F...ing Christians, part 2

When you take the time to understand the writings that underlie the basis for the Christian faith, you will see that God is more unfathomable than you could ever imagine while at the same time in us and all around us. The Bible and the traditions set down by the early fathers of the Church are what illustrate that. Knowing how to read it, however, is the trick. Trying to read them without understanding that there are some Aramaic words and idioms that don't even have an equivalent translation into English and there are some modern concepts that would have been totally foreign to Aramaic speakers of the time the Old Testament was written is futile. Also, quoting the Old Testament, other than to support the teachings of Christ is just plain stupid. You could take many verses from the Old Testament and turn them around to support just about anything you wanted to. That's why when Christ was challenged to pick the greatest commandment, he responded with the simplest, yet most profound descripton of what the Christian faith is really about. He said there are two great commandments - Love the Lord God with all your heart, mind and soul and to love your neighbor as yourself. To me (and most theologians and Biblical scholars), this means that the two new commandments supercede the 10 from the Old Testaments along with all the Jewish laws of the time.

The New Testament was written primarily in Greek, which was the de-facto language of the Mid East at the time of Jesus. Translations from Greek were purposely altered to reinforce certain concepts. For instance, there is no word equivalent to the word repent in ancient Greek. What was originally written was meta- noya, which means to change your mind. Just take every instance of repent in the New Testament and change it to change your mind and you will see that the writers of the New Testament were trying to win over people's minds to the idea of Christianity, not appeal to them at some basic emotional level by assuming their guilt. Regarding the formation of the New Testament, you have to take into consideration that prior to about 300 AD or so, there was no New Testament as we know it and people were basing their faith on the traditions set down by the fathers of the church along with some writings by Paul, John, Peter, etc. Around 300 AD, the leaders of the Church decided to take the writings available at that time relating to Christ and put together the New Testament. Some writings were excluded for political reasons, legitimate religious reasons and because parts of them were not consistent with most of the other writings of the times. This shaped the future of the Church and the world as we know it.

People that claim to be Christian and justify capital punishment or retribution of any kind by quoting the verse "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" are taking it out of context. The rest of the verse says "Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord". This means we are not to pass judgment on anyone here on earth. Jesus illustrated this when he told the crowd about to stone the adulteress - "Those among you with no sin may cast the first stone". Christianity has been polluted by people who are quick to tell everyone what they are doing wrong and not looking for the underlying causes of the behavior. True, there are some people who can't be rehabilitated. My question in that situation is what happened to this person to make them this way. If they were mistreated as a young person, we have to be compassionate to that. We don't have to give them more opportunities to hurt others but we are required to care. If they have some short circuit in their brain that is telling them to do these things, they can't be held responsible for that. Again, we should remove them from society but we need to understand these people and care for them accordingly. No one that commits a violent crime is in their right mind. This doesn't excuse it but it might make a difference in our reviticism rate if we were to look at crimes as mental aberrations.

Bombing abortion clinics because the Bible told you to isn't going to stop abortions. The real problem needs to be addressed at the base level. Parents need to provide their daughters with the self-confidence and self-worth that will allow them to say no to situations in which they could become pregnant. Parents also need to cultivate some sense of responsibility in their sons. Too many young men are not at all concerned about life's consequences. They just roll on and let the chips fall where they may.

The bottom line is that proper reading of and reflection on the New Testament shows us that Christianity is not about pointing fingers or blaming people's misfortunes on some sin they're supposed to have committed. It’s more like Buddhism or Zen than what most people think Christianity is. Saying that you and only you know when the Judgement is going to be is exactly what Christ spoke against. Telling people that they are going to face eternal damnation for telling one lie is just that – a lie. God is, among other superlatives, infinitely merciful. Do you think a being who is perfect is going to condemn imperfect beings just because they didn’t tell the truth, the whole truth, so help me God? I don’t purport to know the mind of God but logic tells us that an all knowing, all powerful, all merciful, all loving being (spirit, person?) that has the wherewithal to influence the emptiness of space to create the universe is going to be completely understanding of the human condition and accepts us just as we are, warts and all.

