The Gay Hating Continues (Right, Bachmann?)

After hearing Pat Robertson talk about his views on homosexuality, it is even more shocking to find another political candidate, or rather, her husband, who has an even more extreme view on homosexuality.  This isn’t a joke.  If only it could be.  If only it were possible to be a joke.  Perhaps it could be parodied, but the fact is that this isn’t a joke.  This is cold hard reality, and the reality is that Michele Bachmann is married to a person who is not only really prejudiced, he is outright sick in the head.  Something is very wrong with this man.  And she is the GOP’s big new girl in town, stealing away some of the thunder the Palin has had.

One really good question was asked recently on Hardball – why doesn’t Sarah Palin just admit that she isn’t running for President.  She isn’t taking any steps toward making this a reality.  She is just milking the money that she is getting for saying she might just run for President.  And it’s all about the money for Palin.  The books, the movie, the Palin PAC, all of it is to keep the revenue that has her inflated budget moving coming in.  It isn’t about anything noble, and she won’t admit to that.  But ironically enough, as dim-witted and genuinely unpleasant a character as Palin is, she is as nothing compared to the new GOP poster-model, Michele Bachmann.

There was a quote that went out by her husband, Marcus Bachmann, about his views on homosexuality.  I will give you this quote in its entirety, so you can know just what kind of person this guy really is.  Here it is –

We have to understand: barbarians need to be educated.  They need to be disciplined.   And just because somebody feels it or thinks it doesn’t mean that we’re supposed to go down that road.  That’s what’s called a ‘sinful nature.’  And we have a responsibility as parents and as authority figures not to encourage such thoughts and feelings from moving into the action steps.”

This is a person who is related to a woman who wants to run this country.  Marcus Bachmann could become the “First Husband” of the United States.  If that thought doesn’t scare you a little bit after reading the quote above, it should.  This is a guy who is saying outright that gays and lesbians are “barbarians” who need to be disciplined.  He also believes that a gay person can be “cured” of their “illness” if they pray to Jesus they won’t be gay anymore.  He tends to believe that a person who feels homosexual doesn’t have to act on it, and that makes it okay.

Do any of my LGBT readers feel just a LITTLE bit offended at that statement?  They should.  You all should.  Gay or straight, you should feel offended when somebody comes on the air and says, “yeah, you may be born gay, but you don’t have to act on it!  You can live a straight life.  Isn’t that better?!”  That’s right, you are being told that your biology means nothing, just ignore the fact that you’re gay, and everything will be alright.  And it is all over this country.

“Straight camps” are a pretty common occurence.  It is even infecting the youth these days.  A hardcore religious parent doesn’t like the fact that their son likes other boys, they can send them away to be “cured” of what ails them.  This is a sick and twisted paradigm that the modern religious community uses again and again in order to make people go against themselves.  Whenever I hear a gay man, or a lesbian woman, or anything in-between say that they were “cured” I feel something inside of me get more than a little sick.  It’s like hearing somebody tell you that they killed somebody in cold blood, for no reason.  The problem is that people like Marcus Bachmann actually believe it.

Sure, Michele Bachmann is no ray of sunshine.  She reminds me a little bit of Claudia from Silent Hill 3.  She has that same cold-hearted smile that makes your skin crawl.  She is openly against gay marriage (the stupidest thing in the world to be against).  She has said that she believes being gay is a choice.  Althought lately, she has gone rather quiet on that topic.  When you are looking to be the President of this country, not talking about your bigotry really tends to help.  The fact that she believes she is sent visions by God is bad enough.  And she IS going to have to answer for this.

Keith Olbermann, my favorite political commentator, had a thought about gay marriage – it isn’t as big an issue anymore.  Six states have no made it legal.  I would bet a pretty penny that at least ten more have it legalized in the next few years.  By the time I am 50, it will be an accepted part of this country’s way of doing things, the same as women being able to vote, and jobs not being able to discriminate on a person because they are black.  It is just not that major anymore.  Or rather, it shouldn’t be.

But the religious America that is fighting to keep itself vital in our country, even though more and more of the youth are realizing that it is nothing but smoke and mirrors are starting to walk away.  The Catholic church is starting to realize how it is gradually going away.  The fall of catholicism in Ireland is inspiring.  Here in America, religion is becoming less and less a part of how this country is run, and rather it is about people trying to do the right thing.

