STRAIGHT OUTTA’ DENVER » Itelligent Life

So this will likely be the most obscure post I ever write in my life. In fact, I’m debating right now on if I’ll even post this or if I’ll just delete it once I’m done.

Basically, I’ve made the decision to become vegan. Now, this is something I’ve never wanted. I’ve always jokingly stated that I’m racist against vegetarians. The common condescending nature of their kind has always turned me away for perusing such a lifestyle. I’ve told my friends in the past that for every cow they didn’t eat, I’d eat three. And, for a long time I did.

My belief has always been that people who decide not to eat red meat become malnourished and scrawny. And to be honest, I don’t have a problem with animals being slaughtered as long as its humane. (I’ve seen people torch pigs alive and I have to say I was pretty outraged.)

Though I love the taste of dairy and all those lovely meats, I’ve come to the conclusion that my body simply can’t handle them. Case in point: last night I ate a burger and afterwords felt annihilated, but for lunch I had a *cringe* veggie sandwich and felt great!

Though you may think I’m retarded, I’d like everyone I know to support me in this decision. I am not doing this for any moral reason, but for health reasons. My goal is to feel energized and healthy for once in my life so that I persue the things I’m after more efficently. Right now I’m stagnant, and I feel it’s due to my diet.

If any of you are interested in doing this with me, please let me know, and we can help eachother out. I’m excited to start doing this, however I know I’m going to suffer meat and diary withdrawals for while so please be encouraging. I found a list of veg-friendly resturants in Denver that I’d like to try out, so if you’re ever in the mood for a salad (or something of equal gayness :p), give me a ring and we’ll make dinner plans.

6 comments.

That Burning Cool sensation!

Posted on January 26th, 2009 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Beer, Orig. Literature, Itelligent Life, Creative Writing, snuff.

So Bieren been taking baths everyday since we moved into this house a little over two years ago, and he claims that he’s been doing so since 12 or something like that. But recently he’s decided to make them much more that just a bathing experience, it’s gotta be therapeutic as well! So what does he do: He orders in pounds of bath salt, cayenne pepper, menthol, and tons of different fragrance oils! (and later he plains on making soap with it, think fight club) So he comes up with some sort of mix that sits him well and takes a bath with it every morning, so this being my day off, I figured I should give it a try. So not knowing what the right mix is, I just started throwing in what I figured would do the trick. I took a cup of that whatever the heck it is salt and dumped that in. Then I didn’t really know how much cayenne pepper would be burning the heck out of me but I figured three scoops of that teaspoon thing he stuck in there would do the trick (I was wondering where that went). Throw in some drops of menthol and some of the other weird oils in there, and presto! I’ve got a bath filled with stuff that’s going to burn the heck out of my skin and feel like ice on my body after I get out! So taking the first steps in I did start to feel burning! I thought the temperature of the water might be a little too much so I dumped in some cold water, but they were still burning! But thous feeties have been giving me crap for the past two weeks so I just thought that they should burn! So then I’ve got to put the rest of my body in, start soaking it all in! Well it wasn’t bad at all, not too hot, but I do have to agree that it was stimulating, especially on my thingy (let’s just say that it was an odd sensation). Although the water level got too high. You know that great invention where they put this little drain hole on the front of the tub so that it doesn’t overfill and spill out? Well it’s a great invention, the only problem is that ours just dumps it though the light socket in our kitchen ceiling rather than the drain. So I had to clean that up! But you just get up out of the water, wash off the last day, and then you get that cool menthol sensation. When all said and done, it’s a good experience! I get out and start sipping a PBR at 1 in the afternoon, sometimes the bachelor life has it’s perks but where out of snuff. Gotta go get that overpriced presidente for the week. But after all that, DP tells me that Bieren wraps up his thingy to keep from that burning sensation! What a wuss! Oh well, I’ve got bible study at the falling rock tonight and I’ll take the bus this time. Invot says he’s keep on making fun of me if I get completely plastered at a bible study! But come on now man! I’ll just get to the good buzzed state of .1 rather than the usual plastered of .25! You gotta have faith man! Oh and on the bolg note: when are we going to change up the look?

4 comments.

Opinions are like STD’s. Everyone has them.

Posted on January 7th, 2009 by Bear.
Categories: Itelligent Life, Parental Advisory.

The great Darth B’Strad has reminded me that this is in fact a blog, and that the purpose of said blogs is to express one’s opinion. So, since I’m new here and a bit uncomfortable diving right into politics and religion (Judaism is awesome!), I figured I would start out slow.
So with out further adieu, here, my friends, is a few opinions on drinking and other important things in life.

