Keep Prayin'

Long-Awaited Medical Study Questions the Power of Prayer

Honestly, we really needed to spend $2.4 million to prove that prayer by strangers has no effect on a heart patients outcome? Prayer clearly doesn't work. Part of this could be easily confirmed by the complete and total inexistence of God but there are also other ways of proving the uselessness of prayer. Despite being an atheist, there was a point in my life where I prayed. A number of things I prayed for that never happened:

1) To be straight
2) To win a million dollars
3) That Newt Gingrich would die (again my praying was a while ago, but i still consider this a valid wish)
4) A 10 inch penis

As any of my former sexual partners can attest, that clearly did not happen. So the power of prayer? Well, it's basically means that sometimes you have to get heart surgery because instead of exercising and spending more time making healthy meals, you were praying and going to church. So basically, don't put all of your eggs in the one God basket.

On a related note, there is a cool article on religiosity and intelligence at wikipedia. Are religious people dumb? Not across the board and in every way, but they seem to be "somewhat lower in quantitative ability" (article). I could have told you that.

Music Reviews #2

Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Show Your Bones
This is a pretty good follow up. I was worried their sophomore slump might be as bas as the strokes' -- a "different" sound where "different" means "the same." Show Your Bones is more poppy and accessible than their last, which for once seems like a good thing. I'd get the whole album.














The M's- Future Women
This album sounds like a Beatles cover band expanding the oeuvre. It's good, not great. Only get: Plan of the Man, Trucker Speed














Wilderness- Wilderness
Boring. Really really boring. I think this is suppose to be political, which is really nice. I encourage that. But no one is ever going to give a shit about politics with music like this.














Mylo- Destroy Rock and Roll
Well this has been name dropped to me three times already so it must be good. Right, right? I really like Daft Punk. I don't really like knock offs. Only get: In My Arms, Musclecar Reform Reprise, Drop the Pressure














Liars- Drum's Not Dead
The liars progression away from coherent songs into disjointed noise rock band is almost complete. Pitchfork really liked this album, further proving if you release something blatantly arty and inaccessible, pitchfork will like you. A lot.














Arctic Monkey- Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Again with the name dropping and hype. As per the album title, "I say your a really good band whose first album wasn't complete crap."













Cloud Cult- advice from the happy hippo
This is a terrific and sad album. Cloud Cult, however, has the unfortunate problem of sounding like every other indie pop band to follow the Flaming Lips. It's a bit Arcade Fire, BBS, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Microphones and so on. Joyous, yet serious, this album however has the depth to overcome the familiar sound.














Gary Numan- The Pleasure Principle
Best known for the song "Cars," Numan's first album follows pretty closely to that song. It's a good listen, especially to get an impression of where synth pop started. It's also fun to discover Basement Jaxx's "Where's Your Head At" contains a sped up sample of the song "M.E."

Duty Free

Yes, that is the mythical uber-carton, only available in Duty Free stores. Yes I bought one. Yes it was amazing. Yes it was 5 cartons. Yes that is 50 packs. Yes it was about $1.40 per pack. Praise!

Down South

As my fingers holding my luggage blistered on the way to work today, it occurred to me how happy I am to be going to South America where it is the end of summer right now and the weather for the next ten days is in the 70's.



I'm not totally sure about this, but I doubt I'll be updating this while i'm gone. But who knows! Maybe hot South American boys will let me photograph them. I will be checking my email, though. So if you get bored or just want to say hello...

The New Gay Friend Dynamic

I actually just watched Vera Drake, a movie about a woman who gives girls abortions in England during the 1950's when abortion is illegal. She aborted the babies by sticking some sort of syrynge pump in the woman's vagina and then filling up the uterus with what appears to be soap, hot water and olive oil. And the next day-- viola!-- miscarriage. Thank god that movie exists, because when the Supreme Court hears the next abortion challenge from South Dakota (which recently just banned abortion so that the new Supremes could overturn Roe v. Wade) I'm going to have to help all of my girlfriends abort their fetuses.

That's the next step in the Gay Man - Straight Woman friendships: abortion. See, this makes sense in a physical way because I don't care what their vagina looks like (besides maybe to make sure there really aren't teeth) and I will not be distracted by wanted to have sex with my friend pre- or post-abortion. But it also makes sense because this is exactly what liberals, the ACLU and homosexuals want: We want to abort babies from the comfort of our own homes. And rape children.

So anyway, this is a really great guide on how to abort a baby:

For the women of South Dakota: an abortion manual from BoingBoing

I know this is going to be hard for some homosexuals. But consider this part of the procedure:

The membrane should be easily broken with the forceps. Depending on how far along the pregnancy is, varying quantities of clear or pinkish fluid may come from the vagina.

Look! Pink fluid! Gay! Gay! Gay! Thanks George Bush for helping contribute to this new dynamic of my friendships!