The Pessimist

I was just listening to an episode of CBC:Tapestry with an interview of Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation.

I haven't read either book, but I think I'm going to have to. This interview was brilliant; if you can spare the 53 minutes, I highly recommend listening to it. It has provided a half dozen quotes for my quote file.

Sample:

Every religious person knows exactly what it is like to be an atheist, in that they know what it is like to deny the validity of everyone else's god. Every Christian is not convinced by the discourse of Islam; not convinced that the Koran is the perfect word of the creator of the universe. Why do Muslims think that the Koran is the perfect word of the creator? Because it says so in the book. This is a bad argument, and every Christian notices it. Except they don't notice how bad an argument it is when it applies to their book.
- Sam Harris

Right on bro'. This is music to my ears.

I was pleased to read that my city is on the list of most intelligent communities in the world. As I'm just an average joe in this town, and judging by the superlative discourse evident on this website, clearly Waterloo belongs on the list.

We have two Universities -- one frequently voted best university in Canada (yes - the University of Waterloo - my alma mater) -- The Perimiter Institute, The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI), RIM. Oh yes, there are brain cells a burstin' all around here.

Hmmm. Let's see. Who else is in the running. 2 other cities in Canada, 5 in the U.S, 3 in China, 3 in England, one in each of Australia, France, Iceland, Estonia and ... waaahhh!? Afghanistan?

Kabul Afghanistan is on the list of 21 most intelligent cities in the world. We better take a look at the criteria.

What makes Afghanistan such a fine candidate? Could it be its literacy rate?

• Male 51% the 119th highest in the world!
• Female 21% 141st in the world

Of course, those stats are a bit misleading, as there are 8 countries tied for 1st, 5 for 2nd, 5 for 3rd, etc. Afghanistan is actually behind 224 countries on the list, there are only 10 counties with a lower rate. (Three countries have lower female literacy.)

And what are those males reading? The Koran. That'll come in handy in the arts and sciences.

What about critical thinking? The Supreme Court in Kabul determined that
non-Muslims (infidels) have rights only if they convert to Islam; and the Muslims who convert away from Islam (apostacy) must be beheaded, unless they recant. That's fair, don't you think? (Emphasis on "don't think").

What is it that makes Kabul "a model for the development of prosperous local economies and vibrant societies in today's hyper-competitive broaband [sic] economy"? Ah ha, it must be the broadband infrastructure. Yes, here is the explanation from the Intelligent Communities website:

Using funds from development agencies and the US
government, this war-torn capital of Afghanistan has built a
telecom-based foundation for government
by linking ministries with district offices and military bases
throughout the country while expanding mobile service
nationwide from 0.01% to 6% in three years.

Yes! That's it ... a 60,000 per cent increase in cell phone service.
Looks like the warlords and drug lords got themselves some new cell phones. That's progress.

Well, it's been two months of silent running. It's not that there hasn't been things worth bitching about. Every morning's paper and every evening's newscast brings new stupidity that should be commented on.

• Muslim women defending the niqab (ski masks in public)
• Criminal Hasidic jews in Montreal getting special treatment from the police allowing them to deal with male officers instead of unclean female officers
• Iraqi's blowing themselves up in larger and larger numbers
• Kabul being nominated as one of the Smart 21 "Most Intelligent Communities" award
• Quebec is a Nation !?!
• Our local provincial court judge refusing to sentence criminals to jail because he feels jails are dangerous

Each item has caused me to run a response monologue through my head, but I just haven't been able to get it up, so to speak, onto the website.
Why fucking bother? Nobody reads it anyway. I might as well just think these pessimistic thoughts.

No, wait! The reason for this blog was to get these toxic thoughts out of my head. So, dear reader, watch this spot. I'll try and do a more frequent job of regurgitating my opinion on the news of the day. If you don't want to read it ... go fuck yourself.