Astute Observation of the Moment #9

With all of the pitfalls of substitute teaching (e.g. lack of benefits, unsubstantial pay, etc.), there is one major perk: I’m flying through a few books a week. At this rate, my ridiculously massive collection of books to read should be halved by the end of the year.

So, when do I become you, and when are you me… or?

It really blows my mind that I have never come across these Mr. Deity webisodes, especially since they have been around for a few years and I’m always perusing the interwebs for sites and blogs dealing with the absurdity of religion. It took the blog of the awesome PZ Myers to point out that PZ himself was making an appearance in one of the videos for my discovery. These are great. I’ve been sitting here for forty-five minutes watching video after video – and it has been time well spent. Check out a few of my favorites so far below. PZ plays the scientist in the third video down.

Maine sucks.

Well, it looks like Stephen King is still the only cool thing to ever come out of Maine (alright, its coast is aesthetically pleasing and they have some tasty lobster, but as the old adage goes, there are plenty of lobster in the sea). Yesterday, what could have been a monumental day for the fight for legalized same-sex marriage in America, 53% of Maine voters proudly displayed their ignorance and bigotry by repealing the law that made it legal for two people in love, regardless of their genitalia, to marry.

“It has all come together tonight, the institution of marriage has been preserved in Maine, and across this nation,” Stand for Marriage campaign manager Frank Schubert said today.

Also preserved in Maine, the institution of being a douchebag. Membership is apparently high. Join today and you get half-off an entrée at Cracker Barrel.

Of course, those associated with Stand for Marriage are not anti-gay, just anti-human rights. “The campaign was very clear about that,” declared spokesman Scott Fish. “This was a campaign about protecting traditional marriage.” I hope next they fight for legalizing child brides, making dowries hip again, and never, ever letting a black man voodoo trance an innocent white woman into marriage. It’s called tradition, folks. Look it up. Traditions such as segregation, drowning witches, and exploiting the poor are an essential part of what makes us such a unique and strong country. Like how my grandfather will never ever cook the meal or do the laundry. That’s grandma’s job and if she doesn’t know it, he should have the right to slap her until she remembers her role – the sanctity of spousal abuse must be preserved at all costs, to preserve the tradition of the marital hierarchy.

This is an unfounded hunch, but as a Democratic swing state, I wonder had every registered voter had turned out to vote, if the outcome would have been the same. Unfortunately, the conservative right is so passionately dead-set against gay couples sharing with them the happiness that a marriage can bring, while the heterosexual left-leaning citizens, while supportive of same-sex marriage, feel little internal motivation to do much about it. There is the mentality of, “Hey, there are enough of us that believe in this cause, I’ll let them vote. I just don’t have the time to swing by the polls between work and my tennis lessons.” I think we’re all in agreement that one hour out of a single one of our days would be worth the other outcome, no?

This is an uphill battle, folks, and it just got a little more steep today. If this were that classic floppy-disked Oregon Trail game, our Conestoga wagon has tipped over, we lost forty-seven pounds of meat, had to replace the axle, and Bob came down with dysentery, but onward we go. We knew the trek wasn’t going to be easy nor quick – but I’m confident what is right will prevail, just not until people (and that means us liberal-minded heterosexuals as well) step up, take action, and begin to stand up for what is right as human beings and what is right as a country that laughably proclaims its supposed freedom from the oppression religious ideologies. If the federal government isn’t going to step up and do something about this issue of human rights, then it is up to us.

It’s 2009. Everyone knows that racism is officially over.

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

Keith Bardwell, a justice of the peace for Tangipahoa Parish’s 8th Ward [in Louisiana], was widely criticized after he refused to grant a marriage license to Beth McKay and Terence McKay, an interracial couple who ultimately got a marriage license from another justice of the peace in the same parish. The McKays hired an attorney and protested the justice’s actions.

Despite a national uproar and a call by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal for him to lose his license, Bardwell, 56, said in October that he had no regrets. “It’s kind of hard to apologize for something that you really and truly feel down in your heart you haven’t done wrong,” he told CNN affiliate WAFB.

He insisted he is not racist and does not treat black people differently. He said he does not perform mixed-race marriages because he is concerned about the children of such marriages.

Boy, thank you for your concern for the well being of their children, Mr. Bardwell. Your noble heart shines through with your concern and we know that you are not racist. It is common knowledge that biracial children can never do well and when they have to ask mommy and daddy, “Could I be president someday?” it would be heartbreaking to have to tell them, “Why no, son/daughter, someone that is biracial could never lead our country. Ever. Maybe Canada, because Canadians don’t have souls.” This is why it is your duty to not oversee these marriages. Mr. Bardwell, we only wish that these close-minded liberals would get off your back. I’m sorry that you had to resign, but at least now you can promptly go fuck yourself.

