Monday, September 17, 2012

December 2006 blogposts


Lesiëm

This is a music video from a German group known as Lesiëm.  If you like Enigma and Era, you'll love these guys!  They combine mediaeval chant and other choral styles with pop, new age, electronica, and ambient music to create a sound I've never heard before.
Lesiëm - Fundamentum
I just fell in love with their latest album, which includes female choral and solo singers.

Two Journeys (Part II)

This post, although it may not look like it, is a follow-up to an earlier post I had made in November, wherein I talked a bit about Rev. Ted Haggard's and my own spiritual journeys.  Today I was taking a brief break from my research, and I was blog surfing when I came across a rather intriguing quiz on Beliefnet.com, a website whose mission statement reads:
Our mission is to help people like you find, and walk, a spiritual path that will bring comfort, hope, clarity, strength, and happiness.

Whether you're exploring your own faith or other spiritual traditions, we provide you inspiring devotional tools, access to the best spiritual teachers and clergy in the world, thought-provoking commentary, and a supportive community.

Beliefnet is the largest spiritual web site. We are independent and not affiliated with any spiritual organization or movement. Our only agenda is to help you meet your spiritual needs. (source)


The quiz I took is called, rather tongue-in-cheek, the Belief-O-Matic, and bills itself thusly:
Even if YOU don't know what faith you are, Belief-O-Matic™ knows. Answer 20 questions about your concept of God, the afterlife, human nature, and more, and Belief-O-Matic™ will tell you what religion (if any) you practice...or ought to consider practicing.

Warning: Belief-O-Matic™ assumes no legal liability for the ultimate fate of your soul.
Basically, it's church-shopping just taken to its ultimate extreme ;-)  Love the disclaimer :-) ...anyway, I was sufficiently intrigued to try my hand at the quiz questions, and here are my results:
Your Results:
The top score on the list below represents the faith that Belief-O-Matic, in its less than infinite wisdom, thinks most closely matches your beliefs. However, even a score of 100% does not mean that your views are all shared by this faith, or vice versa.

Belief-O-Matic then lists another 26 faiths in order of how much they have in common with your professed beliefs. The higher a faith appears on this list, the more closely it aligns with your thinking.
  
1.Unitarian Universalism (100%)
2.Liberal Quakers (96%)
3.Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (79%)
4.Neo-Pagan (76%)
5.Reform Judaism (75%)
6.Mahayana Buddhism (73%)
7.Theravada Buddhism (71%)
8.New Age (69%)
9.Secular Humanism (67%)
10.Baha'i Faith (67%)
11.Taoism (66%)
12.Jainism (62%)
13.Sikhism (61%)
14.Hinduism (58%)
15.Orthodox Quaker (54%)
16.New Thought (52%)
17.Nontheist (49%)
18.Scientology (47%)
19.Orthodox Judaism (42%)
20.Islam (39%)
21.Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (35%)
22.Seventh Day Adventist (32%)
23.Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (27%)
24.Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (23%)
25.Eastern Orthodox (12%)
26.Roman Catholic (12%)
27.Jehovah's Witness (10%)
Apparently, I'd make a lousy Jehovah's Witness.  And a miserable Catholic too. But what's interesting to me is how the quiz results actually match up withwhat I had already been thinking about myself and my spiritual beliefs.  What I have been reflecting on for well over a year now is that the Unitarian Universalist church seems to be the best spiritual "home" for me
And then I had an idea: I would take the Belief-O-Matic test a second time, only answer each of the questions as I would have fifteen years ago, before I burned out of my job, before I came out of the closet, but after my separation and divorce.  Results?
  
1.Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (100%)
2.Eastern Orthodox (95%)
3.Roman Catholic (95%)
4.Orthodox Quaker (92%)
5.Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (90%)
6.Seventh Day Adventist (88%)
7.Sikhism (71%)
8.Orthodox Judaism (68%)
9.Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (63%)
10.Liberal Quakers (62%)
11.Baha'i Faith (60%)
12.Reform Judaism (60%)
13.Hinduism (59%)
14.Islam (59%)
15.Unitarian Universalism (54%)
16.Neo-Pagan (40%)
17.Jehovah's Witness (36%)
18.Jainism (34%)
19.Mahayana Buddhism (34%)
20.Scientology (34%)
21.Theravada Buddhism (34%)
22.Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (32%)
23.New Age (26%)
24.New Thought (24%)
25.Nontheist (22%)
26.Taoism (22%)
27.Secular Humanism (21%)
Veeery interesting.... and again, it confirms something I already knew about myself.  Over the past decade, I have undergone a near-complete transformation on what I believe.  Which makes sense, given that most of my formerly firmly-held opinions were blasted out of the water by my later experiences.  More on this later, in another blogpost.

Is handwriting going the way of the horse and buggy and the chalkboard?