Drunk girls: Are worthless. Absolutely. Fucking. Worthless. If I had to abolish three things from the face of the earth, Drunk girls would top the list, along side people who don’t signal when they turn, and ass holes who are mean to their waitresses/waiters. Yes, they may do wonders for lonely men all over the world, but I feel like getting raped every weekend does not make one’s existence meaningful. I have nothing against drinking, and I worship women, but nothing is more obnoxious and nauseating than an overly intoxicated female.
Ice Cube: He went straight out of Compton and right into a Disney contract. I mean… really… what the fuck?
Ankle high socks in the porn industry: Are definitely a good thing. I feel like these and pigtails have kept a lot of pedophiles off the kiddy porn market. Not only that, but there’s nothing wrong with adding a little something to the mix. I mean, one can only get so much out of skin, tits, and ass. As awesome as all of the above are, sometimes it’s nice to have something colorful and maybe argyle to look at in your peripherals. It’s like when Batman and Superman teamed up for those few episodes. They were fucking unstoppable: Superman with his good looks, and Batman with his pure badassery. Ankle socks and porn make a great team, and I am pro both of them.
Man love: Is a good thing. Sometimes, you just gotta hug your boy and let him know you love him. I feel like if man love was a more acceptable thing, only good things could happen. In fact, the cure for the ever present drunk girl at a party is man love. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been leaving a get together due do annoyance, when I run into an old friend who immediately says, “Dude, I freakin love you man, don’t leave, come chill.” Hell yes my brethren, I will come chill. I will come chill with a vengeance, and together we shall vanquish the shit-faced Dragon, with hardly any clothes on the other side of the beer pong table. Man love is a big win.
Hallucinogens: Are cool, I guess.
Reality television shows with the word “Dance” in the title: Are a good thing. The thing about reality television shows is usually, I don’t give a fuck. The thing about dance shows though, is I really wanna see some kids throw down on the floor, so I will willingly sit through the rest of the reality TV bullshit in order to get to that. It’s a genius scheme really. They always promise more dancing after the break, and then after the break they tell the whole back story of the person who’s about to do a 30 second routine, and then they have three fucking idiots judge them, but I really don’t care, because for that 30 seconds, I am the happiest little girl on the planet.

The end.

22 comments.

Movement, Position, and Perspective

Posted on December 30th, 2008 by Bieren Skidels.
Categories: Itelligent Life, Philosophy.

People welcome change differently, in fact most people are not able to welcome it. Here is a system or model for interpreting these differences.

Assumption:

Based on general consensus from wise old people.. the more you learn the more you realize you don’t know or apropos change… the more you develop toward being a better person or who you are supposed to be the further you realize you are from where you are supposed to be.

Discussion:

The realization that you are in fact further from who you are supposed to be usually comes suddenly and in a moment of failure or challenge. Those who change and develop quickly are those that assume they are in fact not who they think they are and therefore welcome progress at the price of such a realization. I have always handled change and progress well, because I rest my confidence in the fact that I will continue changing and moving closer to who I am, even if that means realizing I’m actually further from it than I thought. I do this so much so, that realizing my own shortcomings has become a very comforting thing to do, it not only doesn’t shake me up, it encourages me further.

Problem 1: However, many people have a hard time changing or are unwilling because they like to assume that while they have a few problems they’ve got the biggest things figured out - or at least have the general picture right… and if changing means dropping this comfort they are not willing to change. This results in them running from or refusing to confront unwelcome truths that might change them. In the end, they don’t develop very much and their lives tend to bear this out through continual problems and frustration…

Problem 2: Some people are very capable of change, but the purpose of change is not itself. Change is part of a development process, the goal is greater development. Hence, being able to change is not enough by itself. One must be able to integrate their past and who they are into a more developed self. Change is very easy if one decides to just leave the past behind, however such a move renders change a null exchange. Indeed one is able to begin again at zero. And while a complete change out may be necessary in extreme cases, a repeated cycle of leaving the past behind achieves no real developmental progress.

Solution:

The only solution this model suggests is that people embrace the process of personal transformation by not putting any confidence in what they “think” they know but rather in knowing there is truth out there and that they are able and willing to move toward it - even if it means seeing their own brokenness is even greater than they knew. Also, development means building on and molding one’s current self, rather than throwing the past self out and pretending it doesn’t exist.

7 comments.

Bieren’s Stuff You Should Know #1

Posted on November 20th, 2008 by Bieren Skidels.
Categories: Itelligent Life.

A’ight here’s a few things you should know! and it’s mostly music this time…

Jason Webley:

Jason webley is a musician who waxes a mix of 90’s rock band intonation and Irish off-tune bar singing over a relatively dry guitary strumming. It’s drinking music indeed. However, songs such as “February Relaxing Her Fingers” (probably my favorite) include more than one instrument . Most of his songs could be described as nostalgic (However, so could most 90’s rock songs). Some of his songs are intentionally corny and upbeat, the type drunk cougars like to dance to at 1 am in a dive bar beyond the edge of the civilized part of town.

Bakersfield Sound:

This is simple, old, and you should know it. Two names: Haggard and Owens - in opposition to glitzy (corny) nashville - a bunch of okies started playing “real music” in the dusty town of Bakersfield. Actually, the nasty, farmy, small-town center of california - from Bakersfield, up 99 to Fresno is my favorite part of California - that and the ugly mass of nothing from Bakersfield to Barstow down 58. For all you people who think California is all sun, paris hilton, and convertible BMWs - well take this!

Paper Birds:

Just listen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7b5yz3ANV4

Technically impressive, w/ an intermittent incorrigible twang, three girls harmonize. Indeed!

Hercules & Love Affair:

Ok, so three-fourths of the band live their lives a bit differently than one would have expected from someone born into their gender - However, they make some *UNIQUE* music. As long as you can get passed worrying about whether or not the voice you’re hearing originates near an adams apple and whether those apples dangle from fig trees or unicorns indeed do fly above venus… well then you’ll have a treat of fantastical pleasure…

5 comments.

Hickenlooper’s state of the city address has gotten hijacked!

Posted on July 16th, 2008 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Political, Ethics, Itelligent Life, Philosophy, Media, Creative Writing, Democrats, education, Local.

