Sunday, February 12, 2006
Jazz u stejjer ohra
#1 Bir-ragun id-d u sandro huma mdejjqin, irrabjati u nkazzati bl-ahbar dwar il-metamorfosi (jew ahjar ir-rekwijem, kif sejhilha wiehed minhom) li ghaddej minnu l-jazz festival. Mark, bhal ma' jaghmel ta' spiss, jipponta subajh lejn il-politikant. Jien il-jazz festival dejjem rajtu bhala miraklu zghir fil-gzira tal-eurovixin u x-Xarabank. Un piccolo paradiso nell'isola del kitch. Imma l-problema naraha band'ohra. Kulhadd jinkazza bil-kwalita' atroci tat-TV Malti, dis-sena tkazaw ghax Bondi daqq l-air guitar fuq il-palk tal-Mediterranean Conference Centre u lil Peppi nghidulu li Xarabank sar hamallata nazzjonali. Orrajt. Imma kieku kien hemm min jahdem programmi sura ta' nies, kuncerti tajbin u festivals ohrajn, ma konniex inhossu li waqghet id-dinja, jew li "dal-pajjiz taz-zobb u mhux ser nersaq 'l hemm" ghax biddlu l-format tal-jazz festival. Bhal dak li qallu li l-Fjammingi ser jaghmlu f'qalbhom wisq jekk igibu lil Ozzy jdoqq f'xi Metal Festival partikolari. Fi kliem iehor il-problema mhux Xarabank jew il-Ewrovixin jew il-bidla fil-jazz festival. Il-problema li m'hemmx ghazla wiesa'. Kellna nhottu jazz festival biex naghmlu iehor minfloku. Kollox isir Xarabank, kollox isir Ewrovixin u kollox isir Bondi. U kif qalet tajjeb darba Sharon, lilhom ma ttihomx tort li jistaqsu Where (the fuck's) Everybody?
#2 "Faites l'amour pas les magasins". Spotted in Brussels on 11/2/2006. Three days before Valentine's day.
#3 Demander que l'Etat se porte garant de verites religieuses, c'est exiger ouvertement qu'il pratique l'intolerance. (Jacques Julliard, Le Nouvel Obs, 9-15 fevrier 2006)
#4 As the Arab TV station Al-Jazeera skilfully explained, while the Koran, the Islamic Holy Book, does not explicitly prohibit the depiction of human figures, Muslims understand Koranic verses 41 to 52 as meaning that Allah and His prophets cannot be captured in an image by human hand, such is God's grandeur. (Leo Brincat, Shadow Minister, Foreign Affairs, The Sunday Times, 12th Feb 2006)
#5 Moderates do not want to kill anyone in the name of God, but they want us to keep using the word "God" as though we knew what we were talking about. And they do not want anything too critical said about people who really believe in the God of their fathers, because tolerance, perhaps above all else, is sacred. To speak plainly and truthfully about the state of the world - to say, for instance, that the Bible and the Koran both contain mountains of life-destroying gibberish - is antithetical to tolerance as moderates currently conceive it. But we can no longer afford the luxury of such political correctness. We must finally recognize the price we are paying to maintain the iconography of our ignorance." (Sam Harris, The End of Faith - Religion, Terror, and The Future of Reason, p. 22-23)
# 6 The newspapers had every right to publish the cartoons in question but were stupid to do so. One hopes that no such cartoons will appear again in the European press. (Anthony Manduca, The Sunday Times, 12th Feb 2006, calmly brushes away the arguments of the editors of Jyllands-Posten, Die Welt, France Soir and many, many others )
#7 Fish symbols on cars (from The Encyclopedia of Modern Life)
Early Christians used a fish symbol to identify fellow believers during times of persecution. These days, to let people know they are really into Jesus, many Cristians stick a fish sign on the back of their car. Like Baby On Board stickers - but with God-knobs on.
In the US, these symbols have caused belief-system-related mayhem. This is because the symbols don't just mean 'I'm the nice sort of Christian who sometimes distributes hot soup to the homeless', but are more likelt to mean: 'Science is witchcraft and you're all going to hell'. To underline the hard-right/anti-science/anti-abortion intent, some fish contain the word 'Bush' inside indicating that George W. is 'doing God's work'.
Incensed, humanists created their own bumper fish symbols with the word 'Darwin' inside hoping to irritate the Christian right. It worked. They didn't like it. It got nasty. Chris Gilman, the Hollywood special-effects whizz who apparently invented the Darwin-fish, said: 'Here's a religion about forgiveness, peace, and love, but I can't tell you how many times I've heard about Darwin fish being torn off of cars or broken.'
