After hearing about the recent bombings in southern Thailand I figured a few people might visit my site to see if I posted anything about it so I figured I’d post something, but not about it. So what’s up? This past weekend I went for a long walk, about 28km or 17 miles. I set out after a big breakfast at the morning market with no destination in mind. I just knew I wanted out of my room and away from my notes so I started walking. After a couple hours of walking I came across some caves which I did some climbing in and then after a couple more hours of walking I came across a creek which I took a bath in. After that I hitchhiked back home and eventually refueled with a few organically grown tree-ripened bittersweet durians followed by a load of vegetables. Continue reading
Disaster Trump
Donald Trump is unfit to be president and entrusting such an erratic individual with the nuclear launch codes is beyond irresponsible it is insane. We can not elect a president who thinks climate change is a hoax and who has vowed to “cancel” the Paris Climate Agreement.
This election is not a choice between the lesser of two evils it is a choice between stability and disaster. I choose stability and that is why I support Hillary Clinton for president. Not voting or voting for a third party candidate is almost as bad as voting for Disaster Trump so I hope all Bernie supporters will vote for Hillary in November and encourage others to do the same.
Hey Terrorists and Their Sympathizers, Please Stop It.
God will take care of me and all the other infidels so there’s no reason for you to shoot up night clubs, drive into crowds of innocent people, or commit any other atrocious acts. By even thinking about committing such evil acts in the name of God you’re basically saying that God is incapable of determining and carrying out his own will so he needs you to do it for him. That type of thinking is not only arrogant it is also insulting to the God you claim to serve. It’s almost as if you don’t really believe there is a God and are simply using the whole God is on my side idea to justify your sick and twisted view of reality.
Instead of hating those who don’t follow your primitive rules and rituals just view us in amusement and laugh at us knowing that we’re really going to get it from God in the manner and at the time of his choosing, not yours. In conclusion, God doesn’t need you to make decisions and take actions for him so please stop it. Moreover if you know someone who may be thinking and/or planning something bad then please confront them and report them to the authorities. We must all be vigilant against the violent and mentally unstable among us regardless of which dogma they use to justify their ideology and actions.
P.S. I hate to break it to you but your god doesn’t exist and we have no reason to believe that any other gods exist. At least not any that are aware of, concerned with, and actively influence the affairs on planet Earth so it’s time to stop praying (especially by singing/howling through loud speakers at 5am or any other time) and to start thinking for yourself and acting for a better world.
Earth Day Every Day
Today representatives from over 160 countries are meeting in New York to sign the Paris Climate Agreement reached last December. With all the talk about country/government commitments we must remember that curbing climate change isn’t just about what countries/governments pledge to do it’s also what each of us as individuals pledge/try to do. Future technological solutions to societies environmental problems are welcomed but in the meantime lets use some common sense and not be so wasteful or consume without considering the consequences. Thanks for living like you care and helping inspire others to do the same.
Show Me the Money
I picked up my visa in the afternoon as soon as they started handing them out to all the people that applied the morning yesterday and as soon as I got it I dashed for the border taking a series of local buses in hopes that, unlike last time, I could get through before dark. I made it to the border crossing at dusk and when it was almost my turn to get checked out and stamped in a guy from Singapore in front of me who arrived with me on the same bus told me to put 1 MYR in my passport with my arrival card to speed things up. I told him I would not be doing that and was thinking not only would I not give them the equivalent of a U.S. quarter for simply doing their job and be complicit in corruption I wouldn’t even give them a penny, not even a really dirty one I was just looking to get rid of. Continue reading
Durian Liars
Before you try buying a Mao Shan Wang durian just know that many durian sellers have no qualms about lying to your face and ripping you off so be sure to do your research before throwing down big money on a durian they tell you is tree ripened and freshly fallen Mao Shan Wang but is really just some imported and extremely overpriced Chanee that was cut down partially ripe from a tree in Thailand a week ago. If you’re interested in not being ripped off by durian sellers check out this article.
That Guy Was Crazy
Today as I was skateboarding the right way down a one-way road with no traffic I had a guy on a motorcycle drive up from behind in the lane next to me, look directly at me, and pretend to shoot me three times with his finger/hand. I have no idea what that was all about as I’m certain I’ve never met him or did anything in the last 24 hours I’ve been in Malaysia that could have possibly made him want to pretend to shoot me the way he did, which was not in a fun playful way. I got off my skateboard to put some distance between us and to think about what just happened and as I did there was a middle aged Singaporean couple walking towards me on the other side of the street that had seen what happened and were also surprised and the women said “That guy was crazy.”.
