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Tuesday, February 24, 2004
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MORE THOUGHTS ON THE POWER OF IMAGES TO CORRUPT
(following up a bit on this post, inspired by comment input from Marty)
Has anyone actually MET someone who was brainwashed by violent or
perverted images? By which I mean - known them, talked to them, and
were convinced that they were too stupid to be able to understand what
was going on and were therefore the victims of trashy images?
I haven't met any myself, but then again I rarely have cause to hang
out with 60-watt bulbs. On the other hand, the 60-watters I HAVE met
seem to be short-sighted, evil, and criminally greedy by choice, and
gravitate toward low-class images because those images reflect the way
these dregs think most of the time.
Revelling in trash is an effect
of a debased mind, not a cause. Choice precedes pre-occupation, and a
debased mind is the sum total of a lifetime of debased choices. These
choices become habits which feed on themselves and self-perpetuate, but
these habits are by no means permanent or unbreakable. If you've ever
known a scumbag who sincerely "found God", you know what I'm talking
about. I have a brother who, in his younger days, was on the fast track
to hard time, but he had a religious experience & pulled a 180. The
key here was that he chose, practiced, and internalized
a new set of habitual thought patterns. He started spending more of his
time thinking about the Bible, which left less time to think about
drugs and crime.
Elevating your consciousness to a more thoughtful, far-sighted plane is not an easy choice, but it is
a choice, and people make it all the time. I honestly believe ANYONE is
capable of doing it, given sufficient motivation. Once you make the
choice, the existence or non-existence of trashy images becomes
irrelevant. Those images are simply avoided or ignored.
But what about the 60-watters who haven't
chosen the thoughtful life? Well, if you magically removed every dirty
picture from the planet tomorrow at dawn, they'd be scratching naked
stick figures in the dirt before 9am. You can't FORCE these people to
change. You can only inspire them to choose change for themselves.
Maybe by your good example, maybe by a good hard stick-beating, but, in
the end, it has to be their choice.
posted by Harvey at 11:17:49 PM permalink HOME
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TODAY'S LOVE NOTE
(Introduction)
I want to hold you in my arms, gently
Beyond sex and security, prestige and triumph,
To say once and for all, "I love you", and mean it
From the top of my head to the depths of my soul
This is the love that casts out fear
That makes life worth living
That takes a man and a woman on the earth and lifts them finally
Above every power or pain that could wound them
I have seen so many sights, heard so many words
But none as beautiful
As the sight and sound of a man and woman
Who say with their every act
Their eyes and all their being
"I LOVE YOU!"
posted by Harvey at 7:39:34 PM permalink HOME
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TODAY’S GRAFFITI CURRENCY
[IF YOU KEEP THIS BILL FOREVER IS HOW MUCH YOU LOVE ME. I [LOVE] YOU ALWAYS NOT METTER WHAT]
"How much you love me" turned out not to be so much "forever" as "travel time to the nearest liquor store".
posted by Harvey at 7:26:47 PM permalink HOME
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SO SAYETH THE KING
One of the perks of being the King of the Blogs
is that you have the right to issue a Royal Edict, which is a post of
your choosing that all the KotB judges must link to (commentary
optional).
Good King Bill of WalloWorld picked an excellent topic to play with - the left's hypocrisy regarding the effects of imagery on people's minds:
Countless hours spent playing violent video games of course have no
impact on kids (nor could they ever contribute to an environment where
kids shoot their classmates), but The Lord of the Rings can reinforce
racial sterotypes or The Passion is likely to lead to anti-Semitic
violence?
After raising the question Bill sums it up in a quick point:
images have power. They may affect different people in different ways, but every image has an impact.
Dang. After all the times I've harangued Bill for prattling on and on
and on, he picks THIS occasion to say his piece & shut up. I wanted
to see this issue get chewed & tasted instead of being swallowed
whole. I hope he chases this down in the future and talks about which
images have what impact, and what, if anything, should be done about
the effects of negative images.
For my part, I'm of the belief that images don't matter nearly as much
as the message surrounding the image. Take, for example, the often
maligned violent Bugs Bunny cartoons of my youth. People were getting
beat up & hurt left and right. But the moral was always the same:
Bugs was just minding his own business, trying to lead his happy little
bunny life, and some jerk started messing with him. Well, Mr. Jerk got
what was coming to him. He deserved the trouble he got. Justice was
served.
Same thing with Popeye. I don't recall him ever throwing the first punch. He was a peaceable sort of fella.
And even my VERY maligned violent video games (especially the
first-person shooters I love like Doom, Duke Nukem, Quake, Jedi Knight,
Soldier of Fortune, etc.) have a message. Evil people need to be killed
by good people to protect the innocent.
My point being that, while I recall the cartoon punches or the splattery image in the game, I more strongly recall the message - sometimes good men must fight.
I think it's a distraction to argue over whether the image is good or bad. Argue the principle that image supports.
posted by Harvey at 7:04:59 PM permalink HOME
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JOHN KERRY IN THE AFTERLIFE
If I were in charge of determining John Kerry's eternal punishment, I'd
probably make him forever re-live the 60 seconds after he first heard
that Ralph Nader was running. Just letting that sense of drop-jawed
hopelessness sink in over and over and over...
I'm cruel that way.
But I'm not doling out the punishment, J of Quibbles & Bits is, and he's not that heartless.
He's worse. MUAHAHAHAHA!
Go take a peek at what HE came up with.
posted by Harvey at 6:34:22 PM permalink HOME
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PARDON ME, BUT...
Shouldn't Christians be HAPPY that the Jews killed Christ? I mean, no
dead Christ means no salvation. What if the Jews would've said "Nah, put Barrabas on the sticks. RELEASE CHRIST!"?
