Ethics: The proper method for implementing a double standard.


1) It is not ethical to claim that Jews are cheap, it is however
perfectly fine to assume that all Muslims are terrorists.

2) It is not ethical to legalize murder, but it is clearly acceptable
to remain idle and simply allow someone to die.

3) It is not ethical to break the speed limit, but plainly it is
alright to refuse to implement a stop light at a dangerous
intersection.

4) It is not ethical to share somebody's copyrighted music on The
Internet, but it is perfectly fine to charge an outrageous sum of
money when selling an album.

5) It is not ethical to rob someone at gun point, it is however
ethical to charge three and four or more dollars for a gallon of
gasoline.

6) It is not ethical to violate company policy, it is however
mandatory that unethical policies be not only written, but also
enforced.

7) It is not ethical to refuse to take medication when you are sick,
but it is 100% acceptable to refuse people medical treatment by
default of those persons not being able to afford medical insurance.

8) It is not ethical to eat large amounts of unhealthy foods, it is
however totally okay to charge so much money for healthy foods, that
most people can not afford them.

9) It is not ethical to submit a monetary bribe to someone in a
political position of power, however if you wish to lobby one of your
representatives, this is clearly acceptable.

10) It is not ethical for an individual to infringe on a copyright, it
is however justified to violate the copyrights of others while
pursuing those whom have misused your intellectual property.

11) It is unethical to write tasteless jokes about ethics, however it
is perfectly alright to assume that everyone else's point of view is
wrong and that yours is the only correct perception.

12) It is unethical to plagiarize peoples creative works, it is
however ethical to acknowledge that this one was written by Time
Warrior (Dave Kelso) whom among other sites and services, is the Sysop
at malkaviabbs.com [link] and also owns legalmusicsearch.com [link] as
well as legalvideosearch.net [link] among several others.

For it does not require a Philosopher to be philosophical, it only requires an open mind. It's not so much about what you do or what you've got to do it with. It's far more about how you do it.

It's the same old story that has been whispered in the winds throughout the millenia, brushing across the sands of time. An occurrence as common in life as the air that we breathe. A trial by fire, a test of courage; as both wisdom and strength are required to hold on to what little sanity you might still have remaining.

Boy meets girl. Girl trusts boy implicitly. Girl meets jealous asshole. Friendship between boy and girl is destroyed by her own insecurites and lack of confidence in herself.

As always when this occurs the girl in question makes it seem as if the boy has done everything wrong -- typically in such a way that she goes against the very values she has always claimed to hold dear in the process. She commits every crime she has in the past spoken against. Utters every word she has deemed ignorant and tactless. Goes against the very fiber of her own being, hoping that she can ultimately push away everyone and everything that has ever brought happiness into her life.

Only in the 21st Century has this process tamed the electronic frontier that we have come to know as The Internet. A magical place where battles are won and lost at the click of a mouse and a stroke of the keyboard. A place we can use to hide behind that glowing screen, so that we do not have to face -- or even hear -- the ones dearest to us, that we're about to hurt. Welcome to the preferred method of correspondence for all cowards.

Anticipating this day for quite some time, as she provides me with false assurances, with the truth as contradictory to the false hopes she attempted to provide, as it is clear -- I open my GMail inbox and there it is, the moment of for filled prophecy. The moment both equally refreshing and dreaded, as I know the answer is finally here and my wait is over.

As I stare into the glow of the monitor reading from her exactly what I already knew before ever opening the email, I understood well in advance that my heart would be making this reply as my mind had long since reached it's breaking point.

Concerns of the damaged friendship long since replaced with a tactful means of coming to my own defense against the audacities already afflicted upon me, this too passed as fleeting as the tick of a clock -- replaced with something even more profound, even more important. Even more relevant.

I could not help but feel her sorrow. To empathize with her pain. To understand what she was feeling and why. To even go so far as to pity such a strong willed young woman to have been pushed so hard for so long as to be able to surrender so easily.

There was only one way I could reply as her single sentence proclaimed her declaration -- her wish for my silence -- her desire for me to fade away.

Your wish shall be granted but I have several of my own. None of them require a reply from you.

I wish for your myspace profile with the picture of you and Katie to forever remind you of today. I wish for you to remember me as the good friend you said that I was, because I will remember you for the good person that you used to be to me. I wish for you to one day obtain the freedom and peace of mind you've told me over and over again that you desire -- seeing as we both know ending our friendship isn't what you wish -- as the way you are going about it goes completely against everything you've told me you hold of moral and ethical value. Your hand is being forced by Andy and I also very much wish for you to not attempt to deny it. I wish for you the best of luck. I wish for you most importantly of all your happiness. I wish for you that should you ever make another good friend in the future -- male or female -- who truly cares about you and whom you can truly trust as you've trusted me and as I've cared about you -- I wish for you the courage to not push them away. I wish for you to one day obtain the strength to conquer all of the fears you've told me about that you've so passionately expressed the desire to free yourself from. I wish for you, absolutely nothing but the best.

