Can Fashion Separate From Religion?

Can Fashion Separate From Religion?

March 31, 2016

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. —Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Religion has always influenced fashion, so what would happen if they were completely separate?

Here’s a question for the water cooler this morning: Would modesty still remain a moral virtue if it wasn’t mandated by religion? Think about that for a moment. All our laws and social expectations regarding the necessity of being clothed in public; the very concept that the activity in which one is engaged determines the appropriateness of what one is wearing is heavily influenced by religion.

We reported earlier this year about Dolce and Gabanna introducing a new line specifically for Arab women. Many celebrated that move as forward thinking and very supportive of a community the fashion industry had largely ignored. However, when Marks & Spencer began selling their burkinis (full body swimwear) in their European stores, including England, not everyone was happy. Most notably, France’s women’s rights minister Laurence Rossignol told The Daily Express:

“What’s at stake is social control over women’s bodies. When brands invest in this Islamic garment market, they are shirking their responsibilities and are promoting women’s bodies being locked up.

“You cannot pass off as trivial and harmless the fact that big brands are investing in a market that puts Muslim women in a situation of having to wear that.

“It is irresponsible on the part of these brands. All those who participate in how society is represented have a responsibility.”

Then, on the heels of that statement, both WWD and British Vogue published stories this morning with comments from Yves Saint Laurent’s co-founder and the designer’s long-time personal partner, Pierre Bergé. Bergé used some rather strong and potentially inflammatory language in denouncing what he sees as fashion designers going for a quick buck. Bergé’s comments were on radio station Europe1 and reported by The Guardian:

“Creators should have nothing to do with Islamic fashion. Designers are there to make women more beautiful, to give them their freedom, not to collaborate with this dictatorship which imposes this abominable thing by which we hide women and make them live a hidden life.

“These creators who are taking part in the enslavement of women should ask themselves some questions.”

One one level, it would seem that both Ms. Rossignol and Bergé are standing up for women’s rights. After all, if the full-body covering commonly attributed to Muslim women were, in fact, a symbol of their unwilling slavery, then by all means, the criticism would be appropriate.

However, such statements are made in ignorance of the fact that many Muslim women choose to wear the burqa and hajib and other modest clothing not because they are enslaved, but as a sign of their faith and devotion to their religion. To Muslim women of faith, dressing modestly is not “abominable” but rather a statement of how committed they are to Islam. These are choices these women have made for themselves, not something that was forced upon them.

If it is “irresponsible” for designers to provide choices for women of Islamic faith, then is it not equally irresponsible to facilitate the choices of women who practice any other religion? One can reasonably make the argument that if one religion’s dress code is practical enslavement, then the dress codes of all religions must fall under that same heading. If religious mandates are restrictive and to be abolished, then the fashion industry should immediately stop making the calf-length denim skirts favored by many conservative Christian women. So too, should they stop incorporating Hindu styles such as chador, kameez, and kurta into their styles, something which has been immensely popular among Indian women. Even traditional pagan clothing, most notably the long cloaks and capes that we’ve seen frequently on runways the past two seasons, would have to be forbidden. Oh, and by all means, let’s do away with those little gold crosses every teenage girl seems to wear.

Fashion has always been influenced by the religions of its wearers because religion influences most every aspect of society and the lives of those who believe. Because a designer may not hold to any one belief system is no reason for them to avoid providing clothing that is popular among women of faith. If anything, it would seem like a fairly astute business decision. Over one and a half billion people are Muslim. More than a billion people are Hindu. Why would a designer not want to provide fashion that speaks to those faiths?

Judging other people because of their religion is easy because judging religion itself is a fairly simple academic exercise. The claims of religions don’t tend to hold up well against arguments of logic and reason. However, while I am not opposed to criticizing religion for a host of reasons, criticizing the people who hold to those religions is absolutely wrong and morally reprehensible. Our failure to tolerate belief systems other than our own is one of the greatest failures of contemporary society.

Fashion designers who provide clothing that meet the restrictions of certain religious guidelines help build social bridges at a time when they are most desperately needed. It is not, as Bergé claims, a denouncing of one’s principals to help someone who believes differently than you. If anything, it is a statement of the strength of one’s faith to work and socialize with those who beliefs are contrary.

Fashion has a chance to help society. There’s no reason to not make the most of that opportunity.

Advertising / Current Issues

LGBT Obstacle Course

March 30, 2016

Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit. —Mahatma Gandhi

You think your life is a nightmare? Try having your very existence marginalized

What does it feel like to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered? For those of us who don’t identify with any of those sexualities, understanding what their life is like and the obstacle course they face can be challenging. To the point we have difficulty empathizing as both individuals and as a society, the less likely we are to be understanding and tolerant of those whose identity is different from our own. The ad below is trying to help us fill that gap.

The ad, which might be more appropriately considered as a short film, was created by TWBA/Paris for Inter-LGBT, a French non-profit focused on support and advocacy for the LGBT community. With the approaching Pride marches across France in June, the organization “wanted to convey a strong message and remember that human rights are not negotiable and we will continue to advance for it.” The film does an excellent job of conveying their message without using many words. Yet, for some, especially those who live in more conservative environments where they may be the only person nearby who identifies as they do, this film may be a bit too real. You may have already experienced this nightmare. This obstacle course is a part of your life.

The film puts the viewer behind the eyes of a marginalized person. The scene starts at school with the bullying and taunting, then moves to exclusion at parties, the butt of jokes, on the ground surrounded by bullies, a father’s rejection, a mother’s tears, and all the closed doors. I know many who have been through these exact situations, and some who are still there. For too many people, this nightmare is their daily reality, and it hurts at a depth the rest of us rarely try to understand.

At the end, the film concludes by stating, “Until society progresses, we will keep moving forward.” In the meantime, though, the obstacle course is still there. If anything, life throws a new obstacle or two at marginalized people on a daily basis.

On its website, Inter-LGBT expresses the struggle in this way:

We argue because we refuse that fear wins.
We argue because we have decided to live at any cost.
We move forward because we think that love is stronger than hate.
We argue because we have faith in society’s ability to reinvent itself.
We move forward because that is how we change society, by showing the way.
We argue because we know we are not alone.

Recent political actions in both Georgia and North Carolina remind us of how the struggle is so very real everywhere you look. We cannot simply look at this as an LGBT issue and leave them alone to fight against the obstacle of oppression, the obstacle of cruelty, and the obstacle of dehumanization on their own. We all must take up this cause and commit to the elimination of each and every obstacle that unfairly blocks all marginalized people.

Take a look at the film. Understand the nightmare of the obstacle course for yourself.

Advertising / Art / Current Issues

Clothing Terror

March 29, 2016

The makeup is simply an extension of the personality and colors, clothing, makeup all express something. —Gene Simmons

Symbols are powerful enough on their own, but when they appear on clothing they become a branding statement that furthers a cause

As I’m typing this, a crisis of sorts is playing out in Cyprus where an Egypt Air craft with 55 people and crew aboard was hijacked earlier this morning. For a while, it seemed as though terror had struck again. Now, though, it appears that this particular idiot went to the most ridiculous extreme possible in order to get the attention of his ex. While, on one level, we can laugh at the absurdity of such an act, we still shudder at the fact that this man was able to board a plane with what still appears to be an explosives belt.

Terror is far too prevalent in contemporary society and fighting it is difficult as traditional means of warfare often prove ineffective against an enemy that is far too comfortable with taking innocent lives. What’s happening, though, that makes the war against such extremism all the more difficult, is that terrorists are starting to use clothing as a means of branding their cause and the popularity of that clothing is actually helping terrorists to expand their recruiting and further their message of hate.

Sarah Elizabeth Williams writes this morning in a frighteningly detailed article for Business of Fashion how clothing continues to be an effective PR tool for the organization I will continue to refer to as Daesh. In short, the appearance of Daesh’s logo and slogans on clothing items such as t-shirts, hoodies, totes, and sweatshirts plays a significant role in helping to pull young people over to the cause of extremism. The clothing has cropped up in stores in Southern Turkey, Tripoli, and Beirut, but a large number of sales have occurred online where both the source and the buyers are more difficult to catch.

Using clothing to help brand extremists views isn’t anything new. Some of you may still own t-shirts or berets with an image of Che Guevera. Neo-nazi groups and hate mongers such as the Ku Klux Klan using distinct and easily identifiable clothing to brand who belongs to their own group. Yet, none of those are matching the devastating effects Daesh is rendering with their clothing.

Ostensibly, clothing carrying the Daesh logo and message are intended only for members of the terrorist organization. However, as its popularity has grown among disenfranchised Muslims, specifically young people who tend to feel disenfranchised from government in the first place, clothing has cropped up all over the middle east at a rate that might cause one to wonder whether Daesh has any real control over the clothing or if it’s being produced independently by those sympathizing with the group’s ideals.

Yes, the manufacture, marketing, and sales of such materials is still very much illegal in most Western countries, but again, the Internet allows the group to sell anything just about anywhere. Yes, sites such as Paypal and Facebook will take down the material when they catch it, but finding it can be tricky as it moves back and forth between different accounts.

Branded clothing already speaks to younger people right where they are. The exclusivity that such materials are only supposed to be worn by Daesh militants makes them all the more appealing. Daesh is using exactly the same marketing tactics as some of your favorite brands, and its working!

There’s no easy solution to this problem. Know that simply possessing such material in the United States is illegal and wearing such clothing is grounds for arrest and possibly indefinite detainment. Law enforcement is not going to risk allowing terrorists to recruit and grow cells right out in the open if they can help it. This is very much a case of citizens needing to speak up should they see anyone wearing Daesh logos on any clothing, or carrying it as a part of any activity.

Terrorism is scary enough as it is, and now they’re starting to use the sale and marketing of clothing against us. Be aware.

Art / Current Issues / Mythology / PotD

Deity In Our Own Image

March 27, 2016

When you accept a picture of the deity assigned to you by another people, you become the spiritual prisoners of that other people. —John Henrik Clarke

If we’re going to resurrect a deity, why not resurrect ourselves?

The morning is still quiet as I write. The only noise is that of the heater trying to balance the temperature between the West end of the house, which is always warm, and the East end of the house, which is always a bit cool. For the moment, everything is peaceful and I am enjoying that temporary situation as I know it won’t be long before the younger children are awake and anxiously chasing the myth of some rabbit. I could do without the myths associated with today, but in this momentary tranquility, my mind involuntarily yields to thoughts of deity and our roles not only in creating them, but maintaining them as well.

I realize that, for some, challenging the concept of deity encroaches upon sacred territory. People are protective of their gods because to challenge one’s deity is to put the source of one’s faith at risk. Yet, I would argue that if one does not understand their god how can they truly understand matters of worship or devotion to the faith in that god? Dissecting deity is a requirement if one ever expects to hold their faith not as a corporate purchase of a cosmic mythology but as a personal belief system that is foundational to their lives.

Therefore, the first question one must ask is this: Who created your deity? Many would hold that their god(s) were not created, but rather revealed their presence either through some event or in the presumed creation of nature. Yet, before we begin accepting as gospel the stories and legends of past millennia we must realize that the oral tradition in which they were handed down factors prominently in how one’s perception of god takes shape. Even if all the story tellers of old had witnessed the events of which they told, and few did, their representations of those events would still differ dramatically and it is in those differences that our perceptions begin to take shape. We then create an interpretation of our deity based less on the event and more on our interpretation of those story teller’s version of those events. We create our own gods.

Our belief systems are very personal, and so are our deities. Ask a million people who god is and a million different answers ensue. Millions are monotheistic, firmly convinced that a singular deity rules all. This works for us because we, too, view ourselves in some fashion as singular rulers of our own lives, attempting to control the chaotic cosmos of our immediate situation. We can relate to that god because he faces the same struggles we do, just on a larger scale. Still, millions of others view god as a concept, an energy, or a life force rather than an actual being. That concept works as well for those whose inherent view of this life is temporal and regenerative as part of a greater spiritual whole. While we may work within the greater framework of a religious structure, we still create a god that best fits our view of life.

The National Geographic Channel begins a new series tonight that I find timely. The Story of God with Morgan Freeman attempts to take an objective yet personal view of the deities we worship through the quest of one who has portrayed someone else’s version of god but has historically stated that he is not a “man of god,” but rather a “person of faith.” Even in choosing Morgan Freeman to lead this journey, the program’s producers are playing to one of the more common construction elements of deity with an actor whose voice is deep and authoritative. Morgan Freeman’s voice sounds like what we want god’s voice to sound like. Here’s the 30-second version of the trailer for tonight’s show:

Over the course of the series, the program takes a look at the larger umbrella of deity through personal stories. While I cannot imagine that such exploration uncovers anything we didn’t already know, what the stories ultimately show us is exactly what I have posited here from the beginning: our deities are of our own creation, even if we call them by the same name, even if we worship them corporately with thousands of others, our concepts of god are as personal and individual as each of us.

