Ugggggz. Have to write this all over again...
My thoughts are very fluid. I let them flow where they want. I don't put up dams to block them from going down certain lines of thought because how boring would our thought-life be if we only travelled down paths we deemed "acceptable" and left the uncharted to mystery? So here were my thoughts this morning (before blogspot erased them all and I had to re-write them... What happened to auto-save? You b*tch...) :
Last night I saw the movie Xmen First Class. It was good. I found out how The Beast, or Fluffy as I like to call him, came into existence. That cameo with Hugh Jackman as Wolverine was classic. And it was interesting to find out how Xavier and Magneto met. Issues I had with the movie: Echo Boy? He can self-propel himself to fly hundreds of feet in the air by pushing against the ground with his sonic waves of sound....O.K.... and Butterfly Girl? She spews little balls of fire like Spyro. Yah... And the inconsistencies between this film and the previous Xmen films made it more confusing than Lost.
But the thing that troubled me the most was that the comic books were written to include actual historical events. I know the writers wanted to show what history would have been like if the mutant evolution occurred in the context of reality; but something about using something like The Holocaust as a setting for the beginning of a series about people with superhuman powers fighting each other just seems wrong.
A a Jewish boy, later named Magneto, who has the power to bend metal, was corrupted by a Nazi who had the power to absorb energy and wield it against people.
At some point my thoughts shifted and I began wondering what I would blog about this morning. I recently uploaded a whole bunch of essays and papers I wrote in college and high school. I was thinking of just going to that archive and using one. Then Ben Stein popped in my head. There was something he once wrote that I had archived that seemed pretty relevant. Technically he was speaking more towards religious acceptance and the skewed media, but then I thought: Ben Stein mentions being Jewish in that writing. This is why I'm against people killing people for almost any reason. Hitler would have killed Einstein and Ben Stein and then how great a loss would we have suffered as a people? All because of prejudice and ignorance and hate. Anyway, I'm posting what Ben Stein wrote. Gots to love that guy.
Ben Stein Commentary
If they know of him at all, many folks think Ben Stein is just
a quirky actor/comedian who talks in a monotone. He's also a very
intelligent attorney who knows how to put ideas and words together in
such a way as to sway juries and make people think clearly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on
CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.
Here with a few confessions from my beating heart: I have no
freaking clue who Nick and Jessica are. I see them on the cover of
People and Us constantly when I am buying my dog biscuits and kitty
litter. I often ask the checkers at the grocery stores. They never
know who Nick and Jessica are either. Who are they? Will it change
my life if I know who they are and why they have broken up? Why
are they so important?
I don't know who Lindsay Lohan is either, and I do not care at
all about Tom Cruise's wife.
Am I going to be called before a Senate committee and asked if
I am a subversive? Maybe, but I just have no clue who Nick and Jessica
are.
If this is what it means to be no longer young. It's not so bad.
Next confession:
I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish.
And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those
beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees "Christmas trees". I don't feel
threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are:
"Christmas trees".
It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas"
to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me
in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all
brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't
bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key
intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche,
it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't
think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I
think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed
around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America
is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution,
and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from
that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to
worship God as we understand Him?
I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too.
But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and
Jessica came from and where the America we knew, went to.
In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh,
this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not
funny, it's intended to get you thinking.
Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and
Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this Happen?"
(regarding Katrina).
Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.
She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are,
but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get
out of our government and to get out of our lives.
And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed
out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection
if we demand He leave us alone?" (She said the same thing when interviewed after 9-11).
In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.
I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her
body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools,
and we said OK.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The
Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your
neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children
when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped
and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed
suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we
said OK
Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience,
why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to
kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can
figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE
SOW."
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder
why the world's going to hell.
Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what
the Bible says.
Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread
like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord,
people think twice about sharing.
Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely
through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the
school and workplace.
Are you laughing?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it
to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe,
or what they will think of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think
of us than what God thinks of us.
Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not, then just discard
it... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought
process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is
in.
My Best Regards .. honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein
Yeah. We need to hang out soon.
ReplyDelete12
Yah we do.
ReplyDelete