The sad thing is that he is not alone. It was only in 2000 that Alabama and South Carolina finally removed their state constitutional bans on interracial marriage. The public vote? 60% voted for removal of the ban, while 40% wanted to keep it banned. Which could explain how this doofus could somehow get elected into his position in this day and age.

He did finally relent and give a deep, heartfelt apology on CBS the other day though (which you can watch right here):

“I’m sorry that I offended the couple, but I did help them and tell them who to go to,” he said. “And they went and got married, and they should be happily married and I don’t see what the problem is now.”

Nerdtastic

I now have dual monitors set up for my computer – at least until my brother gets bored with his laptop and wants to use his desktop again. That means I can stream Mad Men or Californication or YouTube on one monitor and surf the interwebs on another. How cool is that?

Astute Observation of the Moment #8

You’re born alone and you die alone and this world just drops a bunch of rules on top of you to make you forget those facts… but I never forget.

Astute Observation of the Moment #7

I still have it in my head that my life is going to be made up of all those crazy and unpredictably fulfilling things that I have always planned on doing in my life. I wonder when the realization will really sink in that the odds are overwhelmingly against any of this ever happening.

I’ll sleep when I’m dead.

Between teaching and waitering, Saturday will be my first complete day off in twenty-two straight days. Goodbye lazy childhood work ethic (unless you consider work to be video games, basketball, and mowing the lawn once a week), hello rest of my life.

What work I have done I have done because it has been play. If it had been work I shouldn’t have done it. Who was it who said, “Blessed is the man who has found his work”? Whoever it was he had the right idea in his mind. Mark you, he says his work – not somebody else’s work. The work that is really a man’s own work is play and not work at all. Cursed is the man who has found some other man’s work and cannot lose it. When we talk about the great workers of the world we really mean the great players of the world. The fellows who groan and sweat under the weary load of toil that they bear never can hope to do anything great. How can they when their souls are in a ferment of revolt against the employment of their hands and brains? The product of slavery, intellectual or physical, can never be great.
-Mark Twain

I also need a new hobby. I think I am going to make my own wine.

Never forget…

What say you?

As a writer:

Would you rather live out the rest of your life in total obscurity, poverty, and despair, only to have your the significance of your work discovered posthumously, thus rendering your relative immortality and importance in literature?

OR

Would you rather live out the rest of your life with international fame and fortune and no worries, but have your writing crumble to complete irrelevance after your death?

Really, really think about it. You may be steadfast with your immediate answer, but only until you give it a second thought.

Follow your bliss.

There is little that I would rather do than take up an autodidactic lifestyle for the next few years of my life, putting aside the formalities of institutional education and the absurdity of society’s traditional lifestyle in exchange for wandering and exploring and researching and reading on my own, without worry and because I choose it. I watched the 60 Minutes piece on John Kanzius today and wondered if the days of determined self-learning and inquisitive inventions are fizzling to an end (and no, Snuggies do not count as inspired inventing). While it is still too early to tell what John Kanzius’s impact on cancer treatment will be, I find myself amazed at the things he did while he was alive and the progress he had during his research, all without an all-important college degree.

For one reason or another, it made me think of Henry David Thoreau’s autobiographical Walden, a memoir that has stuck to the inner workings of my mind in the years since I’ve read it. To Thoreau, his choice to isolate himself from society in his good friend Ralph Waldo Emerson’s cabin on the edge of a Massachusetts town for two years was much more than a search for self-reliance, both in and beyond our world, but it was a calculated experiment which would evaluate the economic, spiritual, and social benefits of living a simplistic lifestyle. Noting people’s curiosity in his experiment, he created a book examining what he was doing and what he had learned that would undoubtedly go on to inspire thousands since its publication. He had only the occasional distraction of visitors and his visits to town every few days as he spent those two years reading classical literature and writing, and going beyond it by experiencing the sounds and sights and solitude of nature for himself, learning as much as one could ever learn about oneself in the process. He frowned on the consumerist and materialist attitudes of his time, something I and many I know do as well. This is a prison I am yet to escape, but I am digging the tunnel.

Joseph Campbell, a writer I ferociously admire for his works in comparative religion and mythology, also took the untraditional autodidactic route to finishing his education. When his advisors did not support his choice of studies when pursuing his doctorate at Columbia University, he backed out, spending the next five years studying and writing and learning on his own, nine hours on average each day. He never again returned to graduate school, yet became one of the most respected and widely read writers in his field (and became close friends with one of my favorite American authors, John Steinbeck, in the meantime). “Follow your bliss,” he famously coined. And he did. And Thoreau did. And Kanzius did. I have not – at least, not yet.

