With such a title, I could be talking about many things. Be it from conspiracy theories about the state eliminating people they don't want to live (but I'm not into conspiracy theories, so that's not it) to wars where enemies who don't deserve to live become less than humans and just targets to eliminated. But no, I'm talking about the death penalty they have in some parts of the world, including the United States, my south neighbors. Executions made the proper humane way via lethal injection or some other method to stop the heart.
I'm doing this in response to the execution of Troy Davis a couple hours ago. But this is not me saying the man was innocent, let me get back on this later, this is more about the death penalty itself.
Now let me put this in other words. State-sanctioned murder via poison that blocks important vital functions of your body in order to cause rapid death. Is it painful or is it not? I don't know and I'm ready to accept that maybe you're unconscious and feel nothing, which is less severe than what the murdered made its victims in most cases, I would agree. That's not a problem and it's probably better than a slow painful death, much better than what a cruel murderer deserves maybe. Where I do have a problem though is in the hypocrisy behind all of this.
- Murder is wrong, it's something you should never do because human life is valued to our eyes!
- What happens if I murder someone?
- Then we murder you!
To me, maybe that's because I'm weak and sentimal and all the bullshit, but it seems like it lessens the value of human life if we then invent a situation where the state recognizes that a particular human life has no more value. It also lessens the impact of murder if we then invent a situation where murder is right. It just seems barbaric, a vestige of early tribal behavior, and it fixes nothing. If somebody kills my parents and is put to death, the only thing I'm gonna think about that night is: "Wow, I actually don't feel better. My parents are still dead and I don't feel better about it." Just saying, state killing someone won't help. Maybe if I had the right to do the job myself that would be better and I'm sure in some cases, when people would confront the killer, they wouldn't be able to do the job and would let him live. I'm not saying to get killers out of prison though, just don't kill them.
But I know not everyone agrees on this, this is a very liberal position after all. And I do understand why some people think they need it. It might feel good for a while just to get vengeance, I just think it's more illusion than reality. I still feel there's some hypocrisy there, but I'm ready to let this point go.
The biggest issue I have against the death penalty is when the state is wrong. When the killer is actually an innocent man. Now comes the Troy Davis case. But I already said it, this rant is not me claiming the guy was innocent. He claimed he was innocent, it also seems there was some doubt over his case and we can't hide the fact that he was an afro-american man and sometimes they're treated unfairly. But the truth is, he might have been the killer. I really don't know much about his case and about him. I really don't know if he was the killer, I really don't. Do you? You have your beliefs about the case, but do you KNOW? Did the state know for sure? Well apparently not, since there were some doubts. But he was still murdered (I'm employing this word because it is the right word, even if he was guilty).
I could only support the death penalty if we were all-knowing. If there was no doubt at all that the killer did it. This is almost impossible in real life right now. That is unless we have reliable witnesses, strong evidence, possibly video evidence too and DNA evidence, with confession from the killer. Wouldn't you want the state to be careful like that if it was your own life in their hands?
But I know there's another argument, saying that prisoners are usually stuck for many years waiting for their death and this becomes very painful mentally for them. Well, in Troy Davis' case, his last words were apparently still claiming his innocence after all this time and it doesn't seem like he was happy to be forced to go. Once again, I'm not claiming his innocence, just saying that this argument that some people want to die after a while is not always true. And it's not so hard to fix. Let them have right over their own life. If we have no doubts someone is the killer, maybe they deserve to die and let's kill them. If there's any doubt, let's not kill them and investigate further. If someone is tired of living, then let's comply to their wish and kill them or let them kill themselves. Well, not so fast, first give them an obligatory consultation with a psychologist and let's ensure that their decision is the right thing for them. If it is, let's kill them.
It seems that I value life too much actually. My way of thinking is that probably a lot of people on death row are actual murderer. Maybe even only a single person is truly innocent. I said I was against the death penalty for its hypocrisy (and also it seems statistics tell us it doesn't stop murderers from doing what they do and the United States has more killers than Canada actually), but my real issue is killing innocent people. Killing murderers, ultimately, I don't have much sympathy for them. But for me, even if there's one single error, human life is so important that killing 99 murderers and 1 innocent man is not a good enough ratio for the death penalty to continue to exist. It seems like people who don't think like me are thinking the other way around. Yeah, we make mistakes, but that's rare enough that if we can kill tons of murderers it's good enough. I don't know, I just don't think like that personally.
