in everything that’s happened in Japan is that Charlie Sheen has been knocked off the public stage, at least for now. It’s amazing what the human mind can focus on when left to idleness in the illusion of prosperity.
Category: Culture
What would happen…
if there were no sports on TV, no football on Sunday afternoon? Well there would probably be shock at first but soon enough people would move past the bread and circuses and discover, life. The NFL and other major sports leagues should consider that after an early, painful, withdrawal people will wake up from the daze and come to remember that professional sports are just entertainment, nothing that truly matters is attached to them and those people sitting on the couch next to you are actually your children.
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It's a moral issue…
whether we want to believe it or not. We’re stealing from future generations and if we keep on we’ll bankrupt ourselves. Somewhere along the line we’re going to need to face this and decide what things we really need and don’t need from our government and how we plan on paying for them. Making our children and grandchildren paupers for our convenience should be off the table.
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On this day…
when we call to mind the great grace and forgiveness of God we have the eulogy of Dr. Bernard Nathanson a self described former atheist who performed 75,000 abortions yet found, by the grace of God, the healing, forgiveness, and peace he sought in Christ. Truly the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never overpowered it.
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We'd like to think…
the unrest in the Middle East is about freedom, democracy, and the rule of law. As Americans it fits into our cultural narrative and colors the way we see things. Several weeks ago, though, I saw something telling on television, a spokesman for some Egyptian protesters with a dark spot on his forehead. My guess is that many people simply passed it off as a birthmark or something of the kind. I’m not sure.
Very devout Egyptian Muslim men may have a dark spot on their forehead which can come from repeated touching of the forehead to the ground in prayer. Besides being a mark of piety it can be also be a political statement of sympathy for an increasingly “Islamic” culture. It would be good to notice, as well, the large number of women in burkas seen at these protests. Again such dress can be a symbol of Muslim piety or a political statement about the desire for a more “Islamic” society, especially in countries where the full burka has not been the usual garment.
Suffice it to say even the President and his staff may be preparing for Islamic States emerging as the current governments in some parts of the Middle East. Instead of something we would recognize as democracy the protests may be the first events in the replacement of corrupt dictatorships with repressive Islamic regimes. The effect of this on religious minorities could be catastrophic and the idea of more well armed and oil wealthy Islamic governments will certainly make the world a much more complicated place.
One can still hope that the people in the streets will somehow be able to take a leap out of their culture, their history, and their religion to establish genuine democratic institutions. Yet the odds are probably very slim that any group of people have that kind of “hops” and going backwards requires so much less effort.
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Imagine the uproar…
if the working title for this proposed ABC program had been “Good Muslim Bitches”. It’s open season on the faithful and why should we expect to be immune? We have only one powerful and eternal option, overcome the evil directed towards us with good.
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Be a jerk…
and you’ll die sooner.
Beware jocks and mean girls: you may be more popular in high school, but according to a new academic paper, it is the smart kids and conscientious glee-club types who will live longer. Not only that, they will suffer fewer diseases before they die. Only the good die young? Guess again.
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For what its worth…
From a Facebook friend…
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I guess I'm a prude…
these days. I shouldn’t be as I presumably have everything to gain. The rules were written by and for people like me, an American man. Everything with everyone is okay and if that’s not how you want it then you need to shut up and crawl back under your rock.
So why the “prude”.
Its not that I’m the living example of purity. I came of age in the 70’s and basically took part in much that was available. The remnants of the old walls were being kicked down and an army of us surged out of our confines and on to the world. We were possessed, or so we thought, of both freedom and omniscience and we made the best of it. Some did more, some did less, I have no idea who did what and I don’t care but it happened.
We were looking for something, love, acceptance, touch, belonging, intimacy, but all we were offered, or so it seemed was sex, drugs, and rock n roll. It was an enticing lure, great flashes of light, moments of arrival, followed by empty mornings with nothing left except to try to do it again. Whatever it was we were looking for was more than the temporary fix.
And people got hurt, really hurt.
Someone had to pay the bill for all the goodies and apparently it was going to be us. I hurt people and people hurt me. We were struggling to get to the top of the food chain and we became objects of conquest along the way. How far could you go? What could you get from another person without giving? We thought were free but we were really just parasites hanging off each other taking what we could and then leaving when a better host came along.
There is no such thing as “unsex”. Once you have sex with a person they are bound to you and now we understand the chemicals that make this happen. If you go from person to person and use each other as a kind of playground equipment you exponentially increase your risk of sickness, emotional barrenness, and pathos. The more “intimate” you become the less intimacy you are eventually able to experience. Everything you think you want from sex gets less the more you share it with different people.
Nobody told us stuff like that.
The truth is we probably wouldn’t have listened anyway. We thought we knew what we knew and we were certain there was no hook underneath the worm. We didn’t know there were people out there playing with our minds and emotions and souls for no other reason than to make money. We didn’t know that the rules we thought so prudish had come to humanity through the experience of generations of pain. We were young, we were stupid, and we thought we would live forever.
So I guess I’m a prude now.
I can’t change what happened even as I wish I could. There are more than a few people I should apologize to but its probably best that we keep to our separate paths. We had a party, a really big party, and every generation after us has had to clean up the mess. Most of us regained our senses but by then the damage was still done. It’s tough being a kid, even tougher now because the world is so different and the stakes so much higher largely because of us.
I know better now. Actually I knew better then but just ignored the inner voice. I see my scars. I see the train coming and I’m trying to push the car full of the people I care for, and people I don’t even know, off the tracks before impact even as I fear I’m too late. If I can’t have the best for my past I want the good for the future.
I guess that makes me, in this strange new world I helped create, a prude but if it keeps somebody alive I’ll take it.
The Beautiful Path 