More and more lately it seems that Denver starts creeping into the News and for very strange reasons too. However our latest fiasco is actually something that pretty well illustrates just about everything that is wrong in our country today. Dennis Prager has a really good article up at townhall.com already that you can read here but I think for this one I’ll just give you my own analysis on this one. At Hickenlooper’s state of the city address (arguably the most important speech that he will give for his job), he asked Chanteuse René Marie to sing the National Anthem for him. She lied to Hickenlooper by agreeing to it but instead she sang “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” otherwise known as the “Black National Anthem.” Here is the You tube video of it. Here’s what the Rocky Mountain News has on this:

Denver’s City Council president is getting hammered with hate-filled messages in response to Tuesday’s surprise performance of the “Black National Anthem” by a jazz singer during a city event.

They are really getting upset out there.

Chanteuse René Marie had been invited by Mayor John Hickenlooper’s office to sing the national anthem during his annual State of the City address.

Council President Michael Hancock, the master of ceremonies, introduced Marie, who sang what is known as the “Black National Anthem” instead.

Her performance evoked angry reactions among some of the estimated 700 people at the event.

“There is no substitute for the national anthem. Period,” Councilman Charlie Brown said.

“This is the State of the City address. It’s not an NAACP convention,” he said, referring to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Hickenlooper and his staff said they expected Marie to sing the “The Star-Spangled Banner” and that they were surprised when she sang something different.

In a statement late Tuesday, Hickenlooper said: “I’m disappointed that this matter has been a distraction from the great work and significant accomplishments of our city employees over the past year and the many important initiatives on tap for the coming year.”

Oh! So Hick is not upset that she lied to him but that she took away from his speech! Ain’t the left great.

Hickenlooper said in an interview that he spoke to Marie after the ceremony and that she apologized profusely.

The mayor also said that Marie told him she meant no disrespect.

“She blended the two songs together,” Hickenlooper said. “She was trying to make an artistic expression of her love for the country. She did not intend to make a political statement or anything.”

Not making a political statement would have been to actually sing the National anthem and not something that you wanted to.

Marie sang the first verse of James Weldon Johnson’s “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” also known as the “Black National Anthem,” but adapted those lyrics to the tune of the “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Marie said she had no regrets. She deliberately didn’t tell anybody about her song choice “because I don’t think it is necessary for an artist to ask permission to express themselves artistically,” she said.

So Artists are not held to the same moral standard at the rest of us? She’s better morally already so it’s alright that she lied to Hick about what she was doing.

“I would not change a thing,” Marie said.

“You have to risk things. You have to. Otherwise, you might of well live your life by a script.”

Who said anything about living life by a script? You said you would sing the national anthem and you didn’t so you lied.

Hancock said he had no idea that Marie was going to sing anything but the national anthem.

“I just read off the script, which was to introduce her to do the national anthem, so I expected the national anthem,” he said.

Hancock, who met Marie for the first time Tuesday, said Marie should have cleared her song choice with the mayor and his administration.

And Hick probably would have allowed it if you had asked him.

It was “inappropriate” that she didn’t, he said.

“She certainly should have given the mayor and the administration the opportunity to decide if they wanted her to sing the song that she sang,” he said.

Hancock said he’s been getting hate-filled e-mails over the song.

“I’m getting — as if I made the decision to do this — I’m receiving a lot of hate mail,” he said. “I’ve received quite a few e-mails that are quite nasty.”

Yea people should be sending him the hate mail, this guy didn’t know. That’s pretty low for the people who are on my side of this issue so I ask that you stop sending it to him or instead you could start blaming him more for being naive and not stopping it. Then on 9news our good ol’ governor Bill Ritter had this to say:

Governor Bill Ritter (D-Colorado) discussed the incident on The Mike Rosen Show on 850 KOA on Wednesday morning, calling it “inappropriate.”

“I don’t think it’s fair artistic expression,” said Ritter.

Ritter went on to say he felt Marie’s actions were “wrong” and “outside the bounds.”

“It certainly is operating as a distraction,” said Ritter.

Distraction! This is big here and they don’t get it! So then why am I getting so worked up by this? Because it demonstrates what the left has done to our society and have destroyed in our society. Now I went to Marie’s Blog to see for my self and what is it that I find. She did it because she felt like a victim. Here’s parts of what she wrote:

What you’re listening to is my love song to America; my latest attempt to express how I feel about living in this country as a person of color. It had its germination over three years ago when, during an interview in Russia, the interviewer referred to me as an American. I started to interrupt her, to tell her she was mistaken. But I caught myself and was extremely surprised and dismayed to discover that I didn’t feel like an American. The rest of the interview I don’t remember because I was too focused on this startling and disturbing discovery.

On the flight from Moscow, I felt anxious to get back home. Yes, ‘home’. And yet, I had nearly corrected the Russian interviewer when she called me American! Why? I didn’t know, but I wanted to find out.

Flying across the Atlantic, I thought about how, from the time I was a very young child, I had always loved singing “America the Beautiful”, “God Bless America” and how my heart always swelled with pride, how I always teared up whenever I heard the beginning strains of the “National Anthem”. I loved these songs, loved singing them. I loved my home – the dirt and the sky and the trees and the grass and bugs of my home. I loved the people in it, the way we walked and talked and interacted. I loved the way things are done here, problematic though they may sometimes be. I tried to imagine living permanently in another country – and couldn’t. I loved this land! So why didn’t I feel like I was an American?

Now that was something that I was not expecting to read! She’s trying to find out why she doesn’t feel like an American. And just the very fact that she asked that question is great. God bless her but still this was wrong!