And apparently, lots of people wait on death row all their life without getting executed. It costs a shit ton in tax money to everybody (not where I live though as we don't have the death penalty in Canada). Once again, like I said before, yes some people get executed, but it really does look like the death penalty and its benefits is more like an illusion than a reality.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Final Fantasy's lost its magic
I hate to speak too soon since I'm not very far in the game (especially for most RPGs), but nobody would say it's too soon since Final Fantasy XIII came out more than a year ago now. I heard nearly everywhere that fans were disappointed by the game and I didn't want to try it too much, until now.
I've been a fan of earlier games of the series, but have been lately disappointed, like XI (I don't plan to pay a subscription for an MMORPG at the time) and XII of which I just didn't like the real-time automated simplified gameplay (that's how I call it), but most importantly the story was uninteresting to me. Now XIII where the story seems both stone cold serious and at times ridiculous (come on, there's the stereotypical comic relief black dude... with a bird, a chocobo, hiding in his afro). Furthermore, the gameplay is even more simplified and automated where I'm at.I went through all the fights without doing anything more than choosing the auto command, I can only play using the leader, no character building (I expect something later on that permits me to upgrade characters or this is total shit) and no rest between dungeons right now, just a long walk with many fights and a couple people here and there that are of no importance. The rest seems to be cutscenes every 5-10 minutes of gameplay and the thing seems to be more linear than ever.
I think Final Fantasy had it back in the SNES days and even PS1 with VII, which was just one of the most amazing games in the series despite coming out before it was fully developed (from what I observed), and IX, which was a good nostalgic experience clearly made for fans of the series.
At some point they decided to forget the roots of the series to freshen it up a bit I assume, but the magic was then lost. I hate to be saying to stay the same all the time and never change, but that's not what I'm saying anyway. There was PLENTY of change between earlier games while still being Final Fantasy games. You can't just use a series to make anything, apart from a couple spinoffs (and certainly not a lot) or else the series means nothing anymore.
Final Fantasy XIII and similar culprits who share the same root name, you're not Final Fantasy, you're impostors claiming the title for its fame and to make some easy money with no merits of your own. I sincerely hope I change my opinion by the end of the game, but after a few hours of play already, I can just expect it to become a little better than my initial presumptions, but still not very good.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
May 21, 2011: a new cycle of insanity
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, shame on me.
And actually in this case, the first time people were fooled by this idiot was already a shame on them. I'm talking about Harold Camping, American Christian radio broadcaster and president of Family Radio. He's most famous recently for having predicted that all true Christians would be raptured (ascend to heaven) as Jesus Christ would come back for them on May 21, 2011, at around 6:00 PM local time.
It did not happen...
He also made a previous "end times prediction" in September 1994 and that obviously didn't happen (he later claimed a mistake in his calculations and that September 1994 was the "end of the church age"), whatever...
The man is rich and he's old (he's 89). The fact that he's rich certainly doesn't help me sympathize with him (it doesn't make me instantly hate him either), but the fact that he's really really old should make me respect him, after all they say respect your elders, don't they? Fuck him! That's not gonna gain my respect for him since I prefer to say "respect whoever deserves respect", unrelated to their age, according to your standards. Isn't it the same Bible that Christians follow that says: "Each tree is recognized by its own fruit." Now, I'm an atheist, so I'm certainly not gonna sympathize with the man for being a Christian. (Please spare me the "true" or "false Christian" bullshit, anyway I don't care, I judge a man by his actions, not his beliefs.)
That 89 years old sick rich fuck has done bad in this world (and there's probably no afterlife to redeem himself). People ask: "what's the harm in believing?" That's the harm! If you're not skeptical of what you believe in, if you hold some things as untouchable and true from the beginning without reserving the right to question them, that's DANGEROUS and yet believers don't seem to get this. You have every right to believe in your fairy tales, but please think before you do anything and don't impose those ideas on others.
But what Camping did wasn't so bad, especially if he truly believed the world would end. He didn't force anybody to follow him. I bet that's what you're thinking. Well, he certainly did encourage them in their wrong beliefs though, the same man that very well knows he made a mistake last time and did the same mistake this time around while saying that he was guaranteeing the end of the world as we know it. When you do these things, you should have to sign a contract and be responsible for your actions. At least something so that these wrong beliefs are not encouraged and die off someday.
I'm certain that most faith healers or people who speak "for the Lord" or people like Camping know that they're bullshitting to some degree. To me that's a scam, a fraud, and some form of punishment is well deserved like we usually do in these cases (especially since all these people are usually very rich or make some good money at the very least).
