Sunday, January 31, 2010

Has the right-wing hijacked the Christian religion?

Well its Sunday morning and I’m out to piss people off again. But I couldn’t have said this any better myself.

Jesus would be neither a Republican or Democrat (he refused to get sucked into the partisan squabbles of his times), but when some Christians, especially many evangelicals, act like any right-thinking Christian should be on the right, I have to laugh. I think it really hurts the witness of the church, because some progressives think they have to stop fighting for justice in order to be Christian.


Here is a list for you: Martin Luther King, Jr., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Barth, Dorothy Day, Daniel Berrigan, Cesar Chavez, Dom Helder Camara, Oscar Romero, Pope John XXIII. All of them were progressive, at least in economic matters. Some, like Barth, undoubtedly the greatest Protestant theologian of the 20th century, were even socialists, though not Marxist socialists.


There are 2003 verses in the Bible on the obligation to help the poor. There are about five or six on homosexuality, and several of the ones in the Old testament are mentioned along with prohibitions on eating pork. There are none on abortion or euthansia, not that I think either of these are good things, but where is the sense of proportion? When I listen to the Christian radio station, it is dominated by right-wing preachers who talk about things like cutting the capital gains tax an opposing universal health-care. Where do they get this stuff? Not from the Bible, that's for sure.


How do you explain this?

My basic sentiments. This is one of the main problems going on right now in the Political arena. The bastardization of Christianity used to push political ideals by people who are no more moral than the people they focus their attacks on. 

Quote Taken from: http://www.answerology.com/index.aspx/question/2734068_Has-the-right-wing-hijacked-the-Christian-religion.html

Friday, January 29, 2010

Favorite Brand New Lyrics

These are my favorite lyrics from the band Brand New the slashes represent the end of a line. The part after the dash is the song title I was talking to Rickey about how awesome this band is and how they’re just going to keep getting better until they ascend into Heaven glowing like Mary.

(note, there are 12 because I suck at deciding)

Now, in no particular order…

1. “So, is that what you call a getaway?/Tell me what you got away with./Cause I've seen more spine in jellyfish./I've seen more/guts in eleven-year-old kids./Have another drink and drive yourself home./I hope there's ice on all the roads./And you can/think of me when you forget your seatbelt,/and again when your head goes through the windshield.” – Seventy Times 7

2. “We saw the western coast/I saw the hospital/Nursed the shoreline like a wound” – The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows

3. “It's cold as a tomb, and it's dark in your room, when I sneak to your bed to pour salt in your wounds. So call it quits or get a grip. Say you wanted a solution. You just wanted to be missed. Call me a safe bet. I'm betting I'm not. I'm glad that you can forgive. I'm only hoping as time goes, you can forget... You are calm and reposed. Let your beauty unfold. Pale white, like the skin stretched over your bones. Spring keeps you ever close. You are second hand smoke. You are so fragile and thin. Standing trial for your sins. Holding onto yourself the best you can. You are the smell before rain. You are the blood in my veins. Call me a safe bet. I'm betting I'm not. I'm glad that you can forgive. I'm only hoping as time goes, you can forget.” – The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot

4. “We slip concealed back to the keep./Concede to do the work for free./We prey as wolves among the sheep and slit the necks of soldiers while they sleep.” – Good To Know That If I Ever Need Attention All I Have To Do Is Die

5. “Whatever poison's in this bottle will leave me broken sore and stiff./But it's the genie at the bottom who I'm sucking at. He owes me one last wish.” – Jude Law And The Semester Abroad

6. “ "Jess, I still taste you, thus reserve my right to hate you." ” – Jude Law And The Semester Abroad

7. “I hope this song starts a craze./The kind of song that ignites the airwaves./The kind of song that makes people glad/To be where they are,/With whoever they're there with.This is war./Every line is about,/Who I don't wanna write about anymore./Hope you come down with something/They can't diagnose, don't have the cure for./Holding on to your grudge./Oh its so hard to have someone to love./And keeping quiet is hard./Cause you cant keep a secret/If it never was a secret to start./At least pretend you didn't wanna get caught…” – Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't

8. “The time has come for colds and overcoats./We're quiet on the ride,/we're all just waiting to get home./Another week away, my greatest fear./I need the smell of summer,/I need its noises in my ears.” – I Will Play My Game Beneath the Spin Light

