Taxed!

By now, people should all be aware of the elation our dear, idiot president felt and displayed after her new set of "tax reforms" either got approved into laws (Lateral Attrition Act) or have passed through the congress' house of representatives (12% VAT). Now, I know nothing about the Lateral Attrition stuff, so I won't talk about that. The real issue here is the 12% VAT.

The government claims that the added profit from this will be used to help the poor. That was exactly what I heard from Fidel V. Ramos when he raised VAT to 10% himself during his term. To be fair, the Philippine economy was at an all-time high during Ramos' time. But did the condition of the poor get any better? Definitely not--it got steadily worse and worse.

GMA and Ramos, you see, are like republicans in America. They favor big business, and thus they go after the big fish (foreign investors, MNCs) instead of the small fry (the poor). Hence, when these two passed tax measures, the only true benefit is to the upper class. They build more roads and bridges--fine if you got a car, which the lower classes do not. They spend all this cash for all of these infrastructure projects the poor can't make use of anyway. The only thing they won't spend on is education, because a learned lower class will destabilize their grip on power.

And these morons are running the show.

We're doomed.

The Tragedy of Professional Wrestling

People probably find me a bit weird for liking pro-wrestling. It's a common notion that it is all fake and graceless, nothing more than a male soap opera with excessively bad actors. And frankly, I can see why people see wrestling as such. The wrestlers are stuntmen, not actors, and their acting is atrocious more often than not. The storylines are just recycled over and over again. The characters are flat with absolutely no subtle dimensions to them, you're either a face (good guy) or a heel (bad guy).

However if you watch wrestling for the storylines, you are missing the point. From a storyline perspective, it really is pathetic. However, people miss out on the fact that it also used to be considered a sport, before that moron Vince McMahon degraded it into mere entertainment. It may be scripted, but not fake. Ballet is scripted but it isn't fake. Like any dance, a wrestling match requires perfect grace, timing, and coordination between two skilled dancers who try to make each fall and slam as realistic as possible without compromising safety. It's very intricate. It's a craft, and this aspect of wrestling has been forgotten because of some imbecile in the WWE who along with her dad thinks that wrestling is mere entertainment. It used to be much more than that.

Now the WWE is all shock and no substance. They hire all these "divas" who can't wrestle and who would be more at home doing Playboy covers. Y'know, if divas equal ratings, then WOW Women of Wrestling should be the most successful wrestling outfit there is. It isn't. It stunk, its "wrestlers" can't sell their bumps too well and their ringside announcer is annoying (the one posing as the federation's owner or something, can't remember his face). People only know it now thanks to reruns. Sex won't sell a federation.

On the other end of the spectrum there is TNA Impact! which happens to have really good matches. It's the only wrestling show exported out of the States (I'm not American and reside in the Philippines) where I've actually seen someone pull off vertabreakers and Canadian Destroyers, moves which no one will see in the WWE. The sad thing about this fed is that it's rather small and less wealthy than the WWE, their wrestlers are even worse actors than those in the other show, and they have slim chances of making it. Still, I find their matches infinitely more entertaining. At least they don't rely on sex to sell (in fact, they market themselves as a family-friendly promotion).

Anyway, enough rant for now. See ya.

Bloody Massacres (With a Word from Vlad Tepes, aka Vlad the Impaler)

Recently, news of the murder of a family in Cavite by some thug named Frederico Rupido has really caught my nerve. In fact, I'm so pissed at it that, using my incredible necromantic skills yet again (aka my wild imagination), I tried to ask a couple of historical figures about what they thought on the matter. Marquis de Sade was still sore at me for cutting him off so unceremoniously the last time I consulted him. Elizabeth Bathory was not interested since the issue had nothing to do with her lesbian-sadist tendencies, and she refused to talk on a petty, sloppy murder committed by a gunman. Hmmm... maybe when a story about some sexy starlet getting attacked by rabid wolves comes around, I can bug Miss Bathory again, but as of now she just won't talk to me.

So I was left to talk to Prince Vlad Tepes, the son of the dragon, better known as Vlad Dracula. We had quite a talk. Charming, charming dude, if a bit sadistic.

Frozen Twilight (FT): Thank you for your time, Mr. Tepes. It's not everyday we get a famous nobleman who served as the inspiration for an all-time bestseller on this blog.

Vlad Tepes (VT): I am most pleased to be able to talk to fresh blood once more after spending many years where the heat and fire burn hotter than a million suns. This truly must be some mistake of judgment. One who has bravely engaged the Turks on glorious combat where others have consented to servitude certainly deserves more than the furnace treatment. I am a patriot, a hero, and a loved nobleman in all of Romania.

