"You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them…And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.
And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."- Sen. Obama
Response from Steve Schmidt, McCain adviser:
“It shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking,” Schmidt said. “It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans.”
Yup, that's right. Any suggestion that there could possibly be anything wrong with the precious snowflake culture that is the AMERICAN HEARTLAND is "elitism."
The "average American" comment is especially rich. The fact that small-town Americans can possibly still imagine themselves to be America Incarnate after a century of rural flight is a testament to the power of human delusion. We are an empire of three hundred million people, hundreds of intermixed ethnic groups, dozens of finely delineated and contradictory economic castes, and innumerable shades of different religious beliefs, hobbies, tastes in art or music, understandings of the world, etc.
If there was ever any such thing as an average American, those days are long dead. Residents of south Chicago have just as much of a right to declare themselves "average Americans" as the Wahoo homecoming queen, and though
the right is rather overt in it's opinion that the inner-city poor are an aberration from the "real America" (Never mind that they outnumber the small-town snowflakes.) far be it for me to suggest that they are racist, or even "elitist"
for doing so.
Just willfully blind is all.
For a good time, read the comments at righty blog Hot Air:
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/04/11/obama-on-small-town-voters-bitter-xenophobic-religious/
Dé Sathairn, Aibreán 12, 2008
Déardaoin, Aibreán 10, 2008
Virgin Martyr Rollcall
St Lucy:
Born: Doesn't matter
Died: 304 AD
"Hereupon our saint disclosed to her mother her desire of devoting herself to God in a state of perpetual virginity, and of bestowing her fortune on the poor: and Eutychia, in gratitude, left her at full liberty to pursue her pious inclinations. The young nobleman, with whom the mother had treated about marrying her, came to understand this by the sale of her jewels and goods, and the distribution of the price among the poor, and in his rage accused her before the governor Paschasius as a Christian, the persecution of Diocletian then raging with the utmost fury. The judge commanded the holy virgin to be exposed to prostitution in a brothel" house; but God rendered her immovable, so that the guards were not able to carry her thither. He also made her an over-match for the cruelty of the persecutors, in overcoming fire and other torments. After a long and glorious combat she died in prison of the wounds she had received,—about the year 304. She was honoured at Rome in the sixth century among the most illustrious virgins and martyrs, whose triumphs the church celebrates,"
St Agatha
Born: It doesn't fucking matter
Died: About 251 AD
"According to these Acts, the Praetor of Sicily, Quintianus, conceived a passion for Agatha, who was of noble birth and great beauty. And when he could not make her consent to his wicked desires, he had her arrested as a Christian and turned her over to an evil woman, named Aphrodisia, to be corrupted. Of such methods of breaking down Christian hardihood, Tertullian wrote to pagans: Ye, by condemning the Christian maid to the lewd youth, rather than to the brute lion, do acknowledge that we more dread a stain to purity than any torment or death; but your cruel cunning availeth only to gain men over to our holy religion.
But the companionship of Aphrodisia in the brothel made Agatha only the more determined to live faithful to Christ. So the Praetor ordered her brought before him that he might try to turn her from Christian living, which he declared to be fit only for slaves. Then the Praetor gave her the choice of sacrificing to the gods or undergoing torture. And when beatings, the rack and branding with white-hot metal failed to shake her constancy to Christ, he ordered her breasts cut off. Whereat Agatha cried out and said that he who had suckled at a mother's breasts should feel shame to order such cruel indignity done to a woman. But that night, after she had been returned in irons and pain to prison, the Apostle Peter appeared to her and healed her wounds.
The following day she was subjected to new tortures. But an earthquake from Mount Etna, shook the town and terrified the people. Whereupon the Praetor, fearing a riot, ordered Agatha to be returned quietly to prison. And there, in the town of Catania, she died at peace, in prayer, on February 5th, and her body was taken and buried by Christians."
swikner.blogspot.com/2007/02/st-agatha.html
St Agnes
Died: About 303
"Agnes, whose name means “chaste” in Greek, was a beautiful young girl of wealthy family and therefore had many suitors of high rank. Details of her story are unreliable, but legend holds that the young men, slighted by Agnes' resolute devotion to religious purity, submitted her name to the authorities as a follower of Christianity.
The governor, following an edict against Christians issued in 303 by the Roman emperor Diocletian, threatened the young girl with torture. The threats did not intimidate the steadfast Agnes , however, and the enraged official sent her to a house of prostitution. Approaching her, the brothel's patrons would be seized with such awe at the holy sight of the girl that they could not touch her. One brazen young man remained undeterred, but as he neared her he was struck blind and fell to the ground; Agnes later restored his sight with prayer.
The governor, incensed by her youthful defiance, sentenced Agnes to an untimely death. It is not known whether the execution was by beheading or by the piercing of the throat, but the story tells of her ready submission to the sentence by offering herself to receive the death blow. According to St. Ambrose, one of her chroniclers, she “went to the place of execution more cheerfully than others go to their wedding.”
www.stagnes.cc/.../Main%20Links/St.%20Agnes.htm
St Marciana
Died: "End of the third Century"
Entering the city by the Tipasia door, Marciana saw a marble statue of the goddess Diana in the middle of a square. At its feet flowed clear waters in a pool also made of marble. The brave virgin could not bear the sight of that impure idol. She stepped forward and threw the idol from its base, broke its head and smashed the entire statue into pieces.
A furious mob dragged her to the Pretorium before an imperial magistrate. The Christian virgin laughed at the stone and wood gods, and glorified the true God she adored. In loud, eloquent words, she praised Him there in the Pretorium. The pagan judge handed her over to the gladiators to be infamously abused at their pleasure. Marciana remained fearless and serene. For three hours the gladiators were rendered immobile by an unknown terror, and were unable to touch the virgin. Through her prayers one of them converted and professed Jesus Christ as the true God.