F...ing Christians

I think I ought to warn you up front - This is going to piss some people off. If you have some sensitivity concerning your religious beliefs, you may want to tread with caution. I was born and raised Roman Catholic in an area of the south that is split about 50/50 Catholic/Non-Catholic and I went to parochial school all but for the 3 years my family was stationed in Germany. All my friends were Catholic in grade school and in high school the few that weren't were rich Jewish kids. In college, the region I lived in was predominately Catholic so it wasn't until I moved into the Bible Belt area of my state that I was exposed to any degree to other Christian denominations. I don't want you to think that I am a “go to Mass every day and confession on Saturday” kind of Catholic. I play guitar in the church choir on Sunday and try to take something from what the priest says in his homily to incorporate into my everyday experiences. I’ve developed my faith to a great degree by questioning the status quo and my notions of what God is differ from what most people think to the point that I might be labeled a heretic or blasphemous by some people who are satisfied with believing what they are told to believe. I think we are given rational, thinking minds to do just that and we have to form our own consciences (a Catholic doctrine that not many Catholics are familiar with). There is nothing so powerful as a personal epiphany. So, before I go any further, let me make one thing clear. In no case do I want anyone to feel that I am singling them or their chosen religion out for criticism. I am simply stating facts and if that offends anyone, I would challenge them to do some honest, soul-searching research on their own and don't be content with being spoon-fed.
What I am really fed up with is getting lumped together with all these other F...ing Christians that don't have the slightest idea about what Christianity really is. It seems as though every article related to Christians portrays them as people who are led around by the ring in their nose by evangelical ministers. Creationism, intelligent design and other tenants of what the media shows Christians to be are insults to those of us who care enough about our faith to really learn what Jesus taught. First and foremost, not every thing really happened the way it is described in the Bible if it happened at all. Secondly, the Old Testament was written in Aramaic and most of the New Testament was written in Greek. Aramaic is a dead language that doesn't translate into modern languages very well if at all and translations from Greek have been carefully chosen to put forward the agenda of the translator in many cases. Thirdly, it amazes me that rational, thinking people will hang on to mistaken beliefs when the evidence to the contrary is staring them in the face. To quote Thom Yorke – “I’m sorry folks, the dinosaurs ruled the earth”. Lastly, like it not, the Catholic Church is the only Christian denomination that can trace its lineage back to Christ. My intention is not to convert anyone to Catholicism. It is to inspire people to think critically about their existence and that of the divine.
Careful analysis of Genesis shows that there are three different creation myths (yes, myths) woven into one story. Every civilization has it's own explanation as to how man came to be and parts of Genesis are very similar to other civilizations of the same time period. Even though the official position of the Catholic Church is that Genesis (and much of the Old Testament) is mainly illustrative narratives and parables this doesn’t imply that Genesis doesn’t have any relevance. Genesis tells us that we were created by someone outside of our experience and that this someone is beyond our comprehension. I could go on for hours about many other stories in the Old Testament that are either partially or wholly fictional. That doesn't diminish the message or the fact that they were divinely inspired. The Jews of that time knew that story telling (parables, etc) was much more easily digested by the common folk than preachy diatribes about what to do and what not to do.
So many people that quote bible verses don’t have any idea as to the origin of the verse or the spirit in which it was written. The book of Revelations is a great example of people who have no experience in Biblical writing styles and history claiming to be able to divine great prophecies. An entire group of best selling books has been written about the Rapture as if it were really going happen. This misreading of Revelations has made those two individuals who wrote these books incredibly wealthy and has further perpetuated the fallacies of Revelation interpretation. Careful analysis and comparison to other historic Jewish writings will reveal that the Book of Revelations was written in an Apocolyptic style that was common when the Jewish people were in a period of great stress culturally and religiously. Writings from the time of the Babylonian exile have remarkable similarities to the book of Revelations. When Revelations was written, the temple in Jerusalem had just been destroyed and it was the end of Israel as a nation for almost 2000 years. Catholics in particular were being persecuted and had to go underground in many instances. These missives were intended to remind the faithful of the past, not to foretell the future and were written in a particular style to disguise their true intent from their oppressors. The Bible and all religious writings are simply an divinely inspired attempt by imperfect beings to explain the absolutely perfect and as such can never be the only basis for one’s faith. Tradition in the truest sense of the word and experience along with the inspired writings of many different faiths is the only way to determine the shape of one’s faith.

