Case for Christianity April 12, 2009

Today is Easter Sunday and I am typing this out and post it for the whole world to read. **May edit later for clarity and typos, keep your thoughts coming**

The title of this post is so hackneyed and at least one Christian apologist (who was ‘saved’ after his Atheism got a kick in the ass by Biblical truth) Lee Strobel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Strobel) has written a book with this title. I believe that an intellectually honest faith is a true and healthy faith. Generally there are two equally unpalatable camps regarding Christianity, one is of course of fundamentalist Christians who believe in the inerrancy of Bible and want schools to teach biblical Creationism and so on.

The other camp is full of bitter, mocking and fundamentalist atheists like Richard Dawkins. Unfortunately many literary figures have also tried their hand from time to time at Bible bashing for example Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer etc. It is easy to do so today than when writers like D.H. Lawrence did so and got banned everywhere. And in the case of what many consider father of the great American novel and great humorist Mark Twain, he considered it wise to keep his heretic and dissenting writings about Christianity in the closet. It was only recently that it was discovered how passionately Mark Twain rejected traditional Christian faith. (See this link for introduction of Twain’s views against organized religion:http://www.twainquotes.com/Religion.html )

Then there are lapsed Christians like former nun and now ‘secular’ writer Karen Armstrong(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Armstrong). Naturally she feels her years were robbed by Christianity and now by writing books that reveal the fallacies and contradictions in the Bible she is settling the scores in a way. And why shouldn’t she. She has every right to express her opinions and she is a very competent and engrossing researcher, scholar and writer. But then she also writes books on Islam, Koran and Mohammed and she gets into appeasement gear and takes sides and glosses over Muslim fundamentalism. This is hardly what can be remotely called intellectual honesty. This is deception, this is pandering. You punch holes in Christianity because Western world gives you the freedom to do so but you go soft on Islam because you fear backlash. That makes you- and others of your ilk- intellectually dishonest cowards.

Tolstoy’s Confession (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Confession) is a great resource about someone going through the crisis of faith and trying to find intellectually honest answers that agree with one’s conscience . It’s full text can be found for free on the internet from many sources including this one: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Confession. Another great Russian writer Dostoevsky dealt with issues of faith in his novels. I have not read Brothers Karamazov but love this quote ‘If there is no God, everything is permissible.’ It always rings true for me. I also love Kant’s quote ‘Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe, the more often and the more seriously reflection concentrates upon them: the starry heaven above me and the moral law within me.’ Bible agrees with this kind of thought in a few places like in Luke 17:21 ‘‘Nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold the kingdom of God is within you.’’ (English Standard Version of Bible).

To cut the long story short in order to have an intellectually honest faith I find myself reading Bart D. Ehrman’s book ‘Misquoting Jesus: The story behind who changed the Bible and Why’. He is a Bible scholar who has extensively studied (and taught) Bible (especially New Testament) in original languages for years. This book’s content is not original but has been presented in a very easy to grasp format for a layman who wants to do some honest investigation into the Biblical text and history of the very early Christian church. One review of the book fired a passionate debate on Amazon.com and you can access it from this link: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3L9D4Y81NNVGY/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0060859512&nodeID=283155#wasThisHelpful

This only proves how Christian faith means different things to different people. I personally believe in being intellectually honest but at the same time agreeing with Immanuel Kant and Luke 21:17, the Ten Commandments, teachings of Christ to love all mankind and to love God. I also believe that the theology presented in the Book of Romans is a good introduction to Christian faith. I believe objective scholarly resources should be used only to have a healthy faith, for a progressive and open minded Christian.

Suicide Notes- an excellent article on suicide. July 9, 2008

Well, the only purpose of this post is to present and share with you the wonderful article I read in the magazine section of New York Times. Not only it is very beautifully written but also it is informative and points towards some of the common myths about suicide, the prominent being that there is not much we can do for people who are intent on committing suicide. Most suicide attempts reach ”completion” because the dark impulse of a suicidal mind meets ease and convenience of the method of ending one’s life.

Another theme of this article that is not really pointed out is that some places act as hypnotic traps for a suicidal mind. The Golden gate bridge in San Francisco is given as an example. I have read an excellent book by Tom Hunt called ”Cliffs of despair” that explores Britain’s Beachy head chalk headlands as such spot that lures suicidal people from all over the country.