Beautiful as those songs are, when I learned them as a child, the black community was still living under Jim Crow laws. Seating was segregated at theatres. There were certain stores in town that black folks simply could not enter. My siblings and I went to segregated schools where the books, desks, chairs, tables, lunch trays and playground equipment were never new, always hand-me-downs from the all white schools. My parents taught at those schools and, rather than being bitter, we were raised to be proud, stand tall, speak clearly, look others in the eye and be true & respectful to ourselves and everyone we met, regardless of their color.

Even at such a young age, however, I sensed on a fundamental level that there was a disconnect between the patriotic songs I loved to sing, the Pledge of Allegiance I took pleasure in memorizing and repeating every day and the humiliating, not-quite-a-citizen experiences that black folks were enduring on a daily basis. For instance…

One year, my mother and father, along with about 5 other black couples, attempted to integrate the segregated lunch counters in my hometown, Warrenton, Va. My parents were assigned to Frost’s Diner on the by-pass. On the door of that establishment was a sign that read, “No Dogs. No Niggers”.

In a manner of speaking, my parents were successful that night. They went into the diner, ordered dinner (though they were never served) and left with only verbal insults ringing in their ears as a warning. Later that year, however, as a result of this protest, my father was blacklisted – fired from his job as a teacher and unable to find employment anywhere in the county sufficient enough to support seven children and a wife. And they were considered the lucky ones. This is the kind of unspoken – yet very real – disconnection black families lived with day in and day out.

And that was horrible that such a thing would happen to her parents. But is it now happening to her? No, if it was then she wouldn’t have been asked to sing the national anthem. This is not the same county that she grew up in! It’s changed and it’s not nearly as raciest as she thinks it is. The next post on her site is on the Jena six, a story completely blown out of portion by the so called Mainstream media. The nooses that the kids hung up in that school were in no reference to the Jim Crow days (in fact they were so poorly educated they didn’t even know about Jim Crow) But rather it was in reference to their mascot. But the media just immediately harped on the situation to prove that this nation is still raciest and this woman bought the lie.

Music is a second language to me. From as far back as I can remember, when I couldn’t figure out a way to express whatever I was feeling, my emotions could always find their expression in music. So on the flight home, I wondered: Could I take the sentiments of these songs that had meant so much to me – that still mean so much to me – and re-frame them in a musical context that more accurately reflects the America I live in now? The America with which I more honestly identify? The America I love?

I was inspired to write a suite entitled “Voice of My Beautiful Country”, moving from sentiment to sentiment and utilizing American music: Jazz, Blues & Gospel. I use three movements: “America the Beautiful”, “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” and, the movement that has garnered the most attention and criticism, “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” sung to the melody of the “National Anthem”. The title, “Voice of My Beautiful Country”, expresses for me the dichotomy and contradictions of being a person of color in America.

“Voice of My Beautiful Country” is my love song to America – the land I love living in. I love singing this suite; it has given me room to feel the full spectrum of emotions I most strongly connect with – joy, pain, love, pride, sentiment, unity, hope - when I think of my family, my country and my national community. It has been a journey toward making peace with the contradictions that still exist within me when I think of my past, a conduit for hope when I think of the future and given me the freedom to finally feel like an American.

So to feel like an American you have to lie, adapt a different song to the national anthem and offend at least half the country. Is that what Americans do? Notice how all of this is all based around her feelings and her desire to feel American and notices that everyone else’s desire to feel American takes a back set to her desire. Do you not see the Narcissism entwined in this whole situation. For Rene Marie it’s all about her and screw the rest of you I am going to do what makes me feel American! But that’s not what Americans DO! I am much more coming to the belief that the why that you act much more influences the way you feel and I have proved it within my own life. I was very much an unhappy person until I started listening regularly to Dennis Prager’s Happiness hour (here in Denver that’s on every Friday at 11:00 on 710 KNUS) where his guiding principal for that hour is that you have a moral obligation to be as happy as you can and if you can’t be happy then fake it! His book Happiness Is a Serious Problem is a great read and really can help you improve your life. So that’s what I did, I read his book and I started to act happy in every situation I was in despite the fact that I wasn’t all that happy. I remember a night were I was really depressed over my life situation and nothing was going right but instead of staying home I went to the Mercury Cafe to dance and if you’re quite and depressed then the girls there are not going to dance with you. So I acted happy even though I was still hurting inside and what happened? By the end of the night I was joyful again. If you want to feel like an American then all you have to do is act like one. If you wanted to feel American wouldn’t it be a much greater statement that here an African American Woman can go ahead and sing the national anthem with great pride? But she didn’t because she let her feeling get in the way. And again I keep on pushing the problem of victimhood and part of that is that your feeling is more important that everything else. But that is false! what’s more important is your actions and values. If you want to feel American then there are only three things you need to do: work hard, vote for the people you think will better our country, and sing the national anthem. In my eyes anyone is an American if they do thous things regardless of their color or political leanings. Start seeing yourself as the enemy to your own happiness and you will become more happy.

I also want you to read Prager’s article on this as well because his is great.

0 comments.

Hay! That’s my Church!

Posted on June 27th, 2008 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Ethics, Beer, Christianity, Economics.

I really like the Budweiser bottle-can getting thrown in there too! Just goes to show how well rounded of sinners we have at our church. At least they didn’t get all the cans of steel reserve that me and Bieren contributed to this. That 8.1% fizzy yellow beer might not look all that good on the news. Then again, we probably contributed that Budweiser can-bottle thing too. Although I don’t remember ever having any of thous things at our house but I figure I should just take the blame for it.

