Smokers Guide to Being the Best Possible of Smokers.

*I did not come up with these.

1. Give your last cigar away occasionally. It will make you feel better.

2. Do not light a cigar in the presence of a respected friend or acquaintance, unless you give him one. This does not apply to employees, fellow boarders or anyone with whom you come in daily contact.

3. Never refuse a light to any smoker. If you haven’t a match to give him, let him borrow some of your fire, even if it spoils your cigar.

4. Remember that smokers are equal when smoking.

5. Do keep a fresh pipe – if he is a pipe smoker – for your friend.

6. Do the nice thing once in a while. If you have more than one cigar and notice a man looking sadly out of the smoking car window, proffer him one of your smokes, with the understanding that there have been times when you were short on smokes and long on loneliness yourself.

7. Give your friend your best cigar. You’ll have lots of fine future smokes coming to you if you do.

8. Remember you can display more brotherly feeling in the way you proffer a cigar than in a world of nice words and small loans.

9. Remember that the hospitable smoker is one of nature’s choicest creations.

10. Never play a joke on a smoker. Don’t give the meanest of them a loaded cigar. It’s brutal, dangerous and a stupid thing to do.

11. Don’t be a cigar or cigarette “sponge”. It’s a low down habit. You can lose your self-respect and the respect of your friends more in this way than any other.

12. Don’t be a strutting, nose-tilting smoker. It’s tough.

13. Never smoke in the presence of ladies, unless you know it is not offensive. If you don’t know, ask them. If they object, don’t smoke. In spite of Kipling, any good woman is far finer of which any cigar has ever dreamed.

14. “Life is too short for poor food, poor company, poor clothes” and poor smokes.

15. Remember that silence and a good cigar are two of the finest things on earth. Even a hermit can be an angel under these circumstances, and a man of the world a man of the other world. Puff your smoke heavenward, and pitch your thoughts toward the clouds.

St. Valentines Day

Guess what I did. Wrote a poem. It is in work so I do realize that meter is off in certain places. I promise that I will fix it, but here it is now.

Your days are young, but ill and rotten
Love is seen, bought to ignore.
Bachelorhood is soon forgotten,
With contracts signed in life before.
In places public the look I feign,
Which love doth not entertain.

Continue on poor wretched soul
And hope to find one fairer than thee
smoke to death as a goal
Tho' she has value more than tobackee.
For her to have its qualities would be nice
But it have hers, shall not suffice.

Go to the lady, find the seek;
At the lusty wench do not curse
When in boys it may seem weak
But write your sweet a lovely verse
Into love may easeth
And do not stir it, until it pleaseth.

Reasons for Being Republican

Ulysses Grant gave a speech after his two terms were finished clearly titled "Reasons for being Republican". It is a short speech so therefore it was easy for me to read and post something about it.

So I would like to reiterate some of his ideas in his speech into my my own political philosophy. Grant starts by saying at least in his time that the democratic party treated anyone who was not a democrat like Satan. This is not some sort argument why the democrats are wrong. grant was not saying they were wrong because they were "big meanies". But he does say this is a reason he is a republican. He was continually sickened by the treatment he got while in office by the blue states, and noticed the difference in treatment that democrats received from republicans. Though republicans do have the easy route to avoiding the poor treatment since they tend to be such adamant believers in free speech. I would just hate to see the republican party diminish to an ignorant state of denial and proscription, even though we are still look at as the ignorant of other beliefs party, we should at least know ourselves that we are not.

"But I am a Republican for many other reasons. The Republican party assures protection to life and property the public credit, and the payment of the debts of the government, state, county, or municipality, so far as it can control." This quote by Grant would sound like any other politician trying to say agreeable things, but the end part separates it from being that. He says, ". . . So far as it can control". The simple democrat solution for upholding all these virtues is to just control as much as possible and nothing bad will happen. Republicans are aware that no matter what people are evil and will do evil thing regardless what rules are set before them. So they conclude to give us more freedoms so as to protect and work for ourselves, when the government might not be able.

