Category: Religion

Why can't they ever vomit on, say, the kitchen floor?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Here I was, having a good weekend, and suddenly whammo…cat problems. Last night, around 1:00, one of the cats pukes all over my laptop bag. Seriously, it’s like he aims for personal items. Trying to clean everything out of the bag and wash it off while still half asleep was buckets of fun. Then this morning I woke up to find the other cat limping; I guess he did something to his foot/leg overnight. Probably beat the crap out of his brother a little too emphatically. I’ll watch it for a day or so and take him to the vet if it doesn’t get better.

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Today’s idiots: Dr. Ted Baehr, who claims Talladega Nights makes fun of Jesus [via Yes But No But Yes], and the lady who thinks the tree in her backyard is gurgling out “God’s water”.

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Another great picture from Sam at Daily Dose of Imagery. You can actually see our building under construction a few blocks to the southwest.

[tags]cats, vomit, injured paw, ted baehr, talladega nights, god’s water, daily dose of imagery, moss park[/tags]

"Any site that's got a longer entry on 'truthiness' than on Lutherans has its priorities straight."

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I’m not sure even Stephen Colbert himself expected this after wikiality was The Word on Monday night. [via Digg]

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Also via Digg, I learned about the Christian version of Ubuntu Linux. I anxiously await operating system flavours for Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Scientology. Unless someone figures out that this is retarded first.

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Make Marketing History points us to a couple of disturbing statistics: 58% of people never read a book once they leave high school, and 46% of people don’t read newspapers. I think the first stat freaks me out the most. I actually can’t figure out how you’d avoid it, what with long airport waits and bedtime stories and such.

[tags]colbert report, wikiality, truthiness, christian ubuntu, people don’t read[/tags]

Mystery white boy

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One step closer to a movie about Jeff Buckley. Wonder if Brad Pitt’s still interested. He might be a little long in the tooth now.

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Some of the headlining films for the Toronto film festival were announced today. I’m excited to see a couple of recent Cannes winners: The Wind That Shakes The Barley and Babel. I think we might actually see 15 movies this year.

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OK…first of all, why is CNN giving commentary space to James Dobson? Second, I wonder if Dobson ever sits back and wonders just how much of a backwards, close-minded dick he’ll sound like a generation from now? In fact, that he could possibly compare denying gay people marriage rights to the struggle to end slavery is beyond feebleminded.

[tags]jeff buckley, wind that shakes the barley, babel, james dobson, irrelevant windbag, gay marriage[/tags]

In which I reach my meat limit

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That sounds dirty, but it isn’t.

CBGB had us over to their place for a barbecue; even though it was his birthday GB made us all a substantial feast: red pepper soup with jalapeno cream, a flatbread thingy with herbs and goat cheese and pine nuts, corn on the cob, vegetable & pasta salad, mustard/lemon shrimp and, of course, the giant beef ribs from Cumbrae’s. There was also dessert: creamsicle cake. They weren’t kidding about the name either; it actually tasted like a giant creamsicle. I liked that even more than I thought I would’ve.

GB’s food seemed to have a healing effect on Nellie too, since she felt 100% better after eating, leading us to think that he’s the Benny Hinn of the barbecue.

[tags]barbecue, cumbrae’s, benny hinn[/tags]

Jesus Christ. And so on.

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From Ireland Online: Da Vinci Code provokes protests ahead of premiere.

Christian groups as far away as South Korea, Thailand and India protested against the movie The Da Vinci Code ahead of tomorrow’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. They were planning boycotts, a hunger strike and attempts to block or shorten screenings.

I suggest the protestors read the following:

fic·tion: A literary work whose content is produced by the imagination and is not necessarily based on fact.

You know. Like the bible.

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Skype drops a big one: it will be free for outbound calls to any phone number in Canada and the US until the end of the year. That smell you smell is the telcos and Vonage shitting themselves.

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From the BBC: Apple rival ‘tries to ban iPods’.

Digital music player maker Creative Technology has asked a US court to ban Apple from selling or marketing its iconic iPods in the US. Creative claims that the navigational menu used for finding and playing music on the iPod, violates its patent for its own Zen MP3 player.

I feel like my underdog home team just threw up a hail mary.

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From TSN: Hurricanes GM – Habs were toughest test.

“No disrespect to Philadelphia, Ottawa and New Jersey, they’re all good teams, but some teams are a little better than others and I think Montreal is one of those teams,” Rutherford said from Raleigh, N.C.

Well…that’s some small consolation, I guess.

"You got an ATM on that torso lite-brite?"

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This weekend has been an exercise in comfort food. Last night we went to Fieramosca, just to relax after a long week. Nothing like a three-hour dinner to kick off the weekend, especially when it involves cheesecake.

It’s gotten to the point where they remember where we sat last time we were in, and to where the hostess is practically an old college buddy. I guess this is how Norm felt at Cheers.

Also: I love how, in all the times I’ve been there, I have yet to order off the menu.

