I wanted to finish off the recent spate of documentaries with the high point of the series… One that we’ve been wanting to see ever since it came out. Of course I am speaking of Religulous! This movie is Bill Maher’s attempt to understand how people of faith can be people of faith (basically). In it he goes around the world to ask various people of faith to ask them how/why they believe the things that they do. Though he is focused on people who follow the various Abrahamic religions, the ground that he covers is quite wide-ranging. It includes: a trucker’s chapel (yes, at a truck stop), a holy land amusement park in Florida, a mosque in Jerusalem, a Moslem gay bar, an orthodox rabbi, some ex-Mormon’s in Salt Lake City, the Vatican and a U.S. congressman!
He makes it quite clear to these folks that he doesn’t for a minute believe that any of it is true and that he is just dying to know why it is that they do. This tact leads to quite a varied group of responses, though except for one of the “worshipers” at the truck stop, most of them do earnestly try to explain the foundations of their faith. These responses vary from interesting (in a somewhat startling fashion), entertaining, befuddling and downright insulting and scary (in the case of the congressman when he suggests that if it weren’t for the ten commandments that people might not have come to the conclusion that it is bad to kill each other).
Some of the most outstanding bits are the earnest attempts at explanation from the fellow who portrays Jesus at the amusement park, the woman at the amusement park who says that when Armageddon comes she’ll be flying through the sky on a big white horse, the bit about it being a miracle if it starts raining when you want it to and, my favorite, the priests at the Vatican who don’t seem to think that anything in the bible is meant literally.
While you could say that he is trying to be objective, I think that in a situation like this you can only be so objective… For a person not-of-faith to have a conversation with someone who is of-faith about their beliefs can be interesting, but having those conversations with dozens of people who all firmly believe in ultimate truths that contradict the other peoples ultimate truths, well, I think you would have to take most of they people say with a big grain of salt. Of course, as Maher has to have a point that isn’t just his opinion but also of greater import, he covers the dangers of faith… Specifically the danger inherent in people who actually want the end of the world to arrive because they believe that something better will come for them after that. Not really the safest way to think considering what kinds of weaponry modern civilization has at its disposal… Even if it were true, it still wouldn’t be a good thing for anyone whose belief system didn’t happen to be the correct one.
Taking advantage of the Netflix and Hulu.com streaming, I had a nice week of documentary watching. Of course, as I streamed them, their were some that I couldn’t get to much into and so felt quite free to halt. The ones that I completed though, consisted primary of these…
The King of Kong. Man, I’d been wanting to see this for a long. Time! The story of Billy Mitchell, the fellow who got the Donkey Kong world record (among many others) in the early 1980’s and another fellows recent attempt to defeat that record. Donkey Kong was one of the first games that I was “good” at (until that fateful day at the Red Robin on Burnside when punk-ass Jon beat me and I moved onto other games), so it was fun to watch this story… It was also somewhat gratifying to have them especially cover the difficulty of the Third Elevators as that level was my fatal downfall. What becomes somewhat surprising is the politics and cliquishness of the scene. The same major player have been around since the old days (including the fellow who is in charge of official records keeping) and they don’t seem to take to well towards new comers trying to unseat the champ.
Crawford. Uff. Man. The story of what happens to a small Texas town when the Governor of Texas decides to by a ranch in the town as he makes his play for President. I found that theme to not be as interesting as it was to listen to the things that these people have to say in general. Primarily non-analytical pro-government, pro-military, pro-god, anti-peace… I am always torn in that way that I do (or at least want to) appreciated the reputation of genuineness and community spirit shown by small town America, but also mortified by what they sometimes say in their attempts at honesty. I would almost rather that they behave in decent ways that are dishonest to themselves then have them believe that we can go and bomb all to hell any foreign country that we want for no legitimate reason. All in all, somewhat disturbing. In the few high-point’s to this town are a thoughtful teacher who tries to teach her students to think about things and be somewhat analytical and one youth who really does try to understand the truth and express it. By the end of the movie, neither of them are living in Crawford anymore…
Welcome to Macintosh. Now this is a good Macintosh documentary! Way better than that terrible Macheads that I watched a while back! It is a history of Apple, of the Macintosh and its development and of the followers of the mac. Covering Apple’s successes and missteps with interest and sincerity, it also has some good speakers, including Guy Kawasaki(!), Apple engineers, bloggers and a lot of people who were around Apple and the Mac in the old days. The filmmakers are obviously big fans of Apple and though they are strongly supportive of Steve and though they wisely tie the success of Apple to his vision, personality and his person itself, they aren’t blindly mired within his halo effect… Though some of the people interview in the movie are.
