Change

Well the time has come. I've left my job of three years. I've packed up my stuff and bought my airline ticket. One way. It seems weird to say that. Any way, for those of you who haven't glanced at my profile, I am moving to Boston. I fly out Wednesday.

I still don't have a place to live, but I have a month to find something, before school starts. If posts are few and far in between in the next week or two it is because my computer is packed up and I will frequently be without internet access until I get settled in.

Take an objective look

The issue of homosexuality and homosexual marriage is currently one of the most hotly debated subjects in the U.S.

There are those who are for it claiming equal rights, and those that are against often claim it is an abomination in the eyes of God.

Those who take this stance point to the Bible as evidence and support for this view. Afterall, the Bible is considered by the religous community to be the unerring word of God. Admittedly though, if pressed christians will admit that there is a liberal amount of interpretation that occurs in the reading and teaching of the scripture.

So what if someone were to, through Biblical study, show that homosexuality is actually supported in the Bible? Would this interpretation automatically be rejected by those who don't agree with it or can it be accepted as a legitimate interpretation and teaching of the holy scriptures? If the latter can be true, then does this remove ones religous justification for the opposition of homosexuality and leave you with just your personal bias?

Why am I asking all these questions? Well, I recently read a very interesting biblical study on homosexuality.

Take a look and try to be objective while reading it. It think you may find he makes some very valid points, or if you don't I hope you will take the time to respond with an equally thought out rebuttal.

Here is the link: http://www.truthsetsfree.net/study.doc

Answers?

I found this article on Common Dreams, but originally it was from the Toronto Star:


Published on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 by the Toronto Star
Who's Taking Blame for Christian Violence?
by Calvin White

Now that imams in Britain and Canada are standing up and publicly condemning terrorist acts as anti-Muslim and against the teachings in the Qur'an, I wonder if pressure might be put on Christian leaders to take a similar stand.
Contrary to what some might like to insist, Christianity is not the religion of "an eye for an eye" but it is the religion of Jesus, who refined those earlier directions and distilled the ten commandments into two. One was to "love thy neighbor as thyself." Pretty definitive isn't it? As is the edict of turning the other cheek.
Jesus expected to be betrayed. He expected to be arrested by the authorities. There was no exhortations to prepare for battle. There was no bloody attempt to stop the proceedings.
Even as Jesus was brutalized while carrying his own crucifixion cross and being nailed onto the timbers, there was no violent counterforce from his disciples. Not even an outcry.
No matter where one reads in the accounts of Jesus, the only conclusion one can come to is that Jesus was about love.
So where are the Christian leaders when it comes to violent actions by our Western leaders? Where are the televangelists, who every Sunday take over the airwaves to trumpet the message of Jesus, when it comes to taking on bunker busting bombs and mass carnage?
Where are they when it comes to the death penalty prevalent in the majority of American states?
When President George Bush insists that billions of dollars need to continue flowing to the war effort in Iraq which leads to more American body bags and Iraqi graves, why is there no outcry? Why don't the Christian leaders stand up and challenge those decisions, and passionately assert that Jesus would have sought another way of solving the problems?
In this time when Christianity is on the rise all over America, when there is a growing surge in extolling Christian values, why is it that when the born-again Bush says it's better to fight "them" over there than on American soil, no concerted group of leaders stands up and yells that he's got it wrong?
Like Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair is also born again.
Yet, their combined leadership has been responsible for excruciating death and injury to innocent civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq.
They both claim a righteousness in their policies of destruction. They were even counseled by their secular allies not to resort to the carnage. Where was the equal pressure from the Christian leadership?
Interesting, isn't it, that Muslim fanatics use the idea of holy jihad and rewards in paradise to recruit their dupes into terrible acts of destruction, and in Christian circles there is the solemn assembling for prayer and seeking of blessings for the troops and leaders in their mission of war.
Interesting, isn't it, that polling clearly indicates the Christian right in America is emphatically against bad language on TV and in the movies, horrified by Janet Jackson's bare nipple — but drawn with considerable relish to violence in the same media.
The additional galling irony of Jesus being emblazoned on the foreheads of those in command of the sharpest swords is that Jesus was also all about intelligence. He was all about deeper understanding, about using insight and keenness of mind to solve problems. Think of how the Pharisees tried to trick him by holding up different sections of the law to trip him up.
His disciples picking corn, for instance, and thus working, on the Sabbath. Jesus answered that the Sabbath was for man and not the other way around. There was the adulteress brought before him to be stoned; he responded that any without sin might cast the first stone.
What kind of insight have Bush and Blair employed? What intelligence, what deeper understanding is demonstrated by the tactic of blast and shoot with as much technologically advanced weaponry as is available?
What compassion, what recognition of common humanity is shown when the biggest concern is how to pad the soldiers with as much body Kevlar and the humvees with as much armour as possible so they can kill all the easier without casualties — and thus retain the support of the home front.
How do our current religious leaders think Jesus would react to the concept of collateral damage?
Calvin White is a freelance commentator and poet who lives in British Columbia.
© 2005 Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd.

