Is America the Land of the Free or a Theocratic State?

My jaw dropped when i read this on the International Herald Tribune:

WASHINGTON: A last-minute Bush administration plan to grant sweeping new protections to health care providers who oppose abortion and other procedures on religious or moral grounds has provoked a torrent of objections, including a strenuous protest from the government agency that enforces job-discrimination laws.

The proposed rule would prohibit recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses and other health care workers who refuse to perform or to assist in the performance of abortions or sterilization procedures because of their "religious beliefs or moral convictions."

It would also prevent hospitals, clinics, doctors' offices and drugstores from requiring employees with religious or moral objections to "assist in the performance of any part of a health service program or research activity" financed by the Department of Health and Human Services.

But three officials from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, including its legal counsel, whom President George W. Bush appointed, said the proposal would overturn 40 years of civil rights law prohibiting job discrimination based on religion.

Read entire article here : www.iht.com

 Got no comments on this by the way , exams and all.....

Cheers from the,

Matrix

Un-pinked blog

I changed my template again. Just changed the pink color to the current ......not pink. Factors leading to this:

Audrey : Your blog's pink too....

Me        : Whaaaaaa????!!!! Its white!

Audrey : Pink on white...

Today (the last straw)

Me         : Hey , what do you think of my pink blog?

Roomie : Your blog's pink?

Me         : Take a look.

Roomie : Dude , change it....

Me         : Really?

Roomie : its un-Yuva...

*sorry pink lovers*

Cheers from the 

Matrix

"Evil" - Interpol

Rosemary
Heaven restores you in life
Coming with me
Through the aging, the fear and the strife
It's the smiling on the package
It's the faces in the sand
It's the thought that holds you upwards
Embracing me with two hands
Write, we'll take you places
Yeah maybe to the beach
When your friends they do come crying
Tell them how your pleasure's set up on slow-release

Hey wait
Great smile
Sensitive to faith not
Denial
But hey whose on trial?

It took a life spent
With no cellmate
The long way back
Saying meanwhile can't we look the other way?

He speaks about travel
Yeah, we think about the land
We smile like all people
Feeling real tan
I can take you places
Do you need a new man?
Wipe the pollen from the faces
Make revision to a dream while you wait in the van

Hey wait
Great smile
Sensitive to faith not
Denial
But hey whose on trial?

It took a life spent
With no cellmate
Find a long way back
Saying meanwhile can't we look the other way?
You're weightless, you are exotic
You need something for which to care
Saying meanwhile can't we look the other way?

Leave some shards under the belly
Lay some grease inside my hand
It's a sentimental jury
And the makings of a good plan
You've come to love me nightly
Yeah you've come to hold me tight
Is this motion everlasting
Or do shutters pass in the night?

Rosemary
Oh heaven restores you in life
I spent a lifespan with no cellmate
The long way back
Saying meanwhile can't we look the other way?
You're weightless, semi-erotic
You need someone to take you there
Saying meanwhile can't we look the other way?
Why can't we just play the other game?
Why can't we just look the other way?

The Slacker in me has woken up.

I'm slacking.

I used to (during the semester) :

1) Wake up at 5 am

2) Study

3) Go to class at 8.30 (or running with Audrey at 6.30 or whoever could wake up at 6am)

4) Push the whole day and sleep at 10 or 11.

Now (during exams) :

1) Wake up at 8 /9 or 11am

2) Shower for half and hour.

3) Make nice cup of coffee (using MILK and sugar and coffee powder , not the premixed stuff)

4) Watch Youtube videos till like an hour or 2 after waking up.

5) Study for an hour or so and then go for lunch , or tapau back to the room and watch another 1 or 2 hours worth of vids

6) Try to study , but end up blogging.

7) FINALLY start studying properly after 5 or 6pm.

8) Dinner at 8 plus.

9) Study again till like 10pm , and then slack again , normally involves going online and trying random chats with people , whom are often studying and stressing out (i apologise)

10) Sleep at 1 or 2 am after watching an hour's worth of this:

Maybe i'm burnt out. Or maybe the easy Mechanics of Materials paper has made me question my paranoia style of studying my engineering modules this time around. Did i do too much? Maybe i should have gone and watched Quantum of Solace yesterday.

Or maybe i'm just letting my guard down for the 2 papers i SU-ed. Quantum Mechanics and Linear Algebra and Differential Equations.

Or maybe i'm relaxed cos i have a very slack exam schedule:


I had 5 days to study for 2 subject i had SU-ed (meaning i just have to pass em , my grades for em won;t be factored into my GPA)

I had 5 days to study for my first paper (maybe that's why it was easy?)

I have 5 days to study for my final 2 papers , one of which is an open book one.

*WIDE GRIN*

I think i'd better start studying again......this posting is making me feel guilty.



Cheers from the,

Matrix

On Abortion

The choice for women to undergo abortion must be upheld and protected through legislation. This is controversial and i fully expect some form of reaction from this post.

But before you go on to think i am going to start debating moral and ethics here , let me set the record straight.

NO!

I am not going to argue this based on philosophy and ethics.They are debatable with too many grey areas for my liking .


SO,

I am going to argue this from a simple matter:



Pregnancy can be life threatening. Period. Though the risk is minimal nowadays if you do give birth in a maternity ward , the point is, its still there:

Read this link if you're not convinced :

http://disgustedbeyondbelief.blogspot.com/2007/04/my-views-on-abortion.html

Ok , i do admit , i am making a cardinal error here. A good argument does not draw support from anecdotal evidence. However , when it does come down to an argument (based on the idea that loss of a single life when it could be prevented, is unacceptable) , then yes , anecdotal evidence is relevant.

