Funny - we were in Oshkosh looking for a kitchen table and chairs and we picked up a copy of the Northwestern to check through the for sale items. Well guess who was on the front page?! Remember Molly McGrath from high school - totally stuck up whore - yeah she's our new Miss Wisconsin - gag me! The picture on the website doesn't open. She definitely looks a little on the anorexic side and I'm sure she's gotten some fake boobs - I don't remember her being that chesty. I've checked the Rapids Tribune online - but haven't found anything.

"I'd Rather Be A Whore Than An Academic" is an interesting article, even though it is filled with Marxist bullshit. http://eserver.org/bs/46/anonymous.html

Give a man a fire, and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.

If I wasn't at work I would have collapsed into hilarity over that one.

FYI: Rock and I are leaving for Concord/Boston tomorrow.

Good-bye, Rock. We'll miss you. See you at Christmas (maybe)...

If anyone wants anything from Pampered Chef - check out the website and email me an order, I'll write a check to cover and you can pay me back when I get you your order. I had an excellent show and Ranee made some Red, White & Blueberry pie and then some Mediterranean Salsa. It was a fun time!

I also upgraded my cell phone - Jacob bought a new one and I got his old one (which isn't exactly 'old') and we're selling my other one on Ebay - if anyone is interested in that let me know - it's a Motorola and I'm not really sure what the model is, but if you're interested I can find it out! The whole point being that I know have MoBlog service - it's a camera phone and the pictures I take will be posted HERE, on my MoBlog page. You can check the pictures out and write comments and everything!

The rent has been raised on our apartment by $20/month. Our pay, of course, has not been raised, making living here even more difficult. Let me first say that I don't have a problem with rich people. I have a problem with rich people that screw their employees. I edited this for sake of anonymity.

I found this weekly comic a while ago. I like it a lot. The message boards are ok too, they get clogged with jerks sometimes, but other times its just women and girls complaining about the things that pain them

Angry Little Girls

I remember Lauren talking about her private blog and if we ever found it that we shouldn't tell her. Well, I never found it and I never looked for it because I know that some things are meant to not be known by anybody else, but my friend Matt just found my private blog and not only read it, but told me about it too. I have no idea how he found it, and I know that things on the internet can be found, but you shouldn't go looking for things like that anyway. Its so frustrating, now I have to transfer 9 months worth of anger to a new blog.

If you know how to transfer entries to another account, let me know because this is hard and I don't know if I will have to do it again.

I must be getting my period, because everything is pissing me off. 'lil Ike looked at me funny and I called him a fuckmook, so...I'm warning you all to fuck off for 5-7 days.

I'm not sure I want to know what Dan's gonna do with a baby.

Nah...I think that, as long as he can figure out a way to feed the thing - and that might be a challenge for him - it'll be OK. The kid will be a little fucked up (or a LOT fucked up, as the case may be), but this baby thing will probably work out for him/them. (Emphasis on PROBABLY.) (I just realized something: Dan is part of a "them." Who ever would have guessed?)

You know what? I bet the baby is really cute. Hey - boy or girl? (And Lauren, I'm talking GENITALS here, not gender. I would have said "penis or vagina" but that seems so crude, especially in reference to an infant.)

Thanks for keeping us posted, Lauren. When he loses it at the supermarket, et cetera (insert other baby mishap clichés here), you'll have to keep us informed about THAT too. :)

Dan and his woman had their baby.. June 22nd, 1:46 am, c-section.

That's crazy. Dan has a BABY. What the hell is Dan going to do with a BABY?! Christ.

There's a discussion on the email news list I'm a part of with my friends from college (Urs is on it too now, I think) about why women feel threatened by models and movie stars. It made me think, because I realized that I do feel somewhat threatened by them. I probably shouldn't, but I do. Our roommate doesn't understand why women compare themselves to models, but he doesn't understand how important it is for a woman to look good. This may all stem from a comment Justin made regarding models. He said, "Men don't necessarily have sex with models because they're hot. They have sex with models so they can tell all their friends they fucked a model." That pisses me off. I don't know where I'm going with this, other than I'm slightly upset and rambling. So.

