This cracked me up, I’ve converted to Apple but I am able to perceive flaws in the many devices and software provided by Apple. So I guess I’m not a complete fanboy. However, still, when compared to the alternatives, Apple provides the best experience and the best value for money available in the computing and digital media world today. How long will that be the case? Who knows, but for now it’s good. That being said, there is a tinge of this Apple community being a little too serious for its own good…

In Olympia, Washington, at a public building, there is a nativity display present. The other display present is the image to the right, placed there by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. It’s causing quite a stir and the thing I can’t figure out is, why? If a nativity display is accepted, why isn’t a sign that indicates it’s a myth accepted? Are people’s religious convictions really so shallow that the mere presence of a sign indicating an alternate belief is threatening to them?

I’m not dumb, I know why this is a big deal. But the reality is, it shouldn’t be. That we have huge segments of our population wandering around making decisions on the basis of a series of myths promulgated by ignorant sheepherders over 2,000 years ago should make any thinking person’s skin crawl. Even more so when they hold power and say things like “I happen to be a Christian, and I don’t agree with the display that is up there,” Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire told The Olympian newspaper. “But that doesn’t mean that as governor, I have the right to deny their ability to express their free speech.”

Free speech is at issue here, but there’s something much, much deeper. A sign like this that merely points out the truth causes more grief than the blatant mixing of religion and government. That’s wrong, and it’s time that thinking people stand up and take back government from the deluded masses, it’s not healthy and this set of core beliefs directly contributes to irrational policies across our culture. I’m fed up with the status quo on this issue.

If you want to be spiritual, be spiritual, it’s your right. If you want to believe in some all powerful god, do so, it’s your right. But it is not your right to impose those beliefs on others. That’s where the line is drawn and we’re so far over it’s going to take concentrated effort to bring it back. Meanwhile, happy winter solstice!

In mid-July I penned an entry that gasoline prices would be $8.59/gallon by this time. Well, the last fill up I had was $2.21/gallon. By now I should know better than to predict a rigged industry. I find it very curious that gas prices are functionally the same now as when oil was $18/barrel a few years ago. It’s now around $50/barrel.

The relationship of oil prices to gasoline prices is in no way relevant or predictable. The economic collapse coupled with the backlash of US consumers from the summer peak has led the fixed market (which starts with OPEC and rolls forward through the oil companies) to provide price relief temporarily. This will happen just long enough for the pressure to move from an oil-dependent economy and then they’ll screw us again. We’ve seen this movie, we know how it ends.

I’m hopeful that unlike the 1970’s where we took our eye off the ball, that we stay the course and turn the middle east back into the giant sandbox it is and stop enriching mad men with our addiction. I’m hopeful, but I’m not optimistic. Why? Because we can see that the oil cartel and companies are toying with the market and have found the tolerance range. As long as gas is below $3/gallon for a sustained period of time, people will lose interest in oil independence.

BTW, at $50/barrel the raw price of a gallon of fuel should be $2.55/gallon.

Original Attribution: Unknown

Don’t worry, MftC is not going to turn into one of “those” sites…I saw this and splut liquid out my nose. HT: Callie. Dispatched from Boston on the eve of departing for Frankfurt and then to Bangalore.

Original Attribution: Unknown

A little gallows humor relative to the global financial crisis…