#scientology is so rich they can buy their way into anything

[darkangel1791]

Tom Cruise's Olympics Closing Ceremony Stunt Wasn't Applauded by Everyone on Social Media

Kristyn Burtt Mon, August 12, 2024

SheKnows Yahoo News

Article and my view on Tom Cruise and Scientology below

Tom Cruise gave the Closing Ceremony at the Paris Olympics a very Hollywood ending when he rappelled down from the top of Stade de France and into the crowd of athletes. It seemed like a picture-perfect ending to the European games as they handed it off to Los Angeles, that is sure to add a touch of Hollywood sparkle in 2028. However, not everyone was pleased with the A-list star’s presence.

Social media jumped into the conversation with mentions of Cruise’s controversial ties to Scientology, which is considered a cult in France. “How does Tom Cruise manage to be held in highest public esteem when he is a leading player in Scientology?!?! I don’t get it at all. Just remarkable,” one user on X questioned the 62-year-old star’s presence at the event. Another account added, “I love how America just acts like Tom Cruise isn’t like the icon of Scientology.” Then, of course, there are his issues with his ex-wives, Nicole Kidman and Katie Holmes.

The social media critic pointed out, “I’m sorry. Tom Cruise stole his adopted children from Nichole Kidman because she didn’t want anything to do with Scientology and his 2nd wife had to plan an escape from the marriage to protect her child from Scientology. THIS is who we chose to represent LA 2028 Olympics?” Even though they forgot Cruise’s first wife, Mimi Rogers, whom he did not have a family with, the point is well taken.

Still, Cruise was a huge presence during the two weeks of the Paris Games. He was seen at gymnastics events and taking selfies with fans — Cruise was doing what he does best, being a movie star. The tousle of the hair, the hop on the motorcycle with the Olympics flag — that’s all Cruise. And that moment became about him, not the athletes who spent the last two weeks competing their hearts out on the field or in the swimming pool. They didn’t seem to mind as they hugged him, grabbed video, and screamed at the mere sight of him.

And the warning was there all along. Le Parisien noted that the Church of Scientology was “more visible than ever” at the games. They built a new headquarters in April very close to the State de France and “deployed a major communication campaign during the Olympics.” The move makes Cruise’s presence seem a little more sinister because, as TMZ reported, the Closing Ceremony stunt was his idea. But we have to ask: Was it really the Church of Scientology’s idea? It makes you wonder.

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When I saw Interview with the Vampire the film (1994) I knew nothing about Tom Cruise beyond the movies he had done. In reading about him after IWTVTF I was under the impression that he was still a Roman Catholic, and I don't think I even knew what Scientology, but it wasn't considered a religion. When Going Clear was released in 2015, I had a new understanding of Scientology, and an instant change in my feeling for Tom Cruise. (Though I still love the film and I still love that Lestat, I now love 3 different Lestats).

Scientology horrified, but intrigued me and I have watched many more documentaries as well as Leah Remini's series.

I have a hate for Scientology that burns with the heat of a thousand suns, and at least 200 of those suns are my hate for Tom Cruise alone.

I have no idea why people still see his movies. I have no idea why he is still invited on talk shows/chat shows. His popularity at this point just baffles me.

So when he does shit like this, I tend to post it. If you don't want to see it block the tags scientology and tomcruisescientologist.

[b0hannon]

Scientology is crazy

Information dump time

I’m not sure if people know about it, but the church of Scientology in Clearwater (Florida) is a pretty big deal. The Scientologists bought a massive historically-significant hotel in the 70’s, right in the middle of the downtown area of a city called Clearwater. They call this property Flag. Clearwater is known for its beautiful beaches and -wait for it- the clear water, it’s always just been a beach to me, but it’s a huge tourist destination. The downtown area is what you pass through to get to the actual beach.

This is Flag:

Some fucked up things have definitely happened here. It’s supposed to be a sort of Scientology beacon, where you can get the best spiritual counseling. One story that I read involved a Scientologist who was spying on the FBI and wanted to turn himself in, so the church kept him in this building for a couple months so he couldn’t do that. Oh, and the entire property is tax-exempt.

Anyways, recently the church has bought a shit ton of the properties of downtown Clearwater, paying small business owners 4 times the value of their properties to leave. And they’re not doing anything with the buildings, there’s just a huge hotel and now a bunch of empty stores surrounding it. The properties’ purchasers are all connected to Scientology. They won’t tell anyone what they plan on doing with the properties, but there has been talk about getting downtown Clearwater renovated for a long time. So the city council members think the church is scooping up properties so they have a say in how Clearwater is developed. All of the properties they bought also form a buffer around the hotel, so there’s argument that the church is just trying to isolate and keep the non-Scientologists out. Either way, downtown is a ghost town now more than ever. The island that has the actual beach is always vibrant and full of life, there’s a pier and surf shops, it’s great (for tourists). But to get there, first you have to pass rows of vacant buildings and groups of pedestrian Scientologists that look like this:

I didn’t even realize that Clearwater was such an important location to Scientologists until recently, but ever since they’ve came to the city they’ve been trying to make it a Scientology haven. Look at this order the FBI dug up:

Does that not seem like some dystopian-level shit? A city close to my home is being turned into a massive complex for a religion that operates solely for money. There’s so much to unpack here but mainly I’m just dumbfounded that rich people are so goddamn stupid they believe they can buy spiritual experiences. I’m amazed that the Scientologists are so greedy they’re willing to drop millions of dollars on properties just to sit on them so they have control of the area.

Also I think Tom Cruise is somehow involved in all of this but I’m not sure where. I think he’s got a penthouse in Clearwater.

I need to get out of Florida guys, this place is insane.

[middleagedangst]

A Penny for your Health?