5 comments.

The Spectacle of the DNC

Posted on June 27th, 2008 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Political, Energy, Environment, Ethics, Beer, Media, Creative Writing, Democrats, Economics.

If you didn’t know already the Democratic National Convention is coming here to Denver in late August and man is it causing trouble here. Here’s what the Wall Street Journal as to say about it:

As the Mile High City gears up to host a Democratic bash for 50,000, organizers are discovering the perils of trying to stage a political spectacle that’s also politically correct.

Consider the fanny packs.

The host committee for the Democratic National Convention wanted 15,000 fanny packs for volunteers. But they had to be made of organic cotton. By unionized labor. In the USA.

Official merchandiser Bob DeMasse scoured the country. His weary conclusion: “That just doesn’t exist.”

That’s always great! We need to come up with something completely new to keep this green.

Ditto for the baseball caps. “We have a union cap or an organic cap,” Mr. DeMasse says. “But we don’t have a union-organic offering.”

Why does it need to be organic anyway? Has anyone asked this in the first place? No! We need to keep this green.

Much of the hand-wringing can be blamed on Denver’s Democratic mayor, John Hickenlooper, who challenged his party and his city to “make this the greenest convention in the history of the planet.”

Thanks Hick! More taxes for me.

Convention organizers hired the first-ever Director of Greening, longtime environmental activist Andrea Robinson. Her response to the mayor’s challenge: “That terrifies me!”

She should be!

After all, the last time Democrats met in Denver — to nominate William Jennings Bryan in 1908 — they dispatched horse-drawn wagons to bring snow from the Rocky Mountains to cool the meeting hall. Ms. Robinson suspected modern-day delegates would prefer air conditioning. So she quickly modified the mayor’s goal: She’d supervise “the most sustainable political convention in modern American history.”

Man they really did some weird stuff back in the day.

Now, she must pull it off.

To test whether celebratory balloons advertised as biodegradable actually will decompose, Ms. Robinson buried samples in a steaming compost heap. She hired an Official Carbon Adviser, who will measure the greenhouse-gas emissions of every placard, every plane trip, every appetizer prepared and every coffee cup tossed. The Democrats hope to pay penance for those emissions by investing in renewable energy projects.

Perhaps Ms. Robinson’s most audacious goal is to reuse, recycle or compost at least 85% of all waste generated during the convention.

And how are they going to do it!

The Trash Brigade

To police the four-day event Aug. 25-28, she’s assembling (via paperless online signup) a trash brigade. Decked out in green shirts, 900 volunteers will hover at waste-disposal stations to make sure delegates put each scrap of trash in the proper bin. Lest a fork slip into the wrong container unnoticed, volunteers will paw through every bag before it is hauled away.

Have 900 people stand around and yell at you “Hay don’t put that there! Put it in that one!” Man that’s has to be really efficient and of course us Coloradans will pay for it. Still wouldn’t it be better just to round up a bunch of bums and have them scour out all the trash and stuff left on the sidewalks so they can go sell it to the recycling plaints? That might save you some money but then again it’s not too pretty. You can’t have that at the DNC.

“That’s the only way to make sure it’s pure,” Ms. Robinson says.

Naturally

Republicans are pushing conservation, too, as they gear up for their convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Like the Democrats, they’re cutting down on printing by doing as much work as possible by email; using recycled office furniture; and urging employees to walk or take public transportation to work. The Republicans also encourage vendors to be as environmentally friendly as possible.

everyones gotta’ be green! Well, except me of course.

But Matt Burns, a spokesman for the Republican convention, looks on with undisguised glee at some of the Democrats’ efforts — such as the “lean ‘n’ green” catering guidelines.

This might be just too funny to miss.

Among them: No fried food. And, on the theory that nutritious food is more vibrant, each meal should include “at least three of the following colors: red, green, yellow, blue/purple, and white.” (Garnishes don’t count.) At least 70% of ingredients should be organic or grown locally, to minimize emissions from fuel burned during transportation. “One would think,” says Mr. Burns, “that the Democrats in Denver have bigger fish to bake — they have ruled out frying already — than mandating color-coordinated pretzel platters.”

Why exactly do thous certain colors mean healthy! Can someone explain that to me? Really! Why these colors? Just leave me a comment here.

Democrats say the point is to build habits that will endure long after the convention. To that end, the city has staged “greening workshops” attended by hundreds of caterers, restaurant owners and hotel managers. “It’s the new patriotism,” Mayor Hickenlooper says.

Thanks again Hick!

Laura Hylton, general manager of Biscuits & Berries catering, agrees in principle. But she has been testing her recipes using local ingredients for weeks and still can’t get the green peppercorn sauce right when she uses white Colorado wine. The state’s high-altitude wine industry took off in the early 1990s and produces some award-winning labels, but Ms. Hylton says diplomatically, “It’s a little…lacking. Our wineries out here aren’t what you’d see in California or France.”

OOOh! So our Coloradan wines are not good enough for you! We aren’t California or France! Well Ms. Hylton you should know since your from here that as alcohol goes we’re sort of like Germany. You come to this state for Beer not wine. You should try something special from Great Divide. That will turn out good and that will bing in the great culture of Colorado into this.

Joanne Katz, who runs the Denver caterer Three Tomatoes, will take one for the green team by removing her fried goat-cheese won tons with chipotle pepper caramel sauce from the menu. But she questions whether some of the guidelines will have the desired earth-saving effects.

That’s right! Take one for the team here! Hey wait! I may want some fried goat-cheese won tons. That kind of sounds good right now.

