Archive for the ‘Culture’ Category
Saturday Rabidity: Hollywood Really Sucks
A friend of mine shared this video with me and I laughed right out loud. Thing is, this the norm for good web videos these days. While they are basically short, they represent far more creative energy than what comes out of Hollywood these days.
And why is that? In my mind, it has to be the competitive edge that drives the quality bar up. Any more, Hollywood is based on the controls of the Screen Actors Guild and the crazy ad revenue that keeps only a privileged few as the sources of so-called quality entertainment. Meanwhile, those who possess some very creative talent are marginalized.
This article, albeit dated some, illustrates how people seem to be more interested in YouTube than OTA or Cable subscription programming. Forbes also released this article how people are going more and more to Zero TV. I’ve actually been this way for about three years now.
Why? Because there is only so much stupid-crap-drama, reality shows, and zombie/vampire schlock that I can watch before I actually want to read a book…about economy or ancient history, or something.
Boston Bombers are Muslim – Was There Any Real Surprise?
I read a news article this week immediately following the aftermath which pretty much summed it up in one statement:
Please don’t let it be a Muslim (suspect), please don’t let it be a Muslim
It was a Muslim. Actually a pair of them from Chechnya.
I’m not saying all Muslims are terrorists and killers but Islam, as a system of belief, as a collected religion with a history of bloody violence, does not globally push a message of peace.
I do believe that acts like this are done by those in the extreme – by those who don’t represent the general populace of the Islamic community. And some are going to say, “well, what about the right-wing extremists who slaughter abortion doctors”. The thing is, right-wing extremists don’t control the the majority of Christian society or the general populace of the USA. Muslim extremists, however, enjoy near total control of their world religion, including several countries pivotal to the world economy. It’s these same extremists who use their money and influence for violence and hatred – and then they celebrate it.
[I am] happy to see the horror in America…American blood isn’t more precious than Muslim blood…Let the Americans feel the pain we endured by their armies occupying Iraq and Afghanistan and killing our people there.” - Mohammad al-Chalabi, head of an extremist Jordanian Muslim Salafi group
If Muslims don’t want to be viewed as being existential terrorists, then perhaps the rank and file, the everyday Muslims who claim the religion is peaceful and don’t want to be associated with their extremists for fear of being “guilty by association” should actually do something about their extremist problem. Remove them from office, places of power, and silence their hate-filled rhetoric that condemns Islam to their stigma.
Oh, and by the way, perhaps these verses, the words of Mohammad himself, should be either “explained” or “repudiated”. Just sayin’.
Qur’an:9:88 – “The Messenger and those who believe with him, strive hard and fight with their wealth and lives in Allah’s Cause.”
Qur’an:9:5 – “Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war.”
Qur’an:9:112 “The Believers fight in Allah’s Cause, they slay and are slain, kill and are killed.”
Qur’an:9:29 “Fight those who do not believe until they all surrender, paying the protective tax in submission.”
Qur’an:8:39 “Fight them until all opposition ends and all submit to Allah.”
Qur’an:8:39 “So fight them until there is no more Fitnah (disbelief [non-Muslims]) and all submit to the religion of Allah alone (in the whole world).”
Ishaq:587 “Our onslaught will not be a weak faltering affair. We shall fight as long as we live. We will fight until you turn to Islam, humbly seeking refuge. We will fight not caring whom we meet. We will fight whether we destroy ancient holdings or newly gotten gains. We have mutilated every opponent. We have driven them violently before us at the command of Allah and Islam. We will fight until our religion is established. And we will plunder them, for they must suffer disgrace.”
Qur’an:8:65 “O Prophet, urge the faithful to fight. If there are twenty among you with determination they will vanquish two hundred; if there are a hundred then they will slaughter a thousand unbelievers, for the infidels are a people devoid of understanding.”
Qur’an:9:123 “Fight the unbelievers around you, and let them find harshness in you.”
Ishaq:578 “Crushing the heads of the infidels and splitting their skulls with sharp swords, we continually thrust and cut at the enemy. Blood gushed from their deep wounds as the battle wore them down. We conquered bearing the Prophet’s fluttering war banner. Our cavalry was submerged in rising dust, and our spears quivered, but by us the Prophet gained victory.”
It’s Called Personal Faith, Dipstick!
