Part 1 on Christianity (The Beatitudes)

I will preface this post by informing you of why I'm writing this. Most people who know me know that I'm pretty much an atheist. Deism is a better word to describe my relationship with God. I was raised Lutheran, however I lost my faith back in my late teens. While I still believe the Big Man is up there, I don't see any benefit to organized religion. I tell you this because I have volunteered to help at my church's VBS (vacation Bible school) this week. I still call it my church because if I have a sudden epiphany, I know they will welcome me back with open arms. It's nice to feel productive during the day seeing as I work nights 99% of the time. I really can't remember why I said I'd help, but I'm pretty sure I couldn't come up with a logical reason to not to. In some twisted way, it's interesting to see the indoctrination of young minds. Yes, I'm a sick individual, but that's my psychology training kicking in. I really feel like I've been behind enemy lines all week. Now, onto the bulk of this post.

What set me off was a lady that I'm working with this week. We've been getting along great, don't get me wrong. But something she said just kind of crawled under my skin and is festering there. This year the focus has been on Paul and his ministry. The stories have been focusing on his travels and how he was arrested for teaching others about Jesus. The kids were on the other side of the room listening to the teacher, so they didn't hear her. The teacher said something about it being nice that we don't have to worry about being put in jail for talking about Jesus. But she just made some snide comment about how it may not be that way for much longer. That just got me to thinking about how Christians these days keep saying that the US is a Christian nation founded on Christian values, which in turn got me thinking about what Jesus really taught us and how his teachings are being hijacked to serve these people's desires. It mostly pissed me off simply because religious intolerance has led us to the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust and other innumerable events.

So, what did Jesus really teach us in the Gospel lessons? The first couple of stories are about him after his birth are him being baptized and his temptation by the devil. There isn't much to learn from these stories, as they just show that he is the son of God and that he can resist temptation from even the devil himself. Soon afterwards he started healing the masses and spreading the word about God's kingdom. His first glowing speech was the Sermon on the Mount, home of the oft-quoted Beatitudes.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake." (Matthew 5:3-11).

I think that the meaning of this part of the sermon is that if you are downtrodden, your faith in God will ultimately make your pain and suffering worth it, as you will receive God's blessing and St. Peter will let you through the pearly gates into heaven. Not a bad moral to this story.

I do think one of the more interesting Beatitudes is the one regarding peacemakers, who will be called his children. What do you think Jesus would think of all the wars that have been carried out in his name? If peacemakers are going to be called children of God, shouldn't Christians strive for peace and avoid wars?

But my all-time favorite Beatitude that illustrates the hypocrisy of the modern church is the one about being humble. If the meek inherit the earth, what would Jesus have to say about the evangelical mega-churches? They get millions and millions of dollars, and yet most of it goes to the upkeep of their monstrosities of churches and other frivolous things. You know the Touchdown Jesus I wrote about last week? That church paid a quarter of a million to build a 62 foot tall statue. There's a group on Facebook petitioning the church to use the money that has been donated and money they were going to spend on rebuilding and putting it to better use. It has over 10,000 fans after a week. The church says that it was fully insured, so it's going to be getting money from it's insurance company anyways to pay for a new one, yet they are asking for donations. Do you really think that money will go towards the new statue? Most likely not. The people who operate Solid Rock Church and other mega-churches run them like businesses. It's a house of worship. Operate them as such, not some scheme to get you rich. Jesus lived in poverty. I'm not suggesting everyone live in poverty. I just think that it would be more Christ-like for the pastors and the people who operate these churches to not be making 6-figure incomes, live in mansions and drive expensive luxury cars. That is in no way humble. And don't give me this bullshit about how Jesus wants us to be successful. There is a definite line between success and excess, and these folks have crossed it. Jesus wanted us to use our success to help the unfortunate, not make extravagent purchases. You're supposed to tithe 10% of your income to your church, but that usually only ends up paying to upkeep costs. Like the Touchdown Jesus money, a lot of your discretionary spending is put to better use by making charitable donations. Remember those ubiquitous "WWJD" bracelets? I think that's what Jesus would do if he had any amount of money. Use what he needs to live comfortably and give the rest to charity.