Compostable utensils, she says, are often shipped from Asia on fuel-guzzling cargo ships. As for the plates: “Is it better to drive across town to have china delivered to an event and then use hot water to wash it, or is it better to use petroleum-based disposables?” she asks.

These are really hard decisions. I wouldn’t want her job.

The convention’s greening gurus say they’re doing the best they can with the most current information available.

but of course, and now to the Coors Conflict!

Coors Conflict

But it’s almost inevitable that principles, politics and profit will conflict. To wit: Coors Brewing Co., in Golden, Colo., will donate biofuel made from beer waste to power the convention’s fleet of flex-fuel vehicles. A green star for the convention — but it has rankled die-hard liberals, who boycotted Coors in the 1960s and ’70s to protest hiring practices that they said discriminated against blacks, Latinos, women and gays. Heirs to the Coors fortune have long been active in conservative causes and Republican politics.

See! thous of us in the conservitive movement want you to have a good DNC in our city. We’re compassionate! But will you take it?

Convention officials say Coors is a good corporate citizen. And a Coors spokeswoman says the donation was a gesture of civic pride, not politics.

No matter, grumbles Anna Flynn, a longtime union member from Denver who objected to the donation. “Any way you put it, it’s still Coors,” she says.

Hell NO!

Chris Lopez, a spokesman for the host committee, says that securing a diverse group of sponsors is as much about showcasing the regional economy as promoting sustainability. He added that Democrats are nudging sponsors to “think green” by participating in an eco-festival and cutting back on paper fliers stuffed into delegate goody bags.

Please don’t start bringing up body bags!

Watching the greening frenzy from afar, Fred L. Smith Jr., president of the libertarian Washington think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute, suggested the Democrats could really shrink their footprint by staging a virtual-reality convention: “Just have everyone stay at home with their laptops, sitting in their pajamas, interacting through their avatars.”

Yea, don’t start causing trouble downtown, do it online! Sounds good to me.

Ms. Robinson, the greening director, says big showy conventions are part of the American political tradition, and thus worth a few emissions here and there. Also, she hates to be a killjoy.

Wait a minute. She’s a liberal! Isn’t that her job?

True,

See!

she did try (unsuccessfully) to get bottled water banned from the convention hall. But remember those balloons? She checked the compost heap last week — and found them still intact. She has added more liquid to try to get them to degrade.

Well that’s great. The balloons don’t work right.

And if they don’t? “The balloons will be there,” she promises.

So we’ll spend a lot more on that balloons that are supposed to degrade anyway! Even though they really don’t work. I can hear my wallet shrinking now.

So will the fanny packs — made in the USA of undyed, organic fabric. Mr. DeMasse vows to get a union shop to print the logo, but he says the ink will be petroleum based. Unless, that is, he decides to get the logo embroidered — with biodegradable thread.

That’s great. I was thinking of just sitting this one out due to the recreate 68′ group from the good ol’ People’s Republic of Boulder, promising to start riots in downtown during the convention. But after reading the sort of spectacle the Dems have waiting for us downtown, I’m now start to think that this will just be too good to miss or rather to funny to miss. Besides with Hillary being snuffed out of the race and Obama “assured” to win this it probably won’t be bad at all. Besides they’re just leftys from Boulder! They wouldn’t know how to riot if they had to. And if things get a little out of hand I just start hanging out with the conservatives over by Dennis Prager and Hugh Hewitt. They’ll have some guns there and I’m sure they’ll defend one of their own. Although I might still want to bring my knife with me, just in case. But just keep that between you and me here I don’t want to get in trouble with any of the cops. Wink,Wink.

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A True B’Strad, Part 2: Leaping into the Fires of Hell and Climbing up the Rope of Trust

Posted on April 30th, 2008 by Darth B'strad.
Categories: Beer, Philosophy, Christianity.

We all spend our time in hell. Some stupid act that has a destructive effect on our lives or even something that we are not even responsible for but none the less still bares it’s scars on us. Many people scoff and laugh at the idea that there is a hell. Some lake of burning fire where there is no water and you just sit there in it and are burned constantly without dieing. That dose sound a little ridiculous and even unconceivable. However I think that is the point, it may be entirely a metaphor for something; something that is far worse. There may be a realistic lake of fire just as the Bible depicts it or there may not I don’t know that but I do know there is a hell. I know that for a fact because I have spent a short time there. When the bible depicts the weeping and nashing of teeth it is not joking. It’s a horrible fate beyond all reckoning and it’s something that is not to be taken lightly. It is your demons desire that you spend as much time there as possible and especially with him there for all of eternity.

I’m an outgoing person. I love music and dancing. It’s a lot of fun and you get to meet new people and learn interesting things about them. Even the dance itself can tell you many things about that person that you would not know through just talking to them. If they are really shy of speaking a dance with them can really get them to open up to you and tell you things that you otherwise not know about them. A dance can tell you how comfortable they are with you and them selfs. In a certain sense it’s almost like sexual intercourse but yet it can not be anything like that at all. It communicates much more than sex because who you are comes out in the dance. Emotions, desires, confidence or the lack of these things all come out in the dance. I am very much pro dancing before dating because you then know more about that person than if you even had sex with them and you even find out much more about yourself. And here is the great part, you don’t even have to break any of God’s laws to do it and just like sex it just gets better the more you do it (at least that what I am told I’m actually still a virgin). However you still must be guarded what you do with the dance because that still holds the power to send you to hell. That’s why I spent my short time in hell.

