Political Frenzy

A recent documentary called “The God Who Wasn’t There” is making tremendous controversy for itself by deliberately attacking the fundamental principles of Christianity. The idiocy of the film is unmatched. People who claim Roswell harbors the remains of an alien scout ship have more credibility than anyone who believes a word uttered in this film. I am not a Christian, and in fact love myself to poke holes in any religious literalist doctrine, but this film is absurd.

The claims made by the film:
1) Jesus was a composite character pieced together from bits of ancient lore, not a living breathing human. In essence, the stories of Jesus walking the Earth are entirely fictional. Mainly he is an amalgamation of both Dionysus and Mithras

This is bullpoop. Of course Jesus bears a striking resemblance to many deities and heroes, because there are certain aspects that are universal to such - from Gilgamesh in Mesopotamia to Neo in the Matrix.

Dionysus was born to a virgin mother and was killed and resurrected. First of all, Dionysus’s origin and resurrection have none of the same meaning as Jesus and are used in totally different contexts. And of course any god or God would use those as tools to prove a miracle - I mean, isn’t that the basis of a miracle, that it accomplishes the impossible? Virgin births and the dead being resurrected are two of the most fundamentally impossible things to the human psyche, and the most apparent of miracles.

Look, they built pyramids in Cambodia, Egypt, and Mexico pretty much simultaneously without intercommunication. Why? Because humans, as an animal, respond to certain things universally. We pay attention when someone builds a massive pyramid, and we sure as hell sit up when someone rises from the grave.

As for Mithras, let me point out that the Cult of Mithras came to popularity in Rome AFTER Jesus’s death. Although the cult existed before Jesus’s birth, it was minor to say the least. In fact, the first historical mention of the cult comes from the histories of Plutarch, who was born 16 years after the death of Jesus. The concept of Mithras actually comes from my own religion, Zoroastrianism,thousands of years older than Christ. But the Mithras the movie talks about and the very ancient Mithras are about as similar as Luke Skywalker as portrayed by Mark Hamill and Anaken Skywalker as portrayed by Hayden Christiansen. You sit there wonder why these two even have similar names. Besides, Mithras was only born to a virgin according to accounts in AD, not BC. In BC, Mithras was born out of a rock.

Finally, they come to the fact that Mithras was said to have been born on December 25th hence why Jesus is based off of him. Look buddy, anyone who reads the Bible knows for a fact Jesus wasn’t born in winter - I mean who in Judea would have their sheep out to pasture in December? That’s just when it gets celebrated because, yes, the Cult of Mithras was more popular than Christianity for a while. Plus, if you notice, that’s also when Saturnalia - the Roman festival of backwardsness where the slaves are served by the master, everyone gives gifts, and the drunk never pay their gambling debts - was celebrated. So Constantine was smart and when he made the Catholic Church the official religion of the Roman Empire, he aligned the celebrations of the new religion to match some old ones. That’s the politics of religion.

2) The letters of Saint Paul of Tarsus depict an ethereal Jesus figuratively performing all the miracles, not a living man
Even idiots know that Saint Paul did not know Jesus in life. According to the Bible, Paul saw Christ’s death and resurrection in a dream. Of course he didn’t describe a real man, he never met him! He was writing about his dreams, his visions. Please.

3) There are too many contradictions in Christian doctrine for it to be real
Grow up and give me a break. Of course there are a buttload of contradictions. I’ll let you in on a secret: science, which I personally have a passion for, is also in total contradiction.

I’m studying to be a scientist, and I’m okay with the fact that Newtonian Physics and Quantum Physics aren’t compatible. Newton says that there can be no cause without a direct effect, and that worked for years and years until we discovered radioactive isotopes. Quantum Physics proves that without direct effect a certain quantity of radioactive particles will die after a certain amount of time. So we’re working on a Grand Unification Theory.

The universe is contradiction. The Earth maintains its shape because of contradictory forces, and ambivalence is a legitimate emotion. Don’t expect everything to be black and white.

Look, Christian opposers, I’ll even give you a hint as to where to start if you want to poke through the Bible. For instance, in Genesis, God cannot find Adam in the Garden of Eden without calling out his name, and must ask him why he was hiding (because he ate from the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and became aware of his own nakedness, of which he was ashamed) thus disproving God’s omniscience. Or perhaps the fact that Adam could not have possibly named all animals on Earth because he had no way of reaching Angler Fish without pressurized submersibles.

These are issues of faith, however, not fact. And when you try and ‘disprove’ Jesus you end up looking like a fool.

For instance, the Romans were pretty well known for being strict record keepers. I mean, that’s why Jesus was born in Bethlehem in the first place, because of a Roman census. Well, did you that they recorded the death of “Iesus Nasaretius”? See: Jesus of Nazareth.

Fools.

After reading Kay Day’s post on Current Events Watch I was sifting through some of the news reports on the incident. I came to this statement on a video produced by a local news station. It is as follows.

Anyone else see anything askew? Lemme point it out for ya.