I am not Alexander Supertramp – I just don’t have the necessary survival skills nor the mental determination nor even the desire – but there would be a liberation in shedding one’s traditional lifestyle of societal acceptable routine and throwing aside the bureaucratic institution of education for one’s own, making my way across countries, learning from those I meet, learning from what I choose to read, learning from seeing and doing and experiencing. After all, is there an education more valuable than that which is self-taught and self-motivated?

Astute Observation of the Moment #6

No matter how much you know, no matter how much you think, no matter how much you plot and you connive and you plan, you’re not superior to sex. It’s a very risky game. A man wouldn’t have two-thirds of the problems he has if he didn’t venture off to get fucked. It’s sex that disorders our normally ordered lives. I know this as well as anyone.

-Philip Roth, The Dying Animal

Guess who is going to learn a new language?

Okay, let me rephrase that: guess what schmuck is going to attempt to learn a new language… probably not fluently, but maybe enough to passably understand what someone may be trying to convey if a desperate situation were ever to arise and so I can put a check on the “Speaks Second Language” box on a job application thus increasing my value as a potential employer.

In actuality, I have absolutely zero idea how this is going to work, but I discovered on the Erie Country Library website, they offer free online language lessons called Mango to anyone that has a library card. I’m talking Spanish here, I’m talking French, I’m talking German, Greek, Arabic, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and Russian. Since I have some free time in my hands between subbing and waitering, I am going to start with the one language that is most practical being a teacher who wants to move somewhere where it doesn’t snow 8 months out of the year: Spanish. Apparently, it is one hundred online lessons that one can do at their own pace and will give a general understanding of the language. According to the site itself:

Mango uses real-life situations and actual conversations to more effectively teach a new language. By listening to and repeating after material designed from native conversations, you’ll not only learn the individual words and phrases, you’ll know how they’re used in practical situations and conversations. You’ll learn more than grammar, vocabulary and conjugation, you’ll learn how to communicate.

Interesting… and the best part is that it is free, so if after spending some hours on this I find it worthless, then no big loss besides a few hours of my time (and maybe my pride for being STUPID). Since I have two years of high school Spanish under my belt, hopefully much of this will come back to me quickly. I will keep you posted as to if it is a worthwhile expenditure of one’s time or not. If it works though, expect me to be fluent is seven languages by the end of this week.

Ol’ Blue Eyes

“I’m not unmindful of a man’s seeming need for faith. I’m for anything that gets you through the night, be it prayer, tranquilizers, or a bottle of Jack Daniels.”

-Frank Sinatra, 1962

‘The Golden Age of Video’ by Ricardo Autobahn

Watch this. It will be nothing like you expect, I assure you, and probably your best three minutes spent all day. It is actually pretty catchy also.

You can download an MP3 version of it right here.

Concert Review: Them Crooked Vultures

It was a four hour trip between my home in Pennsylvania and the venue I was headed to in Columbus, Ohio – and while I knew that I had work bright and early the next morning, it was no more than an afterthought as I made the journey to see what I knew to be a rock concert of epic proportions – one of only ten gigs in the US on this new superband’s first tour. The band, who calls themselves Them Crooked Vultures, is the most exciting combination of musical talent in years. I couldn’t let something like work obligations get in the way.

It all began on the fortieth birthday of the coolest guy in rock, Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, which in unsurprising and amusing Grohl fashion, was held at a Medieval Times. There, Grohl conveniently sat the legendary Led Zeppelin bassist and keyboardist John Paul Jones next to Queens of the Stone Age founder Josh Homme, two musicians that had never met, but by the end of the night had agreed to Grohl’s proposition that they join him for a little musical side-project. It was there, among the jousting knights in shining armor, that Them Crooked Vultures was born – Homme on lead vocals and guitar, Jones doing his thing on the bass and keyboard, and Grohl taking a step out of the spotlight to go back to his first love, the drums.

I recognized that this was a concert experience that I shouldn’t pass up.. The band had yet to release their album or even a single. Their sound was still a mystery and their entire set would be unknown to the entire audience. It seemed like we would be experiencing a concert much like before the digital age of MP3 downloading and MySpace band profiles afforded one the ability to memorize every lyric before ever attending a concert. There would be no crowd sing-a-longs here, but after experiencing it, I assure you, it wasn’t necessary.

We arrived at the venue two hours before the doors opened. Eager to secure our spot next to the stage we hopped into the already forming line, geeking out a bit with those in line next to us as the anticipation built. When the doors finally opened, the venue was flooded with the sold-out crowd of three-thousand. I was surprised by the small size of the venue’s interior, but pleased with the intimate atmosphere it provided and more pleased with securing that coveted spot immediately front and center.