But when we have people like Michele Bachmann who believes that LGBT people can be cured by prayer, and whose husband believes they are barbarians who need to be educated and disciplined.  Not only are these two bigots, they are genuine scum.  People should hate them.  People should tell them to go away.  Instead, they are legitimized by this country.  They are legitimized by the people.  That needs to end, if social progress is ever going to happen.

Until next time, a quote,

“It won’t destroy the democracy.  It doesn’t destroy the family.  It strengthens the institution of marriage, and it’s principle premise of fidelity.  And it increases the number of people living in stable and loving homes!”  -Keith Olbermann, Countdown with Keith Olbermann

Peace out,

Maverick

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Christian Homophobes Get Stupid(er)

I guess it should come as no surprise that after New York legalized same-sex marriage, the vitrial and bigotry instantly comes spilling from mostly Christian mouths.  The greatest proprieter of that ignorant position, Pat Robertson, was of course quick to come on the offensive.  And of course, the political landscape of Republicans who defend “traditional marriage” (what a farce, but I’ll get into that later) talk about what a bad thing it is.  There were the usual arguments that were made about how it is “unnatural,” how it will “destroy the family,” and stuff about how it will make more people gay, but then there was a bit by our lovely bigot Pat Robertson about how it is going to lead to the raping of angels.

Now I’ve talk about Robertson at length in several blogs.  He is, in my opinion, a gift that keeps on giving.  This guy just never gets enough of hearing himself speak.  And, like Mike Voris from the bigoted network Real Catholic TV (here is a video Voris did about this.  Check it out if you want to burst a blood vessel in rage), he just has a problem with homosexuals.  He said 9/11 was the fault of America because there are gay people, after all.  Every time there is a major disaster in this country, it has to be God telling us that gays are wrong.  I think that in his twisted little mind, killing all people of the LGBT community would be a perfectly legitimate way to go.

For real, I think that outright murder is this prick’s bread and butter.  He seems to have little to no conscience whatsoever.  He will use any tragedy that happens, no matter what horrible thing it is, he will use it.  Does anybody remember that awful earthquake in Haiti?  Well, he said that the reason it happened was because the Haitians sold their souls to Satan to get free from the French.  This guy is scum.  He has also said that God is going to rend America asunder on multiple occasions.  No matter what the tragedy is.  No matter how many lakes you could fill with the tears of the victims, this guy’s little growth that he calls a heart doesn’t go out to people.  Money is all this bastard cares about.  And of course, the legalization of same-sex marriage was his newest target for attack.

In history, there has never been a civilization, ever, in history, that has embraced homosexuality and turned away from traditional fidelity, traditional marriage, traditional child-rearing, and has survived.”

That was a quote straight from the horse’s (and I think a horse is more what he is like than a person) mouth about what has happened.  He, of course, talked about how God came down and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because there were gay people there.  Apparently, that was just tops with him.  He also talked about how American is also going to be subsequently going to be destroyed by God for embracing homosexuality.  This is interesting/pathetic to me.  Let me explain why.

As Cenk Uygar, the lead political commentator on The Young Turks, made this point – no empire in history has survived.  Robertson says that it is because of homosexuality that empires have fallen.  Well, empires that didn’t embrace homosexuality also fell.  They fell because all empires fall.  That’s why the are called empires.  No empire is able to last forever.  What is interesting is that the empires that did last the longest had rampant homosexuality.  Take the Romans, for example.  There was gay sex all over the place!  They lasted the longest.  So, Pat Robertson is just blowing this out of his ass.  But that makes sense.  It makes sense because that is what they all do.

The fact is that Robertson and his ilk of bigoted ignorant fools have been having homosexuality as their go-to attack sign for YEARS!  After Hurricane Katrina – gays!  9/11 – gays!  Japanese tsunami – gays!  Tornadoes in Joplin – gays!  The LGBT community has been their little platform of attack for as long as they have had the means to attack the way that they do now.  The fact is that saying all the empires that have ever fallen had embraced homosexuality is just another really bad usages of the logical fallacy – post hoc, ergo propter hoc (after this, therefore because of this).  It is like saying that because there are dead bodies, flies must exist.

And then there is the little tidbit about how it is going to destroy traditional marriage, fidelity, and the traditional family.  Here’s a question I ask to all of you religious idiots who think this way – how?  How exactly is traditional marriage going to be destroyed?  Do you think that all of the straight people are just covering?  Like “yeah, I was going to have a normal marriage with this woman that I love with all my heart, but now that same-sex marriage is legal, screw that, I’m getting my gay on!”

