Christmas, Christianity, and Social Control

For a long title, a short post.

Basically it goes back to the earlier post about moving Christmas. Christmas is actually a bastardized version of two celebrations, the birth of Christ for the Christians, and the Unconquered Sun celebration for the pagans. Here is a short history of Unconquered Sun and why the birth of christ was actually moved from Jan 6th to Dec 25th.

And the Yule Log has nothing to do with Christianity.

So if you don't put up a nativity, and you don't sing the religous x-mas carols, you can celebrate Christmas and divorce the christian references all together. I find that interesting and oddly comforting.

The Veal of the Sea

Since no one commented on HuFu, here is a picture that might get your attention.




Comment biatches.

BTW, you can click on the picture.

Perspective

“Man is in the world as if in a pure optical and sound situation. The reaction of which man has been deprived can be replaced only by belief. Only belief in the world can reconnect man to what he sees and hears. The cinema must film, not the world, but belief in this world, our only link...Restoring out belief in the world — this is the power of modern cinema (when it stops being bad)...we need reasons to believe in this world.” — Gilles Deleuze, Cinema 2, p. 172


Have I writeen about perspective yet? The above quote is in regards to films but I think it deals with perspective as the way I see it. When you start talking about truth and morality and things like that I don't think you can really say there is any real truth or morality that is absolute. I think you can believe in an absolute truth and morality in regards to a particular culture, but outside of that culture that abolsute truth or morality isn't necessarily absolute anymore. I think I just lost myself on that.

What I'm getting out is the way you experience the world and what you believe is all a matter of perspective. You view things through the lens of your experiences. Those experiences are what you rely on to determine what is true, what is moral, what is right. Your experiences are going to be different from mine, thus a different lens and a different perspective on what is true, what is moral, and what is right. We probably agree on a lot of the same things, but not all, because we come from the same American culture. However, if you sit down with an Iraqi fundamentilist, or hell, and American fundamentilist, the perspective different between you and them is going to be HUGE. Suddenly, what is true, what is moral, and what is right is very different for the two of you. Who is to say whose truth is absolute? I think saying your truth is more right than theirs is the height of arrogance and is the root of most misunderstandings.

Jeebus, what the hell have I been smoking?

Glowing Meat

Where can I get some of this?

Good

Ok, the House isn't completely brain dead. They rejected the measure that including cutting out $8 billion in funding for bird flu research.

Hopefully it'll stick around this time.

The Birds!

Uh oh, two political posts in a row. Sorry.

I was trying not to post anything about the bird flu 'pandemic' because it isn't. But something caught my eye today that pissed me off so I thought I'd chirp in.

First, some facts. The bird flu, H5N1, has been around for awhile. This particular straing first popped up in 1997 and killed six people in Hong Kong. It came up again in 2003, only killing one person. Second, in it's current form it can only jump from birds to humans, not from human to human. It would have to mutate to do that and the chances of it mutating in such a manner are slim. In fact, it's been watching since 2003 for just such occurance. So why is it a big deal all of a sudden? Who knows. For more facts about the bird flu, go here.

Now, the avarian flu, bird flu, H5N1, whatever you want to call it, is not pandemic since it doesn't transfer from human to human. It's not even endemic for the same reason. And if it were to start transfering from human to human, there is nothing that says it will certainly turn into a pandemic. In my opinion it is just a bunch of hype to increase rating and to distract people. So the government should take some steps, maybe put out a website addressing avarian bird flu, to calm people down, right? Sure, but why on EARTH would you call it www.pandemicflu.gov?? Jesus H Christ, what the fuck is that?

But that's not what really pisses me off about that. What really really really gets my goat is this: Lawmakers reject emergency bird flu funds. Are you fucking kidding me? It's the one thing Bush did right in this mess was to ask for $7.1 billion dollars so we could start producing vaccine and the like in case a flu ever became pandemic. It takes time for this stuff to ramp up and the flu vaccine shortage last year just screams we need more infrastructure in place. What the hell is wrong with these people? If you want to cut money from somewhere so you can fund responsibilities that are the federal government take money from pork programs that make no sense like The Bridge to Nowhere.

And don't even get me started on the f'ing tax cuts for the wealthy that these dipshits are still trying to push through at the expense of social programs that could actually help victims of the hurricanes this year.

Big Money and the Dem Party Realignment

Eek, big words.

Anyway, there is a realignment going on inside the democratic party that has been a long time in coming. What it boils down is that the Republican party started something called the 'K Stree Project' which was an effort to woo the big money guys on K Street (lobbiest and that sort) over to the Republican party and starve the Dems of a major source of funding. Pretty good idea and with the repubs winning both chambers of congress and the WH the K Street Project was working.