I was flabbergasted when i read the article below (and trust me, it takes a LOT to flabbergast me as I get older and more cynical...but I disgress...).  People under the age of 30 are losing their handwriting skills because everything they write and print is by keyboard!  An excerpt of the Toronto Star article is after the jump.
I just may take up my handwritten journal again, purely as protest against this horror.  And I just may force my nephews to hand-write their letters to their Uncle Ryan, instead of sending emails back and forth.
I mean, I am a super-geeky guy who spends a lot of time with computers--but the thought of losing my handwriting skills gives me a real chill.  We may need to create a Society for the Preservation of Handwriting.
Handwriting is irrelevant
The Toronto Star, Dec. 5, 2006. 12:03 AM
JEN GERSON
They couldn't remember how to write the letter "I."
Is it one loop or two? Does the pen start at the top of the squiggle or the bottom? "I forgot how to handwrite," says 18-year-old Kris Tofer Baker, as he mulls over the execution of a "w."
Don't misunderstand. Baker is an intelligent young man. He just hasn't needed to use cursive script since Grade 4.
"I print out or type the majority of my school work."
He's not alone. On the Ryerson and University of Toronto campuses, few students were able to handwrite naturally, when handed a black felt-tipped pen. After some moments of meditation, most remembered, sort of, how to script — although they couldn't remember the last time they needed to.
Computers have turned cursive handwriting into an archaic and unnecessary form of writing. It has been relegated to an era of calling cards and heartfelt love letters crafted by candlelight and fountain pen.
"One of the comments I got back on a test was `I don't understand what you wrote.' The teacher had told us to handwrite, but you saw, I had trouble with the T. I don't remember what they're supposed to look like," says Ikram Abdi, 19.
Her friend agrees. What need is there to handwrite? "Everything we do is on the computer," says Fatima Nuzhat, 19.
...
But if an over-reliance on pixels and type is leading to the downfall of ink-connected letters on pulp, no one under the age of 30 seems to be weeping.
"Ninety per cent of my time, I'm usually on the computer," says Amin Khalat, 24, who last joined letters with a pen in Grade 9. "(Handwriting) is not mandatory. Just so long as your writing is legible, it's okay."
Tara Bernard, 18, agrees. "I don't feel I need to handwrite. And when I try to, it doesn't work out."
She can't write quickly enough, and the text turns to scribbles.
"I came here from Africa in Grade 6 and I was never taught how to handwrite," says Shehzad Khan, 17. "Is there any need to handwrite nowadays?"
For note taking and grocery lists, printing seems adequate to the task.
Though Ryerson English professor Jennifer Burwell says that even margin squiggles in notepads are doomed. "More and more students are taking notes on laptops. Writing and printing are becoming more and more irrelevant."
Not that she minds. She only prints as well. "If I could have my students write on a computer and ensure that there is no cheating, I'd do that."
But Toronto-based forensic document examiner Pat Girouard ponders this new trend and remains skeptical. Sure, computers dominate our writing lives. Sure, handwriting seems somewhat anachronistic, but still, cursive seems to be an ironic sacrifice in the digital age.
After all, she says, "printing takes longer (than handwriting) because it's disconnected."
ID@thestar.ca. But if you feel the need to write a letter in cursive, please send it to I.D. section, 1 Yonge St., Toronto, Ont., M5E 1E6

Christmas A Century Ago: from the Children's Book Illustrators Gallery

This illustration is by Charles Robinson, from the first edition of The Child's Christmas, a book published by Blackie press in 1906, exactly a century ago.  This is one of over 2,000 images lovingly scanned and preserved online by Minh Lai, showcasing the work of classic children's book illustrators from the early  twentieth century.
To see the whole gallery, go to the nocloo.com - Children's Book Illustrators website, and click on the Gallery tab.  Be prepared to spend an hour or two browsing through the wonderful work on display, though.  You've been forewarned, now...
Two more images, these by illustrator Kay Nielsen, created for the 1913 book In Powder and Crinoline, Old Fairy Tales Retold (click on the image for a larger size view):
Kaynielsen02_1  Kaynielsen07
See also the images on this website, which contains larger-resolution scans of many of the books from the same collection.  There is truly some staggeringly beautiful work here.



Say Good-bye to the Screaming Cheese Lady

ScreamingcheeseladyHere in Canada, the dairy farmers' association had been promoting the buying of cheese and cooking with cheese, running a series of TV commercials which I had talked about previously on my blog.  The most memorable part from the commercial series, the crotchety granny screaming "Can't get your kids to leave home? Stop cooking with cheese!" (MP3 sound file, 114K, Warning! VERY LOUD), had already gone viral, as evidenced by these two fan-videos on youtube.  But, alas, it looks like the Screaming Cheese Lady's days are numbered.

Canada's dairy farmers have killed their controversial "Stop Cooking with Cheese" campaign, saying the latest TV spot crossed the limits of good taste.
Cossette Communication Group Inc., the agency responsible for the work, must now compete against other agencies for a chance to retain the account.
"We track everything we hear from the consumer. And sometimes you cross a line that maybe you should not," said Nathalie Noël, director of marketing for the Dairy Farmers of Canada.
The marketing association will not go ahead with a planned spring rollout of the campaign. Instead it is looking for an agency that can take cheese marketing in a new direction.
The initial campaign used crude reverse psychology to convince parents that the best way to get their adult children to move away from home is to not cook with cheese. Each commercial features a grumpy old lady who screams: "Stop Cooking with Cheese!"
In the latest ad -- titled "Protection" -- parents sit down with their daughter's boyfriend to convince him that their daughter isn't good enough for him.
"How can I put this nicely? She's cheap," the father says. The daughter retorts: "I hate you."
Then the pitch-granny chimes in: "Can't stop your daughter's boyfriend coming over? Stop cooking with cheese. Don't melt gouda on his vegetables -- he'll never dump her."
Ms. Noël said she didn't expect the backlash that came both from consumers and dairy farmers, who saw the last ad as mean-spirited and anti-family.
...
Nancy Vonk, creative director at Ogilvy and Mather in Toronto, said she winced when she saw the ad for the first time.
"It was really mean-spirited," she said. "I'm a big fan of dark comedy but that just crossed the line. . . . I felt so bad for the girl in the spot."
She said the reverse psychology approach -- trying to sell more cheese by telling people not to buy it -- was a bold attempt to do something different, but didn't work in practice.
"The whole shtick with the old lady yelling at you to stop cooking with cheese. It's like: 'Shut up. Get out of my face.' "


Here's a link to the ad discussed in the article.  The first time I saw it, I kinda went "What the...??" and didn't think it was terribly funny.  Anyway, I expect someone's head over at Cossette Communications is gonna roll over this one.
They've already taken down www.cantgetyourkidstoleavehome.com :-) ...

Five things you (probably) didn’t know about me, i.e. my 5 secrets

I have Adam Lasnik to thank for tagging me with this Internet meme.  And in return, I get it forward it to five other bloggers.
Anyways, here goes:

Five things you (probably) didn’t know about me

  1. I was born during the Beatles Invasion. 
    BeatlesSome people tie their birth to significant world events, saying things like "I was born during the Great Depression", or "I was born during the London Blitz". Well, I was born during the Beatles Invasion :-) On Jan. 16, 1964, the Beatles' song I Want to Hold Your Hand became the No. 1 single in America, their very first hit (it would remain #1 on the U.S. charts for seven weeks).
    I did a quick search of the Historical Newspapers database and found this advertisement for the Beatle's first American concert, published in The Washington Post (Jan. 31, 1964, pg. B27), when I was exactly one week old.
    Before I would turn one month old, the Beatles would land in JFK airport to a horde of screaming fans, and appear on the Ed Sullivan show, breaking all previous audience records with 73 million people glued to their TV sets.
    You know, I always used to pull this out to emphasize to the Baby Boomer crowd how much younger I was than them.  Now, I pull it out to remind the Baby Boom Echo generation just how much older I am than them.  *sigh*
  2. I am a chorister.
    Mg06I sing tenor (first tenor, if the tenors split) for The Rainbow Harmony Project, Winnipeg's GLBT chorus. In fact, I am one of the original members of the chorus, which formed in September 1999.  I had always wanted to sing in a choir since I was a kid, but I wasn't sure if I had the musical chops to do it.  So I decided to take a chance, do something different, and I'm so glad I did.

