Ask Anon

Ask Anon now has its own website!

2006-05-01T21:17:00.000-04:00

Ask Anon is now a member site available to anyone to voice their opinion! Join today.

http://askanon.us.tp

(We are still looking for a sponsor...see post below)

Ask Anon is looking for sponsorship!

2006-04-28T16:31:00.000-04:00

Ask Anon is considering moving on to a full website with tons of features and members, and I am looking for a sponsor to buy a domain name. I have the hosting and the experience to create the site, but I need a domain name to attach to it.

We can work out a deal where you get the profit off of Google ads I could put on the page, or at some point, when we start offering premium subscriptions (which cost money) you would get all the profit. I am not looking to make money off of this, so any money we would ever get would go to you.

If you are interested, please email me at:

ms_creashuns_at_yahoo.com (replace "_at_" with "@")

Thank you!

Ask Anon Announcement - not an opinion article!

2005-06-12T15:22:00.000-05:00

This isn't an actual article, it's just an announcement that regular visitors will want to know.

After today posts will be up weekly, no longer daily. There won't be a consistent "post day", but it won't be any longer than a week between posts. Some weeks may have two or three and others may have just one.

Thank you for visiting and continue to do so!

Internet Scams - they're "popping up" everywhere!

2005-06-12T15:19:00.000-05:00

"You could win a new ipod, for FREE*"

Ever see something like that? Yeah, it's all a big lie! Notice the little asterisk? That will lead you to a footnote that tells you what you really have to do to win. This is just one of hundreds of internet scams that are out there.

Ever get an email from someone that is offering to sell you Viagra cheap? Ladies, even you! I'm sure a lot of you get emails everyday offering new software at cheap prices. It's all a lie! Have you ever tried to reply to one of those emails? It will return a "Failed" email notice. Why should they let you reply, they don't want spam! Duh!

Pop-ups and junk mail aren't the only ways people try to get money out of you. I saw a woman asking for people to donate to her because her monitor broke. You see, she was a popular machinima maker, and she couldn't make them without her monitor. How do we know where the money is really going to? People even offered to send her one of their old monitors and she refused! The sad thing is that some people actually donated!

These little scams to get money and/or time out of you are popping up everywhere, and sometimes even the best pop-up blockers or junk mail filters can't keep them out. It's horrible. It's hard to prevent them, but at least don't fall for it! It's all a big lie.

Vegetarianism - Is it all it's beefed up to be?

2005-06-11T13:27:00.000-05:00

Animal rights activists have grown larger in number, and with that, so has the number of vegetarians. Vegetarians are those who don't eat meat. They eat mostly vegetables and vegetable products.

While I agree that animals have rights to live and not be killed in large numbers for no reason, we aren't doing that. We are killing them to eat them and survive. That's how nature works. We're at the top of the food chain. That's just how it goes.

There's nothing wrong with choosing to not eat meat, but don't bash those that do. I think it makes more sense to eat meat than to not eat meat for the reasons that some do not. If you want to eat healthier, that makes sense, but if you're simply not eating meat because it's not fair to the poor animals, that's stupid. That's how the food chain works.

Like I said, being a vegetarian has health benefits. You can get all your needed nutrients from food other than meat and also reducing fats. For that reason, being a vegetarian can be a good thing. But for the reason that you don't think it's fair to the defenseless animals, being a vegetarian is stupid. Those cows that are killed for us to eat feed on poor defenseless hay. How fair is that?

Vegetarians are eating poor defenseless plants. How much different is that? So if you're a vegetarian or are planning on being one, think about why you're doing so.

Cloning - Your very own twin!

2005-06-10T12:15:00.000-05:00

With the major advances being made in Science, cloning has become a big topic. Experiments have been conducted, and the pros and cons have been collected. Should scientists be allowed to clone human beings, or even animals?

Individuality is something we should all treasure. Be yourself and no one else. Be a leader, not a follower. Be who you want to be, not who you think you should be. If cloning was allowed, wouldn't this ruin individuality and creativity? If there was another "you" walking around, wouldn't that knock out your chances of being an individual?

I think Science is a great thing to advance in and really know more about, but I think we should also let it take its natural course sometimes. Twins happen unexpectedly, and we should leave it that way. I would rather only see one of myself.