Where does that leave those who don’t believe in a god? I would argue that we all create gods of some form or fashion even if we choose to not refer to them by that name. We place our faith in something. Some construct deities of science and philosophy. Others hold the belief that there is nothing that exists outside one’s self, therefore making themselves the deity. Whatever rules one’s belief system becomes one’s deity.

I would not dare to challenge that anyone’s concept of god is wrong but I am abhorrent of those who would just as soon kill anyone who disagrees with their construct of a violent and wrathful god. That such views exist, again, emphasizes the sometimes severe degree to which we create deity in our own image, to justify our own views of life, and to act as an authoritative bully in manipulating the behavior of others.

Whether or not one is observing a celebration of today, I hope you might take some time and consider this deity you have constructed. Consider how it serves your faith and the ways in which your faith constructs your perception of god.

And may everyone find peace.

Advertising / Art / Fashion / Photography / PotD

Pole Dancing For Everyone

March 25, 2016

Yeah, it turns out that guys don’t like deals on laser hair removal or pole dancing lessons. —Andrew Mason

Pole dancing as a communication tool may not be what you were expecting, but it works.

Communicating across different areas of interest and different social structures can be difficult. What gets the attention of one group may be completely ignored by another. It seems, though, that there is, at least, one medium capable of cutting across art, fitness, fashion, and advertising in ways that are universally effective: pole dancing. I’m guessing that’s not a topic that was covered in your communications class in college, but pole dancing has the ability to conquer one of the biggest challenges in communication: getting people’s attention. If you have a pole dancer in front of you, for whatever reason, you can’t help but watch. What other communications medium can dominate a room in such a way?

Sure, there’s a stigma that exists with pole dancing and always will as long as there are seedy little strip joints where the only thing safe is the coffee. That doesn’t change the fact that pole dancing itself is a skill that some have turned into an art form, requiring tremendous strength and muscle tone across the entire body. As provocative as it may appear, one doesn’t simply jump on a pole and start dancing. In fact, doing it wrong can result in serious injury.

One of my favorite figure models was a champion pole dancer. Having worked with the pole daily for several years, she had an incredible muscle tone and could control each major muscle group separately. Even relaxed, she presented a strong physical definition that is difficult to find outside the bodybuilding world. When she flexed, it was almost like the anatomy chart in your biology textbook had come alive. Every muscle group was identifiable in a manner that was exquisitely beautiful.

Pole dancing as exercise has been around for quite awhile now. Despite all the giggles and side glances that come whenever someone mentions that they’re taking a class, many women, and yes, some men, across all strata of society have found the pole to be an effective and enjoyable way of working their core. Both gymnast and swimmers have found the pole to be a good way to maintain their strength during the off-season while business executives find the dancing to be a welcome relief from the stress of the office. This part of pole dancing is well documented.

What has been a little more surprising, though, is some of the other places pole dancing has shown up recently, such as Alexander Wang’s spring/summer fashion show. While Wang stopped short of putting the dancers center stage during the runway presentation, their presence at the after party, held in the same building just steps off the catwalk, was all anyone talked about for weeks afterward. The typical conversation went something like this:

“Did you see Alexander Wang’s show?”

“Oh my god, yes! Those pole dancers were amazing! I can’t believe he did that!”

“I know! I can’t wait to buy everything from the collection!”

Using pole dancers to sell fashion may not seem like a natural course of action, and one might argue that their presence was more for shock and entertainment, but the fact remains that it was the pole dancers, not the runway presentation, that brought consumer-level attention to the collection (which should be hitting stores right about now).

Then, there’s the rather humorous case of this ad for MoneySupermarket, a financial services website in the UK:

The ad worked, not only in the company’s target market, which focuses specifically on financial services in the United Kingdom, but around the world. Moreover, it made a bit of a celebrity of pole dancer Kyle McIntosh who used the opportunity to speak out against body and fat shaming. Pole dancing and financial services may not seem to be natural partners, but the ad was effective in communicating the uniqueness of the brand and bringing global attention to the website.

With pole dancing seeing such success as a communications medium, perhaps we should be asking ourselves what other ways it can be put to good use. Can we imagine using pole dancing in the classroom? Certainly, biology and anatomy would seem to have logical connections, but what about physics? If you think defying gravity hanging upside down from a pole is easy, give it a try; just make sure your insurance is up to date first. I think other match and science-related subjects could be applied to pole dancing as well.

I will even go so far as saying pole dancing might be effective in the church. Think about it a moment. Many Christians are observing Good Friday today. A pole could easily be symbolic of a cross and a skilled dancer could create a very beautiful depiction of the whole Passion story. Use some imagination. It could work.

I think what we are slowly discovering is that pole dancing, because of the stigma of its background, is a unique way of capturing an audience. Taken out of the atmosphere with which it is generally associated, viewers are not sure what to expect from a pole dance, therefore, they give it significantly more attention than they would more traditional forms of communication. Those who experience communication that involves pole dancing are also more likely to retain the brand/product name over a six-month period, significantly longer than with print advertising.

As long as there are strip clubs, and I can’t imagine those going away anytime soon, pole dancing is going to have a bit of a PR issue. I think that can be used to its advantage, though, and pole dancing can be a very effective, entertaining, and low-tech means of communication.

Given its communications value, perhaps we should be giving pole dancing, and those who perform it, a little more respect. Even when they’re not wearing clothes.

Photography / PotD

Indianapolis St. Patrick’s Day Parade

March 18, 2016

Group conformity scares the pants off me because it’s so often a prelude to cruelty towards anyone who doesn’t want to – or can’t – join the Big Parade. —Bette Midler

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Yesterday’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in downtown Indianapolis might have been the biggest crowd turnout yet and, as promised, we have pictures. While temperatures were still a bit on the chilly side, it was not nearly as cold as last year, which may have encouraged a lot of people to abandon whatever they were doing and get out. Indianapolis throws a good parade and kids in town know it. They lined the curbs early holding bags and buckets with which to carry home all the candy. Parade participants can no longer throw candy from a float or even into crowds from the street. They have to actually hand the candy to someone. As a result, only those along the curb are likely to get anything. Indy kids know that and came prepared.

The St. Pat’s parade is a little different from other parades in that there are fewer (practically none) large colorful floats and more groups of people just walking down the street celebrating (sort of) their shared heritage. There are a lot of people of Irish descent in Indianapolis and they’re not the least bit shy about letting their Irish fly year round. As a result, when we take pictures at this parade we tend to focus on interesting people rather than large groups. Groups, especially large numbers of Catholic school kids looking as though they’d rather be in math class, don’t provide the story that individuals do. We try to zero in on smaller sets and individuals. When we do capture a group, it tends to be because there is something unique about them, like carrying folding chairs.

There were some notable differences in this year’s parade, at least from our perspective. Kat actually walked the entire parade route and got a good feel for the crowd while I stayed near the starting point and snapped pictures. Here are some of the things we noticed:

Babies. Since it wasn’t bone-chilling cold this year, there seemed to be tiny ones all over the place. We’re guessing it has something to do with that whole Catholic ban on contraception.
Not nearly as many dogs. There were Irish setters and other breeds in abundance last year, but we didn’t see nearly as many this year.
References to alcohol were missing, or we just didn’t see them. There was no one in a Guinness costume nor any entry by local distributors.
Fewer politicians in the parade. Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett was there, of course, on foot, getting up close and personal with everyone. Surprisingly, though, he was the only one. Neither of the gubernatorial candidates were present (that we saw) and none of the City Council or Congressional candidates were present in an official capacity as part of the parade. However …
An oversized effigy of Governor Pence circulated through the crowds. It wasn’t part of the actual parade and we never were in position to get a decent picture. The anti-governor sentiment was strong, though.
Not as many media outlets participated. We didn’t see WISH (channel 8) at all and WTHR (channel 13) focused their coverage more on events around town. There weren’t as many radio stations this year, either.
There was less candy being distributed this year. Last year, Kat had her purse full, which we hadn’t expected. This year, neither of us got as much as a dum-dum. Those kids along the curb were disappointed more than once as groups passed without handing out anything.
Middle school kids still find the parade boring. We’ve noticed this before. The poor kids walking in the parade look as though they’re about to have teeth extracted. Perhaps some of those Catholic schools should reconsider. Let the kindergartners walk the parade. That would be interesting.
Everyone loves to pretend they’re Irish.

Indy’s St. Patrick’s day parade isn’t the all-out spectacle of cities such as New York or Savannah, but it’s still fun and honors a culture and history that is still very present in the city. Here’s to parade and Irish and not waking up with a horrible hangover this morning!

Mythology / pop culture

Which Ides Of March Did You Mean?

March 15, 2016

A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.—Brutus, Julius Caesar Act 1, scene 2, 15–19

charles i. letbetter - which ides of march did you mean

With the death of Julius Caesar, it seems the oracle’s prophecy came true, but what if he meant a different Ides of March?

Yeah, yeah, we all know the Shakespearian version of how Caesar’s death went down. If that version were true, one might wonder why an extremely superstitious person like Julius Caesar didn’t stay home from the Senate that day. Take a look at Plutarch’s Life of Julius Caesar, though, and the oracle’s statement lacks the drama ol’ Willie gave it. Transliterating the Greek into contemporary English, it comes off more like, “Hey, ya’ might wanna watch your step there around the 15th of March or so.” Go ahead, toss in a Brooklyn accent and give the oracle a wide-brimmed grey fedora to hide his face, just for effect. We can see where Julius might not have thought homicide was in the offing for the day.

We assume that since JC and Brutus had that fatal encounter that the oracle’s prophecy was fulfilled. What if that wasn’t the Ides of March the soothsayer had in mind, though? What if his divination applied to a time much further into the future, a time that an ancient Roman would not have understood, one where the calendar was the only thing he recognised? What if that most fateful of March Ides has yet to happen?

Granted, a number of other bad things have happened on this date. Russia’s Czar Nicholas II didn’t find March 15 especially hospitable. Czechoslovakia was effectively wiped off the map on this date in 1939. My guess is CBS show runners still steer clear of Les Moonves today after the network had the balls to cancel “The Ed Sullivan Show” on this date. If one is even the tiniest bit superstitious, it’s best to just stay home and nap, which is pretty much what I’d like to do.

There’s always that chance, though, that the worst is yet to come. So, just to stoke those fires of fear and imagination, here are a few things that could make the Ides of March much, much worse than being stabbed in the back by your best friend.

A very clumsy knife salesman could show up at your front door. This is why it is smart to keep your front door blocked with litter boxes. At least, that’s what we do. Any danger attempting to come through our front door gets stuck in cat poop. So far, that’s been a very strong deterrent. I’ve not had a single knife salesman show up in the past two years.
The Internet could die. There’s a tremendous amount of redundancy built into the structure of the Internet, but a significant amount of communication between the US and the rest of the world is carried through a series of trans-ocean cabling and a shit ton of financial transactions take place on the Internet using that cabling. Cut these cables and we’re looking at full-scale economic meltdown faster than you can say, “Have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in?”
Weather could happen, especially if you live in Southern Louisiana or Texas. I’m guessing Shreveport is a rather moist place to be today and Interstate 10 is closed in some places. Some 3000 people were being evacuated last I looked. Those folks are not having a good Ides of March, but then, the past seven days haven’t been much of a picnic, either. The rest of the world, from what I can tell, is doing rather well in the weather department.
The FBI could ask you to unlock your phone. Okay, so maybe you’ve not actually killed anyone yet, but you might have expressed some frustration toward a certain presidential candidate or four and we all know the NSA is watching that crap so they don’t have a repeat of the whole Bobby Kennedy thing. So, they could show up and ask to look at your phone, just to make sure you were kidding, you know. Don’t expect Tim Cook to have your back, he’s rather busy.
Your parents could have named you Isis. I’m sure there’s some poor person out there who is currently looking into having their name changed because their mother, who was obsessed with ancient Egyptian mythology thought it would be cute to name their child after a goddess. We all know someone who’s suffered a similar misfortune. Talk about having a rough time getting credit …
You could be an unpaid intern for a certain loud-mouthed presidential candidate. Talk about a perfect storm of bad luck. Interns, by job description, get all the worst assignments anyway, but to constantly have to put up with all that hot air and not get paid is a fate that may actually be worse than death. Don’t put this on your resumé.
Starbucks could take your favorite drink off its menu. There are reasons I drink my coffee black. So many people I know are absolutely addicted to a very specific blend that only Starbucks baristas know how to make. Take these people to Italy and they are soooo screwed. Starbucks is known for switching up their menu from time to time. If they remove the wrong things, thousands of people just might die, or even worse, stab their barista.
Your photographer could tell you his Dropbox has been hacked and those nude pictures you took for “someone special” are missing. Worse yet, #NakedHousewives just started trending. “Lucy, you have some ‘splainin’ to do.”
Your lunch could be recalled 30 minutes after you ate it. There have been a lot of food recalls lately. You never know until it’s too late. That single-serve lasagna sure looked healthy in the picture on the cardboard container. Maybe you should have just eaten the cardboard.
This could be your real life:

These are just some of the reasons we should beware every Ides of March. One just never knows exactly which one that old soothsayer meant. No one bothered to ask. Damn you, Caesar. You’ve doomed us all.