    Last Saturday, we put on our annual holiday concert, Many Gifts, before an appreciative audience at Knox United Church in downtown Winnipeg (click on the poster to the right to see a bigger version).  And I should be at the Christmas party tonight, but I've got a nasty head cold and I'm blowing my nose every ten minutes, so I decided to stay home.  I have been lucky to make many good friends among my fellow choristers over the years. If you would like to hear us, go to The Rainbow Harmony Project artist page on Last.fm, where you can listen to some 30-second samples.  I will try to put up a few full-length MP3s over the holidays.
  3. I have a very loud and distinctive laugh. 

    My laugh is indescribable.  I have described it as "the laugh that can strip an oak at thirty feet".  You can always find me in a crowded play or movie theatre if there's a comedy playing, no matter how big the theatre is. 
  4. I have a drag persona.

    As far as I know, I am the first person on earth doing bird flu public-awareness skag drag.  Meet Cora-Anne Tine, avian flu pandematrix and advice columnist to the flu-lorn.

    Why?  Because laughter is the best defense against the doom, gloom and pessimism of a potential influenza pandemic (I mean, aside from stockpiling food and water, practicing good hygeine and safe quarantine, etc. etc.).
  5. I have written slash fanfiction and created Photoshop fanart for Brokeback Mountain.

    The fanfiction, titled Chiron (rating: NC-17/Adult), only lasted nine chapters before it petered out, but my Brokeback Mountain fanart has been very popular.  This is my most-visited picture, with over 10,000 views:

And as for the five people I am sending this on to, they are, in no particular order:
...and I would have put Jeremy Wright on this list, but he's already been tagged (damn!)  We actually met each other during the brief time he was living in (godforsaken, as I believe he called it) Winnipeg.

The Most F*cked-Up Christmas Card I've Ever Seen

Seriously, this is a real Christmas card, from the U.S. Citizens Committee to Keep and Bear Arms.
Whatever happened to gold, frankincense, and myrrh?!?  I am absolutely appalled.

read more | digg story
UPDATE 3:30 P.M.: This was originally posted at metafilter last year, the comments thread is priceless.


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November 2006 blogposts


Ted Haggard, the Rentboy, and some Meth = De-NIII-al

It's not often you burst out laughing before you even finish the first paragraph of a Reuters news report:
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (Reuters) - Embattled evangelist Ted Haggard admitted on Friday to buying the drug methamphetamine and seeking a massage from a gay male prostitute but denied he had sex with the man or used the stimulant.
I mean, just how stupid can this minister be?  He's going to rentboy for a massage?  Must not be that picky about what kind of massage he gets--or maybe he's very, very picky :-) ooh that was evil. 
I mean, honestly, according to Global national news just on (yes, it made Canadian news too!), this man is apparently a key link between Bush and his conservative, homophobic Christian base. 
How appallingly bad does your judgment have to be, just days before a key mid-term election already embroiled in a gay scandal or two, to go buy crystal meth from a gay prostitute?  I can only assume that Rev. Haggard is a secret spy from the Meth Mothers of America (*rolls on the floor in laughter*) and the... the... the Rentboy Republican Values Coalition.  Yeah, that's the ticket.
I'm just surfing through the blogs via Technorati, seeing that the blogosphere has to say.  Here's a sample of good ones:
  • Okay, we get it, he didn't inhale. And, of course, a man who made a career out of preaching discrimination against gays is going to make sure that the massage he receives is from a male prostitute. It all makes perfect sense. (scootmandubious)

  • The fact that he was seeing a gay prostitute isn't the issue. That's just a symptom of the problem. No, the issue is this toxic faith that reeks havoc in so many lives. It's toxic faith that pushed him into cumpulsory heterosexuality, it's toxic faith that pushed him to preach that gay people are going to hell (while getting fucked on the side). It's a faith that places utmost importance on appearance rather than action.  It's a faith that gives a sense of pride, self-importance, and entitlement. 

    It's true that Christ forgives us. But forgiveness doesn't mean that we won't face earthly consequences. These things needed to be brought to light. Maybe this will encourage Evangelicals to look more closely at their positions on homosexuality. (lizzypaul)

  • I find it very funny that the people who are for banning gay marriage and gay rights - let me rephrase that... People behind denying anyone their rights as human beings just because of a difference in appearance, lifestyle, culture or religion are the same people who have these hidden lives that they are ashamed of.
    Shame on you for projecting your self loathing onto the rest of us. We are all residents of society and as such we should all be treated the same way and have the option of getting married. (Andy)

