So I figured out how to upload photos to Instagram from my desktop, so I will now post there as well. I just uploaded one of my best photos there to start

Hey! I just entered a photo contest which has a whale watching trip for two as a prize. I've never gone whale watching, and I would absolutely love to go. I entered one of my best photos: 



Please vote here, if you think it deserves to win Thanks for your support! Apparently the rules are that you can vote as many times as you like, so long as it's once per hour. I have no idea why they made it like that, but these are the rules. 

"We have to act prudently," he said. "We have to make these assessments deliberately. But I think all of us ... recognize how we cannot stand by and permit the systematic use of weapons like chemical weapons on civilian populations."

Have you ever heard a brutal criminal say "I was motivated by not believing in god to kill these people." Not really a common occurrence, is it? Christopher Dorner was apparently a non-believer, but his actions were obviously not motivated by his non-belief. They were a result of LAPD corruption, a twisted sense of pride, a poor upbringing, and a host of other issues. On the other hand, how many times have the religious fundies openly claimed that they did it for god, or because of god, etc? Case in point, the newest addition to the list are Tsarnaev brothers from Boston.

As the debacle in Boston continues to unfold live on all channels 24/7, I couldn't help but notice one interesting fact during my training session at the gym today.

Go ahead, be a good muppet. Do and think EXACTLY what the media wants you to. Thou shalt feel sorry for the three people who were murdered in Boston today. The next month shall be spent talking about the evils of terrorism again and discussing the stripping away of further liberties from law abiding citizens.

25,000 die from hunger every day, a million is withering away in prisons due to the war on drugs for victimless crimes, human rights violations abound, preventable disease and lack of clean water is killing millions per year, banking cartels immune from prosecution are stealing trillions, drones are blowing up children in half, etc, etc..

Fuck all that, right? The media didn't tell you to care. Take the red pill, friends, and walk away. Keep your mind under your own control. This is not a lack of compassion the three fellow human beings who tragically lost their lives today. It's a lack of respect for those who use every marketable tragedy to further their ends and profits. I hear CNN's viewership is up for the day. 

Is it only me who is tired of emotional arguments being put forward on serious topics as if they are supposed to be convincing? Emotions should be kept the fuck away from substantial arguments. Keep calm and use logic. 

I wonder how anyone fails to see this?

I'm in Detroit this week on some business. Got me a sprained ankle (I can certainly walk fine by now, but it's still not 100%), and a terrible cold but I want to get out there and shoot some sunsets. I'm staying Downtown at Washington Blvd & Michigan Ave.

Any of you guys in the Motor City?

Lately I've not been enjoying photography all that much. I think it's time to call it quits. It's been fun guys, but don't you think it's time to move on to future endeavors, and get more serious about life?

I've got a backlog of works to post, and then I'm outta here.

Edit: yeah, April fools, the original TROLL day I'm buying a new camera and planning on getting better - not quitting

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Hey dad, so what do I do now?
Go to school.
Done. Hey dad, what now?
Get a job.
Done. What now?
Get married.
Done. What now?
Buy a house.
Done. What now?
Have kids.
Done. What now?
Work long and hard... and then retire and slowly wither away in your old age.
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If you are society's bitch, this is very likely what your "happy" life blue print will look like. Almost everyone does this, and it's not a coincidence: people do as they are told. Told by the movies, by their friends and family, books, tradition, religion, even government subsidies, and the education system, conditioned into obedience. So they, what are the odds that this is indeed everyone's dream rather than something imposed on them covertly externally, as I believe to be the case?

But just today, I've freed you from the bullshit The blueprint above is not available to you, so you have to ACTUALLY pick what you'd like to do with your life. I invite you to leave a comment below, and come up with an alternative plan. Be serious, use your imagination, and fuck doing as you are told.