How cruddy.

Some celebrate Memorial Day with a barbecue or a sale. Others celebrate it by visiting veterans. I take time to reflect on the history of the armed forces.

Today we must realize that the fallen heroes did not all salute Old Glory. The amazing men and women of the American Armed Forces were in good company. In World War II the British were fending off Fascism and suffering the bombs of Hitler for years before Americans stood up. Alongside them were the commonwealth nations - Canada, Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa, and Nepal. Non-Vichy France held a successful resistance, many Frenchmen losing their lives to keep their nation free. Those that remained would usher in Allied forces during the liberation of Paris. And losing more men to combat than all other nations combined, Russia suffered massive losses, only to continue forward and bring down the Third Reich brick by brick.

In Asia the Chinese were in a civil war when Japan attacked, and despite their hatred for each other, both the Communist and Republican Chinese lay down their lives to protect their homeland. The Siamese (or later Thai), Cambondians, Laotians, and others all resisted the Japanese invasion force, later aiding Australian and American troops in overthrowing the Japanese.

And not to forget the Germans and Japanese who resisted their leaders’ tyranny, seeking to restore to their countries the honor and dignity of history, collaborating with allied forces and spies, sometimes taking on completely independant movements.

Today we remember that in the history of the world only one race has lived as heroes: the human race. We can all today bow our heads in thanks for those across the world who have engaged tyranny and oppression in any form and stopped it from entering our homes, whether they be American, Canadian, Thai, Chinese, or South African. Because the country we must pledge our highest allegiance to is greater than our nation, it is Earth. And despite all our troubles, we all call it home.

Memorial Day, World War II, Pan-Terranism

As usual, politically vocal residents of a politically divided region are approached first by parties and activists. As such your loyal blogger has received a generous invitation from yee-hawing Democratic leader Howard Dean to give them my money. First off, on this blog’s best month I made $6.50 off of it (so start clicking on ads, you deadbeats!) and I cannot get a job until school lets up because I’m not even a full-time student, I’m an over-time student. Howard Dean MD, as the letter touts, will make more money sucking out one old lady’s belly fat than I probably do all year. How about you give ME some money?

But it’s not that - they need donors, yea, I get it. The weirdest bit is that the words “Fellow Democrat” in the heading were crossed out with blue pen with my name written next to it. Wait, no, that’s not blue pen. Close inspection reveals that it is in fact pixelated and printed onto the page. They used a font and a computer to put my name there. And for what? I know this is mass-mailed, I know Howard Dean didn’t write this letter just for me. All you accomplished, DNC, is looking douchey.

The letter is also insulting to my intelligence, telling me I’ll be part of a “grassroots” campaign if I join up with them. No, my friends, voting for Lance Romance as the next King County Executive is a grassroots campaign. Voting for Barack Obama, while probably the socially responsible thing to do, is not at all a grassroots campaign.

In closing, me = awesome and very tired, Howard Dean = douche.

Howard Dean, DNC, Democrats, Lance Romance, The Briefs, King County, voting, grassroots campaign

The recent fad in student ‘activism’ is to kick military recruiters out of schools, sometimes leading to hostility, shouting matches, and occasionally physical violence which this blogger has actually been privy to. While accusing the right wing of reducing everything to a sound byte, they themselves have become just as guilty - Books Not Bombs my Persian butt. Indeed.

One student in a recent walk-out at Seattle Central had the nerve and gall to claim that recruiters at the community college were racially profiling students from lower class backgrounds simply by showing up to campus. This is obscenely absurd and the result of fanciful extrapolations from their expectations of the right wing, not reality. People from lower class backgrounds rarely attend the community college, it costs a damn arm and a leg. And the majority of the student population is white! Besides, the army and marines booth is often passed over. Soldiers come back from action to learn at the college, but those already there rarely have incentive to leave.

Besides, no one is forcing anyone to recruit ever! It is a cognitive choice. Like any organization, our armed forces have the right to be there. And for many, service in the military is a great option, giving them free room and board, free education, and a fine paycheck. My mother served in the Navy as a communications officer in Guam and later in Alaska, providing her with the money to later become an alumnus of the University of Washington. Before her both my maternal Grandfather and Grandmother served during World War II, the former as a machinery operator for the Army Corps of Engineers and the latter as a secretary in the Marines.

If I didn’t have the financial backing of my parents to afford to go to college now, I would gladly sign up for the Coast Guard because I feel strongly about stopping the importation of drugs and defending the US border at sea. But no recruiter will convince me to, they simply provide information on the armed services, and a resource for joining if that’s right for you.

What really needs to be done is provide better funding for military hospitals, ensure the contractual rights of National Guardsmen and Soldiers so that they can come home safely and quickly without further delay, and have our great country provide as much to our men and women in uniform as they provide to us.

