If you’ve heard anything of Rev. Wright and his ties to Obama, please do yourself a favor and watch this interview with Bill Moyers, the first since his remarks were publicized to attack Obama. Our media and our politics encourages bite-sized factoids that convey news with nuance, content without consideration. Fill in the gaps, and you’ll get…the rest of the story!
from a particularly nasty, anti-gay comic by the notorious fundamentalist Christian cartoonist Jack Chick
Not surprisingly, your average American doesn’t know much about the world’s major religions. I admit, I have a slight advantage having been taught from cradle to college at Christian schools, but I did miss a few of the questions on their quiz, specifically those surround Catholicism. In spite of learning about Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, my religious education was woefully lacking in the practice of the original, universal church. It should, then, be no surprise that some of my teachers in high school considered Catholicism as removed from “true” Christianity as other religions.
Speaking of not-quite-Christianity, here’s a flub SO MASSIVE by Mitt Romney that its almost as if someone were trying to embarrass him. His success or (likely) failure as a conservative Republican candidate will be so fascinating to watch! I cannot see how fundamentalist, evangelical Christians will come to terms with his not being truly “saved”, by their standards anyway. Likewise with his rather pronounced “flip-flops” on issues like homosexuality and abortion. Or the fact that he was the governor of such a bastion of liberalism - Massachusetts.
Now stop me if you’ve heard this one. An outspokenly anti-gay Baptist pastor walks into a bar. He tries to pickup a guy for some of the ol’ nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more. Hijinks (by way of the police, a nosy public prosecutor, and the ACLU) ensue.
I’m conflicted between my want to see hypocrisy punished and my need to protect every adult citizen’s right to engage in lewd, consensual acts with each other. I can only imagine how conflicted a parishioner of this man’s must feel…oh wait, I forgot about that whole “hate the sin, persecute the sinner” routine. Yeah, they’re probably ready to just run him out of town on a rail.
No, there’s no drama quite as extreme as the story of Job going on with us, but its still kinda funny how life gives and takes at odd moments without warning. Last Wednesday (as the Rain Delay post visually demonstrates, we got rained out of our usual night at the British pub. Shortly before that happened, however, we found out that business had slowed down over the last few nights and because of that, the bar owner didn’t want to pay for the full trio next time. So as of now, until he changes his mind again, we’re not playing at the British pub.
Earlier that same day, I received an email from Valencia asking me to teach a couple classes for them, one of which was the same class I taught in the spring. It was difficult, but I ultimately declined because of the effects on my work schedule (I’d be away from my full-time job too much during the main business hours). On Friday, I got an IM from a friend (and former student) of mine at Digital Media at UCF. They have yet another class they’d like me to teach. Oy!
So now I’m torn. Taking this additional class would fit in well with my schedule because it meets immediately after the other UCF class and runs after regular work hours. The biggest challenge will be prepping for and teaching two 3 hour classes back-to-back. I need to decide soon, and I’m currently leaning towards doing it. The schedule works, the money will be nice, and the topic is project organization and (some) management, which is something about which I would really like to learn more. What do you guys think?
Finally, to tie us back into the Bible, check this great article about all the recent salivating about the END OF THE WORLD as seen by certain Christians. I grew up in the pre-Left Behind tradition that really got spun up about the Rapture, and it did sometimes breed a lack of maturity in people who were constantly expecting it all to be over. Why should we worry about achieving peace in the Middle East or treating the environment like it will need to be around for more than another generation when Jesus is going to return any minute? Christianity should be about more than just what happens when its over, and for many generations and different denominations, it was.
The dispensationalist Christians working the Republican party these days do not accurate reflect the priorities of Christ and most of His followers throughout history. Of course, in some cases this is a good thing (eg., the Inquisition, Crusades, indulgences, etc.), but on the whole, its rather distorting and counter-productive to spreading the good news. Alright, enough of that, read the article and check out other denominations’ perspectives.
Anyone who thinks Robert Wexler is foolish for his now immortal interview on the Colbert Report is absolutely clueless and tragically unhip. Any politician willing to be put in such an uncertain and potentially damaging situation as that should be given props for the bravery alone, nevermind those that go that extra step to help Colbert deliver the funny. I’m proud that the Congressman represents my district of birth, and I wish him all the best in representing the constituents in South Florida.