When the band finally took stage amidst the roar of the crowd, they ripped their way through a head-banging song fit for a single titled “Elephants,” followed by Homme introducing the band one by one with much applause and cheers, before pointing towards the man holding the bass guitar. “And this is…” he began, but before he could finish, the crowd was deafening. Despite how low profile he has been since Led Zeppelin’s demise, John Paul Jones needed no introduction.

The trio (along with a fourth concert-only guitarist) continued to jam through their set and despite the fact that the crowd did not know these songs, it did not stop the crowd from head-banging, dancing, clapping, or throwing their hands in the air. The music is hard to define, but it is certainly loud, big, and both back to the basics yet deceptively intricate. It is adventurous hard rock, blending riffs very reminiscent of Queens of the Stone Age with the bluesy thunderous rock of Led Zeppelin.

I’ve never been shy to admit my man crush on Dave Grohl and it was great to see him smile throughout the entirety of the show as he absolutely smashed on the drums brilliantly as if he were Animal from The Muppets. I’m still wondering how he did not manage to break his drumset or his nose. I appreciated how he took his role as the drummer with modesty, using his microphone only for backup vocals, never once uttering a word into it, despite knowing that if he said absolutely anything, the crowd would have got berserk. He was having plenty of fun though and winked and smiled his way through the show, at one point even giving my friend standing next to me a thumbs up, and another time jokingly shaking his head and giving a thumbs down when Homme was talking about how much fun they had playing together.

Still, it wasn’t Dave that had most of my attention. It was John Paul Jones that left me in awe from the moment he took the stage. He thumped and slid on an array of bass guitars, then busted out a keytar (which had Homme drop his guitar and dance around stage in goofy-fasion as he sang), and then finally what I was anticipating most, in the midst of a song, the lights dimmed, and like rays from heaven, a single spotlight focused on Jones as he set down his bass to perform a beautiful, classically inspired keyboard solo that gave me chills and left the crowd mesmerized. Words cannot explain.

These guys were there to rock out, to have a good time, and to put on one hell of a show – and they succeeded on all fronts. Despite Homme not being the most charismatic frontman and his disinterest in crowd interaction, and despite the audience being unfamiliar with the music, in my eyes (as well as those I discussed it with after), none of that was needed. It was ninety minutes straight of mind-blowing hard old-school jamming that ended with an epic five-minute odyssey of astonishing fingerwork on the strings accompanied by insanely wild percussion. Them Crooked Vultures may not be break into mainstream radio, but you can tell that this unlikely combination of musicians don’t mind. They’re having too damn good of a time.

Pulling the plug on my healthcare.

One of the many unfortunate aspects of not securing a full-time position after graduating college is the lack of health benefits. Considering my reckless lifestyle, that is something that I appreciate having (and something many young people take for granted when they are under mommy’s or daddy’s plan). I am no longer considered a dependent of my parents and as such, was dropped from their plan on the first of September. I was surprised the other day when I received paperwork in the mail from their healthcare company, so I opened it, and was again surprised when I read that enclosed was a “Health Benefits Continuation Plan Enrollment Form.” In other words, they wanted to keep me as a customer. I figured as a recent graduate who is stuck being a substitute teacher and waiter, they would entice me with a young person straight-out-of-college bargain deal.

My premium if I want to have healthcare? Only a cool $364.64 a month.

Gee.

I reckon if I didn’t have a car payment, car insurance, a cell phone bill, some credit card debt, and student loans, if I had a car that ran on sunlight rather than petrol, if I didn’t need to eat three meals a day, then maybe I could pull that. Needless to say, I’m going to have to decline their offer. My life just isn’t worth that much.

It is going to be another great year at the movies.

I hate the Fall and Winter because of the cold (it is October 2nd and it is a rainy 48 degrees and this makes me sad), but I love this time of the year because of the movies. We trudge through the early part of the year getting mostly the movies that the studio dumps there because they are crap, then Spring and Summer come, which are mostly crowd-pleasing blockbusters, which can be fun but are mostly unmemorable and mindless, but then this time of year comes and we get those movies that are really worth watching. They are the movies that stick with you, the ones being talked about for years to come, the ones winning many of the awards.

Last year was a pretty awesome year for movies (here’s my ten favorite from last year) and this year looks to be the same. Here are ten movies that haven’t been released yet that I am really looking forward to seeing, along with trailers for each. Feel free to share what it is you are looking forward to watching the most.

