Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Allah Akbar!

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OK, I've just figured out the solution to the whole problem of those from the Religion of Peace rioting, burning, and killing all over the world. It's brilliant, if I may say so myself.

I was inspired by reading this article about how a French weekly paper is deliberating publishing cartoons that insult "the prophet". Reading this merged with my knowledge of Star Trek to yield the idea.

0919-charliexThose of you with the good sense to be acquainted with Star Trek's Original Series are probably knowledgeable of Charlie X, which is the second episode with Kirk. It is the story of a teenaged boy who has powers to change matter and the behavior of those around him, and he easily takes over the Enterprise.

The crew of the ship seems doomed, but near the end of the show, it occurs to Kirk that if they turn on every single instrument on the bridge, Charlie will be so overwhelmed that he'll lose the ability to control them. Spock and McCoy scamper about the bridge, flicking on all the machines that go beep, boing, and boop, and – as with all Kirk's plans – it works.

This, my friends, is how to deal with all this rioting. The idea is simple: for a solid week, every newspaper, magazine, billboard, and other media willing to participate put up images that are deliberately provocative to our Islamic friends. They don't have to be completely obnoxious – – I'm not sure where they draw the line, but I believe any image at all is considered offensive, so put him on a bicycle, a trampoline – – you name it. One solid week. All over the world.

See, the problem with the current situation is that ONE publication does something "offensive", and then they target the poor bastards at that place. With a coordinated effort, the level-headed people of the planet can provide a united middle finger to all this rioting nonsense.

I see some of you are calling this insensitive. Excuse me for a moment while I consider that point.

Hmmm.

OK, I'm done. My response: they abdicated their right to being treated with velvet gloves by torching everything in sight. I would also add the following: how about you folks grow a pair of nuts and not worry so much about sensitivity to a very specific group?

I don't demand sensitivity. I'm a good suburban Christian, and if the Islamic world decided to put up billboards all over the planet with pictures of Jesus pracing around in a tutu or making out with Buddha, I couldn't care less. I'd probably think it's funny. As I've said before, the higher power I believe in really doesn't give a flying crap. He's not that neurotic. So Jesus told me to tell you to tickle his nut sack and get a life.

Anyway, that's my idea. It'll never happen, and anyway, I've got to go into hiding now. Genius is rarely understood in its own time.

The Show Must Go On

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For many years now, most of the world’s insight into the financial markets comes in a 5 second pre-commercial blurb near the end of the nightly news.  Some version of Brian Williams stating “… Wall Street closed today with the DOW up 25 on a well-received jobs report.  And in other news, a panda learned to wipe himself…”  No real shock that this disservice hurt millions of retirement accounts – delaying that beachside condo purchase in Bonita Springs – at least until the balance is “back up again”.

Logic would suggest at least some of these IRA/401k investors would pay a little more attention to financial media (albeit mainstream financial media), in an effort to avoid the financial illiteracy which was so costly the first time.  I continue to expect the herds of sheeple to maintain focus on Honey Boo Boo, however, the job of defeating one’s own ignorance is made more difficult by the mainstream data sources available.

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What I Can’t Stand About BI Tweets

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As some old-time Slopers know, I've been online for a very long time. I was plugged into CompuServe back in 1981 via a 300 baud modem, and I've been participating in – and creating – online communities ever since.

I confess in my middle age-dom that I am feeling increasingly out-of-touch with the online world. Although I have a Twitter account with over 7,000 followers, it's apparent to me that I'm not really clear on how to build up a large audience in this medium, since the most completely random people have drastically more followers through some kind of magic that, I'm guessing, has something to do with how many people they're following themselves.

0716-random

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