Networks: Merry Anti-Christmas

The Culture & Media Institute has released a story called "Christmas Without Christ" that chronicles TV networks' aversion to mention of religious aspects of Christmas. Reportedly, "just seven stories out of 527 (1.3 percent) mentioned the deity in two years of network evening news coverage." The easy explanation for this may be that secular Jews are prevalent in TV broadcasting, and the thought that Christmas has religious meaning for Christian gentiles may never occur to them, or they may simply not think of a religious Christmas as being newsworthy for a general audience.

But let's try to figure out what the percentage of stories that mention religious Christmas things should be.

Even among religious types, non-religious aspects of Christmas are important: things like food, decorations, lights, travel, relatives, santa, and most of all for little kids: PRESENTS. Nevertheless, churches across the nation stage yearly nativity plays, and various churches have their respective Christmas traditions such as midnight Mass, carols, advent wreathes, and in more historic times, processions. It is obvious that more than 1.3% of Americans include God as part of their Christmas traditions.

If only 1.3% of stories even mention God, many of these may be brief references, so the actual amount of time spent on God or religious Christmas elements may be even more minuscule. Regardless, it seems the networks are not concerned with drawing religious Christians to their viewership.

It's Been That Kind of Year

The Vikings team seems to have caved in this year too.


Many Vikings fans direct their discontent toward now-fired coach Brad "Chilly" Childress. But for Favre fans, being totally mad at Childress may be somewhat hypocritical since Childress is ultimately the reason Favre came to Minnesota both purposefully and incidentally. Childress purposefully lobbied for Brett to come to Minnesota, and he also incidentally hired Favre's buddy & former QB coach Darrelle Bevell as offensive coordinator in 2006, who subsequently in 2009 attracted Brett to Minnesota.

But obviously there are reasons to be mad at Childress, not the least of which is the Randy Moss firing.

As for Brett, this may be his worst nightmare of a year ever, it being marred with injuries and scandal. The injuries make him look physically weak on the field, and the scandal with the Jets employee sort of makes him seem morally weak.

In all honesty, however, the Jets are also culpable for needlessly exposing the players to scantily-clad women.

On Women

As to where women belong in football, they have traditionally been relegated to cheerleader. Yet, increasingly, they can be seen serving as sideline & lockerroom reporters. They fail at both because:

1. They don't have the game experience to be able to ask relevant questions (such as would former players Tony Siragusa or Eric Dickerson).
2. Players don't like women looking at them when they're naked in the locker room. That idiot NFL commissioner Roger Goodell should have stood up for Clinton Portis when he took flak for complaining of a Feminine lockerroom presence.
3. Nothing would be lost by not having female reporters from an affirmative action standpoint because, on the net, cute female reporters dominate broadcasting. Nothing would be lost from an entertainment standpoint because nobody watches football to see attracive female reporters but rather to see big hits, great runs, prolific catches, and victory for a favorite team.

Panic over 'Devil Attack' in School

Biblical Accounts and Missionary Stories both tell of Demons giving strength to the possessed.

http://guardian.co.tt/news/general/2010/11/11/panic-after-devil-attack-school

Mollineau recalled: “One girl was blabbering as if in a strange language. I could not understand what she was saying. “It was sounding like ‘shebbaberbebeb shhhhee.’ The girls were unusually strong. We had to hold them down so that they will not hurt themselves. “The teachers were right there. I got a kick in my face when one of the girls started beating up on the floor. Many of them had bruises.” Mollineau claimed he actually communicated with the “devil which had possessed the girl.”

A Fecal Point in Sestak Campaign

"In the ad, Sestak compares cleaning up after his family dog Belle to cleaning up the economic mess that he says his GOP rival Pat Toomey and former President George W. Bush played a big part in creating."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/26/AR2010102600740.html

Emperor Palpatine Endorses Burqa

Recently in the news, controversy has abounded about the bizarre garmets worn by certain Mohammedan women. Sources close to the Obscure Lure have revealed that Emperor Palpatine has lent his support for the wearing of the bed-sheet, even mandating that his Royal Guardsmen wear them.

A Lure Correspondent weighed in: "At least Palpatine's idea of a Burqa sort of looks cool."

Whale Thanks Rescuers

This is an old bit of news which came to the attention of the Obscure Lure.
http://articles.sfgate.com/2005-12-14/news/17403910_1_humpback-crab-pots-whale

Solar Sound

According to a report in the UK Telegraph, researchers have translated visible magnetic loops on the sun's fiery surface into sound waves. The blog DAILY INTERESTING THINGS and a personal contact of the Obscure Lure recently made the connexion between this news event and a Bible verse in the book of Job about singing stars.