Confused by this development of events, the judge remained firm in his hatred. Unable to dishonor the virgin, he condemned her to be torn to pieces by wild beasts. When the hour arrived, she entered the arena as to a joyful feast, giving praise and thanks to Jesus Christ. She was tied to a stake and a lion was set upon her. The beast, however, approached her, touched her breast with its claws, and then retired as though moved by a stronger force.
St. Marciana was not harmed by the lion in the arena
In admiration, the populace called out loudly demanding that she be set free. But a group of Jews who were part of the multitude, always thirsty for Christian blood, changed the mood of the crowd by calling for a wild bull. The beast gored the breast of Marciana opening a terrible wound. The blood poured out and St. Marciana fell to the sand in agony. Servants removed her from the arena, stopped the hemorrhaging, and nurtured what little life remained to her.
The judge, however, called for her to be tied to the stake again. She raised her eyes to Heaven, a smile illuminating her face marked by suffering, and spoke her last words:
O Christ, I adore and love Thee. Thou wert with me in the prison and kept me pure. Now Thou dost call me – O my Divine Master – and I go happily to Thee. Receive my soul.
After she spoke these words, a ferocious leopard tore her apart, opening the road of Heaven to her
www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j209sd_Marciana...
Born: Doesn't matter
Died: 304 AD
"Hereupon our saint disclosed to her mother her desire of devoting herself to God in a state of perpetual virginity, and of bestowing her fortune on the poor: and Eutychia, in gratitude, left her at full liberty to pursue her pious inclinations. The young nobleman, with whom the mother had treated about marrying her, came to understand this by the sale of her jewels and goods, and the distribution of the price among the poor, and in his rage accused her before the governor Paschasius as a Christian, the persecution of Diocletian then raging with the utmost fury. The judge commanded the holy virgin to be exposed to prostitution in a brothel" house; but God rendered her immovable, so that the guards were not able to carry her thither. He also made her an over-match for the cruelty of the persecutors, in overcoming fire and other torments. After a long and glorious combat she died in prison of the wounds she had received,—about the year 304. She was honoured at Rome in the sixth century among the most illustrious virgins and martyrs, whose triumphs the church celebrates,"
St Agatha
Born: It doesn't fucking matter
Died: About 251 AD
"According to these Acts, the Praetor of Sicily, Quintianus, conceived a passion for Agatha, who was of noble birth and great beauty. And when he could not make her consent to his wicked desires, he had her arrested as a Christian and turned her over to an evil woman, named Aphrodisia, to be corrupted. Of such methods of breaking down Christian hardihood, Tertullian wrote to pagans: Ye, by condemning the Christian maid to the lewd youth, rather than to the brute lion, do acknowledge that we more dread a stain to purity than any torment or death; but your cruel cunning availeth only to gain men over to our holy religion.
But the companionship of Aphrodisia in the brothel made Agatha only the more determined to live faithful to Christ. So the Praetor ordered her brought before him that he might try to turn her from Christian living, which he declared to be fit only for slaves. Then the Praetor gave her the choice of sacrificing to the gods or undergoing torture. And when beatings, the rack and branding with white-hot metal failed to shake her constancy to Christ, he ordered her breasts cut off. Whereat Agatha cried out and said that he who had suckled at a mother's breasts should feel shame to order such cruel indignity done to a woman. But that night, after she had been returned in irons and pain to prison, the Apostle Peter appeared to her and healed her wounds.
The following day she was subjected to new tortures. But an earthquake from Mount Etna, shook the town and terrified the people. Whereupon the Praetor, fearing a riot, ordered Agatha to be returned quietly to prison. And there, in the town of Catania, she died at peace, in prayer, on February 5th, and her body was taken and buried by Christians."
swikner.blogspot.com/2007/02/st-agatha.html
St Agnes
Died: About 303
"Agnes, whose name means “chaste” in Greek, was a beautiful young girl of wealthy family and therefore had many suitors of high rank. Details of her story are unreliable, but legend holds that the young men, slighted by Agnes' resolute devotion to religious purity, submitted her name to the authorities as a follower of Christianity.
The governor, following an edict against Christians issued in 303 by the Roman emperor Diocletian, threatened the young girl with torture. The threats did not intimidate the steadfast Agnes , however, and the enraged official sent her to a house of prostitution. Approaching her, the brothel's patrons would be seized with such awe at the holy sight of the girl that they could not touch her. One brazen young man remained undeterred, but as he neared her he was struck blind and fell to the ground; Agnes later restored his sight with prayer.
The governor, incensed by her youthful defiance, sentenced Agnes to an untimely death. It is not known whether the execution was by beheading or by the piercing of the throat, but the story tells of her ready submission to the sentence by offering herself to receive the death blow. According to St. Ambrose, one of her chroniclers, she “went to the place of execution more cheerfully than others go to their wedding.”
www.stagnes.cc/.../Main%20Links/St.%20Agnes.htm
St Marciana
Died: "End of the third Century"
Entering the city by the Tipasia door, Marciana saw a marble statue of the goddess Diana in the middle of a square. At its feet flowed clear waters in a pool also made of marble. The brave virgin could not bear the sight of that impure idol. She stepped forward and threw the idol from its base, broke its head and smashed the entire statue into pieces.
A furious mob dragged her to the Pretorium before an imperial magistrate. The Christian virgin laughed at the stone and wood gods, and glorified the true God she adored. In loud, eloquent words, she praised Him there in the Pretorium. The pagan judge handed her over to the gladiators to be infamously abused at their pleasure. Marciana remained fearless and serene. For three hours the gladiators were rendered immobile by an unknown terror, and were unable to touch the virgin. Through her prayers one of them converted and professed Jesus Christ as the true God.
Confused by this development of events, the judge remained firm in his hatred. Unable to dishonor the virgin, he condemned her to be torn to pieces by wild beasts. When the hour arrived, she entered the arena as to a joyful feast, giving praise and thanks to Jesus Christ. She was tied to a stake and a lion was set upon her. The beast, however, approached her, touched her breast with its claws, and then retired as though moved by a stronger force.
