I have decided to no longer use my powers for evil. I used to think that evil was a lot of fun and glamorous. But I was wrong. Evil is wrongheadedness.
The condign reaction to this new development in my life is a unknown to me at this moment.
However, again, I will no longer use my powers for evil, this is understood.
My powers::evil steam engine::space flight
Things that are evil that are verboden to me:
1) urinating on public property
2) spreading rumors at work about the lasciviousness of certain jewish co-workers, whether or not they are true, whether or not I've got the pictures to prove it
3) Supporting any artist on Tigerbeat.
4) Things other people of sound mind may consider evil.
Things I will do to mitigate the evil of my youth
1) Take up with women of different races, creeds, and nationalities
2) Sampling their foreign pleasures and the concomitant social diseases
3) Infecting the snatches of as many white women as I can with these exotic microbes.
5) Increasing my contribution to the United Way
6) Writing home more often
Shell said at 9:32 AM 05-07-2003: Yes, I was serious. Okay, no. I am against anyone contributing to The United Way, but I suppose it isn't "evil."
An individual who wants to make a contribution to a charity can make a better, bigger, wiser donation directly than by going through The United Way.
Administrative costs are a reality for all charities, right? So a donation to The United Way has a chunk of admin money for UW deducted, then funds are funneled to a charity which takes another chunk of the donation for admin costs. Instead of a $10 donation leaving $7 for the charity's actual work, a $10 donation is reduced to $4 (assuming administrative costs don't exceed 30 per cent).
Another issue is fiscal responsibility. There is an umbrella organization called "The United Way of America," but what we interact with as the United Way is composed of hundreds of local organizations. Each of these is operated locally. They raise and spend money in local communities (not always wisely, as demonstrated by Amanda's example).
If you're really interested in this, do an Internet search using "allegations United Way" and look at all the links to stories about embezzlement, fraud, mismanagement, and other problems.
Brandon R. said at 10:04 AM 05-07-2003: Eh, there are different gradiations of evil. I think you shouldn't hold back from calling a spade a spade. Thanks for expounding upon your point.
amanda [email] said at 4:46 PM 05-06-2003: I agree. My husband works for a United Way funded organization that helps disabled people. A few years ago, the United Way diverted most of its funds to building this massive YMCA in suburbia. It's supposedly the biggest YMCA facility in the country, with an indoor ice rink, an indoor soccer field, etc.
That would be great except that it's not on a city busline (because it's on the outskirts of town), so most low-income, disabled, or people lacking cars can't go to it. It seems that it's not intended to help the community at-large, but the community that lives in a suburban upper-middle/upper-class area of the city. It also seems that the money could have been better invested in helping the people of this city who actually have problems beyond how they can have a soccer team during the winter.
There's a ton of other stories about the United Way to illustrate their evil ways, but I suppose at least they don't fund the Boy Scouts anymore, so perhaps they aren't totally deprived.
Milky Milkerton said at 4:56 PM 05-06-2003: I stopped when I found out I have no control over where the money goes. Some if it, as Amanda mentioned, goes to the BSA, and organization of which I do not support in its current form.
Donating to United Way is like thowing money into the wind just to say you donated to a "charity."
brandon [email] said at 1:51 PM 05-07-2003: I question your altruism. I suggest that you give burritos to the homeless so that you can laugh and point when they're forced to shit themselves an hour or two later. There's no reason to give anything to the homeless unless it somehow demeans them more.
Baby Duck said at 4:57 PM 05-06-2003: You should join me on my quest to bring 50 virile Mexican men to Sweden. We will impregnate as many locals as possible to undermine 3,000 years of eugenics in only 2 generations.
Brandon R. said at 5:35 PM 05-06-2003: Look, I tried, look at my head, looks familiar, right? Well, at the end of tryouts, the first gave Caleb "The Collar" and the ability to make bringers, all I got was two dead parakeets and a penchant for the scattological.
brandon [email] said at 10:08 AM 05-07-2003: No, more like exposed them to the weather, like, Oedipus or Lycurgus. They spent a snowy night on the roof and that finished the job.
I hadn't fed them in three weeks, so deep frying them at that point would have been a purely academic exercise.
brandon [email] said at 11:38 AM 05-07-2003: I suppose someone should. Of course, there wouldn't be any evidence, other than the odd feather or seed caught near the baseboards.
brandon [email] said at 11:47 AM 05-07-2003: I think the birdish SARS they developed from my constantly smoking next to their cage and blowing it on them helped either. Anyway, in the end if the cold hadn't done them in, the consumption would have.
Anyway, relating these things doesn't count as further evil, since I am merely reporting evil performed before I renounced evil. This is merely neutral.
amanda [email] said at 9:57 PM 05-06-2003: I'm going to miss "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," but it's nice to know that Spike is crossing over to "Angel" next season (even though "Buffy" was a much stronger series).
brandon [email] said at 10:20 PM 05-06-2003: I have a very difficult time watching Angel -- I'll flat out say it -- I dislike Angel, immensely,
J.Whedon has to make some serious grabs to stay relevant. After firefly crashed and burned (hmmm, why is that guy playing Caleb?) and with Buffy ending and the cast of Angel showing their age worse than 90210 the college years, Josh has some hard questions ahead. Questions that resting on the laurels of Buffy Season 4 and the musical episode will not answer.
No one is going to get behind a Lizzie Dushku(sp) series at this point, and the old fans are deserting Spike's character in droves because of the thrashing he's taken, developmentally since the whole re-souling.
Anyway, I miss the Mayor the mayor was more fun than the first, hell, the master was more fun than the first. And, I don't know, Buffy's flab is starting to show, she let Zander lose an eye.
Remember when the Master killed Buffy, but she got better, and there's that really cheesy, entirely unself-conscious screwball shot of her in a wedding gown, bite marks on her neck, rushing toward the library with a younger angel and zander in tow, with the (soon to be typical) SMG "I'm going to fucking kill you" smirk, it's sadistic, so good, and Nerf Herder kicks in with the Main theme and they like ROCK OUT on it, but then they pull back all muted, and wow, she just beats the shit out of the master, like a rabid dog, very little barking, just killing. Wow! Oh, and Spike's arrival and dispatching of the annointed one in the next episode, fuck a goat, I love that, no drama, no nothing, in just 30 seconds a important plot device is just vaporized, gone.
I miss Spike the killer. Spike the vampire with a heart is just Angel with a posh accent, better hair, more youthful appearance, rowr. I miss the risks they used to take in character development/actions/motivations I think the writers spend too much time at fbtvs.news
But who cares what I think, really, they had a great number of sessions pulled off with a consistency to be envied. I would have liked the story to go elsewhere, but, eh, I've enjoyed this season nonetheless.
lisa's ghost said at 12:46 PM 05-08-2003: I am too depressed to respond to this, but i've actually enjoyed this season. at least much more so than last season. i like angel okay, but it's definately no BtVS. what obsession will take buffy's place, you ask? hmm... i haven't decided yet.... definately not eliza dushku's new show -- it sounds so depressing. since spike is moving to angel (if it gets picked up for another season), then i'll be able to get a little of my fix there, but *sigh* ... i think i'm going to start crying. i've got to go....