Friday Fark Fun

Yeah - I know it's 6:14 AM EST on Saturday morning but honestly, this is the first time I've been able to sit down to do this. For your Friday, uh I mean, Saturday enjoyment. Note - my comments in italics



Monday January 23, 2006

Strangely enough, American movie-goers prefer seeing Kate Beckinsale running around in tight leather outfits to watching gay cowboys eat pudding

Food companies that remove trans-fat from products can now label package "0 trans-fats." If by "0 trans-fats," you mean "actually contains more fats than before." Also still contains trans-fats

Sirius moves to censor Howard Stern Wasn't that why he left broadcast radio?

Cars designed for our aging population would come pre-dented, have a top speed of 45 mph and have Ben-Gay new car smell. Permanent blinker an option

"So, what you going to court for?" "Burglary, attempted murder. You?" "Throwing lettuce out of my car window"

Prowler who peed through houses' open windows nabbed by cops. DA says "urine trouble"

From the highly respected journalists at BET: Hurricanes unfairly target minorities and are the product of the white man



Tuesday January 24, 2006

ACLU stands up for another cherished freedom: Boys wearing skirts to school

Wisconsin bill lowering the hunting age to eight clears the State Assembly. What could possibly go wrong?

Male contraceptive pill in development. Men already suggesting that pills are too hard to remember, asking for beef-patty distribution system

Internet use at work blamed for low productivity of Malaysian government workers. Everyone else too busy farking to fill out survey

Survey finds that for Valentine's Day, 12 percent of women want perfume, 32 percent want flowers, four percent would like a sex toy and 94 percent will consider murdering you in your sleep if you forget

What do 120 million traveling Chinese peasants smell like? Depends Wait for it, wait for it - !

"To reject this truth or to treat it as 'one theory among others' is to deliberately embrace scientific ignorance and transmit such ignorance to our children." 10,000 clergy sign on to support evolution - My comments - It's about damn time!

Paris Hilton turns down money from Playboy to pose naked, will continue to do it for free

Bad: You get pulled over for speeding. Worse: You're drunk. Worst: It's your 4th DUI. Fark.com: The cop asks you to do a field sobriety test and you say "I'd just fall down"



Wednesday January 25, 2006

Wal-Mart, Costco and Target announce the roll-out of new fingerprint checkout scanners. Too bad 90 percent of them can be fooled by a simple Play-D'oh finger sold in aisle 7

Gossip columnists still have no idea who removed Katie Holmes' steamy sex scene from screening of her latest film, suspect it may be same person who gave her that mysterious frontal lobotomy

It's hard to believe, but Kevin Federline's rap album is not all that good

NASA officials to start looking for extraterrestrials. Careful scientific analysis has revealed most likely place to find them to be an area called "Neverland Ranch"

Unlicensed driver crashes stolen car into tow truck in police parking lot. Sometimes the mountain comes to Mohammed

Mexican soldiers, driving Humvee armed with 50-cal. machine gun, help drug smugglers who got stuck in the mud. In Texas



Thursday January 26, 2006

Stupid: Escaping jail. Stupider: You have less than 10 days left on the sentence. Stupiderer: Falling down the hill behind jail and having to call for help

Substitute teacher offers contest: "Get better grades and win a date with me." What could possibly go wrong?

Nudist resort reaches out to college students by hosting strip-poker tournaments. Given looks of most nudists, winners get to ask losers to put clothes back on

Three idiots facing drug charges after dropping a brick of cocaine out of the window of their house and at the feet of a passing police officer




Friday January 27, 2006

Chevron profits up 20 percent, sets new record. Chevron spokesman tries to comment, but is pinned to the floor by the mountains of cash that fill every Chevron office

Japanese beer maker plans to give away 5,000 personal bartending bots, capable of pouring up to six beers and then afterwards rebuffing your drunken attempts to hit on it

Only in Missouri can a strange guy go door to door offering to stab people with a needle for free and get takers

Chicago repeals two-month ban on candy cigarettes. Says increased numbers of young addicts going through withdrawl at children's hospital not worth it
If busted for underaged drinking, don't create a website with photos of you drinking shots and flipping off the judg

Deal with the Devil

I can't believe people are still talking about negotiating with Osama bin Laden. I would have thought this would have fallen off the radar by last Wednesday or so. The plain and simple truth is that if we come to the table to negotiate with this madman, we instantly telegraph to the whole world that in some way we need to. The Arab world, in particular, will have the idea that we are afraid of Al Queda and it will strengthen their resolve. What people like Starr Jones, who said that sometimes you have to deal with the devil, don't understand is that the Muslim world is a black and white world. You are either with them or you are against them. Their culture is one of perceptions. To a Middle-Easterner, your body language, clothes and what you say, is an instant indictment. It doesn't make a difference if you are someone who sympathizes with them or not. "Since you are not one of us, you must be against us". Don't fall into the trap of thinking we are not winning the war on terror. The very fact bin Laden would offer to negotiate tells me that he feels threatened. Losing your #4 in command and very nearly your second in command can do that to a guy. I think we got too close with the attack in Pakistan and he is trying to deflect it by making threats with one hand and the offer to negotiate with the other. This guy is FOS and everyone outside the Arab world knows it. We need to steel our resolve and continue to hunt him and his minions down.