Current Issues / pop culture / PotD

Comic Book Gospel

March 15, 2016

It is only the savage, whether of the African bush or of the American gospel tent, who pretends to know the will and intent of God exactly and completely. —Henry Louis Mencken

Rarely does our modern society equate gospel with peace, but, more often, with violence and dishonesty

Imagine Tom Cruise blowing up in front of a Church of Scientology. For a certain portion of the population, the very idea of such a thing makes us downright giddy. Those are the people who are likely to be very excited about the new AMC series Preacher, which is set to debut May 22. The pilot was premiered at SXSW this past Sunday and crowds cheered when Cruise went boom. Such is the general public attitude toward many religions who seem to be making up their own gospel as they go. Watching those who use the gospel for their own gain explode sounds like a rather enjoyable pastime and Preacher provides just that in its first episode.

Don’t expect more traditional churches to be too happy about this series. Based on the Vertigo comic book by Seth Ennis and Steve Dillon, Preacher tells the story of Jesse Custer, who has some “special” powers, his ex-girlfriend Tulip, and Cassidy, a rough-hewn Irishman with a penchant for using his fists [In the comic, Cassidy is a vampire, but no word as to whether he maintains that characteristic in the TV version]. In the pilot, various ministers are “possessed” by a strange alien force that then explodes them from the inside out. This is not exactly what the church has in mind when they talk about being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Initial reaction from folks at SXSW was favorable, but one has to consider that the population there is one already attuned to a more alternative culture in which a comic book gospel is more real to them than the version being preached on the street corner. They tend to like anything that has explosions and defies traditional authority and challenges our concepts of how society works. SXSW tends to be the AMC network’s core demographic, so showing them something like Preacher is rather like offering a digitized communion.

What is more disconcerting for the church, or should be, is that such a negative attitude toward people in ministry has become almost commonplace. Comics like Preacher do not come from a single, twisted mind, but rather are reflective of a perspective based on the reality of priests abusing children, ministers having affairs with church secretaries, and televangelists fleecing the poor to make millions of dollars. If there is a tendency to see evil in those who wear a collar, it is because evil is the example that has been set by far too many who claim to preach the gospel.

Consider the following tweet that came across my feed yesterday:

Joel Osteen ……

If being a Minister is making you a millionaire chances are you’re doing it wrong. pic.twitter.com/l3JuiMUjd7

— Bring back FDR’s CCC (@rarey4) March 14, 2016

Now, I can’t speak to the accuracy of that image and the fact that no source is cited makes its voracity somewhat suspect. What’s important for this particular conversation is that we see so-called ministers like this, quite literally raking in millions of dollars, living high on the hog, while those who donate to their “church” can barely scrape together enough money for their own food. These “ministers” take advantage of a biblical mandate to financially support the work of God and exploit those who faithfully believe that some good is being done. Instead of the money going to help people in need, though, it’s going to the construction of lavish mansions, multi-million dollar television production facilities, private jets, designer clothes, and lifestyles that would make a presidential candidate blush. When we see the gospel so blatantly and obviously misappropriated, then yes, we’re going to cheer at the thought of such charlatans being blown to smithereens.

All of this sits in stark contrast to what I know is true for those whose faith and intentions are sincere. My late father, and those like him, never looked at the pulpit as a way of filling their own wallet. Quite to the contrary, they sacrificed financial stability, time with their families, and in many cases even their health in order to better the lives of the congregations and communities to which they legitimately felt called. They understood that wealth and privilege on earth is meaningless and preached a gospel of caring for others, selflessness, and charity.

After Poppa died, my brother and I were going through his papers, trying to decide what we needed to keep. We weren’t surprised to find he had kept meticulous financial records. He was never audited, but he was always ready, just in case. As we looked back through tax returns from the 1960s and 70s, we were shocked. We always knew we had been on the lower end of the economic scale, but we hadn’t realized how severely. 1974 was the first time Poppa could claim more than $10,000 in income. Throughout the 80s, his salary barely tipped over $20K. Only after many years of service, after my brother and I had both left home, did his salary finally top out at $36,000. There were never new cars. New clothes were only bought on sale, and for Poppa especially, new suits were an expenditure difficult to manage more than once ever three or four years. Even then, they were from the clearance rack at Sears.

Real ministers don’t look for the limelight. A local radio station once offered to broadcast Poppa’s Sunday morning sermons if he could have someone tape them at sufficient quality. Taping the sermons wasn’t an issue. We were already doing that for shut-ins and nursing home residents that couldn’t make it to the service. Still, Poppa turned down the offer. He was concerned that the publicity that would come with such a broadcast might dilute the message.

Preachers like my father are not what the general public sees, though. Instead, we are faced with a Church fighting to hide the criminal sexual molestation committed by their own priests. We’re faced with the images of weeping ministers confessing to affairs only because they were caught and had no other choice. We’re insulted with pleas from televangelists begging for donations so they can buy a $65 million private jet. The people who perpetuate such absolute heresy are guilty of preaching a comic book gospel that leaves us so disgusted we’re not the least bit upset when something bad happens to them.

I’m actually rather anxious to compare Preacher the television series to the comic book. In the comic book, one of the plot lines is that God has left heaven and can’t be found. I have a feeling that there are millions of people whose experience with religion is just like that: God is not in heaven and he’s not doing anything good. If the church wants to change that perception, they need to do away with this ridiculous gospel of affluence, be more proactive in addressing their own sins, and let us see the example of selfless sacrifice that I know exists.

The gospel I was taught was the gospel of peace and love. Maybe we should try that one out for a while.

Hashtag Philosophy / Mythology

#WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven

March 13, 2016

Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company. —Mark Twain

charles i. letbetter - #WhyIDidn'tGetIntoHeaven

Concepts of Heaven and who gets in are quite subjective. Tossing belief systems aside, why would you not get in?

Having been raised in a Southern baptist church, concepts of Heaven and Hell were burned into my mind, or sometimes, the seat of my pants. Poppa would pull out the fire and brimstone about once a year; that was about all he could muster because he really wasn’t that kind of preacher. Heaven was a more frequent topic, and one much easier for him to discuss, but there was always that uncomfortable balance of not making everyone suicidal in their desire to get there. He was careful to not make Heaven sound so wonderful that someone might want to organize a bus trip right then and there.

Most every religion has its concept of some form of paradise in the afterlife. For some it is achieving a total state of Nirvana, for others it is becoming god of one’s own planet. There are mythologies by the hundreds and each has some form of immortal existence divided subjectively either between the good and the bad, or the believers and the heathen infidels. Those who are rooted firm in their faith are adamant that they’re going to the place of the divine and the rest of us are not.

But if we miss heaven, or paradise, or Nirvana, or whatever, it is not without cause; there has to be a reason. Even though the rules are highly subjective, again, based on one’s belief system, there are reasons one might not make it through those pearly gates. When I saw this morning that #WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven was trending on Twitter, I just couldn’t resist seeing what wonderful excuses people had created for failing to meet St. Peter. Here are just a few samples:

I couldn’t pay my exorcist…
So, I was re-posessed. #WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven

— Mark J Leathers (@Mark_Leathers) March 13, 2016

Look. They love me in heaven. That I can tell you. I’m going to make Heaven great again. #WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven pic.twitter.com/EN3lTvMY4E

— Carol (@aka_tahto) March 13, 2016

I made a stupid bet for a fiddle of gold against my soul. I overestimated my ability to play the fiddle. #WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven

— Truth B Told (@TheLordHasSpoke) March 13, 2016

I’m stuck minding the gate #WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven pic.twitter.com/efhUJMtIJk

— St Peter (@stpeteyontweety) March 13, 2016

#WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven I was pleading my case to St. Peter and Kanye interrupted me. #True @mentalerase @she_nutt @nta71 @The_FeakersBall

— The Hashtag Game (@TheHashtagGame) March 13, 2016

#WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven I didn’t like Jesus’s Facebook post. @The_FeakersBall pic.twitter.com/sONvtW7cjt

— CK (@charley_ck14) March 13, 2016

#WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven was on my way and used Apple maps now I’m in Oklahoma.

— clever pun (@ThatRainbowCat) March 13, 2016

(You might have to be as old as me to get that one)

They set the clocks forward and I missed orientation. #WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven

— Johanna (@artistsreward) March 13, 2016

#WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven it was privatized and I was denied coverage for pre-existing sins

— Wes Strickland (@wwwess) March 13, 2016

#WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven i’m supposed to be able to explain that in 140 characters or less?! (*^_^*)

— hbd chick (@hbdchick) March 13, 2016

That’s just a brief sample. As one might expect, there are some that are too profane even for my taste, and there are more than a few quoting Bible verses or sections of the Qu’ran or questioning the very existance of such a place. Those are the folks who don’t get the humor in a hashtag game such as this. The whole point is to momentarily toss theology in the garbage and not take ourselve, nor our religion, quite so seriously. No serious disrespect is meant, we’re just poking a little fun at mythologies whose subjectivity can be so incredibly broad and open to interpretation.

So, what would my reasons be for #WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven? Some of the best excuses have been taken already, but we did come up with a few reasons. How could we not?

#WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven – I “Had A Little Talk With Jesus” and it didn’t go so well

— charles i. letbetter (@charlesletbette) March 13, 2016

#WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven – They sang “Shall We Gather At The River” & I wasn’t sure if they meant Jordan or Styx

— charles i. letbetter (@charlesletbette) March 13, 2016

#WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven – Missed the train bound for glory while waiting on the old gospel ship

— charles i. letbetter (@charlesletbette) March 13, 2016

#WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven – They wouldn’t let me wear black. I mean, have you SEEN my wardrobe?

— charles i. letbetter (@charlesletbette) March 13, 2016

#WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven – tripped, fell down the stairway, and couldn’t get back up. Apparently Heaven doesn’t have Life Alert.

— charles i. letbetter (@charlesletbette) March 13, 2016

#WhyIDidntGetIntoHeaven – I love you too much to go someplace without you

— charles i. letbetter (@charlesletbette) March 13, 2016

I should probably include something about the pictures at the top of this page, too, but that doesn’t make as much sense when one is reading from Twitter.

Again, this is just fun. If you didn’t check your self-rightesousness at the door I really have to question why you bothered reading at all.

Oh, and what was I listening to while writing this? You know my habit. After all, it is Sunday.

Current Issues / Mythology / PotD

Love And Loss (of rights and dignity)

March 10, 2016

We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others. —Will Rogers

Love is such a beautiful thing, so why is there still an effort to deny people the right to love?

I don’t watch reality television as a habit, so I wasn’t even aware that celebrity personal trainer Jillian Michaels has her own show until yesterday. Apparently she does, however, and having all that production ability available allowed her to create a touching video which she used to ask her partner of seven years, Heidi Rhodes, to marry her. I could be cynical and question whether the whole thing was done just for the television cameras, and certainly, since the show isn’t done live, the timing is ratings fodder, but why choose cynicism over love? The video, which you can watch here, is one of those that can only be the product of a long-term relationship full of ups and downs and tugs at the heartstrings of anyone with a romantic bone in their body. I find it wonderful that they’ve not only had such a great relationship, but that their rights to recognize that relationship through marriage have been affirmed across the whole country. This is progress.

Oh, wait, those rights may not actually extend to the entire United States. Because Puerto Rico is not a full-fledged state, there is a frightening chance that last year’s Supreme Court ruling regarding gay marriage doesn’t apply to the unincorporated state. The federal judge based his ruling on the concept that only fully incorporated states enjoy the full protection of the Constitution and that, by extension, the 14th amendment does not apply to Puerto Rico. This is significant not only in terms of LGBT rights, but the full realm of civil rights based on the 14th amendment. If the judge’s ruling that the 14th amendment doesn’t apply at all, then all the civil rights gained over the past 60 years would not apply either. Maybe this will be what pushes Puerto Rico toward statehood.

