Hypocrisy: the new glitter - A story about a stairway to hell

I'm as spiritual as they come. I try to live my life in a spiritual way, even if I'm not attached to any religion whatsoever (although I was baptised as a Catholic). That said, I respect people's faith. But I can't tolerate violence, abuse, hypocrisy or stupidity. Maybe I should be a little more tolerant. But I'm not. It leaves a very long way to go before perfection...a very very long way indeed.

Keeping that in mind, Pope Benedict XVI, during his Christmas Eve Mass, asked people to "see through the superficial glitter" of the season, and concentrate instead on the joy of the Christmas message.

When he mentioned glitter, did he mean this kind of glitter? (see the video):

Or how about the glitter of that conference room? (see the picture):

Or maybe he's referring to that kind of glitter (see the following pictures):

I didn't know gold was the true channel to God. To be frank, I thought that it was the total opposite. If you compare the Vatican with the way people portray Jesus according to the Bible, let's just say that the amount of "glitter" was quite different for both of them. I'd like to ask the Pope "Why so much gold and glitter? Aren't you afraid to get caught in all of this?. What about the wealth distribution? What about all the sharing you preach all the time? Why don't you sell a gold cross and give the money to a starving African village? Isn't that what you tell us to do?"

The thing is, it's easier to criticize others and to tell them what to do with their life. So the Pope may do whatever he wants. He may preach what he doesn't practice himself. He may speak in the name of God (lots of psychiatric patients do too...free speech!!). But sometimes he ought to shut the hell up (no pun intended)...just out of respect for all the Catholics that live in a spiritual way. If a little glitter makes them happy, so be it. People are intelligent enough to see that glitter is not a way of living (see the Vatican). They don't need a hypocrite pope to tell them what to do. Why does the Catholic Church always have to use culpability? Why does it always have to make people guilty and ashamed? The answer is obvious: to control people.

Fear and culpability...starting to sound like politics...

The more you feel guilty, the more you go to Church to make a confession. Then they try to make you believe that they have the power to forgive your sins (in the name of God, of course). And, forgiveness comes quite easier when you drop a few bucks in the basket (see the video):

I know it's raw. I know people might be offended by the George Carlin routine (message to them: grow up and/or grow a pair!!!). Most of it was created to shock. But a lot of what he says is true. Nevertheless, every time people are mad at God, I believe people are mad at Man's image of God. You know, the guy with a beard that will "strike upon thee". The Vengeful God. Well, something tells me that this Vengeful God was created by Man...in his own image. But that's just my opinion.

I think God or any Superior Being is far too complicated for a simple Man to understand. Religion was created by Man to tell other men his vision of God. Sometimes Man has a tendency to force its opinion upon others...to control them (can you hear politics again?).

By the way, I think the Pope already has a lot on his plate. He should take care of his own mess before telling anyone how to live his or her life. How about sexual abuse by Catholic priests (including child abuse). An exception? I don't think so. There were notable cases of sexual abuse by members of the Catholic Church, during the last 50-60 years, reported in countries like Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Croatia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Slovenia, Sweden, Tanzania and the last, but not least, the United States of America. And, interesting fact, cases were reported in almost all of the said countries during the 2005-2011 period.

You want to talk about glitter? The Church spent hundreds of millions of dollars either defending itself in those cases and/or settling them. I bet if you transformed that sum of money into gold coins, you could see it glittering from the moon.

Pope Benedict XVI also called for an end to the bloodshed in Syria and the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians in his Christmas message. Ok. And why not the end of hunger throughout the world? (just a bunch of blah! blah! blah! of no consequence). But why doesn't he ask his priests to quit the abuse and seek psychiatric help?

My message to Pope Benedict XVI, for the Holidays:  "See through your own superficial glitter, and concentrate instead on practicing what you preach." Clean your own house before telling people how to clean theirs. In other words, mind your own goddamn business.

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Again, I wish you and your loved ones a Happy New Year. I Wish you all Peace, Love, Health, Happiness and Prosperity

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THE HODGEPODGE

This week’s lucky number: The Clue. The date next Saturday will be January ___, 2012.

