Take a Lesson John-Boy by Miz Pink

Okay dokay here we go.

No doubt all of you in blogland have heard about that John Mayer interview with Playboy Magazine and even if you don’t know who the hell he is and I sure didn’t except vaguely that he sang some crap, you no doubt know about things like talking about his “hood pass” and using the N-word and talking about how his penis is like a white supremacist because he only boinks white chicks.

Nothing new here. Just want to preface that Johnny is young, virile, healthy and can speak but has diarrhea of the mouth and no home training and should shut the heck up.

Oh, article here by the by: www.playboy.com/articles/john-mayer-playboy-interview/index.html?page=1

On the other hand I just learned that Roger Ebert the movie critic hasn’t been able to speak for the past four years and the Esquire Magazine article about him is just heartbreaking (in good and bad ways). Deke shared with me some of the Twitter posts that Roger has done and all I can say is, this is a man who cannot speak but has loads to say and does it well.

John Mayer should take lesssons from him.

Esquire article about Mr Ebert here: www.esquire.com/print-this/roger-ebert-0310

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Health Care Deform by Miz Pink

So, I’m just wondering, as Barack Obama seems to get a little wimpy on the health care reform thang…and as all those folks who aren’t rich talk about socialized medicine being the final step toward a socialist dictatorship…how many of those yahoos that are mouthing off right now either have relatives who get Medicare or are bitter old twits on Medicare themselves?

And I wonder, what if the President just yanked Medicare away and told all those folks that they or their relatives would have to pay out of pocket now?

I figure they’d either be begging to have their “socialized medicine” back or they would be carrying even more guns around to shoot the Prez for taking away their “right” to healthcare in old age.

Either way, it would kinda prove the point wouldn’t it?

The government has been running Medicare for a long time. It ain’t perfect but it’s done a lot for the elderly to get care. It’s a system with flaws but one that works. So why is it so hard to think that getting the government involved in everyone’s health is such an evil idea?

Oh yeah…because they’re ignorant boobs who do whatever ole Rush or Glen or Annie “Get your guns” Coulter tell ’em to do…why use logic or have an idea of your own in your head when you can just follow the right-wing rulebook straight to the end of your life.

Don’t worry though. Without health care reform, you can all die in your 40s or 50s like your grand-daddies did so it wont be  a LONG life.

Pity that the rest of us who know better will be dying just as early.

Screw you.

Stupid Christians

So, mostly, I’ve grown accustomed to people making blanket statements about how Christians are basically stupid.

That is, if you are strong in your belief or faith  you have automatically abandoned all ability to think logically, think critically, question authority, or have any objective opinion worth hearing.

My latest reminder of that is in a comment under the “Christian Sans” post at Deus Ex Malcontent, part of which comment goes:

I only think it is pathetically sad that religious people can only think in terms of right and wrong according to their God of choice, and not in terms of “Okay, how or why does this person do or think this?” Religion gets in the way of objective thought, period. There is no question in my mind that anyone who professes to me to be highly religious is also highly retarded and sheep-like in their morality and almost undoubtedly opinionated to the point of absolute frustration.

I know the commenter didn’t really call out Christians specifically, but really, that’s the group that mostly gets called out on stupidity via faith. Next up on the list to get slammed are the Muslims, but because of concerns about racial and ethnic slurs, liberal and progressive folk (I consider myself fairly liberal and progressive by the way, despite my total faith in God the Father and Jesus the Lord) don’t pick on them as much. I have yet to really hear anyone slam Jews for lacking the ability to think, except from time to time when truly conservative Jews or Israel’s policies come up. Scientologists get slammed too, but that isn’t really a religion…it’s a cultish L. Ron Hubbard fan club. And as yet, I have heard zero comment about lack of intelligence among Buddhists, Wiccans (or other Pagans), Hindus, etc.

Anyway, my point isn’t to rant about how this irritates me, partly because it irritates me less than it used to, if only because I’m developing thicker emotional calluses.

My point is that I think when people slam the intelligence of religious folks, they miss the point. Generally speaking, there are many intelligent and thoughtful people with strongly held religious beliefs. Yes, even Christians. The problem isn’t with people who put their faith in Jesus…or Allah…or Whomever. The problem is with people who blindly follow a religious leader or religious institution. It’s generally organizations and leaders who put wrongheaded thoughts into people’s heads in a way that makes them really stick.