St. Marciana was not harmed by the lion in the arena
In admiration, the populace called out loudly demanding that she be set free. But a group of Jews who were part of the multitude, always thirsty for Christian blood, changed the mood of the crowd by calling for a wild bull. The beast gored the breast of Marciana opening a terrible wound. The blood poured out and St. Marciana fell to the sand in agony. Servants removed her from the arena, stopped the hemorrhaging, and nurtured what little life remained to her.
The judge, however, called for her to be tied to the stake again. She raised her eyes to Heaven, a smile illuminating her face marked by suffering, and spoke her last words:
O Christ, I adore and love Thee. Thou wert with me in the prison and kept me pure. Now Thou dost call me – O my Divine Master – and I go happily to Thee. Receive my soul.
After she spoke these words, a ferocious leopard tore her apart, opening the road of Heaven to her
www.traditioninaction.org/SOD/j209sd_Marciana...
Dé Céadaoin, Aibreán 09, 2008
The Miracle of Life
We watched this sex-ed documentary in my eleventh grade biology class, if I remember right the title wasn't exactly "The Miracle of Life" but something similar; complete with vaginal-wall cam and uterovision. Perfectly graphic, nothing obscured or faded out. You may be surprised to learn a Catholic school would subject its students to extreme close-up views of a thrusting penis or the army of spermatozoa battling their way through the dead ends and black holes of the lady.
But it was quite deviously brilliant, if you think about it. It is impossible to watch this film and be filled with anything but loathing for sex and reproduction. I'm thinking especially of the aforementioned vaginal-wall cam and thrusting penis. My God; the sight of that mushroomhead suddenly appearing and hurling itself towards you; until your entire line of vision is enveloped by head-of-dick, and every pore and dent of head-of-dick can be seen perfectly by your Gulliveresque microbe eyes.
And then comes the orgasm, which is actually very comforting by comparison, soothing in the matter of mixing a cup of hot tea or staring into a lava-lamp after a six-day coke party, you see the blending of these contrasting fluids and think that perhaps there really is something beautiful about this union between the sexes.
But then comes the malignant-tumor zygote, followed by the hellish superterrestrial demon fetus, and the birth.
The birth.
You speak of the miracle and beauty of life. I don't believe that you've ever had the pleasure of seeing placental matter ejected from a nine-inch-wide vagina.
Perhaps if it were my own wife birthing my own child, I would learn to find this sudden vomiting of bloody flesh to be something more than horrifying. But I really don't think so; I mean, I really don't think so.
My ancestral faith teaches me that sex is a filthy and shameful thing; and in fact this is not completely untrue. The main problem with this idea is its narrowness; its failure to follow its own logical thread to where it must go. Because the fact is that all biological processes are profoundly disgusting. We bury our dead because if we left them out to rot it would remind us that we are all pollutants. Nothing but water degraded with nitrogen and carbon and cadmium and phosphorus and arsenic and lithium and every variety of comic book supervillain shit that makes a nuclear reactor seem pristine by comparison.
Universal sterility; the extinction of the human race after my generation, why not?
You may speak of biological imperatives, but you know as well as I do that there's no such God damned thing. Life on earth is nothing but a funny quirk of chemistry; coming from nothing and leading to nothing. Reproduce, and in five generations your genetic input will be statistically irrelevant. Fathers be good to your daughters.
The extinction of the human race, why not? It is highly doubtful that we're ever going to be any smarter than we are now, and we're certainly never going to get any cleaner, do you really want to subject future generations to eighty years of wondering around and feeling so damned silly?
But it was quite deviously brilliant, if you think about it. It is impossible to watch this film and be filled with anything but loathing for sex and reproduction. I'm thinking especially of the aforementioned vaginal-wall cam and thrusting penis. My God; the sight of that mushroomhead suddenly appearing and hurling itself towards you; until your entire line of vision is enveloped by head-of-dick, and every pore and dent of head-of-dick can be seen perfectly by your Gulliveresque microbe eyes.
And then comes the orgasm, which is actually very comforting by comparison, soothing in the matter of mixing a cup of hot tea or staring into a lava-lamp after a six-day coke party, you see the blending of these contrasting fluids and think that perhaps there really is something beautiful about this union between the sexes.
But then comes the malignant-tumor zygote, followed by the hellish superterrestrial demon fetus, and the birth.
The birth.
You speak of the miracle and beauty of life. I don't believe that you've ever had the pleasure of seeing placental matter ejected from a nine-inch-wide vagina.
Perhaps if it were my own wife birthing my own child, I would learn to find this sudden vomiting of bloody flesh to be something more than horrifying. But I really don't think so; I mean, I really don't think so.
My ancestral faith teaches me that sex is a filthy and shameful thing; and in fact this is not completely untrue. The main problem with this idea is its narrowness; its failure to follow its own logical thread to where it must go. Because the fact is that all biological processes are profoundly disgusting. We bury our dead because if we left them out to rot it would remind us that we are all pollutants. Nothing but water degraded with nitrogen and carbon and cadmium and phosphorus and arsenic and lithium and every variety of comic book supervillain shit that makes a nuclear reactor seem pristine by comparison.
Universal sterility; the extinction of the human race after my generation, why not?
You may speak of biological imperatives, but you know as well as I do that there's no such God damned thing. Life on earth is nothing but a funny quirk of chemistry; coming from nothing and leading to nothing. Reproduce, and in five generations your genetic input will be statistically irrelevant. Fathers be good to your daughters.
The extinction of the human race, why not? It is highly doubtful that we're ever going to be any smarter than we are now, and we're certainly never going to get any cleaner, do you really want to subject future generations to eighty years of wondering around and feeling so damned silly?