Foo Fighters are Footastic

In case you haven’t heard it, here is “Wheels,” the brand spankin’ new single from Foo Fighters off of their upcoming “Greatest Hits” album. The album also has a second new song on it also, titled “Word Forward,” although we might have to wait for the November 3rd release date to hear that one.

This new song, which you can listen to below, is classic Foo and I’m digging the shades of Tom Petty’s “Learning to Fly” in it. You can view all of tracks selected for the “Greatest Hits” album here, and they are the songs most expected, the popular ones that had the most airplay. I suppose that is why they are called “Greatest Hits” and not “Greatest Songs.”

Since I haven’t made a list in ages, I put together my own personal list of the fifteen tracks that would make a Foo Fighters “Greatest Songs” album were I to be the one put in the position of selecting them. In fact, I’m going to burn this compilation right now.

1. “Come Alive”
2. “Hey, Johnny Park!”
3. “Everlong”
4. “February Stars”
5. “Come Back”
6. “Best of You”
7. “Time Like These”
8. “Cold Day in the Sun”
9. “How I Miss You”
10. “The Pretender”
11. “Let it Die”
12. “The Last Song”
13. “Aurora”
14. “Stacked Actors”
15. “Hell”

I’m going on a diet for the first time in… ever.

It’s time to submerge myself in a test of self control – and I have a feeling this is going to be a difficult experiment, because I have an addiction and addictions are hard to break according to the dictionary definition. The addiction is not crack, smack, or black tar heroin, but food, and particularly food that is hellbent on destroying human bodies one gram of saturated fat at a time. Had I not been genetically blessed with such an absurdly fast metabolism (and to give myself a little credit here, stayed so physically active over the years), there is no doubt that I would be morbidly obese. Or, well, at least chubby. Besides that one-year period during my junior year of college, I’ve never really cared to watch what I eat. I’ve never had to. As I brought up the other day though, I have gained twelve pounds in a significantly short period of time – something I can only assume can be attributed to the beginnings of my metabolism slowing as well as a general lack of physical activity (okay, and a general disregard for my body lately, going on borderline abuse). I admit my guilt in the falling out of my five-day-a-week gym routine in favor of making hollow excuses, whether it be the job hunting, the being too tired from teaching, or opting to go out with friends.

No more excuses though. I’ve made a challenge to myself, with a vague set of rules – a challenge that began on September 24th (yes, I have the shakes as I type this) and will go on until October 24th. The rules:

1) I’m going vegetarian – Yes, I actually ordered a veggie sub the other day, which would certainly have some people snickering if they were to find out. I am going to be one of those cheating vegetarians though. Fish and eggs are okay. I need protein after all and I don’t want to feel obligated to spread peanut butter on everything I eat. Plus, protein is going to needed when I…

2) Get back into my gym routine – 4 times a week. No exceptions. If the week is up and I have only gone twice times, I have to go twice in one day. One major perk of Snap Fitness in Edinboro: they’re open 24-hours a day and I’ve taken advantage of that on many occasions.

3) No soda – under any circumstances. I don’t care how much my body and brain beg for the caffeine. I need to get over that addiction anyway.

4) Replace 2% milk with 1% or skim – and really, this milk that is stripped of its fatty-goodness, milk that I used to consider a crime to drink, really isn’t so bad. In fact, I kind of like it (my dairy farmer grandfather would probably be shaking his head at me in shame if he were still around). This will significantly cut down on my fat intake, as I’ve been known to drink a good half-gallon of milk a day.

5) No fast food – in fact, no deep fried foods whatsoever. That means no french fries, no pizza logs, and no deep fried fish. In other words, 80% of tasty foods are no longer a part of my diet for the next month.

This should be interesting. The experiment ends on October 24, 2009 at 11:59 PM. I hope I have the willpower to hold out. This is being done not just for health reasons or a test of my self control, but also as a preventative measure for the future (I’m not delusional enough to think I am fat by any stretch of the imagination) and trying to promote a general overall healthy lifestyle. Plus, I really need to get that six pack that I had last summer back. If I can go a month without these foods and soda, perhaps my cravings for fatty, health-sabotaging foods will subside.

I don’t know. I’m making this up as I go.

We must band together with the power of prayer to destroy Islam!

Please, take the time to read this – and if you feel inclined to do so, join in on the discussion. I spent more time on this than I did on most papers during my undergrad.

Being subjected to anti-Islamic links on my Facebook newsfeed is one way to get me riled up. Even though it was an old high school friend of mine – who happens to be a very cool, nice, attractive woman, mind you – I had to hold back my impulse to tear to shreds her comment and everything that the website she posted propagated. I knew when the “article” she posted was titled “Urgent Nationwide Call to Prayer,” that I was in for something that was going to raise my blood pressure and I was right. I was appalled, but unsurprised, by what I read.