While I’m on a somewhat angry roll, I’d also like to make this observation - no one can force you to change your mind without resorting to brainwashing or perhaps blackmail. At the end of the day, only you can decide what you believe. Whether or not you defer your decisions to religious leaders, politicans, pundits, authors, whoever, or just plain figure out things for yourself, is your choice alone. In particular, people who go on the show 30 Days are not forced to believe anything different after their experiences. This might be bleedingly obvious to most of you, but there was actually some debate about this over lunch today. Some coworkers of mine were actually critical that the show “forces people to change their minds” about such issues as whether or not “all Muslims are terrorists.” Seriously.
Oh yeah, and this whole “we should just nuke the Middle-East” bit is getting really tired, not that it was ever anything more than a horribly glib, hopefully sardonic remark. The region has problems, to be sure, but lest we forget just how contentious the America’s, Europe, Africa, and Asia have all been throughout world history. The vast majority of the people in Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, etc. etc. are all people just like you and I. They’re part of families, have their own dreams and art, and ultimately just want to live their lives in peace. The extremists, whether they be Jewish, Muslim, Christian, whatever, are in the minority. They just unfortunately have gotten into positions of power through the abuse of their religions and vacuums of secular leadership. While taking out Hizbollah is important, the innocent life that is lost must also be considered!
Closer to home, there’s one more issue about which I must write. Recently, the Orlando City Commission passed an ordinance restricting the organized feeding of the homeless on public land in downtown Orlando. While I do not know too much about the issues involved, I do respect Spider’s take on it as reported here. Should groups that want to combat hunger be forced to work under highway overpasses, or should be be able to serve food more than twice a year on public land? Take a read and see what you think.
My apologies for not posting much recently, but I was spending entirely too much time “conquering the blank page”, “leveraging prior work”, and uh, writing a bunch of bullshit for work (pardon my French).� As such, the last thing I wanted to do was chat on GTalk, much less pull random thoughts and anecdotes from my nethers.� Enough said about that.
Things are better now.� I’ve spent the last few days relaxing, catching up on yard work, Keith Olbermann, and trying to bring my blood pressure back down out of the red zone.� Watching the Daily Show doesn’t help, unfortunately.� There’s too much craziness going on in the world (eg., Israel v. Hizbollah, America v. Terror, Kim Jong Ill v. Sanity) and too many nutters excited about it (eg., rapture-obsessed Christians, Mahdi-obsessed Muslims, South Park-obsessed Scientologists).� Jane!� Stop this crazy thing!
On a happier note, it now appears I’ll be back teaching at UCF this fall.� First, though, some history.� For three years, I taught electronic music technology for the UCF Music Department.� Then, less than a month before the semester started and as part of the ramp-up to accreditation, I was let go because my graduate work wasn’t in music (though it was in technology).� I almost returned to UCF to teach Digital Media this past spring semester, but unfortunately that fell through because of the split in UCF’s College of Arts & Sciences (the adjunct money for the department got slashed).
Well, that same class that I almost taught in the spring has now been offered to me for this fall.� The course is named “Internet and Interaction”, so as an excercise for the reader, I’d like your thoughts on exactly what that should mean.� As a hint, the two technologies that are expected to be taught include Flash and some kind of web programming language (eg., PHP, Perl, Ruby, etc.).� My goal is to carve up a course that includes the above, works in some web services, and really tries to capture the student’s interest.� Oh yeah, and maybe some Marshall McLuhan for good measure.
On top of that, I’ll also be teaching a survey of computer concepts course at Seminole Community College in the fall.� I’m really looking forward to this course because of its broad, shallow scope and non-technical audience.� In addition to the expected computer and Internet basics, I’m going to throw in some basics of programming and Internet cultural items to mix things up.� If I’m really cheeky, I might even find a way to tie in some of my material from the I&I course, my past Web Publishing course, and even my Computer Music course from way back.� Happy Happy, Joy Joy!
