What Rug Thinks

I've read the bible many times and recently I've been thinking a lot about some of the things found in the bible, what religious people find deplorable, and how many of the things they hate are in the bible. Here are a few examples based solely on word definitions and characters and their actions in the bible. Bastard - a person born of parents not married to each other. Is it just me or does this describe Jesus? Adultery - voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and a person who is not his or her spouse. This may or may not describe God and Mary. While the bible never says if God and Mary had sex, she did get pregnant by God and I only know of one way that is possible. There is also the conflicting passages saying she was married to Joseph and wasn't married yet in a different book of the new testament. Sinner - a person who transgresses against divine law by committing an immoral act or acts. I find this one to be the oddest. One of God's laws is

Every year we have to hear about how it's so wrong to say Happy Holidays and we should all be saying Merry Christmas instead. I have news for you Christmas people. The holidays is not just Christmas. Here is a short list of some common holidays that are celebrated around the same time of year. New Year - Celebrated December 31st on into the early hours of January 1st. Hogmanay - Same as new year in the Scottish tradition. Berchtoldstag - Same as new year in the  Switzerland and Liechtenstein traditions. Malanka - The Russian new year celebrated January 13th. Hanukkah - While it varies a bit, it falls somewhere from late November to late December. Kwanzaa - Celebrated December 26th to January 1st. Chalica - Starts the first Monday in December and lasts seven days according to Unitarian Universalists. Winter Solstice - Celebrated whenever the winter solstice takes place. This year it happens to be on December 22nd. Dydd Santes Dwynwen - The Welsh equivalent to valen

There comes a time in some people's lives when they are faced with something that seems impossible to get through. No matter what the something is you are left with two choices, give up or keep going. The choice is yours and yours alone. You can consider all the pros and cons of each option. You can debate about it until you are blue in the face, but you still have to choose if you are going to quit or persevere. There is a song by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones called Tragedy that has some interesting things to think about these types of situations. While the entire song is really relevant to this discussion, the line that really gets me is this one. "Have you ever felt the odds stacked up so high, you need a strength most don't possess? Or has it come down to do or die? You've got to rise above the rest." One of our former presidents has this to say. "Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles van

Words have meaning. I know that comes as a shock to some people, but it is true. Words don't have intrinsic meaning, but they do have meanings we have come to agree upon to enable communication. I have been told on a number of occasions that the dictionary is not the arbiter of definitions. While I do agree with this there seems to be something that a lot of people are forgetting. Dictionaries get updated. I know it's a bit shocking, but dictionaries get updated with definitions for words as they are used in modern languages. Sure, you can use words in new ways that may change the meaning. However, when you start using different definitions for words you can't expect people to understand what you meant to say. Here is an example. If I said, "The nuptials the cops used were titillating." Everyone would have a different understanding than if I said, "The handcuffs the cops used where painful." Even if the second is what I meant by the first statement, I

I have been seeing all kinds of post across the internet trying to make fun of the idea of banning guns. Instead of explaining these goofy post, I'll simply show you one. This one comes to us from  Freedom Daily with Brian Kolfage  with the caption. "Common sense, isn't so common these days." Let's take a moment here and think this through logically for just a moment. Currently in many (if not all) states the two masked gunmen in this image are not breaking any laws. Even if that was an elementary school property they are not breaking any laws. Therefore, if the cops show up all they could do is ask to see the registration for the guns and the open carry permits. Assuming both of these upstanding citizens can provide the documentation the cops would have to let them go. The cops cannot do anything until they shoot someone. Even at that point they could not be charged until evidence was provided it was not in self defence. How much common sense does it take

I have been to fighting keep religious teachings out of the public school systems for a long time now. One such part of religious teachings is creationism. Many creationist have been trying to get Intelligent Design taught in science classes for years. Even though every time it has been taken to court it has been proven wrong, not to be science, and violating the constitution. A part of my fight is to keep track of creationist posting on the internet. This allows me to know what their arguments are so I can be well prepared. However, when I came across J. Warner Wallace post today over at  christianity.com . I got a little irritated by the second line of this post. Therefore, I thought it would be nice to do a thorough point by point debunking of this quote mined rhetoric. Mr. Wallace starts off showing bias and ignorance right from the start when he quotes Richard Dawkins.  "Much has been written about the evidence for design in biological organisms. In fact, the appearance

Way back in April of 2015 at the RSA Conference in San Francisco Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson made some interesting comments. You can read the entire thing here . I'm going to quote a bit of his talk here and then give my view on it. "The Department of Homeland Security has both the cybersecurity mission and a law enforcement/counterterrorism mission for the American people. We have feet in both camps. I therefore believe I have a good perspective on this issue. The current course we are on, toward deeper and deeper encryption in response to the demands of the marketplace, is one that presents real challenges for those in law enforcement and national security." I agree, the people demand stronger encryption and the most talented of the encryption tech community responded in kind. While it may never be perfect, the encryption techniques in use today are the best that have ever been used. However, law enforcement would have a much harder time seeing the da