9. “I wrote more postcards than hooks./I read more maps than books./Feel like every chance to leave/is another chance I should have took./Every minute is a mile./I've never felt so hollow./I'm an old abandoned church with broken pews/and empty aisles./My secrets for a buck./Watch me as I cut myself wide open/on this stage. Yes, I am paid/to spill my guts. I won't see home till spring./Oh, I would kill for the Atlantic,/but I am paid to make girls panic/while I sing.” – I Will Play My Games Beneath the Spin Light

10. “I've got desperate desires and unadmirable plans/My tongue will taste of gin and malicious intent/Bring you back to the bar/Get you out of the cold/A sober, straight face gets you out of your clothes” – Me Vs. Maradona Vs. Elvis

11. “Is this the way a toy feels when its batteries run dry? I am the watch you always wear but you forget to wind.” – Guernica

12. “Oh, we're so c-c-c-c-c-controversial./We are entirely smooth./We admit to the truth,/We are the best at what we do./And these are the words you wish you wrote down./This is the way you wish your voice sounds,/Handsome and smart./Oh my tongue's the only muscle on my body/That works harder than my heart.” – Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don't

Dungeons and Dragons Characters—Where Do They Come From?

Space Cowboy posted a blog that talked about where his D&D characters came from, what the thought processes behind them were. I decided that this was a pretty cool idea and decided to do this myself. I have had a lot of characters who came and went, but four in particular are prominent and worth talking about.

Deirdre “Dee” Saint-John—Swashbuckler/Rogue

Dee was my very first D&D character, she was actually my first role playing character in another game but her personality at the start of the game was different. She was basically the picture of hedonism and greed. Drinking, gambling, sex, and money.

But somewhere down the line adverse events caused Dee to stop drinking, stop whoring around and hone her skills as a sword fighting. Her move from one game to another saw her still reformed but more or less taking up the mantle of piracy. She’s still brash, but tinges of her noble upbringing shine through some of the time.

I think that when I think of her personality she’s part Jack Sparrow but there’s something more ruthless there. She slit a man’s throat and threw him off her ship for fear that their kidnapping would lead back to authorities back to her and her crew.

She’s my the character of mine that shows the most growth, and probably the biggest thing she’s grown is loyalty.

Madeleine Dycedrag—Scout/Ranger

Maddy was meant to fill the archer niche of the party but more than that, she was all about humility, primness, properness and intelligence and concentration. Basically she was everything Dee wasn’t, including married. While she’s typically quieter she’s also the best character I have made mechanically. Some of her attacks are simply broken and ridiculously so.

She started out on a quest to find her husband, a Paladin who had gone missing. The idea for her was partly based on a friend and partly based on the idea of presenting some duality against Dee. Later the two became like sisters and between games, when she had a child, Dee actually became Aunt Dee.

Maddy is soon to be retired from the game because her story is pretty much complete and there’s too many people in the party. (plus I have a good ending cooked up)

Barbaneth Dycedrag—Paladin of Freedom

The idea for Barbaneth is partly from the old Final Fantasy role play(his first name is straight out of Final Fantasy Tactics). He’s both a family man and a fighter. With his devotion to the greater good and family sometimes conflicting. He is easily my most positively thinking character.

At the time he was made, he was the only Paladin and he was made more for defense. His story was pretty much the classic “going off to war story”. He left home for one job and ended up getting swept into a war. In the midst of this war his wife waited until she couldn’t wait anymore and came to find him.

There was very little romance, but the idea of searching for a loved one is a common theme and its what I was going for with him and Maddy. Since they’ve been back side by side, the two are a good compliment (in one fight he basically just stood in front of her and acted as cover).

I think my favorite moments are when Barbaneth is angry. It’s good to see someone who’s usually positive take another turn.

Cissinei Saint John—Wizard

Cissinei is both my youngest and newest character. She was my first character that I had a concept for before she came into the thread. The entire idea behind her was to make a good natured, sweet, kind girl who was a Necromancer to combat other Necromancers. She even had a skeleton companion named Saxton whom she rode around on and made dance for kids.

She was probably the most anime-ish of the characters I made. She’s the super intelligent, ditzy girl who’s far too book smart. By class, she was a Wizard.