And this was not the only recognition by ancients of celestial sound. According to David Tame's The Secret Power of Music, the ancient Chinese associated the skies with Cosmic Sound. They also symbolized their pentatonic musical scale with five planets: Saturn, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury. I wonder of any observable phenomena from the planets could be translated into music?

Anyway, below is a video of the eerie sounds translated from the sun's harp string-like loops:

The Coming Dark Age (Can You Hear it?)

Article Review
In "Is A New Dark Age At Hand?" Lawrence Murphy likens causes of the medieval "dark age" to current social trends and concludes that America is headed for one. In the article he is a little overly dramatic and morose, but he's got a point: we only have so much time in our lives, and so much of the meaningful part is pushed aside as advertisers, who care little for our overall well-being, grab up our free time.

My Addition
But, I think that America would be headed for a dark age regardless of the effect of the Internet, cell phones, and other tools of trite indulgence.

Rock music simply isn't the music of civilization, but it's the music exemplar of America. In public life, rock muzak is played on background speakers at restaurants, college eateries, weight-rooms, fitness clubs, gymnasiums, discount stores, sporting events, fairs, supermarkets, cafeterias, mall stores, delis, and just about anywhere some half-wit can fit a speaker. The important distinction about these places is that nobody goes to them for music, but everybody gets it anyway.

Rock music is also interlaced in TV shows and movies scenes, and is found in an increasing number of TV and radio commercials. Loud ipod speakers further contribute to noise pollution in a public place.

At least in my experience, it is impossible to avoid rock music unless one is a monk in a monastery or a nun in a cloister.

When someone must listen to rock in order to partake in everyday life, it becomes the defining haze of life, and haze can go a long way in terms of influencing people; not right away, but very slowly over time.

The real problem is that constant exposure to rebellious, grotesque rock music stealthily eventually makes one lose the desire to protect and fight for his way of life, because he realizes he has nothing worth fighting for. In such a case, a lack of caring will destroy civilization and will be the catalyst to a dark age. After all, under the haze of rock music, caring itself cannot be justified. It doesn't fit with the music's let-loose message.

Maybe radical Islam will fill the void in the West left by modern rock. But youth in places like Iran are increasingly liberal, increasingly contemptuous of sharia law, and may end up the same as youth in the West if they become a market for MTV. There is already an Arabic rap genre. The West doesn't seem to be the only realm that has its days numbered.

So although writer of the article above may be right about the hazards of misusing (or abusing) technology, the spiritual death of mankind will be set to music.

Of Nickelodeon and Childhood

Old Nick Tunes Not All They're Cracked up to Be
A brief perusal of Facebook pages of people who grew up the '90s, reveals that many of them are fond of that era's Nickelodeon Network TV shows.

Commonly, it is believed that the old Nick such as Doug, Keenan & Kel, Rocko's Modern Life, and for later generations The Angry Beavers and Cat Dog, were better than shows played on that network today.

Nodbody'd probably dispute that.

However, people have an overly strong endearment for the old shows.

A few years back I watched a little "Rocko's Modern Life" on youtube, and I just watched "Legends of the Hidden Temple." One thing has become clear: those '90s shows alone were probably pretty accidental to my fond memories of them. I realize that what made me fondly remember them were not the shows themselves, for although some of them are entertaining they are (and were) for the most part a goofy waste of time; and were nothing but a convenient way to kill time. They mostly consist of meaningless banter and corny dialogue, and are interspliced with crazy, ridiculous music.

Also, I had fond memories of shows my grandparents watched like Early Edition. But after having watched all of Season One on youtube, I realized it wasn't the show per se that was so great, but the setting in which I experienced it. So what I really enjoyed was the Feudal Manor-like feeling of my Grandparents' apartment house--they being the rulers; I, the heir. Seeing Early Edition in the cozy environment of their high-ceilinged living room at night with its long curtains, a grandfather clock, plenty of old cool stuff around (all in the right places), the ancient stylistic wooden-framed TV, and most importantly, both of my grand parents sitting half-asleep on the couch behind me: yes, that's what made a viewing of "Early Edition" genuine. More generally, watching something as kid in (what was for me) a simpler, more enjoyable world, far outclassed any mundane computer-viewing experience of the present.

What those old shows probably do for people is offer them a reminder of a state of mind they had when young. They also provide the consciousness a sort of refreshing but soft click of reminiscence.