  • So here is the thing for me Ted, can I call you Ted? I am happy for you if you are "steady" with your wife. I hope that you two have a strong, happy marriage. I hope that the two of you go on to have a really wonderful life together into ripe old age and that the current drama you are embroiled in doesn't adversely effect your relationship. I don't think that dabbling with a prostitute, or even using meth* NECESSARILY makes you a bad person, a bad husband or a bad father.
    I am not going to judge you for the things you have done, I have not walked in your shoes, I don't know why you may have done any of this - as long as you own them, take responsibility and make amends where necessary. I have no problem with you getting a little back door action from Mr Jones if that was the case.
    Where I do have a problem is you getting up and denouncing me and mine. Saying that my life, the loves that I have found, are not of equal value to yours is not your place or your right. Particularly if its a cover for your own guilt as it appears to be.
    Time and again it seems the most rabid fag haters turn out to actually be hiding some inclinations of their own; Mr Foley, the onetime chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children and accused peadophile, is a sad case in point; and as you appear to be Ted. (robert)
And of course, the digging begins.  Channel 9 News in Denver (NBC I believe) has a report on voicemail messages Haggard left for his "massage buddy".  Here's an example:
Jones provided two voice messages to 9NEWS he claims are Haggard calling him.
The voice mails are from a man who calls himself "Art."
It should be noted Haggard's middle name is Arthur.
The first voice message, left on August 4 at 2:18 p.m., says:
"Hi Mike, this is Art. Hey, I was just calling to see if we could get any more. Either $100 or $200 supply. And I could pick it up really anytime. I could get it tomorrow or we could wait till next week sometime and so I also wanted to get your address. I could send you some money for inventory but that's probably not working, so if you have it then go ahead and get what you can and I may buzz up there later today, but I doubt your schedule would allow that unless you have some in the house. Okay, I'll check in with you later. Thanks a lot, bye."
The second voice message, left on August 4 at 5:10 p.m., says:
"Hi Mike, this is Art, I am here in Denver and sorry that I missed you. But as I said, if you want to go ahead and get the stuff, then that would be great. And I'll get it sometime next week or the week after or whenever. I will call though you early next week to see what's most convenient for you. Okay? Thanks a lot, bye."
Jones claims Art is referring to methamphetamine in the messages.
9NEWS had a nationally known voice recognition expert, Richard Sanders, listen to the voice mails to determine if it is Haggard.
Sanders has previously worked on such high profile cases as the Oklahoma City bombing trial, the Columbine High School shootings, the JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation and the Kobe Bryant case.
"This certainly sounds like the same person," said Sanders.
Ted, you are SO busted.

Ted Haggard: the Blogosphere Responds

TedhaggardbydayI'm again on Technorati this morning (where the graph on the right came from), my pancakes and maple syrup and coffee right here in front of the keyboard, reading some of the commentary written in various people's blogs.  And, amidst the blather, there's actually some thoughtful comments.  Some more good entries:
  • Now that Haggard has been outed by a gay prostitute for having sex with him and buying meth, and has resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals,
    I wonder what it will take for the good people in the pews to call leaders like Haggard, Jerry Fallwell, and James Dobson to account for their mean-spirited hypocrisy. And maybe even to approach the world with more forgiveness and less vindictiveness...It's might be too much to hope, but maybe this is an opportunity for the rest of us to reach out to those who call themselves born again Christians and  challenge them to listen a bit more closely to the Jewish preacher whose vision men like Haggard, Fallwell and Dobson reoutinely profane. Maybe they could even find some other lessons in those Biblical texts to set their course by, lessons that  genuinely prophetic voices like Desmond Tutu, Jim Wallis and Martin Luther King have made the core of a vision that actually promotes human dignity, instead of trampling it. (PaulLoeb)

  • Here’s my thought about the meth.  Haggard says, “I was tempted but I never used it…”
    He was tempted to buy and use meth?? I don’t know about you, but I don’t go around fighting my meth temptations. Let me be honest, I’ve done my fair share of experimenting. But the typical person doesn’t just jump into speed without some past drug use. I’m sure it happens, but if a person is tempted to use meth, odds are they smoke a little bit of pot, or do a little coke, before asking to get hooked up with a “$100 or $200 supply.” (The Atheist Mama)

  • As such, this could be another case of Jimmy Swaggart syndrome, for which the cure is to appear in front of the multitudes and cry for hours on end, begging Jehovah and church members for forgiveness—all on camera, of course. In other words, instead passing yourself off as a model of virtue, go ahead and embrace the role of repentant sinner. It worked for Swaggart. His television audience still sends him millions.

    But not every man can cry like Jimmy Swaggart; it’s a special skill. So before Haggart proceeds with the standard cure, he’ll definitely need training. He can start right here. Through the magic of the Internet, we can all watch a small portion of the Rev. Swaggart’s initial 1988 on-screen tearful confession after he got caught soliciting prostitutes and collecting pornography—minor league stuff compared to the Rev. Haggard, who has admitted to taking illegal drugs and getting a gay massage. And it’s still early. God only knows what else will come to light. (Ohio River Life)


  • My problem this morning is with Haggard's critics who say he should have "practiced what he preached."

    See, I think that's backwards. Telling him to practice what he preaches says that being a homosexual is wrong and that he should have kept those urges buried and prayed for hetero urges.

    Here's the thing: I think he should have preached what he practiced. Imagine an evangelical preacher actually reaching out to the gay community and inviting them to worship.

    Would a fundamentalist church that was open to all, regardless of "life-style choices" survive? I'm not gay, and I'm not a Christian, but I bet there would be a market for such a church.

    "Practice what you preach" is pure hypocrisy. Go ahead and preach what you practice.  (The13thStory)

  • Somehow, all of this is just going to make gay people, and homosexuality, look bad, when the real wickedness here is denial, lies, warmongering and anti-gay theology that twists people into doing things that destroy their own lives and the lives of others.(Living In The Bonus Round)

  • Their total denial of the FACT of homosexual persons is what drives men like Ted Haggard into a marriage, and then, subsequently, into the arms of a male hustler. The drugs, IMO, were not only about enhancing the sex act itself, but they also enabled him, in those hours alone with the muscle guy, to forget the wife and kids and career as a gay-hatin' leading light of the evangelical movement. (Living In The Bonus Round)

  • Worshipping Supply Side Jesus has allowed the evangelical right to embrace the worst aspects of capitalism and life in middle-class comfort, but I don't think it'll be Supply Side Jesus sitting in that judgement chair.

    To put it another way, I'll happily put up with evangelical anti-gay bigotry as soon as they start taking the majority of the Bible they claim guides thier lives seriously. Feed the poor. Care for the sick. Welcome the immigrant. Judge not lest you be judged. Turn the other cheek, even in international politics. Act like Jesus, maybe even just a little, maybe just 1%, and maybe then what you say about what God does and does approve of will carry some weight with me. (eustacescrubb, from the inevitable MetaFilter thread the story has provoked)

  • Think about this for a second - the problem here is not that these guys are being gay and hypocritical (okay, that is a problem, but not the BIG problem), the problem is that they are in the public eye, they know people are watching and they do it anyway.

