I did fairly well, missing only a couple, getting one particular belief of Hinduism mixed up with Buddhism and another I hadn't a clue in regards to Catholicism.
I just got through reading an article linked to on Facebook - I won't link to it in this post because that's not the gist of this rant - but it was how we (people) should have a more plant-based diet. I wouldn't disagree with that, but articles like that always start off some vicious arguments and there were plenty under the piece. I've found that often the comments are more entertaining than the article.
That's something I've noticed since I've been online for these last 17+ years; of course, politics and religion have always sparked some contentious debate, a long time before there were forums and message boards, but I'd say the next most hotly discussed topic is food. (and movies, TV shows and music would be close behind)
In fact, one of the first times I was ever savaged online was in a chat room and someone mentioned they were making a pineapple upside-down cake. I mentioned that I don't care for pineapple and I was attacked before they let me explain that I have an allergy to pineapple, that it makes my throat itch. (as do several other tropical fruits, such as kiwi fruit, papaya, and sometimes oranges)
The next time I saw a "food fight" break out was over whether to put chili in beans. The recipe said "real Texans" would never dream of it. Personally, I don't care for beans in my chili, but I'm also a "real Texan" and enough of one to not stick my nose into someone's business - if they want to put beans in their chili, then that's fine with me. If they invited me to dinner and their chili had beans in it, I am also enough of a Texan to not criticize my host. No, I'd eat it and probably would ask for seconds.
(funny - I don't really like beans in my chili, but I put a can of chili - Texas Wolf Brand - when I make beans)
I recently saw a dispute over goulash, of all things. The recipe wasn't even titled "Hungarian" but the comments got heated over just what was "authentic". Call it what you like, call me ignorant for calling it that, but just don't call me late for supper!
I can semi-understand arguing about politics and religion, esp. if someone insults your candidate/party or your faith, but to argue about food? Ridiculous. I wish I could draw - I'd make a graphic of God wearing an Obama t-shirt while eating a cheeseburger as He was kicking Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi down to Hell along with the Muslims.
That way I could piss off the Republicans, the vegans, the gays, the Democrats, and the radical Islamists in one fell swoop.
I might even draw Him with a pistol stuck in His belt, just to piss off the gun-grabbers.
Two bees ran into each other. The first bee asked the other how things were going.
"Really bad," said the second bee. "The weather has been really wet and damp and there aren't any flowers or pollen, so I can't make any honey."
"No problem," said the first bee. "Just fly down five blocks and turn left. Keep going until you see all the cars. There's a Bar Mitzvah going on and there are all kinds of fresh flowers and fruit."
"Thanks for the tip," said the second bee, and he flew away.
A few hours later, the two bees ran into each other again. The first bee asked, "How'd it go?"
"Great!" said the second bee. "It was everything you said it would be."
"Uh, what's that thing on your head?" asked the first bee.
"That's my yarmulke," said the second bee. "I didn't want them to think I was a WASP."
1. left-handed.
2. of, pertaining to, or on the left side; left (opposed to dextral).
3. (of certain gastropod shells) coiling counterclockwise, as seen from the apex.
Origin:
Sinistral is related to the word sinister and meant "unlucky" when it entered English in the 1400s. It was extended to mean "on the left side" in the early 1800s.
After Obama was first elected President in 2008, a slew of articles popped up on the 'net saying his being left-handed was more proof that he is the Antichrist. Now, I don't care for his policies, but I'm fairly sure he's not the Antichrist, but who knows? For that matter, Tim Tebow is also left-handed.
My childhood friend and classmate Janice is left-handed, but she couldn't be the Antichrist either, as she was and still is a devout Christian...although I always thought she was a little bit evil for not letting me copy off her during tests. To be fair, it wasn't just that she wouldn't let me, but she sat to my right and her writing hand was curled around her test paper and blocking me from seeing her answers.
Wiki says 10% of people are left-handed and that they are generally more successful, talented and make more money than righties. There have been many great left-handed athletes. (not that Tim Tebow can be included in that group)
So, being left-handed doesn't mean that President Obama is the Antichrist, just that he needs special clubs for all the golf he plays.
