Easter and the Bunny

I understand what Easter is all about:

"On Easter Sunday, Christians celebrate the resurrection of the Lord, Jesus Christ. It is typically the most well-attended Sunday service of the year for Christian churches."

It's the time when 'posers' go to church so they can claim to be Christians.  My real question is when did rabbits and chocolate begin to become part of the celebration.  Case in point, take a look at this picture:

   This looks like the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.  This is just messed up.  I mean how does this have anything to do with Easter?  Here is 25 terrifying Easter bunnies. 

Exactly what is Easter?

"Easter is the oldest Christian holiday, but how much of the most public and common celebrations of Easter today remain Christian in nature? Many people go to church — far more than go the rest of the year — but what else? Easter candy isn't Christian. The Easter bunny isn't Christian. Easter eggs aren't Christian. Most of what people commonly associate with Easter is pagan in origin; the rest is commercial. Just as American culture secularized Christmas, it’s secularizing Easter." (Is Easter a Christian or Pagan Holiday? Unpacking the Pagan Elements of Easter)

Has this holiday become just like Christmas?  If you recall I wrote a post about 'Is Santa Claus Real?'  In that post we determined that Santa Claus was actually Chinese and lived in China.  Could the Easter bunny also be Chinese?  I did a search on Google and found this manufacturer of plastic Easter eggs a big manufacturer of throw away products.  This is just one of the many companies creating these types of products.  Has China figured out a way to take over the Easter holiday as well?  That question will need to be investigated further in a future post.

In my opinion, Easter, just like Christmas, has become a consumer holiday.  Stores devote entire sections of the store to stock pagan items in the illusion of celebrating Easter.  Parents pagan-ize their children with pictures of creepy bunnies holding them as babies, lets face it no intelligent adult would do this, then to atone for their pagan ways they attend church one day a year posing as Christians.

It would seem that everyone is jumping on the pagan band wagon, with photographers cashing in with these pictures, candy companies selling chocolate rabbits and eggs.

All that I know is that if the Easter bunny is going to visit me that bunny better look like this:

Happy Easter

Social Media and the Ilusion of Friends

In my continuing series "Americans and our dumber society" I want to talk about Social Media and the illusion of friends.  If you are a member of society you most likely have a social media page like on Facebook or Linkedin.  If you are really cool then you have a twitter account and you tweet all your inane ideas to your followers.

We all have "friends" on Facebook.  Of course we all know that they are not really our friends.  Well only a small percentage are actual friends.  There seems to be 13 distinct categories that people fit into as your friend on Facebook.  I would tend to agree.  I in fact have looked through my friends on facebook and currently I have 129 people that have asked to be my friend.  I do not ever ask to be anyones friend.  Here is the breakdown:

1. The over zealous updater:
   12
2. The Link-Bot:
   0
3. The Groupie:
   0
4. I am my kids:
   15
5. Spies (who used to) like us:
   0
6. The Wanna Be:
   0
7. The Two Facer:
   5 (I think)
8. The Networker:
   10
9. The over poker:
   4
10. The get a lifer:
    0
11. The attention seeker:
    70
12. The Over Suggester:
    0 (I unfriend immediately)
13. The Good Friend:
    Everyone left 14

I have a weekly ritual of unfriending some people that fits in Categories 1 - 12.  I do this because they illustrate their stupidity by their posts.  Let me explain:

People's personality comes out if you happen to hang out with them for a long period of time.  You may or may not like their personality.  For example, lets say that you and your significant other goes camping with a friend and their significant other for a week.  Normally you would not see your friend for this amount of time over a year.  As you hang out with them you notice that they are childish, not very smart and have some odd tendencies.  Well people, Facebook is like that camping trip.  Only difference is that you are hanging out with  100s of these type people.

Here is a conversation on Facebook I found today:

Obviously this person has found out that their friends are not really their friends.  In my opinion Social media is like a magnifying glass for ignorance.  With the onslaught of mobile devices out numbering people and with people not having self control.  It's not that people are getting more ignorant and selfish.  They have always been ignorant and selfish.  We just never spent enough time with them to find out how ignorant they are.  Social media shines a light and magnifies the society of dullards.

