Soul-Devouring Worry
¤ Curiously-parallel philosophies.

Curse of the Day:
¤ May you lack a proper sense of urgency.

Meanwhile, the photos section is ready to go, and the Cast of Characters page is also.  I made a few updates to the Links Page also, added a few blogs and subtracted a few I never visit any longer, plus it's actually online. Check that out if you've got nothing better to do. And since you're probably reading this at work, you probably don't.

If you read the site yesterday while the virgin no more story was visible, I have to request that you empty it from your mind, since one of the participants decided he didn't want his tale told in such a fashion, and per the request I took it down.  I left up the meandering "how to gay boys prepare for the main event" thing, since it wasn't specific to the deflowering.

Also, like most things I post here, the actual story proved to be just the launching off point for me to go on and on about... something else.  The something else remains.

Since there have been no other mails about losing virginity, and I don't think the entire reading audience of this site is *that* young, I'm sensing less than overwhelming interest in such a page/section/feature.  I'll probably write the few anti-virgin tales I know at some point though, maybe in a slow day's update, or if something in the news reminds me of them.

For lack of anything else to post about here, I'll include a rant from Donnie:

Okay brief intro here. I DO NOT listen to country music. The town that I live in is hosting an event called "Country Thunder". For four days, the place is a zoo as a total of 30 or so country bands perform over the course of the event. Since I work in a grocery store, this is a great deal for us as the influx of people probably triples our business. So, to accommodate them (kiss ass), I am forced to listen to a country radio station....Which I believe is cruel and unusual punishment, but that I'll save for another time.

Since I was being forced to listen to this crap, I decided to actually start listening to the words in a desperate attempt to drown out the slide guitar and twanging b string bends on the guitar. And this leads me to my point.

The song is "Have you forgotten" the artist is "Darryl Worley". The album was just released, and according to the country station I was listening to it is selling in record numbers. The thing is the song is about the war with Iraq, and how the reason for it is the attack on the twin towers and the pentagon. Thus the "have you forgotten". Some of the lyrics that I can loosely remember are (excuse the misquote here) "Some people say that we're out looking for a fight, after 9/11 I'd have to say that's right". I actually laughed out loud when that line came out, in the midst of selling some ground beef to a burly guy in a cowboy hat, but man that was funny.

Then to the "Bin Laden is why we are attacking Iraq", another quote, or very close to, only heard it once. "They say we don't need to get Bin Laden, to them I say have you forgotten" (which coincidentally is rhymed with Bin Laden every instance through the song, though I thought he was supposed to be in Afghanistan, but that aside). I at the very least was able to not laugh at this one.

And then just one other point, that is the very first part of the song, starts off close to "Some people say that we don't need this war, But, I say some things are worth fighting for. What about this here piece of ground, we didn't get to keep it by backing down." This statement is 100% true. Some people did not want the war, then he expressed his opinion about there being things worth fighting for. And we did gain our freedom by fighting a war on our own soil, but that was in the 1700's. To my knowledge, after that (not counting the civil war) we haven't had any real battles on American soil (I am not counting the 9/11 attacks or the attack on pearl harbor as they were more or less terroristic and one-sided, and both were justly avenged). Now, if we had, or do, find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that would prove there was a threat to our country, that would make his point. I am sure we will find this evidence, we just haven't had time to plant it yet, being a bit overly concerned with the oil wells over there.

Ahh crap, this is going really long again. I encourage you to listen to that song, and marvel at the fact that your average backwoods hick totally believes every word of it. Hell it may even be Dubya's campaign song in the upcoming election.

I have not heard the song, but I've heard of it.  While wondering just how you manage to rhyme "bin Laden" and "forgotten", (Which: "bin lotten" or "fer-goddeen?") I looked up the lyrics, which, through the miracle of the Internet, is easily done.

Anyway, I have heard part of the song at work, but while I'm working I'm paying as little attention to the music as possible, since 98% of it is not music I want to hear.  Pop or R&B or Country or Classic Rock.  So it didn't make any impression.  All country songs sound so ridiculous to me with the silly vocal yowling that I can't take them seriously, but I'm pretty good at ignoring them.

The only one that breaks through my audio trance is Friends in Low Places, which I just looked up to confirm that it was by Garth Brooks. That one I can't ignore since the hound dog-howling vocals never fail to crack me up.  I can't hope to transcribe them phonetically, you really have to hear the song to understand the depths of melodrama that Garth impregnates it with.  Just to try quickly, at the title line, which is the funniest one.

Well I've got friends in low places...

sounds like:

"Whu-ale eyes got fruh-ands in loooooow puh-lace-ezz"

The whole song is done in this incredibly-hickish accent, like something off of Hee Haw, but the best part is when he gets to "low places" and drops about 3 octaves, just for a couple of words. I can never help but singing along while laughing at the absurdity of it.

For a long time I thought it was a comedy song, like Weird Al Jankovic or some DJ doing a parody of how absurdly country music is vocalized, but I eventually realized that no, it was a real song, and people actually took it seriously.  And it was a big hit, apparently.  Anyway, this is entirely off topic.

As for the Darryl Worley (God that's a dumb name. Sounds like a middle relief pitcher for an Arkansas double A team.) song, I don't really have an opinion.  Sure it's painfully melodramatic, but that's what country music does best, and you have to play to the audience. There's nothing in the song lyrics that is entirely inaccurate, and nations that have been attacked always produce patriotic/jingoistic music to commemorate it and focus their thirst or revenge. The annoyance most "thinking people" have with it is that it's being used in conjunction with the Iraq Attack. Or was being, since I guess that's over by now.  Aside from the coming years of civil war and anarchy and terrorism, I mean. *cough*

But Darryl doesn't actually mention Iraq or Saddam in the song, just bin Laden and 9/11, which is factually correct, as far as we've been led to believe, anyway. And bad song or not, we should remember it.  Nations carrying a collective grudge is never a good thing for world stability, think Germany in the years after WWI, but it's a reality in this situation.