I think animal cloning is the same. We should let nature take its course. Although I can see the pros to cloning, I think tampering with Mother Nature can be bad. Leave things as they are and let it be.

Abortion - is it murder?

2005-06-09T12:54:00.000-05:00

In the world today, sex is becoming a common thing at younger ages. Girls 13+ are becoming pregnant, and they are not ready to be mothers. There is a scientific way to get rid of it, so why not? There are some very good reasons not to abort a child.

First off, it's murder. Once the child is conceived, they are a human being and have rights just like everyone else. They have a right to live. They have a right to mature into fine human beings and live a life.

Also, there are many couples (and growing) that either can't conceive a child (for whatever reason) and would be more than happy to adopt a beautiful little baby. I think it's an injustice to abort a living human being.

I think sex has grown to no longer be an intimate thing between two loving people, but a way to have fun and be popular. That's idiotic. If you're going to have sex, you run the risk of becoming pregnant, so at least be protected. There is more than one way to do so.

So, I do think abortion is murder and anyone who does it should be put in jail or taken care of in some way. It should be against the law for doctors to perform abortions unless it is in the best interest of the woman.

If you're going to have sex and don't want to get pregnant, use protection!

Prayer in Public Schools - Please God, knock some sense into their heads!

2005-06-08T12:52:00.000-05:00

I've just realized that most of my posts have to deal with discrimination and prejudice, but those are areas that I feel strongly about. Today's post is another discrimination post, this time about prayer in public schools.

State-sponsored praying has become a very controversial issue lately, among other things. One common public prayer is in the Pledge of Allegiance, when it says "one nation, under God". Making students recite this together, all at once, is an act of discriminating. You may not have realized it when you were in school or just yesterday when you said it in class, but there are some very good reasons as to why the Pledge shouldn't be said in school.

The United States is built on diversity and freedom. Freedom of speech and freedom of religion. Everyone knows this, but lately very few have recognized it. We have skipped away from the reason we're here and taken for granted the extreme freedoms we do have. We've used our freedom of speech to bash others, who have the freedom to be who they are.

Back to the main point, not everyone believes in God, and not everyone follows the same religion. Saying "one nation, under God" may not be religiously correct for some children. This is basically a Christian statement, yet some children are Catholic, Buddhist, Jewish, Agnostic, Atheist, etc.

It is discrimination to make everyone say it. Some measures such as telling those who don't want to recite it go out in the hall is once again discrimination because you know the kids that go in the hall are going to be bashed by their peers. I think we should do away with the Pledge in public places, or alter it to exclude the "one nation, under God" part. Another option is to allow a moment of silent prayer in school where students can pray to whomever they should, or sit quietly.

But, if they are not allowing the Pledge to be said in school, they should also not:

Put up Christmas trees or decorate for Christmas in school, nor should they have Christmas parties and they should change "Christmas Break" to "Winter Break". They also should not make students discuss Christmas in school or write about how their Christmas was.

Have school or class Easter egg hunts and/or Easter parties, nor should they officialy discuss it.

Now, when I say discuss, I mean say things like "Did you have a good Christmas?" or "What did you get for Christmas?" or anything like that that a lot of classes do.

This is a very hot subject as religion is a very important thing to many people. I think if Congress is going to act upon the Pledge, they need to think about the other things the school does that deals with only one certain religion.

Discrimination - Ever tried burnt toast?

2005-06-07T12:54:00.000-05:00

Discrimination is an all to common problem in the world. As easy as it is to say we've come a long way, that's not the truth. Maybe it isn't as bad as it used to be, but that's not good enough. If you're about to run into a brick wall, it's not going to help to slow down, you need to STOP!

I actually have a personal quote of mine that really fits here. Maybe someone else came up with it too, but I've never heard anyone use it.

"The person who discriminates has never tried burnt toast."

Now, it's not saying that those that are discriminated against (African Americans, homosexuals, etc) are the equivalence of burnt toast, it's more of a metaphor. My point is that we have set a standard for what a person should look like, and if they don't look like that, it's wrong.

