A very rare species

Let us beware of saying that death is the opposite of life. The living being is only a species of the dead, and a very rare species.

Life

Regarding life, the wisest men of all ages have judged alike: it is worthless.

Hope

Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.

Interpretation

All things are subject to interpretation whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.

Guilt

Although the most acute judges of the witches and even the witches themselves, were convinced of the guilt of witchery, the guilt nevertheless was non-existent. It is thus with all guilt.

Viewpoint

As long as you still experience the stars as something above you, you still lack a viewpoint of knowledge.

6 Reasons Why Taylor Swift Sucks

 

 

 

 

 

Taylor Swift has a new album out–”Speak Now”–and nothing I say will stop its success. I realize that. I’m okay with it. But there’s no way in Hell I’m going to let you sheep follow her to iTunes or the record store and make that purchase without knowing in simple detail the six reasons why Taylor Swift sucks. Here goes:

1. You can’t get away from her.

There are no country presets on my car stereo, yet because Swift appeals to the lowest common denominator of consumers–grade school girls and trendy high school hellcats, who think that prom and the 10-year reunion will be the most important times in their lives–I am forced to turn it from my beloved radio stations every time drivel like “Tim McGraw,” “Our Song,” “Love Story,” “You Belong to Me,” or “Today Was a Fairy Tale” screeches onto the dial.

2. Swift sells a b.s. depiction of guy-girl relationships.

Okay, think about the genre. This is country music. Sure, it’s crossed over, but that’s where recordings like “Our Song” planted their roots. Picture the character in “Our Song” singing about how special and poetic her boyfriend is: “he says, ‘Our song is a slammin’ screen door, Sneakin’ out late, tapping on your window, When we’re on the phone and you talk real slow, ‘Cause it’s late and your mama don’t know. Our song is the way you laugh, The first date man, I didn’t kiss her and I should have, And when I got home, ‘fore I said amen, Asking God if He could play it again.’” Yep, sounds like the redneck weirdos that I went to school with here in the South, and the guys who were always texting each other naked pics of their latest lay of the month.

3. Female characters never take responsibility for their actions in her music.

“Picture to Burn” is a song in which the jilted female decides that to show her boyfriend, who’s probably a four-wheel driving brute redneck since this is country music after all, she’s going to relegate his memory (repped by pictures) as just another picture that she can burn. You’re not important to me. I’ll recover. That’s why I’ve got to have a bonfire for your sorry ass instead of just throwing everything out and moving on with my miserable existence. Great move, Taylor. Why don’t you shoot for someone more sensitive next time, like John Mayer? Surely he’ll get you since you’re so freaking perfect and must not have done anything to run this damn bozo off.

4. She is reading retarded, but doesn’t know it.

Swift recently appeared to a group of grade school children and encouraged them to read more. Great advice. She should try taking it herself. One need only look at the disastrous “Love Story” that in one line reveals the degradation of our education system. “You were Romeo, I was a Scarlet Letter…” Okay, he was Romeo, and you were some married adulterous whore that couldn’t keep her legs shut for other men. Makes perfect sense. Of course, The Scarlet Letter is not usually read until college. Swift was probably in high school when the song started taking shape. But still, that begs the question: why the hell use a reference from a book you haven’t read that makes no sense whatsoever the way that it’s delivered. I’m not one to throw the word “retard” around, but here it seems relevant.

5. Her music is stereotypical high school gutter trash.

“You Belong to Me” and “Love Story” are been-there, done-that bullcrap, aced in much better fashion by other media such as every teen comedy ever made and Romeo and Juliet, respectively. Swift’s songs are populated with talks of princesses, fairy tales, and young high school love or getting a guy to notice. It is a pretty embarrassing public record that has made Swift tons of money as a consolation prize. And that’s only because her rabid fans, the ones that sing along every time one of these two songs plays on the radio, which happens about 15 times per day by the way, are equally as pathetic. You say one bad thing about the girl, and it’s like you attacked someone’s faith. Well, this is number five. I got one more to go, so blast away.

6. Dudes got her number, i.e. she has no self respect.

Joe Jonas said that “issues with” his relationship led to their breakup. That was after Swift blurted to the public that Jonas had broken up with her during a 27-second breakup call.

Meanwhile, Swift’s new album makes a rather public mention of her fling with John Mayer, in which the pitiable country starlet bashes Mayer, one might guess, for not wanting to put his life on hold and put up with her b.s. for public viewing. Not a Mayer fan, but when your ex writes a song about how much you hurt her and then publicly speaks about it, it’s pretty clear that this chick has issues and the man was wise to get the hell out of there while the getting was good.

10 Good Reasons You Should Hate Oprah Winfrey

She’s an incredibly successful self-made philanthropist, yes. But she’s also a materialistic fat-shamer. And lest we forget, Dr. Phil is her fault.

I hate Oprah. There, I admitted it. What kind of curmudgeon hates the loveable, exuberant Oprah Winfrey? After all, there are plenty of valid reasons to like Oprah. Her triumph over her tragic childhood is inspiring. She tackles taboo topics. And her philanthropy is unrivaled by any other celebrity

Yet — at the risk of offending her mob of followers — there are also plenty of reasons to criticize, mistrust, disapprove of, and, dare I say, hate the most powerful woman in the world. Here are ten.

