Happy birthday to Modern Genetics!

"On the morning of February 28, 1953, Cambridge biologist James Watson (1928-) was arranging and rearranging cardboard cutouts of DNA's constituent molecules when he happened upon a particularly interesting pattern. The discovery of this structure, later termed the "double helix," revealed the mechanism by which genetic information is transmitted in living things, and would usher in a revolution in the fields of evolutionary biology and genetics. 


Watson and his Cambridge collaborator Francis Crick (1916-2004) worked out the details of the structure, and the two shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Kings College biologist Maurice Wilkins (1916-2004), who provided Watson with x-ray photographs that proved pivotal in identifying the structure. Kings College biophysicist Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958), who had taken the photographs, died before the prize was awarded, and was therefore ineligible to share it."

6 Reasons Heaven Would Kind of Suck

The idea of heaven is a strange thing. Depending on your perspective, it’s either a dream come true (“Do what I say and you’ll get a reward!”) or a threat from a psychopath (“Do what I say and you won’t be tortured!”).

            Religious experts from St. Augustine to Kirk Cameron generally agree on a couple things, though: heaven involves “perfect happiness” and “meeting God face to face,” though it’s not immediately clear what those two things have in common.

            Like the latest Apple product, heaven makes grandiose claims while a slick marketing campaign villainizes anyone who questions its logic. But glittery promises and veiled threats should not deter us from carefully weighing its offer. After all, for a supernatural dreamland of perfect joy, heaven sure has some questionable side effects….

                                 
1) No More Physical Pleasures.

            Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptures all clearly state that heaven is ultimately a material place where we’ll have some form of a material body, but people generally ignore that part, because “heavenly bliss” is very hard to reconcile with “armpit farts.” Most people envision heaven as a purely spiritual realm of immaterial souls, where we can finally leave behind our sweating, pooping, creaking bodies, along with all the materialistic dreck of the modern world. “You can’t take it with you,” as they say: the pearly gates won’t open for bacon or books or reruns of Frasier.

            It’s true that our bodies begin a long, unpleasant decline from age 30 or so onwards (spoiler alert, kids). The body, formerly our eager partner in life’s adventure (Climb these stairs, body! Lift this burden! Keep down this vodka!), soon turns traitor and mocks our rickety efforts to rise from the sofa in under two minutes. It’s easy to start believing that our mind is something separate from our body, trapped inside like yowling cat in a box. But of course the mind is physical too, and is subject to the same gradual decay.

            Preachers deride physical pleasure because it’s transient, and because it corrupts if abused. But everything corrupts if abused: too much power creates dictators; too much religion creates zealots. And besides, physical pleasure isn’t just about our bellies and our naughty bits. Burrowing into warm covers on a cold night, drenching a parched throat with ice water after a workout: physical pleasures are not so much specific things as they are changes of state. Of course they’re transient. Their transience is exactly why they’re so valuable.

            If we hurt our hand, we don’t want to chop it off – we want to heal it. And when our body begins to decline, we don’t really wish to discard it – we would prefer it just to be young again, to function properly again. To offer “rest” when you really mean “destruction of the body” does a grievous injustice to our human experience. It would be like comforting a weary traveler by offering him a cyanide pill instead of a bed.

         
2) No More Mental Pleasures Either.

            So you’re in heaven, and you’re just a soul now without a body. Okay. Maybe it’s not such a big deal. We can give up our secret Oreo stash, can’t we, if it means leaving behind all the sagging and wheezing and drooling and cavities and all those mites living under our eyelashes.

            Besides, even if you’re just a disembodied soul-thing now, you’re still YOU, right? In fact, most would say it’s the “real” you, the genuine essence of you-hood, underneath the body issues and pimples and bad haircuts. And you have a whole eternity of mental bliss, because in heaven the “veil will be lifted” and all the secrets and mysteries of the universe will be yours at last. All those answers you wanted!  You have them!

            One quick question first. How much time do you spend thinking about the alphabet? Not so much, right? Because…. you already know it. And once you know it, you don’t need to think about it.

            Well, now you know everything. So you don’t have to think about anything. You have, in fact, lost all the pleasures of thinking. There will be no more searching, questing, investigating, wondering, hypothesizing. No more thrill of discovery, no more satisfaction of putting the puzzle pieces together correctly. No more mental pleasures at all.

            Worse still, you have all this knowledge, yet you cannot act with any of it. So you know the reasons behind every horrible tragedy: Fantastic, but can you help the people hurt by them? So you understand all the laws of creation: Can you share that knowledge with living people to help improve medicine or crop production? Can you do anything whatsoever to make life better for people? I imagine not, if everything is already happening the way God wants.

