Some thoughts on stupidity, manliness and further ramblings

G´day,

Greetings to my known congregation, Hello Emily, Josara, Julia, Cord, Andrew, Scott, Bill and Dan (well thanks to your FB post today I could finally make the connection). Well, I guess "Willem" will remain a mystery but he/she is right, I shouldn´t insult followers even if they are annonymous as my authors vanity demands that I want to be read...ok...greetings to you too...

Ok...first thing, yes I won´t continue quoting song lyrics on my facebook. It was quite funny yesterday but I seemed to have pissed off most of my friends so I´ll refain from doing that. Fine, somebody should still explain to me how I can upload the actual songs then I´ll be happy...

Reality seemed to have overtaken my blog entry on Iran yesterday, the followers of Hossein Mussawi decided to take their disappointment onto the streets of Tehran and demonstrated first spontaneously later more organised against Ahmadinedschad and the result of the "election". Apparently it took the authorities a little time to react but then they reacted in the tried and tested way of dictatorships all over the world: club the demonstrators and arrest them. But according to "Der Spiegel"(my favorite German news magazin) the demonstrators fought back for the first time in a long time. Instead of letting themself been arrested they launched quite a couner attack and started a riot in the finest tradition of urban guerilla which took the authorities by surprise. Secret service agents in plain clothes were severly beaten and the "revolutionary guards" got stoned (well with rocks not weed). I´m not sure if that will change anything but I guess it´s a good sign that there is a large group of the iranian population which is fed up with medieval government. Funny side note: US foreign minister Hillary Clinton announced that the US will launch an investigation on the manipulation of the iranian election...yeah, right...I should think that maybe the Swiss would still have the credibility and integrety to do that but the US should first try to gain back their credibility before they start meddling with the next country but this shows again the famous blind spot the US have when it comes to their own democratic shortcommings...oh well it´s a funny old world...

This brings me to my next topic...as Albert Einstein said, two things are infinite: space and human stupidity and one of the topics which shows the infinity of human stupidity is religion. Just to clarify, I firmly believe that any human being has the right to believe whatever he/she wants, regardless how crazy it might be. Carpenters who came back from the dead, merchants who had haluzinations or whatever it is that members of the "church" of Scientology believe in (I guess it was a toad-like creature from outer space), knock yourself out. But please keep it to yourself! And please respect that other people have the right to believe whatever they choose to believe and that includes to believe that there is no head honcho in the sky telling me how to live my life.

Here in Germany the majority of people are frightend by the Islam. Since 9/11 Islam equals terrorism and especially the yellow press nurtured the general suspicion that he who believes in Allah will also bomb good German citizens. So religion is viewed as a threat but very selectivly. When I compare Germany to Australia in terms of secularity, Germany is quite influenced by christianity. Even though Germany if officially a secular state Christianity plays a major role here. The biggest political party CDU, the German conservatives, even carry the C for christian in their name (full name Christian Democratic Union). As I´ve already emphasised I don´t mind religion if they religious nutcases keep their opinions to themself and don´t try to influence my life with their insanity but apparently Christians can´t keep quiet. Right now there is an atheistic bus touring Germany (article from the english page of "Der Spiegel") in order to inform on atheisim as the atheists were not allowed to hire advertising space on normal public transport busses for a slogan "There is (probably) no God, so stop worrying and carry on with your lifes". I mean our German constitution states the freedom of believe and a Christian campaign on public advertising space is not a problem at all but if atheists call in the same rights it get´s denied with the argument that it might offend religious feelings...

Well what did happen? After the initial schock a group of christian nutcases hired their own bus covered with "Jesus lives" and keep following the "godless sinners". Last week the atheism bus was in Münster and I saw the report on the local TV news and the good people of Münster were offended. Some quotes: "That should not be allowed!", "Infamy!", "Shameless" and "As a christian I´ll pray for the souls of those poor sinners as God is forgiving...". I missed someone saying "When Adolf was still alive something like that wouldn´t been allowed..." The organisators of the bus tour get tons of hatemail and threats which again shows the ugly face of the religion of love and peace...

Well I had some fun time indeed reading the discussion boards of various christian groups on facebook which deepened my suspecion that you have to abandon quite a large part of your brain in order to become a believer. I won´t even mention how crazy you have to be in order to think that the Genesis of the bible is to be understood in a literal way (God created earth on a sunny afternoon 4004 aD). If someone would believe this in a sane society he/she would be stored away safely in a place with padded walls and an extremly long sleeved jacket. And the nutcases are even allowed to teach this delusional nonsense to children who don´t know better. But as I said, I won´t go into this...

I learned that especially in the US there are countless different versions of the bible (all official of course, I mean how idiotic is that?) and a true believer doesn´t only read one, nope, they are all true, even the bits that contradict themselfs. So there are discussions, quite fierce ones on how to interpret this or that. And people seem to have a point of view you could bend steel around until someone found the right quote from the right edition and then they all go like: "Ah, well, if it´s written...then you are right...". I took part in a discussion titled "Give me one logical reason why gay people should have rights" and tried to explain that it´s possible to have a morality without any involment of supernatural entities but Christians seem to be unable to understand that. Without a God there can´t be a moral, period. Several people found it necessary to explain that I´ll burn in hell and that I´m the spawn of satan. Oh, well...what can I say? And when it comes to God, it can´t be just a God, it also has to be the right one...nutcases...the lot of them. My proposal would be to vacate one continent and deport all religious people there and then they can sort it out amongst themself. Last believer standing gets a complimentary fruit basket and a medal. And the sane part of humanity could get on with their lifes...

In reaction to Chrises remark on my manliness I started to think about manliness in general, the local definitions and my own understanding. Well Chris, as you are playing for the other team, let me at least doubt your qualification to judge manliness. Be that as it may, you got me thinking. I consider myself pretty manly even though I use a pink toothbrush. Firstly the missing outfit in the breast department and what I see when I look down my pants are definitive a clue of -at least physical- manliness. As for the thinking aspect, the way I perceive the world is definitive male, rational-analytic as opposed to the typical female perception of emotional contexts in their outlook. Well females think it´s the other way around, that they are rational analytic and males are irrational emotional but well, they are wrong.

So I guess the only difference to the usual image of manly men is the way I approach the emotional aspects of my life. I talk about it, even in public and on the internet. The traditional male seldom talks about emotions or doesn´t talk about them at all. At least that´s what females think but hey, you are wrong again. We, as in we males, do talk about our emotions. But mostly we talk, as always, with a motive and a purpose. There is something that bothers us some way or another and then we get it out to an audience of our choice and listen to the input we get. And then we tick this issue off our list and don´t talk about it again until it bothers us again.

Well known fact: males use approx 2500 words a day, females 8000...possible explaination, general male lazyness (Why should I make an efford to say anything if it wasn´t for a specific purpose?). In my case the reason why I had to tell my emotional state to a larger audiance was more an electronic equivalent of shout-it-of-the-rooftop. I had to get it out somewhere to prevent me from blasting...lol

Ok...now I probably showed enough male chauvinism to prevent further question on my manliness, eh? Have a great day, take care and cya...