People on the far left confused our troops for the war, and while I feel we need to allow the Iraqi nation to evolve into whatever it will become without further assistance from us, the armed forces are this nation’s best possible way to train and employ our population as possible. Kicking out recruiters isn’t the answer, people. Focus on what’s important instead of blindly attacking whatever is closest.

books not bombs, liberalism, sound byte, student activism

When on a recent trip to Ellensburg, Washington, where I will be transferring my credits to Central Washington University in the fall, my family and I ran into a group of Bush supporters who held banners reading “Support the Troops” and wielded American flags. Feeling insulted by this disingenuous attempt to ostracize those who disagree with the war and label us unpatriotic, I was compelled to engage the group, mostly senior citizens and young single men.

Before I got an attempt to voice opinions such as “How can you claim to support the troops by putting them into hostile situations? I support them by trying to bring them home without further injury or death,” I was pre-empted by a particularly liberal member of my family who - to my shock and dismay - flipped the group the bird! He continued by shouting obscenities at them and insulting their intelligence. One elderly woman who was a member of the group responded to him by saying, “I hope your mother is proud of you for flipping off an old lady.”

When I confronted my family member, he said he had done so because “those people are beyond reason. You can’t talk to them, they’re idiots.”

I am constantly frustrated by these extremely polarizing agents on both sides of issues across the spectrum of the political divide in the United States. Immediately they turn to insults and rage at dissenting opinion instead of engaging in debate and discussion. Both sides have created melodramatic worldviews and put themselves as knights in shining armor, fighting demons and dragons who threaten their fictional utopia.

My position with the war supporters was now irreconcilably compromised, and I was unable to actually engage them in discussion because they had been put into a defensive frenzy by the thoughtless and hate-filled actions of my family member. I had been stripped of an opportunity to open up discussion with people I could safely assume were intelligent and educated - living in a College town hardly lends itself to idiocy and illiteracy - who simply did not see or disagreed with my opinions.

People, you have to stop calling each other names. Nowadays it’s hard for any American to go without some knowledge of what’s going on in the world. Both CNN and FOX News run 24/7, Google News feeds itself onto our homepages, and standing at the bus affords us the opportunity to glance at that morning’s headlines. College newspapers across the nation are flourishing, and blogs like mine provide opinions from intelligent people from all walks of life. If anyone feels strongly about any subject, you can be sure they have at least some information on the subject. If they disagree with you, they probably know something you don’t. Whether or not you think that’s relevant is another story, but you’ll never know if you don’t find out.

This is a plea to everyone - stop it. Stop underestimating your fellow Americans and instead try and listen and talk to them like people, because that’s what they are. If you disagree, that’s one thing, but don’t think they dissent because of some mental inadequacy.

Liberals, Conservatives, FOX News, CNN, Google

Further apologies for not yet posting the interview with Maz Jobrani. Midterms at night school tend to deter internet activities.

Slow days in the political sphere, according to news feeds. A haggard nation leads a weary world through a time of seemingly insurmountable exhaustion. Frustrations and tensions run high, and release seems impossible. Stagnation leads to infection, and sedentary ways lead to bed sores. I think at this point, we all want peace and quiet - we want the wars overseas and at home to just stop so we can sit down and watch whatever semi-raunchy prime-time family sitcom NBC has cooked up for us now, eating microwavable dinners, and not saying a word - just laughing at characters on the screen.

So many problems in today’s world - from the depletion of our water supplies to the devastation of Central Africa; from the bitter and heartbreaking cold resignation of our sons, brothers, sisters and daughters in Iraq to the passionate howls of those weeping rivers of tears at the blood spilled in Virginia - and the Post-Modern Man or today is all but helpless, waiting and praying for the Presidential Primaries for his first chance to maybe have an effect on the world.

A deep coma of helplessness is gripping my generation - I believe we’re calling it the “MyPod” generation - as we repair to tiny boxes of existence, seeking the next high either online or in an anonymous mosh pit, and rarely in class or at a dinner with loved ones.

It is not 1944 anymore - back when an American had a cause worth dying for, and a life worth celebrating. It isn’t 1962, when modern conveniences flooded a market controlled by the middle class, eager to see the future unfold before their very eyes as chrome appliances promised utopia and the Jetsons guaranteed flying cars. It’s not 1973 any longer, when a world of social possibilities and the opportunity to shape a nation was open to anyone with a guitar and a thumb to stick out beside the road. 1977 has come and gone, and with it the rage of a generation abandoned by its elders, the children of the upper and lower class rejecting their wealth and heritage to live in squalor with a mohawk, clinging to principles instead of stability. Not even the flannel wearing MTV generation of 1994 still has momentum, as a creative revolution had its soul sucked out by the corporate interests.

MyPod Generation. We will be remembered as the most apathetic and useless generation, bringing shame to the American tradition set forth by the Golden Generation, who fought and died to defeat fascism, and came home to give birth to a new democracy. We are neither Gold nor Silver, not even Bronze. We are not Chrome, nor Tie-Dye, nor Black Leather, nor Flannel.

We’re whatever color Steve Jobs and Tom Anderson tell us to be.