Daniel Baldwin as Alec Baldwin as Jack Donaghy

I sat down to write about Christmas With a Capital C, the anti-atheist Christmas movie from a bazillion years ago, but I didn’t get through 10 minutes of the movie before I turned it off. It wasn’t because of the politics. It wasn’t because of the bad acting or script (but surprisingly high production values). It was because of poor Daniel Baldwin. He spends the entire movie DESPERATELY trying to be his brother, Alec Baldwin. Specifically, Alec Baldwin’s character Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock. But without the jokes. Or the charm. Or the chin.

It would be like watching one of Steven Colbert’s siblings do an impression of the Colbert Report for Christian Broadcasting Network. After the initial laugh, you realize this guy is only getting work because he looks like his brother’s famous character. His whole life is completely overshadowed by his brothers work. It’s just depressing. I can’t watch.

Instead, I thought I’d talk a little bit about the Mayan Apocalypse, Native American Shamanism and cultural appropriation. There’s a really great short film called “White Shamans, Plastic Medicine Men” done by a Native American tribe in the 1990′s. It’s not strictly debunkery, but the documentary goes into why white “shamans” are full of crap. I’ll give you a minute to watch a bit.

White Shamans Plastic Medicine Men

Traditional Mongolia and Padme. They copied it down to the dots on the face.

A LOT of “woo” borrow symbols and ceremonies from other cultures. From “Asian” medicine to “African” voodoo. They think it lends legitimacy to their woo. (Sort of like how having the discount Baldwin might lend legitimacy to your movie) Often, the woo practitioners will turn around and pretend that their Frankenstein woo is exactly the same as the symbols and ceremonies from the other culture. (Sort of like how the discount Baldwin is only worth something if he pretends to be the famous, sexy Baldwin) This is called “cultural appropriation.” That’s when you cherry-pick the things you like from another culture, suck them dry of their original meaning, and take the remaining husks for your own use. Is it bad? Not always. After all, cultural appropriation from Mongolia is where we got Princess Amadala’s costumes in Star Wars Episode 1. And it won awards.

Maybe that’s a bad example.

Anyway, it puts me in mind of the Mayan Apocalypse hype. Everyone and their mother was posting something or other mocking those silly ancient Mayans. Because IF THE MAYANS WERE SO PSYCHIC THEN WHY DIDN’T THEY PREDICT THE SPANISH INQUISITON (har-har). But Mayans are still alive and kicking. Those Mayans are kinda pissed that the rest of the world is mocking them over doomsday fanaticism that has nothing to do with the real Mayan calendar was basically created by Coast to Coast AM and this jerk. Take a gander at his amazon page. Notice anything… shaman-y?

Did you know that the Guatemalan government used the day to promote tourism and hired a bunch of non-Mayan models to perform sham rituals at the Mayan temple? Cultural appropriation is for everyone!

Anyway, my point here is that sometimes we’re barking up the wrong tree. The Mayan Apocalypse wasn’t Mayan at all. It was 100% New Age babbling. If we’d picked apart Coast to Coast AM for promoting vaguely racist theories about the end of the world (the theories basically boil down to: I took a lot of drugs and realized dark-skinned people were too primitive to have built the pyramids – it must have been aliens/quantum consciousness! And the drugs said they’re trying to warn us!), we’d had saved a HUGE amount of trouble.

But hindsight is 20/20. Give the documentary a watch. It’s good stuff.

Howard Friedman over at Religion Clause   reports the Jamaican government has banned preaching on Government buses:

… the government operated transit system has banned the practice of preaching to captive audiences on buses after complaints from some passengers.  Both AP and Jamaica Gleaner report that a directive has been given to drivers to politely tell preachers that they must stop their evangelizing.  Blind lay preacher Robert Lawson argues that the new order infringes his freedom of speech and religion.

Now, if we could get Lawson to learn the guitar and play Blues that might be good—on the streets that is but not on a bus.

How many times have you been captive somewhere and had to listen to some inane idiot telling you to find Christ or go to hell, uhhh, I mean go to to heaven through Christ, or any other drivel for that matter?

The difference in free speech here, is the riders are captive. They can’t get off the bus. He can spew whatever on the street as people can gather or run away. Free speech doesn’t mean you can say whatever you want whenever you want. Thank goodness!