Merry Go Round

Today's post isn't as much about what pisses me off as it is about what you can accomplish if you set your mind to it. During lunch today, I was watching the local news and they have a segment where they give someone the "Good Neighbor" award. The person given the award was a 30-something African-American woman who had picked herself up by her bootstraps and was now giving talks about not getting stuck in the cycle of poverty. She had been involved in drugs,had several children by different fathers and had ended up in Providence House, a home for battered women. What struck me was when she said she realized that being born into poverty didn't mean it was her destiny to remain there. It has become almost a national obsession to place blame for our condition on outside influences. We are living in victimhood. It really warms my heart to see someone understand that their determination is the single most important factor in their success as a productive member of society. I don't care if their determination comes from their faith or from their own convictions as long as they understand. I just hope there are more people out there that have the civic resposibilty to try to help their friends and family jump off the poverty merry go-round and become the people our Creator intended them to be.

A Little Fun

I was going to do this yesterday but I had a string of critical situations with customers that prevented me from getting it done. I'm a big fan of Fark.com and sometimes the taglines for the articles just crack me up and are often better than the story they link to. What I've been doing for the last week is accumulating them so I can can include them in posts. I haven't decided if I will include them in every post or just have Friday as Fark.com day. I'm leaning towards the Friday option.

Here they are for the week of January 16th throught the 21st.

Bad: drunk driving; Worse: having no insurance; Worst: no licence; Worster: taking car without permission; Worcestershire: having 7 kids in car

Man solves Rubik's Cube in 11.13 seconds; will next attempt to build a time machine to take him back to 1982, when this kind of thing still mattered

Normalcy returns to New Orleans as shots break out during a "Unity Parade"

Bilingual road sign tells English pedestrians to 'Look Right', Welsh pedestrians to 'Look Left'. Twll dîn pob Sais

Colts going to the Superbowl... If they can find good seats


Woman's parrot reveals her affair when it said "I love you, Gary," in her voice and made sloppy kissy noises whenever it heard that name on TV.

Police find intoxicated woman in car that was reported driving erratically, but don't worry: Her 11-year-old niece was sitting on pillows and driving at the time

After bashing Samuel Alito for belonging to a Princeton club that discriminates against women, Teddy Kennedy decides to end his own membership in Harvard club that discriminates against women

Dumb: Man smokes crack while driving on the freeway and falls asleep. Dumber: He doesn't wake up when the police ram his car to get it to stop. Fark: This isn't the first time that he did it

German police follow thief's trail of feathers from ripped jacket; plucked from home, man's goose is cooked and he's going down

Police find luxury barn complete with elevator and millions in weed, talk about getting off your high horse

Man puts arc-welder to giant rocket engine he found, with expected results

Woman shocked after getting electrical bill for $250 million from power company. Chagrined company admits its error, but says it only needs one person to pay a bill like this for their elaborate scheme to work

Dumb: Getting a DUI. Really Dumb: Two DUI's in one night. Fark.com: The same cop catches you both times in one night

Holly Hunter has twins at 47. Plans to name them both Nathan Jr.

Venezuela plans to go on "buying spree." Intends to take advantage of "buy 3 tanks, get 1 free" special offer and buy as many rocket-propelled grenades as possible, 'cause they are, like, soooo in this season

If you're going to use the phony bomb technique to rob a bank, make sure the bag doesn't have your name and address written inside it

Jack Abramoff's father sends scathing letter to George Clooney in response to the actor's televised remarks about his son's name. The letter was also signed by his other son, Beat

$2,700 toilet seat stolen. Police have nothing to go on

Chinese company purchases Wham-O. Be on the look out for reissues of your favorites, hurra-hoop, sirry string and srip and sride