Here’s the article from The New York Times,

”The Urge to End It All”

Bad news sells: What is so appealing about tragedies and sadness? November 30, 2007

Why all bad news is good news?

 

 

USA: Diabolical government and CIA, Conspiracy theories, illegal immigration from Latinos and Muslims, Neo Imperialism, Freemasons, New World Order, corruption, TERRORISM, racism, poverty, drug trafficking, breaking out of all sorts of illnesses and falling economy.

 

Europe: World Wars, Holocaust, falling birth rates, dying out of White race, moral decadence, loss of values and Christian morals, invasion of immigrants and Muslims, spread of Islam into Europe, crippling social security systems, declining economies, rise of the right wing, xenophobia, rise of anarchy, crime and dictatorships in the Central, Eastern Europe and Russia.

 

Asia, Africa, Arab world and the rest: Huge natural calamities, disasters, death tolls, horrendous corruption, wars, genocide, AIDS, Fundamentalism, Female genital mutilation, Poverty, sex tourism industries for Western people fulfilling their every sexual fantasy including pedophilia, ever looming threats of big scale wars that may erupt any time and maybe engulf the whole world in a Third World War.

 

 

 

I have been trying to find the answer to this question since the time I realized, while reading literature, that the greatest novels considered ”classics” are mostly tragic and sad. Not only that, the authors or artists who happen to have a tragic life or commit suicide often see the sales of their works shoot sky-high, after they’re lowered into the grave. Later while studying media, I realized that anything newsworthy must be ominous. If you have some interest in literature then you may not have necessarily read but would have heard about the great Greek tragedies, Shakespearean tragedies etc.

 

 

The writers who have written extensively end up writing their ”masterpieces” that are tragic. Charles Dickens’ greatest novels are not the likes of Pickwick Papers but David Copperfield. Shakespeare’s tragedies far outweigh the critical praise and popularity of his comedies. Here are two quotes to consider about human love affair with sadness or the romance of sorrow (Despite the ever resounding slogans urging people, ”Hey! You should laugh lots and you should stay happy man!” and ”Don’t worry be happy”):

 

 

 

“For the Great Gaels of Ireland

Are the men that God made mad,

For all their wars are merry

And all their songs are sad.”

From Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton.

 

 

And here is the second one

”Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.”

By English poet P.B. Shelley

So…? What’s the idea? Is it a great international conspiracy (or hypocrisy) to urge everyone to be happy but at the same time to be in love with sorrow, secretly?

The Sin of Proxy Pimping November 25, 2007

A post, Just for humor’s sake.

 

Quote, ”People who have no sense of humor must be killed. Don’t be shocked I’m only kidding.”– By Ember

Disclaimer: Ummmm….The stated facts and the views expressed are not necessarily true.

 

 

 

 

I am a smart guy. I mean I am not dumb. I hope you know what I mean or else you’re one of them! Yes, I am a sinner and I have pimped again. This time I am not talking of blog pimping but I am pimping a guy at his own request. I warn you, don’t you get dirty notions. I didn’t mean traditional pimping or anything sexual. Get your mind out of the gutter, you will make it dirty. Ok read next.

 

 

Maybe women can better understand it, there is not much imagination, intelligence or creativity found among people who have balls. Right. I have a friend who I have known for about 4 years. Unlike me, he has a secure, stable life, a Masters degree and a very good job and promising future to place himself even in better professional situation. He got one problem though: he got no imagination and little humor except the kind of humor that is so pathetic that it becomes humorous itself. You end up laughing AT HIM.

 

 

 

Where does the pimping come in? Because of above handicaps he is not very successful with women or at least having a long term relationship that he longs for. So, he is looking and on the prowl. In one of his efforts to double his single life he joined a premium online dating service for which he has to pay monthly fee. So now, he has been searching profiles of ladies who would be impressed by his level of education and his job but not exactly by him as a person. But internet is a great facade that he can hide behind.

 

 

So, here comes I. For about last 5 months I’ve managed his dating account. I prepare emails, messages for all the girls he thinks he wants. I turn him into someone who is charming, caring, wise and someone who has a good sense of humor. In other words, I undo him and make him attractive. All this time he has been able to attract a few females and some of them fell in love with him online and he loved it. But I was feeling I had sinned and pimped because the person they loved was a persona of my own imagination. The other day, some woman expressed embarrassment that she works as a podiatrist in rest homes. The pimp assured her it was awesome and she should be proud of the fact that she is of being good service to people. She loved the pimp’s perspective and smiled. These women did not even know who the pimp was. Sometimes it felt awful to be sort of playing with their feelings. But well…

 

My friend was able to meet about 3 of them and it did not go far. So eventually there is a dead end. But still I am afraid someday I might lay such a fine trap that the woman won’t be able to see through it and I would be left with a haunting guilt and the dirty feeling of being a pimp.