You see it sitting there, on the countertop positioned conveniently next to the change dispenser. You sometimes reach your hand in and take from it because you’re lazy or selfish. Other times, you’ll empty your hand into it simply because it’s harder to open your pack of Marlboro Lights while carrying out your six-pack of Busch Light with change in your hand. I get it. No judgment here. What is this well of human generosity? The penny tray. Seen in all 50 states in nearly every gas station convenience store. The very idea of it is pretty great. Take a penny, leave a penny. Fucking genius. I mean why not drop a few cents in there anyway? It’s like a pay-it-forward savings account. It’s a way to be a good person while putting in the least amount of actual effort, an important quality of our American social contract. Besides, isn’t it better to help out your fellow man than to totally forget you even have that extra change until you either find it under the couch cushion next to a Dorito of questionable age or even months later in the pocket of last winter’s coat? Shit, it’s only a penny unless you’re one of those really rich motherfuckers that leave something bigger than a nickel.

I can’t remember a time that these trays didn’t exist, and I’m older than the SyFy channel and the original NES. As far as I’m concerned, the penny tray is a part of America, like NASCAR and cheating on your taxes. And the funny thing about it is anyone can use it, regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, place in the economic strata, whatever gender pronoun you are, etc., without so much as an utterance of disdain or unfairness. It’s true. Never once have I seen protest from the skinheads, or the Black Panthers, Westbrook Baptists, the anti-war hippies, the ACLU, not even fucking Scientology. Nobody gives a flying rat’s ass that these things exist. So why the fuck can’t we have this same outlook on other things that might actually be of some use for the nation as a whole? Like, say, healthcare.

Healthcare coverage in the U.S. is pretty fucked up when you think about it. People usually get the best options through their employer, but just like friends with benefits, it starts out great but sooner or later it comes with some strings attached. For one, employers don’t have to offer group rates, or even offer coverage to employees working part-time or doing contract work. Even then if you do get coverage through your employer and you have a pre-existing condition, like diabetes, then the insurance company can tell you to get bent and deny service. Even better, when you do have insurance but they conveniently deny paying for treatment because something is out of network, or not covered by your plan as stated in the fine print that nobody reads. And don’t get me started on dental insurance. The people that usually need it the most, the poor and the elderly on fixed incomes, have trouble affording it and oftentimes rely on cut-rate plans or Medicaid (which has plenty of its own faults). On top of all this, private insurance doesn’t do a damn thing when it comes to controlling costs, because why can’t the medical and pharmaceutical industries rake in a fuck-ton of money from a chemically dependent consumer base that’s getting bent over and prison raped from a lack of options. It’s an awful lot like a strong arm robbery just for the privilege to get treated when you think about it. That’s capitalism’s influence for you. Anything else is unAmerican and downright evil, right?

There has been a lot of debate on what we can do as a nation and body politic that can help millions get healthcare that isn’t frustratingly shitty and increasingly expensive. For starters, some believe we should just leave the shit as it is and not change anything. Let the free markets reign supreme and the weak will die off leaving a healthy race of super citizens. Under this solution, you are free to choose the insurance company you want to pay your ransom to and they handle the rest. The companies dictate how much you pay and how much they pay or if they pay for any service or medication. Have you ever tried to negotiate what you actually get for your money? No? Didn’t think so. This solution is American as fuck so the argument should stop here, but what fun would that be just listening to one option and calling it a day. That’s like watching the same news channel all day.

Another solution is a more socialist approach in which you pass a law that levies a tax on all Americans earning income and then whatever government bureaucracy is in charge of the money pays out benefits to all Americans. The will of the people can then, through representation, effectively bargain for better prices and more expansive coverage because at that point our tax money is the only game in town. See, I know that’s not the American way, that’s the way of the rest of the civilized world’s way and how can the United States be special if we do the same shit the rest of the developed world does? We can't, and that’s why that commie shit isn’t welcome here.

Now I dare ask the question, what’s the fucking difference? Really. What is it? Because as far as I can tell, both possible solutions are the fucking same. You pay money into a big pot, where there are people hired or appointed into positions that control the money and payouts are dispersed on an as needed basis. When you get a bill from a hospital or doctor’s office and you only owe a fraction of the total, where do you think that money comes from? It sure as hell isn’t all the money you paid the company because that would be more like a rainy day savings account. No, other people paid their monthly bill allowing more money to be used for you. Everyone paying money to the insurance company helped you pay that bill. And just like the tray at the gas station, you’re okay with that. Sometimes, the insurance company doesn’t want to pay that much. Maybe it was an unhealthy month and there were a lot of claims, or the board didn’t think you were worth saving. Who knows. Either way, your bill was subsidized by your fellow policyholders. So to everyone that likes to say that they don’t want to pay for someone else’s healthcare “cuz, this is Amurica, and that’s commeynism,”- shut the fuck up because if you have insurance or pay taxes, you already do.

Can someone explain to me how buying healthcare coverage is different than paying a tax for the exact same or possibly even better outcome? Is the fact that you voluntarily pay money to a business for a servi™ce mean that you are freer? I can’t wrap my mind around how just because it's a business doesn’t mean the concept isn't a socialist idea. It just is.

Maybe there is a difference. Perhaps that difference is that a private corporation operates with profit in mind. These entities, especially in this day and age with boards of directors and publicly traded stock have more incentives to make money, meaning higher prices and fewer expenditures. Now, I’ll grant you that the government can be real fucking dumb, but these corporations are profiting on your desire to not be fucking sick while maintaining the right to deny coverage for any reason. Pre-existing condition? Fuck you, you’re a high priced liability. Cancer? We’ll pay some but you’re still getting stuck with a bill you most likely can’t afford. Want to see a healthcare provider that’s out of network? Fuck you too. These insurance companies can be real fucking assholes sometimes. In my opinion, by supporting this system, you give a tacit agreement to this shit continuing. So you’re an asshole too. Sorry. Guilt by association.