You see, I don’t put my faith in an institution. Nor even a specific denomination. At various times in my life, I’ve been Catholic, Baptist, Congregational and totally non-denominational. That’s because I go to a church to get community and to get my soul feed through the hearing of the Word of God, not to join a damn club. It’s being around people with some common touchpoints and it’s about getting a little edification. When a pastor or institution makes me feel unwelcome, when it starts creating its own special dogma or rules for people to follow aside from God’s, or when it just gets boring or silly or rude, I leave. I find a new church home.

My loyalty isn’t to a pastor or a physical church. My loyalty is to The Church, with a capital “c.” The one that God wanted established through Jesus. Now, keeping my eye on what Jesus taught and told us to do, and filtering that through most of what the New Testament writers shared…well, I can do pretty damn well being accepting of all sorts of people and holding all sorts of opinions and even having many intelligent thoughts about the world.

I don’t base my politics on my religious beliefs. I don’t base my science on the Book of Genesis. I don’t pick and choose whom I will befriend based on whether they believe what I believe.

And I know that I’m not alone in this. It may be that many Christians allow themselves to be sheeple. But at the same time, so do many people in general. They blindly follow their political leaders or their nation without a care in the world. They follow shopping trends or rack up their debt or buy shit that Sarah Jessica Parker wears…because they are often sheeple.

People in general have an aversion to deep reflection and critical thinking. And objective thinking in its truest form is pretty fucking rare. Most people don’t want to lead or dance to their own drumbeat. They want to be led.

That, my friends, is the problem. Not religion. Because while there are many deep-thinking atheists and agnostics, there are also plenty of them who are just as slavishly stupid as Christians are made out to be. They just choose entirely different ways to express it.

Holiday Mop-Up by Miz Pink

I see Deke bailed on us yesterday the lazy bum.

Not that I have much to say today either to be honest.

Except that if you made it through the holidays so far and didn’t kill any family members (or vice-versa) and you didn’t get decapitated by Santa’s sleigh sled-blade-thingies or pummeled by reindeer hoofs, don’t get cocky.

New Years Day is coming up. You know: Amateur Night. Folks who don’t drink heavy most of the year suddenly think they can pound them down all night and then drive home. Believe me I know. I did it myself a few times until I wised up and realized that staying at home and cuddling up with someone and with something bubbly to ring in the new year was much nicer. I’ll take falling asleep on the couch over a DWI or getting hit by one any day.

If you feel you just won’t survive unless you’re out on the town, just be careful. Be careful of others and be carefly of yourself.

Let’s all come home safe and start off 2009 with as few tragedies as possible…aside from the 5-pound holiday weight gain.

Sheeple, Sheeple Everywhere

I try to avoid looking too much at the video evidence of how many people, particularly among the poor and working class in various places (especially rural ones), really think that Obama is:

• A Muslim
• Will somehow try to do harm to whites if he gains the Oval Office
• Shifty
• A terrorist or terrorist sympathizer
• Against the middle class and working class
• Etc. etc. etc.

Because, if I look at this stuff too much, I get angry. Not on behalf of Barack Obama but just because I’m tired of sheeple. I’ve used that term before around here; I assume it’s obvious, but in case it ain’t: Sheeple = Sheep + People. In other words, people who can’t seem to think for themselves and just let the big shots tell them what to think.

Obama has done his share of flip-flopping and bending the truth a bit. But no more than his competitor has. Yet somehow people get it into their heads that he’s evil. The man shows more insight, thought, composure, tact and class than McCain, and thus he must be “hiding something.” As if being angry, spiteful and erratic (as McCain has been) somehow should engender our trust and show that a guy is a real stand-up feller.

Look, I come from working class stock. Despite having two degrees, I think and act mostly like a working class guy. My beers may be a little fancier, but it’s still beer I choose over wine most of the time. I can still appreciate a good fart joke in a movie. I’d rather have a comfy couch to watch TV in than to have a fancy looking one that I can’t put my feet up on. So, I’m not slamming the working class and rural folks who say this stupid shit about Obama because they’re working class and rural and in some cases poor.

I’m slamming them because they don’t bother to think.

At all.

It’s the same thing that has turned me off of most brick-and-mortar churches and many of the people who attend them. Just like the Obama-haters, they are often sheeple. Heaven forbid they should study a Bible or question anything a pastor says. Just like the ignorant folks who call for Obama’s head on a bayonet can’t be bothered to read anything that points out McCain’s or Palin’s lies or flaws, can’t be bothered to compare platforms of the candidates side-by-side, and who instead, like good sheeple, just believe whatever Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, their local police chief or nasty hateful bloggers tell them.

Like good sheeple, they go where they are told until the time comes to fleece them or slit their throats and offer them up as burnt offerings to the hungry economic gods.