Forgiving Dr Mengele. This was an interesting and enlightening story. Forgiving Dr Mengele is the story of a woman who had been a prisoner in Auschwitz. Her and her sister where twins so they we, um, enlisted to be some of Doctor Mengele’s experimental subjects for his genetic testing. The women, now elderly, has decided that to continue on with her life she needs to put it behind her and forgive Dr Mengele. Not because his actions should be forgiven, but because she doesn’t want to spend the rest of her life under that cloud. Of course her decision is not taken well by a good portion of the Jewish community. There are some interesting other side trips… In one she starts a holocaust museum in the little town that she lives in and goes about educating the local school children and, two, she takes a trip to visit Palestinians. I thought that was most interesting as they primarily wanted to talk about the harm that has been done to them by the state of Israel, and she was really quite disinterested in hearing anything about that.
Following Sean was alright. The story of a fellow who lived in the Haight area right at the peak of the hippie thing who befriended a smart four year old hippie boy who lived upstairs. At one point, he asked the kid some questions in front of a camera and Sean mentioned some things about drug use and other hippie stuff. When the filmmaker originally released that footage way back when, he got famous and his movie got acclaim and criticism. Now, many years later, he decides to go back to San Francisco to see what all of those folks from old days are up to. It really didn’t spark much interest in me and the results of his quest aren’t particularly surprising or compelling.
Well, some news browsing over lunch led me to some “news” stories that bear repeating. From my main news source again, Slashdot, there was a sad piece of information from my younger days… Gary Gygax has passed away (if you don’t know who he is, don’t bother looking him up, you probably won’t want to know who he is…). A pivotal influence over many of my teen years, and those of a good number of folks I knew. Its not a shock or a tragic accident, but I still felt the urge to bring it up.
Also and more sad and tragic, a legislator in Florida, recoiling from the state requiring the teaching of, of all things, the theory of evolution, is pressing for a bill that would allow teachers to have the “right and freedom to present scientific information pertaining to the full range of scientific views regarding biological and chemical evolution.” Basically, to be able to teach whatever they want. Of course, it shouldn’t allow that, since I believe that “scientific” is generally held to mean investigating through evidence and reasoning, both of which are missing from creationist dogma.
Read here: Will the battle on science and evolution move to the Florida Legislature?.
Sure, there may be some issues with the evolution theory, but the concept is quite undeniable… After all, many creatures have been observed to change in accordance with their environment in recent memory (flu virus, anyone?)… The truth is hardly deniable, regardless of its stature as a “scientific theory”, as opposed to a “stupid theory” like these “(ahem) intelligent design (amen)” fans keep wasting everyone’s time with…
Hmm.. I suppose every teacher should be able to teach every subject exclusively in accordance with whatever personal beliefs they have, or have made up. Personally, if I am going to live in a fantasy land, I’ll make it up myself (or borrow it from Gygax) and won’t be concerned with what the courts and the public schools say about it… And I certainly won’t try and force it on school children. But on the positive side, I like to take i.d. as a sign that the christian creationists have finally come somewhat to grips with reality. After all this time of saying that Adam and Eve and the garden where true stories (even though they were just taken from the Babylonian myths anyway), the i.d. factions among them have basically agreed that those stories aren’t true after all (or maybe they are trying to pull another fast one on us non-believers, like Jehovah did with those dinosaur bones).