Cissinei’s stint as a Necromancer ended when another party member gave her the ultimatum to stop practicing dark magic or face the penalty of Death. Since then she’s been trying to find other avenues to her goal.

At the same time, Cissinei is the first character to have a real back and forth interpersonal relationship with another person’s character. She started dating the party Sorcerer and its probably caused some of the most interesting role playing instances.

Pellegri—Lantern Archon

Pellegri was meant to be a one shot character, basically she was supposed to be part Navi (from Zelda). She was meant to help the party in a dungeon crawl.When I started Whitefall, she followed the Cleric over and has been the most fun to write because she’s consistently stupid and misunderstands most of what she sees.

Recently her development has taken a more serious turn, she was switched into Maddy’s body and Maddy into hers. After they were switched back, she expressed interest into getting a human body of her own (she more or less resembles a small ball of light.)

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Alone

If I was afraid of social interaction and scared to talk to people, it would be understandable. At least from the standpoint that I could say I have some kind of social anxiety or some other thing that I am sure some doctor out there has made notation of in a book.

But no.

What I have, if I can be said to have anything at all, is a growing need to be alone. I’m best left to my own devices and, save for a few people, I strive to deal with no one on a day to day basis. It started locally and spread to the internet. I spend my days phone off, MSN concealed behind the cloak of Appear Offline and it feels best when I do.

I try and do what others would suggest—talk to people, get out. Go places. But it feels lackluster with a few exceptions. I would say I need to fix something if it felt like I did. But it doesn’t. When I have to interact or do, it doesn’t come difficultly and I can be engaging.

I just don’t want to.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Right to Free Speech…as Long as You Say What We Want…

CBS, the company airing the Super Bowl was urged to pull an advertisement because it was anti-abortion. The ad is described below, story in source link:

The ad -- paid for by the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family -- is expected to recount the story of Pam Tebow's pregnancy in 1987 with a theme of "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life." After getting sick during a mission trip to the Philippines, she ignored a recommendation by doctors to abort her fifth child and gave birth to Tim, who went on to win the 2007 Heisman Trophy while helping his Florida team to two BCS championships.

Source Link

Remember, a few years ago someone wanted an ad pulled from the Super Bowl because it depicted a white woman flirting with a black man? Well that was pulled because it was so controversial. The Peta about how people who were vegetarian have better sex, pulled because apparently sexual innuendo is only allowed if someone can’t claim it promotes stuff they like. Now the same thing is happening again.

I like how those who profess to be for freedom and for rights and for women don’t seem to like it when any of these things work against their general message. These things aren’t grossly offensive or full of cursing and nudity. Most of them are no worse than what you can see in a PG-13 movie, but someone is always complaining about things and trying to get them pulled form TV.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Dreams

I think about the way things would have been, sometimes when I am just alone in the middle of the day or when I’m riding in my car and the radio is turned down low for no reason. I think about the value of things and the things I value and I wonder if the road I’m on will lead to any of the things I need, let alone want.

A dream is a scary thing to have, because we have hope for them. We want them to come true—even when we don’t strive for them. So when we fail, it strikes us…hard. For me having goals and dreams is like saying there’s a chance at failure. I could want to be somewhere more exciting, but in hoping for it I still might never get there. I could want to be a writer, a dreamer, a intellectual—but in trying for those things I still might never have them.

Fear could be said to be my motivating factor in these decisions, but really its failure. Without failure, or the chance of it, I would have no fear. If we knew that in our potential to do something that we dreamed of there was a guaranteed success, we’d always choose to do it. 

Then the question becomes, how do we force ourselves to act on dreams? How do we tell the viable dreams from the ones we should let go? And when is it not okay to dream?

There’s no great handbook on this. There’s no answer out there for these questions.

Friday, January 22, 2010

30K

Fifty pages, thirty thousand words...I'm pretty happy about it now. This is exactly where I wanted to be by this time. Everything is going just as planned. Ninety thousand words to go!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

How Far

It’s incredible to see how far some people have come, its amazing to watch someone grow up, even a little bit. I guess its because we all grow up some but we don’t always notice it within ourselves. I look at some people and even the short time I have known them they’ve become amazingly strong individuals and gotten to a point where they might actually achieve their dreams and goals.

