Someone poke me with a really, really sharp stick. And hurry, pleaseandthanks. I’m actually falling asleep while I’m typing. I keep standing up and moving around, trying to wake myself up, but it’s not helping. I hate knowing that I’m nodding off and not being able to do anything about it. It’s awful.
Author: Shelly
And in Not-So-Awful Christian News…
Check this out:
Check out, too, their core beliefs:
From the section on Christian Love of Neighbors. Number 8 is especially heartening, in light of the Ramsey quote D referrenced.
5. Engaging people authentically, as Jesus did, treating all as creations made in God’s very image, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental ability, nationality, or economic class;
6. Standing, as Jesus does, with the outcast and oppressed, the denigrated and afflicted, seeking peace and justice with or without the support of others;
7. Preserving religious freedom and the Church’s ability to speak prophetically to government by resisting the commingling of Church and State;
8. Walking humbly with God, acknowledging our own shortcomings while honestly seeking to understand and call forth the best in others, including those who consider us their enemies;
Thank you! The whole thing is quite short. I recommend reading it.
Instant Review: Degrassi
Since Netflix has decided to start sending me random titles, I spent tonight not watching season 4 of Little House. Instead, I spent it watching Jay and Silent Bob Do Degrassi. Go ahead, laugh. I know you want to. The thing is, I love, love, loved the original Degrassi shows. They were amazing, in that they treated kids with dignity and allowed their voices to be heard. There wasn’t, and isn’t, anything else like it on television in the US.
I’ve only seen the first season of Degrassi: the next generation, but so far, it seems to have just as much integrity as the originals. So, at one point, I placed Jay and Silent Bob Do Degrassi in my queue (cuz, why not?), and via the magic of the Netflix Queue Randomizing Elves, it showed up in my mailbox yesterday.
I really enjoyed it. The DVD contains three episodes (plus extras) from the new series. I don’t know which season they were from. Only the first season has been released on DVD, I think, so it’ll be awhile before I’ll have a chance to see them in context. Though they stand alone fairly well, considering the soap opera-esque nature of Degrassi, it would be nice to see how they connect up with the rest of the shows. And that brings me to perhaps the most important point: do not watch the DVD thinking it’s a Jay and Silent Bob story. It’s not. It’s a Degrassi story, and if you aren’t familiar with the show, you’re likely to be a little lost and a lot disappointed.
About the extras: There is an interview with Kevin Smith, in which he talks about being a fan of the old series and how he ended up working on the new one. He makes some interesting points about what makes the whole project is so different from US teen television and about why the same shows could not ever be created here. He also talks about how some folks “get it” and some don’t, and why. It’s funny. My high school was just like Degrassi in some ways, and not in others. It was small and everyone knew everyone else. That’s both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s like living in a small town, in that everyone knows everyone else’s business. That level of familiarity can foster tolerance and understanding, but it can also lead to bullying and all manner of meanness. There was a lot of both going on in my school. There were plenty of mean kids (lordy, the girls on the volleyball team were insufferable!), but some really cool ones, too. Luckily, I didn’t have depend on my classmates for social interaction. Instead, because the school was located on a college campus, I spent my free time on campus. College kids were much easier to get along with, I found, and a lot more willing to take you as you were.
So, anyway, thanks to the Netflix Queue Randomizing Elves, I’ve spent the entire evening thinking about high school.
Speaking of Awful Christians…
So I was reading an article about the discovery of fossil evidence of a missing link between Australopithecines and Ardipithecus. Basically, this critter is the elusive missing link. That must really piss off the Christian Fundies. Actually, it probably doesn’t, because they don’t seem to be too concerned with science in general (e.g. the insistence that emergency contraception is an “abortion pill,” when in fact, that is not at all how it functions). Science-schmiance, eh?