This weekend I found out that the guy who was principal at Immanuel Lutheran School when my sister, brother, and I all went there was arrested for sexual assault of a minor - which is a misdemeanor! He was talking about sex to his 11 year old neighbor BOY and the boy was so upset from the discussion the mom called the police on Mr. Charles L. Weiss! This doesn't surprise me as the guy would always be 'jingling change' in his pocket, rubbing his crotch against the podium in sexual ways - leaving the room after rubbing against the podium! The guy is a sick pervert and the Daily Tribune article made it seem like a total blow off and it was just a mother over reacting - that's crap because everyone who knows the guy knows what a sick pervert he is!!
Funny his initial court appearence is on July 12th - my 1 year anniversary :) What a sicko I hope he gets to go to jail and gets butt raped by big scarey biker guys tons of times. He'd probably like that, though! He's been principal at the school for a REALLY long time - before I even went there and that was in like 86 I think - who knows how many of these types of incidents occured in the past!
I had him for 6-8th grade math classes and his wife was my 3rd grade teacher - she still teaches there I think.

Regarding "Political-Savvy" Madonna

As much as I love Madonna...and you all know I fucking DO...I don't see why her opinion should be the voice of God. Not that I don't feel George Bush is a moron, because I do and he is, but why should these goddamn celebrities' opinions be so important? They're CELEBRITIES, not political advisors. This annoys the shit out of me, because most of them don't have any clue what they're talking about. Yes, they're allowed an opinion and yes they're allowed to speak it, but why do we listen to anything they have to say? I mean, in reality, they live in la-la land. Madonna, for example, has about ten nannies raising her children, a butler, a driver, a chef, a billion housekeepers, etc. It's not like she's living in some sort of shithole and suffering, now is she? The reason I bring this up, is because she's a hypocrite. She wants better economic policies, I'm assuming, and takes an extremely left and liberal standpoint on things, but take a GLANCE at her current Reinvention Tour ticket prices as well as merchandising. It is nowhere near accessible for those of her fans that don't have much money, the prices are exorbinant. Therefore, she excludes a large part of her fanbase in order to...survey says....make extra money. Like she needs it. That's actually a money-savvy conservative action, isn't it? Moving on, she recently published a slew of children's books (which are very cliche, by the way) and made the comment after donating the money earned to a charity that the "selfless action" was "very difficult to do." Because as we know she just MIGHT run out of money...even more notable is the charity she *DID* donate to...one that seeks to provide Kaballah spirituality to children. Gee, that isn't agenda-driven. I guess I just don't agree that celebrities should exploit their fame in order to gain power and take over everything from singing to acting to writing to modeling to politics. I *am* a liberal and I *am* a huge Madonna fan, it's just that I'm tired of these celebrities getting so much credit for "speaking out" JUST BECAUSE they're famous. I mean, really, what does Madonna know about policy? Everything she does, and everything EVERY celebrity does and gets credit for, is based around their own personal agenda, just as it is with anyone else. So let's not start polishing that saint certificate yet.

GO SEE DODGEBALL RIGHT NOW!!! Jacob and I went to Oshkosh this past Friday to shop for stuff for our new and improved bedroom and we decided to go to opening night of Dodgeball. I've not laughed so hard in a very long time - frickin hilarious! Then Saturday night we were back in Rapids for Father's Day and we were going to take my in-laws to see Terminal with Tom Hanks in it, but of course crappy Rapids didn't have it in yet! When I asked the guy looked at me and was like, What movie?! So I just said um forget it! We watched Dodgeball again!! Holy crap - so darn funny - you all must see it - I'd even go a 3rd time it was so funny! It's totally Jacob and I's sense of humor kind of thing!

We went on another mini road trip today! Last week we went to Springfield, IL, to pick up a male Irish Setter Jacob's boss bought. The boss let us use his truck and paid for a nice hotel room for the night, so it wasn't all that bad, but the dog was so high strung and fricken annoying. This morning we headed for Iron Mountain, Michigan. We picked up the female Irish Setter for the male to knock up! I think it's crap that the male was $750 and the female was only $250! Sperm is that much better than the female who actually has to carry and give birth?! Anyways, it was a really pretty drive - Niagara, Wisconsin is so beautiful!