FT: Historians also call you sadistic, cruel, and disturbed.

VT: I was just to all and merciful to the worthy. I kill only the dishonest and the worthless to society. For example, your country, the Philippines I believe, is rife with dishonesty in its national ranks, am I right?

FT: Yes, my prince.

VT: Have you not heard of my solution to graft and corruption? I gathered all the nobles in the land to one banquet, asked them how many princes and rulers they had served in their lifetimes, and they answered that they had served quite a lot. I told them with all honesty that had they been more loyal to the people of Romania, they would have not have had to change rulers so often. Instead they changed rulers as often as one would change underpants in order to fulfill their selfish needs, not Romania's. You politicians do this too, am I right?

FT: Yes, lord.

VT: Then do what I did. I impaled the oldest ones, stuck a stake through their bodies then waited for the force of gravity to drive them further down the stake, piercing their internal organs slowly, ensuring that they could take days to die. It was fun dining while their screams adorned my favorite banqueting spot by the forest. The younger ones I had work in labor camps till they died. Do THAT to any of your corrupt leaders, and surely the corruption will cease. Why, my methods were so successful that crime was at an all-time low in Romania because of my efforts.

FT: (mumbles...) there was no crime because you committed them all...

VT: What is it you are saying beneath your breath? It is most impolite to speak in such a manner before a prince of my stature, and I will not hesitate to leave my mark upon you.

FT: Nothing. I was just pondering the recent massacre of a family in my home country by a crazed gunman...

VT: Oh yes, that news. I was most depressed by it. In my time crimes were punished harshly, hence people committed no crimes. Unfaithful wives I would impale. Disrespectful children would get the same treatment. For this killer, I would use one of my designer stakes, made from pure gold, with the tip sharp enough to pierce through his body yet blunt enough to prevent sudden death through shock. I will then capture him first then flog him before impaling him oh so carefully, that his death may take as many as three days. I will then feast in front of him in his forlorn state, making sure to let him see the sumptuous feast before his eyes: so close yet so far away. Imagine the pain of seeing the life-giving ambrosia laid right in front of you while you can do nothing but writhe in the pain of your impending doom...

FT: (mumbling) with crimes like that, who needs criminals...

VT: You speak once more without respect and honor. As Soon as I find my severed head I will take a bite out of your...

And with this, I ended our little séance before he could get another word in. Nah, I don't think such draconian measures would work, especially in our god-fearing society. But I do agree that the necessary justice and harshness be done to the criminal, though within the bounds of the humane. Damn, maybe I should stop inviting these people to speak on the blog. They seldom got anything useful to say.

Kidnappings and Rescues (With a Special word from Marquis de Sade)

Why Praise The Police?

By now, all you people probably know that the kidnapped 20-year old Alabang resident has been rescued, and that our passive president again praised her lackeys in the police for a job well done. In my opinion, the police deserve no praise. They were doing their job. In fact, if they were competent enough in their work in discouraging crime, the kidnappings would not have taken place. Plus, one of the suspects was a policeman himself. A bad apple, sure, but bad apples f--- up the whole basket. When policemen are committing crimes instead of solving them, they become subhuman. And when they finally get around to doing their work, they deserve no praise, in fact, they deserve to be lambasted more since they had to take so long to wake up.

As for the kidnappers, thanks for scaring the bejeezus out of us rich kids who have been afraid all this time because of your pathetic attempts at enriching yourselves with our hard-earned cash. Believe it or not, we did not start out rich. There's one big difference between kidnappers and us: we worked effin' hard for our money. We did not resort to crime, and thus we're rich. If you will make poverty an excuse, then I will laugh at your face and piss on your graves because frankly, I don't give a flying f--- how poor you are when you're evil. Evil is never justified. Oh true, I have no qualms about doing charity stuff and such, but towards criminals I have nothing but disdain.
Marquis de Sade says:

Dear kidnappers, if justice was left to me, I wish to chain you to the ceiling, shackle your limbs tight to prevent movement, scourge your pathetic asses until you're down to a bloody pulp, piss on your raw wounds, stretch you, draw you, quarter you, burn your corpses, and then throw your ashes into hydrochloric acid for inhuman behavior. It may be a bit extreme, but mercy is for humans, not microbes like criminals. Of course you can admit to your crimes, which will of course make me simply tie you up to a chair, pull your heads back, then drive a thin metal wire down your nose into your lungs so slowly you will wish you were quartered and burned instead. It's a classic gestapo torture method perfect for the pathetic lumps of meat called criminals.