My first problem was with my friend’s description of the link, which said: “I support this and am concerned, I hope you are too.”

I am not concerned. I did not understand her concern. I did not understand the concern of the website either. Yes, I understood what they were saying their concern was, but with the site making such absurd comments and allegations, I almost took it for a brilliant piece of satire – that is until I saw that the religious nutjob Lou Engle, the bigoted KKK-supporting Louisiana politician Tony Perkins, and Dr. James Dobson’s wife are all involved. It did not take me long to realize that this website is nothing more than anti-Islamic propaganda – not to mention extremely offensive. Do we ever want to mend the relationship between America and Muslims or are Christians really that hellbent on fueling anti-American sentiment by being closed-minded, delusional, propaganda-spreading assholes?

Now, time to destroy this website on my blog, because it sickens me. From the article:

It is critical that the church in America understands the times and what needs to be done now. The natural things speak of the invisible. Natural happenings on the earth are revealing something that is going on in the spiritual realm. There is a great spiritual conflict with a rising tide of Islamic boldness being manifested.

Talk about poetically epic. Muslims have really upped the ante and we must be on the brink of total annihilation as a country during these critical times. What is this “Islamic boldness being manifested” of which you speak? What is this we must worry about with such desperation? Read on.

Several happenings are converging this week. First of all, our President has recently proclaimed, honored, encouraged the Muslim holy days of prayer and fasting called Ramadan. He was very silent on the National Day of Prayer but very vocal on the support of Ramadan.

Yes, President Obama released a video marking the first day of the holy month of Ramadan, commending religious organizations including Islamic ones that have helped out during these tough times with their community service efforts. You can watch his address below.

What could he possibly be thinking? Perhaps he is trying to help heal the shaky relations between Muslims and America? Could he be attempting to instill a sense of confidence in American Muslims, who in the wake of the attacks on 9/11 have faced serious prejudice?
Or would that just be too logical of an assumption? It is almost comical that the President’s call for a “sustained effort to listen to each other, to learn from each other, to respect one another, and to seek common ground” has been lost on so many Christians in America.

As for Obama being “very silent” on the National Day of Prayer, which I might remind you is an observance for people of all faiths and not just Christians, he did indeed do something different than what has been done during the past eight Bush-filled years, something I personally find commendable. While Bush made a White House event out the National Day of Prayer day every year, inviting American religious leaders and having some prayers and fancy cheese and crackers to make everyone feel tolerant and accepting for an hour or so, President Obama chose not to do this, outraging many prominent Christians – but he did release a statement through press secretary Robert Gibbs who said that, “Prayer is something that the president does everyday. … I think the president understands, in his own life and in his family’s life, the role that prayer plays.” Regardless, Obama still signed the National Day of Prayer proclamation to recognize the day. Apparently, this is not enough for some (although atheists, agnostics, and humanists across the nation are very pleased by this separation). Moving on.

Interestingly at the same time a major Christian leader of the Emergent Church called for forty days of fasting and prayer in the same Ramadan period with the goal that the church will better understand our Muslim friends. We are all for understanding but we must have spiritual discernment as to the spiritual dark powers that are being invoked into our nation.

In other words, “We are all for understanding, unless you do not believe what we believe, in which case you are evil and trying to destroy America.” Now, what is this terrible, terrible thing that the Muslims are up to with their spiritual dark powers?

[O]n the 25th of September, Muslims are calling for a Muslim Day of Prayer in Washington DC (http://www.islamoncapitolhill.com/). They are calling for 50,000 Muslims to gather and pray on the DC Mall.

This is the exact word of one of the Sheikhs who is leading this historic gathering, “Muslims should march on the White House. We are going to the White House so that Islam will be victorious, Allah willing, and the White House will become into a Muslim house.” These are not empty words. They speak of a dark spiritual intent and a coming day of great trouble to America.

They provide this alleged-quote without context or any source or even the name of this leader (or Sheikh, which simply is an honorable term often given to distinguished Islamic scholars). Using Google to find the source of this quote only leads to other Bible-thumping, anti-Islamic sites that also do not provide any context, source, or name. After some major digging, I was fortunately able to track down the original quote though which was made during an interview with Islamic scholar and imam of the Islamic Center in New York, Dr. Ahmad Dwidar. Does it come to surprise you that they took the quote out of context, as he was describing a comment he heard made by an Islamic cleric, a comment that he goes on to condemn? Here is the original quote, verbatim: “One cleric said in his sermon: ‘We are going to the White House, so that Islam will be victorious, Allah willing, and the White House will become into the Muslim house.’” Surprise, surprise. But again, regardless of his views, radical or not, he is on in 50,000. Yes, out of 50,000 Muslims that attend, I believe there will be plenty in attendance with extremist views (remember, I am not a fan of religion in general, but I am a fan of tolerance, which is why this propaganda is so upsetting), just as if you go to any conservative rally, there are Christians willing to “burn something down” like some of the nutjobs at the DC Tea Party a few weeks ago.