Hey, Lise, what's the URL for your web page? I can't find it!

I'm on the "bush-sucks" community on Live Journal, the original post is here http://www.livejournal.com/community/bush_sucks/1374565.html.

american life
Madonna was on 20/20 last night, (Friday night) and they showed a clip of her "American Life" video, which is very anti-war. It featured her riding on top of a tank, and throwing a hand grenade, and Dubya caught it. And then proceeded to light up a cigar.

The interviewer (Cynthia McFadden) also mentioned that there is a scene where Bush is kissing Saddam on the cheek. When asked why, Madonna explained that she thought that, at the end of the day, they weren't very different-- both power hungry, with narrow views of the world. She also said she thought they both act very irresponsibly. McFadden reminded Madonna that the Dixie Chicks got ostracized for saying less than that, but Madonna said, "Ok. Well, I don't know much of anybody who thinks the war in Iraq was a good idea."

I personally am a HUGE Madonna fan, and it made me immensely pleased to hear her be openly critical of him. Granted, I'm sure he'd just shrug her off as a slut or whore or whatever, but it doesn't matter-- like her or not, Madonna IS one of the most famous people in the world, and things she says do matter/have an impact. So I was very happy. :>

Just wanted to share.

I am so glad that artists are getting their balls back. While not as huge a star as Madonna, Morrissey said something similar and reaffirmed my love for him, the website is here: http://www.democrats.net/2004/06/morrissey_bush_.html

Morrissey: "Bush should have died, not Reagan"

Big Mouth strikes again, according to this Manchester Online article:

Thousands of fans at Dublin Castle, in Ireland, cheered when the ex-Smiths frontman made the announcement that the former American president had passed away.

And an even bigger cheer followed when Morrissey - who is no stranger to controversy - then said he wished it had been the current President, George W Bush, who had died.

Remember when artists and rock stars were expected to make controversial statements and have political opinions that weren't approved in advance by their publicist and management company?

Morrissey's songs will probably be blacklisted by Clear Channel, but that might not be the worst of his worries. The British Government doesn't seem to have much of a sense of humor these days - going so far as to handcuff and take away one member of a Clash cover band because they didn't like the lyrics to the Clash song "Tommy Gun".

For those that don't remember the 80's, Morrissey's comments about Bush might come as a shock. But for those who actually lived through the Reagan era, you might remember a song called "Margaret On The Guillotine" from somewhere toward the end of Reagan's second term. The whole song was about wishing that Margaret Thatcher would die.

I checked out some Morrissey websites to see what his fans were saying about the incident. Not shockingly, it doesn't seem that he has many right wing fans. So, if there is to be any controversy over this, it will have to be manufactured by the media.

While looking at fansites, I did find this post where someone pointed out the similarities between a picture on John Kerry's campaign website and a Morrissey album cover image.

I made this little graphic so you can see for yourself:



Nature is a language - can't you read?

The reception on the Morrissey fan sites indicates that the vast majority of Morrissey fans agree with him. It gives me hope for November.

I found this great website (foundmagazine.com) where people submit random notes and pictures they find. It's fascinating. Take this to-do list for example:

To Do:
turn in library books
find out about college
mail Dads shit
pay bills in advance
hide guns
pack
get medication
do taxes
sew PC up
change adresses
pay Columbia bill

That's quite the itinerary. Anyway, check out the site.

Tim and Sarah spent the night at our apartment last night. It was totally a surprise visit, and it was awesome. I hadn't seen Tim since my wedding. In Columbia we'll only be 10 hours from New Orleans. That's drivable in a weekend, right? Jeez.

So yesterday at my counselor appointment, we discovered that I have a problem with anger. I get too angry too fast and I deal with it without thinking. While that does explain a good 50-75% of all the drama in my life, at least a quarter of the things that happen to me are still shitty. In other words, it still feels like more bad things happen to me than that happen to other people.

