The Nameless Urge

Every year on the last Sunday of July, many thousands of pilgrims climb "Croagh Patrick". They think they're climbing to pay their respects to "Saint Patrick", but they're really driven by the nameless urge that drove their pre-Christian Celtic ancestors up the same mountain to pay homage to Lugh on Lughnasa, and that drove their pre-Celtic ancestors up there to bring offerings to the shadowy figure of Crom Dubh. Some things in human nature never change, among them the need to climb to the high places of the world to be with one's gods.

http://article.wn.com/view/2010/07/26/Thousands_join_Croagh_Patrick_holy_mountain_climb/

Vatican: ordination of women a "grave crime"

Apparently, Dino von Crazypuss (aka His Holiness The Pope, Bishop of Rome and Holy Father of the Roman Catholic Church) has issued a clarification so that everyone understands that the ordination of women is classified in the same category of "grave crime" as the rape of children by priests. The mind reels at trying to conceive of the moral and theological gymnastics they had to go through to reach THAT particular conclusion.

Voltaire was right: "Ecrassiez l'infame!"


Vatican: ordination of woman a "grave crime"

Happy Bastille Day

‎"Une bonne fete" to French (and Francophile) people everywhere. To celebrate Bastille Day, a short scene from "Casablanca". The best scene in the movie. Possibly the best scene in any movie.

Casablanca: The Marseillaise

The rich are different: they are more ruthless

When does it start being OK to use that phrase that is such a taboo in America - "class warfare"? When does it start being OK to hate the rich? For that matter, when does it start being OK to eat the rich? (bonus points for the clever persons who get the reference...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/09/business/economy/09rich.html?_r=1&hp

Whether it is their residence, a second home or a house bought as an investment, the rich have stopped paying the mortgage at a rate that greatly exceeds the rest of the population.
More than one in seven homeowners with loans in excess of a million dollars are seriously delinquent, according to data compiled for The New York Times by the real estate analytics firm CoreLogic.
By contrast, homeowners with less lavish housing are much more likely to keep writing checks to their lender. About one in 12 mortgages below the million-dollar mark is delinquent.
Though it is hard to prove, the CoreLogic data suggest that many of the well-to-do are purposely dumping their financially draining properties, just as they would any sour investment.
"The rich are different: they are more ruthless," said Sam Khater, CoreLogic's senior economist.

Cleopatra was White

Apparently there's a big hoo-ha over the idea of Angelina Jolie playing Cleopatra, and that the role should go to an "actress of color". Postmodern PC ahistorical silliness. Look, Cleopatra was Greek. Well, specifically, she was Macedonian. When Alexander of Macedon (called "Alexander the Great") died, his generals whacked up his vast empire among them. Egypt went to his general Ptolemy, who decided since he was ruler of Egypt, it would be really cool to name himself Pharoah. And so the "Ptolemaic Dynasty" was born. The Macedonian rulers did -not- intermarry with the locals. Cleopatra, the last of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, was pure Macedonian. Saying you don't want Jolie as Cleopatra because she's not Greek is fine -- someone like Nia Vardalos ("Big Fat Greek Wedding") or the still-gorgeous Marina Sirtis ("Counselor Troya") would be historically-accurate to play the role of Cleopatra. But saying she isn't suited to play Cleopatra because she isn't black is silly. She isn't black -- and neither was Cleo.

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/06/17/backlash-over-angelina-jolie-as-cleopatra/?hpt=Sbin

Chimps attack other chimps ... for their land

The Sharks and the Jets. The English and the French. The Germans and,
well, pretty much anybody. And now chimps. Apparently the urge to
engage in expansionist warfare and seize one's neighbor's land is
another thing that is no longer exclusive to the human race. So
if territorial expansion is hard-wired into our DNA, does that give
us an alibi to invade our neighbors and shrug it off as "evolution, baby".
Serious question.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37830165/ns/technology_and_science-science/

Chimp-on-chimp attacks in the wild are very common, especially among small packs of males on patrol. Now research suggests the motive for these crimes is to gain territory.

Malcolm McLaren, dead at 64

Malcolm McLaren: impressario, fashion visionary, and general agent provocateur, dead way before his time. His fashion boutique was the seed from which the whole "punk look" emerged, not to mention the idea of piercing one's body parts. Before McLaren, only women got pierced, and then only once in each ear, for inserting a single pair of sensible and non-flamboyant earrings. So if you have any piercings of any kind (and I most definitely DO NOT WANT TO KNOW ABOUT IT if you do, thank you very much), you can thank Malcolm. He also kicked in the doors of the tedious, pointless disco era with a quartet of fresh-scrubbed, clean-minded lads known as the Sex Pistols. Whatever you may think of their music (and mind you, I'm a person who can play every verse of "Anarchy in the UK" in my head), they were total game-changers.

Johnny Rotten, speaking at McLaren's funeral, choked back tears as he so eloquently expressed what we all must be feeling:

"**** on you, ya ****in' utter ***t!!! I'm *****n' glad yer *****n' dead, so ******and don't forget to ***** while ya ****** yer ******** and
your Mum too, ya *****n' wanker!!!!'

(OK, I made up the Johnny Rotten paragraph. Couldn't resist .... ;-)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100408/en_nm/us_mclaren_2