Spider asked for a schedule of my band’s performances, so until further notice, here’s the deal.� We’re booked to play the George and Dragon Wednesday nights from 7:30-12:30 until the British tourist season dies down, which typically occurs around October.� After that, we’ll be playing at the Cypress Cove Nudist Resort the Saturday night before Halloween.� Good times!
Finally, here’s a list of do’s and do not’s, from me to you!
Do
Don’t
She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has released another book, and thus to help further her sales has said something rather naughty about 9/11 widows. Whether or not her thoughts on how victims can be afforded an unfair amount of protection for their political views is valid, she is definitely using a rather vulgar amount of rhetoric to advance her business interests (ie., sell more books). I think that this profitting off the statements about the 9/11 widows is unarguably more reprehensible than victims of any tragedy speaking out from their unique and unfortunate perspectives. On 9/11, we were not all widows, and we should respect those who were’s opinions for what they are - personal, passionate, and uniquely informing.
In better news, I had a beautiful moment at the airport Saturday night upon returning from DC where upon my mp3 player performed the Mark Isham’s title music from Crash at just the right moment. That track usually makes my hairs dance with delight anyway, but this combination of the right place (airport terminal) and the most sympathetic frame of mind (that post-disembarkment calm) with Isham’s glorious sweeping synths just about blew my mind. Music for Airports 2: Electric Boogaloo?
Speaking of global warming, I had the good fortune to find myself invited to see An Inconvenient Truth while up in Washington D.C.. Just as a warning, I have developed quite a fondness for our planet in the last 29 years of my life, so I might just have some bias when it comes to the issue of protecting it. I also cannot see the serious, long-term harm in being overcautious about the environment. Even if human society doesn’t contribute significantly to the trends seen in global warming (which would be against the vast majority of scientific findings), wouldn’t it just be safer to assume the worst and try to mitigate what we’re doing? I’m not going to go on about this other than to just suggest, whatever your opinion on the matter, to be more informed about the facts, whichever side they support.
Finally, as we all in Florida look incredulously at our weather reports (its only mid-June!!!), let’s talk about God (deities, man). I am reading such an interesting book on the development of God in the world’s major religions. A History of God by Karen Armstrong was my travelling companion last week on the flights to and from DC. I must admit that I’m a rather slow non-fiction reader and am thus only up through the first 100 pages, but even still I am receiving such a great refresher course in theology! I’ve always been fascinated with theology and used to study and argue it with my teachers at ye ol’ Protestant parochial school, but its been far too long since I last seriously tucked into it. Another post, perhaps, I’ll share with you some of what I’ve learned and relearned.
Brokeback Mountain is now the 8th largest grossing movie of its genre (romantic drama) , beating out movies like The Notebook and The English Patient (among others). That’s no small feat, but likely due at least in part to the fact that it only had a budget of $14 million (contrast that with Failure to Launch’s still-somewhat-modest $50 million budget). Other recent Oscar-award winning movies have also had smaller budgets (eg. Capote $7 million and Crash $6.5 million), which definitely backs-up what George Lucas recently said, that “big pics are doomed”. While I don’t believe we’ll never see the likes of Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, or Titanic again, it is encouraging to see Hollywood work more frugally and yet still turn out movies with high critical and popular acclaim.
Speaking of which, you should more certainly spend a few hours with V for Vendetta, a movie that tries hard to appeal to all the various heights of brow currently in existence. Its got violence, tender moments, political theory, satire, hijinks, and a bit of terrorism thrown in to spice it up. Even if people take great offense to its subversive (circa our founding fathers) message, it above all else demonstrates that we live in a country where freedom is respected and lifestyle choice is still exactly that - a choice.
Unlike some places that we’ve supposedly liberated, cough, Afghanistan. Check this great bit about an aid-worker who has been condemned to death for converting from Islam to Christianity. So glad that spreading freedom thing is working out for us.
