BLOCKED!

If you're reading this in China... well, you can't be reading this from China! China has BLOCKED www.tonewah.com!!! I found THIS SITE on the Presurfer. It allows you to test websites to see if they're blocked out by China's firewall. I'm honored to be blocked out. lol.

Violent Little Selma

Selma is the second worst city in which to live, in the whole state of Alabama. Little old Selma, A-L. According to the FBI Uniform Crime Rate, there are 1761 violent crimes in Selma per 100,000. The national average is only 596. There are almost 3 times as many violent crimes in Selma as there are in other cities around the country. That's depressing.

God, Bang, Boom

I'm tired of seeing people on TV, and hearing them on the radio, arguing about philosophy, religion, and science. They debate as if one of them will actually win. It irritates me.

There is no way to disprove the existence of a deity. There is no way to disprove evolution. There is no way to prove or disprove ANY idea about ANY concept that isn't both physical and empirical.

So why do theists and evolutionists go at it so hard? Why do people kill each other over something about which they COULD NEVER be certain? In arguments about the origin of our world and universe, no one can prove the other incorrect nor themselves correct.

Over these 30-something years of my life, I've dabbled (very lightly) in philosophy, religion, science and pseudo-science trying to find the answer to the age-old question: Why are we here? It took a while, but I've finally become certain of what I suspected since I was a teenager: Nobody knows.

In the end it boils down to the fact that you will believe what you want to believe. For some, it's what's most convenient. To others, the belief that creates a better environment or civilization seems the best. Whether it be Christianity or Nihilism, both have CHOSEN their position.

Since none of us know, and almost all of us want to know, I don't see how it can really hurt for anyone to make any conjecture they want to make. Therefore, I will subsequently submit my few thoughts on the matter.

We see the world around us. We learn by observing. This is science. We observe that there are always things greater, and things lesser. This is mathematics. There is no KNOWN absolute end to the number line, nor is there a beginning, other than the one we have designated as the origin, or zero. The numbers continue in either direction to infinity.

As we observe, we see varying degrees of sentience in the lifeforms we observe. We place some higher, and some lower than others. We place ourselves at a mark on the high end of this line. However, we've never observed any level of sentience greater than our own. By our own observations, we should logically deduce that there MAY BE, and most likely is, a sentience greater than our own. This may be God.

Hypothetically, there could be a God. This idea is Theism. Hypothetically, this God could be omnipresent. This idea is Pantheism. Hypothetically, this God doesn't exist at all, since there is no evidence, other than the observation of it's absence. This is atheism. Finally, none of the above matters, because WE DON'T KNOW.

I'm glad I don't really put too much thought into this crap. I'll probably read this blog post later, and think about how corny or stupid it is. I guess what I'm saying is that I just don't see any logic behind fighting about it, when the objective of all these ideologies is to find some universal truth that will BETTER mankind. It seems ironic to me.

Museum of Lost Wonder

The Museum of Lost Wonder is a cross between the Rosicrucian Museum in San Jose, and the Schwa/ Scanwave/ Eldritch Corp. website of the late '90s.

Lights, Camera, AKTIONISTS!

If you're into weird, sick movies, check out the Vienna Aktionists. The 1960s were a messed up time.

Citizen Shane

Due to my interest in protection of civil liberties and prevention of political injustice, I recently stumbled upon the story of Shane Ballard. Shane ran for Sheriff of Lowndes County, MS in 2003. He was less than typical. Other than being an avant garde musician, and collector of odd and creepy things, he was also a personal friend of Charles Manson.

Shane's troubles began about the same time he was born. His father left his mother shortly thereafter. He never really knew his father, although he knew who he was. When Shane was 8 years old, his mother was killed in a very mysterious 'accident'. Being only a child, Shane was forced to live with relatives. As he got older, he learned of the suspicious circumstances surrounding his mother's death. Shane decided to run for Sheriff when he reached the legal age, party becuase of his political beliefs, but also so that he might find out what happened to his mother.

A filmmaker from Chicago, who had moved to Mississippi, decided to chronicle Shane's run for sheriff. Although he expected a lot less, Shane received 333 votes, giving him exactly 6.66% of the vote. The end of the film shows a satisfied Ballard reclining in a comfortable chair, contemplating his political future.