What is so special about Nights? November 10, 2007

Ok, this might be a temporary post. I hope many people can read it during this weekend and may try to give their opinion.Here I ask a very stupid question that a kid might ask. But then I also know that no question is really stupid. Besides I don’t seem to find any answers for this one.

 

Q- Why nights are always linked with parties and social events? Why there are always nights out, special dinners, events, concerts, going to movies, parties of all sorts at night? Why not day? I mean, weekend is free for everyone and, generally, people always love sun light and the brightness of daytime, whereas night is often (generally) associated with ‘’sin”, crime, death, gloom etc. But then why days pale before dark nights when people want to relax, have fun, be adventurous or just want a soiree?

 

Any answers? What are your thoughts or feelings about it? Enlighten me.

Robert Frost’s poem October 20, 2007

Picture: Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Well, reading a friend’s blog I came up with this idea to post a poem by my favorite poet, Robert Frost. He is my favorite poet for his marvelous gift for conveying great irony, philosophy, humor or provocative ideas through deft weaving of rather simple words. He was an Atheist but still he had warm humor towards the ideas of God. Here is one example:

”Forgive, O Lord, my little jokes on Thee

And I’ll forgive Thy great big one on me.”
Another thing that I love about him was his depiction of rural New England and its wilderness in his poems: woods, frosts, snows, storms, birches, farms and what not… All beautiful stuff. I have several of his poems as my favorites but here is just one, ”The Road not taken”:

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

On books (book buying rather), Fakers and how it feels to have your testicles removed. September 21, 2007

Picture: There are some people I would love to strangle… but then there maybe people who want to strangle me…. The latter threat kills the former urge…

I am still on ”vacation”.. Umm no. I am on 360 quarantine. partial quarantine?… Well, simply and honestly put I am engrossed in more and more things, including some useless, life sucking, stressful events that require so much time and energy. It is a part of life. But I would rather fight my demons than be on the internet, gulp beer or coffee and pretend the world does not exist. I am no escapist though I am not fond of fighting forever either. lol. We’ll see.

 

This blog-post is not about recounting some great adventures but only to update briefly on my life (the only bits I want to reveal, I do have copyright over my life, including the fact that I pee in shower. But then who doesn’t?) and some thoughts that crossed my mind. So here we go:

Book buying binge– I have no idea where it came from. I am obsessive compulsive (a point often made in my blogs) and also extremely impulsive. I am a book lover, of serious, grave, ‘classic’, sombre, educative, provocative, intellectual, informative books; fiction or non fiction. But I always borrowed books from library. And let me boast I have, in this wonderful city of Christchurch, New Zealand, probably one of the BEST PUBLIC LIBRARY networks in the world. I know, rarely anybody in NZ reads my blog (most of active internet creatures that I keep on befriending are North Americans and British crooks, which I am very comfortable with because I AM interested in them) But I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Christchurch City Council that runs, maintains and constantly upgrades these libraries and their extensive services.

 

I am in the gypsy mode, not knowing where I will reside forever and call that place home. Honestly, maybe I would never like to reside anywhere and will keep moving in my life, i.e. whenever I have the freedom. I will not talk of this more. Let’s come to the books. Hmmm.. so yeah, this almost supernatural impulse hit me. I was on NZ’s online trading site (local version of Ebay) and I started buying second hand books from all over NZ, mostly ‘classics’ of English literature but basically anything from Complete works of Shakespeare, Gore Vidal, Paul Theroux and also bits of Thomas Harris (I just spelled him as Robert Harris and made correction, showing this is not my usual terrain….do I hear Hannibal chattering his teeth?) This book buying madness was true to my obsessive compulsive nature. Despite my poverty I have amassed about $400 of second hand books. Some of them in very new and awesome condition, others musty, tatty and well browned. I enjoyed welcoming all of them as they came to me, one by one, from all over New Zealand.

 

But here is the thing. In the last 3 weeks, I have been so obsessed with this binge that I hardly read a single book. This is in contrast to my library borrowing days when I often did read at least a couple of books every week. lol But still, these books are here for my perusing and perused they will be. That’s a promise. The other two subjects of this blog revolve around this 3 week book buying binge.