When you make a piece of toast, you set it anywhere between 4 and 6, right? That has become the norm. So if you make toast at a setting that is less than 4 or higher than 6, it's not right. Could this not be applied to how a person looks?

I don't personally believe this, but this is the way it has become.

A Caucasian (white) person is normal. To be more specific, a well-tanned Caucasian person is what a normal person should look like. If you have very dark skin or are African American, then you're out of the norm. You would be considered weird, or stupid-looking.

This is completely stupid. First off, to some extent, we don't choose what we look like. I'm not going to go into anything religious (that's a whole different post) but we are developed depending on how our parents looked and were, and the same for each of them. No one decides what they look like to a certain point.

So, don't take it as, you don't look normal, so you aren't. That's not right. They do look normal, maybe not to you, but that's what they are supposed to look like, so it is normal. Deal with it.

Video Game Violence - Can games become reality? (cont.)

2005-06-06T09:07:00.000-05:00

Alright, I started doing a little research on this last night, after I made my post, and I found a site that pissed me off a little bit. I'm not sure what it was, as I've slept since then, but basically they were claiming that games like The Sims 2 are worse than first-person shooters and the likes.

I think their reasoning was on the right track, but they must've hit a bump because now they are lost somewhere in the forest. They said that first-person shooters are so different than reality that it's more likely that kids won't be as influenced by it, but games like The Sims 2 are supposed to be life simulation, so kids could more easily be influenced by a replica of their life.

I think this is absolutely absurd? Since when are shooting games so far from reality? Where have they been? Check out that first picture in my previous post, doesn't that look pretty real?

Now, check out this picture from The Sims 2. Which would you say is more convincing and more life-like? I would have to go with the Max-Payne image.

Plus, I don't think there's a whole lot that kids could emulate from The Sims 2 that could possibly cause any harm. Maybe they might put bubbles in the fountain at school or smack somebody and make stars pop out of their head, but other than that, there's little to no violence or harm in The Sims 2.

I think these researchers were on the right track, but they got lost. I hope you get back on track because, in my opinion at least, you are hitting a dead end.

Video Game Violence - Can games become reality?

2005-06-05T19:54:00.000-05:00

One issue that has grown lately is the topic of violence in video games. Many people are concerned about the effects of first-person shooting games, or war-based games, on today's youth. Could playing these games cause them to turn virtual reality into the real thing?

Although many great points have been made, I have to disagree with this idea. I think it's absurd to believe that a child will take the ideas presented in a game and apply them in real life. I'm not ruling out the possibility, but I think the chances are slim.

I have always believed that a child's first influence is his/her parent(s). What you teach your child(ren) as they are growing affects how they think and feel when they mature into free-thinking individuals. I think those children that may turn a game into a real-life situation are those that aren't taught the basics.

I have played many games that have plenty of violence and malicious activity, and I can say that I have never thought about reiterating my in-game actions into real-life occurences, and I believe I, and those of you that believe the same, owe it to our parents, or those who raised us. It's the basic morals we were presented with that made us who we are today.

I think something to research is the link between child neglect and hatred, or a feeling that would make someone want to cause violence. Child neglect could cause depression, like many other things. I think depression is another very common problem that could be linked to real-life violence.

As I've mentioned in my "'Homophobia' - could there be a more idiotic word?" entry, I think a lot of times people try to come up with answers for things to cover their ass. Instead of saying "well maybe he brought the gun to school because I didn't teach him that it's bad", they like to cover their butt with "it's gotta be those violent games he plays!".

Even if this does prove to be the issue, I believe it is still the parents' fault. Most parents that really pay attention to their kids know what they are doing and what games they are playing. Most of the time the parent(s) are the ones that buy the game in the first place.

There are ratings on games for a reason, so pay attention to them! If you don't want your child playing a game that involves guns and/or shooting, look at the back of the game, they all have a rating and a reason why they are rated so. Also, titles can be very good to go off of. If a game is titled "The Hitman", you can be pretty sure it's going to deal with murder and violence.

With that being said, here are some main points to think about:

Parents (or legal guardians) are the first influence on children. Teaching them the right things in the beginning will pay off.

Neglect and depression should be considered for sources of hatred or other causes for violence.

