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Ryan Ranspach
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-15-jan15,0,5376331.column
Along with millions of other people with a roof over their head and a high-speed internet connection, I have watched in horror the pictures and video clips coming out of the miserable, half of an island nation of Haiti that suffered its worst earthquake in over 200 years this week. The scale of the quake coupled with the extremely depressed economic state of that nation (they are the poorest people in western hemisphere) have turned it into a crisis of epic proportions. Many are comparing the situation to that of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina devastated that impoverished, woeful little piece of our own country. A massive relief effort (eventually) got underway, but not before several thousand people died, or were stuffed into the Superdome for a nightmarish few days, or were greeted by United States citizens armed with assault rifles refusing to let them cross the I-10 bridge over Lake Pontchatrain to safety.
In the wake of the ongoing crisis in Haiti, the U.S. and other nations, along with many charitable organizations, are putting together a massive relief effort. Websites set up by the foundations of President Clinton and other groups are helping normal folks donate even as little as ten dollars to the effort. As a prosperous people, even in the middle of our own economic downturn, this is what we do...help our neighbor, lend a hand or a few bucks, do our part.
But one American, the esteemed TV evangelist and multi, multi millionaire, Pat Robertson, has offered his own "two-cents"....and that is about all his contribution is worth. He has suggested that the reason the Haitian people are enduring this calamity, along with the last two centuries of despair brought on largely by American, European and South American economic imperialism, is that they made a deal with Satan to free themselves from French colonial rule. Yes, that's right, an entire nation made a contract with the devil. Voodoo practicing, Beelzebub worshiping, and so forth. These comments are outrageous and speak for themselves, obviously. But, the reason I disagree with the attached article from the Chicago Tribune is because it suggests that me writing this is a "knee-jerk criticism of Christianity". No, it is simply recognizing what this man, and many (but not all) like him, almost always do in this situation, which is blame poor people for their own problems in a wholesale manner--Christian or not, and Robertson was not alone. Rush Limbaugh, an "evangelist" in his own right, called it a "simple issue of self-reliance", and urged hist listeners not to donate to relief efforts--what a guy. Yes, if the Haitian people would only rise up and create industry, commerce, tourism, and better schools. Simple as that Haiti, "self reliance", folks.
The day before this earthquake happened I had a discussion with a friend about the state of the world. I suggested that 18th and 19th century European Imperialism was maybe the worst thing to ever happen to the people of this world, he disagreed on the grounds that it helped nearly eradicate human slavery across the globe...a good point. But, in almost every case, these countries took what they wanted and left to let God, or apparently Satan in this case, sort out the rest. Maybe I am right on this point and maybe not; but this crisis underscores a larger issue in the same way that Katrina did--that there are vast swaths of this world that have been plundered and left for death, which will come sooner or later. I wonder if the world will react the same way when San Francisco falls into the bay... |
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Sports? Sci-Fi? Fiction? Nazi Medical Journal? |
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I just can't figure out which shelf to find this book on; I guess I'll have to consult the information desk as it may have created the need for a whole new section at Barne's & Noble. I'm thinking, "Nazi Sporting-Sciences Military Fiction". This may have to be tinkered with considering present day Nazis could be offended...Theodore Samuel Williams was a WWII fighter pilot after all. At any rate, the author (who apparently used to fancy himself something of a Nazi-esque scientist) could really be on to something...
Fox Sports article |
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They're keeping their cards very close to their chests on this one. Perhaps they're trying to locate the city's secret formula for despotism and despair...
http://freep.com/article/20090914/NEWS01/90914036/1319/FBI-launches-search-at-old-Detroit-lumberyard |
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Religious experience at Burger King |
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After waking in a daze to the Flaming Lips DVD concert, "U.F.O.s at the Zoo", blaring on my television around noon, I spontaneously headed to Burger King (for the first time in years…well, maybe months) with a massive hangover. Other than the ghastly headache I was fighting, it seemed like any other normal Saturday afternoon. But I had not actually been inside one of these places in a very long time and I was not prepared for the Ecclesiastical, mind-bending experience that was about to occur.
I ordered my provisions and filled the plastic drinking pail I was given with a glorious and fizzy, orange liquid from the carbonated drinking hole. As I sat down and began to eat, I started to observe the various beasts and aliens around me engaging in their own sustenance rituals. It quickly became clear that these creatures were in their element here, and that I would have to watch my step carefully, because I was most certainly on their turf. A twinge of fear and anxiety began to raise the hair on the back of my neck, something I am all too familiar with in these menacing situations.
But then something changed inside me. I noticed that the creatures—for their part—were as pleasant, or more so, than the people I had encountered the previous belligerent evening at the fancy Chinese restaurant we started the party at. As I looked around, I saw old married couples, techy-gamer-dudes, very large people enjoying a great laugh among friends while they ate and drank, and a young couple who looked as though they were in the same, chemically crashing state that I was. I began to realize that what I was witnessing was a great many different energy forms crossing paths at this exact spot as they all careened through the universe. There was nothing negative about it either—no cosmic collisions, no protestors, no violence, just life-forms and their energy fields over-lapping during their equally vulnerable feeding times.
At that brief moment, I felt as though everything would be just fine. I felt that with all these different ways of going about one’s existence, of viewing the world, of self-expression, public perception, shyness, bombastic-ness, etc. that we must all be okay and that all this is such a good thing. It’s not that I don’t get out of my spaceship much or see visit new galaxies—I do—but maybe just not always out my preferred docking stations and quadrants. It occurred to me that you don’t need to go to a museum or to the top of a mountain or to a weird rock concert to find inspiration and universal beauty. You can find it right in front of you in a place you woke up with no intentions of going. It can be a life changing, remarkable experience.
As I left the dining establishment saying (in my mind) goodbye, smiling at all my new cosmic friends and cherishing these few moments that our orbits eclipsed one another, I saw perhaps the greatest bumper sticker I have ever seen. It read, “Don’t blame me, I voted for Willie Nelson”
Then I got back in my spaceship (2003 Corolla) and continued on through the solar system….
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