A Typical Senate Candate

YouTube Movies

I have been pointing out the number of movies one could watch for free on YouTube. Alas, this is no longer true. Since Google is trying to monetize Youtube, in addition to the ads we all skip, they now are much more vigilant on what they allow someone to upload. Now there are channels to which one can subscribe, by paying a fee. Roger Corman, the king of the B movie, has a channel now. Other channels exist. The problem is that I, as an average consumer, will not know who owns the right to what. Let's say I want to watch every Charlie Chan movie ever made. (I enjoy white guys pretending to be Chinese.) Where can I do this? Netflix has a good number of them, but not all.

I would not mind paying, but I can't. The rights are scattered across many providers. Disney will not allow Mickey Mouse to become a part of the public domain, so the copyright restrictions continue in perpetuity, not the set number of years originally envisioned in such laws. This is, well ... Mickey Mouse.

So I will continue what I do and not have cable service, but my selection of movies is dropping. I have Netflix, and Hulu and that is enough for me. Although the commercials on Hulu are getting more and more annoying, and I predict I will be canceling it soon. At $100 a year I can purchase 4 TV seasons a year. This is more than I watch.

So there will no longer be YouTube movie recommendations from me. There are not very many, and when they exist, they get canned quickly.

I periodically look at the various Internet TV options, but they are not good. I plan to blog on some non-TV options in the future.

Well back to the Russian TV I am watching where a Caucasian woman has dyed her skin black and is imitating Gloria Gaynor. She may survive, but I won't. Actually, except the Gaynor imitation, the Russian impersonation program is good, Marilyn Monroe is next! Indeed, "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." 

Evil

Why is there evil in the world? Naturally there is what the ancient rabbis called the "evil Impulse." This seems to be a natural part of the human condition. While this impulse exists, why can some people resist it and others can't? I am not saying that there is not a personal responsibility to avoid evil. There is. But there is an aspect of evil that I find interesting. Why do "good" people sometimes do horrific things? 

Related to this question is the not-so-horrific things we all may do. 

One reason for this is I Cor 15:33, here from the ASV:

Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”

If you are associated with people who drink to excess, are you less or more likely to drink to excess? If you are associated with people who curse, are you less or more likely to curse?  While I have been busy patting myself on the back because of the weight loss I have achieved, I suddenly realized that a significant factor in my weight loss was going from an area where I was not all that heavy in comparison to others, to an area where I was–from Missouri to California. In retrospect this was particularly evident in the church I attended. 

We humans are tribal in orientation. If we allow "group think" or our culture to dominate our thinking, we may head down the wrong path.  

Philip Zimardo talks about this in a "Ted" talk. 

Note that TED decide to remove the most horrific pictures. Note also that I do not agree with the "pop theology" presented about Satan. 

Otherwise good people can be corrupted by the tribes they join. We humans do things in groups that we would not do individually. 

Each of us needs to careful which groups we belong to. This is especially true for groups with a strong culture like the police, the military, and, well, churches.  

I sang a song in church for decades that I did not understand. It used archaic language and told me not to "stand in sinners' way." What this means is to not associate with the wrong crowd. Here is the Psalm that song was based on, in the modern translation The Message.  

Psalm 1

1 How well God must like you—

    you don’t hang out at Sin Saloon,

    you don’t slink along Dead-End Road,

    you don’t go to Smart-Mouth College.

2-3  Instead you thrill to God’s Word,

    you chew on Scripture day and night.

You’re a tree replanted in Eden,

    bearing fresh fruit every month,

Never dropping a leaf,

    always in blossom.

4-5  You’re not at all like the wicked,

    who are mere windblown dust—

Without defense in court,

    unfit company for innocent people.

6  God charts the road you take.

The road they take is Skid Row.

The Wurst Song

The Conchita Wurst song that won Eurovision 2014. 

Sarah Palin, Comedian In Chief

I like Sarah Palin, although I completely understand that "your mileage may vary."  But to understand Palin you have to understand that you should not view her as a politician or even a pundit. She is first and foremost a comedian. And as the famous actor Lionel Barrymore (Drew's grandfather) supposedly said on his death bed, "Dying is easy, but comedy is hard."  

Sarah proves the truth of that observation at an NRA convention. Here is an excerpt:

I kinda (to use one of Sarah's verbal shortcuts) doubt that Sarah did much more than warm the pew at the Assembly of God congregation she attended. If she had actually paid attention, she might have realized how offensive this joke actually is.  

To compare torture to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, (for that is what baptism represents) is very offensive. Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice, including torture, to allow us entry into his church. No, water-boarding is not a form of baptism. 

Particularly annoying was the obvious relish her comments engendered in the audience. Considering the audience, I would guess that most were church-going kinda folks. Yet they seem to have mentally compartmentalized their politics away from their faith. This bizarre bifurcation is common among us church-going types, as I unfortunately know from past personal experiences. 

The subtitle of this blog is leaving Babylon the Great. You cannot leave the Great Whore if you eat her food, so I blog about health. You cannot leave that evil city if you vote for her politicians, so I blog about politics. You cannot leave Babylon if you watch her television and read her books, so I blog about books and media. We cannot avoid being in the world, as Jesus said, but we can do what Jesus commanded his 12 disciples at the last supper and not be of the world. 

Sorry Sarah, but Barrymore was right, comedy is hard, and you were not funny. Can we leave Babylon the Great if we laugh at her jokes? 

Rev 18: 4-8 from the Message

Get out, my people, as fast as you can,

    so you don’t get mixed up in her sins,

    so you don’t get caught in her doom.

Her sins stink to high Heaven;

    God has remembered every evil she’s done.

Give her back what she’s given,

    double what she’s doubled in her works,

    double the recipe in the cup she mixed;

Bring her flaunting and wild ways

    to torment and tears.

Because she gloated, “I’m queen over all,

    and no widow, never a tear on my face,”

In one day, disasters will crush her—

    death, heartbreak, and famine—

Then she’ll be burned by fire, because God,

    the Strong God who judges her,

    has had enough.