It's the blog nobody demanded!!! Oh, wait...no, some people actually did. What the heck is wrong with you? Do you understand how little effort I put into these things? Right then.

You wanna know something I'm tired of? The religion vs. atheism debate. I got into this conversation with some friends of mine last night, based off of something I was watching on Bill Maher the other day (if you get HBO, have at least some interest in american politics, and haven't checked this show out, please check your listings and so do, funny and thought provoking). Maher is an avowed atheist, he even has a movie coming out on the subject, and he just thinks religion is ridiculous especially the Judeo-Christian religion with the talking snake and flying bodily to heaven. Now, I imagine that pisses off religious folks, even open minded religious folk. I would think of one of the friends I'm speaking with about this as somebody who was open minded religious folk but when you bring up that there's someone fundamentally denying his religious persuasion, or the idea of God, he got fairly frazzled. Like trying to say "oh, well it sounds like he just has a problem with the bible" "no, he has a problem with the whole belief structure, you can't think the bible is dumb and say 'but I still buy into the belief system!' it just doesn't work that way". Pretty amazing to me how people get all worked up about this stuff, it really is.

Look, I personally believe there's some greater intelligence that made the universe, and guides it's movements, at least to the extent that it keeps the cosmic trains running on time, it may or may not however, be taking an interest in whether or not you get that promotion at work. You may not, you may think that's a pretty irrational way of looking at things, and to me? That's absolutely fine, that to me is the beauty of the world, we don't all believe in the same things, just respect my right to believe what I want, and I'll do the same. That's it! Why have we needed crusades, heated debate, enacting legal precedents, or just endless threads and flame warring on the internet about this? It's dumb, and it's all going to come up the same way.

Here, let me end every religion vs. atheism topic ever, right now:

Religious guy/girl/some form of bipedal mammal: You can't 100% prove there isn't a God!

Atheist guy/girl/some form of bipedal mammal: You can't 100% prove there is!

At the end of the day, it's an argument that boils down to faith and belief, and faith and belief are intensely personal things. You should have the personal security to be confident enough in your faith and beliefs, whatsoever they may be, that you don't have to make the rest of the world believe the same thing. Can't do that? Don't make a thread on the internet, start an argument in the streets, or a big ol holy war. Just take a good long soul search and figure out what's wrong with you. It'd be a better world if everybody could do that.

Now for some stuff that will either entertain, or be extremely stupid to some I imagine, pick and choose at your discretion:

So I see Stan Lee is going to be creating a new super hero universe for Virgin Comics. Riiight, because that's just what the world needs, another super people universe. Because Marvel and DC are doing so well with that right now, and they aren't just big convoluted cash cows. Not to mention, Stan has always been a phenomenal man for ideas, but I've got to say that with the exception of Amazing Spider-Man, Stan's writing and plotting skills aren't the vaunted things they sometimes are believed to be (his Daredevil issues were sometimes downright wretched). I do admire and respect Stan's creativity, his ambition, and the fact that the man is pushing in on 90 and is still an active, and vibrant creative man. God bless him may he live another 100 years, but this has been touted like such a big deal and to me it really isn't, unless this winds up pole vaulting Virgin into being a big time player publisher, and not just another indy pipe dream that hangs around for a year or two and then the angry creators who can't cash checks or don't get checks at all start banging down the doors.

In other "WTF?" stupid news, somebody paid 170,100 dollars for the Red Sox jersey some crazy ass workman tried to bury in the foundation of the new Yankee Stadium to curse it. Stop, go back, and read that sentence again. I can wait, please, go back and read that, and let all of that sink in for you. Now, there's two parts of this story I want to address:

1. The burying of the jersey: For people who aren't entirely familiar with baseball and it's myths, there's an old legend that when the Boston Red Socks sold babe ruth's contract to the Yankees they cursed themselves from ever winning the World Series again, or some such. The Curse of the Bambino as it was called, lasted 86 years till Boston won in 2004. A black, black year (yes, I'm a diehard Yankee). So apparently the idea here by this workman was that he'd bury a jersey in the foundation, and that'd curse the Yankees.

People, what. The. FUCK!!!

The curse is a nice story, it's a fun bit of American myth, especially if your on the Yankee side of that fence. But to go this far? Come on! That's taking it entirely too far. What this guy did was criminal, and the Yankees treated it as such, as they should. Is it worth your job? Not to mention, you have to figure if this guy wasn't already a part of the company handling the deal, he would have been getting himself hired specifically just to vandalize the place. There's The Bleacher creatures, which are super fans, and then there's morons like this guy.

2) The auction: why the hell is this jersey being auctioned? Why the hell is the person who spent this money going to get honored at Fenway Park by the Red Socks later in the year? It's a team giving a criminal some credit, and it maybe encourages somebody to do this kind of nonsense again. I'm sure some people will defend it as it was a charity auction, but fuck that, you got that kind of money to spend? Then just flat out donate it. Don't glorify somebody's stupidity. As far as Boston making a big deal of it, well, guess I can't blame them, there's a lot of money made on both sides of the line from the Yankees/Red Socks rivalry. Not to mention, the Red Socks probably need to celebrate every little bit they can, it's not like they've actually really been beating us on merit or anything, they just wind up taking advantage when the Yankees fall apart. Shut up Red Socks fans, you know it's the truth.

I'll try to update these more often I think, since people actually want to read it, and reply to comments more often too. I just don't usually have a lot to talk about since I lead an exceedingly boring life, and there's usually so little to write about. There's lots of stuff that pisses me off, but so little that's worth wasting my energy on writing about.

Cheap plug section: Wanna read some various rants I've had about comics over the years? Pop on over to www.theendlesscrew.com and check out "avie rants", I'm trying to find some time somewhere to post up a new one. You can also join up with our forums and hang out with the misfit gang of NG users and other assorted internet people what stop over there.