What is intelligence? What makes someone intelligent? Are you intelligent? Can someone become intelligent when they weren't before? These are questions I have asked myself over and over. I think I finally have the answers. What is intelligence? This question is as simple as looking at a dictionary. According to the dictionary intelligence is "the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills." Most people tend to think someone that knows a lot of facts is intelligent. According to the definition however, they are wrong because that is knowledge not intelligence. Memorization does not make someone intelligent because there is another component to it. The ability to apply the knowledge you have. This is the ability to string facts together, apply these strings of facts in such a way to accomplish something, or to figure something out. This boils down to the use of logic. Adding logic to knowledge is the basis of intelligence.  What makes someone intelligent? A lo

A few days ago the Supreme Court ruled in a 5 to 4 decision same sex marriage is legal. Great, it's about time. Take a minute to rejoice, bask in glow of success. OK, minutes up. No time to slack now. There are many other inequalities to fight against. Here are just a just a few in the order I thought of them. First, law enforcement targeting black people. Not only are black people arrested more often, but they are also treated more aggressively. Second, religious teaching in public schools. Creationism has replaced science in many public schools. This has been the case for years (if not decades) in mainly southern states. Third, Fox news. I don't think I even need to go into this. However, Fox news has been known for years for spouting skewed statistics, hatred for large portions of the country, and on many occasions down right lies. Fourth, abortion accessibility. Since abortion has been deemed legal since the 70's many laws have been put forth to restrict access

Since today is fathers day I thought it would be the perfect time to talk about a father's rights. I would like to talk about custody, child support, and a few other things that gets on my nerves. To anyone that might have a problem with what I'm saying keep in mind I'm talking about good fathers that just want to be part of their kids lives. I'm not talking about the deadbeat guys that take off and are never heard from again. Guys like that do not deserve any rights to their children. When there is a custody dispute in most states in the US the law generally favors the mother. While I can understand this to some degree, I don't think it's fair. In the state that I live in, the father basically has to prove the mother is unfit to raise a child before custody is awarded to the father. This is the case even for joint custody if the mother doesn't agree. Basically the only way to get joint custody in this state is to have both parents agree. Does that really

I started learning Linux over 10 years ago. When I first started I was working with Fedora. I loved Fedora, except when I did updates and everything broke. Still, I learned a ton and genuinely enjoyed my experiences with it. Then I got new hardware. I went to load Fedora on it, and it blew chunks. Complete kernel panic during the install. Fedora seemed to be disgusted by my new hardware. I had cheated on Fedora off and on during this love affair. I would boot a virtual machine loaded with Ubuntu, lift up the skirt, and try to wrap my head around the differences. When my new hardware would not work with Fedora I figured I would try Ubuntu. Still, kernel panic during install. I was starting to think maybe Linux in general had an issue with what I had to offer. Looking around on the net I found Mint. This distribution of Linux was beautiful. Not only was it extremely happy to accept my new hardware, when it first booted I found one of the most beautiful desktops I had seen. Eventually

I saw a post which was a picture of a man and a woman apparently getting married. The caption read, "Marriage is between a man and a woman. Let's keep it that way." Being the opinionated person that I am, I had to comment and attempt to show him the error of his ways. Within the discussion the person that posted the picture said, "Being gay is a choice." This statement confused me. Since I'm so confused about this statement I figured I would work out my thoughts for anyone that wishes to read them.  My first thought is how could someone chose to be gay? I never chose to be straight. I never chose to be sexually attracted to women. I don't even think I choose who I find attractive.  I don't think I could choose to be attracted to a man. Don't get me wrong here. I have no problem with saying a guy is attractive, or appreciating that other people would find him attractive. However, that doesn't mean I'm attracted to him. While the ide

Anyone that has been reading this blog should realize by now I don't fit into any "normal" political party. While I'm rather conservative on most economical standpoints, I'm also very liberal when it comes to human rights. I don't even feel as though I fit in with the independent party either. While I agree with the independent part fits me, I don't agree it with party. When I hear the term party my brain now goes straight to the tea party. This bunch of hypocritical, double talk, self loathing, and destructive so called republicans have made a mockery of the system of government I have respected all of my life. In this post I would like to cover what it is the tea party says they believe compared to what their actions. It may be obvious at this point I don't like the tea party. Once you have read this complete post, I'm sure you will feel the same. I didn't want to take the word of the general media on what the tea party state their belief

