Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Bush plans to encourage a "small, painless surgery" on the brain to arrest sexual desire in unmarried people
by B. S. Laugh
The Bush administration plans to encourage a "small, painless surgery" on the brain to arrest sexual desire in unmarried people, an unconfirmed source of the administration revealed.
The surgery, reversible in case of marriage, will not be compulsory but strongly adviced and also encouraged through financial measures such as tax reductions.
Adults accepting to undergo the surgery will be given a silver badge saying "I am American and virtuous".
The same unconfirmed source said that in order to contrast possible objections as regards the religious slant of the initiative, it will be suggested that human beings have been "intelligently designed to copulate in marriage" and not "mating with the carefree attitude of dogs".
Although unconfirmed, the rumour of the new campaign, circulated widely and already gathered the enthusiastic support of the Roman Catholic Church and of the Born-again community.
Quoting St. Gregory ("Sexual desire is absolutely impossible without fault"), St. Augustine ("Sin - concupiscentia - reaches its peak in sexual desire that is in the libido qua obscenae partes corporis excitantur, the desire in which the indecent parts of the body are excited.") and Thomas Aquinas ("Therefore, seemingly, no venereal act is without sin") a Catholic priest, interviewed, stated that "if true, this campaign goes in the right direction"). As he commented, an altar boy, affectionately stroked on his head by the priest, assented compliantly.
The abstinence-only campaign of president Bush raised many controversies, and this new initiative will not fail to raise even more. However, as a spokesman put it, "he is our compassionate commander-in-chief and, may I say, father-in-chief, he is truly inspired and even if we do not agree with him, we must have faith, faith that his faith is right. Faith is better than thinking. It is conducive to a quieter life and is more American".
DISCLAIMER: ok, maybe this piece of news is not exactly true. In fact, I made it up. But read here.
by B. S. Laugh
The Bush administration plans to encourage a "small, painless surgery" on the brain to arrest sexual desire in unmarried people, an unconfirmed source of the administration revealed.
The surgery, reversible in case of marriage, will not be compulsory but strongly adviced and also encouraged through financial measures such as tax reductions.
Adults accepting to undergo the surgery will be given a silver badge saying "I am American and virtuous".
The same unconfirmed source said that in order to contrast possible objections as regards the religious slant of the initiative, it will be suggested that human beings have been "intelligently designed to copulate in marriage" and not "mating with the carefree attitude of dogs".
Although unconfirmed, the rumour of the new campaign, circulated widely and already gathered the enthusiastic support of the Roman Catholic Church and of the Born-again community.
Quoting St. Gregory ("Sexual desire is absolutely impossible without fault"), St. Augustine ("Sin - concupiscentia - reaches its peak in sexual desire that is in the libido qua obscenae partes corporis excitantur, the desire in which the indecent parts of the body are excited.") and Thomas Aquinas ("Therefore, seemingly, no venereal act is without sin") a Catholic priest, interviewed, stated that "if true, this campaign goes in the right direction"). As he commented, an altar boy, affectionately stroked on his head by the priest, assented compliantly.
The abstinence-only campaign of president Bush raised many controversies, and this new initiative will not fail to raise even more. However, as a spokesman put it, "he is our compassionate commander-in-chief and, may I say, father-in-chief, he is truly inspired and even if we do not agree with him, we must have faith, faith that his faith is right. Faith is better than thinking. It is conducive to a quieter life and is more American".
DISCLAIMER: ok, maybe this piece of news is not exactly true. In fact, I made it up. But read here.
Rowan Atkinson, Amazing Jesus
Monday, October 30, 2006
Blair warns of global warming 'disaster' |
 |
The consequences for the world if global warming continues unchecked will be "disastrous", Tony Blair warned today.
The Prime Minister called on world leaders to act together to tackle global warming at the launch of a report by Sir Nicholas Stern, the former World Bank chief economist, that forecasts floods, famine, mass movement of people and the destruction of species if the Earth’s temperature continues to rise.
The report, commissioned by Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, is the most comprehensive study of the economics of climate change yet. [read more]
Analysis
By Robert Peston
Business Editor, BBC News
The Stern Review says that climate change represents the greatest and widest-ranging market failure ever seen. And on the basis of this intellectually rigorous and thorough report, it is hard to disagree.