The Christians retaliated with a bumper sticker depicting the Darwin fish being swallowed by a larger 'Jesus', or 'Truth', fish.
The humanists shot back with a reversed version of the sticker.
Then the Ring of Fire website produced a sticker depicting the Darwin fish and the Jesus fish forming 'what Shakespeare jauntily termed the beast with two backs' (they were at it, like knives).
Nothing will wind up a right-wing Christian more than piscine penetration faith denigration. And so it proved, with yet more car park/highway altercations.
Actually, this is possibly a good way finally to settle the evolution/creation debate: a demolition derby on the highway with the loser ending up bleeding in a ditch with bits of car stuck in them.
If the Christians won, they could shout back at the twisted wreckage: 'What's that you said about survival of the fittest? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!' ¶ 4:28 AM
#2 "Faites l'amour pas les magasins". Spotted in Brussels on 11/2/2006. Three days before Valentine's day.
#3 Demander que l'Etat se porte garant de verites religieuses, c'est exiger ouvertement qu'il pratique l'intolerance. (Jacques Julliard, Le Nouvel Obs, 9-15 fevrier 2006)
#4 As the Arab TV station Al-Jazeera skilfully explained, while the Koran, the Islamic Holy Book, does not explicitly prohibit the depiction of human figures, Muslims understand Koranic verses 41 to 52 as meaning that Allah and His prophets cannot be captured in an image by human hand, such is God's grandeur. (Leo Brincat, Shadow Minister, Foreign Affairs, The Sunday Times, 12th Feb 2006)
#5 Moderates do not want to kill anyone in the name of God, but they want us to keep using the word "God" as though we knew what we were talking about. And they do not want anything too critical said about people who really believe in the God of their fathers, because tolerance, perhaps above all else, is sacred. To speak plainly and truthfully about the state of the world - to say, for instance, that the Bible and the Koran both contain mountains of life-destroying gibberish - is antithetical to tolerance as moderates currently conceive it. But we can no longer afford the luxury of such political correctness. We must finally recognize the price we are paying to maintain the iconography of our ignorance." (Sam Harris, The End of Faith - Religion, Terror, and The Future of Reason, p. 22-23)
# 6 The newspapers had every right to publish the cartoons in question but were stupid to do so. One hopes that no such cartoons will appear again in the European press. (Anthony Manduca, The Sunday Times, 12th Feb 2006, calmly brushes away the arguments of the editors of Jyllands-Posten, Die Welt, France Soir and many, many others )
#7 Fish symbols on cars (from The Encyclopedia of Modern Life)
Early Christians used a fish symbol to identify fellow believers during times of persecution. These days, to let people know they are really into Jesus, many Cristians stick a fish sign on the back of their car. Like Baby On Board stickers - but with God-knobs on.
In the US, these symbols have caused belief-system-related mayhem. This is because the symbols don't just mean 'I'm the nice sort of Christian who sometimes distributes hot soup to the homeless', but are more likelt to mean: 'Science is witchcraft and you're all going to hell'. To underline the hard-right/anti-science/anti-abortion intent, some fish contain the word 'Bush' inside indicating that George W. is 'doing God's work'.
Incensed, humanists created their own bumper fish symbols with the word 'Darwin' inside hoping to irritate the Christian right. It worked. They didn't like it. It got nasty. Chris Gilman, the Hollywood special-effects whizz who apparently invented the Darwin-fish, said: 'Here's a religion about forgiveness, peace, and love, but I can't tell you how many times I've heard about Darwin fish being torn off of cars or broken.'
The Christians retaliated with a bumper sticker depicting the Darwin fish being swallowed by a larger 'Jesus', or 'Truth', fish.
The humanists shot back with a reversed version of the sticker.
Then the Ring of Fire website produced a sticker depicting the Darwin fish and the Jesus fish forming 'what Shakespeare jauntily termed the beast with two backs' (they were at it, like knives).
Nothing will wind up a right-wing Christian more than piscine penetration faith denigration. And so it proved, with yet more car park/highway altercations.
Actually, this is possibly a good way finally to settle the evolution/creation debate: a demolition derby on the highway with the loser ending up bleeding in a ditch with bits of car stuck in them.
If the Christians won, they could shout back at the twisted wreckage: 'What's that you said about survival of the fittest? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!' ¶ 4:28 AM