You know, maybe God is left-handed, if only out of necessity. After all, the Bible says that Jesus sits on His right hand.
Here's a little bit from the article: The four eldest girls of the Duggar clan, Jana, 24, Jill, 22, Jessa, 21, and Jinger, 20, say that “it’s easy to put yourself into physical and moral danger and give into those emotions or sensual thoughts that promise pleasant, but only temporary, fulfillment.”
I should admit that I don't watch the show very often. Unlike many other people, however, I don't hate the Duggars because of their religion or the size of their family. I HAVE seen a few episodes, though and am glad I wasn't raised that way or in such a large family. A little more religion certainly wouldn't have hurt me while I was growing up, but our small house was crowded enough with just the five of us.
One of the last episodes I watched was about Josh, the oldest son, and his marriage to a lovely and sweet young woman, Anna. I was a little surprised when I learned that they hadn't kissed before the wedding, but I believe it was on the same show where I was taken aback at Jim Bob, the patriarch of the family, talking about how his wife Michelle HAD kissed someone before she had married him, not disguising his bitterness while talking to the camera. (I find THAT to be more than a little weird, but...it's not MY wife, after all. Finding a woman as chaste as he wanted - other than the Duggar girls - is very rare these days. I think I'd be happy just to find out my new bride hadn't spent a year hooking on the Las Vegas strip)
I had to laugh when the cameras followed the new couple on their honeymoon; I forget exactly where they went, but they took a trip to some sort of marine park and were going to spend their wedding night camping out under a clear arch under a huge tank full of fish. They stayed there for a while, then decided it wasn't very comfortable and went back to their hotel room.
I was wondering why the hell they were spending their first night of marriage sleeping on the floor looking at fish...and I think they got to wondering the same thing after a while. I don't think it would've been nearly as interesting as getting to know each other...in the Biblical sense. Ahem. I'm sure neither of them knew what they were doing later that night, but I bet they had fun figuring it out.
I read the rest of the article, then a slide-out ad appeared at the bottom - talk about a contrast! (I bookmarked it to read later for some pointers, even though I doubt it'd work on the Duggar girls)
Then this was on a panel of links at the very bottom of the page:
Even MORE contrast...and I'd much rather read about the Duggars than Tongue-Girl.
I normally don't delve into serious news or into religious issues, but when I read this earlier: Egypt court orders YouTube blocked for a month I had to see what all the fuss was about. It seems the Egyptians are all butt-hurt over a movie, Innocence of Muslims. I won't embed it, but here's the trailer (with a disclaimer by YouTube).
The following content has been identified by the YouTube community as being potentially offensive or inappropriate. Viewer discretion is advised.
The full-length moviehas also been uploaded, so if you want to see it before it's taken down, you'd best hurry.
Those Muslims...they're always getting their panties in wad over something trivial in the grand scheme of things. I see Christianity mocked all the time, from frequent segments on Family Guy and American Dad! to "artists" calling a crucifix in urine "art". You didn't see ME rioting in the streets and you never will. I doubt I'll ever even dash off an an angry email to the network. I'm damn sure not blowing myself up and/or killing someone over it.
Oh well, what can you expect from a bunch of savages? I've done a lot of reading on Islam, but everything I really ever needed to know I learned on 9/11.
Someone better not tell them about THESE two videos; they'd really get all bent out of shape.
Me? According to the quiz I am. I've read posts by atheists who seemed to be smarter than me, but what always struck me about most atheists is how hateful they sound when accusing organized religion being full of hate. I always found it amusing how self-righteous most atheists were in regards to their superiority over the righteous, how hypocritical they were when speaking of religious hypocrisy and their unwavering faith that religious faith is foolish.
From the quiz:
Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups in a 32-question survey of religious knowledge by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. On average, Americans got 16 of the 32 questions correct. Atheists and agnostics got an average of 20.9 correct answers. Jews (20.5) and Mormons (20.3). Protestants got 16 correct answers on average, while Catholics got 14.7 questions right.