Really, it makes me proud to know some of the people I know.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Answered

I spent so long looking for my answer and you showed up and gave it to me when you didn’t even mean to. Thank you.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

My Overkill

There’s a lot of things on my mind lately and I am in that mode where I will keep replaying something over and over and thinking about it and dwelling on it until I think it hurts me or makes me unable to move any further.

In some regard I think I have been wrong to someone but we can’t just spend all of our time apologizing and feeling sorry back and forth. We have to move past this stage but I don’t know how. And sometimes, I just think—maybe this is one of those things that just takes time?

Bias

I am constantly amazed by how little of the truth someone is willing to see when they’re biased. It doesn’t even matter if there is no truth in what they think or are saying. Even if you can prove its not so, they refuse to believe the reality of it.

It pisses me off when someone talks about liberal or conservative spin when you just throw a fact at them. These are the kinds of people better left unspoken to.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Friends, Lovers or Nothing

Now that we are over
As the loving kind
We'll be dreaming ways
To keep the good alive

Only when we want is not
A compromise
Ill be pouring tears
Into your drying eyes

Friends, lovers, or nothing
There can only be one
Friends, lovers, or nothing
We'll never be the in between
So give it up

You whisper "Come on over"
Cause your two drinks in
But in the morning I will say
Good-bye again

Think we'll never fall into
The jealous game
The streets will flood
With blood of those who felt the same

Friends, lovers, or nothing
You see
There can only be one
Friends, lovers, or nothing
We'll never an in between
So give it up

Friends, lovers, or nothing
We can really only ever be one
Friends, lovers, or nothing
Don't you know
We'll never be the in between
So give it up

No we'll never the in between
So give it up

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Deal With the Devil

Pat Robinson has stated that the Haitians are getting what they deserve for making a deal with the Devil. For those who don’t know, that deal has little to do with the practice of voodoo. In fact Haiti is about 80 % Catholic or Christian, which ever it is holds little bearing on the current post.

The cursed deal with the Devil that Robinson refers to (which has no Historic proof of existence) is this: Haiti was the first country that had slaves that broke free, they did so of their own volition and overthrew the whites that ran the country. Many in America didn’t believe a bunch of niggers could have overthrown the French like that, not that France hasn’t been walked all over by anyone with a toothpick and a wrist rocket since then.

So people in America started to believe that the Haitian Slaves had made a deal with the Devil for their freedom and that this deal is what delivered them from their captors. Because after all, the Christian God’s not in the business of liberating slaves, right? Nor is slavery wrong. So it was decided that this was what happened, not that there’s any history of anyone praying to the Devil to do it or that there is anything that doesn’t say that the whites just overestimated their control.

This is what Pat Robinson, man of God, claims the people in Haiti are suffering for. It’s assholes like this that give Christians a bad name.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

That’s Enough John Mayer

Seems I am on a bit of a John Mayer kick, but its not just him. It’s a oddly combined grouping of bands that include O-ZONE (the Numa Numa people), Jet, Jem and fucking Wang Chung. I add the modifier “Fucking” before their name because they sing the song “Everybody Have Fun Tonight”…if that’s not a reason to curse I don’t know what is.

The worrying thing in all of this is that the music has become all I am doing, just sitting and listening to it. Well that and waiting hopelessly for Linux to get its narrow ass into the lap top, it seems that all those people out there who say Linux is as easy to install as Windows need to be dragged out into pasture and have their face shoved in cow shit.

Linux isn’t easy to install, its not even easy to install stuff into it, that’s probably why it comes preloaded with so much stuff. If it didn’t no one would bother to get all of that stuff. Part of what makes Windows so unstable is probably the fact that its so easily compatible. But I’d rather it fuck up 20 % of the time and have to redo it than it fuck up that one time and you’re scrambling around like a damn chimp in a house of mirrors looking for what happened.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Rambo

So I saw a little bit of a Rambo movie last night, the latest one. Was pretty impressed with the amount of violence. I have to admit, besides the fact that there more or less just a small story set up, its funny to see a movie that has a message that essentially amounts to, “Sometimes you gotta kill somebody.”

I was glad it didn’t turn out to be some sissy hug and cry bullshit at the end.

