st Catherine's monastery in Sinai, Egypt

St Catherine's monastery in the Sinai desert, Egypt, has the original burning bush mentioned by Moses in Exodus. This monastery is sacred to judaism, christianity and Islam. Mohammed (bless his name) gave it protection during the crusade wars. It is untouched, from the 5th and 6th centuries, best collection of icons. remarkable.

I might join up.

God awful Liza Minnelli ding a ling xmas song

I think this is worse than the tro lo lo video, you decide. Liza has had her great moments, but for gods sake, this is really bad. her problem is that she blew her talent on dumb stuff like this, like her sainted mother did also. Judy Garland is a saint: she died for the sins of hollywood. bless you Judy, you tried hard.

and liza: try to live out your last years in happiness, ok?

Isabelle Caro

Isabelle died from anorexia. she had a successful modeling career but her illness became severe, she made public service ads about her illness, these ads were banned by some countries due to the disturbing images (Italy). She tried to warn women (and men) about the disease, the images that fashion portrays that is unhealthy, but in the end she herself died. very sad. god bless. very sad.

anorexia is a common yet poorly understood disease. It kills, It ruins lives, and it is based on the unreal images of women that are portrayed in the media. i was at mall today, and Nicole Kidman had a poster everywhere about something (her cologne?) and her billboard was obviously photo enhanced, cleaned up, she is middle aged, and has had cosmetic surgery, but the image was unreal, not the way she really looks. Women (and men) are given unreal images to imitate, and the result is unhappy women (young girls) who want to be thin, lanky, "sexy" and unhealthy. I once dated a young women in college who thought she was overweight (she wasnt) and she dieted (stopped eating) become very thin (like the 1960 model Twiggy) and she became sick, and no longer had a menstrual period. Wrong message, bad health.

Isabelle is a saint. bless her.

Letterman's fuck you Christmas guy is back!

here is my blog from last year about the fuck you guy on Letterman really sums up my feelings about this commercial hellscream holiday.

strangest christmas elf yet

this is shopping mall in catalonia, spain, where tradition is behind display of crapping elf. Some think this symbolizes fertility, preparing the soil for spring crops during the winter, or maybe its just someone's idea of what christmas means to them. especially in a mall.

Fox News: propaganda and lots of bare legs (sexy!)

Here are some of the things Fox News viewers believe, in a recent poll:

91% believe that the stimulus has resulted in a loss of jobs

60% believe that climate change is no occurring

49% believe that federal income taxes have increased

56% believe that Obama initiated the GM_Chyrsler "bail out" (which is really a loan not a bail out and it was initiated by Bush)

63% believe Obama was not born in the US (including the medical doctor and Army major who is currently in jail because he refuses to obey deployment orders given by a President who has not proved he was born in this country)

In my American Gov class i discuss (I try at least) how media is biased in US to market their news to target audiences selected through marketing and focus groups. I give example like Fox, and CNN (which has become more conservative due to competition with Fox). CNN went along with official press conferences during Iraq war build up and initial occupation because they were afraid of losing more viewers to the patriotic Fox network and appearing "unpatriotic." If you remember, during the first Gulf war, CNN and former AP reporter Peter Arnett was portrayed as guilty of just about sedition due to his reporting of the Iraq war, including the bombing of a baby formula factory that the administration said was biological weapons lab (WMD - does it sound familiar?) After ward, it was determined that it was in fact a baby formula lab. His other reports on Vietnam were also attacked, and later proved accurate. This isnt about news, its about viewship, and viewers will not watch a program that is deemed unpatriotic or seditious by other networks or the US gov. So during the second gulf war, the networks completely threw out any pretense of "investigative journalism."

And that is why Fox is successful in dumbing down the nation - its good business. Also, women's shapely legs are also good for viewership - Fox shows more legs than any other network. in fact most networks only show shoulders and heads, Fox shows the whole female body including the shapely legs.e

What is with this Trololo stuf?

I didnt get this video until i watched this one. Turns out, the Trololo guy is from the 1970's in old Soviet Union (as in boris badinov and Rocky and Bullwinkle) and was supposed to sing on a winter holiday special on soviet tv. however his song was an American folk song about some guy riding a horse from kentucky to Tennessee to see his girlfriend and the soviet censors didnt like the glorification of american frontier freedom. So they told him he couldnt sing the words. So he had to go out and "sing" without lyrics. In a recent interview, he explains how hard it is to sing over two minutes without words. Given that, he did a great job. So much so, that Russians now love the so called Trololo song. He was actually singing Tra la la, but in russian, it is pronounced tro lo lo (so he explained). So once again, marxist-leninist ideologues are responsible for an other wise unexplainable phenomena - like soviet style architecture, soviet cars, and the new lands policy that transported millions of russia to siberia to "farm" (didnt work out) and now the cities they built in these isolated areas still exist but there is little or no economy for the millions of families relocated there - way to go Nikita (he was responsible for the new lands policy). or as they say in russia this time of year, Tro lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lo.

greatest headline of 2010

Vatican exhibit Heinz History Museum

Vatican exhibit at the Heinz History Museum is great, but at times a little odd. The emphasis on art, especially expensive art, and its connection to the life and resurrection of Jesus is lost on me. The art was designed to communicate faith to the illiterate masses, but resulted in the masses praying to crosses, statues, and pictures. Sounds almost like the golden calf masses were praying to when Moses came down from the mountain with his stone Mitzvahs (commandments).

But the exhibit is great, amazing examples of art, over 1600 years of art from earliest church in Rome.

I really liked the Vatican shot glasses in the gift shop.

John Lennon film is GREAT!

Wow what a movie! After a stressful day i walked to the oaks theater and saw this film about John Lennon's early life, just as he met Paul and George. It analyzes his relationship with his aunt and uncle who raised him, and his mother Julia who he meets when he is a teenager. Motherless, fatherless, Lennon seems to have no future. But his uncle provides him with a harmonica, and his aunt and mother provide him with what they can, a guitar. It really captures his sardonic wit, his rebelliousness, his anger at the world. Outstanding film. Also shows the grim lives of post war Britain.

US spaceship lands

This is the X37B, a pilotless space craft launched by the Air Force in California. Mission classified. It just returned to earth, automatic pilot, the first spaceship to "land" (not crash on ground or sea) by computer program. It makes me wonder what kinds of classified aircraft and other technology we might have that ordinary citizens dont know about. Do you think Pres. Obama was briefed about the aliens we are holding at area 51 in California? just kidding...maybe