How will you do on the quiz?
I think I did fairly well ; here are the questions I missed: When was the Mormon religion founded?
I didn't know, so I took a guess. I did mull it over for a while and started to choose the correct answer, but didn't. I'll admit I don't know much about the Mormon religion, but I suspect we'll all learn more about it if Romney gets the Republican nomination for President.
Which one of these preachers participated in the period of religious activity known as the First Great Awakening?
Totally clueless about this one. Took a guess and was wrong.
Which of these religious groups traditionally teaches that salvation comes through faith alone?
I was annoyed that I missed this one but what the hell? (pun intended)
A"bump" since I'm too busy celebrating Groundhog Day to actually put up a new post about it.
(have to use a graphic because Blogger won't let me put in those special characters) means "grin" in IM chat or forum posts, but it in this case it also stands for "Garazon", one of my best and long-time online pals.
The G for grin was first used by our mutual friend, Brad and I guess Garazon and I picked it up around the same time. It became a "nickname for the nickname" for me with Garazon and that's how I started abbreviating his screen name.
Garazon and I "met" in MSN Groups, but started to become good friends when he made a flashy Halloween page for his group, complete with embedded midi sound file and some other special effects. Making a page was one of my goals when I first got online and I was determined to learn how to do it, so I started asking Garazon all sorts of questions. I'm sure he grew weary of me bothering him, but he should have been flattered if he had only known how hard it was...and still is...for me to ask for assistance.
I hope we don't ever lose touch, but even if we do, I'll always remember Garazon because of our time in Groups and that he once said Groundhog Day was one of his favorite holidays. I don't remember exactly WHY he said it was, but I thought that was very funny and every year since we met a dozen years ago in Groups, I always think of him on this day.
The 1993 Bill Murray movie Groundhog Dayis also one of my favorite flicks and I try to watch it whenever it's on. I link to IMDb often when I post about movies, but sometimes I get so annoyed when reading posts about my favorite movies; the site is full of argumentative and insulting posts. I can understand contention when discussing politics and religion, but movies? Good Grief. It gets extremely nasty when a movie contains plot elements of either of those two subjects and sometimes people try to interject one or the other into the discussion when there's no reason to do so.
Anyway...just heard on the news that the groundhog saw his shadow and there will be six more weeks of bad weather. That doesn't mean much here in the Texas Panhandle; it was a beautiful, fairly warm day yesterday but this evening is supposed to bring freezing temps and rain and possibly snow.
That's a new word I learned today. I saw it in a reply to a post in Big Hollywood - the topic was Katy Perry, Jessica and Ashlee Simpson and how they were raised in a church, but weren't being Christian in their careers. I like to read Big Hollywood but don't really like it when they interject religion or politics into their articles.
(because 99% of Hollywood is liberal and the posts and replies mostly bitch and moan about it... and criticisms of religion almost always wind up sounding "holier than thou".)
One of the replies said the girls might be on their Rumspringa "and they'll get over it." From the context, I had an inkling as to what the word meant, but I wasn't familiar with it. Wiki says Rumspringa is a time when Amish youth "sow their wild oats". It was an interesting and informative read, so I did a little more research. I've read about Amish kids being busted for selling/using drugs and I seem to recall a recent murder that shocked the Amish community, but the funniest thing I have read about Amish crime has been beard cutting assaults. (Well, funny to me, but I wasn't the one getting my beard cut off.)
Maybe I'm insensitive about that, but I've never been able to grow a beard, just a mustache and Amish men don't wear mustaches. (I'm not sure about the Amish women)
I could never be Amish, I guess, because I like my 'stache and my TV and microwave.
I also found out there's a band named Rumspringa and this is where I'd normally add the video, but I'm not in the mood for alternative music.
I do know an Amish joke, though:
What goes "clip clop clip clop - BANG BANG BANG - clip clop clip clop"?
I think the woman who plays the nun is really cute and thought she looked familiar, thinking perhaps she was an actress I'd seen in a small part. (or maybe Bebe Neuwirth's daughter) A couple of weeks ago I decided to write the Minute Maid company and ask the identity of the young woman.