Anyways, this is only part one of a series of posts on Christianity and why I think it's gone awry. Come back for more later.

A quick thought about the oil spill and government oversight

I hope that there's going to be a massive overhaul of MMS and the government's oversight of the oil industry. I'm glad that Obama announced that he is naming another czar that the Republicans hate so much to oversee the oil industry. The people who don't want the government to overreach and have an oversight committee for every aspect of American life I think are the idealists, not me. We live in a very twisted, greedy era. If the government doesn't step in and tell people running industries and businesses what they can and cannot do, they will get away with bloody murder without so much a slap on the wrist. Deregulation and lax oversight is what got us into the hot economic mess we are in now. Deregulation lets people like Bernie Madoff get away with gigantic cases of fraud. Sure, there are corrupt people in government as well. Case in point, the cozy relationship between MMS and the oil companies. But I think as a whole, the people at the top of industry and business pose a greater threat to the American people than the government does. I'm probably going to be called a socialist for verbalizing this, but I can live with that. I'd rather have the government looking out for me like they're supposed to rather than watching them sit back and let all hell break loose.

BP spill microblog

I've stayed away from this as long as I could. Last week was an outrageous week for BP. First they bought the term "oil spill" on Google so that way their website and their response efforts are at the top of the page. Go ahead and try it if you haven't yet. Right there at the top, in a pale yellow box: www.bp.com/gulfofmexicoresponse. And then while I was watching Rachel Maddow last week she had a story about the fine print on the permit that BP filed in order to drill at the Deepwater Horizon. Apparently their paperwork said that they weren't worried about the impact on the coastline because they thought that it was too far off shore for it to be a threat if there was a catastrophic event leading to an oil spill, and therefore didn't prepare any contingency plans. They listed a walrus as an animal that could be potentially threatened in the case of a spill, for Christ's sake. Then she revealed that BP's "in case of emergency" person had died several years prior to them applying for this permit. Not to mention that several other people listed had bad contact information. Seriously?!? And now I read today that BP had some emails circulating about the executives disregarding advice about safety 6 days prior to the explosion. Again: seriously?!?

And now I'm starting to hear that the British are unhappy with the way our government is dealing with BP and the beating their public image is taking. I'm sorry, UK. If it would make you feel better, we can set up an oil rig in the English Channel that is managed by, oh I don't know, let's say Shell. They're an American-based oil company. Now let's blow it up and let over 50,000 barrels of oil spill out into the English Channel, ruining your fisheries, beaches, tourism, not to mention the toll on your wildlife. Then you can tell us that we are being too harsh on BP.

But a silver lining to this whole debacle is that I hope we will finally invest in clean energy and better and more efficient ways to handle a crisis of this magnitude.

On a lighter note, the statue known to many in this area of the world as either Touchdown Jesus or Big Butter Jesus is no longer with us. The image to the left is of what he looked like before he burned to the ground. To those of you not from Southeastern Ohio, this is a 6-story tall statue of Jesus. He looks like a referee signaling a touchdown, hence the name Touchdown Jesus. He got the nickname Big Butter Jesus because he looks like he's carved out of butter. Well, it looks as if lightning struck him last night, causing him to burn. But honestly, how could they not see this coming? He's a statue made of fiberglass and styrofoam with a metal framework. He was just begging to be hit by lightning. But don't worry, kiddies. He'll rise again in 3 days. OK, maybe not that soon. But word on the street is that the people at the church are already planning his resurrection. And now let's see the progression:

First, a flaming Jesus. Then, his metal skeleton:

True Blood is back!!

