"I got kicked out of ballet class because I pulled a groin muscle. It wasn't mine." - Rita Rudner

Random Playlist Song: The Phantom Of The Opera OST - Down Once More/Track Down This Murderer

Pitiful creature of darkness, what kind of life have you known?
God give me courage to show you, you are not alone!


Random Trivia bit: Tiresias, a blind prophet, was a woman for seven years.

According to one myth, when he saw Athena bathing, she blinded him, but granted him prophetic powers instead. Another story is that Hera blinded him for claiming that women enjoyed love more than men; Zeus recompensed him with long life and the power of prophecy.

(Alternative Sexuality in Greek Myth - what was that about Natural Law again? Ahem)

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First draft of a short questionnaire for Christians that I hacked out; comments are encouraged in the YACCS comment box - click on "Amused? Stimulated? Offended? Click here to fire off an angry comment" / "(Number) angry comment(s) in the bag - leave more". Christians are also welcome to answer the questions in the comments box:


Seminal questions to ask Christians across the spectrum, and not just fundies:

1) Do you believe that the bible is literally true?

If so, how do you explain its internal contradictions (2 creation accounts in Genesis, 2 genealogies of Jesus - one cannot be of Joseph since he wasn't the father, Jesus' parents not knowing why he stayed in Jerusalem's temple when he was 12 [Luke 2: 42-50]) and historical inaccuracies (no geological evidence of the flood, no town of Nazareth in the 1st century BC, no record of Herod's slaughter of the infants)?

If not - how do you know which parts are false, which parts must be 'interpreted' and which parts must be taken in 'context'? If some parts are false, how do you know others aren't as well? Who's to say that your 'interpretation' is correct; with sufficient 'interpretation' anyone can make the Bible say anything they like? Can 'context' ever justify acts of misogyny, evil and genocide (Timothy, the Flood, Joshua & Numbers)?

2) Do you think all non-Christians/those not of your specific denomination go to hell? If so, how is it just or fair to condemn billions of innocents to hell for all eternity just because they were born in the wrong place at the wrong time? What if you were wrong and, when you died, you went to the Islamic hell? What would you say to Allah?

3) Do you believe that your god is the ultimate arbiter of morality, yet is supremely good? If so, didn't he merely define himself as good, making a mockery of the concepts of morality and goodness? If one defines morality, wouldn't he be amoral rather than supremely good?

4) Do you think your mythology unique? If so, why are so many elements shared with previous religions? (Salvation: Mystery pagan religions - Osiris, Eleusinian mysteries, Alleged virgin births of god-men: Romulus, Augustus, Dionysus, Perseus, Baptism: Mithraic mysteries, ablutions, Miracles: Asclepius raising the dead, Resurrection: Dionysius, Osiris)

5) Have you ever communicated with, or felt your god or his presence? If so, how would you distinguish your experiences from similar mystical experiences in other religions, people on an acid trip, those who believe they've been abducted by aliens or those who hear voices in their heads claiming to be gods telling them to kill other people?

6) How does your faith in your religion differ from that of others in theirs?

7) If Christianity is such a good religion, why has so much evil been done in its name? If the evil was done only by evil or confused people in Christianity's name - despite their faith, wouldn't the same logic apply for the good it has encouraged?

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In view of the difficulty that my No. 1 fan: She with dyed hair that used to be rebonded, an attitude problem, curses freely and loves to wear dominatrix pumps, but who disavows the title of "ah lian" (tamade to you too) has deciding whether Lindsay Lohan had a boob job done, Alwyn suggests that we check out Lindsay Lohan's latest music video: Rumours (don't Americans spell the word differently? Hmm)

Rumours

Buckle up for Lindsay Lohan's latest video, "Rumors," featuring a scantily-clad, highly-glossed Lohan showin' us how to shake it like a superstar--and dodge paparazzi at the same time. Here's part of the treatment:

"Through the people moving to the beat of the track we see a guy. He has a sexy look--edgy and real, more than model-cute. He makes eye contact with Lindsay through the pulsing bodies and we sense their instant connection. Lindsay keeps right on going, performing as she makes her way through the bodies. The lighting makes her stand out--sexy and iconic amidst the club scene."

Smashing, absolutely smashing. And when she wears those retro shades and dances, she looks like one of Gunther's Sunshine Girls.

The song is hilarious: basically telling the paparazzi to crawl back into the hole they came from (and in a relatively civil manner, too). Unfortunately, the shots of her jiggling in the video are hardly going to quell rumours, so.

After playing a few rounds on Fake or Not.com, and consistently getting 8/10, I think it's quite say for me to say that they're fake. Be that as it may, not being a subscriber to Natural Law Theory, I do not think that there's anything wrong with enhancing your body surgically.


Incidentally, while I was browsing Kontraband for the Linsay Lohan Harry Potter video for someone's benefit, I dug up the following:

Harry Potter / Lost Film Script at Kontraband

Harry Potter / The Rise Of The Pheonix (assorted pictures) - I particularly like the following:


Girls potty over Potter broomstick

A toy firm has axed a vibrating replica of Harry Potter's broomstick after mums complained their daughters spent too long riding it

Makers Mattel advertised the battery-operated toy as having "a grooved stick and handle for easy riding".

One mum in New Jersey, US said: "What were they thinking of?"

Another in Ohio told how her daughter played with the broomstick for hours.

She said: "She likes its special effects - so does her 17-year-old sister".

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On censorship:

"That's puritanism for you, plain and simple - burn all the women alive in the streets, but don't let them show an ankle! Censors will ban anything that speaks of the kind of sex they'll never have."

And it seems the Thought Police intercept shipments of DVDs and replace them:

"A recent shipment was intercepted though. I got a letter informing me of it, and that I would have to pay to have the MDA censor it as well as post it to me. They never got around to returning one DVD, ***, to me. I guess they were too busy being transfixed by the Evil Liberal Western images of a male British pianist have sex with another man and use ice cubes while at it. Nasty, nasty! I eventually did manage to get the DVD by re-routing the parcel to Hong Kong, where my aunt sent it to me in Singapore by labelling it as a "present".

The logic of paying people to go through my purchased DVDs and deliberately remove sections completely escapes me. I'd like to be a censor when I grow up."