1) Her idea of happiness involves a lot of spending

Oprah supports her image as a modern enlightened everywoman with a lot of self-aware, self-help, positive-thinking rhetoric. But at the end of the day, her biggest contribution to the self-improvement landscape is her promotion of retail therapy — the idea that you can spend your way to happiness and fulfillment. Her “Favorite Things” can turn a company like Carol’s Daughter into an overnight success, and so retailers beg for her approval. Her Oprah store in Chicago sells the items she endorses, to go along with paraphernalia bearing her logo and even clothing she has worn. Go for your dreams! Buy an “O” notebook to write them in! Somehow, with a straight face, she makes the contradictory claims that happiness is available for everyone and that $25 pairs of socks are the way to get it. She’s an awfully expensive person to emulate.

2) At heart, her show is a gawk-fest

Oprah has worked hard to distinguish her program as more sophisticated than Jerry Springer’s, Maury Povich’s, Ricki Lake’s, et al. And although she presents it as an empathetic platform for discussing serious issues, at heart, it’s still a freak show. She knows her audience will react to the pregnant man and the woman whose face was ripped off by the chimpanzee. But there’s no great truth she’s seeking from these people, merely audience gasps and higher ratings. The only difference between her show and the low-rent versions is that Oprah gets the A-list freaks.

3) She fat-shames

As an overweight black woman, Oprah’s never looked like a typical mogul. The most powerful outsider ever to become an insider, she has the unique opportunity to show women that it’s okay to be overweight. But instead of leading by example, she’s punished herself with years of yo-yo diets, celebrating her low-weight victories by running a marathon, endorsing her chef, and famously bringing a wagon of fat onto her program. When she peaked at over two-hundred pounds a year ago, she declared herself “embarrassed” by how much weight she had gained. That may be so, but her self-hate and fat-shaming are a missed opportunity for her to show American women that they can accept themselves no matter what size they are.

4) She created the monster that is Dr. Phil

Among the army of experts that Oprah has launched into syndicated stardom, Dr. Phil’s fame is the least deserved. Why? He counsels strangers on their most important decisions in folksy catchphrases — perfect for sound bites, but nearly impossible to apply in real life. He’s given airtime to notorious anti-gay activists, legitimizing their bigoted views. And he used his celebrity to extend his brand into the lucrative weight-loss field, writing a diet book and releasing his own line of shakes, energy bars, and supplements. Oprah gave him his start, and his perceived authority relies on her endorsement.

5) Her perceived infallibility

Oprah’s been lauded as the world’s most powerful and most influential woman due to her millions of viewers, readers, and listeners, and no other talk-show host, celebrity, or world leader has the aura of authority that Oprah has. But while celebrity worship is nothing new, the “cult of Oprah” is on an entirely new level. Her most devout admirers watch her religiously, quote her as an expert, and scramble for every product she endorses or even mentions. The idea that Oprah expresses anything more valuable than her own opinions gives her a level of misplaced trust she doesn’t deserve. Anyone perceived as infallible is dangerous.

6) O: the Oprah Magazine

Oprah launched her eponymous magazine in 2000, and like her talk show, it’s enjoyed much success. Launching a magazine in your own image, devoted solely to the issues you deem important, takes a lot of chutzpah … or egomania. Originally the exclusive cover girl of every issue, Oprah finally shared the spotlight this year, once with Michelle Obama and again with Ellen DeGeneres. And her publicity team spun this as an act of newsworthy generosity. Really? There’s nothing wrong with a celebrity extending their brand, but having your own monthly is somehow even more egotistical than having your own talk show.

7) She treats celebrities as medical experts

Giving celebrities a platform to express their fringe medical ideas as fact is not only irresponsible, but dangerous. When Jenny McCarthy took to Oprah’s stage to talk about her belief that a vaccine caused her son’s autism, Oprah fueled a dangerous anti-vaccine conspiracy theory that had been building in the United States. And when Suzanne Somers raved about how a quite possibly dangerous hormone treatment helped her with menopause, millions of American women began inquiring about how they could receive the same treatment.

8) She endorsed The Secret and other pseudoscience

When Oprah became enamored with The Secret, so, of course, did everyone else. Its central idea — that you’re solely responsible for your own happiness — aligns with Oprah’s ethos, but it’s a dressed-up version of blaming the victim. When you believe that the universe rewards positive thinking, you must also believe the converse — that the universe punishes those who have negative thoughts. Negative thinking isn’t responsible for poverty, illness, abuse, or misfortune. Oprah didn’t rise to fame by wanting it more than anyone else — she worked hard and had a lot of help. To insinuate that success is based on sending good thoughts into the universe is junk science and offensive to anyone who has suffered a tragedy.

9) She popularized the word “vajayjay”

Oprah’s been using the term “vajayjay” for the past few years, bringing it into popular consciousness and even several e-dictionaries. “Vajayjay” implies that there’s something wrong with the word she’s replacing. There’s nothing silly, dirty, or wrong about the word “vagina.” A journalist should be able to say the word “vagina.” An adult should be able to say the word “vagina.” In using “vajayjay,” she’s dumbing down her speech and infantalizing her audience, and further stigmatizing a body part about which many women already feel embarrassed.

10) Retiring from her talk show will only make her more popular

After Oprah announced her plans to end her talk show in two years, every news outlet covered the big story. And, for the next two years, we’ll be subjected to much-hyped best-of and where-are-they-now? episodes, celebrity remembrances, and retrospectives. All the while, she’ll be celebrated for changing the talk-show landscape. The public vigil for her “retirement,” however, is premature. The truth is, she’s not going anywhere. Between her magazine, website, radio show, and her own network (launching in 2010), Oprah will remain just as inescapable as she is now.

The new King Of New York

Lloyd Banks is REDICULOUS. He has perfect flows and is lyrically unbreakable, whether he is doing 16 bars or 48 bars.

Heh

I just thought I would give my ex girlfriend, Maliah Michel the opportunity to extend her fifteen minutes of fame.