Music in Review

I can't help it. I soak up music like a sponge. I'm still not sure what it is, but even time spent with friends is often filled with the exchange of music, both new and old, that we find particularly good or interesting.

In that vein I've been exposed to a few things I'd like to share with you.

• Sufjan Stevens Invites You to Come On Feel The Illinoise by Sufjan Stevens: Much has been made of Sufjan's religous beliefs (he's christian). I just want to point out that if you decide not to listen to this album because you heard he was christian your doing youself a huge disfavor. Conversely, if you go buy this album because you heard he was christian you'll probably be disappointed. This is not Micheal W. Smith or Carmen. His musical content more closely follows Sunny Day Real Estate in that regard. In other words, while his christianity definitely filters into his music, his music is not christian in the typical sense. But on too the music. One thing is for sure, Sufjan spends serious time constructing his music. The layers and complexity are immediately evident and follow through the length of the album. At a meaty length of 75 minutes, it can be a bit hard to take it all in at once, but the rewards are great. His voice I would put in the same musical category as Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, or Mr. Oberst from Bright Eyes. Musically, in some ways he would again fall into this category, however he also breaks out into his own unique folk-pop mixture of joy and sadness. Lyrically the songs are intelligent and intriging. My only complaint is that it can sometimes be hard to hear exactly what he is saying. Finally, if you haven't read any reviews elsewhere I'll add that this is the second album in what is supposedly going to be a 50 album set: one for each state. One last thing. If you decide to buy it the only place in town I could find that carried the album was Independent Records and I think my friend said Borders has it. Either way don't bother with Best Buy or Media Play.
• Jazzmatazz Vol 1. by Guru: Switching from folk-pop to hip-hop we have Jazzmatazz by Guru. This album originally was released in 1993 and is generally considered one of the first to truely meld Jazz and Hip-Hop into one head bopping, mellow yellow, groove-fest. The beats are good, the rhymes are smart, and the jazz doesn't get lost in the mix. Guru brought in some excellent jazz artists to assist with the album. No samples here, and you can hear the benfits on each and every track. It is not without its imperfections, but overall a really good album to relax to but not put you to sleep. Think A Tribe Called Quest, Digable Planets, or early De La Soul and you'll be heading in the right direction.
• La Foret by Xiu Xiu: Saved the best for the last. This album has just blown me away. A word of caution though, this album is not for the faint of heart. If Dave Matthews is your idea of experimental you probably will want to stay or away, or maybe being exposed to something like this is just the thing you need. The album is not one you listen to on your way to work, or something you throw on at the party before you try and impress the girl by eating the whole cake in 25 seconds - no, no my friends, this album is meant to be listened to alone, possibly in the dark, with headphones on and eyes closed. As each song slowly rips into your very being and begins to cascade in waves across your brain, then you will have experienced Xiu Xiu. Jamie Stewart is the vocalist of the band and he tends to alternate between soft, subtle, mumbles and cathartic explosions of emotional therapy. The music itself also tends to toe the line between being soft and understated to a cacophony of musical expression. It's almost as if Xiu Xiu has released the musical pandora's box. Ultimately I could go on for a long while, but words won't do this album justice. You can actually listen to samples here: www.xiuxiu.org although the samples are not high quality and you lose a lot of the texture that makes this album so wonderful.

Well that concludes my musical thoughts for the weekend. One last little sidenote: Is it just me or does the musical buying options in this town just totally suck? It gets really old reading reviews of music I want to check out only to find that no store in this city carries the album. I suppose that's what Amazon is for, but I'd much rather give my business to a local business than the corporate etherworld.