Today is one of those days for me where if I could, I’d throw a very large brick at the offender’s head:
So, the Council for Secular Humanism today decided to chide Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack because he made this statement with respect to this statement:
“I get on my knees every day, and I’m saying an extra prayer now. If I had a rain prayer or a rain dance I could do, I would do it.”
Atheist doofus Tom Flynn, the head (that I want to throw the brick at), showed just how much of a hater he is in that he called Vilsack’s comment “out-of-line”, citing mingling religion with politics, and saying that the statement sends the wrong message to the midwest’s farmers who have been dealing with drought.
Then they took the old Dr. Phil jab saying, “how’s that working out for you”.
The atheist haters out there are quick to attack anyone who decides to show a side of their personal selves through actually living their faith. Vilsack made the statement because, somewhere in his heart, he knows that no matter what the government does, it’s going to take something a little more powerful to bring the rain.
In my experience being raised in the midwest, I know that farmers would rather have rain than government subsidies. And since both are running low these days and God is in the weather-control business, it stands to reason that there’s no harm done to pray. Many of these midwest farmers are also God-fearing, so when they see someone in Washington showing some humanity by praying out to God for rain, that’s not a bad message.
Unless you’re a godless atheist hater.
All throughout our history, we have examples where our country’s leaders have made public appeals to the people to pray. When tragedy struck, such as during 9/11, or during Hurricane Katrina, or most recently, the wildfires in Colorado, what do people do? They begin to seek for spiritual support, even hearing little glimmers in the news from the anchors saying things, “our thoughts and prayers are with…”. It brings comfort and peace in tumultuous times. Prayer softens hearts and allows our inner spirit to flow past all the stupid things that we fight about. It brings a power that no atheist can truly explain, because their self-righteous, indignant, morally-superior attitude can’t see humanity for what it truly is.
Regardless of what system of faith a person leans on for support, it is a touching example of humanity when it shows for people to see, when, in that showing, we see love spring forth.
It’s that kind of support that brought Democrats and Republicans alike to the steps of the Capitol during 9/11. It’s that kind of spirit where a conservative can hand a bottle of water and hygiene supplies to a liberal who just lost her house because of a fire. It’s that kind of support that we need now.
So, Mr. Flynn, you’re the one who is out of line. Dipstick.
Obama Basketballs – I Want One
Call me crazy, but I think one of these basketballs would be a really good thing:
Turns out, over the weekend during the Easter Egg Roll activities at the White House, there was a basketball clinic featuring pro b-ball players. And you know, it can only be an Obama event with something that draws attention to El Presidente’s “awesomeness”.
Gak.
In any case, though, here’s how I think an Obama basketball might be actually a good thing to have:
5. That way, we all can pretend that it’s his head that’s being bounced around – a prospect that would be great stress relief, particularly over the high gas prices, exploding national debt to which Obama promised he wouldn’t add a single dime, and the insanity of bilking millionaires for 30% of their earnings, just because Warren Buffet says so.
4. It would look like just like Obama’s approval rating.
3. It would remind us of how Obama tries to govern, driving down the center, pissing everyone off. (hat tip: Letterman)
2. It reminds us of the classic excuse for why the Utah Jazz, Orlando Magic, or the Phoenix Suns never won an NBA title, a team in “transition”. I say transitioning from bad to worse.
1. It would make a video like this, which one would think couldn’t get any funnier, hysterical:
Stay rabid, my friends.
Middle East Peace: It Evaded Einstein
This week, the complete archives of Professor Albert Einstein are going online – something that should make for some interest for the new generation who has hair wilder than his, but I digress.
One thing that did surface that was of particular interest was that it was noted that Professor Einstein couldn’t even come to a solution on how to have peace in the Middle East. He had quite a bit of thought on the topic, but for some reason, just couldn’t figure out a way to make the Arabs, Jews, Christians, and the rest of the heathen play together in the same sandbox without kicking each other’s sand castle down in honor of their religion.
Interestingly, Benjamin Netanyahu’s IQ is estimated to be around 180, making the Israeli leader smarter than the man equated to have super-genius. Einstein’s IQ is rated at about 160. I guess with one of the smartest men in the political world currently sitting in the Middle East and debating the very thing that Einstein couldn’t figure out, I guess we should be expecting great things…?