Getting Attacked For Helping People
I went to the shuttle bus stop to buy a ticket to the grocery store. I could’ve saved a dollar or two by getting into the back of an old truck with a bench running along each side of its cab, aka “local bus” but if I was going to be out on the road during this dangerous holiday I’d rather be in a big relatively safe bus. However I was told the 3pm bus wasn’t coming and since I didn’t want to wait for the next one I told the ticket lady no thanks and was going to head to the local bus stop. Continue reading
Water and Alcohol = Dangerous Roads
As if the roads in Thailand weren’t already dangerous enough today is the second day of Songkran (Thai New Year) a holiday where many people throw water from the side of the road and out of the back of trucks at people driving or walking by and where drunk drivers aren’t hard to find. I try to stay off the road this time of year as the death toll adds up. Right now for the first 3 days of this deadly week it’s at 181 deaths which is 50% higher than last year along with 1,771 injuries. In fact just a few hours ago I saw a truck that crashed off the side of the road with people standing around it.
According to the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute Thailand has the second most dangerous roads in the world with 44 deaths per 100,000 and the most dangerous is Namibia with 45. China is 22, the global average is 18, the U.S. is 14, and countries like Canada, France, and Germany are 8, 7, and 6 respectively. Which means you’re over 6 times likely to die on the roads in Thailand than you are in France or Germany. So if you’re in Thailand, particularly during Songkran, please be careful and wherever you are please, please, please don’t drink and drive.
Superdelegates
I just contacted my representatives in Congress and the Senate because although Bernie won my home state all three of my representatives are backing Hillary. If you’re from a state which the people said Sanders but the superdelegates are still saying Clinton I urge you to contact them and ask them to stand with the people and switch their support to Bernie because every superdelegate that switches over to Bernie strengthens our momentum going into New York and into the delegate rich Tuesday after that.
Just today Senator Merkley of Oregon switched his support to Senator Sanders and wrote this piece for the New York Times. We’re on the verge of something big! Lets not sit back and let it play out because if we do odds are this rare opportunity will slip through our fingers. You can contact your representatives via the links below.
U.S. Senate U.S. House of Representatives
Every single Democratic superdelegate, in one chart
Here’s a template based off of what I just sent to my representatives. You are welcome to customize if you don’t want to write an email from scratch:
Dear …,
I am disappointed that as a superdelegate you have not switched your support to Senator Sanders considering he defeated Secretary Clinton in the … Primary/Caucus. I urge you to reconsider and to stand with the majority of … voters by switching your support to Senator Sanders. Polls have repeatedly shown that Senator Sanders is a stronger candidate in the general election and as you know we can’t risk a low voter turnout and losing the White House to a Republican candidate that won’t even acknowledge climate change is a problem let alone take decisive action to curb it. Lets not just keep the White House in sane and progressive hands but also win back the Senate and gain seats in the Congress.
Please support Senator Bernie Sanders and urge other superdelegates from … along with those from other states won by Senator Sanders to do the same.
Sincerely,
…
Yellow Hands White Eyes
Yellow hands are nothing to worry about provided you have white eyes. If you do odds are your yellow hands, and feet, are a result of consistently consuming large amounts of beta carotene, probably from carrots, but in my case from papayas. This is known as carotenosis and is more common among fair skinned vegetarians and others who eat large amounts of fruits and vegetables. However you should be worried if in addition to yellowish skin your eyes also have a yellowish tinge to them as this is known as jaundice and is a sign of liver problems.
Nicotine Addicts
Even if you really couldn’t care less about yourself, your neighbor one floor above you, or that guy sitting behind you on the boat please realize that when you purchase tobacco you are funding ad campaigns designed to get children and young adults hooked on this terrible drug. Children like the many 14 year old girls and boys I’ve lectured on the sides of streets and backs of alleys over the years. I sincerely urge you, not for you, not for me, and not for the many other people who are really tired of your second hand smoke, but for all the young adults, children, and unborn babies you are harming to please stop smoking and supporting the tobacco industry.
What We’re Capable Of
Don’t let Hillary Clinton or anyone else tell you what the U.S. and it’s citizens are capable of whether it be providing single-payer healthcare for all or free college tuition particularly when such things have already been successfully done by other developed nations with higher standards of living and higher levels of social mobility.
The U.S./world suffers when people are sick and unproductive therefore it makes sense to ensure that everyone has access to efficient and affordable health care. The U.S./world also suffers when people are ignorant so it makes sense that anyone who is willing to put in the time and effort to further their education are able to do so regardless of their families wealth and without fear of becoming a slave to student debt.
Secular Bangladeshi Writers and Publishers
Freedom of thought/expression and freedom from the threats/violence of those who hold opposing views is a fundamental human right. When this sacred right is threatened in any part of the world as global citizens we should all take note and speak up. The government of Bangladesh must do all it can to bring these murderers to justice and prevent similar tragedies from occurring again in the future.