And, then finally (as my lunch break should be over now) from the Sunday Herald, this tidbit on how email is for old folks and too formal… “For most South Koreans, email is fit only for addressing the elderly, or for business and formal missives.”…
Read here: Why e-mail is so old-fashioned.
Sure, e-mail may be for old people now, but I must challenge the “too formal” claim. E-mail is way too informal, to say nothing of the crud that gets texted. I already have a hard time with how sloppy and informal e-mail is (in a hundred years will capitalization just be a forgotten theory?), the thought that people are going to get worse and lazier…
While I see the truth behind their points, I think (of course, speaking as an old person) that those are some sad truths. But I guess that society always changes and moves forward (technologically at least) and those of us who have already grown up tend to like to keep things that way that they were. Like Still listening to classic rock radio now, 30 years after the fact…
I was disappointed, yet relieved that my disc of Judge Dredd was not actually 183 minutes long as the case stated, 90 minutes really is enough. Though, don’t get me wrong, I’ve been fond of Judge Dredd since I first came across the Eagle comics versions in the early 80’s. While those were exciting action comics with a humorous side, these filmmakers sure forgot the golden rule of action movies: Action and comic relief don’t mix! Stallone is almost perfect as Dredd, and he has a great backing cast of much seriousity: the always fantastic Max von Sydow, the maybe-not-fantastic but always tensely exciting Jurgen Prochnow and the humorously bold Armand Assante were out to take care of business! But then, wait, what is this gnat under Dredd’s arm? Annoying both him and the filmgoer (and doing endless damage to the suspension of belief that is necessary to enjoy these kinds of films?) well, it is the always excruciating and untalented Rob Schneider! Pretending again to be comic relief, when he hasn’t a twinge of comic sense. Ruining the mood and soiling those wonderful sets!
But the movie? Well, it makes me think of lots of other movies, but the first one is Conan, even starting off with the narration and said narration being by James Earl Jones! Aside from that, the basic story: bad guys frame Dredd, Dredd escapes and comes back to set things straight, people die left and right. Megacity One is reasonable, although 12 year old CGI doesn’t really do it, the story follows all of the expected twists and turns and it is pretty dumb, but it’s fun and Stallone, his manner, his physique, his voice? I think they do a great Dredd.
body by stallone, suit by versace
Oh yeah, I also watched Little Children tonight. One of those that was a good movie, but one I never want to see again. Why? Well, the subject matter revolved around multiple infidelities in a very serious manner and also had brushes with a child molester and with harassment, parental death and with people who’s lives were falling apart to the point where they had few options left. But it was a well done drama and quite involving story of two married people who start having an affair while their spouses are at work, the children who are the pivot around which this affair rests and the local sex offender.
I also watched The Linda McCartney Story. It was alright. At least it had George Segal who is fine. But the actors freaked me out, it was like they tried to hard to make them look like the Beatles, so they ended up just looking creepy and weird… And, while not ever having been a Beatles fan, I don’t take sides, but they really do take Paul’s side and make Yoko out to be a weirdo and a terrible influence on John and make John look like some kind of drugged up spazz.
Ok. I know that this is old and has been posted all over the internet, but I was rifling through my years of old emails at work and I stumbled on this and I figured that maybe it was old enough that folks could still get a little chuckle out of it…
Supposedly written by a Professor at the University of Virginia in response to a “god says no to gays” comment by Dr Laura…
Dear Dr. Laura:
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination… End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God’s Law and how to follow them.
1. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord – Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness – Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.
4. Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can’t I own Canadians?
5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2. The passage clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?
6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination – Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don’t agree. Can you settle this? Are there ‘degrees’ of abomination?
7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?
8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?
9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? – Lev.24:10-16. Couldn’t we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)
I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is eternal and unchanging.
Your adoring fan,
James M. Kauffman, Ed.D.