I’m not saying government-funded healthcare is perfect. Far from it. Especially with the current government we have. They’ve lost money before and most likely will again. They’ve borrowed from social security. They’ve been openly corrupt. I get it. We shouldn’t really trust these motherfuckers with much, but it could be better than what we have now. The people united and holding those in power accountable through elections and protests. It is, after all, the job of the government to work for the people, for their betterment and safety, to regulate commerce between the states, and to work towards a common goal. All of those things government tax-funded healthcare can provide. Remember finishing the pledge of allegiance with “liberty and justice for all?” Think about the liberty you’d have not having to worry about the cost of being sick and the justice knowing that your fellow American chips in to help his neighbor because it is the morally correct and just thing to do. It still falls short of utopian but at least it's a step in the right direction. Do I think everything should be covered under the people’s insurance? No. I don’t. Sorry, but your penile implant will just have to wait until you can pay cash.

The health of the people shouldn’t be a for-profit industry. It belongs outside the realm of normal capitalist behavior. Healthcare is something that benefits us all. And the healthier the nation is, the more productive, the happier, and better off we can all be. Right now, the healthy are the ones who can afford it. Is that right? Depends on who you ask. Is it just? Not in what should be a united, civilized people. How can us Americans sit by and watch our fellow citizens fall sick, stay sick, and possibly die and not think that the system has failed somehow? It’s morally bankrupt. Also never forget that we as a nation pay more per person on average than many of the other countries with socialized medicine. So even at the very least, socialized medicine can save you a buck or two. And who doesn’t like to save money? It’s certainly less time consuming than clipping fucking coupons.

So just like the little penny tray, a new system of healthcare can be a benefit to everyone, not just those that can afford it already. You put in a little and other times take what you need without questions. It’s there when you need it and can make your day just that much easier. Let’s, as Americans, make the tray just a bit bigger and make things a little better for everyone. You’re already doing it and just didn’t realize it, comrade.

[dracarysbitch]

tagged by @ayzrules​ （*/∇＼*）ｷｬ  thanks so much for the tag!!!!   ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)ﾉ⌒♡*:･。.

o Name: Clara o Star sign: Scorpio o Height: 160cm o Put your iTunes or Spotify on shuffle:

Funny Girl by Laura Rizzotto

Shinzo we Sasageyo! by Linked Horizon

Lost in You by Lena

Natsu’s Theme by Yasuharu Takanashi

My Empire - Acoustic by Emmelie de Forest

Eurovision and anime, shocking exactly no one. Also, can you believe that like all of Fairy Tail’s ost is available on spotify? When Yuki Hayashi finally uploads Haikyuu and Bnha ost to spotify, my life will be complete! o Who is your celebrity crush? Like, how long you got? But Top 3 is probably Chris Evans, Rebecca Ferguson, and Bruna Marquezine.

o What’s a sound you hate and a sound you love? high heel sounds for me too! I finally found a pair that I can wear without dying, and the feeling of power that courses through my veins! I feel so powerful and so good! It’s really a confidence boost, and makes me feel better than other people when I’m making the noise.

The sound I CAN’T FUCKING STAND is the shuffling noise this guy at my office does, and he never fucking just sits down! Every 30 seconds he’s shuffling around, and he’s hogging like everyone’s desks and always places his papers and files everywhere! Anyway, the sound I hate is the shuffling noise he makes when he walks. Like quit dragging your feet and walk like an adult, you’re older than my dad!

o Do you believe in ghosts? no

o How about aliens? not in tin foil hat, bullshit Scientology type conspiracies. But the universe is to big for us to be the only planet with living organisms on it. To think we are is human arrogance, and why the aliens never visit us! ‘Cause we’re assholes and we suck!

o Do you drive? Yeppers, got my G2, and one more test to go before my full license, after which I can drive wherever, whenever (I can drive mostly whenever, wherever now, but there are some more rules. the G2 is essentially the highway driving test). I don’t drive that often though, ‘cause we only have one car, and daddy works far away, so he needs the car more. Also, it’s his car.

o What was the last book you read? I read some paw patrol books to my cousin the other day. I remember nothing about what happened in them though. I also already forgot their names. Raider? Patch? Pretty sure I made that last one up. Sky or Skylar is the girl puppy who flies in a very transformers-esque way. For myself, I reread the Lays of Beleriand again a few weeks ago, because I am a nerd. And thus in anguish Beren paid, for that great upon him laid... *trails off*

o Do you like the smell of gasoline? No. Super fucking hate it. Filling the gas of my own fucking car gives me a headache. When I was little, I used walk around in the convenience store whilst papa was filling up the car so that I wouldn’t get sick, even when all the windows were all closed, I would still get a whiff of the scent and get sick from it. Part of that might’ve been psychosomatic, some of it might’ve been how cars were built in the late 90′s-early aughts. I remember being more or less okay in the car 2008-ish onwards? Idk. It’s only problematic again now ‘cause sometimes I fill up ze car. Oh Lordi, when will I become rich so that I can finally buy a Tesla?

o What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had? Nothing ever serious. AH! I was playing by cousin’s (a different cousin from the one mentioned before) balcony when I was little, and sliced my hand on something sharp in the gap. We still don’t know what it was. It just bleed a lot, I don’t think I needed stitches. OH WAIT! I remember! When I was even younger, like 2-3, I stabbed my cheek with my sister’s pencil! I needed stitches for it. Cried a lot, still have a little scar on my face. It’s super small and not really visible unless you’re right in my face, or touching it, but it der.  

o Do you have an obsession right now? BOKU NO HERO ACADEMIA AND HAIKYUU! Okay, it’s been a few months of bnha, and years of hq for me, but yeah, those are me current number one’s. I just started watching Saiki Kusuo no Ψ-nan, and because I don’t know how to enjoy anything in moderation, I’m obsessing over it right now. Of course, I’m still Disney/Marvel’s hoe. Literally wearing a marvel shirt right now (it says “I woke up super.” I didn’t, but whatever).

o Do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong? eternally. I’m super bad at forgiving, but I also suck at confrontation, so I usually just push all that down and maintain a happy face whilst actively avoiding the person for the next century.

o In a relationship? does *insert 6000000 fictional character names here* count? (yeah, no, I am not. Except with my laptop, you’ll never leave me right dell?)

tagging: @kzombi3 @thethiefofyou​ @cupcakeparody​ @themonsterslut​ @turquoisesiren​ @hq-volleybabes​ @maybones and anyone else who would like to do this.