“It strikes me that people with a secure sense of their own faith are often the least liable to get upset by parodies or comedies about it. Religions may deal in divine truths, but they are run by human beings. And the combination is often funny. True believers know that; and don’t care when they’re made fun of. Insecure believers - and they often need fundamentalism to keep their own souls untroubled by doubt - are the touchiest.” - Andrew Sullivan
This in response to the intense reactions by some Catholics and Scientologists about their religions being lampooned by South Park. I think this concept can be generalized to other realms, as well. One of my favorite politicians is John McCain and not just because he’s a fiscal conservative and social moderate (he’s not as socially moderate as was once thought, but more on that another time). I like John McCain because he doesn’t take himself so seriously that he can’t make jokes about himself or participate in some good natured ribbing at the hands of people like Jon Stewart. Al Gore is another great example of this, though unfortunately his great sense of humor often gets lost in his accepted media portrayal during the 2000 election.
President W has on rare occasion demonstrated this virtue, but unfortunately his ubiquitous smugness drowns out any attempts at self-deprecation. Of course, I doubt if his religious views were poked at even slightly, I doubt he’d have much of a pleasant reaction, much like his fellow fundamentalists.
Speaking of that reminds me of the debacle with the Mohammad cartoons. Yet another example where a group of very fundamentalist believers got their collective panties in a wad about some satire that struck a little too close. At least with our fundamentalists, we don’t have to worry about more than the occasional abortion clinic bombing. With their culture of repression and fanaticism, Wahabiists and those they infect demonstrate a much more widespread and violent culture that vocally demands their absolute rightness and the West’s absolute evil.
This, then, comes as no surprise. (thanks again, Andrew)
While I do feel that the modern incarnation of Valentine’s Day is largely a commercially-driven outing for couples to feed the machine in the guise of romance, the actual history of the holiday is far more seditious. There was no actual St. Valentine in the Catholic faith, but rather it is thought that the festival of St. Valentine’s was to commemorate an infamous early Christian named Valentinius. Infamous, you ask? And what’s all this have to do with love?
Well, it would seem that Valentinius was well known for being a gnostic Christian, that is, a Christian who believed in secret teachings that were passed down from teacher to teacher , straight from God’s mouth to Paul’s ears. Though widely labelled heresy by the better organized (and more skillful) ecumenical Christians (ie. what turned into the Catholic church), gnostic beliefs have survived and even resurfaced in the last century with the discovery of a bunch of “lost” gospels. Its not quite as scandalous as the stuff in The Da Vinci Code, but interesting none-the-less.
Anywho, Valentinius was a big fan of conjugal love, holding it right up there with the staple rituals and beliefs of Christianity. And since there was already a Roman pagan festival of fertility around the god Lupercus in mid-February, it seemed completely natural for the Christians to eventually transform this festival into something a bit more Jesus-centered (well, as Jesus-centered as the 33-year-old Virgin could endorse). Thus, the festival seemed to beg for honoring good ol’ Valentinius, now St. Valentine.
Years later, we’re still celebrating with sugary treats, store-bought epistles, and vast flotillas of roses. For our part, Patrick and I bought each other DVD’s that we had wanted, I receiving Mirrormask and he receiving The Golden Girls: Season Three. We capped off the evening with a trip to our favorite out-of-the-way spot Yellow Dog Eats in Gotha, then back home to relax and watch a little television. Exciting? No, but that’s ok. It was quiet and quite delightful. A veritably fantastic day, in case you were wondering.
To all those out there who sincerely believe in the myths of the “gay agenda” and the “liberal media”, to those who think a movie like Brokeback Mountain was made simply to advance a particular social/political agenda in America, you really need to shut up and learn to think for yourselves! Its not easy, at first, letting go of what Fox News, Bill O’Reilly, or your pastor told you as the gospel truth. The world’s a scary place with so much uncertainty, I can totally understand how much consolation these kind of paternal voices provide.
Consolation, however, isn’t sufficient if its deceptive, mean-spirited, simplistic, and just plain wrong. So much of what I hear from the conservative right these days is at least one or more of the above, and I just can’t accept how many people out there believe it hook, line, and sinker.
If you have to indulge your paranoia, look to your leaders who are blatantly manipulating your faiths to obtain and retain power. Observe the incredible precedents that are being set in executive power and imagine what that would do for a President antagonistic to your cause. Remember that true political conservatism protects the individual from government, regardless of the reason.