If science is religion, scientists shouldn’t be taxed. In another case Friedman reports evidence of religious beliefs may negate intent to distribute marijuana:

…defendant, who was charged with conspiracy to manufacture and possess with intent to distribute over 100 marijuana plants, sought a continuance in order to secure the testimony of an expert on the Rastafarian religion.  A Hawaii federal district court denied the motion insofar as it related to a defense under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act because the government advanced a sufficiently compelling interest to overcome a RFRA defense. However the court granted the motion to allow the defendant to “introduce evidence of his Rastafarian beliefs, including the expert testimony …, in order to negate the Government’s evidence of his intent to distribute.”

For years, we science-based secularists have been told we are religious and that science is “just” another religion. Maybe we should go with this. If science were a religion, in the way of civil protection we could insist that abortion, evolution education, stem cell use, global warming, medical marijuana, medical hallucinogens, dancing on Sundays (depression therapy), sodomy (oxytocin release for pair bonding), and a host of other practices were valid and legal expressions of our religion, science.

All institutes of science would be tax free as would the homes, vacation homes (only occasional use of science is required), and any other material related to the use of science. Indeed, employees of scientists could avoid labor laws if they practice in some way the science of the institute, or even work in science buildings.

But back to Rasta. Rastafarianism is a rather tenuous religion but without doubt a culture from the belly of the beast, the impoverished streets of Caribbean communities composed of displaced African slaves made Christian. From Wikipedia:

The Rastafari movement encompasses themes such as the spiritual use of cannabis[5][6] and the rejection of western society, called Babylon (from the metaphorical Babylon of the Christian New Testament). It proclaims Africa (also “Zion“) as the original birthplace of mankind, and from the beginning of the movement the call to repatriation to Africa for the descendants of those slaves forced into exile in the West by the Atlantic slave trade has been a central theme.[7] Rasta also embraces various Afrocentric and Pan-African social and political aspirations,[5][8] such as the sociopolitical views and teachings of Jamaican publicist, organizer, and black nationalist Marcus Garvey (also often regarded as a prophet). Another theme is Royalty, with Rastas seeing themselves as African royalty and using honorifics such as Prince or King in order to give royalty to their names.

It arose in the 1930s in Jamaica, a country with a predominantly Christian culture where 98% of the people were the black African descendants of slaves.[1][2] Its adherents worship Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia (ruled 1930–1974), as Jesus incarnate, the Second Advent, or the reincarnation of Jesus.

I’m saying if Rasta’s can call themselves kings and prophets, great secularists are kings and prophets too, of the most holy religion science. Truth is sacrament. Honesty the Holy Spirit. Integrity the Virgin Birth. Compassion is the way to Well Being, our final resting place.

This news is good timing as I have been building bookcases, countertops, captain’s beds, and a host of other carpentry jobs in a dark and poorly heated ancient, slave, dirt-and-brick floored basement kitchen of the 1800’s. Needing something new for music I revisited Roots Reggae of albums long ago garage saled so we could move onto a boat. Stealing money from better food and utilities,  I nurture myself with itunes downloads. Who says I don’t listen to religious music!

Here are some old roots reggae songs I got to find again.

Pressure Drop by Toots and Maytals:

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner by Black Uhuru:

Steppin Out by Steel Pulse

Night Nurse by Gregory Isaacs

A more modern Roots song with Peter Tosh and Sly and Robby, Reggae Mylitis:

Three Little Birds by the King and Prophet Bob Marley:

The great Jimmy Cliff and his anthem You Can Get it If You Really Want:

Blue Riddim band is American (Kansas City, Missouri) and the first white American band to play at Sunsplash in 1982. Here’s Nancy Reagen.

Well Reggae is about the only positivity music I can stand—though my teen’s pop standards are infectiously catchy, like Hydrocodone. Hell of a lot better than that horrid piece by Handel, the Hallelujah Chorus. I burned out on classical decades ago, listening to piano practice four hours a day for years on end—well, now, Chopin, Debussy, and Ravel, that’s different.

Jim Newman, bright and well

www.frontiersofreason.com

Post by Jim Newman

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I sing for Malala, the girl who would be free.
Voices of the future will ring with her praise.
Women everywhere will give her great thanks.
Men too will seek her sisters without rest.
No better partner than one who is equal.

For Malala said no to fear.
To terror she gazed.
To horror she rode.
No woman should cower to learn: Let all people be educated.

The school bus they stopped, two tall angry men.
“Malala, Malala” they cried waving their rifles abreast.
By the side of the bus, the man he strode, his weapon quite poised.
Malala stood up, to save her friends, so dear.
The shots rang out, Malala was dead.