Here’s a nifty fact for  you – being gay is NOT a choice!  You are born gay (or any of the other initials, don’t get on me about that!)!  You are born how you are.  And as for the fidelity thing, do people honestly think that if there is gay marriage, there are going to be a million gay orgies just breaking out in the street?  You know, I hate to burst your bubble, but there are most gay people who want a monogamous relationships and don’t want to just go and suck anybody’s dick, or for women, don’t want to go and eat any pussy they find.  There are people who are homosexual who want a normal kind of relationship.

And as for traditional child-rearing, shut up!  Not only do gay and lesbian parents typically do better, the child-abuse cases from gay families are exponentially lower.  In a way, it is safer for a kid to be born to two loving mothers or fathers than for him/her to be born to a family where the dad is a miserable drunk and the mother is a tool.

But the fact is that traditional marriage is bullshit.  It used to be, a long time ago, that a kind or person could have as many wives as he wanted (it was always a man.  It was sexist, I know).  So the modern idea of marriage being between one man and one woman is fiction.  Absolute fiction.  And this fictional world that exists needs to go away.  Because some of us are trying to live out here in the real world, where real people are being told they can’t be with the person they love.  And the worst of all is the people who say they aren’t anti-gay, they are just pro-marriage.

Stupid-ass morons…

Until next time, a quote,

“Unless you can point out how gay people actually caused their downfall, this is not a credible assertion.  It is an in-credible assertion.  And no, stories about God do not count until he shows up in person!”  -Zinnia Jones, End of Civilization, blah blah blah

Peace out,

Maverick

Cutting Medicare is Political Suicide

You know, I wish that once, just once, the Democrats would do some smart campaigning against the Republicans.  They have had so many golden opportunities to stick it to them, and they always let it pass them by.  But here, yet-again, the Democrats have a golden opportunity to go on the offensive, and to make the Republicans pay for the crimes they commit against the people of this country.  If only somebody would tell them that.  If only somebody with a modicum of political sense would tell them that if you want to win what has become a war between the parties and the conservative and liberal way of thinking, you have to be prepared to actually fight.

Now, before you all go off saying that it shouldn’t be a war, I think people need to ponder on this – it has always been a war.  It used to be an actual war at times.  When two opposing parties or ways of thinking would differ, there would be times (way back in the day, back when they used swords) that the groups would settle their differences by killing one-another.  I mean, heck, there were people in our own country’s Congress who would bring guns to the building.  The bullet-hole in the Senate is still there, or so I am told.  Or maybe it was in the House of Representatives.  Anyway, the fact is that the concept of two parties, if not more, fighting or ideologically making war on one-another is not really all that new.

The recent battle with the parties has taken kind of an ironic twist.  My friend and husband to one of the few people I look up to, John Aronno, had an interesting thought about how it all works.  He said that the Republicans are keeping the center political landscape to the right by keeping the Democrats constantly fighting their increasingly insane agenda.  By doing this, they don’t let the Democrats work toward really progressive goals, like legalizing marijuana, same-sex marriage, and stuff like that.  It is a rather brilliant strategy, and thus far it has been working with great success.

And the agenda that they have is getting more and more insane.  The latest gambit that they have is another trip of them taking the American people hostage so they can get their way.  This has happened before, and Obama has even defended them.  For real, he did.  Back when the Bush Tax  Cuts were up for renewal, he said that the Democrats were the ones holding America hostage.  And this has been a repeated Republican strategy used against the American people in order for their campaign to screw over the middle class and help the rich to go further.  They have, time and time again, take the American people hostage, and the real problem is that not once have the Democrats called them out on it, not really.

We have Independent candidates like Bernie Sanders (who I wish would make a run at the White House and win.  We could use him in power) who are choosing to call out what everybody sees for what it is.  He is one of the few politicians that I think has any form of integrity in office these days.  He has called out almost every little social hypocrisy that this country has gone on.  But this latest hostage scenario is just plain pathetic.  It really does say something about the Republican party – that they don’t care two bits about the common man, and only care about helping their rich buddies.  They are the party of the rich, or the party of the insane (I’m talking to you, Gov. Perry from Texas).  So what plan is this that they are holding against the American people?  Well, their plan to not allow this government to raise the debt ceiling unless they make cuts to Medicare.