Bomb them back to Babylon

Osama bin Laden saying on his most recent propaganda tape that the real reason they haven't attacked us again since 9/11 is that they haven't finished planning their next attack. I think this is probably somewhat true to the extent that the next 9/11 size attack is probably in the planning stages or somewhere close to completion. We've thwarted several attacks in the last 4 1/2 years, some we know about and some we don't. The real kicker is him saying that he is willing to come to the table for truce negotiations. His assurance of trust is that his religion won't allow him to lie or cheat. This is the same person who said his religion was requiring him to convert us to Islam or kill us. I suspect George Bush's plan to confront the terrorists on their own turf to keep them from attacking us here is working and bin Laden is trying to cut his losses. He just lost his #4 man and almost lost his #2 man a few days ago. The other scenario involves him really believing we would negotiate a truce with him which I think is highly improbable given his obviously high intellect. Often in Arab culture, a truce is offered before an attack to allow the opponent an opportunity to bow out gracefully and give the aggressor the opportunity to say "We gave them opportunity to negotiate".





The sad part is that we'll get some people here in the states that will want to capitulate. You can't negotiate with someone that wants to kill ever single one of us that won't convert to Islam. This is exactly what he wants us to do. With us out of Iraq and Afganistan, Iran can continue to develop nuclear weapons and their sponsorship of terrorism. I can definately see a tactical nuclear weapon from Iran finding its way into Al Quaeda's hands if Iran is not challenged soon. The UN is going to tell them "You better stop making nuclear weapons or we'll tell you to stop again". They're like the rent-a-cops malls hire that don't carry guns. The minute we have absolute proof Iran is producing plutonium, we need to bomb those facilities back to Babylon.

Cultural Chasm

I was so upset Monday after hearing Ray Nagan, Hillary Clinton and Al Gore that I figured I ought to take a day to gather my thoughts so I wouldn't say anything in anger. Now that I've had time to mull it over, I think I'm more confused than angry. When I was in school, we were taught the Martin Luther King studied the non-violent protests of Ghandi and was trying to unite the races while assuring everyone had the same rights and opportunities. In almost every picture of the protests he staged, there are many white people walking along with blacks. Where did the idea of unity of the races go?



It seems the self-appointed spokespersons for African-Americans, such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, are more interested in creating a chasm between whites and blacks by constantly trying to convince their constituancy that they are being held back by white-run society and that they aren't getting everything they deserve. Perpetuating this myth is basically job security for them. History shows us that one of best way to unite people is to have a common enemy. You can't preach to people about their victimization if they don't feel they are victims. I honestly feel the difference in black people and white is that white people have lived in a culture for many centuries that rewards individual achievement. Black people came from a cultural mentality that was centered around the survival of their group rather than the individual. Both cultures have points of merit and both have inherent problems. When you take one culture and try to force it on another, you're going to have problems. I do see a light at the end of the tunnel, though. Many African-Americans who think and speak freely are understanding that the real equalizer is education. The problem with that is our educational system has become corrupted by people that want to revise history to perpetuate the cultural chasm. I hope that when Martin Luther King day comes around next year, more people understand that they are the only ones who are responsible for their condition. Too many people, both white and black, have shown us that existing conditions have no bearing on future results provided the person has the determination to overcome them. Watch the movie "Cinderella Man" and I think you'll get it.



The constitution guarantees us the basic rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. What this means to me is that the government should be involved in defending me against foreign intruders and insuring the safety of our communities. It should also allow me to make decisions, right or wrong, about how I intend to live my life as long as it doesn't infringe on other's basic rights. The Pursuit of Happiness means that I have the opportunity to pursue the interests I feel will complete me as a person, again as long as it doesn't affect other people's basic rights. What has happened is that these basic rights have been cheapened by others who have the intention of having our government attend to individual needs rather than the the society as a whole. The result of trying to micro-manage our society is the government(federal, state and local) have become bogged down with ridiculous mandates. We can't continue to pander to individuals when our society is crumbling around us.

The Altar of Popular Culture

It's amazing how deeply popular culture has penetrated just about every facet of our lives. You can't look anywhere without seeing or hearing about which actress has lost weight or which rock star has just gotten out of detox. I used to think it was the media's fault for bombarding us with loads of nonsense about people who really are just famous for being famous. Then I realized the media is just pandering to what the American public wants to see. People know who just won the Grammy for best song but they don't know who the Secretary of State is. So, why are we worshiping at the altar of popular culture? I think it's because people are too lazy to expend the effort to think or do anything about the things that really matter.