Even on the mainland, though, the fight to deny rights to LGBT peoples continues. Democratic senators in Missouri filibustered for 39 hours this week in an attempt to block a so-called religious freedom bill that would, in the name of preserving religious rights, denies rights to LGBT peoples. This is significant because the bill is part of a push in that state to create a constitutional amendment that is inherently restrictive in the name of religious freedom. The bill still has to pass the state legislature before going for a statewide vote, so the matter is far from over. Still, the fact that the denial of basic rights is still an issue is severely disturbing.

That religious freedom would be on the wrong side of human rights is hardly anything new. That Christianity, specifically, has to be coerced over time to accept even the most basic of human rights has been a well-documented fact in the US since the mid-19th century. Christianity has been pro-slavery, against women’s rights (including the right to vote), anti-semitic, anti-segregation, and anti-voting rights, and ultimately found themselves on the wrong side of each of those issues. The fact that the Ku Klux Klan, as hate-filled as they are, is based on what they consider core Christian values does not go without notice.

Yet, even among Christians, there is division when it comes to LGBT rights. I was severely disappointed when the Stockton Leadership Foundation, a non-profit religiously-motivated organization, decided to cancel Stockton, Arizona’s community Easter Sunrise Service rather than include a church comprised largely of LGBT members. How these people can celebrate Easter at all after such a disgusting display of anti-Christlike attitudes is beyond me. The Foundation had never planned on inviting the Valley Ministries congregation, but after that invitation was “accidentally” sent their attempts to disinvite and then further diminish any role of the small 70-member church were more like the actions of the ancient Sanhedrin rather than the teachings of the one crucified with their approval.

Spring is a time of renewal, of growth, and newness; a perfect time for love and engagement and all those cute emotional feels. The ancient pagans seem to have gotten it right, with celebrations that involved dancing and singing and naked frivolity. Doesn’t that seem so much better, to celebrate love, than to create loss by diminishing and removing someone’s rights and dignity? Perhaps, in the name of religious freedom, the answer is for all of us, Christian, Jew, Muslim, gay, straight, transgendered, bi, curious, questioning, Pagan or atheist, to dance naked around a bonfire together. Why? Because when we strip away all the titles and labels, we’re all just human, we’re all brothers and sisters, one species of being. Create love, not loss.

Current Issues / PotD

Wishing For The Apocalypse

March 6, 2016

The probability of apocalypse soon cannot be realistically estimated, but it is surely too high for any sane person to contemplate with equanimity. —Noam Chomsky

charles i. letbetter - waiting for the apocalypse

Our society has reached a point where the disasters of apocalypse are viewed as preferable to the fallacies of the status quo.

12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth [made] of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; 16 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” —Revelation 6:12-17 NASB

My late father, the preacher, held certain views of the Bible more because of tradition than actual academic understanding of scripture. One of those views was that there is a coming apocalypse from which Christians would be spared by the second-coming of Christ. That, in a nutshell, is the essence of a pre-millennial view. Popa likely held that viewpoint because when he was growing up and going to school in rural Arkansas there was no other viewpoint. It would not be until many years later that he would even be exposed to alternative theologies and when, as an adult, I first approached him with the concept of amillennialism, that there was neither a second coming nor a god-appointed apocalypse, he considered such a thing unbiblical.

Regardless of one’s millennial approach, the universal opinion was always that the apocalypse was bad. That whole thing about hiding in caves and begging to be caught in an avalanche doesn’t need a lot of translation. Regardless of its literal or metaphoric details, an apocalypse was something to be avoided. Worse than any war we have ever experienced, an apocalypse would leave few alive and those few would rather be dead.

Christianity isn’t the only major religion to have an apocalyptic scenario in their cannon. Islam teaches that Isa will return and be accompanied by Mahdi to destroy Christian innovation and convert the world to Islam. Listen carefully and you’ll hear Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speak often of the return of Mahdi. Ancient Mayans had an apocalyptic tale as well, though theirs may have come true with the arrival of Cortez on the continent. No matter where one finds such prognostication, the end results are always the same: nearly everyone dies.

When I look at contemporary society, though, the way it has transitioned over the past five years, it seems that we have gone from fearing an apocalypse to actually wanting one to happen. As evidence, let me offer the popularity of the movie, Mad Max: Fury Road, which won six Oscars. It wasn’t all that long ago that such tales were seen as cautionary, a warning to avoid such calamity. With this movie, though, the dangers of the apocalypse and its social fallout are preferable to a tyrannical government. Audiences cheer on those who cause chaos against a status quo in which they feel they have no control.

We would be short-sighted, however, if we blamed everything on government or expected a presidential candidate to have any hope of adequately addressing our situation. Government, like it or not, is a reflection of the people it represents. If there is corruption it is because we, as a collective society, are corrupt. If the government behaves immorally it is only because we have given it permission to do so on our behalf. We cannot blame government for our ills when we are the government.

There was a new article posted to Psychology Today this morning warns against the dangerous lack of empathy in our society. Attorney David Niose makes an interesting observation:

It’s noteworthy, and undeniable, that two antonyms of empathy—disdain and indifference—have become cornerstones of American politics. When outsiders are routinely reviled, targeted for blame by an impulsive population that isn’t capable of rational thought, bad things can happen. Add doses of anti-intellectualism, nationalism, and militarism to the mix, and you have a formula for disaster. Just ask Germany.

The reference to Germany and, by extension, the crimes of World War II are troubling. Granted, we’ve heard such mean-spirited diatribe in political circles during every election cycle of the past two decades. I find it interesting that the further we get away from having leadership that actually remembers and participated in that horrible war, barely preventing an apocalypse of our own doing, the more willing we are to accuse those who disagree with us of harboring the same sentiments as war criminals. Still, yanking the conversation out of the political realm for a moment, Mr. Noise’s observations regarding the lack of empathy are accurate. Without empathy, we are far too eager to destroy our fellow man and we are less likely to care by what means we do so.

I once laughed out loud at the religious fear tactic that one needed to “get right with God” because the apocalypse is surely coming and the Anti-Christ is sure among us and all those who don’t believe are going to DIE or wish they could. Not only did I not believe in an apocalyptic event forecasted by a crazy man on an island some 1900 years ago, but I couldn’t believe that society would collapse to such a point as to allow it. I was young. I was naïve.

Now, I’m scared. Religious extremists have shifted from wanting to avoid apocalypse to embracing it. Those disenchanted on both ends of the political spectrum no longer believe a solution can be found within the system and are willing to scrap everything and start over with whatever remnant survives. Marginalized populations made economic slaves by the greed of corporate demagogues stand ready to blow up factories and sacrifice their fellow workers in order to make their voice heard.

Those wishing for the apocalypse are almost certainly those who understand the consequences the least. Real life is not like the movies. Charlize Theron, as beautiful as she is, is not going to save anyone. When the apocalypse comes, the majority of us will vanish in a flash and it won’t be because some demi-god suddenly returned but because nuclear annihilation is a real thing. The only thing good to come of an apocalypse is that the overpopulation problem will be solved.

I dislike any policy or authority based on fear, but the pressing threat of apocalypse should cause us all to be very frightened, consider very carefully for whom we vote, and think more empathetically about those around us. If we don’t all thrive together, we shall surely die together.

Boom. Flash. Bye.

Current Issues / PotD

How To Avoid Dying

February 24, 2016

If I die a violent death, as some fear and a few are plotting, I know that the violence will be in the thought and the action of the assassins, not in my dying.—Indira Gandhi

No one really wants to die, so maybe we should take more care in avoiding that outcome

I was amused when scrolling through my newsfeed this morning to see a brief article with the headline: University of Houston Offers Teachers Helpful Tips For How to Not Get Murdered. Odd, I didn’t realize murdering college professors had reached such epidemic proportions. Maybe it’s just a phenomenon particular to the University of Houston, or perhaps they recently hired Miss Marple in the English department and are anticipating the inevitable. Death does seem to follow that old lady and I’m rather sure dying is not in anyone’s syllabus.

Apparently, some faculty at the University are understandably concerned about a new Texas law that allows students to carry concealed weapons in their classrooms. Among the advice given were the following “bullet” points (extra credit for the irony):

Be careful discussing sensitive topics
Drop certain topics from your curriculum
Not “go there” if you sense anger
Limit student access off hours

Now, I’m not sure exactly what “sensitive” topics might be included nor where it is one should not go if sensing anger, but I’m going to guess they might include subjects such as how incredibly stupid it is to allow guns in the classroom in the first place and the simple fact that anyone caught shooting the instructor automatically fails the course. Seriously, if this is the type of instruction we have to give the teaching staff, I’m questioning the overall quality of education one might receive at the University of Houston.

However, dying is genuinely something most of us want to avoid and, it would seem, more than a few people have difficulty with the task given that several thousand will die today, and another big bunch of people will be dying tomorrow, and the day after, and the next, and etc. So, with all sensitivity to the delicateness of such an issue set to the side and filed in the back of a drawer in an unmarked manila envelope, I would like to offer some common sense suggestions for ways in which one might avoid dying. University of Houston teachers please take notes.

Avoid interaction with items such as bullets, knives, machetes, bombs, or other objects that might pierce one’s body in a fashion that leads to dying. Note: we’re not talking about the fashionable body modifications to your ears, nose, nipples, or other places your mother doesn’t know about. This strictly applies to those piercings that might do things like remove one’s head, severely displace one’s internal organs, or put oversized holes through vital body parts. Dying may very well be immediate should one encounter such piercings and should be avoided at all costs.
If you live in a trailer park during a tornado, move. Growing up in Oklahoma, this was just a given. No one who had any choice lived in or even near a trailer park from March through September. In fact, the rest of the year isn’t necessarily all that safe, either. Apparently not everyone gets handed that memo, though. At least three people died in tornadoes yesterday in Louisiana and Mississippi. All three were in trailer parks. This didn’t have to happen. How does one know if there’s a danger of a tornado hitting their trailer park? There’s an easy test: is it raining? If so, move. Dying by being sucked up into a swirling cloud and then dropped just doesn’t sound painless.
Avoid visiting places where dying seems to be a recreational activity. This includes places such as Syria, Iran, the Sudan, or South Chicago. These are places where they serve guns along with the appetizers, neighbors lob bombs at each other just for the literal hell of it, and if the bombs and bullets don’t get you the water will. Odds of surviving in these places is so low you’d have a better chance of getting a presidential candidate to convert to Islam. Stay away.
Excessive anything is never good, and dying from excess tends to make one the target of bullying in the afterlife, or so I’m told. These are things you already know intellectually. Eating too much will kill you. Exercising too much will kill you. Mouthing off too much to your wife will kill you. One doesn’t really need to be told such things, but yet, every day, there are hundreds of people who die because they just had to have that one last piece of pie, or the last donut, or run 47 miles. Dying can come in many different forms. Be careful. Use some common sense. Step away.
Stop smoking cigarettes. Again, you know this. You knew this when you started the dirty habit. Chances are, you ‘ve even told others not to start, and you’re always trying to quit. Stop trying. Do it. Put the damn things down. If your oral fixation is that strong, roll some bud. Having long conversations with the cat won’t kill you (though it may drive the cat nuts). Cigarettes and dying are buddies. Just stop.
Consider a career other than suicide bomber. I’m sure I’m not the only one who questions the mental capacity of people who leave nice, warm, presumptively loving homes in order to join the so-called caliphate. I have one question for anyone considering such a move: ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY? Dying is all they do in the caliphate; they rather seem to enjoy it. Apparently, someone told these incredibly gullible people that there’s a reward for going boom. WRONG! There is no reward! There are only little tiny pieces of you scattered all over the sand. That’s it. No endless supply of Snickers bars or anything else you might have been told. If one is trying to avoid death, this is the worst line of business to consider.
One last piece of advice: wherever you are, whatever you are doing, whoever you may be, absolutely, under no condition, should you ever, EVER piss off a United States Marine. Don’t even think about it. Just say “Yes sir (or ma’am),” do as instructed, and go on about your business.

Not having died recently, that I recall, I can’t speak from experience, but the lack of folks recovering from such incidents leads me to conclude that dying is not a great deal of fun. In case you haven’t noticed, we generally cry when people die because they’re not coming back. So, let’s all do our best to avoid dying. I know the Bible says, “… it is appointed unto man once to die … (Hebrews 9:27),” but that doesn’t mean you have to do so today. Be careful out there. We like it so much better when you’re around to annoy, er, visit with us.

Take care.