It was a Friday night just last year and I had some great plans for it. Aaron and Runeor had planed to that we would all meet up somewhere downtown and party. So since I had planed on drinking later I took the bus down to downtown but before I was to meet up with them I wanted to go dancing at the turnverin before hand so I walked over there. When I got there I met up with a few of my friends there, two girls that I had met there on prevous nights. One was 17 and red headed and the other was 16 and was white but she had slanted eyes. I also found that they had an open bar that night and was really pleased to find some good selections of interesting beers. I had to go up and get one and these were tall ones and over 9% so finishing one was like 3 Budweisers in alcohol content. Now you can see where this night is going, underage girls and good beer and not only that but I decide to hang mostly around the 16 year old for the night, the one that could send me to jail if we went too far. My hell was being prepared for me.

We spent a couple of hours at the turn, (as we call the Denver turnverin) drinking some of those good beers and dancing with some girls but mostly with the 16 year old. That girl we called Turkmenistan girl but I learned that she didn’t like people thinking that she was Asian so me and Aaron started referring to her as the girl that we formally called Turkmenistan girl. I don’t know why she doesn’t like the slanted eyes I thought they were cute but she was really upset when I mentioned it. But I still had a fun night there and after awhile the red head wanted to go out to the drive-ins with her boyfriend of the time and another one of their friends. Sounded like a good plan to me but I wanted some more beer so I got her to agree to take me to argonaut’s and mind you I have already had two of thous beers at the turn and was starting on my third. We all pile into the red head’s car and stop off at argonaut’s and they let me out. But I just remembered I’m still holding the third beer from the turn so I just set it down on the side of the building and walk past the cops into argonaut’s. I grab a Stone Epic, an Arrogant Bastard Ale, a Chimay dubbel, A Yeti Imperial stout, and a six pack of Breckenridge’s Vanilla Porter and if you know anything of micro brews you’ll know that these are big beers and with the exception of the six pack they were all bombers. I walk out of there with a big box of beer and see that my third beer from the turn was still siting next to the building so I pick that up and start to drink it again. I got back in the car and we moved on to the drive-ins still unaware of the hell that awaited me.

We made it there half way through transformers and got in despite the sign saying no alcoholic drinks allowed. Of course I plaided for it but we were just relaxing but I was not paying too much attention to movie but rater that 16 year old that was sitting next to me. I gave the red head’s boyfriend the Yeti while I started in on the Chimay and at this point I have had the equivalent to about 10 Budweisers and I am still drinking. The 16 year old put her head on my shoulder so I went ahead and my arm around her but as I did it I was thinking “man I better try to keep this girl under control here, I don’t want to get in trouble.” In retrospect I guess that was a little bit ridiculous considering that I was the one drunk and she wasn’t but when she later told me that I was hitting on her that night, I thought that was crazy but maybe I was. I don’t quite remember how the conversation went but I do remember her constantly reminding me that I was drunk and I kept on wanting to get off that subject and move on to something else, anything other than my drunken state. After the movie we decided to go get something to eat but first the red head wanted my phone to call up Aaron and ask him what to do with me. He just told her to drop me off at union station. So then we headed to the breakfast king got some good grub and they actually dropped me off at Market Street Station.

I got out and gave the 16 year old a hug and told her I would call her like she asked and then I headed down into Market Street Station still carrying the box with empty bottles of beer and I still had the six pack and Arrogant Bastard Ale with me as well as the Stone Epic. I deiced it would be a good idea to throw away the empty bottles with the box but in the process I dropped the Stone Epic and shattered that all over the ground so I quickly tried to clean that up (and I didn’t do a very good job of it). After that I thought it would be a good idea to drink the Arrogant Bastard Ale while I waited for the bus, seemed to fit right, I was being an arrogant bastard at the moment. The security guard came up to me and told me that he didn’t think they would let me on with the beer so I started trying to hurry through the Arrogant Bastard Ale. When it got time to get on the bus the guard told me he wouldn’t let me on with the beer so I went ahead and through away the Arrogant Bastard Ale and set down the six pack thinking some bum is going to have himself a good night but the guard still wouldn’t let me on. So I had to pick up the six pack and walk out of market street station and he followed me and told be to stay off the premises so I had to walk on the street. I was walking in downtown Denver at 3 in the morning with no ride back home. So while I was trying to figure out what to do I opened a Vanilla Porter and kept walking north on market when I walked past some cops.

The Cop stopped me and asked me if that beer was open. I Just said “yes, sir.” He immediately took the bottle out of my hand and poured it out on the ground and then snatched up the rest of the six pack and then he forcefully asked me if I wanted to go to jail. I just said “no, sir.” Then he just told me to get out of here and I just responded with another “yes, sir,” still disappointed that he took my beer. As I started to walk again a female cop passed me saying “you are lucky that he didn’t take you to jail.” Still not knowing what to do I called up Aaron told that the cops took my beer while he was at Tiffany’s place trying to sleep. I told him that I was just going to walk home but he was instant that I shouldn’t do that. He told me to wait at Union for the next bus. That bus didn’t come till 6 in the morning but I thought that if I hurried I might make the last one for the night. Of course I didn’t, so instead I remembered that there was a park near Union that I could sleep it off because usually there was no one there at night. There is a little hill in the park with a dip down in the canter of it so that you could lay down in it and no one could see you there. So I laid down there and tried to sleep a little before getting on the bus. However I didn’t sleep at all there because my hell was there waiting to torment me.

