Go Topless! Wait..WTF?

Seems like a worthy enough cause.

Welcome to GoTopless.org! - We are a US organization, claiming that women have the same constitutional right to be bare chested in public places as men.
Rael, spiritual leader and founder of goTopless.org states: "as long as men can be topless, constitutionally women should have the same right, or men should also be forced to wear something hiding their chest."

Okay, cool.  A little strange that they threw in something about a spiritual leader named Rael, but okay.

Why a National GoTopless Protest day? Gotopless.org claims constitutional equality between men and women on being topless in public. Currently, women who dare to be topless in public in the US are repeatedly being arrested, fined, humiliated, criminalized.

Sounds good.

Then I scroll to the bottom of the page and see this:



It throws me off a bit that they had links promoting their ID stance, but the craziest part was the link in the middle; Raelian News which had a front cover page story about Michael Jackson; "Michael Jackson, a Raelian Honorary Guide, has probably been cloned by now."

I looked up Raelism on Wikipedia:

Raëlism, or The Raëlian movement, is a UFO religion founded by a former French sports-car journalist and test driver named Claude Vorilhon. Followers of the movement, called Raëlians, believe that Vorilhon, or "Raël", received special knowledge and instruction for mankind from the creators of life on Earth, human-like extraterrestrials called Elohim whose technology enabled them to appear as "angels" or "gods" in the eyes of ancient people. Raëlians believe that previous visitation from Elohim sparked the founding of many major religions humanity knows today.^[1]

Raël founded the Raëlian Movement in Paris, France in 1974 after a large conference. The International Raëlian Movement has been described as "the largest UFO religion in the world".^[2]

It's a shame that such a worthy cause will most likely not be taken as seriously as it might have otherwise simply because people might associate their plight for a woman's right to bare chest with their kookiness and excuse the whole thing away.  The more I think about it, the more it seems to be a front for promoting their cult/church (I use these terms interchangeably).

Vorilhon, other Raëlians, and their critics have characterized Raëlian Church as an atheist religion that believes not in God, but in extraterrestrials.^[30][31]

I could see how there might be life in a galaxy or in a universe billions of light years from our own. Due to reasons grounded in science and probability, I have more of a reason to believe in the remote possibility of extraterrestrial life, even if just microscopic organic molecules sans the big green men with bug eyes, than I do to believe that there's a lot of the other things that many people believe just based on the fact that they want to believe it.    Then again, I totally digress.  What sets them apart is that they believe an extra-terrestrial called Elohim spoke to Rael.  And I find that equally as questionable as the innumerous other religions/cults that claim they are the priviledged ones with access to the creator of the universe.

I still want boobies though.

Visit the site yourself

Political Fatigue

There was a time when I was really into politics. This began around the age of 22 or so - I began seeing the world in a different light.  My interest was piqued around the 2004 re-election of president Bush.  I read blogs about politics - wrote my own - watched documentaries about the election and about politics in general.  (Yes, even Michael Moore's demonized documentaries.)  The new picture of my world was bleak. It was then that I realized that adults are actually just kids with wrinkles with [sometimes] better grammar. I was always told to respect your elders but these elders often spoke with venemous tongues in a fashion that was reminiscent of schoolyard banter. Fighting for change is a common mantra and rebelling against the system seems to go hand-in-hand with the mindset of the youth trying to make sense of the world around them. It's cool to protest against something, it seemed. I don't know what's changed within me these past few years. It's almost as if it's pointless when I realize an injustice of some sort has been done, yet all that I can do is become upset about it. At the end of the day I have all of this knowledge about political misdeeds and what I had to show for it was nothing but pent up anger and disgust.

Maybe it's good to be angry and disgusted about something to a certain degree - but maybe the cynic in me believes that democracy is an illusion and the energy and anger I feel toward the system leaves me with just that at the end of the day. We are quick to question the validity of elections in other countries unless the new leader is someone we'd gladly rather deal with.  We are quick to invade another country when there's an opportunist incentive to do so, yet we turn a blind eye to many far worse situations out there.  Money is what makes the world go 'round. Politicians can be bought and operate smoothly, and invincibly as if they possess the Ring of Gyges.

But then I begin to feel that 'they've won' if I let this get to me.  To quote someone named Adolf Hitler, he said, "How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think."  That's the problem in a nutshell.  Many people do not think.  Even those that do are overwhelmed by the majority that don't.  You see people voting against their own economic interests yet they don't think twice about it because the stuff they're spoon fed often goes down easier when they're assured it's aligned with their Christian faith anyway.  Politicians know they can exploit the fundamentalists.  You often hear of politicians running on a family values platform and then getting caught fucking their secretary.  I am sure that some of it is because of the two-faced religious politicians but I think a majority of it is that they're actually just clever politicians that just got caught.  They're smarter than we think they are--they use religion as their platform because people eat that shit up.  Then when they get caught being a human being, we understandably throw them under the bus.

I think it's just that I'm fed up with the sophomoric dialogue.  The talking heads talk their shit and get a paycheck, often contradicting themselves so much that they begin contradicting their contradictions.    They run on a conservative family values platform, fuck their secretaries, harass their pages, and solicit sex in men's rooms.  Now all that to me sounds kind of fun and I might be more apt to give you a pass if you weren't a bigoted fuck who represented himself as a saint to get into office.  So you have to understand why it makes sense to point out why you're a dick.  This goes double if you've actively hampered the progress of those who want sexual equality and you get caught trying to fuck men yourself.

It's a big sideshow out there.  Maybe that's part of what turns me off.  I can't see myself having the tenacity to keep at writing posts like these.  They drain me, though admittedly there's something sort of satisfying about letting it all out.  Maybe that's a good enough reason to keep up with the drama even if it feels hopeless?  I don't know.

"Religion for Retarded" (Literally)

Found this gem on website with audio clip included. (Link below)

Here are some wonderful excerpts expressed with condescending undertones so it's easy to understand:

""How does Jesus come to us? How does Jesus come to us? Jesus comes to us in Holy Communion." repeat bagillion x

"Our table food is NOT Jesus, but only a gift."

Visit this post on ubu.com to hear the audio.

Exposing the PR Firms Behind The Anti-Healthcare Movement

It never ceases to amaze me that huge swathes of the less well-off in America, will passionately defend the viewpoints of rich multimillionaires who are hell bent on ripping them off and stealing their last dime, simply because they're stupid enough to really believe that the country is "turning into a commie state", or that "God told them to".  Rachel Maddow breaks down the the big names listed under "National Coalition" at the bottom of RecessRally.com; the "grassroots effort" campaign behind the anti-healthcare movement.  A grassroots effort which is actually not so grassroots at all.  Pretty sick.