Happy and Dandy Clown of the Week: Drew Brees. The New Orleans quarterback (NFL American football) broke Dan Marino's passing yardage record for a single season with 5,087 yards passing....and still one game to play. That record was 27 years old. Sometimes nice guys finish first.

Sad Clown of the Week: People living in the Middle East. Can't believe people made comparisons with the Occupy Wall Street movement. Not in the same ball park. Not even the same sport. 2012 will be challenging for the people (not their respective governments) from countries like Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Iran, Libya, etc. You are all in my prayers. May you finally get the country you wish for (and not the country USA wishes for you).

Clever song lyrics: "Maybe it's not too late to learn how to love and forget how to hate." - Song: Crazy - Artist: Ozzy Osbourne (...yeah! I know! He had his moments too!).

Cheesy song lyrics: "I don’t care who you are, where you’re from, what you did, as long as you love me." Song: As Long As You Love Me - Artist: Backstreet Boys (Ok. That sounds so nice and romantic on paper...but let's test how serious you really are about that bullshit statement...Would you sing the same lyrics if the girl from the song was a crack whore with a history of violence that offered her services for $10 and that spent most of her life in prison for fraud, extortion and human organ traffic? Just don't fall asleep on her watch, buddy...).

Philosophical Quote of the week: "You want a prediction about the weather, you're asking the wrong Phil. I'll give you a winter prediction: It's gonna be cold, it's gonna be grey, and it's gonna last you for the rest of your life." Character: Phil (wonderfully played by Bill Murray) - Movie: Groundhog Day

I told you so (last week and the week before): Tim Tebow and the Broncos lost two games in a row. It proves, again, my theory: God doesn't give a rat's ass about football. It's only men playing a game (for big bucks).



Love letters, comments, opinions and complaints: reflectionsonamoderncircus@gmail.com

Flash occupations...a flash in the pan?

Here's a scenario for a movie. Invaders from outer space land in every major cities around the world. The President of the United States (let's say actor Morgan Freeman...to keep it completely fictional!!) tries to make contact with them. Not being able to identify their leader(s) (the Space Invaders all seem very different), he starts to chat with the first one he encounters.

President of the United States: Who is your leader? Your chief? Your commander?

Space Invader: We have none (for the sake of argument, let's pretend he speaks English!).

President of the United States: Why are you here?

Space Invader: We don't know.

President of the United States: What do you want?

Space Invader: We don't know.

After a few days, the President and the rest of the world simply abandon and go back to their activities while the Drama Queen Media tries by all means to scare us by speculating that the Space Invaders are here to annihilate us.

My scenario would be utterly rejected by Hollywood studios because it's boring and pointless (and because there is no sexy female star in it). Maybe I would have a chance to sell it to Bollywood studios (India). However, to do so, I would have to agree to a compromise: the Space Invaders would end up dancing altogether at the end of the movie.

Well, people occupying Wall Street (and Boston, Chicago, L.A., Denver and Seattle), more often than not, sound like the Space Invaders in my scenario.

And don't get me wrong, I'm on their side, completely. Nevertheless, we wouldn't want such a beautiful phenomenon to become a wet blanket.

Everything seems perfect. The flash crowd. The peaceful occupation. The contagious spread around the country, and maybe around the world (there were signs of occupation in Montreal, Canada, too).

The problem? No leader. No central cause(s). No official demands. No concrete or pragmatic solution(s) offered (as opposed to wishful, ideal and fairy tail solutions).

In Syria, Lybia, Egypt, Tunisia, etc., the flash crowds had a very clear message. There was a consensus: "This crazy lunatic dictator has to go...NOW...and we are willing to die

for it!!".

What worries me is that in the case of Wall Street and Co, the message isn't clear. And since the Drama Queen Media has the attention span of a 8 year old with an Attention Deficit Disorder, you have to get the message across before they start ignoring you. In a world where you can't usually repeat as The Flavour of the Day (and if lucky, The Flavor of the Week), you have to say it while you can.

