Tim Tebow: Interracial hot-dog crybaby man kisser Quarterback extraordinaire. Still better than a 2 time accused rapist from Ohio.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Sinterklaas is coming to Amsterdam.
It has certainly been a while. So I figured if I start finding time to do this again i would come back with a post with a holiday oriented theme. Even though this particular holiday bears similarity to North America's Christmas; it actually starts much earlier and officially wraps up December 6th.
On that note, I offer you a brief education in one of the strangest Christmas characters currently under employ. He goes by the name of Sinterklaas and is celebrated in areas in and around Norther France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The stranger thing accompanying Mister Sinter. are his apparent black slaves called zwarte piets.
He traditionally arrives with his "entourage" on the shores of the Netherlands riding steamboat. This happens around the middle of November; after he has picked up his load of Oranges and Pomegranates from Spain. However fruit on a boat with a parade through the streets and slaves offering up tasty sweet Spanish fruit isn just the beginning.
Children in a predictable bid to curry favor with the aforementioned Saint. leave their shoes next to the fireplace or in today's modernized world, heating units. Now I know you're guessing that the shoes instead of socks by the fire is the big twist in the tradition; if you did you were wrong. The children are the ones that fill them first; with carrots and or hay for Sinterklaas. I imagine this is a carry over from the original belief that Sinterklaas rode a horse across the rooftops as opposed to steam ship.
After looting the booty from the kids shoes; Sinter. leaves behind candies, pastries and fruits.
Apparently as odd as these characters are; it's possibly the basis for our very own Santa Claus. The resemblances are there but thankfully sometime in New York it's said, he was reinvented; and thankfully so.
On that note, I offer you a brief education in one of the strangest Christmas characters currently under employ. He goes by the name of Sinterklaas and is celebrated in areas in and around Norther France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The stranger thing accompanying Mister Sinter. are his apparent black slaves called zwarte piets.
With Santa Pope, I'm not sure if Tithing can save you.
Trusted yet grossly misunderstood helper slave Zwarte Piet.
He traditionally arrives with his "entourage" on the shores of the Netherlands riding steamboat. This happens around the middle of November; after he has picked up his load of Oranges and Pomegranates from Spain. However fruit on a boat with a parade through the streets and slaves offering up tasty sweet Spanish fruit isn just the beginning.
Children in a predictable bid to curry favor with the aforementioned Saint. leave their shoes next to the fireplace or in today's modernized world, heating units. Now I know you're guessing that the shoes instead of socks by the fire is the big twist in the tradition; if you did you were wrong. The children are the ones that fill them first; with carrots and or hay for Sinterklaas. I imagine this is a carry over from the original belief that Sinterklaas rode a horse across the rooftops as opposed to steam ship.
After looting the booty from the kids shoes; Sinter. leaves behind candies, pastries and fruits.
Apparently as odd as these characters are; it's possibly the basis for our very own Santa Claus. The resemblances are there but thankfully sometime in New York it's said, he was reinvented; and thankfully so.
Ho Ho Ho! Sinterklaas has run aground!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
The Royal Wedding...-_-
Tomorrow, while you're watching a wedding between two people you don't know and never will meet. Know that there's a shuttle launch going on too; the second to last for the shuttles, holding a payload 16 years in development and worth $2 BILLION dollars; the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. So enjoy watching your soap opera while true advancements in humanity go on behind your back.
Even though it sounds like I don't understand why people want a little distraction in their life, I do. I just fail to understand when something so impressive and important at the same time gets the shaft to something that fails 50% of the time and happens everyday.
Here's a link
Even though it sounds like I don't understand why people want a little distraction in their life, I do. I just fail to understand when something so impressive and important at the same time gets the shaft to something that fails 50% of the time and happens everyday.
Here's a link
Friday, April 22, 2011
Free Speech
What a sad day for the first Amendment.
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/jury-to-decide-on-pastor-terry-jones%27-planned-mosque-protest-20110422-mr
http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/jury-to-decide-on-pastor-terry-jones%27-planned-mosque-protest-20110422-mr
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Happy New Year. Watch what you read or in this case cannot.