Unfortunately for them and good for us, this happened after the Internet revolution and not before it. What the Dems found after 2000 was that they could actually raise more money from lots of small donors than they were getting from a few big money donors. As a result, a lot of the leadership in the dem party and, in particular, state and country boards and the like are starting to distance themselves from the lobbists.

Any major change or realignment in a political party has to come from the base and that means the states, counties, cities, etc. The big story from the elections last week isn't that we picked up the Governerships in both NJ and VA, although that was important. The big story is that we won in almost every small election country wide that isn't in Ohio. Ohio is a different mess and it will be interesting to see what turns up there.

Big money and lobbiests in general in politics is a bad thing. I don't care how pure you are going into public service, if someone is offering you quite a bit of money or access to their private jet whenever you want it or whatever, it would be hard not to let that influence you to some degree. Lobbiests get the ears of the representatives that should be listening to us, not them.

Anyway, to wrap this all up. I've come to believe that in order for change to happen and for the country to get back to being true to what the people want, one or both of the parties need to separate themselves from the big money lobbiests. I don't care what party does it, it just has to happen. It finally looks like it is going that direction.

Here is a link about the Dems distancing themselves from K Street for anyone who made it this far. Click me!

It's People!

Ok, well, not really. But check this out: HuFu

I've known about this for a few weeks, but I kept forgetting to post about it. No, its not a spoof or satire, it's real. The FAQ and the Receipes are the best.

Move Christmas!

Christmas is the wrong time of the year. It's too early in the winter to be of any use. It needs to be moved to the end of January.

You see, the Christmas season is fun. Most people are cheerfull and the lights are pretty. With Christmas being where it is now you have it out shining Turkey Day. But more importantly, once Christmas ends you still have two months of winter to deal with. It's just too fricken early. Now, if it was at the end of January, you would already be halfway through winter. Wouldn't that be great!

Also, what's up with Christmas being so dang close to New Years. We need some breathing room here. Move it, dang it.

Political Compass

Ok, here is a good test to figure out where you stand in politics. I was actually pretty surprised where I turned up. I know I may come across super hard core lefty but that's only in reaction to the crazy religious righties that managed to sneak there way into government. I actually agree with a fair amount of traditional conservative values, although I'm left of center.

Anyway, you all should take a few mintues and take this so we can all compare.

My scores are:

Economic Left/Right: -5.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.46

That sticks me near Nelson Mandela, The Dalai Lama, and Ghandi. :) Ok, so I am a lefty. Actually, according to this thing I am a Libertarian Lefty. I can live with that. Power to the people!

Talking To Myself

Well, since it looks like I'm just posting for myself I figured I'd just stick a link in every now and then that I find funny or disturbing. This one's both, so I can remember it.

Landover Baptist

XBox 2

Here it is, for those that care, a picture of the new XBox:

Xbox 2

Blue Balls

First and foremost, GO COLTS!! Finally.

Second, at work we are coming up with several jingles and advertising campaigns. It's actually a lot of fun. I came up with the new slogan.

Third, my neighbors are moving to Leesburg. They purchased a very nice house out there near where I used to live way back when. I'm jealous but in a good way.

Forth, not sure if I mentioned this in other posts by Shay, my neighbors daughter, was on a sugar high Halloween night and was running around in circles saying 'Candy Candy Candy' over and over again. It was awesome. Apparently, yesterday she was doing the same thing after eating veggies but saying 'I love vegetables' instead.

Fifth, I have this big thingy sitting in the middle of my foyer that is eventually going to be come the Coolest. Toy. Ever. More on that later.

And, finally, here are the Blue Balls. Make sure your sound is on.

Halloween and Leather Pants

Well, we didn't have the typical 60+ kids this year for some reason. So that sucked. But the fog machine rocked. The funniest thing was the first use of it. This kid in a cat outfit came up to the door and was asking for candy. While Becky handed some out I hit the smoke machine. The dad saw the smoke coming out of the pumpkin and flipped out because he thought his kid's tail was on fire. :) Opps.

Anyway, I also carved that skull looking pumpkin into a skull. Anyone know how to preserve a pumpkin? Here are some pictures:


The setup. Smokey on top.


Here is the skull smoking.


Check out how the smoke stays in there and fogs the eyes. It would stay like that for a few minutes.


Here is what I think is the best shot of the skull smoking. I love the way it comes out of his eyes. Its a dark picture because it was no flash. The candle lit the skull up better than that and the teeth kicked ass.


Check out that glowing bastard. Scarry...

Yay Halloween!

Oh, and here is the thing about leather pants.