Now these events are enough to awaken us to this significant throbbing moment, but when they all converge it becomes a massive spiritual alarm that must be responded to by the praying Church. This convergence, I believe, is urgently summoning us in the midst of the rising tide of Islamic influence in America to recognize that our God is above every god [in your uneducated opinion] and that if we return to Him with all of our hearts and call upon Him with fasting and prayer then God could use what the enemy meant for evil to bring about a great day of salvation for Muslims in America.

In other words – and they aren’t really be too subtle, are they? – they are calling Muslims, people that follow the Islamic religion, evil. Come on. Dare I even bring up some of the atrocities that Christians have committed over the past two-thousand years? I mean… really?

First of all, we cannot be passive as a Church to let these kinds of developments go on without being challenged in the spirit. Our fight is not against Muslims, it is against principalities, powers, and forces of darkness.

Holy shit… did they really just say that?

We are calling the Church of America at the end of Ramadan, from September 21st through 25th, to five days of concerted prayer. On Friday, September 25th, the Muslim Day of Prayer, we are calling the Church of America to fast and pray that Muslims would be moved by the Holy Spirit, convicted by the testimony of Christ, and even be visited by Jesus in dreams. We must pray that God would restrain the spiritual powers behind Islam and grant us the great awakening that we desperately need for America.

Fortunately, their praying to God is about as useful as praying to Superman. God forbid (irony intended) that people have opposing viewpoints on something as personal as religion – despite the fact that Christians and Muslims both worship the same god anyway, Yahweh, the god of Abraham and the Old Testament. My fear is that these people will eventually realize that their prayers are not making a difference and they decide to act out with more extreme measures against Muslims – or wait, are we already doing that in Iraq? I kid. Sort of.

Before I end this, feel free to read over the anti-Islamic propaganda website, which is titled The Call. For the official website for the Islamic gathering in DC, you can click right here. And please, folks, remember the moral of this story: before spreading hurtful lies and propaganda, do some research. Look at the sources. Read quotes in full context. You know also, even after reading this piece that I wrote, you should be fact checking me. When earlier in this post, I called out Tony Perkins for being a supporter of the KKK, did that rouse your interest enough to check into it? I wrote that description with a certain intent and if you immediately accepted it as fact, with not even an inkling of curiously, therein lies the problem. Maybe the most important moral to learn from all of this though: quit imposing your fucking religion on others.

I want to close this with an excerpt from a nauseatingly offensive piece written by Christian extremist J. Grant Swank, Jr. on a website called The Post Chronicle, a site that says it has one goal in mind, “to deliver honest, compelling, timely news and information that offers insight and information designed to engage and excite.” Laughable.

Obama has made it clear that he sides up gladly to atheists. Atheists do not like the National Day of Prayer. Therefore, while atheists had nothing to do with the establishing of our Christian heritage as a Republic, Obama is the first President to give them acclaimed status.

It is intolerable that unbelievers are put on the same level as biblical believers. The atheists can find refuge politically in nations that esteem no deity; but they certainly are not to be given praise in America.

Obama stated in his inaugural address that atheists and Muslims are to be honored as well as Christians. Why that sentence was written into that address is beyond reason. Obama is quickly ridding our nation of its biblical ethics and Christian backdrop. …

Is there any doubt that Marxist Muslim Barrack Hussein Obama is ready to open wide the Republic to Islam?

Please – leave your thoughts, your questions, your concerns. I will reply to everything.

Random Ramblings of the Poor and Irrelevant

I am truly, madly, deeply in love with this protest sign used in retaliation against right-wing bigots who use Biblical scripture (Leviticus 18:22: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination”) to support their stance against gay marriage in our country. If you know me, you know about my fascination with world religions – why some religions throughout history have taken off and others not, the bastarization of religion for personal and political gain, and the corruption of the Catholic church throughout European history being my passions. It is something that I study and read about on my own time, for the sole reason that it interests me. Last year, I read through the entire King James version of the Christian Bible and the Hilali-Khan translation of the Qur’an, and while I find them incredibly significant and important books which help in our interpretation world history, reading them did no more but fuel my thoughts that our biggest problem as mankind is religion, specifically organized religion that influences government policymaking. It is nonsensical when people pick and choose what words of their god to follow and what they feel is “outdated” for the modern world – or in other words, not beneficial to their own desires.