The grass was freshly watered and cold with the wind blowing and right then I could feel my soul slip right out of me. I didn’t literally die that night but it felt like I just had. The pain of it all is indescribable in how vast it is. It’s like your entire identity is gone and all that is left is pain and sorrow. There’s no joy there, no happiness, just cold dead pain. All you can do is weep and I was unable to move form there. I just kept on crying out to God to save me from this and stop the pain that was unbearable. But all the while when I was there God’s presence was there too. I couldn’t see him but I did feel him there and I knew that this would come to an end. After what seemed like years in hell God finally filled me back up with his holy spirit and I became content but he first gave me a commandment for me to follow. I couldn’t have known then but the commandment was for me to help me to learn how to trust God with all that I do. His commandment to me was for me to love that 16 year old. After that night I got to know her well and I did love her but it wasn’t the kind of love that we usually think of, it’s the kind of love that God has for us. I am just a human and I couldn’t do it perfectly but I praise God that he kept me from messing up with her because that’s something that could have destroyed me.

That 16 year old really is a wonderful young woman but she still has her problems and it’s the same problem that we all have: lack of trust in God. She is the most personable Woman that I have ever met in my life and with that she can do many great things. She knows her own problems and that is something rare in a person and not only that but she can see it in others. She can accomplish many great things if she will learn to trust in God. But our demon finds his way to our weakest spot and uses it to try to keep us from the rope of trust. If we can make to our rope we can climb up it and out of our hell and see the landscape that is our life. It’s hard to get there because we all have a demon trying to block us and pull us down from the rope once we get there. However God does provide a rope of trust for all of us and we can choose to climb it. The funny thing of it all is once we do climb it we realize that it was all God that found us and lead us to the rope and he is the one that helped us climb it and gave us rests when we needed it. God is the only reason that I was able to find it and he also was the one to point out the important rocks and ridges of my life that were important. I pray that you will also find your rope of trust and choose the climb it because in this life that’s all that matters and that’s all that we need and I also pray that God will bring people into your life to help you find it.

1 comment.

More Imagology!

Posted on April 26th, 2008 by Bieren Skidels.
Categories: Itelligent Life, Philosophy.

haha…

anyway, B’strad seems to really hate “imagology”

he thinks the piece is “crap” and that the idea is not clear… and who knows, maybe it is?

The idea was originally brought to me by Milan Kundera in his 1980 book “Immortality”, one of the books that helped him receive the Jerusalem Prize, a biannual prize given to one author who has used his writing to support “the freedom of individuals within society.” Milan Kundera is a czech author who’s works are some of the most interesting criqiques of the late soviet regimes and propaganda.

After our conversation of the first article (A Word for B’Strad: Imagology) I decided to look up what others had written about imagology. It turns out some of B’strad’s “buddies” don’t think so negatively of “imagology” — maybe it’s because they understand it? A woman going by the name of “neo-neocon” describes herself as:

I’m a woman in my fifties, lifelong Democrat mugged by reality on 9/11. Born in New York, living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I’ve found myself slowly but surely leaving the fold and becoming that dread thing: a neocon.

she writes:

There are certain authors I keep coming back to. One of them is Milan Kundera, whom I first read and loved about twenty-five years ago, but whose works, on rereading, seem even more loaded with political and philosophical insight than I realized at the time. One can open them randomly and start reading, and find something pertinent on nearly every page.

Here’s a quote from Kundera’s 1990 work Immortality that I think bears another look. He is talking about the ascendance of imagery (which he refers to as “imagology,” meaning suggestive images and slogans) over ideology, or even over reality:

She goes on to discuss the same passage I was reflecting on, read it here. She finishes by tying the idea in with modern terrorism:

Kundera follows this passage with another one that discusses the ascendance of imagology over ideology. Even Kundera didn’t quite foresee the way in which sophisticated imagology (the Al Jazeera network, for example) would feed into an ancient ideology (Islamicist supremecy and supercesssionism) along with advanced techniques of terrorism, and create the mess we encounter today.

This page includes other links to critiques of “Hamas” — now we could argue about how each of these examples fit into imagology. But the main point is, imagology does not seem in question by many free-thinking individuals on both sides of the libera/conservative divide. However, a brash misunderstanding of it led B’strad to calling the idea “crap” without even trying to understand it as some of his more free-thinking conservatives have.

For more interesting views on imagology, the exact same passage by Kundera is analyzed here, where it states (just added for fun):

” what I’m about to write […] will more likely intrigue you and push you in the direction of Kundera-reading, an extremely noble activity”

and the same passage is also considered here, where it is applied to false images people put on at parties or in social situations — having nothing to do wtih “politics”

here, the same idea and passage from Kundera is used to discuss web design, namely Web 2.0

and here is a link to a book in which the ideas of this passage are used to discuss feminism…

Conclusion:

Point being, the idea put forth by Kundera has been admired by thinkers of different types, engineers, conservatives, liberals, feminists, and even socialites… Ideas like this are why a politically charged writer such as Kundera could have been considered for the Nobel Prize in literature… but of course, these books I read are probably just “crap” as B’strad says… I mean it only took me about 5 or 6 years of heavy reading (100’s of books) and rereading to start to understand them, but then again — B’strad probably has a better evaluation of them anyways. It’s a good thing he hasn’t spent much time reading from any of the “greatest-minds-to-have-ever-lived”, because they might have polluted his clarity of thought… they might have bothered him… but then again, he has Rush Limbaugh to rely on for stimulating intellectual content. My apologies…

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