Power firms have to cut emissions by 60-70%, the report says
Sir Nicholas Stern, a distinguished development economist and former chief economist at the World Bank, is not a man given to hyperbole.
Yet he says "our actions over the coming few decades could create risks of major disruption to economic and social activity, later in this century and in the next, on a scale similar to those associated with the great wars and the economic depression of the first half of the 20th Century".
His report gives prescriptions for how to minimise this economic and social disruption.
His central argument is that spending large sums of money now on measures to reduce carbon emissions will bring dividends on a colossal scale. It would be wholly irrational, therefore, not to spend this money.
However, he warns that we are too late to prevent any deleterious consequences from climate change.
[read more]
Earth 'will expire by 2050'
Our planet is running out of room and resources. Modern man has plundered so much, a damning report claims this week, that outer space will have to be colonised
Mark Townsend and Jason Burke
Sunday July 7, 2002
The Observer
Earth's population will be forced to colonise two planets within 50 years if natural resources continue to be exploited at the current rate, according to a report out this week.
Our planet is running out of room and resources. Modern man has plundered so much, a damning report claims this week, that outer space will have to be colonised
Mark Townsend and Jason Burke
Sunday July 7, 2002
The Observer
Earth's population will be forced to colonise two planets within 50 years if natural resources continue to be exploited at the current rate, according to a report out this week.
A study by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), to be released on Tuesday, warns that the human race is plundering the planet at a pace that outstrips its capacity to support life.
In a damning condemnation of Western society's high consumption levels, it adds that the extra planets (the equivalent size of Earth) will be required by the year 2050 as existing resources are exhausted.
[read more]
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Where did the previous Lynne go?
Read this:
"Let us go away together, away from the anger and imperatives of men. There will be only the two of us, and we shall linger through long afternoons of sweet retirement. In the evenings I shall read to you while you work your cross-stitch in the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl."
or this:
"The women who embraced in the wagon were Adam and Eve crossing a dark cathedral stage -- no, Eve and Eve, loving one another as they would not be able to once they ate of the fruit and knew themselves as they truly were. She felt curiously moved, curiously envious of them. She had never to this moment thought Eden a particularly attractive paradise, based as it was on naiveté, but she saw that the women in the cart had a passionate, loving intimacy forever closed to her. How strong it made them. What comfort it gave."
Was this written by a lesbian militant? Well, not really. Or at least it appears she is not one now. The above excerps are from Sisters, published in 1981 by Lynne Cheney, the wife of the current vice-president of the United States, exponent of a party which, as it is well known, has quite grossly restrictive, uncouth views about sexuality.
This comment of mine, however, does not mean to focus on the Republican party. Rather, it is a form of mourning for the previous Lynne Cheney who now even appears uncomfortable when speaking about her literary effort of 25 years ago (read here).
I have not read the book, which is out of print, and can be found second-hand on Amazon for about 700 dollars (Ms. Cheney does not appear to be willing to allow a reprint). However the two paragraphs above show a vision of reality more refined and sensitive than that, roughly cut with axe and Old Testament, of the Born-Again president and company. In an article on the Los Angeles Times, Patt Morrison wrote "I found myself thinking that, in some ways, Lynne Cheney's 19th century Wyoming sounds like a better place for women than George W. Bush's dream for 21st century America."
People are, of course, entitled to change, but when reading the interview of Lynne Cheney, one cannot help perceiving a form of denial or even regression to a punitive, authoritarian dimension, typical of puritan religions, in which attempts are constantly made to force the complexity of reality and human feelings into a tiny box of ancient dogmas and prohibitions, which constantly present sexual pleasure as associated to sin and invariably give way to hypocrisy and intolerance.
Personally, I think the worst sin is the denial of the self to embrace external, unwarranted norms and rules, which pretend to even regulate personal life. And equally iniquitous is the indoctrination and the vexation of people's personality to achieve certain behavioural results, thwarting joy and spontaneity, and killing critical sense.
Perhaps the previous Lynne Cheney thought the same. Where did she go?