Is there something about me that invites terrible behavior? Is there something that I do that just says "please, abuse me"? I'm tired of people being mean to me and I feel like it happens more often than it does to most people. Part of me hope that this is correct because it would justify how I feel, but the other part of me hopes that I am wrong because then I would know that I have to fix myself.

As a singer you must really know you're near the end of your career when you are booking Casino gigs. Good thing: Jewel will be there the night of our 1st anniversary - bad thing: we already booked a whirpool suite at the Mead with our gift certificate that expires that night :(

In other music news - I'm beginning to dislike Cher more and more! We went to the first and the second Farewell Tour. She is such a liar - guess who's going to be in Green Bay doing her Farewell Tour August 2nd?! Yup, Cher making yet another FAREWELL TOUR appearance. She should FAREWELL for good after she completes the tour! Sorry Jamie & Sig, it really ticks me off when anyone does that sort of thing, though - almost as bad as casino shows!

PS - Madonna is changing her name?

I was in a state of emergency last night over an unresolved conflict with friends. It seems as if they shy away from fights and would instead rather leave someone hanging than let her know the truth. As a girl raised in a home full of yelling (and even when my dad wasn't yelling, he was loud), with a man that grew up with 13 people that only knew how to express one emotion, that being anger, this sentiment bothers me.

I don't know how much detail I have to give, but the long and short of it is that in the name of my friend Sarah, her friend Robin un/intentionally hurt me. I responded to her email by telling her that I was very hurt and have gotten nothing in return. Last night, I found out that she is very concerned about the whole incident, maybe even more so than I was concerned before last night. See, she has to eat her words, and words are never tasty, but I tend to eat mine a lot. I would feel bad for her, but in this case, I find it hard to have any sympathy for her, especially because she left me hanging for more than a week. True, she is not my friend, but in my book, if you care about someone enough to say hurtful things to them, you should care enough to apologize. Not doing so would be the same as beating someone up in an alley way and then seeing the damage you caused and walking away as if nothing happened.

That analogy might seem like I am taking things out of proportion, and I might be taking them out of proportion, but I've had my feelings hurt and then been left to hang with only my thoughts on what is happening. And my thoughts can make up some bad things. The reality is that Robin is too chickenshit to eat her own words and allow me to feel better, a reality I had not even thought of. That reality does not pardon Robin. To add another layer to this argument, Robin was trying to help Sarah when she said the mean things to me, and the fact that Sarah has remained silent on this issue does not help my picture of her either. Matt, my main confidant in this issue, the one that knows all three of us, listened to me tearfully break down my feelings and promised to email Sarah last night. She was on AIM this afternoon (she is in France at present) but I quickly went invisible because I would rather have an email from her than an IM. I have not gotten any kind of response. Thats not helping her case either.

All in all, I can't believe that these people do not know how to handle a fight. I might have some pity if they were a great deal younger, but Sarah and Robin are a year my senior and apparently, Robin flies off the handle quite a bit. You'd think that with her temper, she would know how to deal with this kind of a situation. Its odd, I've never been so happy to have grown up in a tumultuous environment before. Having fights with my parents actually prepared me for the rest of the world, in a way. But, of course, it did not prepare me for a fight with people that don't know how to fight. Its a shitty situation, I hope none of you ever go through something like this.

Goddamn Kim Cattrall. As it turns out, there will be no Sex & the City movie. I'm sad. You can read about it here.


PS: It has just come to my attention that Lisa has never seen a single episode of Sex & the City. How is that POSSIBLE?

I signed up for my Gmail account. I decided not to sell my account because I'm totally selfish about my username.

Tonight we saw "The Chronicles of Riddick". It was a fun movie, but not a great movie. As far as space operas go I've seen better, but I've also seen worse. Man, I totally love science fiction. I really, really do.

Today Justin told me that if, instead of announcing "mission accomplished" in Iraq, Bush had said "All your base are belong to us. Saddam, you have no chance to survive make your time." He would have been more supportive of the war effort. I tend to agree. Also, if President Bush had changed his name to C.A.T.S. and donned a purple cloak, I would have more respect for him. Unfortunately, the world doesn't operate like a badly translated Japanese video game from the 80s.