Bangladesh students protest after blogger hacked to death
I just tried to send this to the Bangladeshi embassy in D.C. but the contact form on their website doesn’t work so I sent it to the Bangladeshi consulate in N.Y.C. and asked them to please forward it. I’m telling you this is to encourage you to speak out when you hear or see things that you do not accept and would like to see properly addressed provided you aren’t in a position properly address them yourself.
P.S. Free Raif Badawi
Toy Guns
Dear Parents, Grandparents, and anyone else who buys toys for kids can we please stop it with the toy guns because it’s repugnant to give a child a toy gun so they can go around pretending to shoot people. I’m not talking about colorful squirt guns but the kinds of lookalikes that could get you shot in the States. I’m sure you can find a more constructive toy for a child to play with and if not give them a few sticks and rocks as these are much better than a toy gun which is one of the worst toys you could give a child.
Secular Society
Religions are a vague and self-contradicting mix of the good, the bad, and the ugly which are up for interpretation by people who seek to exploit the faithful and by people that can’t let go of the psychological crutch that religion is for them. While seeking to positively influence the faithful we must strive to embody the human dignity and high moral standards that can be and often are associated with secular lifestyles and to continually improve the human rights and high standards of living that can be and often are enjoyed by people living in secular societies.
We should also candid because regardless of which version of a particular religion a person claims to be practice if they practice it in a way that violates basic morality and fundamental human rights they must be called out and society must seek to outlaw such practices. There’s no validity in any argument which claims that if you aren’t “one of them” you don’t have the right to criticize their culture because as humans we not only have the right but the responsibility to criticize other humans for inhumane and oppressive practices which lower the moral standing of our species.
Child Beekeepers
Although I’m really not a fan of religion I respect the right of anyone to believe in whatever hocus-pocus they please. However I don’t respect or even accept when parents, teachers, and/or other insecure and misguided adults try to impose this hocus-pocus on children by threatening them with beatings and/or eternal suffering in a place they call “hell”. Forcing toddlers to wear a hijab in the 38C (100F) tropical heat is bad however I think forcing children as young as 10 to wear a niqab is even worse.
As other children were swimming/playing at the beach it was sad to see two poor girls have to drink their bottles of soda and eat their fried chicken by strategically placing it under and up their beekeeper suits. Not only could they not go swimming they weren’t even allowed to eat their food the way humans have for hundreds of thousands of years and that is NOT from underneath a black sheet with eye holes. Moreover the two older women they were with weren’t even wearing niqabs just hijabs which still make me cringe but at least they allow a person to eat and drink and have a face in society.
I’ve seen local women in beekeeper suits before and as sad as it is I’ve never said anything however I can’t be quiet if I see skinny little 12 year old girls forced to wear them so I politely I told the two adults that it was pitiful and that kids should be allowed to be kids and when they do grow up to decide for themselves whether or not they want to go through life dressed like that. They didn’t appear angry about me calling them out but thought it was amusing that I actually stopped my beach run to do so. Not that I could see their reactions or they’d have the courage speak but I’m guessing the two girls agreed with my comments.
Broken Back
I went to the beach today and while I was there I saw a middle aged man carrying his wife’s limp body out of the water. She wasn’t dead but she had at some point in her life become paralyzed. I thought I’d mention this so you could also remember just how great it is to be able to move your legs because we sometimes forget and take things like the ability to walk for granted. So if your legs still work make the most of them and instead of burning fossil fuels every time you need to go somewhere consider burning some plant derived calories.
“Make America Great Again.” or “America Is Already Great.”?
Neither. No country is or has ever been great and our species is not nor has it ever been great. What many countries and humanity as a whole have done is progress a long way towards greatness. On this journey many great things have been accomplished however there’s still a long way to go before our species or any specific country can be considered great. I believe that humanity can achieve greatness, not perfection but greatness, by the end of this century provided we all do our best to become great individuals, to positively influence those around us, and work to positively shape the societies in which we live.
U.S. Politics and Islamic Terrorism
The Middle East is on fire and the first thing we need to do to extinguish this fire is to stop fueling it and providing it power vacuums to grow in, e.g., Iraq, Libya, Syria, because no matter how well planned and carefully executed a U.S. supported multilateral military campaign led by Muslim nations in the region against ISIS is it will not succeed if terrorists are being created faster than they’re being destroyed and/or persuaded to renounce violence.
Advocating to discriminate against people who identify as Muslim whether it be by temporarily banning them from entering the U.S. or by creating a database of those who are already in the U.S. and targeting them for surveillance is not only morally wrong it’s strategically stupid because humanity needs the help of these people to put an end to the kind of indiscriminate violence we saw in Brussels yesterday and bunching them all into one big group and discriminating against them on the basis of which religion they were indoctrinated into as a child regardless of how they decide to interpret and practice that religion as adults isn’t the way to get it.