So, this hasn't been going at all as planned, has it? Rants and raves, supposed to come on a daily/weekly basis, and yet here it is, months later. Ah well.

Politics is what I've ranted about in the past, but I think I'm done with that for now. In fact, I don't even really want to rant today. I'll just type, you just read, and we'll both have to be okay with that.

I thought to post a blog today after reading about Tim Stryker. Now, it's very old news, and very 'geeky' news. I doubt that anyone who reads this (what, 3-4 people might anyway?) know who Mr. Stryker was, so I'm just going to let you know. He was a software engineer, a writer, husband, father of four, etc etc. I know of him because he developed The Major BBS, later renamed Worldgroup, and was the founder of the company Galacticomm which distributed this software. I (still) play a text-based computer game that was designed in the late 80's/early 90's to work with The Major BBS. I never knew the man, didn't really know anything about him until today when I read up on some history of the MBBS platform.

Here is the web page that my reading brought me to: http://archive.southcoasttoday.com/daily/10-96/10-08-96/b01li046.htm

If you don't want to read the whole thing, suffice it to say that while a brilliant man (perhaps genius level), he had some pretty severe depression issues that nobody knew about until he drove out into the country and shot himself with a shotgun. As I'm sure most folk are aware, this is just one instance of many hundreds or thousands of brilliant people who end their lives in the prime. I started to ask myself, what causes this? Why would those people who could be the best and brightest parts of our society, the writers, the artists, and, yes, in some cases, the software engineers, why do they cut their lives short, when they could have had so much left to contribute?

I've heard some people say that it's because the geniuses can't stand to be around us 'morons' who can't keep up. I reject this answer; in many cases the people seem depressed, but it doesn't seem to me like they're distressed by a lack of genius around them. I can agree with this ideology somewhat, however: isolation. The geniuses of the world are few and far between, and it is rare indeed for someone of this level to find people who they can work and get along with on the same level, especially since genius is so varied. A genius theoretical physicist and a genius literature writer might get along famously, but they probably will not be able to speak 'genius' on the same terms. As a 'normal' human, I can only imagine what this would be like, but it certainly doesn't sound like much fun.

Another question that comes up for me when thinking about this subject, is the supposed 'selfish' ideas that we put upon those who commit suicide. Are they selfish for doing so? When you think of it as they are cutting short their lives, and depriving us of their ideas, breakthroughs, works of art, and (especially for family) love and companionship, then I can certainly understand the viewpoint. I think, however, that we can't just put a blanket label on this. We have no idea what is going on inside the heads of those who feel that suicide is their only way out; in some cases, medication does not help their suffering.

So, what do you think?

Bloggity blog blog...Feeling better finally. That was a doosie of a cold, let me tell you.

Okay, rant time once again, since it's early morn and I'm at work with nothing to do (don't tell my boss that!).

Today I'll rant on politics and religion. I'm really surprised I don't hear more about this topic, at least from the perspective that I'll be going forward on this.

Why is it that, in order to be conservatively minded, it is somehow assumed that you're a Bible-thumper? Don't get me wrong, I've read the Bible and it's a great work of historical fact with a liberal amount of fiction, but 'conservatism' and 'religion' seem, in this country, to be some kind of a social combination that it is difficult to escape from.

Think about it in the reverse...most people who you meet who are very anti-church, anti-religion, or even just mildly atheist, have considerably liberal-leaning views. Think of all the anti-Prop-8 protesters right now, attacking churches and churchgoers because they see them as being evil and deluded. The majority of them would call themselves 'spiritual' I would imagine, but certainly not 'Christian,' and would associate Christianity with anyone who is against such things as gay marriage and abortion.

I'm for gay marriage, as far as I'm concerned any citizen should be able to do what they want; my first blog post goes into detail on that.

Abortion I am very strongly against, because I feel that life begins at conception. To me, therefore, to abort a baby for no real reason is equivalent to murder. There are certain situations (the ones you always hear, risk of the mother being the one that stands out most to me) where I feel abortion could be a viable option, but I just feel far too many people use it as a method of birth control and don't accept the consequences of their sexual actions.

A lot of people who only read the above paragraph would call me a religious zealot, when in fact I haven't gone to church since I was 14 or 16 or so, and that was when visiting grandparents with whom it would be impolite to not go to church. I have some very conservative values, and they were imparted on me by very Christian parents, but why does that make them 'wrong' to so many people?

I'm going to ask for feedback on this post (from the probably 12 people who will read it over the course of my lifetime). Why is it considered impossible for people to have conservative values and beliefs, without being religious?

Okay, so in my last blog I spoke about my views on small government in relation to basic rights. Lets rant more about social issues and taxes, shall we? No?? Tough, I'm going to do it anyway.

There seems to be a trend in this country to not do what is expected or required of you, and to make what is expected/required less and less with every passing generation. Now, unfortunately for my ability to rant, I'm not 83 years old and can remember 'the good old days' when people took responsibility for themselves. I'm a ripe young 22 years old, still 'impressionable' I suppose, but yet old enough to understand when things aren't the way they should be.

One of my personal biggest issues with this government is it's willingness to take my money (I'm not rich, but I make enough to actually pay taxes, go figure) and give it to someone who did nothing to deserve it. Please keep in mind, I'm not saying that a disabled veteran shouldn't get medical bennies or special compensation; he served his country in the greatest capacity and should be honored and taken care of by said country. The people I'm talking about here are the freeloaders, people who sit on welfare, socialized housing and food stamps because it serves them better than to go out and get a job.

That's right, in case you didn't know it, there are people who literally get more from the government in subsidies than they would get if they held a good paying, full time job. I heard someone the other day saying that after they got laid off, and had to stay at home with his two young daughters, he applied for food stamps and unemployment and welfare and such. His wife works 20 hours a week at minimum wage. In order for him to maintain the same quality of life as what the government is giving him for nothing, he would have to make $65,000 per year. That's quite a bit more than I make. That's like, engineer starting salary right there. So, instead of going out, getting a job, and being productive in society, the government is giving him the equivalent pay of a very highly-educated job, and all he has to do is 'stay home and play with my two kids.'

Does nobody else think this is wrong? On multiple levels? Life on welfare, if it even exists, should be the shoddiest existence a person can live off of, to encourage moving upwards. Why would anyone in that man's situation want to change a thing? Where is the motivation to get off of welfare and stop sucking on MY paycheck?

I'm not a cold-hearted man. I don't think children should be starving because their parents got laid off. However, there ARE jobs out there. There is education available to get those jobs, and monetary assistance for that sort of thing. Those are programs I completely support, but they are under-utilized because nobody wants a job when the government will give them what they want for free. Serious welfare reform has been a long time coming in this country, and yet nobody seems to be willing to actually do something about it. It is this lack of motivation that makes me so upset, and want to speak out.

There's rant #2. More to come, I promise.