Sunday, October 21, 2007

The Worst Documentary Ever?

I kid you not - I was just browsing around the "recommendations" section to see what stupid movie Netflix thinks I should see now when I come across:

"Helvetica. We use it every day on our computers, we see it on street signs -- and we take it for granted. Now, Gary Hustwit's unique documentary introduces us to Helvetica, whose readability has made it the most popular font in the world. Interviews with designers and artists offer insight into the development, use and universal acceptance of Helvetica as the typeface of choice for everything from writing letters to creating corporate logos."

Let me see if I got this right. Someone made a movie about a FONT. And expects me to PAY to watch it. Huh.

Speaking of movies, I saw Blood Diamond last night. The idea was dramatic enough...but there was practically no character or story development. I'm sorry, Leo, but one scene of "my parents were brutally murdered when I was 9" does not a tragic figure make. So, I can't recommend that one, either.

It's 1:00 and I'm still in my pajamas. So it's time to go fix that. But first, something to read for the day.
I ran across this article by Roland Martin while browsing through my del.icio.us bookmarks, and while it's six months old, the issue will be relevant for years to come:

"When did it come to the point that being a Christian meant caring about only two issues,­ abortion and homosexuality?

Ask the nonreligious what being a Christian today means, and based on what we see and read, it's a good bet they will say that followers of Jesus Christ are preoccupied with those two points.

Poverty? Whatever. Homelessness? An afterthought. A widening gap between the have and have-nots? Immaterial. Divorce? The divorce rate of Christians mirrors the national average, so that's no big deal."

Read the rest of the article here.

He's right. Why do Christians such as myself hesitate to be labeled as "Christian"? It isn't a point of embarrassment, it isn't that I'm afraid of being called a "Bible thumper" or a "Jesus freak," it's that I'm tired of being associated with the psychos who hijack the name of Christ to advance their personal wars.

I refuse to be associated with Jerry “The ACLU is to Christians what the American Nazi party is to Jews” Falwell or Pat "assassinate Hugo Chavez" Robertson, because we don't believe in the same God. Sorry, Reverends, but the Jesus I signed up with taught peace, love, and compassion (yeah, all of that hippie crap you guys are so scared of!), not fear, hatred, and intolerance. As long as "Christians" like these continue to use their bully pulpits to push their warped agendas, I'll continue to make it very clear what exactly it is I believe in when I'm identified as a Christian.

And I'm not trying to say that there's no such thing as a Republican Christian. But don't castigate me for being a Democrat. Don't tell me I support the "mass murder of unborn babies." By the way, I don't LIKE the idea of abortion by any stretch of the imagination - who does? - but in six and a half years in office, what has GWB done to end abortion in America? And yes, I understand the mathematical theory behind "There's no such thing as 100% safe sex," but it seems rather obvious to me that you can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't avoid teaching kids to have safe sex, and then bemoan the rising abortion rate - because if someone doesn't know what a condom is, they won't use one, leading to pregnancy, leading to abortions. Point is, abstinence-only education is only giving rise to the number of abortions in this country.

One last, last thing. WOW.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That guitarist freaks me out. He's technically talented, I just wish he wouldn't stare into my soul with those freakish eyes. He reminds me of that Dana Carvey sketch, where he talks about how guitarists look shocked after they change chords, like it's some kind of magic trick.

You'd probably like Jim Wallis's book God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It. He also posts to DailyKos and Street Prophets every so often.

The Republicans' attempt to hijack Christianity makes me absolutely sick. I'd love to see the people who vote solely on the abortion issue discuss their Republican votes in a year, when the Republican nominee will most likely be, at best, a flip-flopper on abortion. Until last year's elections, the Republicans owned Congress since 1994. Where's the movement on abortion? The Supreme Court, while evenly divided, rests on Kennedy's moderate conservative swing vote more often than not. Where's the movement on abortion?

Didn't think so. Abortion = the third rail of politics. Nobody (including Republicans) are willing to touch it. So it's political football more than anything.

One more thing and then I promise to shut up - if they respect the sanctity of life so much, why do a large majority of them send troops to die in a meaningless war, refuse to expand S-CHIP, ban stem cell research, ban medical marijuana, support the use and expansion of the death penalty, etc, etc, etc? Or does "sanctity of life" only extend to unborn children? Not to say that's not necessarily a noble pursuit, but you can't pick and choose WHOSE sanctity of life to uphold.