Announcement: We’re Going to Disneyland! (not)

Hello one and all,

BBK here with a much overdue update to the site. And, sadly, this will likely be my final update to this site. A messy side-love-project, The Big Blog of All the Shit I Know ended up not inspiring me enough to keep me updating. Recently, as a lot has happened since we’ve last had a squishy, moist heart to heart, I’ve been getting that blogging itch that most of us know salaciously intimately – this leads to the good news!

With bigger projects in the works (shhhh, it’s a secret), I’ve decided to devote my time to another blog: The Lonely Tribalist. It’s an idea Sir Moose and I have been brewing for a while and I feel it will be a great step up in quality and authenticity from TBBoAtSIK (as well as my first orphaned blog, Stressing Out College).

So I want to say thanks to everyone – all 5 of you – who have read and commented on this silly blog. I’d love to hear from you again over at The Lonely Tribalist. Gonna’ explore what it means to be alone on a planet of 7 billion other peeps – how we’re all tribes of one. And how to cope with it. I promise* it’s going to be a helluva lot of fun.

Cheers,
BBK (& Sir Moose)

*fingers crossed

My Two Cents on Random News: People Be Freaking at Obama’s Use of The Crusades

I am no political expert, but I have a blog, so my opinion counts (duh).

Half an hour ago, surfing through the time-killing depths of my Facebook news feed, I found this article: “Obama Faces Criticism After Mentioning The Crusades During Speech At the National Prayer Breakfast.”

I know, I know, this is how many “Christians are just way too fucking sensitive – All hail Richard Dawkins” posts start. But relax, this isn’t one of them. For one thing, I don’t believe Christians are inherently stupid. You know who’s stupid? Stupid people. Yeah, I went there. And secondly, this made me laugh rather than drive me into a frothing rage. So basically, I’m just going to briefly link and quote some articles about this hyped up event because my views can be summed up thusly: people need something to be angry about, so they’re going to find something to be angry about. Oh, and ignorance is so not bliss.

Enjoy.

• Obama and the Crusaders | The New Yorker – Not much frothing here, just a good dose of level-headedness and fair points. Although I don’t agree that Liberalism really “is the belief that toleration is not enough, that an active, affirmative pluralism is essential to social sanity.” That should exist, but that’s not what the reality is. Anywho, it’s a good read.

“The job of the good historian is to balance understanding with indictment; it’s the polemicist who tries to use history only to plead innocent. The acts of the Crusades, like the facts of slavery, happened.”

• Why Obama invoked the Crusades — and what it says about how he views terrorism | The Washington Post – Another fair article, shorter and less openly opinionated, but a decent read.

“[H]is comments on the Crusades and the Inquisition represent the latest ratcheting up in his quest to change how people talk about terrorism. He views Islamist terrorists as exploiting their religion; his opponents believe there is something about Islam that creates fanatics who are willing to carry out terrorist attacks… Words matter, and the way this issue is framed is going to go a long way toward determining how the “war on terror” will be waged.”

• Obama, The Crusades, And The Alternate Liberal Reality | Western Journalism – And to round it all off, here’s a pretty priceless article to kick start your weekend, be it productive or lackadaisical. You deserve a good chuckle. It’s hard to find an excerpt that really encompasses the author’s whole mindset fairly, so I’m just going to encourage you to read the whole thing for yourself. To quote the New Yorker article above, it employs a lot of the “Ma, he started it!” tactic and some convenient historical shuffling. You’re welcome.

Have a great weekend, everyone. What are you weekend plans? Opinions on this little brouhaha of the week? (And maybe I should call these posts “Facepalm Fridays,” whaddya think?)

Cheers,
BBK

Update: Getting Tired of this “Update” Shit Yet?

It’s 2015. Moose and BBK are not dead (yet). And we got a jonesing for posting for the moment.