I started the last post with a beauty note, and I'll do the same for this one. I finally have figured out the trick to having a manicure last longer than a couple days. Normally if I give myself a manicure, it only lasts a couple days, three at the most. I'm not about to pay to get my nails done at the salon every week just so I can get something that lasts. Anyways, it's nothing fancy, but I got to thinking about why when I used to get acrylic nails the polish lasted a couple weeks. Well, they buff the hell out of your nails before they even put on the nails, then buff the acrylics. Well, lo and behold, it's kept the polish from having any major chips for a week now. And let me just sing the praises of China Glaze. It's a couple bucks cheaper than OPI and I think it has a better selection of colors. How many shades of cherry red cremes can you come up with, OPI? Seriously? The color here is called Sexy Silhouette and it reminds me of the OPI color Kinky in Helsinki, which they sadly discontinued.

Anyways, my favorite show in the entire universe started it's last 3rd season last night. Yes, True Blood is finally back on the air. And before it even started airing, I read somewhere that it's been renewed for a 4th season already. (SPOILERS: a season of Eric not having a memory and being decidedly un-Eric will be great. That's at least if they keep that aspect of the 4th book.) I will admit that I'm not a huge fan of first couple episodes of the past seasons. But they are necessary to move forward the plot of the season. Last night, being the first, set up the basic plots. Sam is on the hunt to get to know his birth family. Eric and Queen Sophie-Anne need to sell a shitload of V via Lafayette to get the magister off their back. Tara is extremely depressed because Eggs is dead. Sookie enlists Jessica to try and find Bill (who's been kidnapped and taken to Mississippi). And we get a very brief introduction to the new group of supernatural creatures we get this season: werewolves. In the countless articles I've read about this season, I have some theories. I've read that the person who kidnaps Bill in the books isn't the one who did it in the show. So that means Lorena isn't the kidnapper. Whoever did, uses werewolves as lackeys and is based in Mississippi because I know we get introduced to King Russell. I hear we do find out who did it next week, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say that King Russell or his husband did it to get to Sookie, much like Queen Sophie-Anne did in the books. I also know that they are finally giving Pam a more recurring role. I love Pam. Aside from Eric, she's my favorite vampire. And the brief glimpse of the werewolves has made me happy. They are happily using real wolves. Let's do a side-by-side comparison.

This is a True Blood werewolf:








This is a Twilight werewolf:










One is on a movie budget and looks horrible. The other is on a TV budget. Yes, it's HBO, but it's still a smaller budget than a movie budget. I will say that the werewolves in Twilight are required to do a lot more than they need to do on True Blood. That's were CGI comes in handy, but couldn't they have made them a little more realistic?

Yes, I'm very anti-Twilight. It's horrible. The books were good. The movies are just simply awful.

In other news, another week also means another Doctor Who. It was a rather good episode. Nothing horribly memorable, but good. A friend and I thought at first the auto-pilot program was the Master. I am looking forward to what I'm sure is the first part of another 2-episode arc. The same friend has a theory that the crack in the universe is the bubble that the Doctor put Gallifrey and the other Timelords in, which is about to burst open and bring the Time Wars upon us again. Seeing as this is towards the end of this series, it makes a lot of sense, as these will be the final 2 episodes. It sets up a great new series. It also makes sense if you look back at the episodes with the Silurians ("I'm the last of my species." "No you're not. I'm the last of my species and I know how that sits in your heart.") and the Venice episode (Signora Calvierri guilting the Doctor with the extinction of her species from Saturnyne). They are amping up the guilt on the Doctor for the extinction of the Time Lords. She also made the brilliant realization that the TARDIS is getting slowly more pale. It had a nice amber glow towards the beginning and is now bleaching out. What this means, I'm sure we will find out.

And in World Cup news, the US surprisingly held it's own against England. Yes, my friends, I'm a Yank and I will always choose the US over England. I'm sure Green will never hear the end of it during the tournament and after when he returns home. I will say that those damn vuvuzela are extremely annoying. It sounds like a hive of angry bees in that stadium! I'm just glad I'm not there!

What's new in the world?