People fighting to censor Mark Twain are unaware and misinformed. The point of reading is to become awakened and made aware of the greater world at large. Especially from someone with Twain's talent. Changing the word "Nigger" to "Slave" as well as the others; "Injun Joe" to "Indian Joe" and "Half-Breed" to "Half-Blood" only weakens the experiences and lessons the books drive home to the reader.
http://www.clickondetroit.com/entertainment/26370244/detail.html
It's amazing and worrisome just how easily history can be altered to meet the comfort level of the present. "I'd rather be ignorant and comfortable than to be aware and answer for life's responsibilites." Should be the mantra for those in rally for censorship. It really makes me perturbed.
http://www.clickondetroit.com/entertainment/26370244/detail.html
It's amazing and worrisome just how easily history can be altered to meet the comfort level of the present. "I'd rather be ignorant and comfortable than to be aware and answer for life's responsibilites." Should be the mantra for those in rally for censorship. It really makes me perturbed.
Monday, December 20, 2010
I'll be fighting in Vietnam for Christmas
On December 20th 1967 there were 474,300 US soldiers in Vietnam. Nearly half a million of our own flesh and blood. The number is so large I can hardly imagine the scale. In High School I felt cramped when 30 people were in the same class. Tougher to imagine still are the conditions.
Take one example: Agent Orange; a potent herbicide used to devestate and make worthless agricultural land. All in order to put a real damper on the N. Vietnamese army's food supply. Makes enough sense logically. It's a lovely modern equavelent to cutting off Hitler's fuel lines in the Battle of the Bulge. The after effects however is where the Devil lies.
"Agent Orange Overview: Approximately 20 million gallons of herbicides were used in Vietnam between 1962 and 1971"
http://www.vawatchdog.org/agentorange.htm
We exposed not only exposed tens of thousands of our troops to a harsh chemical linked to an insane myriad of birth defects and adult diseases. The domestic populations as well as the enemy all faced the same sword of damocles. Similiar to the short sightedness of the Nuclear Bomb. Where scientists had their mind set that the blast itself would be the most dangerous effect of the bomb. Not till after they saw the carnage of Radiation poisoning did they realise they were quite a ways off.
Herbicide being sprayd from a Huey:
Before
Looking back on recent history that was still before my time brings to bear some perspective. People seem just as incenced now about the soldiers who have died and the crimes and confusion that typically follow warfare as they did then. Despite the level of calamity being so greatly reduced. Veterans who suffer still suffer alone and largely ignored. They make up a large portion of the homeless and have diseases the Government often times won't even officially recognize.
In my opinion it shows to some degree the homogenization of raw violence has lead to a lesser appetite for it in the real world. However the suffering of the warrior after battle is not a great concern nationally. Even if you travel back in history the wars become bloodier than the last. The more blood there was the more support it typically had. Also the more wounded died during treatments-ailments ignored completely or survived to lead disfigured and scared lives. Perhaps people are unwilling to support a bloodless war. That after war is engaged apon that which spurs it on is the very act itself. Continue the war for the sake of the fallen in that very same war. The war hero returns home only to be considered a relic of a conflict people now wish to forget.
It's an idle idea I had and takes no real regard for politics or things of importance in that arena; such as the Pentagon Papers, who's President and who was hitting Hippies with night sticks.
I just felt that this close to the Holiday Season; a season in which people still have sons and daughters fighting for each other and themselves in a far off land. That everyone should take a moment and reflect on the past so we don't head blindly into the future. Ignoring History and its' important nuances only helps aids in repeating it.
History class might have been boring for you. But how boring is it when it's actually being made?....again.
Take one example: Agent Orange; a potent herbicide used to devestate and make worthless agricultural land. All in order to put a real damper on the N. Vietnamese army's food supply. Makes enough sense logically. It's a lovely modern equavelent to cutting off Hitler's fuel lines in the Battle of the Bulge. The after effects however is where the Devil lies.
"Agent Orange Overview: Approximately 20 million gallons of herbicides were used in Vietnam between 1962 and 1971"
http://www.vawatchdog.org/agentorange.htm
We exposed not only exposed tens of thousands of our troops to a harsh chemical linked to an insane myriad of birth defects and adult diseases. The domestic populations as well as the enemy all faced the same sword of damocles. Similiar to the short sightedness of the Nuclear Bomb. Where scientists had their mind set that the blast itself would be the most dangerous effect of the bomb. Not till after they saw the carnage of Radiation poisoning did they realise they were quite a ways off.