Read this:
"Let us go away together, away from the anger and imperatives of men. There will be only the two of us, and we shall linger through long afternoons of sweet retirement. In the evenings I shall read to you while you work your cross-stitch in the firelight. And then we shall go to bed, our bed, my dearest girl."
or this:
"The women who embraced in the wagon were Adam and Eve crossing a dark cathedral stage -- no, Eve and Eve, loving one another as they would not be able to once they ate of the fruit and knew themselves as they truly were. She felt curiously moved, curiously envious of them. She had never to this moment thought Eden a particularly attractive paradise, based as it was on naiveté, but she saw that the women in the cart had a passionate, loving intimacy forever closed to her. How strong it made them. What comfort it gave."
Was this written by a lesbian militant? Well, not really. Or at least it appears she is not one now. The above excerps are from Sisters, published in 1981 by Lynne Cheney, the wife of the current vice-president of the United States, exponent of a party which, as it is well known, has quite grossly restrictive, uncouth views about sexuality.
This comment of mine, however, does not mean to focus on the Republican party. Rather, it is a form of mourning for the previous Lynne Cheney who now even appears uncomfortable when speaking about her literary effort of 25 years ago (read here).
I have not read the book, which is out of print, and can be found second-hand on Amazon for about 700 dollars (Ms. Cheney does not appear to be willing to allow a reprint). However the two paragraphs above show a vision of reality more refined and sensitive than that, roughly cut with axe and Old Testament, of the Born-Again president and company. In an article on the Los Angeles Times, Patt Morrison wrote "I found myself thinking that, in some ways, Lynne Cheney's 19th century Wyoming sounds like a better place for women than George W. Bush's dream for 21st century America."
People are, of course, entitled to change, but when reading the interview of Lynne Cheney, one cannot help perceiving a form of denial or even regression to a punitive, authoritarian dimension, typical of puritan religions, in which attempts are constantly made to force the complexity of reality and human feelings into a tiny box of ancient dogmas and prohibitions, which constantly present sexual pleasure as associated to sin and invariably give way to hypocrisy and intolerance.
Personally, I think the worst sin is the denial of the self to embrace external, unwarranted norms and rules, which pretend to even regulate personal life. And equally iniquitous is the indoctrination and the vexation of people's personality to achieve certain behavioural results, thwarting joy and spontaneity, and killing critical sense.
Perhaps the previous Lynne Cheney thought the same. Where did she go?
Saturday, October 28, 2006
The Benny Hinn Show
This is a video of some "religious" show by Benny Hinn.
This type of televised religious mass hysteria appears to be more likely to be found in the USA. If so, I wonder why?
In a country where the average time per week that children aged 2-17 spend watching television is 19 hours and 40 minutes, which become over 28 hours for the average adult (source tvturnoff.org), it is not surprising to have entire stadiums filled with crowds of people eager to delude themselves with the idea of experiencing a supernatural power. Sadly, these are people who vote too, but this is another, though important, story.
However, when watching this type of TV religious folchlore, a devout Catholic or Evangelical person (or any other denomination) might still have a little smirk of self-satisfaction on his face, thinking that, yes, there are some fanatics in some religions, but certainly he is not one. He will cherish the idea that his is the only true faith, while others are all wrong, or less right, if he is keen to sound politically correct. But of course he will pass over the simple fact that his belonging to the claimed true faith depended on the fortuitous circumstance of having been born in a given family and country, and that he would likely think the same were he born in, say, Japan and grown into Shintoism. And in case he did consider this latter aspect he might still indulge in the idea that some people in the world are more lucky than others for having been born in a given country and exposed to the "true faith", which, in turn, has political consequences too, but this, too, is another - still important - story.
It is incredible how tenacious indoctrination can be if imposed since birth and associated to parental words.
There is certainly a continuity between the above Benny Hinn's "religious events" and any other type of religious activity, be it Catholic, Evangelical, Voodoo or Witchdoctor rituals. The theatrical style might be different, but the base is the same: gullibility, cultural indoctrination, induction of mental passivity and lack of critical sense.
Any religion stems from a common ground of superstition and passive mental habits and reinforces gullibility and lack of critical sense in society, which lead to all sorts of pernicious outcomes at any level, psychological, educational and political. When people are brought up to believe blindly and unquestioningly in something, without evidence whatsoever - denying or thwarting the wisdom of their body, their self and their critical faculties - the seed is sawn of fanaticism and destructiveness, which may soon or later germinate into the most sinister shapes, causing a life of alienation and dissociation, and contributing - on a wider plane - to madness and destructiveness in the world.