The only things I am concerned with in regards to the world outside my front door are the things that effect my family or friends in a positive or negative sense. That doesn't mean that I don't appreciate the skills of a great actor or musician or sports figure. It just means that I don't devote any of my energy to things that can't improve the conditions of my family or friends. I don't understand how people can live their lives centered around a sports team or a NASCAR driver. I've said on more than one occasion that people who have bumper stickers for NASCAR drivers are only advertising their IQ. People who have excelled in their profession can become role models but only to the extent that someone might pattern themselves after them to achieve or surpass their success but in too many situations it turns into idolatry by many people who profess to worship in a more traditional sense. I don't see this getting any better without it getting much worse. Unfortunately, I don't think we've hit bottom yet. Everytime I think it can't get any worse, I'm surprised again. As an example, my sister-in-law, who is practically a shut in, doesn't really watch TV and hasn't been to a movie in God knows how long, started giggling like a little girl when my wife told her that several famous actors where in the town where I live filming movies and that the mother of someone my wife knows is living two doors down from where a particular actor was leasing a house. This guy puts his pants on the same way I do - one leg at a time. Come on folks, let's focus on the important things, like how many children are going to bed hungry tonight.

The days are just packed

I don’t even know where to start. I had to go to my company’s award dinner last night and it’s about a 3 hour drive from where I live. On the way down yesterday morning, my wife and I were listening to “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” which is a current events game show on National Public Radio. There are three panelists, a host and an announcer. The show consists of alternatively asking questions of the panelists and listeners who call in. In one segment, called “Fill in the Blank”, the announcer recites limericks and leaves the last word out for the the contestant to “Fill in the Blank”. As we all know, a limerick has the rhyming pattern where the first two lines rhyme, the next two rhyme with each other and the last line rhymes with the first two. I can’t remember exactly how the limerick went but it was about Kenneth Lay from ENRON using the idiot defense (he was too stupid to realize that the people he hired were crooks and raided the company). Come and drum were the last words of the first two lines and dumb was the answer they were looking for. The contestant answered “Alieto”. The host decided to give her another chance, all the while explaining in some detail the rhyming pattern of limericks. Her remark was that what made it more interesting was that she was an English teacher in the San Francisco school system. The second time she answered with something that rhymed with the second group of lines. They gave her yet another chance, and were unmerciful in their ribbing of her. On her third try she answered “Enron”. Although the I couldn’t see the panelists faces, I’m sure they were absolutely incredulous. She ended up getting one answer out of three correct and didn’t win the prize. I was absolutely gobsmacked at how idiotic this woman was and that she admitted to being an English teacher. I hope she is not representative of the other teachers in that area.




During one of the later segments of the show, a call-in contestant had to guess which incredibly unbelievable news items is actually true. The third news article dealt with a Christian High School coach who told his team that their game had been cancelled and then replaced them with college aged kids. The punch line was that they lost the game. The minute I heard Christian High School, I thought this might really be true. In my experience, “Christian High School” means that they will bend (or break) any rule in order to win. One of the schools in my area gives scholarships like colleges do to excellent football players and will even go so far as to make sure the kid is 19 rather than 18 when they graduate. What made think that it might not be true is that surely no one could be so stupid as to think they could get away with it. Well, it turns out that it was the true news story and the way the coach got caught is that some of the parents saw the score for the game in the newspaper the next day and started asking questions. Oh, by the way, the coach is also the principal of the school and was suspended for 5 games. I think they ought to throw him out of High School sports, fire him as principal and make sure he doesn’t go to some other state to teach or coach.




Later yesterday, I was watching television waiting for the Washington- Seattle playoff game to start and a commercial came on from Chevrolet. It shows these three bare-chested guys cheering at some winter sporting even. Each one of them has one letter of USA painted on their chest. In the excitement, the guy with the “S” on his chest jumps a bit too hard. The ice underneath him cracks and he falls in. The next thing you see is a Chevy SUV pulling him out of the lake. He’s frozen solid and is blue as well. His buddies decide to take him with them to the Olympics because they need the “S” and they show several little vignets with the all the clichés that go along with having a dead guy in situations he doesn’t belong. At the end of the commercial, the dead guy gets bumped by an overzealous fan and falls into the luge course. You can guess the rest. I don’t think this was the least bit funny and I’ve got a pretty dark sense of humor. I guess they were going for a “Weekend at Bernie’s” kind of feel but it just came off as callous and insensitive, at least for me.