[movieswithkevin27]

Repo Man

Born out of the counter-culture revolution, Alex Cox's Repo Man is a cynical, madcap, and absolutely absurd critique of the world of 1984 made by a man who had very little he liked and a very nihilistic view of the world around him. Set in small town California with young rebel Otto (Emilio Estevez) unwittingly having to remove his oversized earrings to become a repo man alongside Bud (Harry Dean Stanton), Repo Man is the kind of cultural critique that hits every possible area of American life to the point that it becomes a bit much. Fortunately, Repo Man's frantic pace, wacky plot, and delightfully odd characters, make it a film that as hard to resist as being offered by speed by a middle aged repo man as you cruise around town talking being repo men. Honestly, no film may better sum up 1980s cinema than Repo Man. Goofy effects, douchey young adults, Harry Dean Stanton, inventive ideas, and an anti-consumerist undercurrent running throughout the film.

Using the repo man profession as an entry into this wacky science fiction comedy, Repo Man is interesting in how little it actually focuses on science fiction. Aside from a few mentions of aliens or the possibility of getting a Chevy Malibu as a repo (which is the car carrying those aliens), much of this film is just Otto, Bud, and Lite (Sy Richardson) picking up cars. As a result, Cox is able to mock and criticize the consumerist culture we have in America. With people constantly pissed off at the fact their car is being taken even though it is their fault, Repo Man sets the tone by showing just how dumb people can really be. The poor buy cars they cannot afford or need. The rich buy cars and feel superior to having to pay them. To Cox, both of these sides are idiotic and those who get upset about losing their car in a repo deserve to get their ass whooped by a gang of repo men with bats. Yet, the reason is not because of capitalist ideology or anything of the like. Instead, it is based upon one's word. As Bud states, credit is the only thing in this world that really matters. It separates us from the communists, yes, and Cox clearly does not like communism as he openly mocks it and the idea of things being "free", but the obligation to pay in the mind of Repo Man is not out of making the economy work. Rather, it is because somebody gave you money to buy something, thus you must pay them back. Credit shows how trustworthy a person is to return that money and, to the film, that defines a person's character. Somebody with bad credit is a bad person and vice versa. By not having credit as a way to determine somebody's trustworthiness, it makes communism inherently bad.

That said, in true nihilistic fashion, Cox hardly appreciates capitalism either. Critiquing the hustling televangelist who has Otto's parents in a trance and demands thousands of dollars in the name of God or by simply having Otto lament about television shows where people just consume, consume, and consume, Repo Man is a film that rails against consumerism and, by extension, capitalism. Showing the stress on society of a culture defined by what you have, the film shows the lengths people have resorted to as a result. With people not paying their cars, engaging in carjacking, or shooting people over repossessing their car, this car becomes an extension of who they are and how they define themselves, making it a personal affront to take it or to put obstacles in the way of them owning the car. This blase attitude to purchasing, in spite of consumerism, is really exemplified in the group of kids who go around engaging in robberies. Robbing the same store repeatedly, stealing the Chevy Malibu, and constantly questioning authority, the group is morally opposed to buying things, lest they appear poor. By stealing, they still get to identify themselves as members of this capitalist society and, by extension, as adults.

To a comedic degree, Repo Man consistently demonstrates just how immature these characters are by simply showing their interactions with one another. With criminals Duke (Dick Rude) and Debbi (Jennifer Balgobin) robbing stores, the two seem to really gel only when committing crimes. In one line, Duke demonstrates his maturity level by looking at Debbi and saying, "Let's go get sushi and not pay." Juvenile and a child's definition of living life on the edge and not paying, these robberies clearly make him and Debbi feel like adults. It gives them some control and a semblance of an adult life in spite of their childish surroundings and behavior. Underscoring these actions as ones from a wannabe adult, Cox shows Duke asking Debbi to "have my baby" with the reasoning that it is what people seem to do from what he has noticed. These are lost kids, trying to find meaning in a world without any. By the time they are adults, the television-obsessed and consumerist adults have demonstrated two things has being marks of adulthood: having things and having kids. Who can blame these kids for then becoming materialist and young parents? To their childish minds, those are the only two things that matter and with them both secured, their status as adults would be confirmed.

Lashing out at every power that be in the world around him, Alex Cox demonstrates a willingness to take on both Christianity and Scientology in Repo Man. Bud expressly forbids Christians from being in his car and numerous people recommend the book Diaretix (a clear play on Dianetics), citing it as a life changing book. Mocking the spread of Scientology in Los Angeles and demonstrating a resentment to organized religion as a whole, Repo Man is a film that shows religious folks as being gullible suckers ready to waste their money on pointless fundraising for televangelists, instead of actually using it for smart purposes. With great contempt for those that are religious, Repo Man has the likelihood of offending those who do believe in God, but as a believer myself, the film never truly feels malicious. If anything, it largely takes aim at those who are akin to zombies with religion, much like Otto's parents. Unquestioning and simply floating by waiting for a pastor to tell them what to do next, these mindless zombies are truly dangerous beings, prone to beg you to donate to providing Bibles to El Salvador or leaving Bible verse tips at a restaurant. Cox's frustration is clearly at religion as a whole - as evidenced by Bud allowing no exceptions to his Christian ban in his car - but feels aimed at a specific segment of the religious population that pushes religion on others and refuse to actually think critically about religion.