Titanic

Tonight, somewhere from 7-9pm (it's really hard to tell) Discovery is playing a new show on the Titanic. The previews have suggested that the iceberg was just the tip of the story (pun intended). It mentions something about a fire on the ship, and revealing 70% of the titanic no one has ever seen before.

Well I'm a sucker so I'm gonna tune in and see what it's all about. I find things like the titanic interesting to me, partly because I have a casual fascination with history.

I'll let you know what I find out, and if anyone else watches we'll have to compare notes.

Cloning and Genetics

I remember having to write an argumentative paper for my composition course at UCCS during my first year. It had to involve several of the essays contained within the textbook for the class.

One of the essays/articles really caught my eye and I found it a fascinated read. It involved the increase in genetic technology. Medical costs for businesses are more expensive in the U.S. then they are in other countries and this is often a major complaint from large companies since they argue that this makes it more difficult to be competitive. As a result many companies have been lobbying for genetic testing to be conducted on any new employees hired so they can more adequately prepare for any major medical contingencies that may come up for the employee.

Now those against this primarily are concerned that this will lead to the destruction of our current social structure of "poor, middle, and upper class" replacing this with those who are genetically fit and those who aren't. This world was actually explored in the film Gattaca, which if you haven't seen stop reading this and get to the rental store now.

This of course was all several years ago now, and the current hub-bub is stem cell research and cloning. I actually believe that this will become more a moral warzone then abortion and euthenasia are currently.

The clones in the movie The Island are used as medical insurance policies. Need major organ replacement, no problem we can kill your clone and take the organ/s you need out, put them in you and you're good to go.

This is not that far of a stretch. Stem cell research has already evolved to a point where they are becoming close to finding methods of curing multiple serious diseases. Now what is not arguable is that this research could potentially lead to some of the biggest medical breakthroughs we've seen in decades - but the what can be argued is the question of ethics and morality.

Is it moral, is is it not moral? Why? If technology advanced to a point where you could have a clone created of yourself for medical purposes would you? Would you still do it if those clones had real emotions, feelings, and a personality? How do you feel about genetic screening?

I just find these things fascinating and I'm admittedly curious to see what other people think, or if you've even considered it.

The Island

I saw The Island yesterday and I have to say it was a lot of fun. Nothing amazing. You won't walk away from the film thinking that your whole life has been changed causing you to throw away your New Kids on the Block paraphenalia and shave off your mullet realizing it's time to move on from the eighties, but you should walk out with a smile that comes from a well thought out action/suspense film.

Ewan McCgregor and Scarlett Johannsen both turn in excellent performances. The storyline actually has some depth to it, although whenever there is a chance to really delve into the complicated moral and ethical issues tied to the story it most often opts to avoid this and move on to another action orientated scene.

Nonetheless the subject of the film - for those of you who don't know the basic premise: Ewan and Scarlett are clones in the film. Each of them have been created as an insurance policy for those who are wealthy enough to afford it. They live in an isolated environment filled with thousands of clones led to believe they are lucky survivors of a catacalysmic contamination of the outside world. Things are going peachy until Ewan gets too inquisitive. -is a very intriquing one. Something that made me think, and something I will probably post about in a little bit.

To me, this is impressive for what is basically an action/near future sci-fi flick. I'd definitely encourage people to see it.

Referendum C

For those of you who don't know there is a key referendum up for vote this year in Colorado - Referendum C. Basically this referendum will allow the state to suspend spending limits for 5 years.

This referendum has vital importance to Colorado's institutions for Higher Education. For those of you who aren't aware of the ongoing struggles of higher education in Colorado, public universities have been struggling to stay afloat due to the Governer's continued cuts to their funding.

This referendum would offset these cuts.

To give you a very real example of exactly the impact this referendum has, I will use the local university UCCS as an example. If this referendum passes it will allow UCCS to add approximately 65 staff members and 75 faculty members. If the referendum does not pass UCCS will be forced to close any college within the university that is experiencing decreases in enrollment and force the university to turn programs like the Beth-El College of Nursing into a program that focuses on almost purely out of state enrollment.

UCCS has always been a huge resource for the local community and to see such a detrimental decrease in services to the community would be sad to say the least.

And I'd like to add through this budget crisis, UCCS has been one of the lucky ones, so if you support state institutions of Higher education I can't encourage you enough to vote yes for this referendum.

Where Do We Draw the Line

Through our nation's history higher education has always been a haven for intellectual exploration and thought. Colleges and universities have been places for progressive thinking, innovative ideas, and incubators for advancement.