Herbicide being sprayd from a Huey:
Before
After
Major Tu Duc Phang (from Khanh Hoa Province), looking at his portrait taken before he joined the Vietnamese army. In 1973, he fought at the southern battlefield and participated in saving the weapon store in Nha Trang (Khanh Hoa). Twelve years later, Phang saw large, black and red spots and water bubbles appearing on his body and all his hair had fallen out, which was caused by exposure to dioxin-contaminated Agent Orange
In my opinion it shows to some degree the homogenization of raw violence has lead to a lesser appetite for it in the real world. However the suffering of the warrior after battle is not a great concern nationally. Even if you travel back in history the wars become bloodier than the last. The more blood there was the more support it typically had. Also the more wounded died during treatments-ailments ignored completely or survived to lead disfigured and scared lives. Perhaps people are unwilling to support a bloodless war. That after war is engaged apon that which spurs it on is the very act itself. Continue the war for the sake of the fallen in that very same war. The war hero returns home only to be considered a relic of a conflict people now wish to forget.
It's an idle idea I had and takes no real regard for politics or things of importance in that arena; such as the Pentagon Papers, who's President and who was hitting Hippies with night sticks.
I just felt that this close to the Holiday Season; a season in which people still have sons and daughters fighting for each other and themselves in a far off land. That everyone should take a moment and reflect on the past so we don't head blindly into the future. Ignoring History and its' important nuances only helps aids in repeating it.
History class might have been boring for you. But how boring is it when it's actually being made?....again.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
X-Man time
That is the newly appointed name I've given Christmas shopping for myself. As it's becoming a superheroic performance to get gifts picked-bought in time for the festivities.
It's down to the wire and any positive feedback for ideas I try to mine from family about what they would care to receive as a thoughtful, yet resonably priced manifestation of my love receives only; "I don't knows" or "gift cards work".
Ultimately I refuse to complete this yearly patriotic task early because I'm not a people person. Perhaps that's to black and white. I'm not a stranger person. Although I do have a blog that strangers could read if it had traffic whatsoever.
Perhaps it's just the cute girls that try and hand me hot nuts with sporks as I walk by. Forcing me to make a blank stare or confused wince as I try to dart and speed past the begging children queuing up to greedily snatch the freebies; with what are surely already sticky fingers.
Or perhaps the increased risk of trample death. I can't be sure; either way it's a chore and I'm happy to find something my loveables want. Perhaps that's the true manifestation of the holiday spirit for this the Modern Age. Do you love someone enough to brave zero degree weather; to arrive at an over heated mall full of desperate approval seeking shoppers like yourself? If the answer is maybe; than you're a Christian or at least a Capitalist in sheeps clothing. You could be a Kwanzian but honestly no one knows what that religion is. You're better off joining up with us secularists and admitting you shop just for the greed of it.
It's down to the wire and any positive feedback for ideas I try to mine from family about what they would care to receive as a thoughtful, yet resonably priced manifestation of my love receives only; "I don't knows" or "gift cards work".
Ultimately I refuse to complete this yearly patriotic task early because I'm not a people person. Perhaps that's to black and white. I'm not a stranger person. Although I do have a blog that strangers could read if it had traffic whatsoever.
Perhaps it's just the cute girls that try and hand me hot nuts with sporks as I walk by. Forcing me to make a blank stare or confused wince as I try to dart and speed past the begging children queuing up to greedily snatch the freebies; with what are surely already sticky fingers.
Or perhaps the increased risk of trample death. I can't be sure; either way it's a chore and I'm happy to find something my loveables want. Perhaps that's the true manifestation of the holiday spirit for this the Modern Age. Do you love someone enough to brave zero degree weather; to arrive at an over heated mall full of desperate approval seeking shoppers like yourself? If the answer is maybe; than you're a Christian or at least a Capitalist in sheeps clothing. You could be a Kwanzian but honestly no one knows what that religion is. You're better off joining up with us secularists and admitting you shop just for the greed of it.
Everyone wants to spend money for a bargin. However it's the free shoving and groping that keeps them coming back.
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