I Say:

Dammit, the old Marquis is too sadistic again. Nah, I think criminals still deserve a just trial without any of these gestapo tactics because our police is infamous for doing these things as well, oftentimes to totally innocent people. But hey, I also wish justice will be swift and unerring.

Anyway, I have to send the old Marquis back to his place down where the sun never shines. Maybe next week I'll invite Vlad the impaler or Madame Elizabeth Bathory. Till the next time, people.

The Harmony of Relaitves and Absolutes

Relativism and absolutism, in my opinion, aren't opposites. In the strict sense opposites cannot exist. White is not the opposite, or negative of black. Non-white is the negative of white, for if it were black and black alone, then other colors such as red, blue, and green would technically not be opposed to white. Yet they are not white. Neither are they full opposites of white. Their respective full opposites are non-red, non-blue, and non-green, or if you would, anti-red, anti-blue, or anti-green, which are of course nonexistent colors for they cannot be pinned down to any one actual color.

Likewise the opposite of relative is anti-relative, not absolute, while the opposite of absolute is anti-absolute, not relative, for absolutism and relativism have a dynamic between them. Things that are relative may be absolute to others. A child who earns a 500-peso a week allowance is rich, and his richness is absolute within his sphere of influence. To the child he is wealthy, and that is to him absolute truth. To an executive of Citibank though, to earn the same amount a week, which amounts to a mere 2000 a month, is to him or her absolutely despicable, this despicability is an absolute truth to the executive. Yet the satisfaction over the same amount of earnings is relative to both while absolute to the two of them taken individually.

Relatives must also be based upon absolutes of some sort in order to have any true relativity. One cannot relate two things which are indefinite. One relates two concepts, emotions, objects, or ideas that are absolute, not indefinite. As in the case above, the happiness of the child is absolute as is the dissatisfaction of the executive when taken from the viewpoints of our respective objects of discussion.

Therefore relatives and absolutes are not in fact opposed, but go hand-in-hand, for they can exist within the same argument or concept.

Thursday the 13th

1) News has not been very good lately. Two nights back a neighbor was abducted along with her boyfriend at Starbucks outside the village. What I find odd about the case is that the abductors apparently went about their business unarmed. Accounts indicate that these dudes were not carrying guns. Plus as of time of writing, there hasn't been a ransom notice yet. Wonder what the motive is.

2) Ever realize how the news has been focused on meningococcemia (sp?) and Nida Blanca lately? I think it's a way to keep people from focusing too much on the president's failings. Newspeople have been paid off by Malacanang to turn a blind eye to the president's ineffectivity and to focus on other news. This is stupid, because meningococcemia is pretty common anyway in Baguio when it's too cold and the Nida Blanca case is very old. If this was another country, those itmes would have never made it to newsrooms because of their age. Oh well.

3) Oh, and how could I forget the burning of the ABS-CBN news van by alleged FPJ supporters. I am 100% sure that Susan Roces and co. had nothing to do with this. Susan is for most part apolitical, and the opposition would not want to do this because it would tarnish their image. I'm not implying that the administration did it themselves, that would be even less likely because they are supporters of the Lopez group of companies. My guess is that a group of random morons did it and called themselves FPJ supporters.

4) And on the abduction of muslims for the alleged Quiapo church bomb plot, shame on the police. I honestly believe that they were acting too rashly again. It won't be the first time they would capture a false suspect, in fact the police contribute to crime by catching all the wrong people. If in the Us the catchprase is "you just got me 'cause I'm black," in the Philippines it's "you caught me 'cause I'm muslim." That's just not right.

Activity log

People (all five of you who actually come here) wight be wondering what on earth a new bum like me has been up to. Well, not an awful lot really, but i still manage to make use of my time as productively as I can. Lately I've been doing the following things:

1) Reading. I just finished re-reading 1984, and now I already on Dracula. I can't imagine why I didn't read this book earlier, it's so entertaining! Definitely way better than any of the movies based on it (inculding the witty Dracula: Dead and Loving It, which is very loosely based on the novel).

2) Web surfing. I've found some crazy humor sites you may want to visit in your free time, such as the Encyclopedia Obscura and Crazy News. There's also this flash animation made by some dude on deviant art. Anime fans will doubtless like it best, but there's some good in it for everyone.

3) Video Gaming. Back to basics here as I go back to simpler games like Tetris, Columns, and Dr. Mario. Y'know, those games where you played for points and not kills? I swear, games back then were more fun.

4) Typing for my dad, who to this day can't use a word processor.

5) Driving for my siblings, I fetch them from school.