Signe always says that one of the most heartbreaking scenes in a video is in Madonna's The Power of Goodbye, when she touches his hand and he pulls away from her. I can't think of anything more painful than indifference. Scream abuse at me if you like, but to be indifferent is to slowly kill me.

I really wish that my parents hadn't been so mean to me. They didn't let me do ANYTHING when I was a kid. No dance lessons, no gymnastics, NOTHING. I got forced into swimming lessons and piano lessons, but whenever it came to things that I wanted to do, they ALWAYS said no. Finally, when I was twelve and hadn't begged for dance lessons in years, my mother - out of NOWHERE - said "Oh, I suppose you could take dance now." Right. I'll just start in the 7th grade. It won't look at all odd at the recital when standing in the middle of a group of five- and six-year-olds. Consequently, I never really got GOOD at anything. I sucked at the violin, since I didn't take it up until age eleven and then only had group lessons at school. I never got to be any good at skating because I didn't start that until 8th grade (but they had an adult class, and no recital-like things, so it was slightly less embarrassing). Aargh.

Yeah. I just got home from my cousin's dance recital. I'm a little bitter.

Wait...we get a gmail account just for being on a blog? Is our username the same as our Blogger username? How does this work, because I think I'd want to keep a gmail account if I have one.

Hey, kids. You really ought to take Lisa's advice about auctioning off the free gmail account you get just for being a member of this little blog. Since I'd already set up my account, I figured that it wouldn't fetch the big bucks. I scoped Ebay and noticed that INVITATIONS to gmail were going for $50+ because people wanted to pick their own usernames. I figured that an account with a decided-upon-username wouldn't be as lucrative. So...I put the starting bid at $15, with a But-It-Now price of $25. Less than 4 hours after listing the gmail account, it was sold. So...$25 for me (minus the small listing fee and the small Ebay commission...so...$20+ for me). Yay!

I wish I'd asked for more. Oh well. The moral of the story is, "sell that shit if you're not gonna use it." :)

Six Flags was great! I even managed to go on one roller coaster. I wish I would have went on the American Eagle - I've been on it before and liked it - but I went on the Viper which has like a billion drops. Drops and loops are what makes my stomach the most upset! If I wouldn't have ate the world's hugest caramel apple I would have probably went on more. It was a good time! Jacob and I got our caricature (or however you spell it!) done and it wasn't the greatest - I look like me, but Jacob looks like he has a cleft lip and not really like himself! We were there from like 10 in the morning until it closed at 9 last night. My feet are blistered and my arms, neck, face, and on my legs where my capris didn't cover are really sun burned! I guess I'll have to go tanning to fix it up!

Jacob, his cousin Felicia, his sister Bethany, his brother-in-law, and his dad all went on the new Superman roller coaster. You lay on your stomach the whole time - just watching it upset my stomach! Even Jacob said he ALMOST passed out - there's a part where you are on your back going around a loop - so pretty sure I would have died on the ride. Out of all the rides I think that one looked the worst- although they had this De-ja-vue ride that looked like I'd crap myself if I went on it. You went through the roller coaster forward once and then you twist up this giant 'stick' that is straight up and you drop down backwards and go through the whole thing backwards again and then there's another 'stick' at the other end where you get turned around forward again.

We didn't take many pictures, but when Jacob gets them up on his website I'll let you know.

Congratulations on the assistantship, Erica!!!

Justin and I went to Columbia, Missouri to look for apartments. It's a really nice place from what we were able to see in 3 days. It's a university town and actually reminds me quite a bit of Madison. We're looking forward to living there. It will be nice to live in a place with real people again, as opposed to cookie-cutter suburban families.

Here is the mail I got from a friend of Sarah's, the same one that told me to look at taking the bus.

I didn't want to continue this yesterday, but i felt that this message needed to be addressed again.