No, she was not. With great courage she lived.
The extremists, they swore, fidelity to the core.
They would destroy her still, and all of her kind.
To women’s faces, acid they threw.
Trusting these girls, reviled would they be, forever despised.

The acid faces rose again, with great pride, and full honor
these badges of courage, these medals of fire.
The men came forth. Women cheered on. Flowers they threw.
“We will partner with women. We will hold them quite close.
For Malala made great sacrifice, all should be free.”
These women became leaders, sought eagerly with earnest.
They wore jagged scars with courage and strength.

The cowardly ones. Those less than dogs, rabid and ill,
skulked in their caves, cursed the gods they abandoned.
The people arose, love in their hearts, “let all be educated.
Let no woman be chained in her mind.
Let no woman be ignorant, enslaved to blind might.”
The beauty of her words rang through to the world.

The worst of Islam came forth from the dark.
They saw the bright light of choosing equality.
They submitted their chains to Mohammed’s young wife, Aisha, who broke them asunder.
Better to love this great gift of her wisdom.
Than have it oppressed with the butt of a gun.
Better to desire the best, than fear heavenly lies.

I sing for Malala and all of them still.
The heroes, the saints, the godliest souls.

Jim Newman, bright and well

www.frontiersofreason.com

via the wiki.  Thought you might like some Hitch today.

…if I was told to do what all monotheists are told to do and admire the man who said, “Yes, I’ll gut my kid to show my love of God,” I’d say, “No. Fuck you.”

Religion ends and philosophy begins, just as alchemy ends and chemistry begins and astrology ends, and astronomy begins.

Mockery of religion is one of the most essential things… one of the beginnings of human emancipation is the ability to laugh at authority.

If you gave Falwell an enema, he could be buried in a matchbox.

Religious exhortation and telling people, telling children, that if they don’t do the right thing, they’ll go to terrifying punishments or unbelievable rewards, that’s making a living out of lying to children. That’s what the priesthood do. And if all they did was lie to the children, it would be bad enough. But they rape them and torture them and then hope we’ll call it ‘abuse’.

This may be my favorite, I use it often when debating with theists.

Name me an ethical statement made or an action performed by a believer that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer.

Post by Jim Newman

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Check out the article about Adele in the UK daily and then go on to the Vogue interview. Once you get over Vogue messing with her image, she is as interesting as her voice is hypnotic.

She is taking time off and rather than some vague love of transcendence she clearly states:

‘I am f***ing off for four or five years. If I am constantly working, my relationships fail.

‘So at least now I can have enough time to write a happy record. And be in love and be happy.

Instead of saying something like being wholesome:

‘And then I don’t know what I’ll do. Get married. Have some kids. Plant a nice vegetable patch.’

She sounds real:

“Adele got more than just her voice back—she got her life back. From the minute her career took off in 2008, she had been moving at warp speed. “It was so fast-paced, I could hardly ever even remember the bulk of my day,” she says. But then everything came to a halt, and she got her bearings. “I think I just needed to be silenced. And when you are silent, everyone else around you is silent. So the noise in my life just stopped. It was like I was floating in the sea for three weeks. It was brilliant. It was my body telling me to fix me. I had so much time to kind of go over things and get over things, which is amazing. I think if I hadn’t had my voice trouble, I would never have broached those subjects with myself. Now I just feel really at peace. And really proud of myself. I’ve never fully appreciated the things that I’ve achieved until now. In fact, my entire life has changed in the last ten weeks. I’ve never been so happy, and I love it.”

You don’t have to be a philosopher to be a poet. You don’t have to be a genius to have something to say. You can speak truthfully and deeply from any view.

 “I have no idea where it comes from. I don’t read literature. I don’t have a very big capacity for language and words. I’m quite limited when it comes to just chatting. But my head comes alive when I’m writing music, and I start using words and describing emotions I had no idea existed in me.” She stares at me with those big green eyes. “In person, I can never talk about my feelings either. If you were my fellow and we were having a serious conversation, I’d be laughing. Or just crying. I can never be articulate with how something is making me feel. I can never find the words.”

Life is a journey and sometimes the road trip counts more than the stage stops. Good luck Adele!

 “I want to evolve as an artist. There’s so much music I don’t know about yet. I want to go on the road with my friends who are artists. I want to go and see things as a fan again. I am a fan, but I can’t remember what it feels like to be a fan anymore. Because I’ve become an artist. I’ve become the artist.”

Jim Newman, bright and well

www.brightpride.com  and www.frontiersofreason.com