Tuesday, March 17, 2009

WIHP: The Catholic Edition

Alright, at the risk of inciting violence, I'm going to go ahead and write this post because I just can't take it anymore.

As I was driving to North Jersey for a day of shop visits this morning, I was tuned in to NPR. It was the BBC News Hour, and the subject du jour was Catholicism in Africa: How Prayer and Denial Will End The AIDS Crisis, Honest*. I guess Pope Benny XV(%&@!^I is about to make his first trip to Africa to go visit the converted.

The Pope stated on the way over that the distribution of condoms is not a solution to the AIDS problem in Africa. Yet, the Catholic Church is at the forefront of the AIDS battle, and preaches that abstinence is the way to stop the spread of the disease.

Ok seriously, how can people believe this shite!? How can human beings still be so completely brainwashed and gullible that they are actually buying into the notion that the best way to prevent the spread of a sexually transmitted disease is to teach people to not engage in sex, and even WORSE, expect THOSE people to actually listen!? When is the Church going to wake up and face the reality that this method has never worked, not for the oh I don't know, 15 or 20 years that they have been telling the people of Africa crap that is going in one ear and out the other?

I am gobsmacked, again. It simply adds fuel to my ire, and convinces me that the Catholic Church is perhaps one of the most hypocritical and corrupt institutions on the face of the planet. It's ok to molest and abuse little boys, but you are absolutely not allowed to use a condom in the process, oh no. And people actually believe that if they don't follow Catholic doctrine, that the salvation of their souls is doomed to purgatory for eternity.

You know what? I'm going to go ahead and support the idea of condom distribution in Africa, if for no other reason than it might relieve some of the hell on EARTH that those people are living in in *this* life. I am so, so incredibly happy that I am not Catholic.



*May not have been the actual title of the story.

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Let the Wonkiness Commence!

Chipps is on deadline this week, which of course means he's looking out for anything non-magazine related to distract him from his deadlining duties. Out of such distractions usually come things like new guitar purchases, and moustache growing. But TONIGHT he presented me with the best news I've heard this month; this YEAR, I daresay!

He found this little tidbit:


From this blog post:

Lambs! Lambs! Ok, just one lamb. But still!

That's right, folks. The lambs are a'rriving. Spring is certainly on the way, and soon there will be fields of the cutest things you've ever seen, frolicking and trying to learn the ropes of those leg things, to see and 'aww' at.

Pictures, please!

And a heartfelt THANK EWE to Chipps.

Monday, March 02, 2009

10 Observations

What did we do before the advent of cell phones, blogs, instant messengers, and social networking sites?

People did things like make the movie 10.

Now, depending on how you feel about that film, you may feel that cell phones, et al, are the best things ever. I happen to really love the film, as I think it is the best example of the comedic brilliance-nay GENIUS- of Sir Dudley Moore. For that reason, I can appreciate a time when we didn't have what we probably now look at as basic necessities for work and play. How DID we ever survive back then!?

A movie like 10 couldn't have been possible if cell phones and Facebook existed in 1979. All the missed calls, busy signals, one person hanging up while the other is picking up, constant ringing, and the worry over not being able to get in touch are now a thing of the past in this world of instant communication between the masses and you. The story line wouldn't make sense in this modern world. People who don't remember the days before we had the ability to update everyone on our comings and goings in 140 characters or less, probably wouldn't find this movie funny if they saw it for the first time in 2009 instead of '79, or even '89.

Now that I think about it, there is still worry over not being able to get in touch with someone. Maybe that worry is actually worse now, since if you can't get in touch with someone within minutes, something is obviously wrong.

Do we think things are better now? Has our ability to keep in touch every second of the day, from any location in the world, made things better? Or, have we lost some of the simplicity that existed when writing love letters gave people something to look forward to in the mail? I'm not talking on some grand, existential level here. Certainly many things are improved by advancements in technology. We clearly survived without these things, though. And many others.

So I'm very happy that the beach running scene exists. Not because I'm hot for Bo Derek, but because of the many other funny things that not having a cell phone made possible.