Fakers- This happened yesterday. Quite a few books that I bought online were from Christchurch sellers and I went to their places to pick them up. I bid on 3 books on American politics (Iran-Contra affair, Memoirs of Ronald Reagon and Bob Woodward’s book on the first gulf war and the inside workings of Pentagon, Bush (the senior) administration). So I went to this guy’s house. I knock on the door. No reply. It is 7:30pm and is already dark. There is complete silence around me save the occasional cars whispering past the house, on the road. I knock some more. No reply. I get impatient. I get out my cell and ring his phone. He picks up. A very polite and civilized voice. I tell him I’m outside his door. The door is opened by a handsome man with a very warm, broad smile and twinkling, intelligent eyes. We exchange hellos.

 

He hands me the books, I put money on his palm and am about to go. He asks me with a warm, friendly smile, ”Just curious, why do you want all these books on America?” I say, ”Ummm.. I am very interested in politics and America. That’s all.” I do have plans to go for American studies sometime in future but I choose not to reveal this and depart. But he beams and adds, ”Me too! I love America. I am interested in all their presidents. I was studying about America about 10 years back. That’s when I bought these books. O, you must read this one about Nixon. I love it.” I appreciate his feedback, ”Yeah? Cool. I will read it as soon as I can. So, you like the Nixon one huh?” He beams more, ”Yeah! yeah! I love Nixon.” My jaw kinda drops, my very tired eyes twitch more and in a confused, tired and husky voice I manage to utter, ”You…. LIKE?…Nixon??.” His smile becomes a bit insecure but retains the warmth, ”Yep… yep. I like Nixon.” I give it a thought for two seconds and say, ”Ok…?..”

 

Then I left and while I drove back home I wondered if there really are people who actually like Nixon? This really amused me. I thought I would Google this unknown phenomenon, especially spread to Kiwis (New Zealander) who generally hate anything that Republican America represents (Let’s not get into the King of Watergate, I am not going to insult or challenge your intelligence and am deliberately obscure because if you don’t know what I am talking about, don’t read further.)

 

I take a look at the books. Very nice, hardbacks. Almost in new conditon, considering they are at least 10 years old! I go over their table of contents. Something strikes me. NONE OF THEM is about Nixon… not even partially. I bought (the comments) ,”Read that one about Nixon” thing because actually I did bid on one book about Nixon and I was confused that it was from him. It wasn’t. He was just faking intelligence and understanding of America and American politics. I mean…. not even dressing up partial understanding…. but faking it from the core to the exterior facade. This is comparable to someone not knowing the difference between Bush and bush. You know? How can people be so… well… empty?.. Fake…?

 

As for me, as I was telling some other friend, I can be proud of the fact that I never fake. I never dressed up my reality before both my online or offline friends that I am poor. I am a loser. And sometimes I may not say it directly but you do know that I am a psycho.

My balls removed because I cannot afford (or am shy of) broadband internet– This story also is related to my book
buying binge. The very last book that I bid on obsessively was Russka by Edward Rutherword. A vast historical novel about Russia and its history. I was leading the bid to the last minute. It was a hardback in excellent new condition. I could get it for as cheap as $6 (including postage). At the very last minute I got an email. I though, ”Voohoo! I won it!” I used my crawling dial up internet to check my email that told me I was outbid by someone else by 50 cents and I need to make a fresh bid within one minute. I was stunned and hurriedly typed the website address. My dial-up took its crawling time and revealed the page to me in about 30 seconds. I click ”bid” and new page emerges as if a cockroach is sauntering from one shit-pile to another. The page opens and it tells me that my bid cannot be placed because the auction has been won by another bidder called, ”Sexybitch”. I fought back tears of frustration. I never felt such gnawing helplessness in my life since my very young days.

 

Probably I went through similar feelings when as a kid of 6 some older boys would repeatedly peel my shorts down and laugh in groups at the look of my naked butt and the wee-wee. I wanted to stop them but I could not… and it happened so suddenly that I could not check it in real time. And once the harm was done, it was done forever. I felt so…. emasculated as in having my testicles chopped off.