Even given Fundies’ total disrespect for science, I don’t understand their refusal to acknowledge evolution. It’s such a basic process, and it occurs right under our noses. How do they think virus mutation works? Surely they understand that HIV, avian flu, colds, and other viruses change over time? That’s the reason why vaccines are so difficult to produce. If viruses didn’t evolve, we’d’ve long since cured the common cold. And bacteria do it, too. We now have antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis, enterococcus, staphylococcus, streptococcus, pneumococcus, gonorrhea, sinusitis, salmonella, e. coli, blah, blah, blah.
But keeping dark is hateful
It’s not particularly fun to wake up at 4 am. It’s not particularly fun to have to leave for work at 5:15 am. About the only thing that is less fun is waking up at 3 am and leaving for work at 4:15 am. Daylight saving time, my ass! It wouldn’t be so bad if I could figure out how to change the clock in my car. I don’t really need to be reminded every morning that it is really 4:15, not 5:15. Talk about adding insult to injury. Worse is that it’s not even pretending to be dark out when I go to bed, which I also usually do at a ridiculously and obscenely early hour. Mitch Daniels has a lot to answer for.
Fucker.
Sometimes it’s depressing to be a tiny speck of pinko-blue swimming in a sea of red. I am finding this to be especially true at 3am.
Since I’m on the subject of things that make me cranky in the morning, I’d like to take this opportunity to discuss the accepted procedure for stopping at traffic lights and stop signs. I don’t know how they do things in Wisconsin, where Mr. CRV Driver is from, but here in Indiana we recommend stopping in front of the line. As in, all four tires of your car should not yet have crossed the aforementioned. That would be the exact opposite of having all four of your tires on the far side of the line. I’m just sayin’…
To the old dude who works for the parks department and drives a nearly invisible dark green Ford F-150, could you please either pick up the pace or stop driving on the bypass? Seriously. If you cannot go faster than 30mph, you really shouldn’t be driving where the speed limit is 55mph. I’ve almost rear-ended you multiple times, and I saw a gravel truck nearly go off the road this morning, trying to avoid flattening you.
To the person with the E tag who keeps snagging my parking spot: Are you made of money or something? How long do you intend to accumulate tickets, just so you can park in the A lot?
To the Herald Times delivery driver: What in the name of all that is holy do you think you’re doing? You do not (not!) deliver papers from the highway. This is the second time I’ve been stuck behind you as you’ve crept along, winging papers through the passenger side window onto the the ends of people’s driveways. Not cool.
That’s all from this week’s edition of the Rural Road Rage Diaries.
Oh, wait, I lie. There was one more. A red blinky light means S-T-O-P. It does not mean slow down a little bit. A blinky yellow light means slow down a bit, and proceed with care. Which is what I did, which is why I didn’t cream your ass when you barrelled through your blinky red light. Fuckwit.
Speaking of Christians and Righteous Indignation…
This is not completely on-topic re Paul Ramsey, but it does seem to be part of the same pathology.
There is a growing trend among ultra-conservative Christians toward claiming the “right” to abuse those whose way of life they do not condone. There is an interesting, um, scary, article in the LA Times on the subject. For example, Christians are charging that the laws that protect gays are actually illegal because they impinge on Christians’ “right” to “freedom of expression.”
Malhotra says her Christian faith compels her to speak out against homosexuality. But the Georgia Institute of Technology, where she’s a senior, bans speech that puts down others because of their sexual orientation.
Malhotra sees that as an unacceptable infringement on her right to religious expression. So she’s demanding that Georgia Tech revoke its tolerance policy.
By freedom of religious expression, she means “carte blanche to harass and abuse.” Nice. Apparently, conservative Christians feel that their right to be “Christian” is being hampered by their inability to harangue others. Who knew that Christian = intolerant godbag? Jesus, I feel sure, is weeping.
I see very little that is compassionate in the behavior of most conservative Christians–certainly not from those who are in power. I think the upper eschelons–like BushCo–are not in the least bit Christian. In fact, my understanding is that W had an epiphany of the political sort prior to becoming “reborn.” He knew what a large and maleable political base like the conservative Christians, could do for his career. His religious persona was well orchestrated, and had nothing whatsoever to do with faith and everything to do with greed and lust for power.