In the meantime, in a political forum I sometimes frequent, a Catholic poster was up-in-arms over it, saying she thought it an insult to the Church. Other Catholics chimed in, saying they too were offended. I had to reply, saying I didn't see it that way, that I thought it was an insult to men more than to her religion or to nuns. I understand why Catholics get so defensive, having to defend the Church over something nearly all the time. If it's not pedophile priests (a small percentage of them), it's movies such as "The DaVinci Code" or "The Golden Compass". I do agree with them that Christianity often is attacked and ridiculed in Hollywood.
Be that as it may, I simply don't think this silly little commercial denigrates the Catholic Church at all.
When I was a kid, I had a brilliant science teacher, a full blooded Cherokee Indian. Thanks to grants from the govt. and the tribal council, he went back to school every summer and had at least half a dozen advanced degrees; biology, geology, botany, physics, etc. Why he stooped to teaching a bunch of small town seventh grade knotheads, I'll never know, but perhaps he thought being a teacher a higher calling than research scientist, petroleum engineer or even a college professor.
He took us on several field trips, and was planning on taking some of we kids spelunking near where he grew up in Oklahoma. He was taking a course with some nuns that summer and when he told them about the upcoming cave exploration, they wanted to go.
He asked his wife if she'd get jealous if he took some "single women" along with us on the trip and not even batting an eye, told him:
"As long as you don't get into the habit...."
I got a reply from Minute Maid, btw:
Thank you for contacting The Minute Maid Company. We appreciate your interest in our advertising.
It may surprise you to learn that the contractual agreements with our ad agencies and the talent involved prohibit the release of an actor's identity without their prior consent. Unfortunately, consent has not been granted for this particular ad. We apologize that we cannot respond in a more positive way.
It was a pleasure hearing from you. If you have any additional comments or questions about our advertising, please feel free to contact us again. Best wishes!
Chicquilla Industry and Consumer Affairs The Minute Maid Company
Wasn't much of an answer.
Not much better than nun at all.
It's often flattering when a post of mine gets linked to, especially if it brings in traffic. (not that I make any money off of it, it's just gratifying) Earlier tonight I noticed a hit on this post, followed the Google search results page and noticed that it had been copied, but not exactly word-for-word.
Strange, very strange. Somehow I'm humorously offended. When trying to find out who the actress playing the nun, I found a post in WikiAnswers asking the same thing. It's since been edited, saying the young woman is Martha Mintz. Spending far more time than I should on it, I still can't definitively say whether she is or isn't. As I said, she looks familiar, and Mintz IS an actress. She has an IMDB page, Facebook listing and a MySpace page, but looking through them I found nothing about Mintz being in the ad. Google Images shows that Ms. Mintz does resemble the woman in the Minute Maid advert, but I'm not convinced. She also has a YouTube account with a small clip of her roles, but I'm still not sure it is her. I've even found the company who produced the spot, but while I'm curious, I'm not curious enough to write them.
genuflect \JEN-yuh-flekt\, intransitive verb: 1. To bend the knee or touch one knee to the ground, as in worship. 2. To be servilely respectful or obedient; to grovel.
I certainly remember the first time I ever heard this word used in a sentence. I was best man at a Catholic wedding and at the rehearsal was instructed to genuflect in front of the altar. I told the bride's mother "You want me to gen-you-flecked? Right here in the church?"
I knew what the word meant, but I didn't want to do it. This was during my heathen stage of life and I had no respect for churches or their customs.
(actually, I still pretty much feel that way, but don't consider myself a heathen now. Even today I find the thought of "groveling" in front of an altar to be repulsive.)
Of course, I went ahead and did it because I didn't want to embarrass the groom...any more than I already had.
I had already made his face red by joking about the little latrine in the foyer.
It was a little uncomfortable the next night, after the wedding at the reception. I didn't know anyone other than the groom so the priest and I got drunk together. I had fun until he made a pass at me.
