Imaginary Friends?

Fri, 1 Aug 2008 18:32:23 -0600

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and he was lamenting the fact that his 6 year old daughter still had an imaginary friend. He was concerned about the fact that she could often times be heard talking to her imaginary friend, that she would regularly ask her imaginary friend what choices to make, and she would ask her imaginary friend for help on occasion. My friend was concerned that his daughter was being labeled as "strange" by her friends. Or that his daughter might have some emotional problems.

I told him "fear not". Her affliction is quite common and some people never recover from it. He was baffled and asked what the hell I was talking about. I simply told him that today there are literally billions of people on earth who regularly talk to their imaginary friend. They confide in that friend. They ask their friend for guidance. And they ask for help all the time. But even though there is no proof - not one shred in 2000 years of their imaginary friend's existence - it was socially acceptable to have this friend and to be very vocal about it.

This friend, of course, is referred to as God in many societies. But there are strong similarities to a child's imaginary friend. Children and adults talk to the friend. Children and adults ask questions of the friend. Children and adults believe they hear responses from their friend. The difference is that everyone questions the existence of the child's imaginary friend. But no one seems to question the existence of the adult's imaginary friend.

Perhaps children should organize a religion around their imaginary friends. No one would question them again. And they could even get some serious cash out of it!

Don

TPD

“Quotation Marks”

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:59:11 -0600

You know what bugs me? "Inappropriate" quotation marks. A quotation mark is defined as: one of a pair of punctuation marks, “ ” or ‘ ’ , used to indicate the beginning and the end of a quotation in which the exact phraseology of another person or of a text is directly cited .
Who the "hell" are you people quoting when you randomly put quotation marks in your sentences? What publication are you citing? You're not, and you know it. You are using the quotation marks to "emphasize" whatever inane point you're trying to make. Why don't you do this: stop being such a lazy, stupid dipshit. If you used even the most minimal amount of your slumbering brain capacity you could think of a colorful and imaginative way to convey the weight and gravity of your thoughts in writing. And you could do so without resorting to the mindless use of superfluous quotation marks. Then again, if you don't like using your mind, then you can "fuck off." And I really mean that.....(as you can tell by my use of quotation marks).

You are hereby put on notice that anything you stick between these " " will be henceforth ignored.

Eric
TPD

Save the Internet!!

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:35:10 -0600

Network Neutrality -- or "Net Neutrality" for short -- is the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet.

Put simply, Net Neutrality means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from blocking, speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination.

Net Neutrality is the reason why the Internet has driven economic innovation, democratic participation, and free speech online. It protects the consumer's right to use any equipment, content, application or service on a non-discriminatory basis without interference from the network provider. With Net Neutrality, the network's only job is to move data -- not choose which data to privilege with higher quality service.

Learn more here: www.savetheinternet.com