You have reciently been given a second chance at life, and i think it is time
to really look at yourself and try to share the great opportunites that comes with
it. I feel that you should take a look at your second paragraph from yesterday
that starts out with "Also, i maybe selfish...". I think that if you read it
again you should notice that a)it *IS* selfish b)it doesn't mention nor
indicate to the costs to anyone other than yourself c)maybe you need to
evaluate where your priorities lie. YOu have surrounded yourself with some
wonderful and generous people, and yes it does suck that you had an accident,
but this treatment of people tends to wear on them and everyone has their
limit.

You won't see this on someone's online journal, i am discussing this with you
directly. You can take what you want, but if there is a chance that my letter
to you could help my friends relationship with their friend, i took that
chance. We all only have today, but we should live to make our tomorrows the
best they can be.

Robin

Here is the response I sent, CCed to Sarah since its only logical that she complained

*sigh* I'll respond with a statement from someone that is not myself

"Hell yeah that's what they meant whenn they said take the bus. Even if
they were annoyed all that shows is that their annoyance weakened their
manners.

Anyways, who the hell cares if you go 10-15 minutes out of your way?
That's what friends do. I used to go 10 minutes out of the way to pick
up by buddy Eddie, why? Because the 10 mins. extra would bring me his
company and that's why he's my friend. I feel your pain, man."

I also don't like knowing that people are talking behind my back. If
someone has a problem with me, I wish that they would come out and say
it rather than have people I barely even know order me to take the
bus. This has nothing to do with my fucking accident. If sarah is
complaining about me, I would prefer she do it to me and not sic other
people on me. Especially people I barely even fucking know. I was
mad, I have a right to be angry and if other people have problems
expressing their anger, that is not my fucking problem

Being told to take the bus, to me, is an indication that someone doesn't want to spend time with me. If someone has a function that is not within walking distance of most people, I assume that others are driving there and ask those people. I guess I made the mistake of soliciting a ride from anyone that could possibly take me there. I don't know how much back-story is needed for this, but I don't go asking to be carted around everywhere, in fact, if I could go grocery shopping alone, I would prefer it. But grocery shopping is the one thing that requires a car because I end up getting too much stuff to take on the bus. Personally, I think that Robin should screw herself.

Furthermore, this girl is making this whole thing bigger than it needs to be, and not being very polite about it. I was "given a second chance at life" so that I wouldn't get rides from people? What the fuck is she talking about? Fact is, the only result of the accident that causes me to need rides is the lack of a car, and I wasn't even going to have a car after December ANYWAY, my parents were taking it back. SHE is the one bringing my accident into the situation, and why? I am not the one blaming my accident for ANYTHING. In fact, I never attribute anything I do to the brain injury unless I am being facetious. I don't like things to be blamed on the brain injury or the accident.

Honestly, if I can't get a ride from a friend, then they aren't really my friend and they shouldn't even invite me places.

Why is everything pissing me off today? First I get told to take the bus by people I DON'T EVEN KNOW after saying that I need a ride to a friend's house, then I get an email disagreeing with a point I've made.

So its only two and they aren't even that bad, but it frustrates me. I don't like defending myself. I can, but sometimes my point of view is too complicated for me to put into words. Its better to just take it at face value. All in all, the events of today have made me into a ball of rage that can only be released by consuming large quanitities of Indian food, but I can't because today I am restarting my diet. AAAARRRGGGG!

An ammendment to my missionary post:

I have no problem with missionaries who go over to other countries ONLY with the object of secular ministry - that is, missionaries concerned with human rights stuff and NOT specific Christian objectives. These CAN be Christian missionaries; in this context, "secular" does not refer to the missionary's personal religious affiliation. Rather, it's a reference to the goal of the mission itself.

Missionaries do a lot of wonderful things. They feed starving people, educate uneducated children and adults, and distribute health information. Unfortunately, there are very few purely secular missionaries. Jesus generally gets tossed into the mix somewhere along the line. Even if it's not a forced conversion, and even if religion is not a main focus of the work being done, it's a subtle suggestion that Christianity is the "right" way and that any other values/beliefs/religions are "wrong" and "inferior" and "silly."