As you end our friendship, these are the things that I wish. These are the things foremost on my mind at this very moment. This is the way I wish things to end, though I'd rather they did not end but I apparently don't have a choice in the mater.

I will always care. I will always be your friend even though you have decided you are no longer mine. That is the type of person that I am. That is who you are saying goodbye to. If you ever contact me again in the future, you need not fear doing so.

Goodbye.

So with a single goodbye it ends with the click of a mouse, as I press the button marked "send". Understanding the cruel irony that it is not I who have suffered the greatest loss nor I who has been defeated. It is she who shall remain enslaved to her sorrows, and it is very unfortunate, for I feel that she does not deserve such negetivity coursing through her veins -- to be at the mercy of her own fears and the thoughtless demands of others who would see her suffer to appease their own insecurities and delusions.

She will learn in the most painful way possible -- that emotions do not so easily fade and that friendship is timeless.

It is, as they say -- a damn fucking shame.

Especially when you've known someone for a while and especially if they are a close friend, it can be easy to inadvertently take them for granted. You must realize however that they are a person, not a drive thru. They are not a tool to be used and then discarded. Show some appreciation. It feels pretty crappy to be taken for granted. A good female friend did this to me the other day. Though I feel I need to vent a bit, as all the worlds a stage and all within it merely players </shakespear> -- I am going to once again keep the female in question strictly anonymous. Yes, I have a lot of female friends. Whenever I post about a chick it is not always about the same one. I'm not some kind of stalker.

This female friend originally started purely as an online / phone friend. Though she is at a bit of a long distance most of the time -- she does travel a lot so I do actually get to see her every now and again. She has been all over the world and Chicago is one of her favorite cities to vacation within.

Last summer her and I had a lot of fun, though our friendship hit a bit of a rocky road there for a bit. She's yet another female that has been mistreated by men, thus adding yet another variable to the "nice guys finish last" paradox that I've explained in previous blogs.

We pushed past that and our friendship became stronger as a result, or so I thought. Seems as though her extended trust in me has lead to yet another emotional melt down. It's bad enough when females do this -- but when they take you for granted in the rudest way possible -- you feel like creating a hole in the wall utilizing your forehead to accomplish the task.

She's currently in a romantic relationship with a guy where she has decided to live at this point. It is in one of the more remote states where you can look all around you and see miles upon miles of absolutely nothing. Fresh air and wide open spaces.

Unfortunately the current apple of her eye sees her friendship with me as a thorn in his side. Jealousy can be a real bitch. As it was explained to me -- his previous failures with the opposite sex have lead him to be incredibly skeptical of females. In short -- a female he really, really, REALLY cared about ended up having cheated on him. A situation that no one of any gender appreciates too well. Though I sympathize with his disgust at women who would do this sort of thing, jealousy is the destroyer of both friendships and relationships. Both require communication, trust, honesty and respect.

Seeing as her and I have all of the above, where as her masculine romantic investment is having difficulties grasping these concepts, she of course came to me for a little bit of emotional technical support by way of yea ole telephone.

She explained her overall confusion and I told her that a lot of her low self esteem and lack of faith in herself is clouding her judgment. That if she had a clearer mind, she would be able to troubleshoot her current situation more effectively. A clouded mind and troubleshooting mix about as well as alcohol and motor veichals (however the heck you spell that, my spell checker is not being too cooperative on providing me with the needed correction).

She is also the type who not only is incredibly beautiful, but her low self esteem has her judging her own appearance in a negative light. She is also way too concerned with the opinions of others. When the opinions of others flow fourth from their anus as opposed to their mouth -- those insights are worth less than everything else that comes out of the average rectal cavity.

So the other day I tagged a bunch of pictures of her and I into her profile on a social networking site we both participate within. Prior to this -- several emotional tech calls and a really bad fever that she claimed to have come down with -- out of the clear blue sky I receive a phone call from her. Her caller id entry glowing as the phone rings, I anxiously grabbed the phone hoping to hear about how she is feeling much better now and that with any luck -- relations with her man have also improved. This however is not what went through my ears and processed by my brain upon sticking the cordless phone up to my head.

What I heard instead was her low self esteem manifested in utter contempt for the fact that I tagged a few photos of her. Aside from the fact that this is such a trivial thing to get all hot and bothered about (not to mention there are security settings to control who can actually see what -- but God forbid she ask a computer technician about something relating to computers) she not only threw her jealous boyfriend in my face (in the form of making it a point to tell me that he shares her profound disgust with the tagging of the pictures) but also demanding that I untag them RIGHT NOW.

Typically, I do not handle demands too well and the giver of the demand is more likely to receive a metaphorical kick in the ass than any sort of immediate compliance on my part.