I was watching a news story about Nelson Mandela's poor health, and the reporter mentioned that he was one of the most admired men for 2012 in the United States. Apparently, Gallup conducts an annual poll on the issue. When I saw the other names up there on the screen, my jaw dropped. Without further adieu -

1) Barack Obama
2) Nelson Mandela
3) Mitt Romney
4) Billy Graham
5) George W Bush
6) Benedict XVI
7) Bill Clinton
8) Dalai Lama
9) George HW Bush
10) Ron Paul
11) John McCain

In what world are politicians and clergy - the lying hypocrites, puppeteers of the morons - the most admired people? Fuckity fuck, I respect a random crackhead passed out in a puddle of vomit more than the vast majority of the people on this list. People who vote on these polls also vote in elections. That's very disturbing.

As an antitheist, I detest most aspects of most religions. However, let me give you a few ways in which the worst Pope you can think of is better than the best head of government (of your country) imaginable.

CHOICE. You don't have to be a Catholic. You have that choice of the worst misogynistic homophobic Pope having little to no impact on your life directly. You don't have that choice with government. Your vote has an approximately 0.00000% chance of changing the outcome of an election, so you do not choose your president, your peers do. You just have to live with that choice, and whatever policies it may bring with it. It's also not very practical to move away to escape the authority that's claimed over you just to land yourself in an area of another similar authority.

POWER. Even if you are a Catholic, the Pope can't throw you in jail for not following the rules and commands no enforceable authority over you. Suppose the bad pope says that gays should be stoned to death. You can just ignore that, and keep having gay friends. A governmental decree of even the best intentions can often result in very negative unintended consequences. Unlike a papal decree, it cannot be ignored. If you do ignore it, violence will be used against you via financial fines escalating to imprisonment, and finally death if you resist. The Pope can scare a true believer shitless with hell fire, but wields no physical power over them.

LEGITIMACY. To most critical thinkers out there, it's obvious that the Pope has no legitimate authority at all past the actual merits of his argument. Unfortunately, those same people are willing to grant massive legitimacy and power to a government leader simply for using the democratic process. Just keep in mind that Hitler was democratically elected, and in my opinion, the democratic process can never legitimize anything that's not already legitimate to begin with.

SHORTER ELECTIONS. The ridiculous spectacle doesn't last months or years, which is quite a relief. We can all move on so much quicker without having to deal with it day in, day out. No celebrity endorsements, no biased mainstream media editorials, no lies by candidates for us to hear.

So this ex pro basketball player I've never heard of goes to North Korea to visit their dear leader as a publicity stunt orchestrated by some obscure media outlet. Apparently successful, because mainstream media is stupid enough to fall for it, since I saw it on TV over dinner. Anderson Cooper is all like outraged and shit. "How can you meet with a murderer?" Death camps, human rights abuses, etc.

Well, no doubt North Korea is a humongous shit hole, but guess what? It operates on the same basic principles as the United States. Anderson mentioned a few points, and the parallels are just too obvious to miss to anyone with half a brain. But alas, they didn't have any common decency to invite somebody to troll away their "we are the good guys" and "they are the bad guys" message. Obviously, the US is way better than North Korea, but we are talking about principle, and in that respect they are no different at all.

North Korea has concentration camps where enemies of the people are held unfairly. The US has Guantanamo Bay where "terrorists" are held without trial or charges being brought against them indefinitely, and were until very recently tortured. But you see, water boarding is not torture at all. Unless, it was the Germans who did it to the Americans during WW2. In that case, they were sentenced to death at Nuremberg. But if it's the US who does it to "terrorists", it's definitely not torture. It's an enhanced interrogation technique, yo. Oh, and what was that election pledge to close Guantanamo by Obama? Yeah, he was kidding. And while the Nazi may have been punished for the torture, nobody was ever held accountable for it in the US at any level.

North Korea has the policy of punishing not only the political dissidents, but also their family members. So the US had Anwar al-Awlaki, who was accused of being a terrorist but never charged with any crime. He was assassinated in Yemen via a drone strike. His son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki (a 16 year old born American citizen in Colorado) was also assassinated via another drone strike. At least in North Korea they accuse you of a crime and have a mock trial to "prove" your guilt before they kill you and your family members. Obama has that drone kill list which he signs off on, don't you forget it.