Dé Luain, Aibreán 07, 2008
Kansas
Dé hAoine, Aibreán 04, 2008
Dé Sathairn, Márta 29, 2008
Chicago A
I had been drinking some the night that my train was due to leave; it was Spring Break and Lincoln was cold and quiet. I went home at one in the morning and ate leftover Dominoes for dinner. I had run out of groceries the day before and didin't feel like grocery shopping for two days worth of food; though I'm sure the cheap frozen processed shit I like to buy would have kept for the four days that I was gone. I showered, packed my briefcase with five sweaters, five pears of pants and underwear, toothpaste/brush, deodorant, astringent. I filled my backpack with Jane Smiley's "A Thousand Acres", a notebook, and the Sunday Times, and was out of my apartment at 2:45 for what was supposed to be a four a.m. train.
It was cold and damp and while not quite foggy the air was certainly hanging low. My van was the only sign of life on the drive to the Haymarket where sits the Amtrack "station".
Those who worry about federal tax dollars going down the drain for Amtrak should rest easy. It's hard to see where any money is actually being spent. Beyond the coasts, where large cities are packed in close to each other and maintaining the ludicrous ideal that the automobile is the horse of the modern knight is more of a headache than it's worth for many people, the Amtrak service is notoriously shitty. Cities like Salt Lake, Denver (Lincoln and Omaha) get only one train going east and one train going west per day, the California Zephyr, stopping in all of these places at odd inconvenient hours. If you take this as a sign that Amtrak money is going to waste instead of a sign that there is hardly any money involved to waste, well different minds work in different ways.
I arrived at the station and bought my ticket at three for a train I was now told would arrive at six, and then six thirty. I walked outside, realized that the nearest place to get coffee at this hour was eight blocks away, and stood dumbly for awhile, I was starting to feel quite drowsy but would have had to have been much more so to sleep on the narrow thin-padded chairs in the Amtrak waiting room. The thick air was carrying some kind of terrible smell from either the countryside to the west or the standing snowmelt in the Salt Creek floodplain. I eventually went back in and got a Mountain Dew from the vending machine, than I sat down with my Smiley book.
There was this hippy girl down the row from me, an honest to-God hippy girl with leisure hat and body-length walking stick with meaningless symbols carved onto it. She was talking to this long haired-fellow, Lincolnites may recognize him, shoulder-length hair with specks of gray and bifocals, portly, looks something like I might look like in ten years if I don't take care of myself/current trends continue. He was apparently an old pro at riding the train and was talking to the girl about the in's and outs of security, particularly how security guards usually didn't show up on the trains until at least the outer suburbs of Chicago and yeah that's where the people are and you have to protect the big cities but do we not count? I mean is that what you're saying? He told her that he was a power crystal connoisseur and that his biggest reason for travelling from place to place was to attend power crystal conventions.
And than we waited, a black man came in with his luggage in a garbage sack, and than we waited some more. The train came at 6:40 and I a group of five of us got on board and I sat in the seat behind the black guy.
It was cold and damp and while not quite foggy the air was certainly hanging low. My van was the only sign of life on the drive to the Haymarket where sits the Amtrack "station".
Those who worry about federal tax dollars going down the drain for Amtrak should rest easy. It's hard to see where any money is actually being spent. Beyond the coasts, where large cities are packed in close to each other and maintaining the ludicrous ideal that the automobile is the horse of the modern knight is more of a headache than it's worth for many people, the Amtrak service is notoriously shitty. Cities like Salt Lake, Denver (Lincoln and Omaha) get only one train going east and one train going west per day, the California Zephyr, stopping in all of these places at odd inconvenient hours. If you take this as a sign that Amtrak money is going to waste instead of a sign that there is hardly any money involved to waste, well different minds work in different ways.
I arrived at the station and bought my ticket at three for a train I was now told would arrive at six, and then six thirty. I walked outside, realized that the nearest place to get coffee at this hour was eight blocks away, and stood dumbly for awhile, I was starting to feel quite drowsy but would have had to have been much more so to sleep on the narrow thin-padded chairs in the Amtrak waiting room. The thick air was carrying some kind of terrible smell from either the countryside to the west or the standing snowmelt in the Salt Creek floodplain. I eventually went back in and got a Mountain Dew from the vending machine, than I sat down with my Smiley book.
There was this hippy girl down the row from me, an honest to-God hippy girl with leisure hat and body-length walking stick with meaningless symbols carved onto it. She was talking to this long haired-fellow, Lincolnites may recognize him, shoulder-length hair with specks of gray and bifocals, portly, looks something like I might look like in ten years if I don't take care of myself/current trends continue. He was apparently an old pro at riding the train and was talking to the girl about the in's and outs of security, particularly how security guards usually didn't show up on the trains until at least the outer suburbs of Chicago and yeah that's where the people are and you have to protect the big cities but do we not count? I mean is that what you're saying? He told her that he was a power crystal connoisseur and that his biggest reason for travelling from place to place was to attend power crystal conventions.
And than we waited, a black man came in with his luggage in a garbage sack, and than we waited some more. The train came at 6:40 and I a group of five of us got on board and I sat in the seat behind the black guy.
Dé Domhnaigh, Márta 23, 2008
God Bless the Children of Omaha
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Severed bunny head Christ, one of many Jesus/Easter Bunny combination
and God bless you, World-Herald, for your complete obtuseness towards the absurd.
Dé hAoine, Márta 21, 2008
Am I Missing Something Here?
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MmY3MzNiNzVkZjUzYjQ1MzdiZTFjMTI1YjQxZDhmZjY=
My grandmother always cooks ham on Easter. (No mom I'm not coming home for Easter. Three months is not a remotely long time to go without seeing me. Why do you bring that up mom? The truth is that I wouldn't tell you if I was seeing someone nor would I tell you if I were engaged for that matter)
Anyways where was I? Ah yes, am I missing something here? Because my grandmother always cooks ham for Easter dinner, and I always thought that there was no universally recognized traditional Easter meat on the level of the Thanksgiving turkey. I knew that some people did have lamb for Easter but I never thought that this was any more significant than total strangers eating KFC on any given night.