Nah. Won’t happen – because the problem is not one of academics, but intolerant ideology – something that doesn’t require high intelligence to have.
At Least Elle Admits It
Howard Stern interviewed Elle MacPherson, recently on his show (if you call that mess a “show” and not an exhibit to debauchery, but once in a while (a great while), we see something interesting.
HOWARD STERN: Who should be the next President of the United States Elle MacPherson, go ahead.
ELLE MACPHERSON: I think Obama’s going to do it.
STERN: You like Obama?
MACPHERSON: Yeah, I’m living in London and I’m socialist. What do you expect?
STERN: And you’re living in London and you sense what other foreigners feel. Do they like him?
MACPHERSON: I think foreigners like him. He’s very popular.
STERN: Don’t we look good having a black president and everything? Makes us kind of cool.
MACPHERSON: I think it’s more about his policy. But you know there are I understand that there are a lot of people who don’t, you know, don’t want change. “We want change. We want change.” And he says, “I’ll implement change,” and you go, “Oh, actually, I don’t bleeping feel like I want change. It’s too difficult.”
Now, I’m not all that amazed that MacPherson calls herself a socialist; that doesn’t bother me in the slightest. All looks and no brain, well, that’s the standard fare for a supermodel, methinks. But what’s funny is that she likes Obama because she’s a socialist, yet, Obama doesn’t believe himself to be a socialist.
Plenty of times throughout his early presidency, Obama has deflected claims that he is a socialist or that his policies are “socialistic”. Yet, when we look at some of his policies, he continuously defers to increasing the size and scope of government because he doesn’t believe in the power of the individual. His arrogance simply tells him that raising taxes on the rich, taking more and more from people (and particularly, the rich) to allow more and more to hook up to the government spigot. Or do we need yet another review of ObamaCare, Cash for Clunkers, and his current tax plan?
So Obama is not a socialist; he just advocates for things that socialists, like Elle MacPherson, the Occupy crowd (which is raising it’s ugly head again, now that the weather is getting warm) and people like Hugo Chavez really like. Never mind the comments about “spreading the wealth” around, or some of those lofty comments about how we all have to “work together for our collective salvation”. Obama isn’t a socialist…
…but Elle likes him anyway.
Someone’s drinking something…with a little more kick than Kool-Aid.
Encyclopedia Britannica – They Had a Good Run
Well, after 244 years, just four years shy of the amount of time it takes for Pluto to complete a solar orbit, the Encyclopedia Britannica is calling it quits to the dead-tree print versions that have been placed on bookshelves in just about every library known to man. I guess the question of note is whether this is a good thing or not.
Sure, we are amassing more information today through digital and online means than we have ever before. And while Britannica will still live on as a digital version, one wonders if its end is an end to a way that many kids discovered the world around them.
Turns out, I grew up reading encyclopedias. I was rather bored with television for the most part, so I passed many hours with an encyclopedia in my lap, reading the articles and leapfrogging from one article to the next. From lightbulbs to Otto Lillienthal, Constitution to coral, Tchaikovsky to turtles (not the ninja ones either), I filled my mind with short articles of things, using the pre-cable version of the Discovery channel. I often miss those days, even though the encyclopedia that I read in my youth was a 1969 version – and I’m an 80′s child.
Yeah, I know the pragmatic reason for this move – we live in a world today where it only takes about one minute for a bit of news occurring in Belarus to be on the boards in Boston. A riot breaks out in Cairo and Chicago can get near real-time coverage of the event. But I kind of wonder if we’re losing something with all of this.
I’ve watched newspapers shrink and diminish into nothing because the news that I want to read is more readily available through an aggregation web site (which Germany for some obscure reason wants to tax) than it is through my local print paper. Interestingly, the paper boy tried to sell me a subscription to the paper based on the merits of all the circulars and coupons I could get. Yet, I told him that I can do better shopping online too. Sorry kid.
In any case, I’m not so overly sure why I felt the need to write this article, it’s not of the usual fare that we get around here at The Rabid Conservative, but I guess it just illustrates
More on the downside, Britannica won’t deliver a paper version of the article that details the end of Obama’s presidency. You know, I could read that article over and over and over again.
I guess I’ll just have to get that online too.
Stay rabid, my friends.