Anderson Cooper then scolded the North Korean elites for attending basketball games, while the poor have nothing to eat. What, you mean like Obama bailing out the rich shareholders of banks and corporations while socializing trillions in debt on the backs of the poor American tax payers? Or like your rich ass doing a shit job of biased coverage of far away problems when your own country has plenty on its own plate to deal with? But guess what, Anderson, North Korea has universal healthcare. According to you, it's more humane than the US in that sense - right? Except, of course, the laws of economics are such that they have nothing to go around. Socialism that you love so tends to result in that.

In North Korea, the government can spy on anyone without any oversight. Same goes for the US, all hail the Patriot "George Orwell turns over in his grave" Act extended by Obama as if he was Bush 2.0. While you Anderson screamed loudly at Bush for passing it, you turned down your screaming by a factor of ten for Obama extending it.

Make no mistake, the US is about 100 times better than North Korea. However, in principle, there is absolutely no difference. Same goes for any government in the world. You are the property of the government. You don't have any rights beyond what the government grants you. What the government grants you, the government can take away. Look anywhere in the world, and that is so. Constitution? The US has a nice one, but fuck it. Who in their right mind thinks that indefinite detention without trial, assassination without trial, wiretapping without court orders and other shit like that is CONSTITUTIONAL? The government will do whatever the fuck it wants to its sheep, be it the US government or the North Korean government. Case in point is what the US did to US citizens of Japanese ancestry during WW2, or better yet read through this - [link] - and realize that nobody was ever charged with a crime for any of it. Just a brief example -

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"Between 1960 and 1971, the Department of Defense funded non-consensual whole body radiation experiments on poor, black cancer patients, who were not told what was being done to them. Patients were told that they were receiving a "treatment" that might cure their cancer, but in reality the Pentagon was attempting to determine the effects of high levels of radiation on the human body. One of the doctors involved in the experiments, Robert Stone, was worried about litigation by the patients, so he only referred to them by their initials on the medical reports. He did this so that, in his words, "there will be no means by which the patients can ever connect themselves up with the report", in order to prevent "either adverse publicity or litigation".[85]"

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First thing to note is that this experiment was not conducted on rich white male members of the government or their rich friends. What a coincidence! Second, ownership is not even the right word here. I think a better parallel would be to a prostitute (no disrespect at all for this noble profession) and a pimp relationship. If you are not an income producing asset for the pimp (as poor black male cancer patients are not to the government), he'll smack you around. How anyone could be aware of the above and not realize that a citizen turns into the government's bitch on the littlest of all whims is beyond me. Don't deny it, just deal with it.

There could be a state propaganda reporter in North Korea, lamenting about how Anderson Cooper could possibly have the human decency to meet with Obama - a murderer, friend of Goldman Sachs, etc. The most pathetic thing of all is that he would be 100% correct. That's actually a great rule of thumbs - when North Korean propaganda is true, you know shit is beyond fucked up. Point and laugh at North Korea - it's a fucking puppet show. Just don't forget to look in the mirror.

Let's summarize the principles: no habeas corpus, no privacy rights, no presumption of innocence, guilt by association, government by the elites for the elites. So, Anderson Cooper - how can you meet with a murderer? Don't be a fucking hypocrite and pull your head out of your ass.

Does anyone else think this is ... inappropriate? The extent to which the media and Hollywood are in bed with the government is just hilarious. They are like two dogs at the park licking each other's asses

I have nothing against Michelle in particular, but the whole thing is just a racket. It smells like bullshit from a mile away. Why is the wife of a public servant such a global celebrity that her new hairstyle is all the rage across mainstream media? Something ain't right here.