The Republicans in the House voted down a measure to raise the debt ceiling.  People are almost unaware of what a serious problem this is.  There are Republicans are saying we shouldn’t raise it because it it helps this country take on more debt, but they don’t see the truth – it lets this country pay its bills.  What is interesting in this is that not being able to pay their bills has recently had a disastrous effect on Greece’s economy.  And the fact is that people who say that we don’t know what will happen is because it has NEVER happened before.

The fact is that Republicans saying we should slash Medicare to bits is political suicide.  The Paul Ryan Plan was proof enough that telling the elderly of this country you are going to be taking away or exponentially making more difficult their Medicare services is NOT a good idea for somebody who is interested in succeeding in politics in this country.  It has dethroned a Republican candidate in a overly Repbublican district in New York.  When the elderly were presented with the concept of having Medicare turned into a voucher system, the answer was a unilateral – “Hell NO!”

Here is how we could balance the economy and make it actually make sense – raise taxes, especially on the rich (a REALLY good one to work with), bring the troops home from our little pointless errands in the Middle East, slash the military budget into ribbons, and here’s a radical thought – invest in our nation’s infrastructure.

As Bill Maher put it when talking about Gov. Rick Perry’s plan to have God solve our debt problem –

It doesn’t require prayer to solve it, it requires a calculator.

My thought on how the Democrats should react to all of this is that they should fight this out, not give in to the Republicans tantrum.  And that is exactly what it is.  It is a tantrum.  Them screaming about how they won’t do their chores if they don’t get dessert before dinner.  And they must serve their political masters well.  But here is what is worrying me – how are are the Republicans willing to go with this?  Are they actually willing to play chicken with America’s economy?  Or worse still, are they actually serious about letting this entire country’s economic structure go to shit because we didn’t give them what they want?

Maybe we should let this nation’s economy fall apart.  That way, the Republicans can be the ones who are to blame when everything goes to shit.

Until next time, a quote,

“Politicians like to say ‘we need new ideas.’  Bullshit!  New ideas is just a secular version ‘spiritual solutions.’  Something that’s going to magically fix everything.  What new idea is going to solve our healthcare crisis?  A magic pill that makes obese children crap out gold bricks?  We don’t need new ideas.  We need the balls to implement the ideas we already know work!”  -Bill Maher, Real Time with Bill Maher

Peace out,

Maverick

The Best Parts of Intimacy

Just last weekend I got to have what I have called a “mini-vacation.”  It was the most, and probably the only fun that I will get to have all summer.  The thing about it is that now that it is done, I am truly lamenting it.  I am truly lamenting the fact that the fun is over and that I now have to settle back into the groove of things, and the groove of things is honestly not all that fun.  I am not very happy here at my residence right now.  This part of Alaska (deliberately leaving it ambiguous.  If any of you live in Alaska, you will probably know what parts suck and are filled with redneck idiots) is just not where I want to be.  I want to return to Anchorage, to be back in my element.  But at this little mini-vacation, I got to thinking about something that does mean something pretty important to me – what are the best parts of intimacy?

My aunt Joan believes that to keep a relationship working, at least two of three kinds of intimacy are required at all times.  There is intellectual intimacy, emotional intimacy, and physical intimacy.  I agree with her there.  But for myself, I think it isn’t completely about the kinds of intimacy that you have, but also the things that are involved in it.

For those of you who don’t know, I think that sex is great.  It is a great thing for people to get to have.  We are one of two species that gets to have sex for fun.  But in my mind, I don’t think that sex is where it ends.  I think that sex is just another part of it.  And to me, it isn’t the best part.  It is a great part, don’t get me wrong, but the way I see it, there is so much more, so much emotional energy and power in some of the other expressions.

Getting back to my aunt’s analogy, I think that there are times that it is impossible for physical intimacy to be apart from emotional intimacy.  Honestly, I think they are completely linked, but that is just me.  And in my mind, some of the more simple acts of physical intimacy are much more fun and much more meaningful than just fucking.  You see, there is so much emotion that is already involved in the act of making love that people sometimes forget why it exists.  It establishes a bond between people.