Where I'm gonna agree with you though is that nobody was forced to follow him and most people, even most Christians, didn't follow him. Those who did, I'm not gonna be nice and in fact this is gonna sound plain cruel, but they deserve their loss. Be it that they sold all their material belongings including their house or because they left their job, but they deserve it. Use your head, believe in whatever you want to believe as long as you're not blind and don't do anything crazy. These people made the wrong choice long ago and it's their fault, even though they can't help it because of the way they were indoctrinated.
The true drama in this scenario isn't what's happening to the most devout of Camping's followers right now as they continue to live in the same world I'm in (here's a tip by the way, next time ask for proof, valid proof. Right now, concentrate on fixing the world we're in and enjoy it for God's sake! Stop saying it's so bad and it's getting worse. In fact, I think it's getting better and if people weren't still insane in 2011, it would be a lot better...)
The true drama is what's happening to the children of these people. These people made a wrong choice, their young children didn't. I'm not the person who cares the most for children in this world, I certainly don't want any because that would annoy me, but those are living human beings in a state of weakness who can't and don't know any better, beginning life with a bullet in the foot. If their parents sold all their belongings, they're now poor and will probably not be able to care properly for their children for a long time if ever. These children will probably not get a good education or in the worst cases be homeschooled by the same people who did blindly follow the first man that told them their savior was gonna come and care for them on May 21, 2011, without any valid proof outside of wrong mathematics in a book that's been PROVEN to have many false statements about the world we live in, many errors and inconsistencies too if you read it all the way in.
We're repeating a cycle of insanity here where 50 years from now we'll still have false end times predictions, fundamentalist religious people who can't appreciate the world they live in and think everyone is wrong for what they do, but also try to impose their beliefs on everyone. Basically, hatred and intolerance caused by basic ignorance. And by not doing anything about it we're helping these people in a way. Please don't let kids be indoctrinated; this is looking more like a crime every day. I want to live in a better more rational world, so teach them critical thinking from a young age. Religion is, like Dr. Darrel Ray, author of The God Virus, would certainly agree, a sexually transmitted disease...
Update: he said God has judged us or something and the only noticeable changes a.k.a. the real complete destruction of the universe would happen on October 31. All I can say is if you're reading this after October 31, 2011, he was obviously wrong. I hope nobody follows this clown anymore, but that's not very realistic since people usually will follow false prophets (and let's face it, they're all false) years after they've been proven wrong. PEOPLE ARE STUPID!!!
Fool me twice, shame on me.
And actually in this case, the first time people were fooled by this idiot was already a shame on them. I'm talking about Harold Camping, American Christian radio broadcaster and president of Family Radio. He's most famous recently for having predicted that all true Christians would be raptured (ascend to heaven) as Jesus Christ would come back for them on May 21, 2011, at around 6:00 PM local time.
It did not happen...
He also made a previous "end times prediction" in September 1994 and that obviously didn't happen (he later claimed a mistake in his calculations and that September 1994 was the "end of the church age"), whatever...
The man is rich and he's old (he's 89). The fact that he's rich certainly doesn't help me sympathize with him (it doesn't make me instantly hate him either), but the fact that he's really really old should make me respect him, after all they say respect your elders, don't they? Fuck him! That's not gonna gain my respect for him since I prefer to say "respect whoever deserves respect", unrelated to their age, according to your standards. Isn't it the same Bible that Christians follow that says: "Each tree is recognized by its own fruit." Now, I'm an atheist, so I'm certainly not gonna sympathize with the man for being a Christian. (Please spare me the "true" or "false Christian" bullshit, anyway I don't care, I judge a man by his actions, not his beliefs.)
That 89 years old sick rich fuck has done bad in this world (and there's probably no afterlife to redeem himself). People ask: "what's the harm in believing?" That's the harm! If you're not skeptical of what you believe in, if you hold some things as untouchable and true from the beginning without reserving the right to question them, that's DANGEROUS and yet believers don't seem to get this. You have every right to believe in your fairy tales, but please think before you do anything and don't impose those ideas on others.
But what Camping did wasn't so bad, especially if he truly believed the world would end. He didn't force anybody to follow him. I bet that's what you're thinking. Well, he certainly did encourage them in their wrong beliefs though, the same man that very well knows he made a mistake last time and did the same mistake this time around while saying that he was guaranteeing the end of the world as we know it. When you do these things, you should have to sign a contract and be responsible for your actions. At least something so that these wrong beliefs are not encouraged and die off someday.
I'm certain that most faith healers or people who speak "for the Lord" or people like Camping know that they're bullshitting to some degree. To me that's a scam, a fraud, and some form of punishment is well deserved like we usually do in these cases (especially since all these people are usually very rich or make some good money at the very least).