Current Issues / PotD

Say Something Nice

February 23, 2016

I don’t enjoy any kind of danger or volatility. I don’t have that kind of ‘I love the bad guys’ thing. No, no thank you. I like nice people.—Tina Fey

We have become a mean, vicious, and cruel race of people because there is no one to stop us

Finding nice things to say can sometimes be very difficult. Yesterday, for example, one presidential candidate said he wanted to punch a protester. News the past few days has been littered with claims of one person disparaging another, someone shooting someone else because they said the wrong thing, and people who are supposed to be leaders outright lying about facts that are easily checked.

Social media is even worse. Descriptors such as, “idiot,” “slut,” and “jackass” are commonplace as people respond to topics with which they disagree. Do the people speaking actually know the ones they’re insulting? No, of course not. One thing social media is very good at doing is encouraging us to participate in discussions about which we know very little. In fact, the success of apps such as Twitter and Reddit depend on us not being able to keep our mouths shut when silence would certainly be the better tact.

Fashion isn’t any better. I am trying this season to avoid reviewing shows that I dislike. I’m fortunate to have a choice in which shows I cover and I see no point in putting myself, the designer, nor Pattern’s readers through the agony of discussing something I don’t like. Not everyone is so fortunate, however. Between shows, I frequently listen to the panels assembled at SHOWStudio. Participants are tasked with talking about a designer’s collection not only for the duration of the show (which I ignore) but for at least 30 minutes afterward. When a presentation is good, finding something to talk about for that length of time can be excruciatingly difficult. Inevitably, the talk turns negative, and at times even vicious.

We have become a society of mean speakers. The ancient advice of, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all,” is lost on us. Instead, we embrace what we consider the “right” to say anything we want, anytime, anywhere, and we think we should be able to do so without any consequence. Should anyone challenge our comments in the slightest, we fire back with some claim of “free speech.” Never mind that what we say may be hurting someone else. We don’t care. We have a right to open our mouths and let filth and disgust spill from them, so that is exactly what we do.

Body shaming has become a global pastime and photographers and photo editors are among the worst, not only in how we talk about models, but how we rate photographs based on the physical qualities of the model. I can shoot two different models in the same location and the same time of day wearing the same garment and exactly the same settings, but the photo of the thinner model is inevitably rated higher than that of the more curvy model, even when both are smaller than a size 6. One of the reasons I rarely participate in photographer’s forums online is because there are too many who have absolutely nothing civil to say about anyone.

Even church isn’t safe. When the Pope and a politician exchange insults, what kind of example does that set? Pulpits have become dispensaries of hate and aggression rather than sanctuaries of peace and love.

As a result, we are becoming increasingly violent and intolerant of one another. The recent murder spree by an Uber driver in Michigan wasn’t a random act so much as it was the physical manifestation of anger and resentment building up in all of us. This guy wasn’t crazy. He’s every bit like you and me, angry at society and the world. The difference is that he took his actions too far, going beyond words and deciding to use bullets the same way he might otherwise have randomly left mean and inappropriate comments on some website. We shudder at the horror of what he did, but are the rest of us really all that far removed from doing exactly the same thing?

What we say matters. Words do hurt, and the example we set with our words has the ability to destory our entire civilization. We cannot coexist in a situation where we have lot the ability to say anything nice about each other. When our first response is one of sarcasm, belittling, and finding the worst even in other’s good intentions, we pick away at the threads that hold our society together.

I’m guilty. You’re guilty. We have to do better. We have to find more ways to be nice to each other. We’ve been mean and self-centered for so very long, that being nice is going to take considerable effort. Turning around what have become instinctual responses is going to take time. Even more, we need to stop accepting such meanness from others, especially those in positions of authority and those campaigning for those positions. When someone decides to be mean toward another, we need to walk away, withdraw any evidence of support, and go elsewhere.

Being nice isn’t all that difficult. We can be truthful without being mean. We can disagree without being insulting. Our words are killing us. All of us. Say something nice, will you?

Photography / PotD

I Can’t Show You That

February 17, 2016

charles i. letbetter - I can't show you taht

You have to show violence the way it is. If you don’t show it realistically, then that’s immoral and harmful. If you don’t upset people, then that’s obscenity.—Roman Polanski

charles i. letbetter - I can't show you that

The biggest problem with censorship of any kind is that it gives someone else the power to determine your morality

In a small town about 40 miles East of Indianapolis resides a woman who is convinced that everything I do is pornography. I don’t know this person at all. We’ve never met. Yet, because she doesn’t like what I do, she is of the opinion that no one else should, either, and has made lives miserable for people who disagree with her. I’ve actually not heard anything from her in a while, but I’m sure she’s still there.

Why do I care? What she’s doing doesn’t hurt me, personally. I’m okay with what I do, obviously. My friends are okay with what I do. Most importantly, the people who care about me the most, and whom I care about, consider my work quite fantastic and wonderful. Okay, so they’re a bit biased. Still, if there are people who like my work, why be bothered with those who don’t?

Because those who are like this woman enjoy imposing their morality on everyone else. We’ve seen it in every issue: women’s rights, welfare, voting rights, abortion, gay rights, healthcare, and marriage rights. There are always those people who not only are sure they know better than the rest of us, they insist they should have the power to stop us.

Now would be the point at which my closest friends ask what has me on my censorship soapbox so early this morning. The answer is an article in Business Insider about a UK initiative to force websites hosting pornography to verify user’s ages. I know, it doesn’t sound like such a harmful idea at all. In fact, pornography’s most popular website, PornHub, actually supports the measure, which I found, at the very least, interesting (in reality, I think they’re hoping it will filter out some of the competition). Protect the dear children and all that bunk, right?

I have two significant problems with what the UK is proposing.

First is the matter of who gets to decide what is pornography? No one has yet created a definition that stands up to legal scrutiny, for there are always artistic exceptions that would be deemed protected means of expression. Exactly what constitutes pornography? If sites that show belly buttons is pornography, then swimwear and fitness websites are pornographers. If sites that show nipples are pornography, then practically every major fashion magazine is guilty and one would have to be 18 to view the stream of a fashion show. If sites that detail reproductive processes are pornography, then medical and healthcare sites need to be taken down.

The article also raises the fact that elements of porn can be found just about everywhere, despite user guidelines prohibiting such. Porn can be found on Twitter. So, does everyone need to verify their age when they log onto the social media site? Porn can easily be found on Tumblr. Some of the things they show there even frighten me. But if one doesn’t follow those accounts, one doesn’t see that material, do Tumblr users need to show proof of age?

Underlying all those questions is the central fact that censorship allows someone else to determine your moral code. You may not agree with their moral code, but they insist that you abide by it. This philosophy is the kind embraced by narcissists and despots alike. They insist that they are always right and you are always wrong, therefore, they must tell you what to do. They would tell you what to eat (consider the GMO vs. non-GMO debates), what clothes to wear (school uniforms, anyone?), what church or synagogue to attend (everyone’s religion is wrong except mine), and even what vehicle to drive (those using fossil fuels are bad). People in power who embrace such a philosophy would soon enslave everyone in order to enforce compliance to their way of thinking. Most all the terrorist activity we see today is the result of exactly this type of thinking.

Second, to censor sexual acts, most of which are natural, beautiful, and necessary for the species to prosper, while not censoring violence, which is not natural, not beautiful, and would bring an end to the species, is the height of hypocrisy. If one is so terribly concerned about what children are watching, then why can any child turn on Netflix and watch Kill Bill, or Pulp Fiction, or any of hundreds of grotesquely violent films. Are you really going to try and convince me, with absolutely no scientific evidence in support of your insanity, that allowing a child to watch realistic violence is less harmful than seeing a nipple like the one that gave him/her sustenance when they were infants?

I’m not going to take the time to show all the studies that detail the dangers of viewing violence in media. I just don’t have the time and you’d grow bored at the length of the list. We have known for decades that violence, not sex, is the greatest threat to children, but we refuse to do anything to stop movies, or television shows, or anything else that feels it is somehow more truthful to show violence than censor it.

I would agree that there are some things children shouldn’t see. However, the way to handle that is through responsible parenting, not censorship. Filtering software is available for every Internet-connected device made. If you have children and allow them to use such a device, the responsibility is that of their parents, and only their parents, to lock down that content, and not only control what they see at any given age, but also how much time they spend on those devices. Studies now show connections between the amount of time a child spends online and an increase in attention deficit disorders. Even the most sanguine of programming can be dangerous in high quantities. Parents, not the government, not the UN, and certainly not any other organization, should control what their child sees and to which media and messages they are exposed.

Even well-intended censorship is still an imposition of one’s moral code over another, it is an indirect attempt to control behavior, which ultimately leads to tyranny and slavery. I don’t think we really want to go down that road. At least, I don’t. You make your own choice.

Current Issues / PotD

Disaster In The Making

February 7, 2016

Even with all our technology and the inventions that make modern life so much easier than it once was, it takes just one big natural disaster to wipe all that away and remind us that, here on Earth, we’re still at the mercy of nature.—Neil deGrasse Tyson

Zika is one of those diseases that, unless we find a treatment, could unravel the fabric of society

I have been watching over the past few days as the specter of snow looms over tomorrow’s forecast. As much as a heavy snowfall has the potential to really mess up my schedule for this week, that may be exactly what we need. With our winter, to date, having been so very mild and comfortable, there hasn’t been enough snow and freezing temperatures to do what winter does best: kill bug larvae. Unfortunately, we’re likely to get little more than a dusting tomorrow, or so it seems. Our portion of the Midwest has missed the blizzards and the sub-zero temperatures that usually help keep the insect population in check. I’m beginning to worry. We could use a minor disaster to prevent a major one.

The problem isn’t all bugs, of course. The danger the lurks in the coming of Spring is a common nuisance: mosquitoes. We fight them every year and the wetter the spring the more challenging that battle becomes. For most people in the United States, they’re little more than a nuisance, but this year they hold the potential to bring society to its knees as they may be carrying a deadly disease known as Zika.

This past Monday, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared Zika a public health emergency. Such a move is fairly rare as it raises warnings that affect economies and social practices. Even in this statement, the WHO was been accused of playing politics in not putting a restriction on travel to affected areas by pregnant women. Why? Because ground zero for the disease is currently Brazil, the country hosting this summer’s Olympic games. Any level of travel restriction (which the US implemented last month ) could devastate Brazil’s already shaky economy. Yet, the risk to pregnant women is severe, and not exactly welcoming for anyone else.

While pregnant women and their unborn fetuses have been the primary focus of those attempting to corral the disease, Zika can affect anyone. Most healthy people would experience the all-too-common symptoms for about a week and not know what was the cause. Fever, rash, joint pain, red eyes, and perhaps a headache are the most common symptoms and most people who contract the disease never need to see a doctor or go to the hospital. They can wait out the symptoms, which last about a week, and be fine. So, what’s the big deal? Why are we worried?

Because Zika has the ability to do so much more. While mosquitoes remain the primary means of transmitting the disease, having sex with anyone currently infected with Zika can also spread the disease to an uninfected partner. Not everyone whose bloodstream is infected will present symptoms and while, for most people, the disease only stays in the bloodstream about a week, it can hang around longer without the host being aware of its presence. The one case of Zika that has occurred in the US was spread through sexual contact with an infected person. As we’ve seen with other sexually transmitted diseases, once the spread begins it can be difficult to stop.

Where Zika becomes a real disaster is in the effect it has on unborn children. Zika appears to affect the development of the head and brain, resulting in something called Microcephaly. There is no treatment that diminishes the effects. There is no cure. Children born with the disease are disabled for life and will never be able to care for themselves. Seizures, loss of hearing and/or sight, balance difficulty, and difficulty swallowing are among the dangers faced by children with microcephaly.

As if affecting children wasn’t bad enough, the great social disaster could be in how to respond, especially for pregnant women. Already, women in affected countries, most of which are in heavily Catholic South America, are beginning to re-think their stance on abortion, which not only puts them at odds with the church, but in most South American countries, such as Brazil, abortion is illegal except under the most extreme circumstances. The Church also forbids the use of any form of birth control, including condoms, which could contribute to the further spread of the disease.

Already, the United Nations has issued a statement urging “the repeal of laws and policies that restrict access to sexual and reproductive health services.” Here is where the disaster threatens to do the most damage. While few debate the need to curb the disease with medicine and science, when the most readily available means of prevention collides with religious beliefs, people are ready to go to war to protect what they consider their religious duty. Even in the United States, women’s reproductive rights are a hotbed of controversy, with Congress repeatedly attempting to defund women’s care providers, specifically Planned Parenthood, because of their willingness to provide various methods of birth control. Given that this is a presidential election year with passions already running high at both political extremes, this could be the disaster the ultimately leads to domestic violence on a level we’ve not seen since the Civil War.

