December 13, 2007 – 5:39 pm
It’s about power, not about God. Photo by MJ Mac. (License: Creative Commons Attribution)Last night, I went with my family to see
The Golden Compass. Even if you are not a fan of the fantasy genre, you have probably heard about this film by now due to the efforts of some Christian groups to boycott it. It was the Christian efforts, in fact, that first got my attention directed toward the work, and their complaints which made me want to see it. This is not a
review, so I won’t go into how brilliantly acted
The Golden Compass is (though it really is), or how the aesthetics of the film are deeply satisfying (though they are). What I want to talk about is
The Golden Compass as modern mythology, and why the Christians are right to be scared.
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December 10, 2007 – 5:49 pm
Bumper stickers as the modern version of political activism… Photo by cesar bojorquez. (License: Creative Commons Attribution)Recently, there has been an increasing amount of talk centering on the possibility (or even probability) that President Bush and his administration are going to declare martial law and bring around a new fascist state. There has been a lot of predictable nodding and hand-wringing on one side, and just as equally predictable laughter and dismissal on the other. What we’re going to do here is take a serious look at the situation, what
is, and then outline one simple path for what
could be, and then explore what can be done about it.
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November 12, 2007 – 5:32 pm
One of the more disturbing bits of news to hit headlines today was that back in October, the House of Representatives passed a bit of legislation entitled Violent Radicalization
Photo by kaerast. (License: Creative Commons Attribution), H.R. 1955. Reading quick synopses and evaluations of this bill, one might think that Orwell’s
1984 really is at last upon us. Public criticism seems to focus on how this legislation opens the door to “thought-crime” punishment, how we are all off to the gulags, now. Carefully reading through the bill, however, does not support these outraged assertions. Still, it’s not a far leap to reach some fairly disturbing conclusions.
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October 29, 2007 – 5:54 pm
Photo by Matt Reinbold. (License: Creative Commons Attribution) Even outside the church, there are concerns that it promotes
unhealthy food choices. It
scares the little ones. And to top it all off, it’s
dangerous, with its glorification of violence, poisoned and razor-bladed treats, and the way it
encourages children to take candy from strangers (not to mention encouraging encouraging scantily-clad sorority chicks to take
free drinks from strangers). All of these concerns have been around for years, and yet Halloween is not going away, not dying out while children sit home and partake of a healthy harvest meal and listen to “Winnie the Pooh and the Heffalump”. Why? Because deep down, we know we
need Halloween.
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September 17, 2007 – 11:59 am
The real thing doesn”t photograph well. You will have to go with my symbolic representation. Pic by me. For some people, it is simply a culmination of small things, over the years, and it is impossible to pinpoint the one that tipped us over. However we get there, most people, sooner or later, find themselves staring into the abyss. It is a black, bottomless space, without any assurance that there is anything more real than this. You realize that everything you ever had to believe in, everything you counted on as a foundation, was an illusion. You realize that the symbols and trappings of your life are just that: symbols and trappings, nothing more. There is no guarantee that there is a reason, a pattern, a loving creator who will some day tell you why all this was necessary. There are no certainties that “it will all work out OK”, no promises that your loved ones will always be there, not even the comfort of thinking that you, at least, will always try to do the right thing. You are weak, the world is quite possibly a random collection of events, and you know with complete certainty that you are truly and finally alone.
How we deal with this experience has a great deal to do with the people we become. Read More »
In case you missed the “satire” tag…of course I believe everything I said here. Photo by billy verdin. (License: Creative Commons Attribution)**PLEASE NOTE BEFORE COMMENTING***
This article is satire. That means (in case you can’t be bothered to click the link) that it’s not meant to be read literally. It’s a comment on many aspects of our culture, but actually has nothing to do with my beliefs about babies. Which means that if you comment based solely upon the title, without reading the article or thinking about its content, you will simply look like a fool. As exemplified by most of the previous comments. Here’s hoping someone out there can be bothered to actually read seven lines of text before blathering. If you do, you will have restored my faith in humanity. Thanks.
***END NOTE***
I was reading over one of the terribly predictable unbelievably repetitive many debates about the “moral basis” for and against abortion today, when it suddenly hit me: I suppose I should blame society for making me feel it is not OK for a woman to hate babies. But once I had my epiphany, I have to say everything fell into place, and my position (thus far so terribly hard to justify) was suddenly crystal clear.
Let’s consider this rationally. Babies are not people. If they were people they would have some special clause in the Constitution defending their rights. But they don’t, and so clearly our forefathers recognized their non-people status. Realistically, if we granted babies people status, we would be on a slippery slope to a point where we grant other things “people” rights. Things such as homosexuals, goats, and even cockroaches. It’s a horrifying prospect. We must avoid that future at all costs. Read More »
In thinking about taboos recently, it occurred to me that while some of them are obvious (no peeing in public, for example), some of the cultural standards with the deepest impact are the ones which are hardest to see: those dealing with ideas. Here in the United States, we champion our freedom, and get into heated debates over the limits of freedom of speech. Usually, those arguments center around saying things which could be damaging in some way to another (libelous or slanderous), and occasionally we get caught up in whether or not it is wrong to be “disrespectful”. Rarely do we consider, however, that there are some ideas and beliefs which are completely socially unacceptable, to the extent that even sounding like you might be about to say them is cause for a full-blown attack from anyone in the vicinity. Read More »