My point is that I never associated lamb with Easter; never saw lamb meat as inherently Easterish. There may or may not be someone I know who considers a lamb meal to be central to their own Easter tradition; but if there is it has never come up in conversation, and if it came up in conversation I would wonder why they were bothering me with such trifle.
So here we have this woman complaining about a lamb-based meal in some mail order cooking catalog complaining about a lamb-based meal being described as a "spring dinner" instead of an "Easter dinner." Well.
If it were true that lamb was widely associated with the Christian holiday of Easter (and again, I could be wrong here, but I really don't think it is.) what then? Isn't Christianity in general, and Catholicism in particular, already fucked up enough without eating a literal sacrificial lamb to commemorate THE LAMB?
The fact of the matter is that early spring is the time for killing and cooking lambs in all cultures; I know that lamb is a centerpiece of the Sader, for example.
Has this woman not noticed that the major Christian holidays, just like the major holidays in most religions, just happens to coincide with the changing of the seasons?
Is this something that I'm not supposed to notice? Does it make me a bad person?
My grandmother always cooks ham on Easter. (No mom I'm not coming home for Easter. Three months is not a remotely long time to go without seeing me. Why do you bring that up mom? The truth is that I wouldn't tell you if I was seeing someone nor would I tell you if I were engaged for that matter)
Anyways where was I? Ah yes, am I missing something here? Because my grandmother always cooks ham for Easter dinner, and I always thought that there was no universally recognized traditional Easter meat on the level of the Thanksgiving turkey. I knew that some people did have lamb for Easter but I never thought that this was any more significant than total strangers eating KFC on any given night.
My point is that I never associated lamb with Easter; never saw lamb meat as inherently Easterish. There may or may not be someone I know who considers a lamb meal to be central to their own Easter tradition; but if there is it has never come up in conversation, and if it came up in conversation I would wonder why they were bothering me with such trifle.
So here we have this woman complaining about a lamb-based meal in some mail order cooking catalog complaining about a lamb-based meal being described as a "spring dinner" instead of an "Easter dinner." Well.
If it were true that lamb was widely associated with the Christian holiday of Easter (and again, I could be wrong here, but I really don't think it is.) what then? Isn't Christianity in general, and Catholicism in particular, already fucked up enough without eating a literal sacrificial lamb to commemorate THE LAMB?
The fact of the matter is that early spring is the time for killing and cooking lambs in all cultures; I know that lamb is a centerpiece of the Sader, for example.
Has this woman not noticed that the major Christian holidays, just like the major holidays in most religions, just happens to coincide with the changing of the seasons?
Is this something that I'm not supposed to notice? Does it make me a bad person?
Never Forget!!!
Dé Domhnaigh, Márta 16, 2008
A Black Man Rocking Out to The Eagles

Was observed by this reporter on Thursday afternoon between 14 and 15th along Q Street in Lincoln Nebraska.
I don't know if he was listening to some classic rock station or if he had actually purchased an Eagles CD.
It's terribly sad all the same, because I sincerely believed that there were no black people who liked the Eagles, and had considered the Coen brothers to be creative geniuses chiefly for imagining such an impossible scenario.
Dé Máirt, Márta 11, 2008
Sally Kearns
My favorite part of her rant is when she says that homosexuals have "infiltrated" city councils. As an English major, I must point out that "infiltration" implies some manner of sneakiness or subterfuge, and unless the city councils of Pittsburgh or West Palm Beach have Republican majorities, I doubt very much that they are controlled by secret homosexuals.
Do "homosexual controlled" city councils all dress up in pink polyester shirts for their meetings and demand that good Christians serve them strawberry margaritas on their knees on pain of death? Are certain "chosen" children decked out like bear daddies and placed in elevated social positions amongst their peers?
"You know Eureka Springs, with the Passion play, someone told me their city council has been taken over by homosexuals."
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPB7bTdz2xQ&feature=related"
Do "homosexual controlled" city councils all dress up in pink polyester shirts for their meetings and demand that good Christians serve them strawberry margaritas on their knees on pain of death? Are certain "chosen" children decked out like bear daddies and placed in elevated social positions amongst their peers?
"You know Eureka Springs, with the Passion play, someone told me their city council has been taken over by homosexuals."
"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPB7bTdz2xQ&feature=related"
Déardaoin, Márta 06, 2008
Getting to Know You
Déardaoin, Feabhra 28, 2008
William F. Buckley
"William Francis Buckley was born in Manhattan on Nov. 24, 1925, the sixth of the 10 children of Aloise Steiner Buckley and William Frank Buckley. His parents had intended to name him after his father, but the priest who christened him insisted on a saint’s name, so Francis was chosen." From today's NY times.
Yup, that's right, Buckley's parents were good Catholics who LET THEIR PRIEST TELL THEM WHAT TO NAME THEIR OWN FUCKING SON.
It does reveal quite a hell of a lot, doesn't it? I mean here we have a boy who could have accepted the fact that he was spawned from voluntary slaves; or he could have spent his life trying to destroy that portion of society which doesn't live on its knees.
And no good Catholic boy goes against his parents.
Fuck the church.
What was I talking about?
Yup, that's right, Buckley's parents were good Catholics who LET THEIR PRIEST TELL THEM WHAT TO NAME THEIR OWN FUCKING SON.
It does reveal quite a hell of a lot, doesn't it? I mean here we have a boy who could have accepted the fact that he was spawned from voluntary slaves; or he could have spent his life trying to destroy that portion of society which doesn't live on its knees.
And no good Catholic boy goes against his parents.
Fuck the church.
What was I talking about?