Well, first thing's first. I have red hair again. In indirect light, it's a reddish brown. But man is it red in sunlight. Of course my mother abhores it, but I love it. Yes, I'm a fake ginger. Although, when I hear that term, I think of the Weasleys and orange hair, not a true shade of red. But I digress. The picture to the left is the color I dyed it, and it's pretty accurate. It isn't the fire engine red it was for most of last year, thanks to Manic Panic. But that stuff washed out easily. I had to dye it every 2 weeks! That was a lot of work just for hair color. On a side note, if I had a job where I could get away with crazy color hair (think Joss Stone. Black with crazy color highlights), I would be extremely happy. I think the folks at work would flip out if I were to show up one day like that. To be honest, it's either crazy hair or an assload of tattoos.

In pop culture news, my Twitter feed was a-flutter with praise for Lady Gaga's new video for "Alejandro." I finally got a chance to watch it when I got to work this afternoon. "Alejandro" is quite easily my favorite song off "The Fame Monster" so I had high expectations. Well, it was simply awesome. I will say that there were a ton of nods to Madonna. It just screamed "Vogue" and "Don't Cry For Me Argentina." Not to mention the gun bra that reminded me of the cone bra of Madonna fame or the religious imagery ("Like a Prayer," anyone?). And this is a sad commentary on the state of pop music in America when I say that when I first heard her and saw the video for "Just Dance" I thought she was a Brit. And it's not because of her stage name. American pop music is such a vacuum I didn't think there was anyone innovative left and that the record industry sucked all the talent out. The main reason I avoid pop music is because I feel like the artists are all cookie-cutter clones of each other. And I use the term "artist" loosely concerning most music these days anyways. To me, an artist, whether it be music or painting, needs to do something to push the boundaries of what they are doing and to do something new and creative. Granted, Lady Gaga is a rehash of Madonna. But people remember Madonna as we come up on the 30th anniversary of "Like a Virgin." Are people really going to remember Miley Cyrus, The Jonas Brothers, Taylor Swift and all the clones that have come out in recent years the way Lady Gaga will be remembered? Of course, time will tell. But I suspect that as long as she continues doing her high art videos and doesn't have a Britney-esque meltdown, she may continue to have a thriving career. I for one enjoy the outrageous outfits she wears. It's her persona as Lady Gaga. Take away the costumes and she'd sadly be just as bland as the others. But with them, she's doing something creative and new. She's a breath of fresh air for me in a bland world of same-old, same-old pop music.

Keep up the awesome work, Lady Gaga.

XOXO, your little monster, Becky :)

Long time, no post

Wow, a lot can happen in the 2+ months since I've had time for an actual post. I didn't even brush up on the BP oil spill.

And that's the big story that's been all over the place, as rightly it should be. It's an environmental catastrophe which has easily eclipsed the only other catastrophe this can be measured against (Exxon Valdez). I was planning on taking my vacation this year and go down and volunteer to help clean up, but apparently they are all frowning upon people travelling so that they can volunteer (Locals only, folks. Pack up your shit and go home). I could go on and on and on about how the government agency that should have prevented this was in the back pocket of Big Oil. I could go on and on and on about how we really need to go green and get rid of our dependency on oil, whether it's imported or not. But this has been going on for 2 months now. If you've paid any attention to the news here in the US, you'd have heard all this already many times over. I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon when the 24 hour news networks are constantly discussing this. Well, maybe with the exception of Faux, I mean Fox, News.

The other big news event has been the Israeli flotilla raid. It's already fading from the news here, which is a shame. In general, I believe that the Israel/Palestine conflict is a prime example of why you should never, ever mix politics and religion. Especially if you're country is a holy city for 3 major world religions. Neither side will want to play nice with the other, so unfortunately this is just another chapter in an extremely long book. I will however point out that I think it is criminal what Israel did. Attacking aid workers trying to help the people you are persecuting in international waters is as criminal as it gets, I think.

On a side note, I'm going to try and not make this such a political blog. While I am passionate about politics and current events, most of my energy sadly goes to pop culture.

I had the great fortune of getting tickets to see Muse when they roll into town in October. I am very much looking forward to that. If you had told me at the beginning of the year I was going to see them twice within 8 months, I would have laughed at you.

