Thanksgiving!

Today is of course Thanksgiving. A day to be thankful for all that you have in your life, a day to spend time with those you are thankful for to have in your life, and a day to eat massive amounts of turkey, watch football, and fall asleep while watching football.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Thrive: The Debunking

Last week I saw a trailer for a new documentary called "Thrive: What on Earth will it take" by Foster Gamble .

The trailer starts out fine at first, but within 30 seconds it goes from asking a perfectly legitimate question of whether or not humans can thrive, to pseudo-science, and eventually conspiracy theories.

First, they talk about some secret "code" and "hidden" designs in ancient art work concerning the torus, and how it keeps showing up in so many ancient sites around the world.

This of course means nothing other then different cultures thousands of years ago interacted with each, picking up the pattern from one another, and reproducing it. It has nothing to do with some secret ancient codes (not exactly a secret either since it's right out in public).

While this part raised a red flag to me, I wasn't ready to outright to dismiss it as being nothing more then BS.

Then goes into UFOs, and that the government is covering up the truth about them, and that they have crashed alien space craft.

This raised a few more red flags for me, as that is nothing more then an unproven and probably untrue conspiracy theory, and I felt it was going way off of what I thought this documentary was going to be about.

But again, I was not about to dismiss this documentary as being nothing more then BS.

Then they talked about crop circles being communications from aliens.

This is when I dismissed this documentary as being nothing but BS.

Crop circles, even the very complex ones, are in fact man made. There are multiple websites and videos showing how they can be made in only a few hours, using some rope and a 2x4.

Then they go into where they claim that machines can be built, using the torus design, that can produce unlimited energy.

I won't actually outright say is impossible, but most scientists in the field of physics agree that a machine that could produce unlimited energy (no matter what the design is) is so highly improbable that it is considered to be outright impossible to build.

Then it goes down hill from there.

They then begin making claims that this technology is being suppressed (along with knowledge about UFOs) by large corporations (banks, oil, energy, pharmaceutics) and the government (which is implied is controlled by large corporations) and implies that these corporations are responsible for all the troubles in the world today.

And of course they tell you to "connect the dots", something that many conspiracy theorists do in order to try to prove their conspiracy theories when they have a lack of real evidence (which is almost always).

In my personal opinion, you should not waste your time, or money, on this documentary, but if you do actually wish to see what I am actually talking, here is a link the trailer to the movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OibqdwHyZxk

And if you wish to read a much more in-depth debunking of this documentary, please click on the link below:

http://thrivedebunked.wordpress.com/

When was the last time the LDS was a cult?

Cult.

The ultimate way to insult another person's religion or belief system is by labeling it a cult.

While some religions or belief systems can be labeled a cult because they do in fact abuse and isolate their members, or encourages it's members to engage in dangerous actions and behavior, for other religions and belief systems it's not warranted because it's really not like that at all.

Recently a Dallas, Texas pastor and Rick Perry presidential supporter Robert Jeffess said in an interview on CNN that Christians should not vote for Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a Cult.

The mainstream Mormon church has been around for about 180 years are so, and is very well established around the world, so I think we can stop labeling it a cult.

Pastor Jeffess is part of the Southern Baptist Convention, and if anyone knows about the Southern Baptists, then you know that they tend to look down on anyone who do not share their religious or political beliefs (kinda cult like in my opinion).

With the exception of them occasionally coming to my door and trying to get me to convert, I really have no problems with Mormons.

They have never tried to use fear tactics, they've never tried to get any money from me, and the

Mormons that I have worked for were all nice and paid in full.

While I have no desire to convert and become one of them, I'm certainly not going to label them as a cult, and I'm certainly not going to not vote for one of them simply because they don't share my beliefs.

Is There Anything Positive about the Anti-Homosexual Movement?

For the past couple of weeks I've wondering if there is anything positive about the anti-homosexual movement?

This whole wondering began after hearing about the death of Jamey Rodemeyer, a 14-year old boy who committed suicide after being bullied and tormented for years because he was homosexual. What is even worse was that even after this some of the bullies continued their bullying of him even after his death by chanting "you're better off dead" and "we are glad that you're dead" at a recent school dance when a Lady Gaga song was played (Jamey was a big fan of Lady Gaga).

If one person had done this chanting, it could easily have been explained as being the actions of one very disturbed student.

But it was several.

This comes to reason that these kids are being influenced in some way to think that what they have done is perfectly acceptable.

And this gets back to my question: Is there anything positive about the anti-homosexual movement?

The answer to that is: None.

Everything it has done has been pretty much negative from what I've seen.

It's created a situation that has led some kids to believe that it's perfectly okay to harass, torment, and abuse other kids whom either are homosexual, or are suspected of being homosexual, which interns leads to depression and sometimes suicide.

It has created a situation where some people now feel (or made known) that they are not welcome amongst their family, or even their community, because they are homosexual.

It has created a situation where some people believe that violence against homosexuals, and vandalism against churches and other establishments that openly welcome homosexuals, is okay.

It has created a situation where some people believe that homosexuals are either very hostile, and/or are sexual deviants and pedophiles whom actively try to turn children into homosexuals.

It has created a situation where some people believe that homosexuality is a choice, and that a homosexuals can become heterosexual through therapy and prayer.

It has created a situation where some people believe that many of the rights that homosexuals have recently gained should be reversed.

And finally, it has created a situation where people in the anti-homosexual movement are viewed as being a bunch of bigots who are exploiting the Bible to justify their own bigotry, and has also lead to an increased negative view of Christianity.

People Just Go Crazy

Many people have been speculating about why Jared Loughner, the person who shot and killed six people and wound many others, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, did what he did.

Most people are saying that a combination of his clear mental illness, combined with all the political crap and shear hatefulness between the conservatives and liberals that's been played out on TV and radio and on the Internet.

I don't believe that politics had anything to do with what Loughtner did. From what I have read he prescribed to the extremes of both the left and the right, but that he didn't listen to the news or watch TV or listen to the radio or anything like that, and that he was extremely paranoid, had very odd behavior, and most likely has schizophrenia.

The fact is is that there really isn't anything complex about this at all. The guy's mental condition continued to go down hill, he apparently got no help for his mental illness, he gets a gun, then he goes out and shoots a bunch of people.

Everyone wants to make this more complex then what it really is, but it's not.

He went nuts, he killed a bunch of people, and he is the only person to blame.