English Lesson of the Day
"Mad as a March Hare", a phrase common in the early 20th century in reference to one who is particularly eccentric or unstable, refers to the Southwestern Desert March Hare, known for its tendency to drink twice its weight in fortified wine, call its ex-girlfriend to blame her for its personal failures, and threaten suicide if she doesn't come back.
Dé Luain, Feabhra 25, 2008
Boy Scouts
I've been thinking of the Boy Scouts refusal to allow homosexuals in their ranks lately. I'm not sure why, but I think it's the similarity to Catholicism, the inherent contradiction of an institution that is both authoritarian and homophobic.
Because look, I know I'm beating a Mr. Heartland horse here, but if you think that respect for authority and reverence for tradition are good and necessary things that must be taught to children; you're probably gay. One cannot love a great father without, at some point in life, having loved a big daddy.
Robert-Baden Powell, the British war hero who founded the Scouts, was known to take photos of his early charges while they swam in the nude. When he was 55 he married a girl of 23 named Olive St. Clair Soames who kept her hair short and enjoyed wearing military-style uniforms. The psychological pain Powell suffered as a result of their close-eyed, as-many-clothes-kept-on-as-possible sex caused him serious health problems until the couple had produced sufficient heirs and he was able to take a separate bedroom.
I just thought I'd mention.
There's a movement about to legally force the Boy Scouts to accept homosexuals, and while this is well-meaning, the fact is that sexual repression and denial are the essential pillars of scouting and that the organization would cease to be without them.
So no, I can't support the movement to integrate the Scouts. What I will do is strongly advise you against signing your children on to this cute little fascist dress-up game and promise myself that no theoretical child of mine will ever be a poor deluded Boy Scout.
I'd rather see my son as an alter boy. At least then he can get raped indoors, with running water and all of the comforts of modern civilization.
Because look, I know I'm beating a Mr. Heartland horse here, but if you think that respect for authority and reverence for tradition are good and necessary things that must be taught to children; you're probably gay. One cannot love a great father without, at some point in life, having loved a big daddy.
Robert-Baden Powell, the British war hero who founded the Scouts, was known to take photos of his early charges while they swam in the nude. When he was 55 he married a girl of 23 named Olive St. Clair Soames who kept her hair short and enjoyed wearing military-style uniforms. The psychological pain Powell suffered as a result of their close-eyed, as-many-clothes-kept-on-as-possible sex caused him serious health problems until the couple had produced sufficient heirs and he was able to take a separate bedroom.
I just thought I'd mention.
There's a movement about to legally force the Boy Scouts to accept homosexuals, and while this is well-meaning, the fact is that sexual repression and denial are the essential pillars of scouting and that the organization would cease to be without them.
So no, I can't support the movement to integrate the Scouts. What I will do is strongly advise you against signing your children on to this cute little fascist dress-up game and promise myself that no theoretical child of mine will ever be a poor deluded Boy Scout.
I'd rather see my son as an alter boy. At least then he can get raped indoors, with running water and all of the comforts of modern civilization.
Déardaoin, Feabhra 21, 2008
I had a Friend Once
Who insisted that Steve Winwood's "Give me Some Lovin" was about running a drug house based on the lines "but you better take it easy/this place is hot."
He's in the pen now.
He's in the pen now.
Dé Céadaoin, Feabhra 20, 2008
Some Quick thoughts on Mrs. Obama
I myself am not proud of America. For this I make no apologies. I have the same instinctive love for my home that everyone else has but I feel no need to sanctify it. We do not love our country because we believe it is good any more than we love our families because we believe it is good. We love these things because we love ourselves, that is all. There is no nobility to it nor is there any need for nobility. I believe that I have some moral obligation to leave the society I was born into better off when I leave it, but I firmly disagree with the idea that it is necessary for me to believe that I am working on behalf of an inherently good society in order to inspire myself to do so.
Let's be very clear. Those who believe that pride is inherently good are moral cowards and emotional weaklings. If you are unable to act for the common good without the stimulant of pride, that is your problem. Do not assume that the rest of humanity shares it.
The talk-radio knuckleheads are of course taking Michelle Obnama's quote and running with it. Hannity, O'Reilly, and et. al. will usually take a minute to say of course this country isn't perfect but.... and than the predictible claptrap about how it is impossible to criticize society without directly insulting each individual therein, (Especially, of course, the respectible, mainstream families of America's suburbs.) and how a failure to take pride in the nation is to reject the polio vaccine, the defeat of Hitler, the moon landing, the internet, the fall of the Berlin wall, etc.
Pride has never been the solution to any problem, and never will be. The only way problems get solved is to focus on what is wrong with us, to embrace the muck in utter defiance of that old closeted psychopath Teddy Roosevelt.
I'm Josh Beran. I am not proud to be an American, and you all can eat my dick.
Let's be very clear. Those who believe that pride is inherently good are moral cowards and emotional weaklings. If you are unable to act for the common good without the stimulant of pride, that is your problem. Do not assume that the rest of humanity shares it.
The talk-radio knuckleheads are of course taking Michelle Obnama's quote and running with it. Hannity, O'Reilly, and et. al. will usually take a minute to say of course this country isn't perfect but.... and than the predictible claptrap about how it is impossible to criticize society without directly insulting each individual therein, (Especially, of course, the respectible, mainstream families of America's suburbs.) and how a failure to take pride in the nation is to reject the polio vaccine, the defeat of Hitler, the moon landing, the internet, the fall of the Berlin wall, etc.
Pride has never been the solution to any problem, and never will be. The only way problems get solved is to focus on what is wrong with us, to embrace the muck in utter defiance of that old closeted psychopath Teddy Roosevelt.
I'm Josh Beran. I am not proud to be an American, and you all can eat my dick.
Dé hAoine, Feabhra 15, 2008
John Stuart Mill Knew his Shit
"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives."