Remember the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti? The Drama Queen Media focused on it. It was The Flavor of the Month (very rare phenomenon). And it was all good too. They desperately needed the attention and the help. However, a month and a half later, Chile suffered an 8.8 magnitude earthquake. Almost no one gave a damn. I guess the public was fed up with earthquakes. They wanted something else. Too bad for Chile...

That is why I'm worried. Are we wasting a joker too soon? Maybe occupants are not organized sufficiently to act now. At least, getting a leader or a spokesperson would help to protect their image when talking to ill intentioned journalists.

Please watch the next clip, more precisely at 1:14.

Well, Erin Burnett, by interviewing a single occupant, that sounded less informed, and by only showing the "marginally colourful" occupants, you are not making your point. You are only proving to the world that you practice Yellow Journalism. You had an agenda. You are a cocky, condescending and intellectually dishonest journalist, Seriously! You should be ashamed of yourself. And it gives you an idea of the direction CNN wants to take. Erin Burnett would fit right in with the Glenn Beck's, Rush Limbaugh's and Bill O'Reilly's.

Moreover, we wouldn't want our only significant souvenir from the flash occupations to be the Hot Chicks of Occupy Wall Street:

Am I surprised that Republicans and others from the Right said that "The Wall Street occupants are just a bunch of braless, tofu eating, long hair, weird and bearded hippies"? Of course not. But I'm just surprised they don't all agree when it comes down to the disappearance of the middle class. I'm sure there's a lot of Republicans in that segment of the population. It's not about partisanship. Hell, Erin Burnett should worry about it too...when her show gets cancelled!

All of that to say that a leader (like Michael Moore?) or a spokesperson would present arguments to the Erin Burnett's of the world to preserve the good image and the legitimacy of the protest to the eyes of the world. Maybe not a clear plan...but at least clear demands and suggestions of solutions. I agree that there should not be rules for the occupants except maybe to stay peaceful. We wouldn't want the occupants to turn like fans of sports teams celebrating in the streets, after winning a championship, only to see their moment ruined by a handful of morons and jerkoffs thrashing cars and looting stores.

What now? Well let's just say that the jury is still out on that one. As long as the Governments of the world understand that Wall Street, Banks and Mega Corporations need to stay out of the Governments. People need to prevent them from being Reversed Robin Hoods: taking money from to poor to give it to the rich (See the Mortgage Crisis). Somehow, people need to stop them from dissolving the Middle Class, preserving a balance of the distribution of the wealth (and power) so that the system doesn't collapse again.

Banks tried to make us believe that they helped us. In the end, they only provided us with a rope, with a noose, leaving us no choice but to hang ourselves, resulting into a Mortgage Crisis, a recession.

In the meantime, the Modern Circus is as crazy as ever. In the light of this mess, I've decided to trade my car for a flying saucer. I'm pretty sure I will blend right in...(to be continued).

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This week’s lucky number: The clue…Snow White and the ______ Dwarfs.

Note to self: Riding my flying saucer will make me avoid traffic.

Note to self #2: Riding my flying saucer too high will definitely increase my chances of hitting a lamp post, transmission tower or electric pylon.

Wise words: “If God doesn’t like the way I live, let him tell me, not you.” - To religious representatives knocking on our door on a Saturday morning.

Wise words #2: “Never insult an alligator until you’ve crossed the river.”

Suggestions for new sports worth watching: Full Contact Golf, with no holds barred rules (in other words, players could use their irons or woods to hit something else than a golf ball).

Bad name for a rock group for Wall Street cafés and restaurants (in which occupants used the restrooms): Spray & Spread.

Love letters, comments, opinions and complaints: reflectionsonamoderncircus@gmail.com

The “ends” of the world

As we witness the sad images of violence from the suburbs of London, it’s easy to ask ourselves a few questions: has the whole world gone completely crazy? Is it the end of the world?