The Dumber America - Infiltration of Mobile Devices

In my continuing series on the Dumber America, I take a look at the use of Cellphone and Smartphones.  I have done some posts on cellphones in the past - Where has common sense gone?  and my Pet Peeves.  The past decade has seen the use of cellphone and smartphone sales and use dramatically increase.  In fact according to this article the number of mobile devices has exceeded the population of the world.  Cisco wrote another interesting white paper "The Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast"  All pointing to the increase in use of the internet and mobile devices.  An interesting Statistic that I confirmed on the Pew Research center website was tweeted by @susannahfox states: "67% of cell owners find themselves checking their phone for messages, alerts, or calls even when they don’t notice it ringing or vibrating."

These sources are reporting data that we as individuals can witness everyday.  As an example, we can walk into any Walmart today and see 40% of the people walking and talking on the phone.  In addition, simply drive around and you will see at least 30% of the drivers either texting or talking on the phone.  Laws banning cellphone use while driving does not seem to make a difference.  Even after the University of Utah came out with a study showing that drivers on cell phones are as bad as drunks.

"We found that people are as impaired when they drive and talk on a cell phone as they are when they drive intoxicated at the legal blood-alcohol limit”

In other studies compiled by Nationwide Insurance:

• The No.1 source of driver inattention is use of a wireless device. (Virginia Tech/NHTSA)
• Drivers that use cell phones are four times as likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure themselves. (NHTSA, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)
• 10 percent of drivers aged 16 to 24 years old are on their phone at any one time.
• Driving while distracted is a factor in 25 percent of police reported crashes.
• Driving while using a cell phone reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent  (Carnegie Mellon)

A Google search produces reams and reams of links to university and Insurance company studies showing that you should not drive and use a cellphone. Yet, I see it everyday.  The question here is :

"Are Americans  getting dumber?"

Me and Leroy

A guy stopped at a local gas station & after filling his tank, he paid the bill and bought a soft drink. He stood by his car to drink his cola and watched a couple of men working along the roadside.

One man would dig a hole two or three feet deep and then move on. The other man came along behind him and filled in the hole.

The men worked right past the guy with the soft drink and went on down the road. "I can't stand this," said the man tossing the can into a trash container and heading down the road toward the men.

"Hold it, hold it," he said to the men. "Can you tell me what's going on here with all this digging and refilling?"

"Well, we work for the government and we're just doing our job," one of the men said.

"But one of you is digging a hole and the other fills it up. You're not accomplishing anything. Aren't you wasting the taxpayers' money?"

"You don't understand, mister," one of the men said, leaning on his shovel and wiping his brow. "Normally there's three of us: me, Elmer and Leroy. I dig the hole, Elmer sticks in the tree, and Leroy here puts the dirt back. Elmer's job's been cut... So now it's just me an' Leroy. "

Piracy - A conclusion

To conclude my series of articles on Piracy and Digital Rights.  I leave you with a full set of tools that will  allow you to surf and download from the internet with privacy.  In review here are the posts:

Article #1: How Digital Rights Enables and promotes Piracy

Article #2: How Internet Providers are regulating and monitoring our Activity

Article #3: How to bypass the regulating and Monitoring

Article #4: My Experience in Piracy

Article #5: Software used to create copies of protected DVDs

I have given you all the tools needed:  DVD Ripper software, Bittorrent software, VPN setup via BTGuard and some file sharing websites.  Don't get me wrong, I do not advocate illegal activity.  I just believe that not all file sharing is illegal.  As an example there are a number of bands that upload their music onto The Pirate Bay that have made their music free.  Yet the internet providers do not consider this in their regulation of the monitoring.

With information and knowledge comes great responsibility.  Just because you can does not mean you should.  I say this because we the people have created the laws that govern the file sharing activity.  We the people should learn and then pressure our elected officials to change the laws governing file sharing which would then force the Music and Movie industries to change how they distribute their media.

I don't have all the answers, I don't know how this will end.  All that I can give you is the knowledge of what is occuring and how it affects everyone.