Now, on with the post proper.

Obama is most likely going to legalize abortions when he comes into power. And quite obviously , the hippy pro-life movements in the US are up in arms over it , citing that "loss of a life so young when it could be prevented is unacceptable"

TRUE.

And there lies the gray area. Allow me to explain.

Questions regarding the morality of abortion is a heavily debated one. Its very ambiguous at best. From the POV of a pro-life , anti-abortion person , abortions = murder. From the POV of a person wanting an abortion , she (or he if a couple is involved) could cite various reasons amongst which are :

1) Rape
2) Teenage pregnancy
3) Not ready for a child (i will not discuss this further , too much ambiguity and grey areas)

I think now is the best time to drive home the main idea of this post:

I AM SUPPORTING THE RIGHT FOR INDIVIDUALS TO CHOOSE TO UNDERGO ABORTIONS. On the subject of abortions itself , i have no opinion. The reason being there are just too many grey and debatable areas and so many differing opinions and views one cannnot begin to comprehend without actually experiencing what the person giving those views has been through.

The reason i am taking this stand is. though i have no opinion on the touchy subject of abortions , i do fully understand that pregnancies can lead to a life threatening situation for the mother leaving 3 possible outcomes if the situation is left to faith.

1) Everything works out. Mom and baby are ok. Everyone gets a break.
2) A miscarriage, but mom lives.
3) Both mother and child die.

That being said, when you are fully aware there is a risk, shouldn't you logically make sure there is the means to somehow salvage something from the situation? An abortion to save the mother is a last resort. It has its own risks (mom gets killed possibly?) but it is a life saving option for the mother and that being said, it is an option the mother should not be barred from when death stares at her.

I am talking in a language everyone should understand. Freedom of choice. A core idea which gave birth to what we call a democracy. Wouldn't be ironic if a life is terminated by authoritarian laws in a nation which abhors them to begin with?

Cheers from the:

Matrix

In Awe Of IBM's ability to return from the depths of Hell

I own a Lenovo Thinkpad T61.

It can be dropped from the top of Everest and it would still work.

I fact i did drop it twice on some long flights of stairs , picked it up , and calmly turned it on.

It is unnerving. I have gone from a chap who used to start hyperventilating when his home comp (which by the way is a dusty old Pentium 3 , running Windows 98 , recently upgraded to an AMD 2.0 and now running Windows XP ) shut down unexpectedly....

.

.

.

.

to a dude who has the uncanny ability to continue munching on a bar of Cadbury's Mixed Nuts chocolate bar after winessing his 1 year old IBM's refusal to boot despite multiple shutting downs in the most brutal manner ........

.

.

..... by turning off the power....

Okay , my laptop is pretty lousy when it comes to graphics. Its running Intel's onboard graphics card , which makes your old VGA camera on that old mobile you USED to have....look good.

But, it does come with something most other laptops don't have. A hidden proprietory utility software which basically becomes your operating system if you will, in times of crisis.

What you can do with this is , if you have an external hard drive, plug it in and back up all your data to it AND make it bootable with 2 clicks. So basically, you can now run your external HD from your friend's comp by selecting to boot it on startup.

In my case however , my Roomie happens to run an IMac , which uses a different HD format, so i jus did this:

3 clicks to reformat and restore my entire computer from my external HD. Its idiot proof. Took hours though, but within 12 hours, i'm back blogging about it.


The THING even restored my setting on Firefox 3 which i customised.And my desktop background was unchanged.

It was as if nothing had ever happened to my comp.

And so , I am now proud to say that I do run a very ugly and reliable IBM.

Americans are nuts

"Obama is a gun snatcher"

"He wants to take our guns from us and create a socialist society policed by his own police force"

"Our freedom is being curtailed by gun control. Its not constitutional"

American rednecks are up in arms against Obama for his proposed increased regulation on guns. They claim this strips them of their right to bear arms and to protect themselves. The basic American mnetality pertaining guns and the law is that they have the right to protect themselves and must not be restricted to rely solely on law enforcement alone as a form of protection. And this form of personal protection is a gun.

Which is why you have powerful looby groups such as the infamous redneck one :




The NRA is a "Americans right to bear arms and to shoot each other and endangered wolves as well" watchdog. Its basic message was this during the elections:


"Do not vote for Obama. He's gonna steal your guns"

Guns which i must say if were kept under control would not have resulted in the Columbine High School Massacre. And to drive home the point of how dumb redneck America is, we had the Virginia Tech shooting later. Plus a lot more deaths to follow from armed robberies, accidents involving guns and Dick Cheney shooting his hunting partner.

I think its high time Americans come to grips with the fact that today is not the 1700s , when you needed a gun to feed yourself and to make a living in the wild. They have the Wall Street Crash to handle nowadays , not injuns. In fact, what the average American needs today is prudence, thrift, and a whole lot of common sense.

The American Bill of Rights is redundant. Rednecks base their right to bear arms on a document written 300 years ago. To hold onto ideas which have slipped into redundancy and have lost their relevancy to the America of today is idiotic to be polite.

If Americans want change, then they must not stop at simply voting for Obama. Mentality change is necessary as well.


Cheers from the

Matrix