The interesting thing about Bush making so much political hay from 9/11 is how selectively people are viewing it.  The patriotic, blow stuff up type people are Republicans, and they choose to see Bush's actions after 9/11, which were all pretty much common sense, as examples of brilliant leadership. Even though he'd been president for over a year and a half before 9/11, and his Administration had ignored all the recommendations for tightening security and going after bin Laden left by the Clinton Administration, and has submarined all official investigation efforts since then, he gets no blame at all for the lax airline security and terribly slow response on that fateful day.

Now this is entirely speculative, but if Gore had been president then, I suspect the demographic that supports Bush and buys country albums would have spent the last 2 years raging about how it was all his fault that the airport security was lax and the military didn't shoot down the other hijacked planes before they could hit the other world trade tower and the Pentagon.  And country songs about it now would be used as protests against Gore for not catching bin Laden yet.  I do find it sort of ironic that this song about catching bin Laden, which even Fox News viewers must realize hasn't been accomplished, is actually taken as patriotic and heartening, and supportive of the military and Bush. 

And again, if Gore were president, how would people view the whole "We didn't catch him, and we bailed out of Afghanistan immediately, leaving the people in squalid misery and Al Quida to reform like the T-1000 after Arnie shot it post liquid nitrogen, but don't worry about that."

I suspect a lot less charitably than they do the Bush-headed, equally unsuccessful operation.

esterday I talked about movie trailers and upcoming movies for a bit, but forgot to mention one thing I found really funny.

As you can see on my Links Page, my nomination for the most entertaining movie reviews site on the internet is CAP Alerts.   "CAP" stands for "ChildCare Action Project".  No, "childcare" isn't a word, but I guess CCAP didn't have such a good ring to it. Anyway, there are hundreds and hundreds of movie reviews, sorted alphabetically, all written by a brilliantly delusional uber-Christian. As my links page discusses, he is out of his mind.  Perhaps his most classic in-review rant ever was the one that tied the first Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movies in with some sort of sinister Satanic plot to attack and weaken Christianity in America, by presenting magic in a positive light.

No, really.

A reader who took great offense to the "holier than anyone" attitude and engaged in some flaming at the guy mailed me his exchange, and it's been enshrined on the Feb 2002 mailbag (scroll down to the 12th).  Read it at your own risk.

Anyway, I don't read his very review since he makes me crazy, but once in a while I get in the mood and go cruise a few of the more recent films. But while viewing the debauchery of ass shots and glistening boobies that are the ubiquitous The Real Cancun movie ads, (see AICN or for examples.  Or click example 1 or example 2 to see the full size ads.) I suddenly had a craving to see the CAP guy's take on the movie, which you just know will seethe with outrage, disgust, and unintentional humor.

Unfortunately he hasn't reviewed it yet. I'll have to remember to check back in a week, since there is just no way he can fail to be entertaining while ranting about the irredeemably foul nature of it all.

However I took a look over the movies he has discussed, and clicked to Bend it Like Beckham, knowing it was a teen rebellion type story, one that was sure to get him into a lather. The movie's plot has been done 500x; some teenager (an Indian girl in this case) wants to follow her unrealistic dreams, while her sensible, conservative, uptight, straight-laced parents want her to do just what they want her to do, which would be the best thing for her. And they see her passion and learn to loosen up some during it, and in the end their dream conquers all.

It is so difficult to know when to say "No" when we all want dearly to make our kids happy, wise and strong. Just remember that God tells us that if we teach and guide our children in the proper ways, they will not venture far away from the teachings and guidance. But God also reminds us that we must not withhold proper guidance, even if it is discipline. The point of the verses as they applies to Jessie's behaviors is that the heart of youth is filled with poor judgment and lack of experiential maturity. The rod of correction is a metaphorical reference to the rod of the shepherd who never uses it to cause harm his sheep. Rather he uses it to guide them even if it takes a sharp prod to do it. Note also that the rod has a hook at the end of it to save the sheep's life -- to lift it out of a hole where the sheep would be easy prey for predators. Maybe the hook in your "No" might save your child's life someday.

There was no John Wayne or Kirk Douglas in Black Hawk Down. John Wayne and Kirk Douglas are from a time when respect for others and honor of command structure meant something. My WWII veteran dad told me of a time when duty and compliance with orders were valuable and undoubtedly led to rich and deep personal self respect and worth: of the realization that no leader can be a good leader without good followers. Now, "subordinate" personnel (in the movies anyway) appear to each be a commander on his own mission with his own interests paramount and team dynamics and willingness to serve being "necessary evils": that their mission supports or conflicts with command decisions is coincidental. Whatever happened to the courage and strength to be a follower? Whatever happened to military personnel serving as a well-tuned unit rather than a collection of individuals wearing the same insignia? Portrayal of rightful and life-saving subordination was occasionally there in Black Hawk Down in pieces and parts, but it seemed such protocol was inserted as a duty or obligation to the unavoidable viewers who honored such integrity as they served God and country in uniform. I somehow doubt that the few but present portrayals of "little boys shooting guns" attitudes in Black Hawk Down was accurate to the attitudes of the professional warriors who were actually there.

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