Whether you are a hard line republican, religous fundelmentalist, or left wing liberal the university environment is one where you are free to pursue knowledge and advance your understanding in the areas that you choose without fear of government interference.

Colleges and universities were a place to hold discussion across wide ranges of beliefs and ideologies, political, religious, or otherwise, in what one hopes leads to greater understanding.

This could all change in the near future. While the press has been dominated by news of Michael Jackson's personal habits, the ongoing conflict in Iraq, supreme court nominees, and Karl Rove there is quietly a movement that I personally feel has as much importance as any of the subjects listed above.

There is a number of republican representatives and groups across the U.S. who are trying to push through various forms of a bill, loosely entitled "Academic Bill of Rights", in their respective states.

One of the key points of contention in these bills is that it allows students to sue a professor who teaches something that offends them in any way.

In a sue happy world - see redwolfs post on the astrology lady and her comet calamity - people sue over almost anything. Now we would like to give the average 18-22 year old student the ability to sue over anything that might offend their sensibilities.

Exactly how ridiculous and upsetting is this? This means a professor could choose to teach evolution in his or her biology class and have a student of religous faith choose to sue the professor since it goes against the theory of intelligent design.

Or a staunch republican could be promoting his or her political views in an Intro to Global Politics class and an extreme left liberal student could choose to sue because it doesn't fall in line with their liberal political views.

The ramifications of a bill like this are mind boggling. I can guarantee you that this would significantly drop the amount of professors available in higher education as many would not want to risk their financial well being because some first time freshmen disagrees with what they are teaching.

Those that would teach would have such bland lectures that one wonders if it would be even worth it to go to class any more (of course there are those professors now, but the number would increase).

Sometimes it's good to be challenged, something I think many in America have chosen to forget. My first semester in college I had a history professor who specifically tried to piss each and everyone in the classroom off. Why? Because he would get the students so angry they would rack their brains to come up with anything to refute him, thus his students were always awake and intimately involved with what he had to teach us.

Under this bill he wouldn't last a semester, which would be a shame because if you were willing to get past your personal offense, you could learn a lot through the duration of his course.

The local university and my alma mater UCCS is filled with professors from a variety of varying viewpoints. Liberals, conservatives, christians, athiests - you name it. Through my experiences as a student I was priveleged to partake in classes from professors of all these persuasions. I can safely say I had excellent professors across the spectrum.

People need to realize that a person's belief system does not effect their ability to be an excellent teacher. You might not agree with what they have to say but if you are willing to invest the time I guarantee you will learn a lot.

Finally, this whole idea bugs me because higher education is a choice. You choose what school you want to attend (if you can get in), you choose what degree you want to pursue, you choose what classes you take, you choose which professors to take classes from etc etc.

If you have such an issue with a professor drop the class, or take the class from a different professor, or switch schools. No one is forcing you to sit in the classroom - this is not highschool!

I am not sure what you all think - and I have linked to an interesting article on the subject, one of several I have run across in the last months - but it seems to me someone, somewhere, needs to draw a line and realize that dissenting voices should not be silenced simply because you don't agree with it.

http://http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0714-23.htm

The official music thread

Consider this the official music thread.

To start off I would like to mention the new album by Royksopp. If you haven't heard of them where have you been =).

Ok so they are a little more obscure then say, Brittany Spears, but honestly who here wishes Brittany was a little more obscure. If you've watched any of her reality show you know subtlety is not in her vocabulary.

Honestly I watched her show for a duration of about ten minutes, and only that long because I was to busy clutching the trash can as I dry heaved to be able to change the channel. Any way in that ten minutes I'm fairly sure she has completely skewed those stats they always parade around about how much more men think about sex then women - but I digress.

Back to Royskopp. Generically speaking it falls into the category of electronica. Some critics have compared them to Daft Punk or Basement Jaxx although I think that is doing them somewhat of disfavor even if they are remotely in the same ballpark.

They are a very relaxing, yet danceable, sonic wash of virtual landscapes with lyrics that float along the horizon. All of the tracks are great, although some of my favorites are "Triumphant", "Sombre Detune", and "What Else is There?". Of course with good albums like this my favorites tend to change over repeated listens.

You can actually listen to soundclips from the album, titled The Understanding, here: http://www.royksopp.com/ I found you had to click relaunch if you didn't want to put your information in, and then you simply look at the discography.