The following is a list of our excuses for abandoning the blog this time:

• We are, as they are called, “lazy mofos”
• In August, Moose and BBK moved into their first place together with another couple
• In September, BBK returned to school and, with Moose, started selling Monty Python greeting (or farewell) cards on Etsy
• By the end of October, other couple and Team Moose/BBK waged war on each other
  • (Midterms happened)
• By December, other couple announced they are moving out
  • (Finals happened)
• Over Christmas, BBK tricked Moose’s family into thinking she’s a wonderful human being
• The past two weeks, BBK has entered the winter academic quarter, Moose has been panhandling a shitload of rent/grocery/gas money, we’ve been interviewing couples to take over the other couple’s lease
• Oh, and we might be getting a cat

Moose looking on during our winter break sojourn to the in-laws

Anything past “lazy mofos” is pretty much white noise. But for the time being, we are back and raring to jump back into reading blogs, posting blogs, and sharing our mental ticklings with y’all until our next slump.

So we’ll leave you with this gem of an article for your enjoyment:

“10 WOMEN CHRISTIAN MEN SHOULD NOT MARRY”

(No commentary is needed.) 

Cheers, and tell us how you’ve been because we’ve missed you (like, a lot),

Moose and BBK

Update: Cheating with an “Update” Post

Hey, it’s me, BBK. I’m just dropping in for my semi-irregular “I’m not dead” update. It’s so that I can feel good about posting without actually posting anything of consequence (as if my posts are anything but consequential).

And I make no promises, but I may or may not be posting more in the near or distant future.

There, happy? A post no one wanted.

Thanks, Obama.

Cheers,

BBK

P.S. Oh, and some weirdo nominated us for more award stuff. Call up the strippers and birthday cake boys. We’ll be posting about it soon (or not).

P.P.S. And for some substance – as well as for the sake of cute Internet animals – here’s a picture of Moose torturing a guinea pig.

Hell Freezing Over: Rockefellers Oil Barons No More?

Some pretty kickass news in the world of finance and environmentalism: the Rockefellers are reinvesting from oil to clean energy.

“The Rockefeller Brothers Fund is joining a coalition of philanthropists pledging to rid themselves of more than $50 bn (£31 bn) in fossil fuel assets…”

Now, longtime readers of this blog will know that, in addition to being a George Carlin fan, I’m not the biggest fan of the environmentalist movement. Close readers will know that it’s not because I hate the earth or don’t care about the future of humans. On the contrary: it’s because I feel our middling efforts in recycling and saving the whales is a distraction from larger causes, such as unsustainable food production and an overall highly wasteful perception of life.

Sometimes, I feel a loss in hope. Have we done too much damage to our infrastructure to fix it? Could we be past the tipping point for our species? It’s no secret that those who hold the money hold the power. But it’s not always solely with bad intentions. These people don’t set out in their day to day lives like Dr. Evil, plotting for world domination – at the cost of the world. It is out of ignorance, blindness that CEOs and boards make the decisions that they do. Example after example, many corporations have withheld or stopped the production of sustainable technology.

The first example that comes to mind is Tesla’s Wardenclyffe Tower, which would have revolutionized public utilities with its transmission of wireless power. However, the property and the project were deemed unprofitable. All J.P. Morgan had to do was put a little more money into the works. It’s not like he was hurting for it. John D. Rockefeller was a fellow baron contemporary.

Today, the heirs of John D. Rockefeller aren’t going to continue to make that mistake. Sure, they’re going to work like hell to make sure they make tons of money off of clean energy, but it’s a highly significant step in the right direction – in a direction that will see us still around, living sustainably. From the BBC News article, linked here:

“‘We are quite convinced that if he were alive today, as an astute businessman looking out to the future, he would be moving out of fossil fuels and investing in clean, renewable energy,’ Mr Heintz said in a statement.”

So here’s my nod to not only a savvy board over at the Rockefeller place, but also to the people who helped cause this shift. To the people who marched in the streets of NYC, demanding change from those who can make a difference, just a day before the Rockefeller announcement was made. And here’s a nod to everything and everyone that came before them, who’ve helped possibly push this sinking ship back upright.

Let’s see what tomorrow will bring.

Source: NBC News