Games have ratings! Pay attention to them and decide if it is a good idea for your child to have the game or not. If you say "no", your child will only hate you for a minute, but if you say "yes", who knows what could happen?.

To close the entry, I leave you with this statement:
"The source of the problem is not the video game, it's the parent advocating it."

"Homophobia" - could their be a more idiotic word?

2005-06-05T18:29:00.000-05:00

This first post is one I decided to do on my own. I recently had a discussion about this with someone else, but I won't reveal their name and/or description because that could leak information about me, and no one wants that.

Back to the subject! Homophobia's best definition is:
(Source: Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.)"n : prejudice against homosexual people and homosexuality"

Couldn't have said it more clearly myself! Homo-phobia, ironically, is not really a fear, it's a prejudice! Homophobia was developed to make people who discriminated against gay/bisexual people look better. If they used a word with phobia at the end, it would make it sound like a fear, and therefore make it seem like it's not their fault.

These people have a disorder I like to call "closemindedness". Yes, it's a word, but this time it's not a fear! Now those jerks can't cover their own asses! Aww, poor things. You have to look bad!? No!

Unfortunately, gay/bisexual discrimination has become a big issue, and it's too sad. In an article I recently read, a man in the military was discharged because of his sexuality. Apparently he wanted to serve in the army and be open about his sexuality, but that just didn't fly with the government. It abuses their "don't ask, don't tell" policy which to me is a bunch of bullshit! Let's all cover up who we really are and live in a pretend world.

Now you may think I'm a hypocrite because I haven't released any information about myself to you, but I'm not being discriminated against. The reason I'm not releasing any information is to keep it that way. If anyone had any details about me, more opinions would form and I'm sure I would get nasty emails, and I'm just not game for that kind of shit.

Back on topic, I believe that anyone should be willing to serve in the army if they want to, no matter what their race, religion, sex, sexual preference, haircut, or anything personal! It's discrimination and it's wrong!

Another article I recently read deals with the "Gay marriage" bill. They decided not to pass it. The worst part is is two very big political leaders, one being the president, are both too "closeminded" to understand being gay and accepting it. Instead they are thinking about themselves and what they think is right. Again, discrimination is shaking it's fat ass at us.
When you see two men/women together, think about this: It could've just as easily been you. A gay/bisexual person is born with their sexual preference.

Next time you see two men/women, don't snicker and make jokes because it's just as weird to be a man and woman couple as it is to be a man and man/woman and woman couple. Who ever declared that a "male-female" relationship was the norm was a close-minded jerk like thousands of people in the world.

Welcome to the exciting world of opinions!

2005-06-05T18:28:00.000-05:00

Ah, opinions. They're what make life exciting. They're what set me apart from you. They're what cause wars. They're what win court cases.

Opinions can be fun and exhilirating to have, but they can also cause problems and be a pain in the ass. If you have an opinion, you have two choices:

1. Express it and go all out. Defend your opinion with every bone in your body, but don't be so close-minded that you don't listen to someone else's opinion.

2. Shut your damn trap! If you're not going to do the above, just keep your mouth closed.

Now, who doesn't want to hear my opinion? Okay, all of you that just raised your hand, leave and never come back. You won't like it here. If you're too ignorant and close-minded to hear my opinion, you might as well build yourself a hut on a hillside and grow a beard because this world is built on opinions. You won't survive if you don't have one, and you won't survive if you don't listen to others.

So now that you know what this place is all about, you can either take door number 1, which takes you to the real world full of millions of scary people with their own opinions, or you can take door number two which takes you to my world, full of millions of scary people with their own opinions. What's the difference, you ask? There isn't one.

Your world is the same as mine which is the same as everyone else's. That's one thing that unites us all, and that is probably the only thing. You will learn through my opinions and I'm sure many others that we are all different, and we all like to express ourselves differently. You may think you are just like someone, but in reality (a place I like to avoid), you are completely different.

Am I scaring you yet? No? Darn...I'm not trying hard enough. My point here isn't to make you angry or upset, although I'm sure many of you will be. It's just to express one more opinion, out of the billions in the world, and take you into the dark and scary world of, well, me!

If you think you're ready, strap on your backpack and hop on the bus, it's going to be a long ride!