Shane may have shaken things, and some people, up a little too much. Within 2 months of the release of the film, titled Citizen Shane, both Ballard and the documentary filmmaker, Ron Tibbett, were dead. One from an auto accident, the other from 'carbon monoxide poisoning'.

Click Shane's pic at the top to download the film.

The American Family

Ever wonder who first got the idea to do a reality show, or why? The answer is below:


Subterranean Cinema has this description:

"For seven months, from May 30, 1971, to January 1, 1972,
the family was filmed as they went about their daily routine.
Over 300 hours of film were shot; there is no question the
presence of the camera crews and their equipment had an
effect on the Louds, one which is impossible to evaluate."

There are clips from episodes on Myspace, as well.

Trouble at the Capitol

Click the link to read the story:
http://thehill.com/protesters.html

Interesting Stuff from 1969

Jan. 10 Last Issue of Saturday Evening Post published
Jan. 12 First Led Zeppelin Album released
Jan. 20 Nixon Inaugurated as 37th US President
Jan. 30 Last Beatles Public Performance
Feb. 2 Boris Karloff dies
Feb. 4 Yasser Arafat becomes PLO leader
Mar. 1 Jim Morrison arrested for indecent exposure in Miami
Mar. 2 1st flight of the Concorde Jet
Mar. 3 Sirhan Sirhan admits to killing Robert F. Kennedy
Mar. 10 James Earl Ray admits to killing MLK Jr.
Mar. 17 Golda Meir becomes Prime Minister of Israel
Mar. 28 'Ike' dies
Apr. 1 'Harrier' jet goes into service
Apr. 8 First artificial heart implanted into a human
Apr. 22 First human eye transplant
May 10 Start of 'Hamburger Hill' battle
May 14 Crazy Horse releases Cinnamon Girl
May 23 The Who releases Tommy
May 27 Construction begins on Disney World
May 31 Lennon and Ono record Give Peace a Chance
June 3 Last episode of Star Trek airs
June 15 Hee Haw debuts
June 22 Judy Garland dies
July 4 Atlanta Pop Festival draws 140,000; 'Zodiac' killer claims another victim
July 8 First US Troops withdrawn from Vietnam
July 14 Easy Rider comes out in the theater
July 16 Apollo 11 launched towards the Moon
July 18 Ted Kennedy drives off a bridge, creating the 'Chappaquiddick' scandal
July 20 'The Eagle has landed' First men on the Moon
July 24 Apollo 11 returns to Earth; Muhammed Ali convicted for draft-evasion
July 28 Unics invented (later called Unix)
Aug. 9 'Helter Skelter' begins as Manson Family kills Sharon Tate and many others
Aug. 15 Woodstock music festival begins
Aug. 17 Hurricane Camille hits US Gulf Coast
Sep. 2 First ATM in the US
Sep. 5 So-called 'My Lai Massacre' occurs in Vietnam
Sep. 7 Monty Python's Flying Circus debuts
Sep. 26 Beatles release their final album
Sep. 26 The Brady Bunch first appears on TV
Sep. 27 'Zodiac' killer claims 2 more victims
Oct. 11 Last 'Zodiac' murder
Oct. 12 Charles Manson and family members arrested
Oct. 17 CCD camera technology invented
Oct. 21 Jack Kerouac dies
Oct. 29 US Supreme Court orders 'immediate desegregation'
Oct. 31 Wal-Mart incorporates
Nov. 9 Native American Indians occupy Alcatraz island as separate country
Nov. 10 Sesame Street debuts
Nov. 15 Dave Thomas opens Wendy's restaurant
Nov. 21 ARPANET goes live (later called the 'internet')
Dec. 2 Boeing 747 makes first commercial flight
Dec. 6 'Altamont Speedway' festival begins, becomes tragedy
Dec. 14 Jackson 5 appear on Ed Sullivan
Dec. 17 Project "BlueBook" officially closed by USAF
Dec. 26 Dr. Timothy Leary sentenced to 10 years for pot possession

Random World Facts

A few facts:

There are 6,912 known languages in the world.

China has 31 provinces, Russia 84, and Japan has 47.