In presenting its counter-culture nihilism, Repo Man is prone to the same problem that all nihilistic works encounter: self-assurance. In critiquing everybody else, it is impossible to not wish for Cox to be knocked off of his high horse a bit. To this film, everybody else is wrong, stupid, and lunatics. The government is covering up aliens. The youth are stupid and immature. Religious people are hypnotized morons. The general population is materialistic, valuing goods over other people. Incredibly know-it-all and confident that it is correct on all fronts, Repo Man's assured position can be rather grating at times with Cox's film coming off as a manifesto about everything he feels to be wrong in society. Oozing with superiority, Repo Man is one of those anti-consumerist films that is so angry with everybody else's faults that it forgets that it is a Hollywood-funded film released to make money for a megastudio. While the film works and is blast to watch, the irony of its creation seems to be lost on the film. In fairness, to what degree Cox is mocking those who complain about everybody and everything due to their own inadequacy is certainly a matter of debate. There is certainly a perilous balance between the two walked by the film, which it does not always walk perfectly between whiny anti-everybody nihilism and tongue-in-cheek nihilism.

Quintessential 1980s, Repo Man is a cultural critique about the world of 1984 as seen by Alex Cox. A bit grating at times as the film's character just lash out at everything Cox hates about the world, it is nearly impossible to not come away wondering if there is anything he does like. That said, the film is so entertaining, smartly scripted, and funny, it is equally impossible to not come away enjoying Repo Man. A terrific cast, good writing, and a unique plot make Repo Man one of those one-of-a-kind film experiences that seems to get crazier and crazier as it goes on with its overall quality only getting better-and-better with each step off the ledge that it takes.

[lids-flutter-open]

more character development for an evil teacher from my book under the cut, sorry if ur on mobile

 Okay tv show

 Open on JULES VERNON HOLMES, at home in his kitchen. JULES is 36, with thinning brown curly hair. He has a pinched look to his face, because he recently lost eighteen pounds in three months. He wears glasses when he teaches high school history, but he is not wearing them now. The kitchen is cramped and made of a series of brown uniform prefab cabinets. There are no dishes in the sink and the counters are clean except for a piece of buttered toast without a napkin that sits next to the sink with one bite taken out of it. A long garland of garlic and onions hangs over the window like a party decoration. It is dark outside, and rain spatters the glass. JULES is standing on one leg in his kitchen, bracing his hip against the edge of the formica counter while he scratches at his calf with his bare right foot. He is wearing underwear and a T-shirt emblazoned with the name of a diner. He is struggling to open a pickle jar.

The phone rings from the next room. JULES starts, and his hand slips on the lid. He looks over at the oven. The clock on the oven displays the time as 12:18. JULES glances in the direction of the next room and scowls. He runs his tongue over his top teeth inside his lip, and does not move towards the ringing phone. JULES puts new effort into opening the jar of pickles. Across the room, there is a framed group photograph of college-age men standing with oars on the bank of a river. It includes JULES sixteen years before, when he was a member of his university’s rowing team. He is smiling; his arms are larger in the photo than they are in real life.

JULES opens the pickle jar with a pop. The phone is still ringing. There is only one pickle and a number of garlic cloves left at the bottom of the jar. He digs into the jar with his fingers, stretching his hand, and puts a garlic clove into his mouth.

 EXERCISE 2

 Jules was caught again by the display of different kinds of canned soup. He stood with his shopping basket on the linoleum tiles and held two cans of tomato soup in front of his face, studying the ingredients. One had cream and one had milk. There was another can of tomato soup on the shelf before him that had lentils in it, too. When he was younger there had only been one kind of canned tomato soup in every grocery store, or two. There were eighteen different things in front of him, all with different caloric and fat content. Jules was paralyzed. He put the soup with cream back on the shelf, and then picked it up again. It had higher fat content. Jules measured his blood pressure every morning before he ate breakfast. He threw the can into the cart, thinking that it would be better to eat real food than to find some watery diet version and be dissatisfied and end up binging on chips and peanut butter in the middle of the night. He would get the low sugar juice to compensate.

A man approached Jules in the aisle. He was older, and wore a gray sweatshirt and gym shorts. His shoes were dirty sneakers.

               “Excuse me,” he said to Jules. “Sir I don’t mean to bother you, but I’ve got no way else to do this, my daughter has a baby at home and we’re here to buy formula but it’s 37 dollars and they don’t let me put that on my credit card and I’m out of my EBT for the month.”

               Jules, whose mind had been in an alternate dimension of calories and aspartame and ideal blood pressure, jumped when he realized the man was speaking to him.

               “I’m sorry?”

               “Sir, it’s like a thing at this store, they don’t let you buy the formula with credit cards because some people just charge it on a stolen card, and I don’t have enough cash, and my EBT is all out for the month. But we have a baby at home and we need the formula, we’re all out. It’s my daughter. I wouldn’t ask for anything normally, I’m not that kind of man. Sir, I’m a military veteran, I served in Vietnam.”

               “Uh,” Jules said. He was not sure whether to look at the man’s eyes or not. “I don’t know what you’re asking me. I don’t have a lot of cash on me. I can give you a couple dollars.” He remembered he had only a fifty and a ten in his wallet, and tried to change tacks. “I think there’s an ATM outside the store to get money from a bank account.”

               “I don’t get paid till Friday,” the man said. “I don’t have money in my account.”

               “Oh,” Jules said. “Well, that’s—I’m sorry. And your daughter doesn’t have cash either?”

               “She’s at home with the baby,” the man said. “I didn’t want to ask her to come. Her husband left her and she’s saving as much as she can. Please, I just have to buy some infant formula for her.”

               Jules glanced desperately back at the soup, and then accidentally made eye contact with the man. He hated the way it made him feel to think of moving away down the empty aisle. He looked in his wallet and dug in it. His fingers hesitated on the ten and then took the fifty and thrust it at the man. “Good luck, sir,” he found himself saying. He couldn’t look into the man’s eyes. Jules already felt the sweat dripping down his back and a pillow of guilt emerging in his solar plexus, simultaneously related to giving the man too much money and at the same time to not being able to look in his eyes.

               “Thank you, sir, god bless you,” the man said. “I’m Boris. My name’s Boris. You’re a good man, you know that? Thank you, this means a lot. I won’t forget it.”