JSM
Conservatives will often try to pass themselves off as the true populists due to the mean ivory-tower liberals who use big words like "rhetorical fallacy" or "willfully obtuse." Liberals are often derided for our apparent scorn of the "common people*" out of touch with the "real America*"
* Please note that the "real America" is restricted to settlements of fewer than 100,000 people and their environs, while the honorific "common people"is restricted to high-school educated substance level workers (WHITE!/oh shush you) who begin producing multiple children in their teens and early twenties. Please note that approximately three-fourths of the American population are ineligible to be either common people or part of the real America.
Part of this contempt for simple thinkers is nothing but snobbery, and I am as guilty of that as many others. But is this contempt completely unjustified? Are we to accept the more amusing conservative beliefs as valid simply because they are honestly and sincerely felt? More to the point, are liberals justified in considering ourselves smarter than conservatives? This is not for me to say. I can not give an unbiased judgment on the matter, and in all likelihood neither can anyone else. All I can do is point out the following.
* If you honestly believe that their was no crystal meth problem in the Midwest before the Mexicans came, you are probably a conservative.
* If you also believe that said Mexicans (Yes yes, you have nothing against LEGAL immigrants, nobody's buying it.) are nothing but a horde of leprosy-addled pedophiles in league with Al-Quida, Fidel Castro, and Magua, you are probably a conservative.
* If you think having to press 1 for English is an unprecedented corruption of cultural purity, you are probably a conservative; and you seriiiiousssly need to get out and see a city larger than Lincoln or Omaha.
* But only if you are able to do so without being so terrified of the teeming hordes or rapists, murderers, and junkies known to inhabit the big city that you are unable to notice or appreciate anything. If this proves too much for you, you are almost certainly a conservative.
* If you believe that global warming is nothing but a massive conspiracy involving the entire scientific and academic worlds to take away your automopenis, you are probably a conservative.
* If you believe that, since World War II was justified, every war the U.S. chooses to fight forevermore magically becomes World War II, you are probably a conservative.
* If you think that the East Coast is being rent asunder by roving gangs of pink-pistol bearing Lesbians, you are probably a conservative.
* Yes I know, we all wish it were true.
* If you think that anyone wearing a T-shirt bearing an Arabic phrase should be kicked off a plane; since we all know that Arabic is a language composed of nothing but terrorist threats, with no words for things like "tree", "sunlight", "house" or "lunch" (To say these things the Arab must revert to a degraded form of English, the true language of God) you are probably a conservative.
* The actual language of God is of course Latin. But then if you're able to read at all you certainly already knew this.
*If you think that Christmas would be utterly ruined by the removal of the three-dollar, blow-job-faced angels surrounding the courthouse wall, you are probably a conservative.
*Indeed, if you believe in an emotionally weak God who would be utterly shattered without the official approval of your government; definitely a conservative.
* Remember the old Pentagon story about Pat Tillman single-handedly holding off the Taliban for two hours before he ran out of ammunition? If you saw nothing funny about this story, if you honestly believe that one American has the strength of fifty foreigners and that our military is composed of a million pocket Roland's, you are probably a conservative.
* If you still don't know that Tillman was a Chomsky-admiring atheist who opposed the Iraq War, you are almost certainly a conservative.
* If you think that a tax hike (on anything, for any reason, ever) is a bigger threat to your liberty than making social pariahs and bogeymen out of those who question authority, you are probably a conservative.
* If you think that would-be dictators are obsessed with taking your guns; when they have in fact removed any need for doing so by taking your brain, you are probably a conservative.
* If you know nothing about the nation of France beyond their recent losing streak to the Germans, (Such as why elitist, freedom-hating Americans tend to move there whenever your ilk take over) you are probably a conservative.
* If you think that Ted Nugent has been able to achieve an erection at any point in the past thirty-five years, you are probably a conservative.
* If you think that a country-music singer who loves Jesus and America to the point of conflating the two is a "rebel" for drinking himself to death, you are probably a conservative.
* If you think that Hillary Clinton is a two-faced, loud-mouthed bulldyke bitch-cunt; but you have no problem with powerful women and don't-I-dare say you do, you are probably a conservative.
* If you think that Barrack Obama is secretly a Muslim, or if you ever believed that baby-sacrificing Satanic pedophiles were running loose in your town, you are probably a conservative. (Seriously, you're in church eight times a week, you should have some idea how hard it would be to secretly practice a religion.)
* If you have ever even considered taking John Wayne seriously, at all, well enough for now.
You see what I'm getting at here. It's not that there aren't left-wingers who believe dumb things. I'll grant you the 9-11 truthers and the Kennedy conspiracy theorists. (Though, in all honesty, the JFK theories aren't all that stupid until you get into shot by the driver without anyone noticing/secret Freemason ritual territory, and this is really politically neutral lunacy isn't it?) It's just that there aren't nearly so many stupid beliefs that are considered acceptable within the liberal mainstream. The logical leap that the conservative must make in order to believe himself both divinely-ordained master of the universe and terribly put-upon victim is truly sublime. I have a powerful lust for the day when we can vote these knuckleheads out of power. Than we won't have to worry about having the nation's nuclear arsenal in the hands of children and we can all sit back and laugh at the joke that American conservatism has become.
JSM
Conservatives will often try to pass themselves off as the true populists due to the mean ivory-tower liberals who use big words like "rhetorical fallacy" or "willfully obtuse." Liberals are often derided for our apparent scorn of the "common people*" out of touch with the "real America*"
* Please note that the "real America" is restricted to settlements of fewer than 100,000 people and their environs, while the honorific "common people"is restricted to high-school educated substance level workers (WHITE!/oh shush you) who begin producing multiple children in their teens and early twenties. Please note that approximately three-fourths of the American population are ineligible to be either common people or part of the real America.