Even in the United States, women’s reproductive rights are a hotbed of controversy, with Congress repeatedly attempting to defund women’s care providers, specifically Planned Parenthood, because of their willingness to provide various methods of birth control. Given that this is a presidential election year with passions already running high at both political extremes, this could be the disaster the ultimately leads to domestic violence on a level we’ve not seen since the Civil War.

Public health officials in the US are attempting, for the moment, to downplay the risks, citing effective mosquito extermination programs in the past. However, given that Zika can be spread through sexual contact, and we’ve not yet begun mosquito season, it is too early to be so dismissive. At the very least, it would seem prudent to impose even more stringent travel restrictions to places where Zika is a known problem. The CDC is already urging the use of condoms and other means of birth control as a way of avoiding pregnancy if one plans on traveling to an infected area. Consumer Reports, whose content is normally behind a paywall, has made public a list of mosquito repellants that best protect against Zika.

Disaster could still be averted, but to ignore the threat is foolish. We’re still three to four months away from seeing mosquitoes begin to spread across the United States. For many areas, especially rural communities, measures to fight mosquitoes are likely to require federal funding, something Congress has loathed. If the funding is not there, the risk for disaster increases. If people attending the Olympics are not careful in every possible sense of the word, the risk for disaster increases.

In comparison, maybe getting snowed in for a couple of days isn’t so bad.

Current Issues / PotD

Rape Is NOT Masculine

February 4, 2016

It seems that whatever we do is somehow beyond reproach – murder, rape, drunk driving – as long as we go on a TV show and apologize.— Eric Stoltz

charles i. letbetter - rape is not masculine

Rape is not a right of gender. Rape is not a right of marriage. Rape is not right. Ever.

I’m relatively certain that every woman I’ve met in the past 30 years, with maybe one or two exceptions, has been the victim of sexual violence at some point in her life. Don’t think for a second that such a statistic comes because I hang out with “that kind” of women, whatever “that kind” may be in your mind. Quite to the contrary. Women from every walk of life, religious or not, cautious or not, across every socio-economic status, across every level of education, are victims of sexual violence.

You work with them, these women who are victims. They hand you your morning coffee. They check you out at the grocery. They handle your tech support calls, your banking problems, your investments and insurance, your pious donations, and even the porn subscription you claim isn’t really yours. They sit as members of Congress, the chief executives of major corporations, and maybe even your own boss.

These women have been made victims at the hands of fathers, grandfathers, uncles, brothers, cousins, boyfriends, husbands, customers, co-workers, classmates, bosses, church workers, pastors and priests and many others who all, for some stupidly insane reason, thought they had the “right” to violate someone in the most intimate of ways possible. We have perpetuated a culture where some find it acceptable to use drugs or alcohol to coerce a young woman into sex. We have created a deplorable society wherein it is the victim, not the perpetrator, who is shamed and blamed. And being the male-dominated society we still are, we pass laws so that our sins can go without punishment.

I have been sickened over the past several years as elected officials and those running for office, those who are chosen to represent all the people, have attempted to justify rape in order to avoid funding healthcare for women. Just a few of their statements (verified by Snopes) include:

“Rape is kinda like the weather. If it’s inevitable, relax and enjoy it.” Clayton Williams (R-TX) 24 March 1990

“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to shut that thing down.” Todd Akin (R-MO) 19 August 2012

“Rape victims should make the best of a bad situation.” Rick Santorum (R-PA) former US Senator and, until yesterday, presidential candidate. 20 January 2012

“Even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.” Richard Mourdock (R-IN) 23 October 2012

“If a woman has (the right to an abortion), why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman? At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t (in most cases) result in anyone’s death.” Lawrence Lockman (D-ME) February 2014

There also seems to be a problem among professional athletes, many of whom accept plea deals for lesser charges rather than face up to the consequences of what they’ve done. Among those convicted for sexual assault are:

Kevin Allen, Philadelphia Eagles, released after 33 months

Thomas “Hollywood” Henderson, Dallas Cowboys, released after 28 months

Darren Sharper, retired NFL, lifetime probation

Nate Webster, retired NFL, 12 years

Milton Bradley, Major League Baseball, 2 years and 230 days imprisonment, plus 400 hours of community service

Chad Curtis, Major League Baseball, 7-15 years

Mel Hall, Major League Baseball, 45 years, charges involved children

Tom Payne, Atlanta Hawks (NBA), multiple counts, 15 years to life

Ruben Patterson, Seattle Supersonics, served 15 days.

Mike Tyson, boxing, served three years

Bob Hewitt, tennis, served six years of an eight-year sentence.

If that list feels short and dated, it is. Many athletes now avoid conviction by agreeing to enter some form of treatment, which further diminishes the severity of their crime. The problem is severe, but those in charge (all men) don’t want to taint the image of their sport by letting the public see just how many players are guilty of sexual assault and other violent crimes.

Most recently, and what currently has me beyond furious, is this bullshit concept of neomasculinity, as though, somehow, masculinity needs to be redefined in terms that reward aggression and domination with concepts that are misogynistic and pro-rape. These jackasses even claim to have rape clubs, though I cannot find any direct evidence of any being caught by law enforcement. The movement is headed by one particularly creepy douchebag who goes by the name RooshV. I’m sorry to say he’s an American citizen, from Maryland, who has this warped idea that rape should actually be legal so long as it occurs on private property. He’s written multiple books on “seduction,” and, until yesterday, was organizing a global meet-up of like-minded douchebags around the world this Saturday. Fortunately, as word of this massive circle jerk spread and protests began to form to disrupt the meetings, they have been cancelled, though he encourages “private” gatherings.

There is absolutely, positively, without any possible exception, no terms or conditions under which rape is justified and it certainly is not masculine. Real men respect women. Real men support women rather than take advantage of them. Real men don’t threaten or cajole. Real men don’t use positions of authority to convince women to have sex with them. Real men don’t call women “bitch,” “whore,” or “slut.” Real men understand that women have the right to maintain control of their bodies at all times.

We fully and unapologetically condemn the entire neomasculinity movement and the rape culture it perpetuates. We condemn RooshV and anyone who agrees with his dangerous and quite likely criminal methods and intentions. The time has come for real men to join women in their stance against reduced sentences and plea agreements that diminish the severity of sexual assault against women.

Rape is not masculine; never has been, never will be. Rape is a crime not just against women but against all humanity. Stop making excuses.

PotD / Social Commentary

Sleeping Through Sunday

January 31, 2016

I have never taken any exercise, except sleeping and resting, and I never intend to take any.—Mark Twain

None of us are sleeping as much as we should. Going back to bed may be the healthiest thing you do

I would dearly love to be sleeping right now, truly I would. Unfortunately, my body has conditioned itself to wake up at this ungodly hour, while everyone else is still sleeping, so that I can actually get some work done before the world starts getting noisy. As a result, to sleep even past 6:00 AM is a luxury rarely afforded these days. I’m not the only one, though. For the past four years, doctors have been warning that we’re not sleeping enough. Cases of insomnia are on the rise. Sure, there are sleeping pills that help some, but those also bring the chance of abuse and, in some cases, addiction. The problem isn’t just limited to the US, either. The whole world is having trouble sleeping.

What causes us to have so much trouble falling asleep and staying that way? There are a number of issues, of course, but the three most common to our contemporary first-world lifestyles are:

Lack of proper diet and exercise
Worrying about events we cannot control
Looking at our smartphones in bed

That third one, of course, is new, and largely limited to people in industrialized nations. In places where 24-hour wifi isn’t quite so prevalent, concerns over personal/family safety take the third spot, which is certainly understandable. In the US, especially, we have a problem putting down our phones even to sleep. Whether it’s playing some silly game, browsing the latest cat memes, or actually reading something worthwhile, we rarely turn off our phones. Making matters worse, recent studies indicate that the light emitted by our phones is bright enough that our brains mistake it for daylight so that the little trigger telling us to go to sleep gets turned off.

Such insomnia is not totally new. Throughout the twentieth century, there were plenty of things keeping our parents and grandparents awake at night. In the early part of that century, we feared becoming involved in a European war, so much so that we were almost too late to help, Then came the Great Depression and I’m not sure anyone slept much. Homelessness, poverty, unemployment, and hunger all have a way of keeping a person up at night. Then, from 1936 on, the threat of a second European war became a worry and those who remembered the first one were especially sleepless. The 1940s were a decade of war and no one sleeps well through that. Troops were back home for most of the 1950s, but the Cold War set in hard and the Red Scare had Americans wondering whether their neighbors and co-workers might be communists. Air raid drills were common in schools, making sure children didn’t sleep well, either.

By the 1960s, parents worried about war in Southeast Asia, violence around the growing Civil Rights movement, and an exploding drug problem. 1972 crushed our faith in government. 1974 introduced us to the worries of inflation. By 1979, we looked at the Middle East as our newest enemy and worried how to keep them in check. Fear of nuclear annihilation reached its peak in the 80s and we responded to any and every threat by attempting to outlaw it, sending more people to jail than the prison system could handle, most for non-violent offenses. By the 90s economics were again a major fear and this thing called the Internet threatened to change the very fabric of our society.

Society is too complex for us to not find things to worry about. My current personal list of immediate concerns is about 20 items deep, and that’s with me trying to be positive. I refuse to be pollyannish and say everything’s going to be alright. The fact that we’re not sleeping like we should is itself a warning that no, everything may yet go to hell in a handbasket.

So, why are we not sleeping through Sundays, every Sunday? I challenged my father on the topic more than once. If one is going to actually believe Old Testament mythology regarding creation, then one has to deal with the notion that, after six days of work, God rested. Throughout the Old Testament, he seemed rather adamant about that whole resting thing and to this day devout Jews struggle with the juxtaposition of secular demands to do things and their religious commandment to not do things on the Sabbath. Spending all day at church seems to me, still, as just as much a violation of that command as if one were working. One does not rest at church, at least, you’re not supposed to actually sleep through the whole thing. My father was never amused, nor moved, by that argument, though.

To me, it just makes good sense. Our bodies, and our minds, need a break. We fill our lives with so very much the other six days, we need a respite to allow our bodies to catch up, re-energize, and recuperate. We need scheduled time to laugh, to read fiction, to have pleasant conversations, to enjoy non-stressed company of friends who don’t care if the house is clean, to ponder, to appreciate. More than anything, we need to be sleeping.

Go back to bed. Chores can wait. Ducktape kids to the wall if necessary. You should be sleeping. Get to it.

Art / PotD

A Clean Start To The Day

January 20, 2016

I love the big fresh starts, the clean slates like birthdays and new years, but I also really like the idea that we can get up every morning and start over.—Kristin Armstrong

Just as we might start the day with a clean body, our minds and our agendas could use a good scrubbing as well

I like a nice, hot shower first thing in the morning. There is something wonderful about having a few minutes while the coffee is brewing to wash away all the cobwebs, clear my head from whatever nonsense was left by bad dreams, think through the day’s schedule, and set a proper attitude for getting things done. Unfortunately, that’s not typically the way my day starts.

Most mornings, I stumble into the living room in the dark, trying not to wake anyone else while simultaneously doing my best to not step on one of the three cats at my feet. I look at any headlines from overnight, check email and web stats, then start coffee. Coffee takes 20 minutes, but since we do french press it’s not something you can just leave and come back when it’s done. You have to watch the water to make sure it doesn’t boil; 140 degrees is perfect. The beans have to be ground. The press has to be emptied and cleaned. Cups have to be prepared. Twenty minutes later, I can sit down and start working.

Kat will have joined me by this point, which is lovely. She’s not a morning person, but the Marine Corp conditioned her well. She sits with her coffee, looking through Facebook and other correspondence. She shares when she thinks it appropriate, but is careful to not disturb when I’m writing, or especially when I’m not writing because the words just aren’t coming.

We won’t have been up long before one of the children will poke a head out. “Mommy, can I get dressed?” I’m waiting. One of these days I’m sure Kat is going to slip and say, “No! No clothes for you! We’re sending you to school naked.” I’m going to laugh when that happens because the children are still young enough to believe the majority of what Mom tells them. That interaction is my cue to hurry and get to a stopping place because once there are children in the room there’s no peace and quiet until they’re on the bus.

With all that commotion and routine, I rarely get my shower until after Kat leaves. I still enjoy the shower no matter when I get it, but the day doesn’t feel as clean as it does when the shower comes first. Sure, that’s totally a mental wall, but there’s no getting past it. If I want the day to really start clean, I have to put a shower at the very front.

Starting the day clean with a physical shower is one thing, but we have a need to start clean in other ways as well. With all the information overload we get, our minds and our thought patterns too quickly become cluttered with details and news and trivia we just don’t need. Sure, all those cat memes are cute, but they can get in our way. The more clutter, the more time we waste, the less productive we are, and ultimately, the less fulfilled and satisfied we feel.