    How colossally arrogant is it to think that you can be a congressman and hit on underage pages and not think you are going to get busted? How arrogant is it to be the head of the organization that has made ant-gay preaching a foundational principle and then go hire a male prostitute on a monthly basiss and not expect to get caught?

    It's addict mentality. They know they shouldn't do it, but they can't stop themselves, like the drunk who can't say no to the next drink. Weak, pathetic losers, just like their congregations - soft, comfy, middle-class weakness. Unable to sacrifice, unable to deny themselves even when it's in their best interest, unable to resist their appetites.

    That's why you evangelicals need such a literal rules-based religion, because you're too weak willed to do it youselves. But don't project that onto the rest of the country. I can control my appetites, most people can. We can control our drinking, our eating, etc.

    We can control our tempers and our feelings, and we don't need fairy stories of gods and demons and prophets and wizards and unicorns and whatever the hell else is in the Bible or Book of Mormon or the Urantia book or Battlefield Earth. We don't need magic when we have self control and compassion.

    That where American chruches went wrong - you took love thy neighbor to mean that you should keep blacks and gays and jews and catholics out of your neighborhoods. Love thy neighbor is the only part of the Bible that any christian should take to heart, because that is the point that jesus hammered home time after time.

    Love everyone, your enemy, the weak, the diseased, the whores, everybody. Love them because you are no better. That's the NT (New Testament) for you. Not rules about who can touch a penis or under what conditions women are allowed to have sex. If you think the Bible is a guide to daily living, I'm sorry, you are in all scientific sense of the word, a moron. Your IQ is low. You missed the point.

    The point of the Iliad is the danger of hubris, it's pride goeth before the fall. It's not about sneaky greeks or cool battles between gods and mortals. Frankenstein is not about a mad scientists, it's about how man can be a monster when faced with fear. Learn how to read, and then read between the lines. Even when the Bible mentions sex literally it's not really about sex. 

    The new testament is in absolutely no way about sex. Not straight sex, not gay sex, not any kind of sex. If you are so obssesed with sex that you turn a great work of moral philosophy into fuck manual, then you don't need a priest, you need a therapist. You need a university faculty analyzing you around the clock.

    In summary, new testament not about sex. (Pastabagel, from the same MetaFilter thread)

Two Journeys (Part I)

Today two things happened:
  1. For the first time in almost a decade, I set foot inside a Lutheran church for Sunday worship.
  2. Rev. Ted Haggard released his letter of explanation and apology to his New Life Church.
I left the Lutheran church I was baptised, raised, confirmed in, and married in, when I finally came out to myself and my family and friends.  At that time there were two pastors in our church.  The elder pastor, with whom I had shared my story and my secret, was very accepting.  But he warned me that the junior pastor would not be as accepting.
Shortly afterward, the elder pastor was let go (there were nasty church politics involved, as always).  It was then that I requested, and received, a transfer of membership to Augustine United in Osborne Village.  I'm sure many members assumed that my departure was related to the firing of my favourite pastor, but there was a stronger reason.  Augustine United is one of several United Church of Canada congregations that was an Affirming church (that is, one where it was made explicit that GLBTQ people were full and equal members of the congregation).  In fact, Augustine was the first such church in Canada, designated an Affirming congregation in 1995.
Why did I leave?  I had gone through a difficult coming-out, after three decades of both conscious and unconscious self-repression, and I was worn out, angry, and depressed.  I simply did not have the energy to stay where I was and defend myself against those in the Lutheran pews who did not (and would not) understand.  I wanted to be somewhere where it was WRITTEN DOWN that I could be a gay Christian and accepted as that, without having to change one or the other.
I'll continue this in Part II.  I'll just close by sharing one of the thoughts I had when I read this portion of Pastor Ted's letter:
Our church's overseers have required me to submit to the oversight of Dr. James Dobson, Pastor Jack Hayford, and Pastor Tommy Barnett. Those men will perform a thorough analysis of my mental, spiritual, emotional, and physical life. They will guide me through a program with the goal of healing and restoration for my life, my marriage, and my family.
And that first thought was: 
Oh my God.  Having James Dobson and his folk work on Ted to "cure" him of his homosexuality.  Ted's going to be the square peg punded right back into the round hole, he's going to land up even more mentally and emotionally fucked-up than he is right now. 
I can see it now: that fake frozen smile is going to get tighter and tighter, until his jaw fractures.  Can't Dobson et al. see that they're the ones who CAUSED Ted to repress his sexuality so severely that he acted out in this very public way?   

"You see, Reverend Haggard is a vociferous spokesperson against gay marriage and, until yesterday, his wife probably had no idea she was actually in one."

Oh hell.  I just couldn't resist another swim through the Schadenfreude.

Mark Driscoll on the Ted Haggard Scandal: Blame the Wife?!

I'm sorry.  I am really sorry. 
But it's such a spectacular trainwreck, with so many colourful, pretty secondary explosions, that I just cannot take my eyes off it.  The latest launch into Ted-inspired lunacy comes from some wingnut fundamentalist pastor named Mark Driscoll, who expounds on the best ways for men of the cloth to avoid such temptations:
Most pastors I know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations and liberties with their wives. At the risk of being even more widely despised than I currently am, I will lean over the plate and take one for the team on this. It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is not responsible for her husband’s sin, but she may not be helping him either.
So... you're saying that Ted's troubles may be his wife's fault?  Shakespeare's Sister rather appropriately rips Driscoll a second asshole:
Yeah, if only Mrs. Haggard had navigated that virgin-whore dichotomy a little better, Pastor Ted never would have sought solace in the massage stylings of a male escort. Also, I bet if she’d shaved her pussy, he never would have bought that meth.
He riffs about waiting in a supermarket checkout line behind a woman who said to him, “You sure got a lot of kids! I hope you’ve figured out what causes that.”
“Yeah,” he flipped back. “A blessed wife. I bet you don’t have any kids.” The congregation hoots and hollers. “That shut her up,” he mutters.
What a charming guy, eh?