This is why I have never understood people who can just screw somebody and have it be completely meaningless except for the incredibly short (in the broad scheme of things) activity that it is.  If somebody comes to me and tells me that they are able to completely seperate their emotional from the act of making love, I honestly question the validity of their statement.  And if it were possible for them to actually seperate it all out in such a complete way, then I would believe that some part of them is lacking in a significant way.

The thing about physical intimacy is there is so much more than just sex.  Some people actually don’t get that.  Some young people, and society in general anymore has now come up with the idea that sex is everything.  If it does not fall into the real of sexual activity it is not part of what we consider intimacy.  Or rather, what society considers intimacy.  My thoughts on the subject are much different.  There is a reason that poet throughout history have written so much about how two people can expres their love and have it be in a meaningful way.  Sure, there are lots of books talking about how sex can be so pleasurable, but how many books are there talking about how the smallest moments can be pleasurable?

One of my favorite activities that I have while I am intimate with somebody (I am bisexual, after all, so I must make a distinction.  Granted, I have never gone the distance with a man, but only just) is to watch them sleep.  There is something so pleasant about watching the person who you are sharing a moment with drift away in the land of dreams that we all get to visit, some people more than others.  But is such an enjoyable experience.  Sometimes I wake up in the morning, and I can be perfectly content to just watch the person I am in bed with sleep away, gently held in dream’s embrace.

And there is just the experience of holding the one that you love.  Whether it be a hug, or late at night, keeping one-another warm.  Sometimes I can get lost in a moment of gentle holding after sharing a night of romance.  When both of you need nothing more, when both of you are just happy to be in that moment together.  There isn’t a young couple who is truly in love that doesn’t get that.  The problem is that some guys don’t like that.  Some guys don’t like the gentle moments.  They just want their knob to get polished.  And there are women who are much of the same mindset, albeit from the other side.  They want the sexual pleasures.

For women, that does make a bit more sense.  Women experience sex in so much more of a profound way than men.  A woman can have an orgasm just from her mind, while a man must, absolutely must, have physical contact.  So when they want the pleasures that comes with it, there is a bit of an understanding, because they feel it so much more.  It’s still kind of sad, but it does make sense.  But they fail to understand – sex is so temporary.  Plus, if you genuinely care about a person, then it is the simple moments that can mean the most because they make you feel comfortable, not only with the person and the feeling, but with your state of being.

Being happy is a subjective concept.  Intimacy is a HUGE part of that.  That is what I think, anyway.

Until next time, a quote,

“Unless it really sucks, when two people have sex, they are likely to have it again.  And it didn’t suck.”  -Robert Chase, House M.D.

Peace out,

Maverick

Atheism is NOT a Religion!

I have a friend who considers himself to be a “Christian agnostic.”  He doesn’t believe there is a Christian God, but since he says that we cannot know either way, atheism is a completely impossible belief system.  He also says that to not believe in God also requires faith.  In his mind this is the situation – atheism is a false contention because a truly open-minded person would have to open to the concept that there is a God, and therefore, must be agnostic.  His statement was, “atheism is just something to piss off mommy and daddy.”  I take issue with this.  It is problematic for a number of reasons.

The first is his contention that if you are open-minded, you must believe that a God could exist.  He is right about one thing – it is impossible for us to prove that there isn’t a God just as easily as it is impossible to prove that there is.  However, the burden of proof is not on those who do not believe.  The person who makes a claim, the original claim, must be able to defend their claim.  They must be able to provide proof of their position.  If a person claims that there is a God and that is a fact, then they must be able to prove this contention.  It is not on the shoulders of those who do not believe to prove that there is a God.  And to be open-minded, you don’t have to believe that there is a supreme being.

This brings me to my second point – faith.  This friend said that I have “faith” that there is no God just as much as a person who is religious has “faith” that there is.  This is a logical flaw.  Let me explain.  To believe that there is a God, there is an absolute requirement that you have faith.  You cannot believe in a being that can exist outside of all understood nature and not have faith.  Almost any religion requires having an amount of faith.  Sure, there are the Buddhists, but I think of them more as atheists with a bit of spiritual garnish.  Therefore, if believing in a God, any god, requires faith, what do you call a person who does not?  If they have no compunction, desire, or general feeling of this God’s existence, do they have faith.  He seems to think yes, but I don’t.

