been a long time comin' baby.

Sup Y'all.

Yo

So I've been avoiding blogging because I had what I thought was this great idea of starting a new blog called StoryPants where I relate stories. Stories that I tell, because if you know me you know that I often have a story to tell. I think it was Steve that told me once that he likes my stories but they never seem to have a point. But that is because he never really got the point. What, do I have to spell it out? I would also include stories that other people tell me. Like when a professor tells some story in his or her lecture? There is one post right there. Or when my brother comes home from work and says, "guess what happened at work today?" There's another. And the beauty of the new blog is that I force myself to write something EVERY DAY.

I think what happened was the prospect of forcing myself to write something EVERY DAY scared me off from even just writing stuff in this blog. But I think I'm still going to try it. We'll see. Also, people can leave stories in the comments or email me if they want a story included. But there will be no anonymity except in rare situations where I make an exception.

School started back again today.

Happy New Year and shit.

I've been reading a lot of Mick LaSalle's Blog.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/mlasalle/index
He is a movie critic for the SF Chronicle and I've been angry at him since I was like 12. I always always read the pink pages when I was growing up with my parents in Yrethra on a Sunday Morn and he used to make me so mad. I think it is a sign of me being an old hag now that I actually kind of like what he has to say about movies and other things. Especially since he thinks Click was one of the best movies of the year. And also since he is a raging liberal who seems to hate Christians even though he likes to pretend that he is moderate and doesn't hate Christians. He is plugging this weird on-line novel he is writing called "The Event" which I like the premise of (the rapture happens but instead of right leaning Christians being taken up to heaven, truly "goodhearted" people like Sarah Jessica Parker and Howard Stern are) and theoretically I would love to read an entire novel that bashes the christian right but it is really hard for me to actually enjoy it beyond the cutesyness of Mr. Mick being able to decide, as if he were god, who among us would be called up to heaven should the rapture come. He posed an question in his blog in order to plug his on-line book further, asking who his readers think would be taken up in the rapture. I haven't added my two cents to theirs but I think this would be a fun party game. Or a fun card in apples to apples. Like when my dad put down "The Japanese" for "Trustworthy" and won that hand. Only this would be "Mostly likely to be taken up to heaven in the rapture." And I guess my dad could still play his "The Japanese" card.

I was thinking on my drive home today about the rapture and what a great marketing scheme it is for the evangelicals. I can't tell you how many times growing up I had very concerned friends try to convert me by using the rapture as bait. They did not want to see me get left behind. They fervently believed that they had to save as many souls as possible otherwise what would be the fun of being up in heaven with god and a bunch of goodiegoodies if you had to leave people you cared about behind? And I wondered, Mick Lasalle, if Sarah Jessica Parker is taken up to heaven, what about Matthew Broderick? What about James Wilke Broderick? What is so great about leaving your friends and family back on earth while you enjoy heaven? So you'd better get out there and convert those friends and family ASAP. You'll feel so much guilt in heaven if you don't. Do you feel guilt in heaven?

I know that the kids I grew up with were not savvy enough to understand that they were involved in this grand pyramid scheme where if they save two souls they get into heaven, but I wonder about Evangelical leaders. The people who put this message out to their flocks. Do they really buy into the idea or is it just a way to get people to do their dirty work, bringing as many people into their particular sect as they can?

And then Frank the Tard (http://avantard.livejournal.com/) posted a link to this article today:
http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2007/01/08/fascism/index_np.html
You know how sometimes you learn a new word or hear some one's name for the first time or learn some new fact and then you hear that same thing like 5 times in the same day? Or week? Or whatever? Well, I guess this doesn't really count as that because I sort of seek out liberal leaning diatribes that question religion. But I will pull this quote from that article because I think it was sort of exactly what I was thinking as I was driving home today:

"I think they're completely conscious of it. The level of manipulation is quite sophisticated. These people understand the medium of television, they understand the despair and brokenness of the people they appeal to, and how to manipulate them both for personal and financial gain. I look at these figures, and I would certainly throw James Dobson in there, or Pat Robertson, as really dark figures."

This is actually related to whether or not this writer thinks that Christian groups want to impose a totalitarian system but I think that what he says about the manipulation of the people they appeal to can be applied to the idea of the rapture being used as a way to manipulate people to gain more followers rather than a legitimate concern for the souls of those who would be left behind.

I remember that I asked my parents about the rapture, somewhat worried that my friends were telling me the truth and that my parents and family just didn't know about it. They said that my friends were just trying to scare me and that there would be no end times. In my child's mind that immediately relegated the rapture to the same category of the Boogieman or Bloody Mary. Frightening, but confirmed by my parents, who knew pretty much everything, to be a story and not real. I still can't believe there are adults who believe this stuff but I guess if my parents had said "Yep, the end times are nigh, better pray to Jesus for redemption," I might have turned out differently. Thank God they didn't. Thank the Lord Jesus H. Christ.