Hit Me Where The Wind Blows: Platforming Is Everything (But Significant Art)

 

 Unlike a lot of people, today, I've never judged work on the size of the artist's audience. Taylor Swift may be huge, but I've never been able to recognize her songs, after all the years she's been in the public eye. And that's after making an effort to actually listen to her. I still can't do it. That's how good she is: She's so good that - even after making an effort to get to know her work - I still couldn't identify one of her songs, now, to save my life. Just as she doesn't know mine. The difference being that I don't do marketing, so mine aren't likely to ever be on constant rotation anywhere. 

 And now we have Ben Shapiro's "Facts". 

   

 The size of Shapiro's audience, and the concerted effort they'll make to insure his song's success, should push it skyward, whether it's deserving or not (I couldn't finish his verse, much less the song, so can't say it has much merit, except according to the shallow parameters of today's New Age culture). What they can't do is make it important enough to be part of what's known as "The Canon," and - as long as that's the case - then, as Freddie Mercury once sang, it doesn't really matter. Not to me anyway. "Facts" prompted at least one person to call me, just to say they liked my old Trump songs better, so that's my commentary on it. And that's enough:

Nobody calls me anymore.

Tie Your Mother Down (Or You Ain't No Friend Of Mine)

Screwdrivers for breakfast.

Such nasty habits in this country:

  Charlotte pastor Steven Furtick and his Elevation Church are making waves this week as more is revealed about Elevation’s odd fixation on their “Lead Pastor” as well as some of the questionable practices of the church, including “spontaneous baptism.” Indeed, many people are sounding the alarm and calling Pastor Furtick a “cult-leader in the making,”….

A cult leader in the making?

Word to your mother, getting drunk in the morning:

You can't "make" a cult leader without somebody following,….

 

It's So Hard To Be Normal Being "Out There" Is A Peach

As "spiritual battles" go, Christianity's getting it's butt kicked because (let's face it) there's just too much there to work with - especially if you're nursing a Freddie Mercury fetish.

No, Hell is filled to overflowing, and the spillover ain't looking to "attain" the status of angels playing harps on clouds.

But then again (let's face it - again) it's never been easier to Dance With The Devil:

What these fine folks don't understand is, either way, they're still playing the game - they're "spiritual" - and atheists ain't got time for that.

No, to this atheist, the "spiritual" are even more of a problem than the ordinary religious believer, since they're just as apocalyptic (as we've seen) but also feel entitled, knowing few are connecting the dots to their particular collection of "faiths."

That was a "Mayan Apocalypse" we just witnessed - not a NewAge prophesy, right?

Slippery little fuckers that way,...

 

Fundamentally, The Marksman Aims At Himself

To all you Buddhists out there, touting your poisonous illusion as some superior belief system that'll bring peace and happiness to the world, or even individual people, when it hasn't after all these years, isn't this neat?

"Thailand crisis: Dodging bullets at a Buddhist temple

There was nothing for us to do but take cover, as the incoming fire sprayed and hissed. People lay flat, terrified, crouched behind cars, tried to squeeze themselvesinto the meagre protection offered by the wheel hubs. They took cover frantically, diving behind not just cars, but trucks, trees and even flower pots.

This was near to the entrance of a Buddhist temple, a supposed oasis, a place of prayer. But we knew its sanctity had been fatally breached when the crack of rifles and the sound of bullets ricocheted close to the temple's souvenir shop."

Ha! They've even got a tacky fucking souvenir shop! (Probably selling material things that passively implore you not to get attached to material things. I swear, the bullshit never stops.) Wait - I've been to Thailand: of course it's got a tacky fucking souvenir shop!

And really good cucumber hamburgers, too, if memory serves.

What's really sad is how Buddhists throughout the West are compelled to try and deceive others about the nature of the East. It's weird is what it is. They're interpreting another culture's belief system, willingly walking around with the word "moron" stamped on their foreheads, while the evangelical nature of this "wisdom" means they're always looking around for another sucker. To lie to, like that's doing anybody any good. I don't get it.

So, sorry, laughing fat man in Chinatown (Hey, that could be your indian name!) but, I think it bears repeating - tacky fucking souvenir shop or no tacky fucking souvenir shop - I ain't buying what you've been selling. Your belief doesn't interest me any more than Glenn Beck's bible studies. You're as goofy as jumping beans, and the fact you're trying to deceive me, along with you, makes the insult double. I already know you can't even attempt to be good people without a belief system. I can.

And, if what's happening in Thailand - a totally Buddhist country - can be taken as any kind of example, then even that much isn't true.



Like I said, you're all a bunch of suckers.

Peace and happiness?

To that I say POW!

The Ref Calls For A Time Out

"Tales of the O-Cult

"Hail to the Victors"
A Special Message to the People of Iran
By Barack Obama

President of the United States"

-- Barack Obama, attempting to bunt on forth down, because that's the only way that We Will We Will Rock You to Iowahawk.

The Game: We All Need (To Bullshit) Each Other

"My correspondence with Warren was brief and followed a relatively critical 2005 article about him that I published in The Nation (which some of his detractors considered excessively kind). I described his best-selling religious self-help book, The Purpose Driven Life (which he pointedly described as ‘the bestselling book in the world for the last three years’) as childish and platitudinous and questioned his commitment to religious pluralism and civil liberty for all.

A few months later, on the occasion of Yom Kippur (which I do not observe), I received an email from Warren assuring me of his personal love and friendship, and seeking my forgiveness ‘for any ways that I may have ever unknowingly hurt you. Your article showed a lot of hurt by, and fearfulness of, what you think I represent … I want you to know that I would like to be your friend. I thank God for you, for your talent at writing, and I ask you, on this sacred day, to forgive me.’

Warren even took it upon himself to ask forgiveness for ‘all the hurt’ he assumed had been inflicted on me by anti-Semitic ‘so-called Christians’. He did not tell me that he and his wife had recently dined at the home of a Jewish couple, but he did note that he was ‘recently invited to speak at the University of Judaism to a gathering of US Rabbis’. He concluded by assuring me that I was in his prayers and his heart: ‘I respect you, thank God for you, and I am praying for God to bless you this new year. With love in my heart for you.’

Warren didn’t know me; we had met briefly at a conference sponsored by the Pew Forum and disagreed politely. Because I am a mere human being, I have no love in my heart for him, or other people I have briefly or never met. But Warren, it seems, is more like a benevolent deity, who doesn’t simply harbour indifferent goodwill towards others but loves them - loves us all, despite our sins and failings. In fact, Warren’s email to me was apparently a variation of a Yom Kippur form letter that he sent to Jewish journalists."

-- Wendy Kaminer, on Pastor Rick Warren - the President-Elect's newest spiritual buddy - for Spiked!.