Musical Interlude for a Saturday Afternoon

Courtesy of the new "French Youtube", dailymotion:


Monday Musical Interlude

Billie Holiday sings "Fine and Mellow"...


Musical Interlude: Achtung X-mas!

Tyskarna från Lund is a satirical Swedish synthpop band who performs in German.  The nearest sound I can compare them to would be the Buggles (remember them, Video Killed The Radio Star?)
Anyway, this funny little number is my selection for today's, ahem, Musical Interlude.  Enjoy :-)
Have you started your Christmas shopping yet?

Hallelujah, Dan Savage!

Dan Savage is a columnist who happens to be gay, and who writes a love and sex advice column called "Savage Love".  And he just wrote a column that sums up how I feel about the whole "ex-gay" movement exactly.  So, I'll give a link to it, but it's so good I'm just gonna quote the whole thing here. 
I consider Rev. Ted Haggard a beaten-to-death topic, and I am now retiring it from Ryan's Rant list :-)

I live in Colorado Springs, home to the right-wing conservative evangelical movement. As the nation recently learned, the founder of New Life Church, Ted Haggard, was fired after a male prostitute revealed that Haggard bought sex and drugs from him. It's hard not to feel a bit sorry for him, even though I have always hated everything Haggard stood for. How do you view all of this? Does Haggard deserve our sympathy? Or do we point our fingers and laugh?
Confused Coloradoan

[Dan Savage's response]
We should make a joyful noise, CC, whenever a powerful hypocrite is exposed. God should bless Mike Jones, the male prostitute who exposed Ted Haggard, and you should balance whatever sympathy you feel for Haggard against the misery he inflicted on the countless numbers of gay young people his church has "counseled." If you want to feel bad for someone, feel bad for Haggard's kids, not Haggard himself.
Now, I realize Haggard is ancient fucking history at this point—there was an election last week, huh?—but there's something I just gotta get off my chest: For more than a decade, the religious right has insisted that homosexuality can be cured. Just give your heart to Jesus, and—poof!—you're straight! If there is any justice in the world—and there seems to be, judging from last week's election returns—Haggard's downfall should be the death of the "ex-gay" movement. No more ex-gay ad campaigns, no more credulous stories about "successful" ex-gays in daily papers or on cable news.
Arguing with religious people about the futility of giving your heart to Jesus—at least where "cures" for homosexual orientation are concerned—can be maddening. As with evolution, they aren't moved by science, data, or irksome facts. Not even the existence of ex-ex-gays gives them pause. Anything is possible through Christ, they blandly insist, and if you're sincere enough in your devotion to Christ, if you invite him into your heart, he will cure you.
Hello, fundies? I know you're reading this, because every week I get e-mails from concerned Christians who just happened to chance upon my column—cough, cough—and write to share the wonderful news: I don't have to be gay! If I give my heart to Jesus—if I have faith—he will cure me!
Well, my fundie friends, did you see that letter of apology Haggard wrote to his congregation? I'd like to wrap it around a brick and shove it up all of your fat asses. But since I can't do that, I'll just quote from it. In his mea gulpa (Haggard gives lousy head, according to Jones), Haggard copped to "sexual immorality" and described himself as "a deceiver and a liar." Those details made it into most of the headlines. These details didn't:
"Describing a lifelong battle against temptations that were contrary to his teachings," says the Denver Post, "[Haggard] had sought assistance 'in a variety of ways,' and while he had stretches of 'freedom,' nothing proved effective. 'There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life,' Haggard wrote." [Emphasis added.]
If you believe that Jesus Christ can change the sexual orientation of a believer, why on earth did he refuse to cure Haggard? Haggard founded a church that has 14,000 members! Thousands were brought to Christ by Haggard's preaching. Mixed in with Ted's meth-fueled gay-sex romps and hypocritical gay-bashings were, without a doubt, thousands of good works.
Did Jesus help Haggard out? No. Haggard struggled with temptation all his life. He tried to battle off his "dark" desires, but nothing proved effective. There was no cure for Haggard, no miracle. No matter how long he struggled, no matter how much faith he had, Haggard's sexual orientation remained unchanged. Nothing helped. Not prayer, not Jesus H. Christ on his cross.
Nothing.
If giving his heart to Jesus couldn't cure Haggard, what hope is there for the likes of me? If Jesus can't be bothered to work a miracle for the most powerful evangelical minister in the country, what "hope" is there for the average dyke?
None.
The ex-gay thing is over. It's dead. It was bullshit from the start, and it's bullshit now. And I will personally track down and bitch-slap the next fundie douche who sends me an e-mail explaining how Jesus can cure me. And I will personally track down and shit in the mouth of the next cable-news anchor who entertains—even for an instant—the notion of a miracle cure for homosexuality.
Consider yourself warned, Paula Zahn.

November is the Cruelest Month

As usual, somebody else notices the changes before I do. 
I complain to my shrink about my indecisiveness, my fatigue, my irritability, my lack of motivation so strong that I spend a few extra hours of each day in bed rather than at my research or my housecleaning.  The shrink gently reminds me that these are symptoms of depression, and suddenly my synapses make the connection: Oh shit, here I am again.
Several events over the past two months, which in the grand context of things are rather insignificant, may have contributed to this.  I missed a flight to Ottawa to visit some friends, because I screwed up on my 24-hour-clock to 12-hour-clock calculations.  I got into a minor fender-bender with my car, which is currently in the shop while I drive a 2007-shitbox-Cobalt for a rental.  But Iooking back, the one thing I notice is this: as the seasons shifted and the days became shorter and cloudier, my mood seemed to get darker too.
The good news is that I caught it early -- very early -- this time around.  So three weeks ago, I rented a portable full-spectrum light for Seasonal Affective Disorder, and set it up over my computer monitor.  I leave it on and bask in the faux-sunlight for about an hour every morning as I have my breakfast coffee and gulp down my antidepressant medication while surfing the morning's news on the Internet.   (I know, I know, the news is depressing; but I'd rather be well-informed on world events than blissfully ignorant.  And besides, I'm a librarian and we have to keep up-to-date to field reference questions.)
And so far, even though it is still early, it seems to have some benefit for me.  At the end of the month's rental, I can choose to purchase and keep the S.A.D. lamp, and I probably will.  My shrink thinks that any Seasonal Affective Disorder I might have is only an add-on to my regular old plain vanilla depression, so I obviously can't toss out the anti-depressants.  But I may have found another key to fighting back the clouds.
Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces 
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here 
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun 
and I say it's all right
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...