Though I will admit, Television programs in the '90s did seem to be of higher quality plot-wise. Moreover, the clothing styles, sports teams, etc. back then were more, I dunno, reassuring. The people on TV back then were obviously more innocent too, and the sitcom characters were less cynical overall, as was the spirit of most shows. There also may have been more of a discernible culture on '90s TV; one less bland and more kindly. But let's be honest, they were just TV shows.

What I've said before holds true: the '90s shows, when taken out of their past context, are not all that prolific, because their context was what ultimately made them special, and their context lies in the past.

King's College Makes National Radio Show

The Late Night radio show Coast to Coast AM, also called "Late Night" with George Noory (or Art Bell) recently did a show called "Strange Phenomena in Pennsylvania" hosted by PA paranormal researcher Stan Gordon.

One of the callers--"Dennis" from Tennessee--said he went to King's College, and implied that while there he went to some weird place out in the woods that had reddish rocks where UFO sightings and weird animal sightings were commonly witnessed. He said it was called "Boulder Lake" or "Boulder Field."

He probably meant Boulder Field in Hickory Run state park in Carbon County, only about an hour's drive from King's College. Below is a video of the place.



Supposedly, magnetic waves sometimes affect a person's temporal lobes, making him hallucinate or have a funny feeling. Perhaps the deposits in Boulder Field produce this effect.

The Cancer Racket: Oh the Irony!

A cancer survivor once asked: "These people are always asking for donations. Where does all the money go?

Answer: The cancer racket sets aside the donated money for the making of cancer rackets for the advertising of the cancer racket which then issues more cancer rackets and hence the vicious cycle continues ad infinitum. In others words, the money goes down the rabbit hole.

Lyric case study

Epitomes of lyric content across the ages: Love Songs

DOULZ VIAIRE GRACIEUX Rondeau
Guillaume de Machaut (d. 1377)
Alla francesca
(Translation)

Sweet gracious face,
I have served you with a true lover’s heart
Please have pity on me.
Sweet gracious face,
If modesty holds me back a bit
Forget me not,
Sweet gracious face,
I have served you with a true lover’s heart

Lady Gaga "Bad Romance" 2009

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Caught in a bad romance
Ra ra-ah-ah-ah
Roma roma-ma
GaGa
Oh la-la
Want your bad romance
I want your horror
I want your design
‘Cuz you’re a criminal
As long as you’re mine
I want your love
Love love love
I want your love

Have the Europids made "progress" in 635 years? If so, towards what do they progress?

Scam Within a Scam

That would've been a perfect title for this ABC News Article. Alas, the reporters missed their opportunity. Now, those who are unafraid of statistics admit that the stimulus was a scam on the taxpayers. So it makes sense that non-governmental swindlers would create small scams that feed off the government's large 'stimulus' scam:

The Federal Trade Commission is warning Americans to beware of scams offering to get them some of the federal government's $787 billion stimulus. The scams will likely cost you money instead of getting you money....the Federal Trade Commission revealed bogus Web sites, hoaxes and other scams that promise to help consumers tap into a chunk of the money.

To me, they're just small time scammers who don't have the political clout to legislate their scams.

Hillary's plane taking up the runway: an allegory

Truth is stranger than fiction, and sometimes the real world provides deft allegories. Case-in-point: Hillary Clinton flies her enormous jet which is packed with her many entourage members to make a speech in Haiti. Ironically, her great fleet allegedly obstructed rescue planes from landing on the runway. This is a great allegory for nearly every backfiring scheme Democrats have come up with in the past century or so.

Thomas Sowell writes that the number of blacks living below the poverty line stopped decreasing after the institution of the Great Society. The Great Society was supposed to benefit blacks, not create among them a culture of dependence on Big Brother, one which may have locked many blacks in an 'easy poverty.' Even if moral hazzard associated with handouts did not harm blacks economically, the Great Society still seems to have failed ceteris paribus because it has not decreased the number of blacks living in poverty.

Individual savings have decreased since the Social Security scheme of FDR. Why save money for yourself when the government can do it for you and in a more complicated way?

What about Fannie & Freddie? Two GSEs meant to keep housing prices low end up directing funds into a housing bubble, thus enslaving new home-buyers to now-unaffordable homes. Strangely enough, now policy makers are propping up housing prices.

But perhaps what is most disturbing about Clinton's exploits is that she is obviously on a PR mission. "Look how sypathetic I look toward the masses, (although I'm really just getting in their way)." Such is the destiny of the ambitious Left-wing politician trying to save the world.