If religion absolutely requires something, and I feel no faith whatsoever, then am I living a faith-based life?  I don’t think so.  I think he has the definition of faith mixed up.  Let me explain.  By definition, faith is the trust, hope and belief in the trustworthiness and goodness of a person, group, or entity.  How exactly is non-belief like that in any way?  It isn’t.  His whole premise is a logical fallacy that happens because the word faith has been so twisted up in knots by our modern culture.  I don’t blame him for that.  I used to think faith was something else too.  So that is that.

See, the irony of it all is that you need faith to be agnostic.  To believe that there could be a god means you have the hope to believe in one.  You need to have the belief that such a concept could exist.  To be truly intellectual, as he contends, one must be open to the possibility.  Here’s the tricky part that he didn’t get – being open to a concept and active belief are two completely different things.  I can be open to the idea that The Big Bang is not how this universe began.  But being open to that idea doesn’t mean that I believe it actively.  I am merely keeping my mind ready to accept new knowledge as it is given to me.  To date, The Big Bang theory is the best one we have.  But the only correct position on the universe’s beginning, or really the existence of a Supreme Being or set of them, is that we don’t know.  I’ll get back to that later.

Then there is the flaw that atheism has the same attributes as religion.  Religion is merely a set of practices, behaviors, and values that are associated with a group or individual based on what they believe.  Atheism cannot be a religion simply because it has no set of values, practices or behaviors associated with it.  It is merely the contention that we do not accept the position that there is a god of this religion or that religion.  Because this position has no met it’s burden of proof, we reject this concept.  We are not active nor required to furnish our own proof, because we are making no contention.  We are simply rejecting what other people believe based on what we know.  The fact is that the only tie binding the atheist community is the fact that we reject the position of religious people.

Another interesting element to all of this is the fact that there is a community to religious people.  I often believe that atheism has no predominate community, because we have so many varying beliefs.  There are militant atheists, pacifist atheist, gay atheists, straight atheists, Democrat atheists (my favorite kind), Republican atheists, all kinds.  Religion is unified based on a set of beliefs and values that they have.  They are rightly called a community.  However, atheism has no such unity or system of beliefs.  In all honesty, we don’t really believe there is no God, either.  In the most abstract, atheism is merely a statement that we reject the position of religious people because they have produced no evidence.  Granted, saying you believe there is no god does require proof, but not believe in God is a different thing, and therefore does not.

And my final point about why atheism is not a religion – why does there need to be a god?  We don’t know if there is, but here’s a thought – what exactly would this god character do?  All things that happen in nature happen according to natural laws.  All things.  The reason that the supernatural is such a farce is because we can understand and measure almost all thing that happen in nature.  For instance – a hurricane happens.  We know that forces in nature created this hurricane and everything else that happens after it is created goes along the lines of what is possible within nature.  The hurricane can’t suddenly start raining fireballs.  And they never have.  All the things that happen in the world are because of things we can see, measure and understand.  And therefore, if all things in this world happen in that way, the question becomes – why do we need God or a god, or gods?  What possible use could they serve except for sparking the universe into existence?

Atheism is not a religion.  It is just a contention, just like my friend having the contention that it is a religion.  Saying there is no god may be closer to it, with more faith attached, but not believing in god is different, and much easier, because no proof is required.

Until next time, a quote,

“The only reason we have a word for not believing in God, which is atheism, is because the religious are the majority.  You wouldn’t claim that you believe there are no pots of gold at the end of rainbows and that you believe there are no magical Irish dwarves in green suits, and that you believe that four-leaved clovers are occasional plant mutations and not effective charms of good fortune.”  -GrapplingIgnorance, An Atheist Calls Atheism a Religion

Peace out,

Maverick

Hostel and Saw, A New Gross Paradigm of Bad Films

It isn’t exactly a big mystery that I love a good story.  No matter what the format is, as long as the story is good, I will enjoy it.  A book, film, TV, video games, you name it.  All great stories come in all formats.  That said, I am not a big fan of the horror genre.  It is one of thos fields that always seems to have the same story – group of young people, put into a dark place, creepy monster or killer or both is coming after them, they all die except for the young lovers who are waiting until marriage to have sex.  It is a really stupid paradigm that is repeated over and over again.

This could be innocent enough, except for the fact that there is a new paradigm of horror films that has evolved in the modern community – the films that are pointlessly gory and have NO story at all.  The greatest example of this disgusting and pointless affront to good filmmaking are the Saw and Hostel movies.

