, that the more happier the people are around you, the more happier you are yourself. So let's cancel the weekends.