The End of the World is nigh: Religious Fuckwads Rejoice!

  According to Michele Bachmann, the End of the World is nigh and all good Christians should rejoice! This poster child for mandatory lobotomies for the terminally stupid thinks that Pres. Obama's policies, gay rights and Iran possibly getting nuclear weapons is a sign that the End Times are coming soon. To make matters worse, there are a lot of people, primarily Tea Partiers, that listen to the vacuous babbling of Our Lady of the Empty Skull and believe every word of it. These insane religious fuckwads actually want all sorts of misery, pain and suffering to be inflicted on mankind because they believe they'll be magically Raptured up to Heaven before the shit hits the fan. What really worries me is that the more demented of these fuckwads might try to actively bring about the events the Bible says proceed the Rapture in order to speed the process. Won't that be loads of fun? I got news for them, if the shit does hit the fan like they want it to, they're going to be very disappointed when they find out they're not going to Heaven. They're going to be stuck here with the rest of us.

Islam: Religion of Peace?

  In Kabul, Afghanistan, a woman named Farkhunda was beaten to death when a peddler in Kabul's Shah-Do Shamshira mosque accused her of burning a Quran when the two of them had an argument because he was selling amulets to childless women. Details as to what the mob did to her are in this Journal Times article. No evidence was ever put forth that she had burned a Quran. She was not arrested, tried and found guilty of burning a Quran. The mob simply beat her to death based on what the peddler said. The police officers present at the time either ignored the situation or took an active part in her death. Muslims say that Islam is a religion of peace. How can they say that when incidences like this occur? This is what I truly hate about religion. A crowd of people went homicidal because they thought someone had burned a copy of their holy book. I don't care what you think about the Quran, it's just a fucking book. Millions of copies of it exist and millions of copies have likely been destroyed in various manners. And the Quran, like every other "holy" book written before or since, was written by man. Not God, man. And because man wrote it, it contains not only man's wisdom but also man's hatred and prejudices as well. We're flawed therefore our "holy" books are flawed as well. We, as a species, have a nasty tendency to elevate things and regard them as being above question or reproach. Religion is one of those things. Some people believe that no one is allowed to criticize, question or insult it. This is complete and utter fucking bullshit. Religion isn't holy. It's merely a bunch of superstitions that WAY too many people believe to be true. We, as a species, need to stop drinking the poisoned Kool Aid of religious belief and start letting reason and logic enlighten us instead.

Religious Freedom Acts

  Gov. Pence stirred up quite a hornet's nest of protest when he signed SB 101, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law. Despite what he said, this law was nothing more than a blatant attempt to give right wing Christian bigots the freedom to discriminate against LGBT people on religious grounds without having to worry about being sued. The Christian bigot portion of this country is constantly looking for ways to lord it over the rest of us and they get real whiny when they don't get their way.

  Gov. Pence initially supported the bill and said that its detractors simply didn't understand the bill's intended purpose. It should be noted, however, that Memories Pizza announced that if they were asked to cater to a gay wedding, they would refuse. Follow the link for more information on that. This is exactly what Gov. Pence said wouldn't happen when SB 101 became law.
  The backlash was swift and brutal. The NCAA announced that it would no longer hold any March Madness tournaments there if the law isn't amended or repealed. Angie's List, which is based in Indiana, has held off a planned expansion of their business there because of this bill. Gen Con, one of the largest gaming conventions going, made it clear that they will take their business elsewhere if they feel that some of their attendees will be discriminated against because of this law. Even the Disciples of Christ have made it that they will move their convention because of SB 101. So many businesses and organizations have weighed in on the matter that Gov. Pence had no choice but to add a clarification to the bill stating that businesses could not use it to discriminate against LGBT people. It should be noted that although the bill has been amended, parts of Indiana still allow people to be fired because they're gay so there's still work to be done here.

Suicidal Tendencies

  Sometimes the only answer to Life's problems is death. Between my declining health and rapidly mounting debt, I'm getting close to reaching that point. I'm tired of working and having nothing to show for it. What's the point in busting my ass only to fall further and further behind? In death, my problems would still exist but I'd no longer give a shit. The one loan I took out has a clause in it that considers it paid off should I die so it would cease to exist the moment I cease to exist. That's over $6,000.00 of debt erased in an instant. Now I fully realize that committing suicide has repercussions. My family and friends would be grief stricken by my decision. They would, however, eventually get over it. And if they didn't, I'd still be dead and thus in no position to care. You see I don't believe in an afterlife. There's no soul that separates from my body to head off to some mythical place of eternal bliss or torment. That's religious bullshit designed to force you to conform to their belief system. The only existence you have after death is the memories of those still living. When those are gone, so are you.

  Do I want to commit suicide? Not at the moment. Whether that changes of not depends on a lot of things. But I have to admit that there are times when my life seems utterly pointless and devoid of meaning. I feel the only reason I'm here is so Fate has someone to shit on. Now I fully realize that there are people whose lives are far, far worse than mine. There's not much I can do about it but I am aware of it. That doesn't change things. If my life continues to spiral down the proverbial toilet, suicide might be my response.

The NHGHs of Life Part 4: Addendum

  After calling both Aurora and the insurance people, the picture isn't looking very good. Aurora is going to send Anthem an itemized list for the procedures done at the end of last year but they informed me that I may have reached my benefit limit for the period. If that's the case, I'll be stuck with the entire bill. To top things off, Aurora informed me that one other bill wasn't paid because I was apparently not covered at the time. I had to cancel my dentist appointment. They expect the entire bill to be paid in full either immediately before or after the procedure. That's $600.00 I simply don't have. It seems very likely right now that I'll have to cancel my plans to go to Gen Con this year. With all the debt I'm buried in, it'll take years for me to dig myself out.

Results Not Typical

  Have you ever noticed the fine print in some TV ads? Weight loss ads are prone to fine print. They show you a bunch of people that lost all kinds of weight on their drug/diet plan while the fine print states that their results aren't typical. Why won't they tell us how much weight the average person will lose using their drug/diet plan? Could it be that the average results aren't all that impressive?

  Then there's the bidding sites like DealDash.com. They talk about how you can get up to 90% savings on items like smartphones, tablets and the like. But the fine print makes it clear that these results aren't typical and that the final price doesn't include the cost of the bids placed. And while the fine print informs you of how many bids a particular bidder made on a given item, it doesn't tell you how much each bid costs. Why? What are they hiding? These weight loss and bidding sites should inform people about what results the average person can expect because that's the results most people are going to get. And the bidding sites should make it clear up front how much each bid costs. I don't like the thought of paying for bids. On eBay, if you lose an auction, you pay nothing. Only the buyer and seller pay anything. On these other sites, if you lose, you're out the cost of the bids you made. 

The NHGHs of Life Part 4: The Financial Report

  I can't seem to get ahead. I spent about 4 years getting rid of my MasterCard and Discover debt. Four years. And when I finally pull this off, my health takes a turn for the worse and I'm right back in debt. I didn't get any time to build up my savings and checking account. None. To make matters worse, Aurora has billed me $12,889.80 for the time I spent in the hospital when my creatinine level went up to 6.91. So far, my insurance hasn't covered any of it. I contacted them and they said that they needed an itemized list of everything done so they can work matters out. They asked Aurora for the list on Jan. 19th but never heard back from them. I called Aurora and asked them to send the list. I'm hoping this works out. If I get stuck with the entire $12,880.89, I'm well and truly fucked. I'll be spending another shitload of years digging myself out. Hell, I may never get out from under this.