Monthly Archives: December 2004

Salad days and finger chopping

I won't hide from you the fact that I like simple salads. Just leaves and dressing — but I like a strong dressing. I'm including here one of my favorite salad dressings. It's very versitile as well and also makes a decent marinade and even a dip for deep fried tofu and things like that.

Start with a jar of mango chutney. I used Sharwood's Bombay Club today but you could use anything. When you've used up everything but the last 15-20%, fill the jar half full of balsamic vinegar (just pour it on top) and mix it loosely with the chutney. Spice it as suits you; personally I use garlic, salt, mixed pepper, whole mustard seed, jalepeo, and a pinch of curry. Then top the rest off with olive oil, shake it up, and you're done.

A few people have now mentioned to me this story about a Marine who chose to have his finger cut off in order to protect his bit of colored ribbon wedding ring from being harmed. Ignoring the people shouting “idiot” at the top of their lungs, I found the story interesting. Not so much for its at-the-surface commentary about love, but because I think these sorts of stories illustrate just how powerful symbolism, story, icnography, and myth still are to humans.

Heinrich Himmler's Secret Shame

So some of you may remember that Alabama has introduced a bill that would ban any public funding of any material which portrays gays in a positive or non-judgmental manner (more, more, more). However, anti-gay materials would be funded. The bill would ban everything from university theater departments from performing A Chorus Line to the writings of Oscar Wilde, William Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway, Chaucer, President Lincoln, and other famous homosexual authors and authors who included gay characters, as well as many gay positive films, music, and other media which receive partial public funding. Some of Allen's statements about the bill:

[Pro-homosexual activists have an agenda to] do whatever it takes to indoctrinate the hearts, minds, and souls of our children. One day they will be the school board members, they will be the probate judges, they will be the state leaders, they will be the leaders in Washington, they will be sitting on the federal and state judicial branches of government -- and they will be in a place to develop public policy that will favor that lifestyle. [We have an obligation to] save society from moral destruction.

When reporters asked him about cases like banning A Chorus Line he replied that he wasn't against the theater, but they'd have to find a less gay piece of theater to perform. He explains,

It's not censorship. There's a reason for stop lights. You're driving a vehicle, you see that stop light, and I hope you stop. Who can argue with something as reasonable as stop lights? Of course, if you're gay, this particular traffic light never changes to green.

Now, I assumed this was just going to be one of those nut case bills that never gets anywhere and quietly goes away — I just have trouble convincing myself the average American is either so hatefilled or so apathetic that they don't speak out against this stuff. So I was very surprised to find out that President Bush supports the bill personally and has invited Allen to the White House tomorrow to talk about it in more detail (more)! I would like to quote in very clear terms what Allen (and now Bush with his support) said should be done with the homosexual agenda:

“Dig a hole and dump them in it.”

I wish I was joking but those are his words exactly. Understand what's being said because it's nearly time to build some big bunker “showers”, load up the trains with human cargo, and

roll out the fucking Zyklon-B!

Hold on… there are other ways to live! As you may know, Canada's Supreme Court just gave the national OK for gay marriage here, and it's been legal in Ontario for some time. I'd like to quote what Dalton McGuinty (the Premier of Ontario) had to say about our stance on gay marriage. Of course we have our dirtbag — cough… Alberta …cough — politicians who are anti-gay, but thankfully they're in the minority. Anyway, I thought McGuinty put it very well when he said,
I'm pleased with the ruling and proud to say that as a province we've moved to recognize gay rights, not as a result of some legal compulsion, but simply because we believe it's the right thing to do.

Listen carefully to that stance. We didn't have gay marriage because the courts forced it. The courts only affirmed it in the face of bigotry — we have it because it's the right thing to do, not because of some fringe minority pushing an agenda.

Why isn't that true everywhere in the world?

Maybe SNL was right and it's just the lack of a hockey season filling men in Canada with such love.

Thinking about God makes you crazy

I was just reading this story about how famed British atheist Antony Flew (who incidentally is near death) has changed his mind — maybe God does exist after all! He concludes this because of how amazingly complicated we are, surmising it must be intelligent design and thus some version of God.

He's only partially right (in my opinion).

I've mentioned before that what we perceive as human contains only 9% actual human cells (cells built around human DNA), with the remaining 91% being symbiotic microbial life which is interconnected deeply with the rest of the ecosystem. That 91%, when you add it up in its entirety (ie. all the microbial life everywhere, not just in a single person) makes up 98% of all the biomass on the planet, and that biomass is arguably a single entity (and we're a part of it as well, every one of us). Does a single one of your cells comprehend the words you're reading right now or even have consciousness? Of course not. But the collection of cells is conscious, even though not a single one is independently.

So is it so hard to believe that you are a part of a single larger being? You can see all the pieces around you and understand it metaphorically at least. Those of you (or at least some of you) who have suspended have broken through and gotten a momentary glimpse of that larger being. Others get it at the bottom of a k-hole I suppose. But it's that being which is responsible for the creation of things like sexually reproducing life, and it's that being that is what most religions perceive of as God (although they add all sorts of politics and heirarchy to it and generally overcomplicate the matter).

Where it gets even more interesting is when you realize that humans aren't really the brain of this being. Not at all… We're the reproductive organs. The singular purpose of humanity is to spread this organism to other planets, just as it was once spread to our own planet.

Yeah, I know, you're laughing at me right now, saying “and you had the nerve to make fun of Bucky Fuller for saying we devolved from dolphins!”

That's the view out my window right now.

Bladder piercing

You know, these deep catheterizations always freak me out (so does Samppa's gut skewer act; more), but they really do win the award for “world's deepest PA piercing”

Other than that I have a couple things to mention:
  • END OF THE YEAR AWARDS – I wanted to remind people that the deadline for this year on images is December 14th (next Tuesday), and to ensure your experience is in as well… not that I'm expecting anyone to take out Uberkitty, but other than the top few slots there's still tons of competition. Prizes will be posted soon!
  • BME, A PRINT MAGAZINE? – You haven't heard it here, but it is something that a majority of job applicants said BME should consider. So I've posed it as the current front cover poll. If I were to do it, it would subscription only (no newsstands) and be a collectable expansion on BME with fully unique content (ie. not just reprinted stuff).

Dimebag

As a general note to everyone bellyaching about Darrell Abbott being shot, I'll remind you that a few nights before he was killed he was on the streets of Toronto making a very bad impression due to his shouting about “niggers” (anyone want to buy a signed Darrel Abbott pick from that night?). Anyway, I have trouble getting particularly sad when there's one less bigot on the streets.