Professor Emeritus
Dept. of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education
University of Virginia
One of my greatest personal gains in my two year quest to give our store the best Atheism/Humanism selection in bookland (well, outside of stores specific to that) has been the discovery of Robert G Ingersoll. All of that new stuff we’re selling: God is not Great, The God Delusion, God: The Failed Hypothesis, The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, Breaking the Spell, Atheist Manifesto and all that great stuff from Promethus Books… It is very exciting and I’m glad that they are selling as well as they are, but personally, I have no reason to read any of them (well, I might try God is not Great, because I do like Christopher Hitchens and the subtitle, “How Religion Poisons Everything”, is awesome to see on the cover of a bestseller)…
Anyway, the best part for me (and the only one I really feel like reading) is Ingersoll. Just this week I found my “holy grail”! I’d been looking for a used copy of “Some Mistakes of Moses” and I found it in it’s best form… A nice copy of his Lectures, published in 1900. A cool old book filled with great witly wisdom. I highly recommend this work! The 19th century intelligentsia wit and the take no prisoners attitude behind his, “Just listen to what you’re saying!” stance is refreshing. It’s not your normal Christian bashing thing, but instead it is a point by point analysis and refutation of the nonsense that is the old testament. Such brilliant lines as:
“Theology is not what we know about god, but what we don’t know about nature.”
“The truth is that Moses was mistaken, and upon that mistake the Christians located their heaven and their hell. The telescope destroyed the firmament, did away with the heaven of the New Testament, rendered the ascension of our Lord and the assumption of his mother infinitely absurd, crumbled to chaos the gates and palaces of the New Jerusalem and in their places gave to man a wilderness of worlds “
Anyway, more on this later, when I’ve finished, but right now, hearing him take on the statements in Genesis with logic and reasoning is laugh out loud funny. The serpent? I know, I’ve never read this bible-thing so maybe it won’t come as such a shocking farce to those better read then I, but Man… The trouble is, he seemed to think that humanity would grow out of this… Which I’m not sure that it will.
Robert Green Ingersoll
I need to spend more time futzing with this code stuff, or get a better sense of aesthetics. I can futz around with these themes to my hearts delight (which, yes, does delight my heart some) and never like how they look.
Oh well, maybe I need a picture? Maybe I should try and stay away from black (yeah, that’s likely)? Well, whatever. Just another annoyance…
Like how I can never, ever, never get the last.fm/scrobblers to actually register the songs I play on my iPod (which is where I play my songs). I’ve tried 3 different scrobblers to get those songs to last.fm, two of them worked… Once.
So I stick with the album quilt, but that never changes. Some of those albums I played one song weeks ago and the same darned album is still appearing.
I feel like saying, “how come no one can get this right (mainly the last.fm application for not supporting iPods) “, but then again, that wouldn’t be fair, since I haven’t done it either…
And I am thinking that black is a bad color for links…
In more exciting news, the folks at pesky’apostrophe have some entertaining quotes in honor of the passing of The Most Reverend Jerry Falwell. Fun reading!
Pondering the endless horrid things in the news: the horrifying “intelligent design” (takes me back to the wonderful eugenics experiments of the 30’s-50’s, and the racist christian dogma of the late 19th century), Creationism (maybe humans were created by the penguin god? Anyone ever think of that? It makes just as much sense but sounds more fun to me), the overthrow of Iraq (didn’t the French, Russian, Indian and American revolutions teach us that if people really don’t like their government, they’ll get rid of it on their own?), the obliteration of the Palestinian people (weren’t the Jewish people at one time forced to wear ethnic ID and get crowded into walled up neighborhoods?) , Oil companies profiteering off of hurricanes, young girls turning up dead, the Crusades, heroin addiction, the Religious right’s hatred of the truth and the religious freedom that founded this country… Gets me to thinking about things. Things as in people and the funny things that they choose to do.