SPOILERS! At least they are if you don't use a proxy here in the US and catch up that way...

Also, Dr. Who has returned. Although we are now currently 3 episodes away from the end of this series, I will say I've enjoyed it. I think the most memorable episodes for me were the 2 episode arc for the Weeping Angels, "Amy's Choice" (the one with the dreams) and "Vincent and the Doctor." I'm not afraid to admit that I cried towards the end of that one when they were in the art museum. For such a disturbed man to feel even the slightest bit appreciated for what he thought was going to end up being a wasteful pursuit was just touching.

Glee is still going strong, which I completely adore. I'm a total Gleek, I know. But I was a music geek in high school (choir all 4 years, color guard/marching band for 2 years). It almost validates me as being a cool kid. LOL!

And alas, Family Guy is now done for the year. I was disappointed that they decided to have "Something Something Dark Side" as the season finale, especially considering it had already been out on DVD since December. On the bright side, it means that the next box set will be out shortly. I will soon be able to enjoy my favorite cartoon family without the bleeps.

But it does also mean that my favorite TV show of all is back on shortly. Yes, True Blood starts back up on Sunday. I read through the latest book in about a day last month when it came out. They just keep getting better and better. I took part in the Ultimate Truebie fan event last week, which just added fuel to my impatience fire. It was wonderful seeing all my favorite TV characters up on the big screen. That Alexander Skarsgård is one sexy man. And now Joe Manganiello is joining as Alcide. Mmmmm...a vampire for the nights and a werewolf for the days...

Sorry, I need to go wipe the drool off my chin...

And I'm back. On the movie front, there has been a definite lack of decent movies so far this summer. I haven't seen Iron Man 2 yet, but I have the nagging suspicion it will be very similar to the first one. Robin Hood didn't look all that appealing, just a rehash of Gladiator from the exact same director/star team. I did recently see Shrek Forever After, and I will say it was a lot better than the 3rd and almost as good as the first. Prince of Persia doesn't look to appealing either, just another special effects bonanza. I was pretty disappointed with Sex and the City 2. While it was nice seeing the girls in a setting other than Manhattan, I felt it was really contrived. I also didn't like the way they treated Muslim customs in regards to women's apparel and public decency. I feel I would have rather seen the girls transported to somewhere else fashionable, like London or Milan (they've been to Paris, and frankly I think Paris movies are overdone). This past weekend saw the release of Get Him to the Greek, which I feel I can do without until it's out on DVD.

Let's see...what else is there this summer...

The A-Team - Pass.
The Karate Kid - I'll probably go see this one, even though it's remake. I love Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith I think will grow up to inherit his father's career.
Jonah Hex - the only comic book heroes that ever deserve to be put on the big screen are the big 3: Batman, Superman and Spider Man.
Toy Story 3 - I wouldn't miss this one for the world. Pixar never fails to disappoint.
Grown Ups - You'd think this was a Judd Apatow flick with all the big-name comedians in this one. It could go either way.
Knight and Day - My disdain for Tom Cruise aside, it looks like it could be ok.
Eclipse - Yea, I'll see this when hell freezes over.
The Last Airbender - Pass. M. Night Shamalamadingdong hasn't had a good movie since The Sixth Sense.
Inception - Finally saw a trailer for this today. It looks like it could be pretty good. I do enjoy Leonardo DiCaprio flicks most of the time.
Dinner for Schmucks - I'm a sucker for stupid humor sometimes, but this one I will definitely be seeing.
Salt - Angelina Jolie in another action/spy movie. Yawn.
Despicable Me - I have no clue what this is about. The trailers don't help at all (not to mention that they've been plugging this since the winter Olympics), and I'm not about to dish out $10 just so I can see what the hell is going on.
Eat Pray Love - The book was good, and it's about travel and food. I'm in.

This is in no way a complete list of the movies that are coming out this summer. I haven't even done the research to see if there are any good indies coming out this summer.

Alas, my time is up here at work. Time to retreat to the homestead and catch some Z's. Tomorrow I hit up the pool and start working on the tan.