So, as you see, I am still pretty busy, though not as much as before. Maybe one of these days I'll come to school just for kicks. Oh well, let's see.

Thoughts Again

Rants:

1) People may be wondering what the heck I've been doing. Well, being a bum is not really all it was made out to be. Sure, you get to live like a king without working, but you also get bored as hell. So, until I finally land employment somewhere, I've been doing what I do best: thinking. Remember what Descartes said: I think therefore I am? To me it's the opposite: I am therefore I think. Thinking does not define me, I define it. It is my tool. I also use it to come up with absolutely useless rants like the one that is about to follow.

2) Ever realize how even the most harmless media have some potentially disturbing messages for kids? For videogames, take for example Dr. Mario who has undertones of drug abuse. Or Super Mario Brothers which promotes the killing of innocent (and endangered) turtles. There is also the Pac Man which promotes mindless gluttony.

Books are also not exempted. Hansel and Gretel promote matricide by pushing evil mothers into ovens (and yes, in the original version the witch IS their mother, not stepmother). The tale of The Frog Prince promotes cruelty against animals and perverted behavior--in the original, the frog was smashed against a wall because he was making lewd comments.

Lastly cartoons are the worst. Spongebob Squarepants (funny, funny show) is chock-full of dark humor. Rocko's Modern Life ran an episode which depicted abortion (which, pro-choice or not, must not be diplayed on public TV).

The bottomline is that kids need heavy supervision now more than ever. It can change their lives.

-Yan na muna

My New Diet.

Yup, you read right. I'm changing my eating habits in an attempt to maintain my delicate figure. I'm trying out this curious little technique i read in an old Reader's Digest from some time back. Basically, it theorized that eating food that's spicy as hell will kill your appetite, plus the thermal effect on the food helps metabolism. At first I thought it was suspicious but then I tried it. Strangely enough, I now eat two helpings of soup when back then i could down four. It does kill your appetite because of the following reasons:

1) You will drink a hell lot of water, and that'll bulk you up without any caloric consequences. Of course stay away from anything sugary or caffeine-enriched.

2) Once your mouth gets too hot, you won't eat as much.

3) Spicy food makes your brain release endorphins--natural painkillers which can also diminish the hunger impulse. Eating enough peppers also causes people to have mild bouts of euphoria, kinda like marijuana but perfectly legal and you don't get addicted. Think of peppers as mild opiates.

Other reasons pepper is good for you:

1) A single pepper has more Vitamin C than an orange (fact).

2) Peppers raise metabolism (fact).

3) Peppers enhance taste buds, not ruin them (fact).

4) Everything (sans sweet stuff) goes well with pepper (opinion).

So now, I eat hot food like no one's business. I just finished off one bottle of Tabasco and have now moved onto another brand of hot sauce (Red Devil I think they called it) just for experimentation. And now, almost everything I eat gets pepper treatment, especially soups (which also go well with garlic). I think that I've finally found a diet I can stick to.

New Year...

First of all, I may be a day late, but I'll greet you people all the same: happy new year! It is 2005, the year of the rooster. Crazy isn't it, naming years after animals. We got the year of the rat, pig, horse, now the chicken. It's just not right. All the other animals are tenacious in some way. Rats are hard to eradicate. Pigs/Hogs can be a pain to chase down. Horses are tough beats of burden. But chickens? You snap their necks and that's it.

Anyway, so much for ranting about the weirdness of choosing the term "chicken." People probably want to know what a newly unemployed person like me has been up to lately. Well, I've been trying to get my creative juices flowing as of late. I've been trying to revive my old short story "The IP Project" but I haven't been too successful. So far I've changed the characters significantly. The lead character will no longer be a guy for one but a woman, her assistant will be her twin brother. The two of them will be Filipino citizens having a German dad and Japanese mom. I'm still debating on what to name the two. So far as I know, one of them will be Kaoru, the other will be Kaede, but since both names are gender neutral I can't decide on who'll be the woman and who'll be the man. Maybe you guys can help me. I'll take a poll of which name among the two you want for the male and the female, and I'll act accordingly.

I've also amassed quite a reading list. I went on a buying spree of sorts last week, and now I have more than enough novels to last me ages. I'm trying to make time to read Angels and Demons, Dracula, 1984 (re-reading), Enemy At The Gates, a collection of Ray Bradbury's short stories (1000+ pages), and all the Harry Potter novels (yup, haven't read any 'til now). Wish me luck.

Oh, and on top of that I'm also applying for SR teaching in April. The opening is for grade school math and science, not really my favorite subjects. Still, beggars can't be chosers.

So, that's all I got to say for now. See ya people later.