Most people blame Quentin Tarantino for the first of the Hostel abominations against taste.  This was not his fault.  He only produced the films.  He didn’t make them into what they are – disgusting revolting crimes against decency.  When the Serbian government got a look at the first of these films, they were kind of insulted, and didn’t want people to think that this was how their country actually is – filled with psychopaths who kill people for money.  Or rather, have people come to their place and kill people after paying them money.  I remember when I watching this movie.  I wasn’t scared, I was just grossed out.  For real, nothing about that entire crime of the worst kind even hinted at being remotely frightening.  It was just plain gross.  The characters were dry.  The villains was so completely sick in the head that a few people legitimately asked if these kinds of people really exist in the world.

I wonder if Eli Roth actually wanted people to ponder that.  That was the closest thing to a theme in this entire film.  Could people be out there who would pay money to kill people?  Well sure, it could exist that a person is out there who believes that they would like nothing better than to kill another human being and would pay to do it.  But that was it.  There wasn’t a single bit of story substance in that entire filthy mess.  To put it bluntly, the film was fucking disgusting.  It didn’t make me think, it didn’t appeal to my brain at all, and there wasn’t a story even remotely interesting there.

How this film did so well in the Box Office is really beyond me.  I genuinely don’t get what people like about a film that is nothing more than people without a conscience of any kind kidnapping and allowing people to kill other poeple as brutally as they want to do so.  Not a single character in any of these films has anything even approaching a human sense of decency.  What about that appeals to people?  This is a legitimate question.

Then there is the other side of this, the Saw movies.  I remember when Saw V came out, and it said, “you won’t believe how it ends.”  I was so happy because I finally thought “yay, it’s ending!”  This god-awful crap is over!  But then they decided to make a 3D version of these vomit films.  The premise of them is that a person who is of unusual genius was able to come up with some very, unbelievably elaborate traps and then imprisoned people and had them play his games.  Not only did this make no sense, but the fact that hte law was so unable to catch this guy says something.

In real life, a criminal with the genius to do what the criminal Jigsaw was able to accomplish would have probably been found out pretty quickly.  He utilized sometimes massive areas, kidnapped tons of people, and rigged traps that would have not only cost a metric ton of money, but also would have been traceable.  You don’t get the materials that Jigsaw used at your local Home Depot.  He had liquid nitrogen, huge amounts of complicated chemicals, the knowledge to work with electrical systems, technology, poisons, chemicals, firearms.  This is not some guy off the street.  This person is a genius who is able to affect the world however he pleases.

A good film about a killer is often a pretty fun experience, but I cannot suspend my disbelief for this guy.  Not only that, his games as sick, deluded, and his reasons for doing them make no sense, but they are hopelessly gross.  The problem with this new paradigm of horror films is that they are just pointlessly gory.  Gore doesn’t have to matter or be that bad if the final product is of geniune merit.

The film, Brotherhood of the Wolf, a French horror film was a great movie.  It was well-told, well choreographed, the story was complicated, the characters  were rich and interesting, and it also had the benefit of being based on a true story (a little loosely, yeah, but still).  The film Ginger Snaps told the story of two sisters who were bound by love, but one was slowly mutating into a monster.  It was a tragic tale of love, dedication, and one sister finally being ready to stand on her own.

And probably the best horror film that I have ever seen, along with my favorite vampire film, was the Swedish masterpiece (don’t watch the American version, it SUCKS!), Let the Right One In.  It was one of those movies that reminds you why you watch movies.  The characters were brilliant.  The story was incredible.  The scenes were all perfectly shot.  Nothing was wasted about this film at any point.  It was a true masterpiece, so the fact that there was gore in it didn’t matter.  It was perfect.

Horror is a genre I don’t particularly care for.  But there are good work within it.  The problem here is that people don’t realize that gore needs to have a good story that goes with it.  Otherwise it is just torn flesh with no meaning.

Until next time, a quote,

(translated from French) “He is not my servant…He is my brother.”  -Grégoire de Fronsac, Brotherhood of the Wolf

Peace out,

Maverick

Let Them Be

As much as I suppose I do criticize people, I only criticize what a person believes.  I have a friend who genuinely believes that atheism is a contention of belief.  You believe there is no God.  That is the contention.  I disagree.  I think that it is merely rejecting a system that has not met its burden of proof.  I’m an intellectual type by nature.  Or at least, half of me is.  Half of me is a person who needs something to be proven to me before I will believe it.  But when I see a system that is as wrought with bigotry, misogyny, prejudice, as much as faith is, I choose to speak out.