It makes me want to wile away some time pondering the way things are and why people fear reality so much (and I don’t just mean drug users). Ones perception of the world is as one makes it. There is no spirit world, no psychic world, no alien infestation, no zombies, no alternate realities. All that garbage just causes problems. This new (to me) notion that the religious right supports: pollution, wars and hatred because they see those as the steps leading to armageddon? Those fools will kill us all, in the name of their pre-historic ignorance! Could there be people as evil as people who are hoping to destroy everything in the hope that their warped beliefs will send them to the promised land? How can people be soo obtuse as to not realize that the Judeo-Christian god (stolen from the Babylonians anyway), is as unreal (though much more boring) as Re and the Boat of a Million Years and Thor and his Hammer of Thunderbolts.? The fear people having of living in a human world is shocking to me. Drug addicts, religious folk, racists… Do the penguins fear living in the penguin world? I doubt it.
Though even with all this gibberish going on, I believe that all people are inherently good and responsible. They can be easily fouled up by experiences and environment and can easily be taught to think bad things. Everyone has the ability to make there lives into anything they like, regardless of circumstances. Sure, most people don’t get around to it. I’m doing in slowly myself. But, it’s not like I can’t. And it’s not like anyone else can’t.
All of the problems that people cause themselves and others are due to their insecurities. Greed, lust, arrogance, religious faith, violence… All have their roots in people not feeling good or confident in themselves. Sometimes those are deeply taught values so it seems like it’s their “culture” not their insecurities. But no, thats what it really is. That’s why in every environment there is always someone who sees the right way things should be done, even if they have the same background. They have the luck (or misfortune) to begin to see why things are how they are.
Why do some religious folks have such a strong fear of non-religious or other religions? Because they fear losing their faith. Why do they fear losing their faith? Because they have soo little confidence in who and what they are that their faith becomes their anchor to the world and the thought of losing it seems like losing yourself. Therein lies all fear of loss. Our place in the world is made of who we have decided we are, losing some of that, whatever it may be, can lead to extreme psychological and emotional damage. The keys? Either re-define yourself into something different than you thought you were or cope with being who you are.
Anyway. That’s enough of my ranting. But, I guess that’s what Blogs are for!
Now onto movies!
I neglected to mention last time that I watched School of Rock. Of course, I was quite reluctant to watch this. It being a comedy and all and though I have liked Jack Black in the past, I used to have to suffer through his musical outfit and it caused me some distress. Anyway. I watched it and I really found it quite endearing and entertaining. I was surprised by and liked how much it focused on music from the days of my youth, and the kids weren’t bad and Jack was plenty entertaining and the terrible band at the Battle was just a little too realistic…
I also watched Kontroll. It was a great movie! A little odd but very good, well directed, visually great, well acted and interesting. I liked the grittiness of it and that it never left the subway. The plot, or at least the way it was presented was very engaging. I don’t know, as always, what else to say. If you like foreign movies with a gritty low-budget kind of feel that are maybe a bit dark. This might be for you. I also love subways so that was a big added plus. highly recommended!
I than watched Point Blank. Lee Marvin is always an exciting fellow to watch and though the movie didn’t seem like it might be all that much, the direction (did Boorman ever go wrong?) and the visuals and Lee Marvin and Carrol O’Conner and John Vernon (why did he get such low billing?), those were all top notch aspects. The action scenes were really great too, once you witness the fight between Angie Dickenson and Lee Marvin, you just can’t go back!
Also on the agenda was Catch Me if You Can. Yes, it was finely entertaining. An intriguing story… But Tom Hank’s accent bothered me a bit.
I also watched, To Catch a Thief. I couldn’t really get into it. It was fine and all, though I don’t really like Cary Grant, but it didn’t really live up to what I expect from Hitchcock. The movies of his that I love: The Lady Vanishes, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, Vertigo… Maybe even Rope if you can find a version that doesn’t give it away at the beginning… Those are all masterful suspense movies. I found nothing like that in this one. It was kind of “just a movie”. But it was alright.