Yip yip yip yip yip!

Someone finally posted some video of this.  I used to love watching this as a kid!



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October 2006 blogposts


"It's not my fault! the priest made me do it/I was drunk/I'm gay!"

I am so angry, and I have so much to say about the Mark Foley scandal down in the U.S., that I hardly know where to begin.
Lawyers acting for Mark Foley, the Republican congressman who resigned after it was revealed he had sent sexually charged emails to teenage boys, said yesterday that the politician had been abused by a member of the clergy as a teenager.
No details of the alleged abuse were given, other than that Mr Foley, who is a Roman Catholic, was between 13 and 15 years old at the time of the abuse. One lawyer, David Roth, acknowledged for the first time that the congressman, 52, is gay. "Mark Foley wants you to know he is a gay man," Mr Roth told a news conference in Florida, adding that the admission was part of a "recovery" programme. He also insisted that Mr Foley was "absolutely, positively not a paedophile". Mr Foley said in a statement on Monday that he was an alcoholic and that he was entering a recovery programme to treat his condition. (Glaister, Dan. "Republican who sent indecent emails was abused ", The Guardian, October   4, 2006)
Oh, so now he finally decides to come out of the closet, several years after he was already outed by The Advocate newsmagazine for hypocritcally voting in favour of the "Defence of Marriage" act. 
And of course, now he checks himself into rehab, whimpering: "I did because I was drunk.";  "I did it because of that priest." 
Entering a "recovery" program?  Recovery from what?  Being gay?  Being drunk?  Getting caught??
I find it beyond pathetic that Foley finally plays the gay card, only when he thinks it will help him.  How can it help him, you ask?  By not-so-subtly using the "I'm gay so I molest children" charge which the Religious Right likes to keep throwing at us God-damned sodomites.  That way, perhaps he can cast his sexual orientation as more of a "sin" that needs "recovery".   This man is a disgrace to honest queer people everywhere, and I comfort myself with the thought that he's gonna be one helluva popular bitch at whatever prison he lands up in.
Oh, and he says he's not a paedophile?!?  Well, I guess that depends on the law, but really.  As more word leaks out about the content of those IM messages between him and one or more teenagers, one has to ask just how Mark Foel defines the term.  
Apparently he is now saying (via his lawyer) that since no physical (i.e. face-to-face) acts took place, he is not a paedophile.  This defence falls intro the category of "I never has sex with that woman!"   Clinton learned a blow job is sex.  Foley is going to soon learn that cybersex is sex.
And to make matters even worse, until his resignation he was a co-chair of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, and a backer of new legislation, the 2006 Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which he may well now be charged under.  HE WAS IN A POSITION OF TRUST.  (I wonder what Joe Walsh, Adam's father and host of America's Most Wanted, is thinking now.)
I got news for Mr. Foley: Being gay does NOT excuse what you did.  Being a drunk does NOT excuse what you did.  Being a victim of child sex abuse does NOT excuse what you did.  Being ANY COMBINATION OF a diddled-with, drunken faggot does NOT excuse what you did, in any way, shape or form.  That you even TRY to use these as excuses or defenses makes you even viler, if that is possible.
I hope Foley gets the book thrown at him.  His grasping, gawping response by checking into rehab and blaming booze/sexual abuse/being gay is absolutely, utterly, completely vile and reprehensible. Thankfully, most people can already see through that "rehab" act pretty easily; it's getting old. 
And ANYBODY in the U.S. federal or state govenments who is found to have kept his secrets hidden deserves to be tossed out on his ass and go down in flames along with Foley. 
  
UPDATE: Now Newt Gingrich has said that one reason why the Republicans in power didn't act on Mark Foley sooner was that they were afraid of being accused of "gaybashing".  What the...?!  As John Stewart said in response on The Today Show, assuming that all homosexuals are child sex offenders IS gaybashing.

Full Text of Mark Foley's Instant Message Exchange with Underage Page

(WARNING: Very Explicit Language Under the "read more" Link, Definitely Not Safe For Work. ABC News was not kidding when they said they couldn't put most of this IM exchange on the air. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. )
For those of you want to see exactly what the fuss is all about.  Now that I've actually read the full text of the entire instant message exchange, as released by ABC News and posted to the Internet by citizensforethics.org, I can see why so many people are so whipped up about this. 
The language itself, while shocking to quite a few ears, is frankly nothing that you wouldn't hear on any sexually-explicit chat room like gay.com.   What's so vile and disturbing about this exchange is that it's not a conversation between two consenting adults; IT'S BETWEEN A 52 YEAR OLD CLOSETED GAY MAN IN A POSITON OF POWER AND A SIXTEEN YEAR OLD. Mark Foley is quite clearly a sexual predator, "grooming" and flattering his target.  And don't hand me that line of bullshit about 16 being "old enough" for this abuse.  You may have been a worldier 16-year-old yourself, but when I think about how naive and people-pleasing and trusting I was at 16, it just makes me want to vomit when I read this exchange.
How can anybody actually let something like this slide by?!?  Anybody--anybody, from House Speaker Dennis Hastert on down--in the American government who knew about this and did nothing until the shit hit the fan four days ago deserves to be drop-kicked out of office.
*whew* sorry, I'm having another Nancy Grace moment.  