However, it was also pointed out that since I used bad language, I don’t sound like I am articulately arguing, and therefore am just feeding my own narcissism.  Well, yeah, that’s how it is.  I am feeding my own narcissism.  I am feeding my love of myself.  But what people like him don’t realize is that I honestly don’t give a damn what people think about me.  I am a foul-mouthed bisexual creative intellectual atheist.  I am what the modern world despises.  Creativity is quashed underneath the thumb of a system that valued productivity over individuality.  The faith-based world of the country hates and despises on a very large scale those who reject their way of thinking.  Sexuality is a reason for people to hate you in this world.

I have this belief – let peopel be who they are.  I tell people often, “do what you feel.”  I can criticize a way of thinking, and when a person genuinely gets on my nerves, I can attack what they said.  But what people don’t realize is that I rarely ever hate a person based on what they believe.  I almost never do it.  Honestly, there are almost no people that I hate.  I don’t care enough about almost anybody enough to hate them.  I genuinely am a misanthrope.  I hate the human race.  This whole world is a system that destroys good people.  I have seen so many with bright ideas and bright thoughts brought to their knees by a world that tells them to fit into a mold, to not be who you are.

I have people coming to my classes that I attended back last semester telling me that they want a person to look even in their personal lives like they are one of them.  She tells our class to create are narrative, to lie to people.  That’s the other part of this – the truth doesn’t matter.  Nobody cares about how anybody really is.  Not in a very large scale.  There are the few like me who want to get to know people better, but the bulk of the human race doesn’t give a shit about who anybody is.  It is all about what you look like, what you sound like, how you operate.  People think that you are supposed to be one of them.

I don’t really belong in this world.  I belong in a more enlightened world, a world that doesn’t have anybody else in it.  Honestly, if everybody were to vanish tomorrow, a part of me would be so peaceful with that.  A part of me wouldn’t miss anybody at all.  Or maybe we could live in a world where nobody talked to one-another, where everybody just walked down the road.  Or we could all live in a world where people had to cover their faces, all people, so nobody could see who you really are.  I kind of like that last part.  If nobody could see anybody else, then they couldn’t get to care or hate them because of how they look.

I believe you should let them be.  Let people believe what they will.  Tell them how you feel, which is what I do.  I don’t care if I influence anybody.  I don’t care about any of that.  All anybody can do is to just keep walking, keep moving.  This world, this species, is destined to die away.  I won’t miss it when humanity is finally gone.  I wish I could be the last, so I could see the world without us, the calmness of it all.  I love the calm more than anything else.

Life is such a short thing.  I guess you could call atheism a little bit like nihilism, but not exactly.  We believe that there is no direct answer.  We believe that belief is a waste of time.  Or maybe not we, but I do.  And my way of looking at things is at least open-minded enough to learn something.  I take Penn Jillette’s statement when I say that I believe there is NO God, and therefore, if I am proven wrong, at least then I have learned something.  In a world that is constantly changing, learning is good.  Are the Christians open to learning that there isn’t a God?  He said that I believe as strongly as the other guy, but he is wrong.  The other guy firmly believes that his path is correct.  Would he be open to learning that there is no God and that it is all junk?  I wonder…

There are too many people for this world.  If there were space travel, I would head out, alone, into the void, and see what I could find.  I would head out there, and try to look for something more.  But because there are so many people, and because there are so many ways of thinking, people need to stop tiptoeing around everybody so that they don’t hurt somebody’s feelings.  You say that dolphins are idiots, you are going to offend somebody.  You say that the Earth is round, there is somebody somewhere who is going to be offended.  You say that the moon landing actually happened, you are going to offend somebody.

You know what I say, fuck it.  Just do your thing, and if people end up not liking you, let them be.  I write what I write not to attack people (unless they are bigots, but that is a whole different issue), but to attack ways of thinking.  May way of thinking may be wrong.  There may be a God and I may rot in Hell for all of eternity, but honestly, I don’t care.  I will have learned something, and I have experienced real pain before.  I’ll know what to expect.

Until next time, a quote,

“God is REAL(ly an antiquated social construct that must be eschewed in the name of social progress.”  Title of a YouTube video

Peace out,

Maverick