How one choses to clean their mind of leftover clutter is a highly personal thing. Yoga and meditation is a preference for several friends. Friends more aligned with traditional religions spend time praying. I even know some people who rely on morning sex to get their mind clean and ready for the day.

For me, it’s music. Exactly what changes from day to day. Mozart happens frequently, but then so does my blues playlist. If everything has me a bit down, then old-school gospel does the trick. If I’m pissed at the world, classic rock at full volume is just the cleansing tonic I need. There’s been a lot of classic rock lately.

Everyone’s pattern, routine, and methodology is going to be unique. There is no one-size-fits-all solution for getting your day scrubbed and clean. I know plenty of people for whom clean is a literal thing and everything around them must be spotless. I’m not one of those people. I like my clutter organized, mind you, and I get anxious if the stacks start getting too tall. Still others can step over mounds of trash in the floor and not be bothered. I don’t understand either extreme, but I don’t need to understand anything beyond what works for me.

What’s important is recognizing that starting our day clean isn’t just a soap and water thing. Our minds and our spirits must be just as refreshed and rejuvinated as our bodies. If we overlook this simple matter, we eventually become overshelmed, depressed, and disturbed. We become ineffective, destructive, and unproductive. I firmly believe that much of our attitude toward other people come from the amount of garbage we hold from day to day. The nonsense and the clutter alters our perspective of people and situations, leading us down paths of thought we might not touch if we were thinking with clearer heads.

So, take some time, my dear friends, and clean up. Maybe take a shower. Go for a run. Have a quiet cup of coffee. Whatever works for you, do it now. Don’t let the day continue with yesterday’s grime. You deserve better. Start the day clean and enjoy it.

pop culture / PotD

#IShouldNotBeAllowed

January 11, 2016

#IShouldNotBeAllowed to restore paintings when I’m drunk —Charley Kaye (@charley_ck14)

Emery should not be allowed to make a snack of his mommy’s nose

There are a lot of interesting topics that get attention on social media. Most of them are pure nonsense; we leave them alone and roll our eyes when they show up in our feeds. There are details of one’s life that the rest of us really do not find interesting. #IShouldNotBeAllowed is an exception, however, because not only can I personally think of several things that I should never be allowed to do, I can also think of similar lists for every member of my family and several friends.

We all have those moments when we know damn good and well that we ought not to do something, but we go right ahead and do it anyway. Think of those times when you’ve gone just one drink past your limit, and then another, and another, and …. Or think of that time you thought drunk texting that person you just met would be really cute, and it wasn’t. I’m sure you could add to the list. I know I can, and am going to do so at the end of this paragraph. Before I do, though, be aware that if you want to join in the fun just navigate your way to https://twitter.com/hashtag/IShouldNotBeAllowed and enjoy. Now, here’s my list:

#IShouldNotBeAllowed

to drink more than five cups of coffee within a two-hour period of time; the world isn’t ready for me to be that hyper.
to edit when I’m angry; those pictures just never turn out quite right.
to play with small children when their parents aren’t looking; I will give them Oreo® Doublestuffs™ and then take pictures.
to “sample” the wine while cooking; dinner will be burned and there won’t be any wine left.
to “make myself at home” when there’s clearly no place to set 23 half-empty coffee cups.
to assist with any home repair involving electricity; there are some things homeowners insurance doesn’t cover.
to sleep in an upright position with my head back; no, that wasn’t an earthquake, it was me snoring.
to go out drinking with people half my age; the poor children can’t keep up without puking.
to light my pipe when I’m half asleep; there’s no repairing the burn holes in my pants—or your pants if you’re sitting too close.
to fly across the country within 46 hours of having eaten at Taco Bell®; flight attendants aren’t paid enough to deal with that.

I should take a break here and mention that not everything following the #IShouldNotBeAllowed hashtag needs to be serious. After all, there genuinely are things no one should be allowed to do. Ever. Let me just throw out a few things that come to mind that I shouldn’t do, and neither should you.

#IShouldNotBeAllowed

to believe everything I read on the Internet; we both know damn good and well most of it isn’t true.
to vote for someone who already has more money in the bank than the yearly budget of my home town; the rich only look out for the rich.
to brandish a weapon when there is no immediate threat nor cause; intimidation of any kind is being a bully and that’s not acceptable behavior.
to interfere with the personal rights of others even if I disagree with how they exercise those rights; everyone has a right to live as they see fit.
to let a belief system trump scientific concensus; believing an airplane can’t fly won’t keep a well-engineered craft on the ground.
to ignore or disregard expert opinion just because I disagree with it; ignorance doesn’t fit anyone well.
to disparage any person because of their race or national origin; there is no race, we are all the same species: human. We are one family.
to steal from the poor and the ignorant in the name of religion; the demons you fear are of your own making.
to demand my fair share when those around me have no share at all; greed is an ugly color and will be our downfall.
to let my fears determine how I respond to another person; I probably look just as scary and threatening to them.

We could probably go on all day with this sort of thing, but I’m fairly sure at least one of us has some actual work to get done. If you think of more, just hop on Twitter and add them. I’ll be watching for a while and can’t wait to see what you post. Be sure to tag me: @charlesletbette so I’ll see what you shouldn’t be allowed to do!

PotD

Word From A Higher Power

January 7, 2016

How you correct your mistakes will define your character and commitment to a higher power. — Shannon L. Alder

I’m noticing recently that there seems to be a surge in the number of people who claim to have a word from a higher power justifying what they do. Daesh claims their higher power orders them to rid the world of infidels. A group of silly old white men in Oregon claim their higher power told them to take over a bird sanctuary. A handful of televangelists are quite certain god told each of them to buy a private jet. What’s especially interesting is that at least two of the current candidates running for the office of President claim that their higher power told them to run, which might seem to be a conflict of interest on the part of the deity they share.

My late father, the preacher, was always wary when someone claimed to have a word from god, and in his line of work he encountered such statements rather often. People have, for ages, used the alleged command of their deity to justify their own action. After all, who has the authority to challenge the word of a god? There would seem to be no higher power. The fact that, in the greater majority of cases, that word was used as an excuse to exterminate, enslave, or otherwise harm large groups of people never seemed to bother anyone other than those who were being exterminated, enslaved, or harmed.

Poppa’s response was always to ask them how their “word” lined up with scripture because god wouldn’t contradict himself. More often than not, the conversation ended right there. The same applies across any religion. When one claims to have a word from a higher power, the first thing everyone else should do is compare that “word” with the teachings of that deity. Deities don’t have a great track record for changing their mind, and in the latter three cases mentioned above, one has to wonder exactly how the deity would be interested in the first place. I really wonder for whom god plans to vote in the primaries.

I make no claims toward being a theological scholar. While my religious training was rather extensive, there remain volumes that I don’t know, don’t really care to know, and have no need to know. Nonetheless, I can say with relative certainty that, regardless of what one’s spiritual leanings might be, none of the established deities across any of the world’s major religions are going to require someone to do any of the following:

Kill someone in cold blood
Start or participate in an unjustified war (and at this point they’re all unjustified)
Take something that is not yours
Any action that might put innocent lives in danger
Any action that makes the deity look stupid

Inversely, should a higher power decide that they simply have no other choice in all the universe than to speak privately, without the benefit of independent witnesses, to one select individual or group at the exclusion of that deity’s other followers, one can largely expect that such a declaration is going to fall somewhere within the following guidelines:

Love one another
Help people; ALL people
Give without expecting anything in return, even from the deity
Make peace with those who disagree with you
Hate no one

Across every major religion in the world, and most the minor ones, those tenets are universal. Every higher power has them, and considering how diverse some of the other teachings are, the commonality of those five things probably means that, more than anything else, those are the things we should be doing!

Of course, there are plenty of people who don’t believe any higher power exists and I can respect that point of view. What I find interesting, though, is that among the most devout atheist I have encountered, every last one of them lived according to those same five principles. They didn’t need a deity to tell them what was the right thing to do. Imagine that.

Every time I hear the words, “God told me …” I cannot help but roll my eyes and immediately discount anything that comes after. Believe what you want, but I am fairly certain that when one uses a higher power as a justification for their own actions and/or desires, they’re almost always making shit up. Religion isn’t a blank card for getting what you want.

And no, none of this has anything to do with today’s picture. I was gently reminded yesterday that I had yet to post a nude this year. We have now rectified that issue. Be sure, though, it was no deity that instructed me to do so.

Fashion

Dolce & Gabbana Produces New Arab Collection

January 6, 2016

The Arab World is writing a new future; the pen is in our own hands.—Abdallah II of Jordan

charles i. letbetter - dolce & gabbana go arab

Something tells me this look we created in 2011 wouldn’t quite meet with approval.

In a move that really isn’t all that terribly surprising, Italian designers Dolce & Gabbana introduce their first abaya collection on Style.com/Arabia yesterday, making them the first major Italian design house to directly embrace the growing Arab market. The label, which has focused heavily on themes involving family the past two seasons, has created a line of lightweight abayas and hijabs that invoke some of the themes from their spring/summer ready-to-wear line while maintaining the dress code required for public wear by many Muslim women.

Putting all politics aside, which one should do as often as possible, the Arab market is one the fashion industry as a whole, and the luxury labels in particular, have ignored far too long. There aren’t that many people still alive who remember when Arab fashion was every bit as strong and attractive as that of the West and Arab women have long been customers of luxury handbags and shoes. This is a vital piece of the market and it is growing.

Expect every other luxury house in Europe to be watching to see just how well this special collection sells. Even before matters in Syria and Saudi Arabia reached their current levels of tension, the Arab clothing market was growing. Thomas Reuters estimates that the Arab clothing market will reach somewhere around $484 billion by 2019. That prediction was based on pre-exodus numbers, though, and as millions of refugees flee to Western countries and begin to take up residence there, it is not unreasonable to expect that number to grow even higher. Whether the majority will retain traditional clothing or assimilate to Western fashion is anyone’s guess at this point, but many fled with only the clothes on their back so they will definitely be strong wardrobe consumers in the coming years.

Be aware, this isn’t the first time the Arab community has gotten some attention from a major designer. Tommy Hilfiger and Donna Karan (through her DKNY brand) have previously done capsule collections directed toward this market, as have a couple of other designers. What makes this important is that none of the previous brands have carried the weight or attention that Dolce & Gabbana do. The duo is a critical player in the whole Made in Italy campaign. Should Dolce & Gabbana do well with this Arab line, don’t be surprised if others such as Prada and possibly even Armani follow suit.

This is overdue. Fashion has ignored the Arab world for far too long and I’m idealistic enough to believe that the industry has the ability to mend some of the bridges that politicians so carelessly burn. The collection is quite attractive. We hope this goes very well and that others follow quickly.

PotD

Sunday Of Sanctity

January 3, 2016

My mother always kept library books in the house, and one rainy Sunday afternoon – this was before television, and we didn’t even have a radio – I picked up a book to look at the pictures and discovered I was reading and enjoying what I read.—Beverly Cleary

Growing up in the home of a Southern Baptist minister meant Sundays were anything but calm or quiet. There was a fairly precise schedule to the day: Up at 7, showers, dressed, breakfast, family devotions, all before 8:30 in the morning. There would be Sunday School, then church, then around 6 or so in the evening, depending on the time of year, Training Union, which became Church Training in the 70s, then evening services, then often a rather pointless choir rehearsal and sometimes a youth activity. The day was full.

What little “down time” there was on a Sunday came in that brief period after lunch (which Mother typically had prepared for dining as soon after the service as possible) and the snack that passed as dinner before heading out to church again. This time was for napping. Always. No excuses. Interruptions were frowned upon. Typically, Poppa would sit in his recliner, leaf through the local paper a bit, maybe turn on a football game that he wouldn’t watch, the fall sound asleep. Mother would go to their room and sleep while Squirt and I were given the instruction to, at the very least, stay quiet.

Such a respite only came on Sundays and was almost as sacred as the services on either end of the day. Poppa loathed allowing anyone to schedule anything on Sunday afternoon and on the rare occasion he was forced to do so one could be certain that his mood would not be as pleasant and accommodating as normal. Poppa’s take was that if God rested on Sunday, certainly he meant for us to take a couple of hours to do the same.

As I grew older and moved away from home, my Sunday habits changed. My view of church changed rather dramatically and Sunday became a day that was given to the very respite Poppa tried to squeeze into a couple of hours. I’d start with the Sunday edition of the New York Times, coming up for air and a coffee refill between articles. Brunch back then was less of a social gathering and more of a way to quiet the growing rumble in the stomach without actually admitting that half the day was already gone. I acquired my father’s habit of sitting in a recliner, turning on the football game, and promptly falling asleep. Sunday evenings were for a quiet dinner, maybe some cuddling, reading, or, more likely, laundry so we’d have something clean to wear the next morning.