Now, here come my random thoughts for the day.

I am beginning to fear that I am going to spend the rest of my life just thinking about what it is that I want to do, rather than actually doing it – that my life will be lived thinking of what I am going to do the following year, all the while paying bill after bill after bill and being generally discontent. Of course, I recognize this as a natural part of my brain’s attempt to cope with every single one of my post-graduation plans falling through, but it is a thought that is there nonetheless, ever-present, at least for the moment (i.e. until I get some of this debt paid off). Is that not the way that most people live though, knee-deep in debt, discontent, and unremarkable? Even if I refuse to let this happen, I wonder if every one at one point in their lives has refused, until one day they felt they had no choice but to give in to what was easier, or more logical, or more accepted by society.

Now that I am out of school and have an abundance of free time due to a lack of schoolwork and lesson plans for the first time in as long as I can remember, I can keep up with the unprecedented amount of quality television shows with which I have become acquainted. I have not been much of a TV guy since graduating high school, but with technology nowadays extending the ability to watch any show that I would like on my own time, I’ve become hooked to a few: Californication (probably my favorite show on television, as Hank Moody lives a lifestyle that I would gladly take as my own), Curb Your Enthusiasum, The Office, South Park, and now the new Jason Schwartzman starring Bored to Death. Now that they are all starting their new seasons, this will be two and a half hours each week that I will be attempting to put aside for these shows. I suggest you do the same, because seriously, they are awesome.

Let’s just say I never saw this coming, but I should have expected it. I have gained twelve pounds since the beginning of 2009. Seeing as I have kept a consistent weight of 150 pounds since the age of fourteen, this came as quite a surprise when I stepped on the scale for the first time since the year began and it registered 162. After I did I double take, I immediately recognized that this is not twelve pounds of muscle, since my gym attendance has been all but nonexistent since the year began, when my severe lack of time forced me out of my five-day-a-week gym routine that I had going on. I know that I haven’t been living the most healthy of lifestyles (actually, my body has taken quite the abuse fairly regularly lately), so I am starting to articulate in my mind a new plan, a challenge to myself for a month or so – although I’m not entirely sure what the challenge will consist of yet. I think it will involve going cold-turkey on a few things, including John’s Wildwood pizza, fast food, and soda while I get back to the much healthier eating habits that I had my junior year of college (it is just unfortunate how expensive it is to eat healthy). Most importantly, I need to get back into my gym routine. No more using the “I’m too tired from teaching” or “I need to look for jobs” as an excuse like I have been. One year ago I was in the absolute best shape of my life and now a year later I am in my worst, much thanks to my own abuse and I assume a general slowing of my metabolism. I’m only 23 years old though. I’m not even close to being ready to actually look out of shape, so it is time to use some preventative measures before I turn into a beer-bellied skinny-armed old guy. If only it weren’t so much easier to not work out, than to work out.

I am growing my hair long for the first time in my life. I haven’t cut it since mid-July and I vow to at least wait until Christmas to cut it. If I decide that I like it and want to keep it, then all the more wonderful. I figure why not?

I am very happy to hear that table games have been legalized in Pennsylvania.

I remember being sixteen years old, flooring the gas on Kinter Hill, my speedometer gaging speeds of over 120 mph – and I would never even flinch. Nowadays, I hit 80 and my grip tightens on the steering wheel. Teens always act seemingly without examining the consequences – drinking, drugs, sex, whatever. While our understanding of it is that teens just don’t know any better, new studies are saying that while the “most common-sense explanation for teens’ carelessness is that their brains just aren’t developed enough to know better…, new research suggests that in the case of some teens, the culprit is just the opposite: the brain matures not too slowly but, perhaps, too quickly.” You can read about the study here, which is interesting, and may also help explain why intelligent and seemingly mature teenagers make so many stupid decisions.

Referring back to my previous post on marriage in the modern world, where I shared my anti-marriage sentiment but acknowledged the economic advantages, a new study by Time Magazine actually claims that the economic benefits of marriage are not nearly as significant as they once were. It’s an interesting read and one that closes with the [unsourced] statistic that 40% of children today are born out of wedlock. My support for the uselessness of marriage strengthens.

Also, be sure to check out this high-def video of my longtime friend’s Erie-based band Radio Empire (and for more tunes of theirs, click here). It’s fun indie pop and I’ve had the chance to see them play twice (and a handful of times in their former incarnation). If you’re in the Erie area on October 11th, they will be headlining their first show at Forward Hall in Erie. $8 for five bands, which begin playing at 6 PM.