The Polarization of America

I'm getting so tired of people that think that their political, social or religious ideology is the only one and if you don't believe the way they do, you are absolutely crazy or stupid or both. I don't have a problem with taking ownership of your ideals, just realize that not everyone has had the same experiences that you have and doesn't see everything the way you do. You might very well be correct in your opinion but telling someone else that they are idiots for not seeing things your way is not going to get you any converts. All that anyone can do is to say that whatever they're into works for them. I personally don't understand how some people can read the Bible, for instance, and not get it the way I do but I'm not going to tell them they're imbeciles. Evangelization, whether it be political, social or religious, has to come from being genuinely concerned about the other person's well being and convincing them with logic and kindness that there might be a better path (not necessarily yours). If they are honest with themselves, they'll find the path on their own. People who are given the opportunity to learn everything (and I mean everything) about a given subject and are able to speak their minds without recriminations, will make an intelligent, informed decision that they can defend. It's the ones that are regurgitating what they've been told without examining for themselves and have emotional attachments to the issues that make me want to shake them. Are people afraid to think for themselves? I feel a lot of people are comfortable with being told how to think, dress, act, etc because it's just too hard to do it themselves.

Oprah' s Challenge

Oprah took a big hit to her credibility this week when this idiot that she was slobbering all over a while back turned out to be a BFL (Big Fat Liar). He "embellished" the facts in order to make his book more interesting. It's understandable when someone comes to you with a addict gone good story, that it's hard to disbelieve them but I bet she starts checking out her authors from now on. Oh yeah, I almost forgot the punch line - He's quoted as saying his next book will be a work of fiction.

It seems over the course of the last year or so that people are so eager to hear what they want to hear that they will disregard the facts. The sad situation with the West Virgina miners a week or so ago is another case in point. I'm not trying to say that the poor people who lost their loved ones were to blame for this. What I am saying is that the media was so eager to get the story out there, that they didn't do what reporters are supposed to do - corroborate! Who got hurt? Those decent people whose world got turned upside down in a matter of hours. It used to be that a newsperson's credibility was based on how reliable their information was. Now all you have to do is make a name for yourself by breaking some fantastic story whether it's true or not. Anyway, getting back to Oprah, I get the idea that she's all about everybody feeling good about themselves even if it means denying some immutable truths. Even though she didn't get stung with the "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" debacle, it was one of the books she recommended. That couldn't be good PR.

Just wait your turn - I'll get around to you.....

I just thought I would start this blog to vent all my frustrations about senseless crap I see and hear about every day. I'm sure it won't take me long to find something to bitch about. You may see some rants about politics, religion, music, culture, TV, movies, etc. I don't expect to leave any stones unturned so don't complain about me singling one group or another to complain about. Just wait your turn - I'll get around to you sooner or later.

Today I want to talk about how the movie industry is so afraid of telling us the truth about their movies. I was talking to a co-worker about how in a lot of cases, movies aren't at all like the previews. They only show you what they think will get you to watch it. "Million Dollar Baby" is a fine example of this. The previews made you think that the movie was all about some chic being determined to become a boxer and convincing a trainer to take her on as a fighter. I thought it looked interesting as far as a protagonist struggling against the odds to become successful in a sport dominated by the other sex. That was just part of the movie. The real meat of the drama comes when the fighter is paralyzed in the ring and begs her trainer to kill her to end her agony. He resists at first and then finally gives in. What about the grace that comes from living with a disability or taking care of someone in that situation. I guess it's just my Southern upbringing but I didn't think we were supposed to kill people just because they don't like their circumstances. It's not like she was Terri Schiavo. It seems to me that people use mercy or sympathy as an excuse to take the easy way out.
It seems like "Brokeback Mountain" is from the same mold as "Million Dollar Baby". The subject matter is too controversial to take head on so the studio is showing these commercials of these beautiful vistas and close-ups of the lead actors tortured faces but don't address the real meat of the issue - that the movie is about gay cowboys. Now I don't really have a problem with the gay lifestyle. I just don't want it shoved down my throat (no pun intended). If they had the guts to produce it and it is such a great movie, don't tiptoe around it. Tell us what it is about and we'll make up our minds by ourselves if we want to see it or not. I probably won't go see it now because I don't like the way the film is being marketed.