Wonderful Matters

I can't keep it in. I have to put up a good rant in a post about The Hunger Games . A long time ago my best friend came up with an honor for movies that really stink up the place. It's called the Slap Shot award after watching the Paul Newman film about ice hockey that had him squirming in his seat it was so bad. This happened to me tonight watching The Hunger Games . I was squirming the entire evening. I didn't leave because I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about, so I stayed for the agonizing duration. I'd actually heard that there were some profound insights in it and interesting things to think about. I discovered that there were none. It wasn't enlightening or edifying in any way. Oh what about Katniss caring so much about her sister that she's goes in for her, that's kind of a Christ-figure kind-of thing to do? Yeah, but so what -- any film can have that, and lots do. Eh. I will say that there was the idea about the way the World Syste...

I was browsing in a bookstore today, and happened upon last week's edition of Newsweek. The cover featured a picture of a modern-day urban working class Jesus hittin' the streets. The title blazing across the middle of the page: "Forget the Church, Follow Jesus, by Andrew Sullivan." I haven't read the piece, but knowing a bit about Newsweek, and knowing a bit about Andrew Sullivan, I can pretty much tell you what's in it. Let me guess. It'll talk about how the Christian church, or any organized religious institution (don't want to be ecclesiastically insensitive now), is just not meeting the needs of people. It'll say that we just need to get back to the Jesus who told us about love and peace and equality and democracy and really touched us with transcendent meaning. Most likely he included some conciliatory stuff to assuage the worries from that group of Jesus appreciators, and some other niceties to appease this other group of Jesus affeciona...

Found this brief review by Paul Craig Roberts of a book that pulls no punches in speaking of Cain's Administrative Authority as all about human sacrifice, here referred to as something I've often called it: value extraction . Nothing much to say about it, except to draw attention to a work that merely elucidates the reality of World System activity. I should add, however, the disclaimer that I don't in any way censure what the World System does, as so many do including Mr. Roberts (from the smattering of what I've read of his). I only point out for purposes of understanding. Radical Selfists rant and rail against it as if they can change it, Devout Romanists defend with all sorts of casuistry, often the two intertwine to cause great confusion only to give richer voice to those who pull them further under their thumbs. I merely encourage readers to consider the Kingdom approach . To observe it with insightful understanding, pray for those immersed in it in whatever ...

There is a quite famous Monty Python bit called "The Parrot Sketch." A John Cleese character enters a pet shop and confronts the clerk, played by Michael Palin, with a complaint. The parrot he'd bought from the shop not long before was dead. The Palin character is in complete denial about this, insisting that that it was "just restin'." The Cleese character must go to great lengths to demonstrate that indeed, the parrot is dead. I think about this sketch whenever I see virtually every single World inhabitant completely oblivious to the truths about the way their beloved World works, even in the most vitriolic censure of that World. I would otherwise dismiss such behavior as the typical way of those inhabitants -- it is what they do, they are hopelessly blind, they refuse to be made to see -- all the rest of it. What gets me is that so many of them claim to be or try to comport themselves as good wholesome Christians. I just shake my head. Today the...

This morning before school started, a student came into my classroom with an urgent request. She asked me to watch a 30-minute YouTube video about a warlord in Uganda who is involved in child trafficking. She said his name was Joseph Kony, and she mentioned that she really understood the stuff we'd been discussing in class about food being used as a weapon in places like Africa. I was honored to hear of an instance when my students are actually taking to heart the things they are learning in my classroom. I promised her I'd take a peek at it later. What was funny was that another student in a class during the day mentioned that he'd heard something about this "Joseph Kony" thing, and wondered what it was about. I'd thought about my visit with the student this morning, and wondered what kind of crusade this may be turning into. After classes were over and my student conferences were over, I pulled it up to watch. It is a slickly made but poorly arranged ...

There are a dozen things I've jotted down to blog about to introduce my latest home page writing , and maybe I'll get to them sometime this month, time permitting. But I simply cannot fail to mention yet another ludicrously foolish attempt to make the world ever-so wonderful. As an AP teacher I'm in an email forum, and often I get a good feel for what some of these teachers are thinking. All of it perfectly rational, some of it horrifically unrighteous. One guy fancies himself quite the muckraker, and while he does expose some solid things about the benighted ways of the World, most of his offered solutions are those typical silly proposals that contain some spectacular merit but a lot of blatant stupidity. Here is the one that just put me away, and you should be able to find the idiocy in and around the noble intentions. So that's it! All we have to do is just get our connectedness with technology and science jussst right, and get rid of all that ugly finance a...

The response to two prominent stories in the press these days highlights the rank spiritual insanity that continues to devastate society. The first is a ruling by a federal court that the state of California cannot oppose same-sex marriages. The second was the summary dismissal of every single teacher at an elementary school that employed an instructor recently charged with sexual assault. I feel tremendous sorrow for those who applaud both decisions. How many do? I'd say it is quite a few, their moral sentiments profoundly hammered by World operatives convincing them that such actions are justified. Applauding the first means condoning, accepting, encouraging, and in this case legally sanctioning the physical and emotional abuse of one individual over another. This is truly the essence of a homosexual action -- indeed the use of genitalia for exploitive purposes. I don't believe for two seconds that any true consent is involved. It is merely exploitation of another to g...