It's one thing when missionaries go down to Alabama to help poor people build houses and entirely another when they go to Mongolia or Afghanistan or anywhere else, with the aim of converting the filthy heathens, thereby causing people to abandon their own perfectly legitimate religions.

As a scholar of religion, I *HAVE* to be opposed to the systematic destruction of systems of belief. As an academic rather than as an adherent to any religious tradition, I am willing to say that no one religion is "better" than any other religion. I am willing to claim that all systems of belief are vaild, and that they ought to be treated equally. Requesting that a person abandon his or her beliefs in favor of another set of beliefs (however subtly it's done) violates both of these principles. It says, "Your God sucks...mine is better, so you should believe in mine." Aaagh.

All the religions that I've studed have meritable qualities, Christianity included. At the same time, all of the religions have major flaws. One of Christianity's flaws, both now and throughout history, has been its need to missionize and stamp out other systems of belief. I understand that this is because it's built into the Christian holy book as an integral part of the faith - Jesus won't come again until everyone in the world has heard his Good News - but, from my scholarly viewpoint, it's tragic that in fulfilling their own religion Christianity prescribes the obliteration of other faiths.

The Christians don't like it too much with the zealot Muslims (an unbelievably small minority, I might add) trash Christianity and claim that Allah is superior and whatnot. It's a personal insult and it demonizes Islam as a whole. But a lot of the Christians don't have any trouble doing the same damn thing to people practicing indigenous religions. Aaagh. Hypocrisy. Gotta love it.


"You can ask yourself, 'What happened when Native Americans came into contact with Christianity?' Or when ANYONE comes into contanct with Christianity, for that matter..." -Steve Spina, my Religion in America prof.

There are few groups of people that irritate me more than missionaries.
In fact, I hate missionaries. I'm sorry, but there's nothing wrong with indigenous religion. Oh my goodness, they're not Chistian?! Cluch the pearls! Horror!

Give me a goddamn break. Why do they feel that non-Christian religions are inferior to their own? Why do they feel that non-Chrsitians are in dire need of saving? (OK, I do know the answer to that one...but it's bullshit.) Plenty of non-Christians have done just fine without Jesus, thankyouverymuch:

*Pagan Romans produced amazing artworks depicting their gods and goddesses. Their temples weren't half bad, either.

*Muslims pioneered geometry, built amazing mosques, and made a shitload of scientific discoveries while the Christian Europeans were scratching their lice and starving to death.

*Chinese Confucianists (or maybe it was the Taoists...one or the other, anyway) discovered and harnessed gun powder.

*Greek philosophers weren't Christian...but they sure as hell were smart.

*Hindus were among the first to discover the number zero (it's weird to think of zero as a discovery, but it was) and use it in mathematical calculations.

I also hate missionaries because they feel that they need to go and "civilize" the indigenous world. All I have to say is this: the crusades were not terribly civilized.

The world would be a much better place if the missionaries would just lay off and leave people to their own beliefs. Religious variety is a good thing, I think. It would be even better if people didn't have to play the "My God is better than your God" game...but I suspect that won't stop any time soon.

Anyway...missionaries suck. I hate them.

OK, cool hybrid religions - Vodou and Santeria, for example - occasionally come about as a result of forcing Christianity on people. Unfortunately, missionary work more often leads to the systematic destruction (and complete loss) of religious systems and cultures. That sucks. So...I still hate missionaries.

Today one of the guests at the hotel had me make copies of an inspirational letter that he hands out to prostitutes. It was all about when you're sick of selling yourself you can turn to God. My favorite line was "I'm sorry for using my beauty to bring out the beast in men." This man thinks his mission is to save all the crack whores in the Cities and as a result he brings them all to the hotel.

Yesterday a man asked me if I was French. I told him I was American and asked why he would think I was French. He said he thought I was French because I was speaking a foreign language. I told him I was speaking Russian (to Vladimir the maintenance man) and he was like "Oh, so you're Russian!". Which, I suppose, is not an unreasonable assumption based on how few Americans speak foreign languages.