Add to that the never ending wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Libya, Syria, Côte d’Ivoire, Darfur, etc. Even insignificant events turn sour in an instant…Like the riots in Vancouver after a Stanley Cup loss in the Finals. Or even worse: when they reintroduced the blue colored Smarties in May 2010, as we all remember. One must wonder if the Apocalypse is knocking at the door. We can already see The Nutcases salivating…Unfortunately, The Nutcase will be a recurring character in our silly blog.

Yes. Maybe we are crazy. As a matter of fact, we are quite sure we are. But we don’t think we are worse than the world was at other times in history. The media surely wants us to believe that every day. According to The Drama Queen Media (from now on, we will refer to the media as The Drama Queen Media), the world is on the verge of collapsing. For some crazy unknown reason, it seems we consume more when we are scared. As a result, we live in a culture of fear. No wonder terrorism is on the rise.

But for fun, just imagine how The Drama Queen Media would be covering the Crusades? Or the Spanish Inquisition? Or the French Revolution? Or the Crucifixion of Jesus? How about The Drama Queen Media covering a reality show of Cro-magnon men. All of them groaning and hitting themselves on the head with sticks every time they would disagree. Hilarious! Actually, they would not be able to air that today, you know, to maintain social order. Otherwise, people might think it’s a better (and cheaper) idea to hit their “ex” with a stick instead of hiring an expensive lawyer. I have to admit, it’s very tempting…

Violence is not only part of the history of the world, but it most certainly shaped it. People were killed for not believing in the same God, for believing that the world is round, for having epilepsy, etc. The world, sadly, has a history of violence. It looks like a big wheel that increases from level 1 to 10, turning round and round, clockwise, marking time.

Lately, we have only refined our reasons for killing. Nowadays, we read about killing the significant other for leaving (sometimes along with the children), stabbing a soccer referee for missing a call, shooting boss after a layoff, or murdering female students…simply for being women. Are we near level 10? Well, that would be like saying that World Wars I and II were level 5-6? Our humble opinion is that Holocaust has to be a solid 10. On the other hand, The Drama Queen Media would say that every day is a solid 10 on the nightly news.

So if you ever feel the urge to kick a guy’s family jewels for saying “at least you have your health”, or to puncture your bosses’ lungs with a crowbar, or to smash your 1999 Chrysler Cirrus in a government agency entrance, c’mon dude, be original!!! That’s nothing that hasn’t been done already during Medieval times (except maybe for the Chrysler thing).

But if you want to do something that hasn’t been done before (you know, because what we’ve tried yet as not worked): try to change your own small world. If everybody did that, we are optimistic that the world would change faster and more efficiently than whatever we are doing now.

On another note, we surely hope Mother Nature will read our modest blog (In our dreams…Yeah! Right! like she cares!). Mother Nature scares us way more than violence itself. We would like to bet that she is actually doing tests to wipe us off of this rock (See Japan, Haïti, Chile, Australia, New Zealand, etc.). Maybe she’ll come up with a bullet-proof-Ebola-like virus or a mega worldwide Tsunami (if you don’t swim, that might be a good time to learn).

In the meantime, The Nutcases around the world will have something to look for: the end of the world in 2012. I have to specify the year because we just “had” one this year, in May.

2012 is just another scare…or is it?

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New Character(s) brought to this Blog: The Drama Queen Media (played any and all media) and The Nutcase(s) (played by your average local moron, screw loose, loser, goofball, dunce, loony, idiot, insane, screwball, round the bend, nut job and/or politician).

This week’s lucky number (we know it’s stupid...but please, just play along!): 7

Personal message: To the guy that keeps honking every time he picks up someone for carpooling very early in the morning: “Get off your fat ass, you lazy douche bag, and knock on the person’s door”.

Quote of the week: “A day without sunshine is like, you know, night” – Anonymous (stoner).

To do: say something kind to someone you really don’t know.

Bad choice of a rock band name: London Riots

Love letters, comments, opinions and complaints: reflectionsonamoderncircus@gmail.com