However, I was busy with other things and did not feel like engaging in such trivial drama so I complied just to shut her up and get her off the phone. Yes, I know. Even I say that one should never simply nod, smile and agree because its patronizing and disrespectful. However, what I did for the sake of peace is far lesser of an evil than the audacity she displayed over something so trivial. I think I handled it very well because what I was really thinking was filled with colorful metaphors, consisting of mostly 4 and 5 letter words which itemize in detail of my own inventory of utter disgust with her tactless attitude.

As tempted as I was to tell her that I'd advise she go vacation to a warm tropical place for the purpose of extra curricular activities that include but are not limited to doing something inappropriate with herself -- I instead followed up with a very tactful and short email summarizing only the brief key points of my concerns, advising that she should not contact me until cooler heads can prevail and she is capable of discussing what happened in a rational and civil manor.

The audacity of the whole thing to one day refer to me as her best buddy whose help she values greatly, only to make demands throwing the root of her emotional distress in my face like a giant clump of defecation.

I guess I handled it fairly well. It shows I've obtained some patience in my old age. However let this be a lesson to everyone that it is highly unadvised to allow trivial dramatic and unnecessary bullshit to risk the very fabric of a good friendship with someone you care about.

-Dave

Prepare to have your reality destroyed. If you dare to read further, I'm going to challenge what you think you know. How many of your opinions are truly yours? We'd all like to believe that everything we hold a preference to has been of our own sound judgment and choosing, but has it really? We've been spoon fed information and marketed since birth. So you will soon see how much you know versus how much you think you know.

For all of the Christians out there, do you think you know the Bible? Or do you only know the fundamentalist interpretations of the person up on the pulpit explaining it according to their own viewpoints? If things such as Religion were so simple and straight forward, then why is Christianity broken up into more factions than our political systems? Catholics, Lutherans, Baptists, Protestants, Mormons, Pentecostals and the list goes on. Then of course you have your Roman Catholics and your Orthodox Catholics and your Irish Catholics and every other kind of Catholic. You've got Lutheran and Lutheran Missouri Synod. You have Catholics praying to Saints when the Bible says "Thou shalt not have any other Gods before me". Even Jesus explained how you should pray, in the form of "The Lords Prayer". Jesus tore apart the market places that the Temples had become, yet you pass the offering plate mid-service and have bake sales in the Church Basement. How much more hypocrisy do you need to see before you start to question things? If you can only be saved as a Christian then why are the Jews God's chosen people? Why are you worshiping a Jew for that mater? Jesus was a Jew, you know. Which is also funny seeing as how most anti-semitics claim to be Christian. If Muslims are such heathens then why does the Quar'an acknowledge Jesus Christ? Why does the Bible not mention anything about people burning in hell specifically except for one verse -- which has been proven to be a mistranslation? Why is Sunday the only day of the week you pretend to have God in your heart and the other 6 days are filled with mundane selfish endeavors? Why do you feel the need to send email chain letters to people about God and Jesus if not only as a penance for your own guilt and hypocrisy? Have you really read the Bible with your own mind? How many beliefs are inherited rather than chosen? Welcome to the first nasty look in the mirror.

Now it's smoke and mirrors time. All the tricks we seem to enjoy playing on ourselves. You seem to find it perfectly logical that when your car breaks down, you must pay to get it fixed. Sometimes it takes a week or two. It usually costs an inconvenient sum of money. Yet you understand that cars go through the wear and tear of use and it is inevitable that at some point, they are going to need some maintenance. Yet at the same time, you seem to become irate at the glorified calculator that your using to read this, called a computer. When your computer breaks down, not being able to play World of Warcraft for a week or two sends you into a flying rage where as not being able to conveniently transport yourself from point A to point B for a week or two, seems like a perfectly acceptable consequence. You also seem to realize that there are a great many makes and models of cars yet seem to believe that Microsoft Windows is the only thing that can run on a PC, which is not true at all. You've got Ecomstation, Linux, Unix, BSD and a plethora of others.

What is good music? Music that doesn't suck? Or rather music the Recording Industry Association of America claims is good? Why do you think the government is "giving you money" when on your tax RETURN they are just returning money they've taken from you? Why do you refuse to trust a website with your Credit Card Number yet willingly give it to your bank or utility company? Why are you afraid for your kids about The Internet when you trust people you don't know (such as bus drivers, teachers, crossing guards, etc..) to tend to your children in person? Why do you get frustrated when a friend arrives late but don't make nearly as big of a deal about when the bus arrives late? Why will you purchase an item that is $1.98 yet pass on an item that is $2.00 when theres only two cents difference? Why do you keep wanting more money when if most people just budgeted more intelligently they wouldn't fall so short at the end of every month? Why do you blame God, the Devil, your friends and the government for what is CLEARLY your own fault? Why are you so quick to bitch but refuse to try to correct a problem?

Take some time to think about everything you believe and ask yourself if you truly believe it, or if your opinions have simply been inherited. It's like Weird Al has already said... "Everything you know is wrong. Black is white, up is down and short is long. And everything you thought was just so Important doesn't matter. Everything you know is wrong. Just forget the words and sing along. All you need to understand is, Everything you know is wrong!"