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After dinner we watched This Girl’s Life (imdb | rotten tomatoes), one of those DVDs that arrives from Zip (twice; the first copy was cracked nearly in half) and I don’t remember adding it to my list. Must’ve been a recommendation from someone. Anyway, it wasn’t very good; the lead actress looks an awful lot like Angelina Jolie, which made it easy to watch, but James Woods did such a convincing job playing her Parkinson’s afflicted father…which made it hard to watch. There were little bit parts from Rosario Dawson and Michael Rapaport, but the funniest one was Kip Pardue: both Nellie and I thought he was Sean Dugan, who played homicidal minister Timmy Kirk on Oz. She was disturbed by how well he cleaned up, when our lasting memory of him was burying Luke Perry alive inside a wall. Anyhoo.

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The comfort food journey continue this afternoon after we’d picked up some food & drink at the Summerhill LCBO and All The Best, and stopped in at the Rebel House for brunch. It was a perfect day for some french toast on the patio. When he saw that Nellie had ordered a Dennison’s Weissbeer our server told us about the Press Club, a place on Dundas West that served a great Ephemere wheat beer…can’t remember if he said it was apricot or peach. Anyway, maybe we’ll check it out if we ever get down to Little Portugal.

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I’d heard some bad things about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ Show Your Bones, but after a few listens I really like it. I guess, despite whatever early press I’d heard, I’m not the only one.

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This Michelle Goldberg article in Salon about the rise of “Christian Nationalism” in the US is fascinating and frustrating. These two paragraphs were the most compelling, and alarming:

“It’s not surprising that Stern is alarmed. Reading his forty-five-year-old book ‘The Politics of Cultural Despair: A Study in the Rise of the Germanic Ideology,’ I shivered at its contemporary resonance. ‘The ideologists of the conservative revolution superimposed a vision of national redemption upon their dissatisfaction with liberal culture and with the loss of authoritative faith,’ he wrote in the introduction. ‘They posed as the true champions of nationalism, and berated the socialists for their internationalism, and the liberals for their pacifism and their indifference to national greatness.’

Fascism isn’t imminent in America. But its language and aesthetics are distressingly common among Christian nationalists. History professor Roger Griffin described the ‘mobilizing vision’ of fascist movements as ‘the national community rising Phoenix-like after a period of encroaching decadence which all but destroyed it’ (his italics). The Ten Commandments has become a potent symbol of this dreamed-for resurrection on the American right.”

As she said, fascism isn’t around the corner, but I worry that we might be able to hear it in the distance.

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Speaking of fascism (but the funny kind), check out this claymation video of the Emperor hearing that the Death Star had been destroyed. It’s funny if you’re even half a Star Wars geek. [via the movie blog]

[tags]fieramosca, rebel house, press club, yeah yeah yeahs, michelle goldberg, christian nationalism, death star[/tags]

"The Christians have a holy book too…what's it called?"

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Tonight was the last of our five documentaries: Encounter Point (hot docs). It was our first time at the Al Green theatre in the Miles Nadal JCC, and I think we’ll avoid it next year…it’s hard to watch a movie when the slightest move by anyone in your row shakes your seat.

Anyway, the documentary was excellent. It followed several Israelis and Palestinians who are working for peaceful solution to the violence between their people, many of whom have lost family members to sniper, bomber or soldier. There were so many impressive people — the mother of a slain Israeli reserve soldier who had seen apartheid in South Africa, and saw it again in Israel; the Palestinian man who lost a brother, was shot and spent time in prison, but was now an eloquent advocate for peace despite the criticism it drew from his neighbours; the ex-military man who lost a daughter and now teaches acceptance and reconciliation at Israeli schools — that it was hard to decide who to admire the most. I gave it a 5/5 on my ballot.

Check out justvision.org; there’s information about the film, and suggestions for action you can take to help promote and support a peaceful solution to things.

And thus ends our Hot Docs festival for another year. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: $60 for 10 world-class documentaries (including Q&A with the filmmakers, usually) is the best entertainment deal in town. Boo, Rama.

Thanks to Paved for pointing to my reviews.

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From Dooneys.com: this review of Julian Baggini’s Atheism: A Very Short Introduction sounds interesting. Not that I have to be convinced, but I might pick it up.

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[tags]hot docs, encounter point, israel, palestine, atheism[/tags]

"I consider it pure joy, my brother, whenever you face trials of many kinds."

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Do Americans know that it’s shit like this that make everyone sit back and laugh at them?

From The Guardian: Bible-bashing American football team must keep God off the pitch.

“The Birmingham Steeldogs, based in Alabama, had been planning to carry biblical texts on the back of their jerseys for their home game against Louisville Fire, a first in US sports history…The jerseys have been made by the Christian Throwback Jersey Company, which says it ‘specialises in outfitting today’s Christian with a wide array of religious sports and athletic attire’.”

So much awesomeness…can’t absorb it all…