There has been a lot of talk lately in the news and podcast I listen to on the topic of politically correct speech. That got me to thinking. When you look closely to many disagreements and arguments language skills and the uses of words tends to be the main part of the disagreement. I realize this isn't always the case, but many times it is. I find myself many times looking at the terms used and trying to figure out how does it relate to the topic at hand. I would like to talk a look at a term that is tossed around in the media rather often. Islamophobia or calling someone islamophobic. When you break this word down it becomes rather simple to figure out the real meaning of this term. Islam is of course a religion. Phobia is an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something. Therefore, to call someone an islamophobic or saying they have islamophobia is saying they are an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to Islam. While this may be the case for many people, when I

There have been many debates about the existence of God. There have been many arguments, counter arguments, and so called evidence. I am going to cover some of the most used arguments I have came across.  The most common I hear people say is a dumbed down version of the cosmological argument. Here is the argument made from William Lane Craig. "Whatever begins to exist has a cause. The Universe began to exist. Therefore, the Universe had a cause." Then Mr. Craig goes on to say that cause must have been God. I'll excuse, for now, that giant leap he makes here from cause to God. I'll just talk about his premises. The first one, "Whatever begins to exist has a cause", sounds like common sense right? Sure, you never see anything happen without a cause. However, with the very next line he starts talking about the Universe. That gets me thinking but I'll hold off for the moment. The last line, "Therefore, the Universe had a cause," seem

I suffer from clinical chronic depression. I have lived with this condition for most of my life and this is the first time I have admitted it. You can find the symptom list from a simple web search, but it does not really describe what it is truly like to live with this condition. I intend to describe what it's really like in this post. Most people know what it's like to get depressed. You lose a loved one, go through a breakup, or something of similar magnitude. Most people will get mildly depressed while grieving this loss. Then after a while they find ways to be happy again. Ways to move on with their life. With the passage of time most depression passes and people move on. Not me, or anyone like me. I can't say for certain when my depression started. Maybe it was when I was a child and was uprooted from everything I knew to move across the country or a few years later having the same thing happen again. Maybe it was when I was a teenager and lost my best friend in a

I was watching one of the latest videos from  +AronRa  called the Unholy Trinity Down Under: "Biblical Absurdity" . At about 16 minutes into the video he makes a comment along the lines of the following. Three religions of peace all worshipping god of love and forgiveness yet they have been at war since the beginning. That is not an exact quote but the point remains. This got me thinking how many times have we heard it said? Here are a few quotes just to get an idea what religious people say about peace and their religion. "Islam teaches tolerance, not hatred; universal brotherhood, not enmity; peace, and not violence."    -Pervez Musharraf "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God" -Jesus Christ via Matthew 5:9 "Judaism teaches peace, love, unity, dignity, and kindness." -Adam Buchwald The simple fact that supposedly all three of these religions teach peace makes it rather hard to understand why the middle e

When you boil down all the whining, complaining, and outrage over just about anything religion gets involved with. Why should we want to have a secular society? Why should we accept a secular society? What is a secular society? Three questions cause so many arguments and a lot of hatred. Let me tackle the last question first. What is a secular society? This is a rather interesting question really. While I can't speak for everyone I think my idea of a secular society would be agreed upon by most. My idea of a secular society would definitely include religious freedom. In fact there would only be a few things you would have to keep in mind. The main one is you have complete freedom to do as you wish up to the point it affects other people. When dealing with public keep your religious out of it. Let's say you own a business it shouldn't matter what your customer does in their private life or what they believe. That doesn't affect you in any way because it's just busi

Evolution has been mocked by creationist since the idea first came to light. I think most of it is really the misunderstanding of what evolution says. Therefore, I'm going to use a metaphor so at least the basic idea of evolution can be understood. Then I will explain the metaphor so there are no misunderstandings of what I mean.  Let's say you are walking with some friends. On this walk you are talking, laughing, and not really paying much attention to where you are. After a while there is a gap in the conversation. You look around and realize you are very far from where you started this walk. You may even wonder how you walked so far and didn't notice. However, you know you have been walking so you understand you must have walked all that way. You simply don't remember the walk. You only remember the conversation.  Every step you take in a walk is a small step that doesn't get you very far. These steps in random directions wouldn't get you very far. How

How can you protect your hard drive? To answer this question we need to talk about how a hard drive works in the first place. Then maybe just from understanding how they work we can figure out the best way to protect them. Time to get my geek on, wohooo! There are two types of hard drives you are likely to run into. Solid state (SSD) and traditional hard drives (HDD). Both of them have their pros and cons as well as different ways to protect them.  The traditional hard drive or HDD (Hard Disk Drive) is not really all that complicated in the basic overall function. There are really only three basic parts of the hard drive we need to worry about. First, there are the platters that store the data through magnetic markings. This is very similar to a vinyl record storing analog audio in the bumps and dips in the groves. For the younger people in the crowd. It's also similar to a CD storing digital music data. Second is a read/write head that either detects or causes the magnetic