Anyway, BushCo–a divider, not a uniter!–has done its damnedest to polarize this country. Everything he’s done has been toward that end. The more people are polarized, the more they distrust and hate each other, the less they trust each other, the less they are willing to actually listen to each other. That suits BushCo just fine, thankyouverymuch.
What that has done is make people–especially hard-line conservative Christians–paranoid that anyone who isn’t also hard-line and conservative and Christian, is out to get them. If you aren’t for them, you’re against them, and are part of a liberal (or Muslim, take your pick) plot to destroy Christianity.
It’s hard to come back down to earth, and to look at things objectively, when you’re consumed with paranoia that The Other Guy is out to destroy your way of life, so it’s no wonder that those who believe that their religion and way of life are under attack would also be willing to buy into the justification for an all-out holy war upon those folks they believe are on a mission of world domination: Muslims. If you make a large enough mountain out of your little mole hill, the ends suddenly seem thoroughly justified. Because, remember, it is a Christian’s right to harass (or drop bombs on) those who are perceived as threatening said Christian’s right to abuse them. How’s that for nice, circular, um, logic?
There is no dark side of the Moon, actually*
Via Twisty at I Blame the Patriarchy, this priceless cartoon. Because, you know, supporting the patriarchy is the national pastime.
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* I do love me some Pink Floyd, on occasion. The Patriarchy is a bit like the dark side of the moon. It doesn’t just comprise one side, it’s both sides. Win-win or lose-lose. Bastards!
There falls no shadow where there shines no sun
Solar Eclipse with Corona
Credit: Internet Archive Book Images
Image from page 141 of “Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences” (1902-1971)
If I ever become rich and famous, the very first thing I’ll do is invest in a telescope. Living in the middle of nowhere provides some wonderful opportunities for sky watching (which is a damned good thing, because it sure as hell doesn’t provide for other forms of entertainment, like cable teevee and broadband internet access). I would live to take even more advantage of it, and eventually would love to get a halfway decent telescope.
RIP Allan Kaprow
I don’t know how I missed this (well, yes, I do, I’ve been living under a rock the past week). Conceptual artist Allan Kaprow, the guy who brought us Happenings, has died.
Those Wacky Mormons
So, as I’ve been going through all this genealogy BS, I’ve come across a metric ass-load of references to the phrase “sealed to parent/child,” along with recent-ish dates. Wondering what on earth that might mean, I went a-Googling. Lo and behold, it refers to LDS baptism and binding. Basically, no matter when you died, or, apparently, what your faith was when you keeled over (boggle), your present day descendants, if they are endowed[1] LDS members, can opt to have you baptized and sealed to them. In other words, your spirits are then eternally bound together.
Now, I’m all for folks practicing whatever sort of religious nonsense floats their boats, but I think it’s of the utmost importance for people to have free choice of which flavor of Kool-Aid they prefer to drink. I’m squicked out by the thought that hundreds of years after someone’s death, their descendants can fool around with their eternal souls. I think that definitely qualifies as spiritual “Bad Touch.”
I’m just trying to imagine how some of the Quakers I’ve been researching would react if they found out their souls were being enshrined against their wills in some sort of Mormon death cult. I mean, these were folks who took their own brand of religion seriously enough that they were willing to come to the “new world” in order to practice it freely. They also don’t strike me as folks who were into super secret rituals.
They’ve also tried to co-opt CS Lewis’ immortal soul. And, not just once or twice, either. There have been multiple endowments (again, whatever the hell that means), posthumous baptisms, and sealings performed on his, um, behalf. It’s not like he was some sort of vaguely spiritual person who might’ve converted to Mormonism if he’d gotten half a chance. It would have been plenty bad enough if he were. However, he was devoutly C of E. I can’t imagine that he would’ve consented to being converted to Mormonism.
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[1] What endowment means is anyone’s guess. It apparently entails participating in an uber-s00per-s33kr1t ceremony that none must speak of ever after.