Part of this contempt for simple thinkers is nothing but snobbery, and I am as guilty of that as many others. But is this contempt completely unjustified? Are we to accept the more amusing conservative beliefs as valid simply because they are honestly and sincerely felt? More to the point, are liberals justified in considering ourselves smarter than conservatives? This is not for me to say. I can not give an unbiased judgment on the matter, and in all likelihood neither can anyone else. All I can do is point out the following.
* If you honestly believe that their was no crystal meth problem in the Midwest before the Mexicans came, you are probably a conservative.
* If you also believe that said Mexicans (Yes yes, you have nothing against LEGAL immigrants, nobody's buying it.) are nothing but a horde of leprosy-addled pedophiles in league with Al-Quida, Fidel Castro, and Magua, you are probably a conservative.
* If you think having to press 1 for English is an unprecedented corruption of cultural purity, you are probably a conservative; and you seriiiiousssly need to get out and see a city larger than Lincoln or Omaha.
* But only if you are able to do so without being so terrified of the teeming hordes or rapists, murderers, and junkies known to inhabit the big city that you are unable to notice or appreciate anything. If this proves too much for you, you are almost certainly a conservative.
* If you believe that global warming is nothing but a massive conspiracy involving the entire scientific and academic worlds to take away your automopenis, you are probably a conservative.
* If you believe that, since World War II was justified, every war the U.S. chooses to fight forevermore magically becomes World War II, you are probably a conservative.
* If you think that the East Coast is being rent asunder by roving gangs of pink-pistol bearing Lesbians, you are probably a conservative.
* Yes I know, we all wish it were true.
* If you think that anyone wearing a T-shirt bearing an Arabic phrase should be kicked off a plane; since we all know that Arabic is a language composed of nothing but terrorist threats, with no words for things like "tree", "sunlight", "house" or "lunch" (To say these things the Arab must revert to a degraded form of English, the true language of God) you are probably a conservative.
* The actual language of God is of course Latin. But then if you're able to read at all you certainly already knew this.
*If you think that Christmas would be utterly ruined by the removal of the three-dollar, blow-job-faced angels surrounding the courthouse wall, you are probably a conservative.
*Indeed, if you believe in an emotionally weak God who would be utterly shattered without the official approval of your government; definitely a conservative.
* Remember the old Pentagon story about Pat Tillman single-handedly holding off the Taliban for two hours before he ran out of ammunition? If you saw nothing funny about this story, if you honestly believe that one American has the strength of fifty foreigners and that our military is composed of a million pocket Roland's, you are probably a conservative.
* If you still don't know that Tillman was a Chomsky-admiring atheist who opposed the Iraq War, you are almost certainly a conservative.
* If you think that a tax hike (on anything, for any reason, ever) is a bigger threat to your liberty than making social pariahs and bogeymen out of those who question authority, you are probably a conservative.
* If you think that would-be dictators are obsessed with taking your guns; when they have in fact removed any need for doing so by taking your brain, you are probably a conservative.
* If you know nothing about the nation of France beyond their recent losing streak to the Germans, (Such as why elitist, freedom-hating Americans tend to move there whenever your ilk take over) you are probably a conservative.
* If you think that Ted Nugent has been able to achieve an erection at any point in the past thirty-five years, you are probably a conservative.
* If you think that a country-music singer who loves Jesus and America to the point of conflating the two is a "rebel" for drinking himself to death, you are probably a conservative.
* If you think that Hillary Clinton is a two-faced, loud-mouthed bulldyke bitch-cunt; but you have no problem with powerful women and don't-I-dare say you do, you are probably a conservative.
* If you think that Barrack Obama is secretly a Muslim, or if you ever believed that baby-sacrificing Satanic pedophiles were running loose in your town, you are probably a conservative. (Seriously, you're in church eight times a week, you should have some idea how hard it would be to secretly practice a religion.)
* If you have ever even considered taking John Wayne seriously, at all, well enough for now.
You see what I'm getting at here. It's not that there aren't left-wingers who believe dumb things. I'll grant you the 9-11 truthers and the Kennedy conspiracy theorists. (Though, in all honesty, the JFK theories aren't all that stupid until you get into shot by the driver without anyone noticing/secret Freemason ritual territory, and this is really politically neutral lunacy isn't it?) It's just that there aren't nearly so many stupid beliefs that are considered acceptable within the liberal mainstream. The logical leap that the conservative must make in order to believe himself both divinely-ordained master of the universe and terribly put-upon victim is truly sublime. I have a powerful lust for the day when we can vote these knuckleheads out of power. Than we won't have to worry about having the nation's nuclear arsenal in the hands of children and we can all sit back and laugh at the joke that American conservatism has become.
Déardaoin, Feabhra 14, 2008
Valentine's Day.
My last girlfriend got angry when she told me not to buy her anything for Valentine's day and I did anyway.
The one before that got angry when she told me not to buy her anything for Valentine's Day and I took her at her word.
It's a terribly strange pretense for a holiday. Romantic relationships are not inherently good, nor are they necessarily of any benefit to society at large. The idea that "having somebody" is more likely to lead to happiness than remaining single is Puritanism, nothing more. At any rate, couples do have their own personal anniversary's. It's very much like having a personal birthday for one self and than having a big public "Life Day" or some such nonsense.
To sum things up as politely as possible; a woman who takes Valentine's Day seriously is a bigger turnoff than AIDS.
The one before that got angry when she told me not to buy her anything for Valentine's Day and I took her at her word.
It's a terribly strange pretense for a holiday. Romantic relationships are not inherently good, nor are they necessarily of any benefit to society at large. The idea that "having somebody" is more likely to lead to happiness than remaining single is Puritanism, nothing more. At any rate, couples do have their own personal anniversary's. It's very much like having a personal birthday for one self and than having a big public "Life Day" or some such nonsense.
To sum things up as politely as possible; a woman who takes Valentine's Day seriously is a bigger turnoff than AIDS.
Dé Máirt, Feabhra 05, 2008
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