I'm frankly tired of all the little bitches in the media yapping away in their over the top outrage about Lance Armstrong's asshole behavior. It's so fashionable to hate Lance these days. Really, is this guy really supposed to be THE one we all should hate? Everyone on TV is telling you so. Well, do you?

I just realized that I don't hate him nearly as much as all these wishy washy assholes pretending like they wouldn't do it if they had the chance. The deal? Train as hard as you can. Dope and lie about it. Win the shit. Get $100M of personal fortune, and raise a few hundred millions for charity.

Everyone condemning Lance for lying has lied numerous times, probably even that same day. The difference? He had the the balls the size of Jupiter and Saturn to take it it to its logical conclusion, and the perseverance and tenacity to win seven Tour de Frances. He's an asshole, no doubt. However, the other thousands of cyclists who doped came nowhere near accomplishing that type of feat. Keep in mind is that a large fraction of athletes who competed against Lance also doped, so in some sense it was partially a level playing field. Sure, there is probably some clean guy who could have won had he doped. However, chances are that another cheater would have won had Lance not cheated.

The famous "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone" saying applies well in this particular situation. Doping, being an asshole, and lying are not crimes. At least not crimes in the same way that politicians killing innocent children with drone strikes are crimes.

In some strange sense, I like Lance Armstrong just because he pissed off so many self righteous little bitches with his actions. Oh, to hear those empty words of self righteous condemnation muttered by all the dumb mainstream media talking heads all over the globe It's kind of cool to have someone stand up to society in its entirety and say "I'm the bad guy, so FUCK YOU" - no more, and no less. He is, essentially, one of the biggest trolls that ever lived. He trolled the world for 15 years, got stinking rich, and raised hundreds of millions of dollars to fight cancer in the process. Viewed from that perspective, that's a pretty epic life he lived.

No matter how you feel about Lance Armstrong, consider despising the people TELLING you how you should feel or think on this issue or another. Think for yourself. You know what's worse than lying? The act of hypocrisy - one liar condemning another. The disingenuous bastards pointing the finger at Lance piss me off far more than what he himself has done.

I was just checking my stats and have noticed my gallery here has passed two big milestones. I'll keep working hard and uploading the best photos I can for your enjoyment!

Next big one for me will be 10K fans on my Facebook page. Go there and like me if you haven't yet

"It does not make sense from a prioritizing point of view to go after marijuana in states where it's now legal." -Obama,

That's absolutely right, so what the fuck, bro? Why is Aaron Sandusky going to jail for 10 years for selling medical marijuana to sick people in accordance with California state law - [link] ?

All you people who want the government to pass laws to fight this problem and that problem, who have faith in the wise lawmakers to deal with the problems that our society faces: please do a face palm right now.

This is justice, government style.

Well worth the read, no matter which side of the debate you are on: [link]

I keep hearing from people that I should be impressed with what Jesus did, and be grateful to him. Even if we assume that it's true, I'm not impressed.

1) He knew he would be resurrected after 3 days. Why would you be afraid of dying very much under such circumstances? I wouldn't be.

2) He sacrificed himself to himself so that he could forgive. Why not save a step, and just forgive? There is no reason for an innocent person to suffer - it doesn't make the situation any better. Human sacrifice does not work. If you think it does, well you are a Christian.

3) He knew that he would spend an eternity in heaven after a day of suffering on the cross. The physical pain he felt is not very much compared to someone dying from cancer or hunger - and neither do those people have a choice in the matter. Also, any person in hell endures infinitely more physical suffering than Jesus did. They also aren't glorified for their suffering like a..

4) He wanted to be crucified, indeed that was his plan to begin with. It's not as if he wanted any other outcome at all. Would you feel sorry for a masochist who hurts himself on purpose if he's got the ability to avoid the pain altogether?

5) Punishing an innocent person does not absolve the sins of the guilty - especially those haven't even been born. That's a sick and twisted idea of justice. It's also silly to consider them guilty for something someone else had done, but that's another topic.

Merry Christmas