Where I'm gonna agree with you though is that nobody was forced to follow him and most people, even most Christians, didn't follow him. Those who did, I'm not gonna be nice and in fact this is gonna sound plain cruel, but they deserve their loss. Be it that they sold all their material belongings including their house or because they left their job, but they deserve it. Use your head, believe in whatever you want to believe as long as you're not blind and don't do anything crazy. These people made the wrong choice long ago and it's their fault, even though they can't help it because of the way they were indoctrinated.
The true drama in this scenario isn't what's happening to the most devout of Camping's followers right now as they continue to live in the same world I'm in (here's a tip by the way, next time ask for proof, valid proof. Right now, concentrate on fixing the world we're in and enjoy it for God's sake! Stop saying it's so bad and it's getting worse. In fact, I think it's getting better and if people weren't still insane in 2011, it would be a lot better...)
The true drama is what's happening to the children of these people. These people made a wrong choice, their young children didn't. I'm not the person who cares the most for children in this world, I certainly don't want any because that would annoy me, but those are living human beings in a state of weakness who can't and don't know any better, beginning life with a bullet in the foot. If their parents sold all their belongings, they're now poor and will probably not be able to care properly for their children for a long time if ever. These children will probably not get a good education or in the worst cases be homeschooled by the same people who did blindly follow the first man that told them their savior was gonna come and care for them on May 21, 2011, without any valid proof outside of wrong mathematics in a book that's been PROVEN to have many false statements about the world we live in, many errors and inconsistencies too if you read it all the way in.
We're repeating a cycle of insanity here where 50 years from now we'll still have false end times predictions, fundamentalist religious people who can't appreciate the world they live in and think everyone is wrong for what they do, but also try to impose their beliefs on everyone. Basically, hatred and intolerance caused by basic ignorance. And by not doing anything about it we're helping these people in a way. Please don't let kids be indoctrinated; this is looking more like a crime every day. I want to live in a better more rational world, so teach them critical thinking from a young age. Religion is, like Dr. Darrel Ray, author of The God Virus, would certainly agree, a sexually transmitted disease...
Update: he said God has judged us or something and the only noticeable changes a.k.a. the real complete destruction of the universe would happen on October 31. All I can say is if you're reading this after October 31, 2011, he was obviously wrong. I hope nobody follows this clown anymore, but that's not very realistic since people usually will follow false prophets (and let's face it, they're all false) years after they've been proven wrong. PEOPLE ARE STUPID!!!
Presentation
First, who am I? I'm Bob, 24 years old at the time of this writing. From Quebec, my native language is French and as you can see I speak or rather write English well enough (I hope!) I don't think I have much more to reveal that is of importance, except that I play lots of video games and watch lots of movies of all sorts. Basically, I'm a geek (like the title of the site implies) and that's about all you need to know.
What is "A Geek's Thoughts"? Basically, that's just my personal corner on the Web to say what I think about various things in varying lengths from time to time when I feel like it. That may include geeky things, such as news or opinions about gaming, movies and comics, also some rants and opinions about life in general.
One of my main pet peeves/fascination is religion, I'm personally a skeptic and an atheist, formerly non-practicing Catholic. I just see religion as a hindrance to humanity's progress (along with sometimes being dangerous) and I'm more a fan of rational thinking. But still, believe what you want to believe and I reserve the freedom to criticize it while you have the right to criticize me!
On this site, you can expect to see some angry rants and offending words (at least offending to some) as I don't want to censor myself. I'm more of the Carlin school of thought. As such, I'm also often counterculture and in retrospective, it's always fun to see how a stupid inanimate object like a game or movie can make someone like me angry! But also often enough happy! So enjoy what you read, leave comments. Peace!
What is "A Geek's Thoughts"? Basically, that's just my personal corner on the Web to say what I think about various things in varying lengths from time to time when I feel like it. That may include geeky things, such as news or opinions about gaming, movies and comics, also some rants and opinions about life in general.
One of my main pet peeves/fascination is religion, I'm personally a skeptic and an atheist, formerly non-practicing Catholic. I just see religion as a hindrance to humanity's progress (along with sometimes being dangerous) and I'm more a fan of rational thinking. But still, believe what you want to believe and I reserve the freedom to criticize it while you have the right to criticize me!
On this site, you can expect to see some angry rants and offending words (at least offending to some) as I don't want to censor myself. I'm more of the Carlin school of thought. As such, I'm also often counterculture and in retrospective, it's always fun to see how a stupid inanimate object like a game or movie can make someone like me angry! But also often enough happy! So enjoy what you read, leave comments. Peace!
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