Yeah, well, good luck with that one.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he told President George W. Bush yesterday the United States needs to come clean and acknowledge its inappropriate handling of the Maher Arar security case.
Mr. Harper said he telephoned Mr. Bush to tell him Canada is upset about the findings of an independent commission of inquiry that "American officials had not been candid and truthful in their dealings with Canadian officials in the case."
Canada will lodge an official protest through formal diplomatic channels and expects a response, Mr. Harper said. Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay will write to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"What I would like to see, obviously, is the United States government to come clean with its version of events, to acknowledge, I would hope to acknowledge, the deficiencies and the inappropriate conduct that occurred, particularly vis-à-vis its relationship with the Canadian government," Mr. Harper said at a news conference in Calgary. (Sallot, Jeff.  "Canada unhappy about U.S. handling of Arar", The Globe and Mail, October 7, 2006)
Maher Arar was the Canadian citizen who was wrongly targeted as a terrorist on a connecting flight through the U.S., and was shipped off to Syria and tortured in prison, without the Canadian government's knowledge or consent.  This was and is a very high profile case in Canada, where Arar recently received a public apology from to the head of the RCMP (whom many thought was going to lose his job over this scandal).  It's hard to summarize this complex case in a single paragraph, but one thing is clear: both Canada and the U.S. failed Maher Arar, badly.  God knows Canada's not a perfect country, but the arrogance of the Bush administration's foreign policy, in their zeal to pursue the "war on terror", is breathtaking.  I for one will be very surprised if Maher Arar ever gets the apology he clearly deserves from the American government.

Share the Kern Hill Love

Someone named "RetroWinnipeg" is posting classic videoclips on YouTube, taken from old commercials which aired on Winnipeg TV in the mid-eighties.  Remember those ads for Kern Hill Furniture Co-op?  You can see the full list of ads and other TV tidbits here.
"This will be the single-most incredible event in the history of the home furnishings industry!"
"Come oooooon down!"  God I miss those commercials, Nick Hill was always a character. 
And anybody remember those "Wicked!" Park Pontiac commercials?
I wonder whatever happened to the "Wicked!" woman?  Did she move on to a career with more adjectives?  Or is she lying in some gutter somewhere with a cheap bottle of wine in a paper bag, remembering her glory days?
Now if ONLY someone could resurrect those infamous Pollock & Pollock shows on the cable access channel.  (image below: Natalie Pollock in foreground on the left, Ron Pollock on the far right)
The Pollock and Pollockshow
Everyone knows what "cable access", or "public access" is by now; Do-it-yourself TV on a channel that your cable company is obligated to provide by the broadcast regulator, the CRTC in Canada or the FCC in the United States. In Canada, the regulations are much stricter as to what goes on and what doesn't. In the U.S., you just pay your money and you can do whatever you want. In Canada, there is no money exchange allowed and your program must be one that benefits the community. Considering that, it's a wonder The Pollock and Pollock Show slipped through the cracks.
The Pollock and Pollock Show consisted of a middle-aged brother and sister team with the last name of Pollock who did everything from silly, crazy dancing around and outrageous antics to political commentary, all while dressed in outrageous outfits. Apparently the show didn't start out that way but "evolved" into that. (quote by Beau Hajavitch)
We could use a little Ron & Natalie trippy goodness in these troubled times :-) although I understand that Ron is, once again, running for mayor of Winnipeg.  Oh wait, it was Natalie who kept running for mayor.   More on the Pollock & Pollock Show and Winnipeg's cable TV golden age from CBC.

There Goes The Neighbourhood: North Korea Tests Nuclear Weapon

KaboomIt has now been confirmed, by both the South Koreans and the U.S. Geological Service, that North Korea has tested a nuclear device in an underground explosion.   The USGS says the test created a quake of magnitude 4.2.   Here is the location of the seismic event in North Korea, via Google Maps.
Well, this is gonna push the Foley scandal off the front pages of the newspapers tomorrow morning.  The most whacked-out nation on earth, a nation starving its own citizenry and relying on external food aid, now has nuclear capability.  Oh joy.  Would somebody please explain to me how this came about?
So North Korea has nuclear capabilites, and Iran is well on its way to having nuclear capabilities.  It's ironic, isn't it, that of the three nations labeled "the axis of Evil" (North Korea, Iraq, Iran), the Americans invaded the single nation which was the furthest from having weapons of mass destruction--Iraq? 


"President IL"?

Just catching the latest news on CTV NewsNet, Jane Taber is interviewing Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Mackay.  And during the interview, he refers to Kim Jong-Il as President IL. 

Uhhh... Peter, you'd best be studying that briefing book a little more regularly.  Korean names are last-name first, so it's not President IL, it's President KIM.
Not a stellar moment for the (Regressive) Conservatives on the world stage.

"It's not my fault! I was having a nervous breakdown/I was on drugs/you're bothering me and I'm old!"

(This post was titled deliberately so as to link it with this earlier post .)
It sems that the buck-passing on the Mark Foley page scandal never stops.  The following quotes are from an interview with Father Anthony Mercieca, the man whom Foley has accused of sexual abuse when he was a teenage altar boy:
“I have to confess, I was going through a nervous breakdown,” he said. “I was taking pills — tranquilizers. I used to take them all the time. They affected my mind a little bit.”...
...“Why does he want to destroy me in my old age?” Father Mercieca asked.
Mark Foley isn't destroying you...he's TELLING THE TRUTH (a little late, but nevertheless...).  As a Catholic priest in a position of trust, you did something wrong with an altar boy and you should admit the truth, instead of digging around for more excuses for your behaviour.  Blaming what you did on tranquilizers, and then playing the frail-old-man card when confronted with the truth, is shameful behaviour.   
 

Run and get the scissors....

I confess: I am addicted to bitchy fashion commentary (which is deeply ironic, because I desperately need Queer Eye For The Queer Guy).  That's why Go Fug Yourself is my new guilty pleasure, and it never fails to leave me laughing.  Exhibit A is Chrystee Pharris:
Chrysteefarris
Does she have it rigged to rise and fall like a window shade? Is she a string fetishist? Is she selling three different price-levels of ad space? Is she in costume as Pokeahotass: Street-Walking Princess Of The Night? Or has playing the daughter of a rageaholic former tennis pro -- whose life was ruined when he got hit by a car that ended his tennis career and caused his father to die of heartbreak, and who as a result has kept the aforementioned Car of Doom locked in a shed to foster his obsession with the man he thought hit him, leading to him snapping at his daughters, "I thought I told you NEVER TO ASK ME ABOUT THE SHEEEEEED!! I don't TALK about the SHED" -- actually, really, truly tuned her a tad deranged?
I'm practically speechless here. I feel so cold, suddenly. Lost. Confused. Somebody please hold me. And get that girl some scissors. I think there might be some in the shed. (quote and picture from Go Fug Yourself, Oct. 26, 2006)




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