This type of televised religious mass hysteria appears to be more likely to be found in the USA. If so, I wonder why?
In a country where the average time per week that children aged 2-17 spend watching television is 19 hours and 40 minutes, which become over 28 hours for the average adult (source tvturnoff.org), it is not surprising to have entire stadiums filled with crowds of people eager to delude themselves with the idea of experiencing a supernatural power. Sadly, these are people who vote too, but this is another, though important, story.
However, when watching this type of TV religious folchlore, a devout Catholic or Evangelical person (or any other denomination) might still have a little smirk of self-satisfaction on his face, thinking that, yes, there are some fanatics in some religions, but certainly he is not one. He will cherish the idea that his is the only true faith, while others are all wrong, or less right, if he is keen to sound politically correct. But of course he will pass over the simple fact that his belonging to the claimed true faith depended on the fortuitous circumstance of having been born in a given family and country, and that he would likely think the same were he born in, say, Japan and grown into Shintoism. And in case he did consider this latter aspect he might still indulge in the idea that some people in the world are more lucky than others for having been born in a given country and exposed to the "true faith", which, in turn, has political consequences too, but this, too, is another - still important - story.
It is incredible how tenacious indoctrination can be if imposed since birth and associated to parental words.
There is certainly a continuity between the above Benny Hinn's "religious events" and any other type of religious activity, be it Catholic, Evangelical, Voodoo or Witchdoctor rituals. The theatrical style might be different, but the base is the same: gullibility, cultural indoctrination, induction of mental passivity and lack of critical sense.
Any religion stems from a common ground of superstition and passive mental habits and reinforces gullibility and lack of critical sense in society, which lead to all sorts of pernicious outcomes at any level, psychological, educational and political. When people are brought up to believe blindly and unquestioningly in something, without evidence whatsoever - denying or thwarting the wisdom of their body, their self and their critical faculties - the seed is sawn of fanaticism and destructiveness, which may soon or later germinate into the most sinister shapes, causing a life of alienation and dissociation, and contributing - on a wider plane - to madness and destructiveness in the world.
Since humanity came into being, man hath enjoyed himself too little: that alone, my brethren, is our original sin!
And when we learn better to enjoy ourselves, then do we unlearn best to give pain unto others, and to contrive pain.
From Thus Spake Zarathustra, by F. Nietzsche.Friday, October 27, 2006
Brothels of the spirit
Are churches - brothels of the spirit, stages of self-indulgence, fetishism, camp narcissism, intolerance, spite, denial, phonyness, hypocrisy, mental passivity, dissociation, hate for the body and the tangible world, spreading of guilt, psychotic celebration of fabricated realms - preferable to the places where commerce is made of sex?
The effects, in the long run, of the pervasive hate-ridden presumption of religions, of their denial and obsessive constraint and humilation of anything that is joy and spontaneity, or simply real, their sawing seeds of destructiveness in so doing, are surely incommensuarably more pernicious than any commerce of sex in brothels.
The hypertrophy of the disembodied mind, the denial of the body, the regimentation of free thinking spirits under the burden of dogmas and norms passed as unquestionable and absolutely true, the abuses perpetrated on people, since birth even, as a consequence of these pathological attitudes, are certainly a much vaster vice than that presumed in relation to prostitution.
And how many people prostitute their minds or are accomplices of mind prostitution due to the oppression exerted by religious dogmas?
The effects, in the long run, of the pervasive hate-ridden presumption of religions, of their denial and obsessive constraint and humilation of anything that is joy and spontaneity, or simply real, their sawing seeds of destructiveness in so doing, are surely incommensuarably more pernicious than any commerce of sex in brothels.
The hypertrophy of the disembodied mind, the denial of the body, the regimentation of free thinking spirits under the burden of dogmas and norms passed as unquestionable and absolutely true, the abuses perpetrated on people, since birth even, as a consequence of these pathological attitudes, are certainly a much vaster vice than that presumed in relation to prostitution.
And how many people prostitute their minds or are accomplices of mind prostitution due to the oppression exerted by religious dogmas?
One of the frescos of the brothel of Pompei, recently reopened to the public, see other photographs here.