               “It’s no,” Jules said, and stopped, because it really was a problem. “I’m Jules. I hope you’re okay and the baby’s okay.”

               “We’re all getting by,” the man said.

               Night came. Jules’ cupboards were lined with the cans of tomato soup. He took an Ambien to sleep and then wandered around the house, looking out the windows.

                  Jules is holding the receiver of the phone up to his ear.

               “How have you been, then?” Jules says into the phone. He is still wearing the collared shirt and tie he wore to work. The papers he is grading are spread out on the table in front of him. He wants to make the kids excited about the grimy parts of history and he wants to make them understand the reasons their state developed the way it did.

               “Well, after the crash I’ve been just eating like frozen dinners,” Michelle says on the other end. “My arm is in the sling and all.”

               “Crash?” Jules tries to remember anything about a crash from the last time he and Michelle talked two weeks ago.

               “Mom said she called you. She didn’t?”

               “No,” Jules says. “Well, maybe if I was at work, but she didn’t call back.”

               “You don’t ever check your messages. I got in a motorcycle accident, isn’t that funny? Okay, it doesn’t sound funny, but here’s the context: I ran into an ice cream truck that didn’t signal and I literally flew over the top of the truck into the street and there were like four kids staring with their mouths open and one dropped his ice cream. I love like the mental image of everyone’s faces, it’s gonna bring me joy till the day I die.”

               “Michelle! Jesus!”

“My boss let me have the time off, it’s one of the good things about working as a nanny for a nice family, there’s no regular hassle about taking sick leave cuz she knows me. She’s even giving me a week’s pay, which like, must be nice to be rich, right? She’s so sweet though, and the baby’s so sweet.”

               “I warned you about that motorcycle,” Jules says. “Didn’t you already crash on a motorcycle a year ago?”

               “That time was worse. I got thrown into a tree! I mean, I was on more a path than a road. It was dumb. This time it wasn’t my fault, the ice cream company is even gonna give me compensation maybe if I can figure out a lawyer.”

               “You could seriously die, Michelle. Just get a car.”

               “I mean, I may have to. For now I’m using Mom’s.”

               “How is she getting around? Are you driving with, what, a broken arm? Why does nobody ever catch me up on this shit?”

               “Because you’re like this,” Michelle says. “And you don’t call, either. If you called Mom once a week you’d know what’s going on with everyone.”

               “You know how I feel about Mom,” Jules says. “I know you’ve sort of mended your relationship with her, but I still can’t forgive her. Especially after how she treated you and Ed when we were kids.”

               “Whatever, Jules,” Michelle says. Jules can see her rolling her eyes. “She’s here now and who knows for how long we’ll have her, you know? She’s a good person. I know she and you fought last month again, but just let it slide. She is how she is, and anyway she’s a lot better now. She just has her weird manias sometimes. She didn’t mean it about the nose job. She’s working at a paper here, you know. Or a gazette I guess. It’s about seafood restaurants. She’s working and getting up every day and she’s a decent, pleasant person. You can’t hold a grudge forever. She has all kinds of fun friends now too from her weird weed group. They’re really fun, there’s this gay truck driver who drops in whenever he’s in the city and has a ton of stories.”

               “This is crazy. I’m not going to talk to her. You said last year—do you remember what you said? Do you remember Mima’s funeral?”

               “So she got a little drunk. You can’t expect her to be well behaved at her ex husband’s mother’s funeral.”

               “So why did she even go?”

               “She just likes to have some fun. Like me. She’s just a little more messed up. Think about it this way, Jules, at least she left Scientology. Imagine if she’d stayed in it and we’d been raised like that. She’s gonna deal with this stuff the rest of her life but she’s like, in general a functional person. And she paints. It’s nice to have a mom who paints.”

               “She paints aliens.”

“How are your students? Are you teaching them about how to be good little mini George Bushies?”

“Michelle, so, I’m going to get off the phone now. I have papers to grade and I’m not having this conversation. I will say that I love you and I am asking you to please get a car, or take the bus, or something. I’m going to have nightmares about you on that motorcycle.”

“I could get a little quad. You know, four wheels.”

“Are you able to shop for yourself? Do you need anything?”

               “Jules, we’re really all right here.” Michelle takes a thin breath and Jules hears her exhale and imagines her smoking a cigarette on the balcony of his mother’s apartment in Seattle.

[contemporaryissuesgroup-blog]

24: Movie Review of “Religulous”