Saturday, January 09, 2010

Adventure

This cold has made things quite and adventure…now when’s it leaving?

Friday, January 08, 2010

Exhausted

I need to spend several hours under the covers hiding from the world. Can’t even be bothered to write tonight. I’m just too tired.

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Strawberries

Then she went up on her tiptoes and pulled Shadow down to her, and kissed him hard on the lips, pushing her mouth against his for what felt to Shadow like several minutes, and might have been as long as five seconds in real, clock-ticking time.

It was a strange kiss, Shadow thought, as her lips pressed against his: it wasn’t intended for him. It was for the other people in the bar, to let them know that she had picked sides. It was a flag-waving kiss. Even as she kissed him, he became certain that she didn’t like him—well, not like that.

Still, there was a tale he had read once, long ago, as a small boy: the story of a traveler who had slipped down a cliff, with man-eating tigers above him and a lethal fall below him, who managed to stop his fall halfway down the side of the cliff, holding on for dear life. There was a clump of strawberries beside him, and certain death above him and below. What should he do? went the question.

And the reply was, Eat the strawberries.

The story had never made any sense to him as a boy. It did now. So he closed his eyes, threw himself into the kiss and experienced nothing but Sam’s lips and the softness of her skin against his, sweet as a wild strawberry.

—A Passage from American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Cold

It seems that this cold is never going to stop, its been colder than I can ever remember it being in my life, so cold that it literally hurts to go out in it. At the same time I am starting to realize something just don’t change and time doesn’t heal wounds as fast as we would like it to. I know the drill, get up and move on—that’s the name of the game when anything bad goes down. But I kept moving for so long and not letting the big things bother me that its coming back to bite me in the ass now.

This past Christmas was the second anniversary of my brother’s death, though not a day goes by that I don’t think about him and miss him. Time really won’t remove that, I won’t get over it or just move on and all of the broken hearts in the world couldn’t do the damage that one death can.

At times I still pick up my phone and think to call him when I am bored, like I briefly forget out of force of habit. But it just makes the realization worse. I still think, “Man, John would love this shit,” when I see a movie or a game that I know he would like (Dante’s Inferno—come on tits and violence, he would have ate that game up).

And his book of drawings, the flag from his coffin and one of the swords he collected are still grouped together in my house in plain sight. A lot of bad shit has happened in the past two years, a lot of mistakes and a lot of regrets and some things I really just wish I had one more chance to do over and fix and say again or even just make one last case for. But its all piled on that one event and I don’t know how to rest and get this out. I’ve forgotten how. The stupidity of my youth protected me when my mom died, but I’m old enough to remember this and hold the thoughts of what happened close. It’s so much harder this time around.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Bad Engrish

Pretty much every time that I go to the Engrish website I am astounded by how funny it all still is. The charm of badly translated Asian signage is pretty much never lost. It might be one of the most consistently comical sites on the web.

And while some would say its cruel to make fun of foreigners, I will say to them we are foreigners somewhere and I assure you—they make fun of us too. 

Monday, January 04, 2010

Road Tank?

I’m scared to let my father see this because he might just put these on his damn car…

hummer-h2-tank-mod-1

Sunday, January 03, 2010

Words of Wisdom - 1

Just a little something I am doing because I am tried. First off here is something I worked on and finished today:

Maddy Inks trace Maddy Christmas 2

Two versions of a picture of a very dear friend of mine.

And there there is this, Words of Wisdom:

tumblr_kqq9qu8uA11qa19ioo1_500

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Squeeze

Just getting one in before tomorrow, there’s not much to say. I am looking in to getting a word count meter for this site, stay turned.

Friday, January 01, 2010

New Year

So that Calendar on your wall has outworn its welcome and its time for us to roll over to the next year in the Gregorian cycle? Does this mean you’re a new fresh person filled with change and ready to greet the world anew?

No, you’re the same sum-of-all-the-things-that-occurred-before person that you were yesterday. You’ve got the same problems, the same strengths and whether you’ve promised yourself to handle them and make the self assigned penance—it will be no easier than if you had started your transformation three months ago, or six, or  year or even two.

In essence you’re celebrating nothing except the passing of another day. I have to wonder why people want to celebrate it so much and make promises they have no intentions to keep.