Now, Sundays are more complicated, less quiet, and too often frustrating. There are too many people who can only shoot on Sundays. The local paper rarely holds any information I’ve not already seen online and even the long-form enticement of the Times isn’t as enjoyable as it once was. I do still hold to brunch because, damn it, I’m not cooking anything before 10:00 if it can be avoided. Laundry is still a must, and so is reading, but increasingly that reading is done through some form of digital media, whether the Kindle or this large-screened smartphone I carry.

The sanctity of Sunday is largely gone now. Kat is frequently at the salon, which means I’m stuck with the kids (or they’re stuck with me). Having time to read quietly means getting up about the same time the party people are getting home. I can make the kids wait for brunch, but they want lunch an hour later and a large snack an hour after that. Sunday afternoon nap? My body aches for one, especially after getting up so early, but the kids would likely burn down the house if I dozed for even a minute. Peace comes only after they’re in bed for the night and by that time I’m rather ready for bed myself.

I understand now, more than ever, the value of a quiet, thoughtful, Sunday. I’m hoping that as the children get older we can hand them a good book and not see them for a couple of hours, knowing they are being sufficiently entertained and, perhaps, even learning something. I can dream. I can hope. I have a library card and I’m not afraid to use it.

We need to allow ourselves downtime; just one day when we don’t intrude on others, nor they on us. May we have one day, please, that is a little more void of noise and a little more contemplative. We need time to re-asses our world, our place in it, and then get our shit together before tackling another week. Not allowing for some sanctity on Sunday is a fast trip to spending one’s vacation either in rehab or the mental health center, and there’s already a shortage of space at both.

Take some time. Breathe. Read. I’ll try to do the same, right after I fix brunch for these heathens.

Photography / PotD

Time To Say Goodbye

December 1, 2015

Unless one says goodbye to what one loves, and unless one travels to completely new territories, one can expect merely a long wearing away of oneself and an eventual extinction.—Jean Dubuffet

Today is my birthday. Unless something dramatically changes, which might not be a good thing, I’ll likely spend the bulk of the day alone. Weather will likely dictate whether I even try walking anywhere. Kat and the kids are at school. The kids will be home by mid-afternoon, fussy, tired, hungry, and destined for an early bedtime. Kat won’t be home until late, though, and I may already be in bed. In many ways, the day is inherently understated and that is not terribly inappropriate.

This feels like a good place to stop. We built this current site in a rush after the previous server totally crashed back in March. Changing hosts forced us into some design decisions we didn’t really have a chance to adequately test and now that we’ve been doing this for several months, we need to make some serious adjustments. There’s no way to do that with the site fully live.

Should you visit over the next month, and we certainly encourage you to do so, you may see things in the middle of transition; not all the links may work all the time and there may even be points where it’s all a giant jumble. When you’re likely to see the biggest change is after Christmas, when we start preparing to take the sight completely live.

You can probably say goodbye to the #POTD as we now know it. #POTD has been fun for the most part, but maddening at times. When we started, I thought I’d just pull pictures from the archives, no big deal. What we quickly discovered is that some of our oldest pictures needed some help to be appropriate for the newer high-resolution monitors everyone is using now. Fixing those images morphed into using special effects and completely re-processing the majority, which was a lot of extra work. IF we continue the #POTD, it will have to be in a different vein that is considerably less effort.

At the same time, I want to leave room to expand our creativity. I’m not sure what all that may entail or how it might be presented, but there almost certainly will be new things on the site next year that we’ve not seen before.

So, with this post, we say goodbye for the remainder of 2015. Thank you for joining us on this adventure. To show our appreciation, here’s a quick review of some of our favorite images from the past few months.

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PotD / Social Commentary

Grumpy Old Man

November 16, 2015

Am I grumpy? I might be. But I think maybe sometimes it’s misinterpreted.—Harrison Ford

[one_half padding=”4px 10px 0 4px”]I don’t think of myself as a smoker. I don’t like cigarettes at all; can’t stand the damn things. I light my pipe when the situation around me is frustrating and I need to detach and focus on something that doesn’t involve sending my blood pressure further into the stratosphere. Surprisingly, the need to do so doesn’t occur as often as one might think. And yeah, I know it’s better to use a match than a lighter, but hey, expediency was important, not the quality of the smoke. If you’re going to bitch at me, go away. I’m grumpy.

It was determined long ago, before I was even 30, that I would eventually become a Grumpy Old Man. How that was evident at such a young age, I don’t know. Perhaps I’ve always been fussy. I do know that I’ve always had a short fuse and very little tolerance for stupidity, which seems to have grown dramatically. In fact, I’m willing to bet that the world’s overly abundant ignorance is another contributing factor to my blood pressure issues. The universe should be paying for my medicine. Grumpy Old Man status has been achieved and the morons of the world, all seven billion of them, are to blame.

What I wouldn’t have guessed some 30 years ago is that there would be so very much Grumpy Old Man fodder; it’s everywhere. Let’s start with the idiots in the neighborhood who apparently don’t recognize a stop sign when they see it. The signs for the all-way stop are not hidden behind trees or difficult to see from a distance. No, the people running them are just completely selfish assholes who don’t give a damn about anyone’s safety, including their own. I may have been seen standing out in the street yelling at them more than once, hoping their cars blow up. Why? Because I’m a Grumpy Old Man.[/one_half]

[one_half_last padding=”4px 4px 0 10px”]I was recently complaining about the fools running the stop signs and someone referenced the character of Mr. Wilson from Hank Ketcham’s cartoon, Dennis the Menace. I can support that comparison. Mr. Wilson was someone who just wanted some peace and quiet in his retirement years, and low-and-behold the Mitchells move in next door and give birth to one of the brattiest little kids to ever don a pair of overalls and carry a slingshot. Understand, Dennis wasn’t even old enough for school. Why the hell did the kid have a slingshot? I can totally understand Mr. Wilson’s frequent frustration.

The world needs grumpy old men. If it weren’t for us, the rest of the world would be grabbing another beer and continually shouting, “Hey, watch this!” How do you think terrorist groups are formed? There obviously were no grumpy old men around to slap the insolent jackasses upside the head when they first suggested killing large numbers of people for the attention. What were they thinking, that the collective peoples of the world would just say, “Oh, you poor thing, here, have a cookie?” No, the world responds by blowing the fucking morons to smithereens. Asswipes.

I am quite content to take on the Grumpy Old Man role; I’m settling into it and it feels as comfortable as an old sweater. At some point, I’m going to need a larger front porch on which I can set a rocking chair so that the visual impact of the role is complete. I’m also going to need a dog that growls at anyone smelling of fancy men’s perfume. Being a Grumpy Old Man is my right, my destiny, and I happily embrace this important social position. Now, hand me my pipe and stay the fuck off my lawn! [/one_half_last]

Art / PotD / Social Commentary

Love, Everyone

October 3, 2015

Welcome Home (2013)

Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.—Buddha

[one_half padding=”4px 10px 0 4px”]What’s wrong with people? I look through the news this morning and all I see is hate. Republicans hate democrats. This religion hates that religion and both hate anyone who disagrees with them. White hates black, black hates white, and they both hate brown. If I were to do a quick, informal estimation, which is exactly what I’m doing right this moment, I would say that roughly 80% of what has been tossed at me this morning ultimately contains a hateful message. Where is the love? Where is the empathy? Where is any attempt at actually wanting to get along with other people.

Here’s the great paradox of the 21st century: we’re willing to spend billions of dollars (collectively) looking for love, trying to find love, improving ourselves so that we’re more lovable, but we don’t do a damn thing toward actually loving other people. We are as selfish about love as we are everything else in our lives. We want it all to come to us, knock on our door, overwhelm us with emotional goodies, and reaffirm our sense of how valuable we are to the world. We define love not as something we feel toward other people, but by the quantity of warm fuzzies other people give to us.

In other words: we don’t have a fucking clue. For all the talk about love, we fail to realize that love is an act of giving, not an act of receiving. Love is not something that happens to you, but something you distribute to others. Love is not doing something based on what you feel, but what you feel based on what you’ve done. Love is active, not passive. Love is not something to be found, but something we create, from the center of our being, so that we might give it to someone else. Love is not narrowly limited to a familial relationship, but an over-arching sense of inclusiveness and responsibility to the greater good of humanity.

Love holds no bias, nor fear, but includes everyone.[/one_half]

[one_half_last padding=”4px 4px 0 10px”]So, we are, and have been for a while, at this point in the United States where we have had more mass shootings (where more than four people are shot), than there have been days in the year. We foolishly ask why this keeps happening. Some want bans on weapons. Some want tighter control on those with diagnosed mental disorders. Some want everything locked down and stored in a box where no one can get to it. None of those are solutions. We cannot solve with legislation what was not caused by government in the first place. There is only one reason we keep shooting ourselves: we’ve forgotten how to love.

It was a mere 45-50 years ago that we, my generation and those just older than us, were all about peace, and love, and happiness. We were sure that we could change the world with love, and ultimately we were correct, but we didn’t see it in the way we thought we would see it. We thought love would give us things, take away responsibility, make life more relaxed. What we failed to realize is that love creates responsibility and when we fail that responsibility, we fail love. Love doesn’t just chug along like a toy train circling the Christmas tree. Love requires maintenance, effort, and a completely selfless attitude.

Where is the American society failing? Don’t blame government, Republican orDemocrat. Don’t blame religions, present or absent. Don’t blame race or economics. Blame the total and complete absence of love. We’ve stopped loving, we’ve stopped teaching our children to love, and we’ve stopped letting love be the guide by which we live our lives. In a world where we’ve all but thrown love out the window, is it any wonder that society has gone to hell in a handbasket?

Love, everyone. You won’t learn how until you try.[/one_half_last]

religion

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful. —Lucius Annaeus Seneca

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Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit. —Mahatma Gandhi

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The makeup is simply an extension of the personality and colors, clothing, makeup all express something. —Gene Simmons

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When you accept a picture of the deity assigned to you by another people, you become the spiritual prisoners of that other people. —John Henrik Clarke

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Yeah, it turns out that guys don’t like deals on laser hair removal or pole dancing lessons. —Andrew Mason

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Group conformity scares the pants off me because it’s so often a prelude to cruelty towards anyone who doesn’t want to – or can’t – join the Big Parade. —Bette Midler

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A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.—Brutus, Julius Caesar Act 1, scene 2, 15–19

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It is only the savage, whether of the African bush or of the American gospel tent, who pretends to know the will and intent of God exactly and completely. —Henry Louis Mencken

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Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company. —Mark Twain

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We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others. —Will Rogers

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The probability of apocalypse soon cannot be realistically estimated, but it is surely too high for any sane person to contemplate with equanimity. —Noam Chomsky

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If I die a violent death, as some fear and a few are plotting, I know that the violence will be in the thought and the action of the assassins, not in my dying.—Indira Gandhi

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I don’t enjoy any kind of danger or volatility. I don’t have that kind of ‘I love the bad guys’ thing. No, no thank you. I like nice people.—Tina Fey

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You have to show violence the way it is. If you don’t show it realistically, then that’s immoral and harmful. If you don’t upset people, then that’s obscenity.—Roman Polanski

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Even with all our technology and the inventions that make modern life so much easier than it once was, it takes just one big natural disaster to wipe all that away and remind us that, here on Earth, we’re still at the mercy of nature.—Neil deGrasse Tyson

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It seems that whatever we do is somehow beyond reproach – murder, rape, drunk driving – as long as we go on a TV show and apologize.— Eric Stoltz

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I have never taken any exercise, except sleeping and resting, and I never intend to take any.—Mark Twain

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I love the big fresh starts, the clean slates like birthdays and new years, but I also really like the idea that we can get up every morning and start over.—Kristin Armstrong

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#IShouldNotBeAllowed to restore paintings when I’m drunk —Charley Kaye (@charley_ck14)

#IShouldNotBeAllowed

#IShouldNotBeAllowed

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How you correct your mistakes will define your character and commitment to a higher power. — Shannon L. Alder

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The Arab World is writing a new future; the pen is in our own hands.—Abdallah II of Jordan

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My mother always kept library books in the house, and one rainy Sunday afternoon – this was before television, and we didn’t even have a radio – I picked up a book to look at the pictures and discovered I was reading and enjoying what I read.—Beverly Cleary

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Unless one says goodbye to what one loves, and unless one travels to completely new territories, one can expect merely a long wearing away of oneself and an eventual extinction.—Jean Dubuffet

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Am I grumpy? I might be. But I think maybe sometimes it’s misinterpreted.—Harrison Ford

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Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule.—Buddha

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