The movie “Religulous” is a comedic documentary, hosted by Bill Maher, in which the religions of Christianity (primarily), Judaism, and Islam are rigorously questioned. Though the questions are simple and seem to be practical, they totally contradict the religions in question, and the religious members tend to become frustrated with the questions. Maher also goes over typical themes related to these religions such as, religion and money, homosexuality and religion, miracles, religion and nationalism, and different sects of Christianity. He criticizes these things, often pointing out their impracticality or contradiction with science, by directly confronting religious followers who believe in these things. Though Maher’s argument for Atheism seems to makes sense from a material standpoint, it is one sided and he does not consider religion as a beneficial thing whatsoever. He points out contradictions and man-made beliefs in the religion and criticizes them as well, yet he doesn't consider any beneficial aspects to religion. His argument is convincing, but it isn't complete and open. He critiques religion, but not for the spiritual benefits or the good morals it teaches us. In the beginning of the documentary, Maher goes to a church where he asks the members: Do you get bothered by things in Christianity that aren’t in the Bible? The small church has faces of confusion, surprise, and frustration. Bill Maher further elaborates that things like original sin, immaculate conception, and virgin birth aren’t even in the Bible, yet they believe these things as if they were in the Bible, and the word of God. Some members of the church are immediately angered by this and leave, not even willing to be open to the question. The ones who do stay have trouble answering the question and become frustrated; answering this question in terms of faith, or horrible scientific explanations to try to prove that Jesus was born from a virgin. Here we can see that Maher is promoting doubt in the followers of the religion, and is blatantly trying to point out to them the flaws in their ways of worshiping. Next, Maher touches on the topic or religion and how it is related to money, interviewing a wealthy priest. Bill suggest that people donate to the church out of generosity, and the priest takes that money, which was morally given to the church, and rather then investing it back into the church or community, he uses it from himself. When confronted with this, he tries to argue that if you practice Christianity correctly, the money will simply follow. Here, the priest is trying to pose the idea that he had nothing to do with his riches, it was more like a gift from God because he was so good at practicing Christianity. Of course, Maher doesn't buy this claim, and ironically the priest showed up to the interview with a very expensive, and personally tailored, suit. Maher is trying to point out the corruption in the church, and how some priests take advantage of the good act of generosity and turn it into a money making tool. Moving on, Maher tries to snuff out the assertion that homosexuality is morally wrong in the eyes of God, for goes to a conversion therapy clinic and questions the “previously” gay manager how he believes this therapy works. Bill argues that having a sexual attraction is uncontrollable and natural, so gay people are naturally gay and it is not a matter of decision or life mistakes. So, he also points out, it is no surprise that this “conversion therapy” actually doesn't work, because to change a natural attraction to the same sex is impossible. Furthermore, Maher points out to this manager that the idea of homosexuality being wrong is in the Old Testament, but Jesus never said anything about homosexuality in the New Testament even though some Christians take this idea as the word of Jesus. The manager of the conversion therapy clinic tries to come up with counter arguments, however they are illogical and really aren't strong at all.   Bill Maher addresses the idea of religion being related to miracles, saying that they are really all coincidences or fiction. To support this claim, he asks a Christian man about the miracles he claims to have experienced. He claims he has had many miracles happen to him, but he discuses one, where he holds out a cup and wishes for rain, then it does. Of course, Bill Maher laughs at this, saying that it is just coincidence, for it is obvious that rain falls from the sky and it just so happened to at that moment. Then, he asks the same man: If you want to be with God, why not kill yourself? The man replies with the assertion that everyone has a mission that God whats them to carry out much like the mission of Jonah. He begins to explain the story of Jonah, saying he lived inside a large fish for three days. Before he can finish, Maher, of course, interrupts him to point out how bizarre and unreal that would be. In this section of the film, Maher is really attempting to question the realness of these religious miracles and stories, for they either seem like coincidence or fiction according to him. To continue, Maher addresses the issue of religion and nationalism intertwining, saying these things should not mix. He makes note of the founding fathers of our country, which were very clear that church and state should be separated, and gave quotes from the founding fathers bashing religion and how it is useless to government. Yet, nowadays we seem to mix these two things together, with campaign slogans like: “A vote for me is a vote for Jesus!” But the founding fathers realized that there is a difference between being American and being Christian, however many think that America is a “Christian” nation.  What Maher is trying to point out is the fact that religion can be used as a tool to manipulate people into voting a certain way, but religion and government was designed to be separated in our country. When we see campaign slogans like, “A vote for me is a vote for Jesus,” really they are manipulating the people into thinking he or she is morally good because of there religion. Though Bill Maher strongly criticizes Christianity for most of the documentary, he also briefly criticizes Scientology, the American bias and racism of Mormonism, Judaism, and Islam. Particularly to Islam, much like the Bible, he criticizes statements in the Quran which seem to be dangerous if interoperated literally. Maher talks to Muslims about the violence seen in the Quran and they tend to respond with the claim that most Muslims are peaceful and it is just a matter of interpretation. He also talks about the current events dealing with Islamic fundamentalism In the documentary, Maher brings up many issues in religion that I agree with such as, the ridiculous rejection of homosexuality in some of the Christian community, the bizarre stories in the Bible, and that religion and nationalism should not mix. For these claims, Bill Maher has a pretty strong argument supported by science and reasoning. For example, I would agree that attraction to the same sex is natural, for when we are attracted to someone we really don't have control over it. So, in the case of conversion therapy, I agree with Bill that it does not actually work, for it is impossible to strip yourself of something you were born with. When it comes to the stories in the Bible, I think they are mostly metaphors to get a point across, however, I agree with Maher when he criticizes the literal belief in these stories, which the man in the documentary seemed to do. The fact that Jonah lived in a large fish for three days is unreal, unless the world was profoundly different when he existed, and I don't believe it was. This story was most likely supposed to be a myth, that got the point across that Jonah had a mission from God that he carried out, but nothing more. Additionally, Bill creates strong arguments to suggest that nationalism should not mix with religion, using the founding fathers as evidence, for the very men who started our country believed they should be separate. This further convinced me that church and state should be totally separated. Of course, Maher brings up more claims about religion and the ridiculousness of it, which I also agree with, these are just a few. Though Bill Maher’s argument is convincing, I do not whole heartedly agree with it. I think it is very one sided, for he doesn't consider any of the good things religion can give people. Really, it is a matter of interpretation when it comes to most of the religions he talks about, and, yes, there are lots of bizarre, violent, and hateful things in the Bible and Quran, but there are also messages of peace, love, and compassion for others as well. I believe that these things are beneficial, and I also believe that many people look past all of the negative things in their Holy Books, and take what is good from it. If you interoperate the scripture in this way, and many probably do, I don't think there is anything wrong with religion. Bill Maher doesn't take this into consideration, his goal was just to bash on religion and not expose any positivity in it. Yes, Maher is right when he says that religion has many fictional things in it, but from these fictional stories, if not interpreted literally, there is good that can come from it. Additionally, he only questions a handful of religions, yet seems to make the claim that all religion is bad, which is jumping to a conclusion too quickly. Maher doesn't take into consideration the thousands of other religions in the world, yet asserts that all of them are impractical or wrong. Notice, for example, he doesn't touch on religions such as Buddhism, which kindness, love, and compassion for others are central to the religion, and enlightenment and a non-materialistic life are encouraged. For a religion like this, though they may also have fictional stories, many of his arguments would not apply because the Buddhism is accepting, advocates for generosity, and practices non-violence, similar to Hinduism as well. When it comes to his analysis of the people he interviews in the Christian faith, I agree with him, but to claim that, from these interviews, all religion is useless and all the people participating in it are wrong, is not valid and therefore not a strong argument.