Now the Democratic party will tell you that it is for these things whether they are really aiming for that outcome they consequently ". . . discourage all these when in absolute power". Republicans will be separated from Dems by two simple concepts. Dems believe in equality of outcome whereas reps believe in equality of opportunity. Democrats say that we are putting the poor down with our capitalistic system. The only reason the poor are poor is because they a subjected to a form of lazyiness one way or another. They themselves have put themselves there when they found found out someone else is better than them at making money. If someone is better than them at making money in a certain area they had better start finding a different profession in order to provide. It is as simple as saying quit whinning and get some work done. its not like they can't get payed; unless of course they created a bad name for themselves but that ends up as there fault. Grant said of the republican party, "It encourages the poor to strive to better there children, to enable to compete successfully with their more fortunate associates, and, in fine, it secures an equality before the law of every citizen, no matterwhat his race, nationality, or previous condition. Every one has the opportunity to make himself himself all he is capable of."

I suggest that you read the actual speech by Ulysses Grant. These in depth distinctions have been around for longer time than one might suspect.

From my uncle . . .

"All philosophers will rejoice in the pursuit of truth, so long as they agree to never find it."

-Douglas Wilson

Rick Miller and the 25 worst rock voices.

This comedian does the 25 most annoying rock voices all put to Bohemian rhapsody. Its really funny, especially when you get near the end.

To the Anti- Smokers

The only way to get this is to know that Sir Walter Raleigh introduced tobacco to many parts of Europe and that King James strongly disapproved of smoking for typical reasons like ones health.

Sir Walter Raleigh! name of worth,
How sweet for thee to know
King James , who never smoked on earth,
is smoking down below.

-Unknown

Inspired by Lewis

Excuse My absence, please. I will try to be posting more often now.

It has always confused me in some of these past years why some people will be convincing Christians a day and the next drop there beliefs all at once. My dad pointed out one day at church that it is sometimes just that people are doubting their faith conveniently when a temptation shows up. They still know whats right but they would feel less bad about it all as if it was Satan playing his mind tricks on their brains so that it was almost inevitable for anyone that was not Jesus to resist. So they start doubting. When they "come back to the faith" in their heads they feel that they have done God some sort of favor for regaining the faith. Really they have just been complete idiots.

But another argument people will use is completely irrational. People will say "Why should I believe what these Christians are saying when I know they are hypocrites?" This is usually taken up by youths and mostly teenagers. But C.S. Lewis poses the question which they should be asking. He asks, "If I, being what I am, can consider that I am in some sense a christian, why should the different vices of those people in the next pew prove that their religion is mere hypocrisy and convention?" Argument in question form quickly tears the typical question apart. It is not really a sound argument for any group to point out vices of people who belong to another. It does not say anything for the groups point of view.

But I really see this thinking in the adolescence.

"This Contains" video premiere!

So Graeme has finally paid his debts off, fixed his car and bought supplies for our third skate video premiere called This Contains:. It is showing at the Nuart theatre on April 1st, a wednesday at 7:00 pm. There will be copies of the dvd to buy at a "cheap as free" price of ten dollars. So even after the premiere date you can still admire Graeme and his buddies making sure that they will be in wheel chairs at age thirty, without the ability to make babies. In other words the bails section is really good. This video is also not just skating. We have slipped in a couple of skits to keep you awake until the next crash shows on the screen. So come out and support the only people in moscow who rollerblade aggressively.

I caved

I finally am starting to learn guitar. I will do my best to reverse the curse that lame stus and frat boys all round have put on the guitar, but I doubt I will get anywhere. Guitar, wether you are good at it or not, has an image that is less than desirable.

"The beginning of wisdom is this. . ."

". . . Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight" My dad spoke on Proverbs 4 today in church.

I had been thinking about other wisdom related things namely Socrates. His belief was that the first step to obtaining wisdom is admiting you don't have wisdom. Plato, Socrates student, depicted socrates in his trial before he was put to death for leading young minds astray as follows. Socrates had been going around interviewing people like politicians who were known for their wisdom. But when he had finished he came to the conclusion that none of them had any wisdom or real knowledge. But all these people thought they were wise including themselves. Quoting Plato, who was quoting Socrates to a degree, "It is only too likely that neither of us have any knowledge to boast of; but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas i am quitesure of my ignorance." This is one of my first primary philosophies for me to run my life on. I grew up with my dad telling me that teenagers know nothing and are not wise, and I agreed. So I have had a great third person view of all my friends telling themselves that they know whats up.

I just get a good laugh at the whole thing.