 

Update and afterword- Broadband internet in NZ has been expensive and heavily capped. I hate all capped things that limit my freedom. I don’t want broadband and then some email telling me I exceeded my limit. Plus, they need one year contract and I am a gypsy. But well, just found an ISP that slows users down to dial up once the cap is exceeded. And there is $100 fine for breaching contract. It sounds reasonable. Maybe I will go broad. I won’t let any Sexybitch beat me by 50 cents. This is not to be tolerated.

Is genius/ creativity a form of madness? August 4, 2007

Picture: A shiny sliver of mad moon shines over a dark, gloomy landscape.

Thanks to my 360 pal Sgt. Ruthledge’s blog, ”Creative genius- destructive demons” for initiating the idea of madness/depression and its link to creative genius. This theme has always captivated my own thoughts. In fact reading short biographies of mad writers, artists is one of my favourite activities. lol. So, needless to say his blog induced a hefty comment from me that I am copy pasting here in this post. The idea is to introduce little introduction of some of ”mad” geniuses and see that every genius or original thinker had his or her dark or at least odd demons. The stories of these lives are not only unnerving but also at times, heart- breaking. Sgt. himself mentions a great deal about the tragic life of Sylvia Plath, who like many mad or tormented artists committed suicide.

Sgt. had asked three questions in his post:

1) Do you think the creative artist and destructive demon necessarily go together?

2) Being public figures, it is a given that celebrities and other famous persons will receive more than their share of attention. Do you think their opinions are worth more than others outside their own field of expertise or fame?

3)What famous genuises, artists, intellectuals, or celebrities can you name that were dogged or destroyed by personal demons?

Piqued by these questions my brain which was in trance of oodles of coffee produced this comment:

Your questions.

1.) Having written the above paragraph though, I admit, it is necessary for creative people to be mad or odd or different. And a TINY number of people with real mental aberrations (as mentioned above) do go on to produce works of dazzling originality and creativity. William Styron (author of Sophie’s Choice and Confessions of Nat Turner) said, “The good writing of any age has always been the product of someone’s neurosis.” And as if to confirm the same he wrote a little book that became very popular, ”Darkness Visible” in which he recounted his own encounters with dark clinical depression and consequent hospitalization, recovery.

Important point to state here is that FIRST someone has to tame their ”madness” or odd way of thinking in order to create and SECOND be lucky enough to be noticed and published by others. In other words there may be a thousand cases of very destructive and painful manic depressive illness but only 5 or 10 would become real artists of lasting value. The same is true with any other tormented soul with known or unknown madness. The great French writer Gustave Falubert advised, ”Be regular and orderly in your life so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

2.) Opinion of artists and celebrities matters to an extent. But so does anyone else’s: audience, readers, critics. Indeed a genius or a great artist or a celebrity is so called because OTHERS recognize it and appreciate their talents. Realistically, without the patrons and fans artists would not exist. Anyone can CLAIM he or she can write like or better than Shakespeare or John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Byron, Pushkin etc. It sounds kind of an affront to real artistic genius but RECOGNITION is vital. But on the other hand, THE ONES, will be recognized sooner or later. Unfortunately, some masters of their art are recognized or ”re-discovered” posthumously.

3.) Well that’s a fun question to answer. I believe almost ALL creative geniuses were odd or mad in some way or another. Of course very popular ones have already been mentioned. I would repeat their names and add some others that come to my mind:

Van Gough, Mozart, contemporary Russian music composer and the other great writer: Tchaikovsky and Fyodor Dostoevsky, the latter had a kind of Epilepsy that brought him both dangerous seizures and ecstatic epiphanies. Wikipedia mentions that they both met only once. Someone noted a similarity between their work and remarked: “With a hidden passion they both stop at moments of horror, total spiritual collapse, and finding acute sweetness in the cold trepidation of the heart before the abyss, they both force the reader to experience those felings, too.”

And yet some more!: Byron (”mad, bad and dangerous”), Hans Christian Anderson, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, James Joyce (in whose mind the line between genius and madness got so blurred that it was difficult and annoying to tell which was which!?), Sylvia Plath (her only Novel Bell Jar is semi-autobiographical and is a realistic portrait of her own ever looming depression), Carson McCullers.