Their first album is also excellent entitled Melody A.M.

Our thoughts are with you

By now most people should have heard the news about the terrorist bombings in London. Our thoughts are with you this day, and I pray that everyone possible will come out safe and unscathed.

Personally I have many friends who are currently visiting the UK or live there. If you or anyone you know is there I hope and pray they are safe.

Lance

Now admittedly I am big fan of sports, specifically football, but the Tour De France and Lance Armstrong has caught my eye and attention in recent years. Not one to resist a challenge Lance is back for one more go around this year.

If you haven't had the privilege of seeing the Tour De France I would highly recommend watching it. Specifically watch one of the mountain stages.

Even when I was in the best of shape, I still remember how grueling riding up a steep hill was for me. Imagining climbing up a extremely steep mountain incline miles long simply boggles my mind and it is an impressive sight to watch - not to mention strangely engaging.

Any way, if you haven't checked it out, look up one of the mountain stage dates and tune in. There is something strangely engaging and therapuetic about watching...

Read any good books lately

Well it seems there is interest in a books thread, so here it is!

To start off I would recommend A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters by Julian Barnes.

In my opinion it is an excellent book. Each chapter is it's own story yet they are all closely connected through the general theme of the story of Noah and his ark.

It is dramatic yet very witty and humorous in that dry british sort of way. Ultimately it is very insightful. Best of all it is a quick read, only about 250 pages which seems to fly by. The stories range from the "true" account of Noah and his ark to a very poignant and thoughtful story on Jonah and the whale to a an absurd letter dialogue between woodworms and the catholic church.

Give it a chance and I think you won't be disappointed. At the very least it makes great discussion material.

Saw something good? Tell us about it!

This was inspired by the quotes thread, I thought it might be fun to have a post where people can share if they've seen something good (TV or otherwise).

Redwolf, you mentioned Last of the Mohicans and I wondered if you have been watching the Into the West miniseries on TNT. If you haven't you should check it out. It is rather well done and does a decent job of potraying the colonization of our west in an objective light.

I've been really surprised by the show and I'm hooked. The best part is they've been airing it on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evenings so I've been able to catch it at least one of those nights each week.

As far as your question about shot location, it's not that uncommon to shoot in a location complete unrelated to where it is supposed to occur - especially if it is an outdoors type film (thus eliminating the chance famous landmarks will give away the location). Who knows why they may filmed it there. It could have been for budgeting reasons, the location better suited what the director was looking for, they couldn't get permission at the other location to shoot etc.

Now that I'm thinking about it if there is interest I may start a couple more threads for music and books if people are interested.

Before the Movie

While I was sitting in the theater before the movie started, I was thouroughly enjoying the amazing music droning from the speakers. I was trying to decide what I found more disturbing: the multitude of New Life ads with super close ups of people's faces, on a giant screen no less, or the adverts for propane.

As you can tell it was exciting, but this pleasant time was jarred to a halt as this guy walked into the theater wearing a black shirt with a sentence all in large white letters that read "Liberalism Breeds Terrorism" and on the back it read "Terrorism Breeds Liberalism".

Now moving beyond the absurdness of suggesting that liberals are terrorists or that they are interchangeable, I desperately found myself wishing I could have my own black shirt with the words "Thanks to Liberals He Can Wear That Shirt" and an arrow pointing to him. Then I would just follow him around ALL DAY, not saying a word, but never the less annoying the hell out of him.

Any way no need to go on about the shirt. I got to see a couple excellent previews The Island and King Kong. If you haven't seen the preview of Peter Jackson's remake of King Kong check it out, it looks really really good and as for The Island it looks like a remake of Logan's Run, but with Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johanssen, and Steve Buscemi it has some promise.

War of the Worlds

I went with a friend to see War of the Worlds today and I must say I was very pleasantly surprised. My expectations were rather low admittedly, mainly because the last movie I went to see that was a remake of a classic sci-fi (Planet of the Apes) sucked big time.

Spielberg did an excellent job. He managed to give the movie a very 50's feel without being to overbearing. It kept me interested and I was involved with the film throughout.

It's a fun entertaining film and worth seeing in the theater. My only real complaint is that Spielberg ends the movie on a happy note (I would clarify exactly what I am referring to in regards to a happy note but I do not wish to give away the ending of the film). This is to be expected though as Spielberg is famous for this.