Then Jesus would have lived out a happy, contented life like in the final scenes of "The Last Temptation of Christ", which is just swell from his perspective, but then everybody else in the world has to burn in hell forever with no chance of redemption.
This is a bad thing, as far as I can tell.
If I were a Christian, and I saw Judas on the street, I'd buy him a
beer. SOMEBODY had to betray Christ. There was a prophecy that needed
fulfilling, Judas did his job, and he did it well.
If you're going to be mad at Judas & the Jews, you might just as
well be mad at the nails & the wood, because they were all just
tools in God's plan.
I don't understand the sadness at Christ's death. Am I missing something?
posted by Harvey at 5:56:57 PM permalink HOME
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COUNT ME OUT
It's very rare that I would ever disagree with Matty O'Blackfive on any military-related issue, but the Ohio Patriot Plan is horrible, and I'm opposed to it.
Let's get something straight. I'm former Navy, I support the troops, I
support the President, I support the war. In my estimation, there is NO
POSSIBLE WAY to overcompensate the members of the US Armed Forces, at
home or abroad. They get paid less than a lot of factory workers, but
they work farmers' hours and their job description reads "take a bullet
& smile while you're waiting for it to be fired at you". Go ahead
and give them more money. Give them more benefits. Give them more
privileges. Give them anything.
Give them EVERYTHING. I will GLADLY pay my taxes to help the government
cover the costs, since national defense is one of the few things that
governments are supposed to do.
But that's NOT what this bill does. This bill puts the burden almost entirely on the private sector.
Landlords, credit card companies, cell phone companies, employers, car
rental companies, banks, insurance companies, private colleges, and
utilities. All these entities will be FORCED by law to comply.
I have NO problem with companies that would VOLUNTARILY let their
profits take a hit to support the troops. If I heard someone was doing
that, I'd go out of my way to patronize his establishment. It's good
marketing PR, and I applaud companies that take advantage of that fact.
However, these people should also continue to have the right to NOT
take these expensive actions if they so choose, and to accept the
consequences of that decision in the marketplace.
I don't mind the
provisions of the bill that only affect government entities - direct
deposit for public employees, and the right to stay in the same school
district. In fact, if they wanted to re-write this bill so that paying
the rent (or any of the other above named expenses) of a non-deployed
spouse was now a benefit of active duty, that's fine. I could get
behind that. But don't belt out a laundry list of unfunded mandates for
the private sector and then try to wrap yourself in the flag.
That's not patriotism, that's socialism, and I've had quite enough of that already, thank you.
posted by Harvey at 5:50:08 PM permalink HOME
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DAMN! NO PICTURES
Heather of Angelweave talks about how she likes to "Google herself" several times daily.
My goodness but that sounds naughty! I'll have to add it to the list.
Anyway, is it true? Are we a nation of self-Googlers?
It's been months since I Googled myself. Last time I checked, I think I was the #27 hit for "Harvey".
And if I'm looking for adventures in self-discovery, I type in "Harvey is" (with the quotes).
Harvey is sued over work on home
Harvey is extraordinary.
Harvey is quite happy with draft status.
Harvey Is The Pits
Harvey is available
Harvey is already complaining
So... how do YOU like to Google yourself?
posted by Harvey at 5:42:48 PM permalink HOME
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GREEN LIGHT
Since the Bartender's not posting, looks like the comment party has started back up again in a new post. We've already got boobies & beads & groping gauntlets, so grab your bag of bad bar behavior & head on down.
posted by Harvey at 5:38:37 PM permalink HOME
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KING OF THE BLOGS ROYAL RUMBLE RESULTS
Last week was the off-week for the King of the Blogs tournament, which meant that Good King Bill of WalloWorld
got a chance to lounge around on his throne, pick at his bunions, watch
the Royal big-screen HDTV, and be serviced by nubile slave girls.
For six of his kingdom's peasants, however, this was no vacation week.
They were locked in a virtual life-or-death struggle to see who would
go on to battle Bill for the crown this week.
The results are posted here, and the entries are below them in a separate entry.
Here are my reviews. The rest are at the KotB site. Also, if I didn't
link a Rumblor, it's because said Rumblor was a doofus and e-mailed his
entry instead of posting it - thereby passing up a good opportunity for
linkage.
ROYAL RUMBLE RANKINGS
(Rumblors were ranked by relative strength and then awarded points
relative to their positions. 6 points was the highest score, 1 point
was the lowest)
BLOG SUPPLEMENT: 6
CHALLENGE: Insanely over the top!
AD: Goofy & obscene enough to be in the Superbowl halftime, but where's the salesmanship?
MINILUV: 5
CHALLENGE: Multifaceted & hilarious!
AD: Smug, cocky, and threatening, (which is good) but doesn't really SELL…
IRRITABLE BLOG SYNDROME: 4
CHALLENGE: A truly heart-wrenching tale… * snicker *
AD: Excellent pandering, but no selling.
LOBO WALK: 3
CHALLENGE: Grinworthy, but pretty straightforward
AD: Now THERE'S a sales pitch – shame on you for giving away the fine-print secret,
though.
ECUMENICAL INSANITY: 2
CHALLENGE(see KotB site): A good running gag. Needed a little more set-up, but shows potential.
AD: Whatever it lacks in humor it makes up for in enthusiasm.
LEGAL MEMO-RANDOM: 1
CHALLENGE(see KotB site): A bland effort
AD: Bleah!
posted by Harvey at 7:12:05 AM permalink HOME
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© Copyright 2005 Harvey Olson.
Last update: 9/10/2005; 5:12:43 PM.
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MAIN ARCHIVES
CATEGORY ARCHIVES
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200 WORDS OR LESS
FILTHY LIES
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