I should stop. Need more coffee. My madness is running out. LOL ***END OF COMMENT**
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

At the end of this blog I must mention probably the greatest of all scientists who laid the foundation of modern Science, especially Physics, Sir Isaac Newton. I forgot to mention him in my cursory list. Now, I will use an excerpt from my favourite book, ‘A Short History of nearly Everything’ in the words of Bill Bryson and let you enjoy:

”Newton was decidedly odd figure. Brilliant beyond measure but solitary, joyless, prickly to the point of paranoia, famously distracted…upon swinging his feet in the bed in the morning he would reportedly sometimes sit for hours immobilized by the rush of sudden thoughts to his head… and capable of most riveting strangeness; once he inserted a Bodkin, a long needle of the sort used for sewing leather into his eye socket and rubbed it around, ‘betwixt my eye and the bone as near to the backside of my eye as I could’ just to see what would happen. What happened miraculously was nothing…”

”Set atop these odd beliefs and quirky traits however was the mind of a supreme genius. Even working in the most conventional channels he often showed tendency to peculiarity. As a student frustrated by the limitations of conventional mathematics, he invented an entirely new form, the Calculus; but then told nobody else about it for 27 years.”

Aren’t you astounded!? I AM.

In defense of Ms. Hilton June 10, 2007

Picture: Ms. Paris Hilton (Sound bite: MOM!!! It’s not right!!!!)

To begin with, I HATE, all celebrity news especially when they appear all over serious media that are supposed to pay attention to serious issues and the news that matter and inform. Whenever I catch celebrity news headlines anywhere, I recoil in disgust, look away and kill the internet page, turn the newspaper page, flip the TV or radio channel. I often get the stares when people talk about celebrity lives and I shrug my shoulders, ”Umm I donno, and don’t wanna know.”

 

But Ms. Hilton stories have bombarded me from so many millions of sources that there was no escape. It has burned into my memory now. First of all I must explain why I am using rather respectful ”Ms.” before Ms. Hilton’s name. There are two reasons: 1.) I sympathize with her. 2.) I have an enormous respect for all the money she has.

 

So, feeling obliged to go with the flow, I also searched the internet to know about Ms. Hilton’s tumultuous past especially the saucy details of her sex videos. I also am embarrassed to admit that I actually came across pictures of Ms. Hilton performing fellatio on her lover. In short, it was a big thing (the controversy I mean). Though Ms. Hilton’s family and friends were outraged at the alleged leaking of sex video it only ended up making more millions for Ms. Hilton and catapulting her popularity among the ever so horny and hungry masses.

 

The recent event was of course about her trouble with the law and the consequent sentence of 45 days in jail. I knew I had to blog about it when I was at my right wing Christian friend’s home couple of days back. It was a chilly, foggy evening as Southern Hemisphere is in the grips of winters now. We were having coffee and chatting. The Tv. was on and there was a story about Ms. Hilton being released after 3 odd days in jail. My flaming Christian’s nostrils flared up, forehead got wrinkled with holy wrath and he growled, ”Bitch!! Bitch! There is no justice! Of course they paid tons of money to the corrupt officials. I hope she again breaks law. There won’t be second getting away from it. I hope she comes back! No one penalizes celebrities, they always get away!”

 

I calmly reminded him Mr. Mel Gibson does that sort of thing quite often and also yells at police officials when they arrest him, makes very objectionable Anti- Semitic remarks in the classic Catholic anti- Jew vein. I pointed out to him Mel Gibson was not jailed and it too was very unfair. My friend was mum and started talking about Ms. Hilton again.

 

I believe there is a bit of a prejudice, moral judgments, misogyny playing their role in it, especially as I compare Ms. Hilton’s predicament with that of holy Mel Gibson. So, I thought I would blog about this to say something that they, the people and their mass media are not talking about.

 

In the end, I do have some issues with Ms. Hilton though. I think she should own up to her folly bravely than cry in front of her mom. I don’t mean it as a joke, but when I really read about her heart cry in the court– ”Mom! It’s not right!”– it kind of pierced my heart. I mean we all have said the same words some time in our life. It makes it even more tragic when Ms. Hilton has to say this in public at the ripe age of 26. She is also wasting heaps of money, time and energy on lawyers, PR folks etc.

 

If Hilton empire pays me about $20,000 plus travel expenses, I would be very happy to guide Ms. Hilton through this ordeal, soothe and heal her wrecked nerves, shattered peace and broken spirit. Should anyone know someone inside the Hilton circle, get in touch with me. I have this overwhelming desire to do good. Besides, I’m short of cash.

Wisdom from Above May 3, 2007

Wisdom from Above delivered by Homer, The Philosopher.

”Life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim.” — Bertrand Russel.