[psycho-cybernaut-blog]

New Media, New Liberty

The internet allows people to come together and manifest a common goal. It also allows for individuals to express whatever they want, wherever they want. Compared to old media, we have transgressed geographical boundaries and through hyper speed connection, we can share them easily. The old media didn’t do that; newspapers and TV’s were controlled by an organization, filtered through groups of people. As of right now, we possess the ability to express any of our ideas while being able to access an endless sea of knowledge. However, with this freedom comes a responsibility so high that the government doesn’t fully trust the public with. With the altruistic, free sharing of data to the people using new media, there comes an unjust, overseeing power that forbids the freedom of many.

What differentiates new media from old media is the logic. According to Lev Manovich in “The Language of New Media”, Manovich defines new media as “post-industrial”, with logic of “individual customization, rather than mass standardization” (Manovich, 30). With the mass integration of diverse ideas in a space so localized that’s it fits into your pocket-sized phone, our ability to translate and transform our own opinions onto something internationally accessible becomes much more possible. For example, it’s a lot more difficult to personally customize a channel on TV, but it’s a lot easier to create your own YouTube channel. Before new media, people got their outside, current information was from reading the news and watching TV. Both broadcast information to a wide audience, but now the tide has turned where the public are the owners of the information they themselves want to broadcast.

In new media, programming has become a popular tool for inventors alike. Programming gives the people the tools to recreate ideas and inspirations and express them online, similar to how Aaron Schwartz used Rich Site Summary (RSS) as a tool to enable online publishers to syndicate their data automatically, and led to the invention of the popular social media network Reddit. By tinkering with new technology, especially the internet, people can take a bigger part in building the world. This is how cyberspace came to be what it is today – full of individual ideas synthesized with others to invent new ones. The internet can work as a creative outlet; everybody has a channel – like a blog or a Facebook page – whereas old media has only TV channels. In this sense, everyone is allowed to speak, it just becomes a question of who gets heard, and who becomes silenced.

The internet is a humongous library condensed online. It allows us to get public access to public domains. But in the beginning, “confidential” information that was in court trials were so hard-to-access and expensive. For example, Pacer.gov was an open-access website that had interesting information, but entering was pretty pricey. At the time, there was debate whether information like that should be given freely to the people or “owned” by those in power. Controversy over what information should be public or private is still an ongoing dispute between public domains like social media and private ones such as the National Security Agency, NSA for short.

The NSA got a foothold on the people privacy’s after the 9/11 attacks. Although the NSA claims they are doing it for the safety of the American people, there are some boundaries they cross that are not constitutionally acceptable. A recent, major story was broadcasted where information that the NSA was spying on millions in the U.S was leaked out by Edward Snowden, former NSA agent. This is done through linkability – the ability for the government to link up people’s data in their daily lives. For example, if someone swipes their debit card at the train, the government can link up all of the data that the debit card has been through. Essentially, the government can track where they go, what they buy, even who they hang out with by comparing it to other people with similar travel patterns. By linking up multiple sources of data, the government can condense it into “metadata” which are a list of facts that may not necessarily be true but can still be used evidence in a trial one is convicted in. This gives the NSA an incentive to investigate almost anyone, no matter how minuscule the relation is. Snowden explains that before the internet was inspected by the NSA, people would freely express themselves. Afterwards, growing terror of being surveilled caused the imprisonment of many people’s curiosity. Now, it can be the imprisonment of people with the justification of them being a possible terrorist. Once Snowden exposed the injustice, people became more mindful of the privacy way they were battling in. People began to realize that what people used to call liberty and freedom is what people now call privacy. So, if the people’s privacy is endangered, then the people’s liberty are also at stake.

In another case, the FBI targeted young Aaron Schwartz when he was found tinkering with MIT’s data to access Jstor.com’s information network, which was described as unnecessarily expensive at the time. Aaron saw this as injustice: sharing knowledge was a moral imperative. Those who have access to exclusive information, like a college student’s paid database, are privileged and should share it to those who are in need of knowledge such as people in Third World countries. Yet, Aaron was still indicted with multiple charges even though he did not do anything with the data he discovered. It was the government’s need to make an example out of Aaron – to show to all the other hackers. That was the real incentive, not breaking the law.

However, with the power of the internet, people can create changes to this unjust system.  Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), an act proposed to attack copyright infringement by enforcing censorship, was at war with the American people. Demand Progress, an anti-SOPA campaign led by Aaron, unexpectedly overrode the SOPA act. At first, many of the supporters did not actually believe it would work, but once it started getting momentum, the possibility was greater. In just a few days, congressmen and senators switched to be anti-SOPA as many major websites blacked out to prove that SOPA was unnecessary censorship. As a result, freedom of speech for the people won over the government’s radical proposal for censorship. This is a prime example of how powerful the internet really is in demanding and inspiring change, and that the internet is not a force to be underestimated with.

Although Aaron and Snowden may seem like the 1%, the war between privacy of the individual and the “protection” is driven especially by the average internet user. For instance, the large hacktivist group Anonymous, originated on the image board 4chan, helped support Tunisia citizens fight during the riots by providing them dial-up internet when there was a total wipe out of their country’s internet. Yet, people in Anonymous were still targeted by the FBI for protesting in trivial matters such as the possibly cult teachings of the Church of Scientology.

As Aaron said in Guerilla Open Access Manifesto, “Information is power, but just like power, people want to keep it to themselves.”. The war continues for the fight for the people right to privacy, information, and ultimately for democracy. Living in the U.S. many citizens fear what will happen to their data, metadata, and essentially their pursuit of happiness if censorship stands in the way. Although widely spread apart, U.S. citizens stand together on the same ground for individual expression using new media as their creative outlet and tool for moral innovations.