             But maybe this isn’t a big deal either. Thinking is hard, after all, and nobody said heaven was a celestial game show for your amusement. You’re in heaven – what more do you want? Just sit there like a good soul and enjoy it alongside all the rapists and murderers.  


3) You’re trapped there. Forever. With rapists.

            Yep. Rapists, murderers, and every other kind of criminal you can imagine will be in heaven with you. Oh, didn’t you read the fine print? Think about that guy on the cross. No, the OTHER guy on the cross. The “Good Thief,” who’s called Dismas in some traditions. ’Memba him? Dismas stole all your shit and never gave it back, when you were out praying and tithing and proselytizing. Now you discover that Dismas gets the same reward as you, simply because he high-fived the Big Man ten seconds before the curtain fell.

            It’s really a lousy deal for the rest of us, when you think about it. Every insufferable moron, obnoxious bully, corrupt politician, and irritating douchebag who ever made your life miserable, every one of them will be joining you in heaven, as long as they have one moment of true repentance at the end. Oh, and also Jeffrey Dahmer. Think about that a moment. Because if you’re Christian, you are required to believe that he could be in heaven right now. (Meanwhile, if one of his victims happened to be Buddhist? That person went to hell.)

            But here’s the worst part – you can’t leave. You’re trapped here with all those do-gooders, and the do-badders who finally let Jesus into their hearts (AFTER they’d been caught, just like Dismas). It’s like the office Christmas party….if the office Christmas party never ended and you were only allowed to talk about how great the boss is.

            Surely we can step outside for a breath of fresh air, right? Er, no. Religious folk tend to be very social. They use words like “congregation” and “flock” and “come join us,” and they have a strong distrust of lone wolves. Most theologians consider misanthropy a sin, and many even deny the existence of privacy in heaven. Starting to feel a bit claustrophobic? Maybe C.S. Lewis can help: “Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone, because you were made for it – stitch by stitch as a glove is made for a hand.”  

            Did he just say heaven is a straitjacket? That didn’t help at all. That made it worse.

           
4) You are completely brainwashed.

            So let’s take stock. No physical or mental pleasures, and you’re trapped up here with televangelists and repentant lunatics. Don’t like that scenario? Doesn’t matter, because you don’t have a choice.

            Remember rule number one: Heaven must be joyful. Any bad feelings, doubts, misgivings, grudges, rude gestures, even so much as a cocked eyebrow to express a hint of displeasure: none of that is allowed in heaven. Whether you meet Jeffrey Dahmer or your dog-abusing neighbor, you will not have a shred of ill will. You will embrace them, and love them, and you’ll all hold hands and sing hymns like it’s a goddamn hippie commune. You’re all equals now, purged of imperfection, each merrily ensconced in your own little glove. In heaven there cannot be a single note of discord, not a single voice of dissent or protest.

            Heaven, then, appears to be the wet dream of a totalitarian dictator. Now, an eternity spent in shameful prostration before a cosmic being of dubious ethical character is fine if that’s your idea of a good time. But to turn billions upon billions of sentient beings, who lived and hoped and struggled and suffered and died, into an endless stream of white-robed Stepford wives is surely the worst imaginable kind of travesty.

            It’s an impossible dilemma for believers. How can free will be possible in heaven? But how can it be heaven if there’s no free will? Most theologians will writhe uncomfortably before stumbling upon some variation of “yes, you will have free will, but you’ll only choose to do what God wants you to do,” which clearly indicates they never understood the problem in the first place.      

            Worse still, many believers frame all this brainwashing in chillingly positive terms. “Sure you COULD sin in heaven, but you’ll be so happy you’ll never WANT to!” “You won’t mourn your friends who went to hell, because God will wipe your memory clean!” “You won’t miss being married to your wife, because you’ll be married to Jesus!” Never mind the beard burn.

            Even C.S. Lewis’s straitjacket looks appealing next to a lobotomy. Somebody call Morpheus: I want my red pill.


5) Your Family Would Be Unrecognizable.

            Okay, you’re trapped in heaven with no body or mind and you’ve been brainwashed to like it. At least you have your own family, right? That was one of the original selling points, after all. People imagine heaven as a big family reunion, taking place by a gentle seashore perhaps, where we hug our parents and our grandparents and great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents whose names we don’t even know, and all those uncles and aunts and cousins, and their children, and their children’s children, and... well, let’s just stick with the immediate family.

            So you’re ready to meet them again, and apologize for all those Indian rope burns you dished out when you were little. And here they are now, gathering around you in their weird disembodied soul-forms, and you suddenly realize that these aren’t the people you knew back when you were alive.

             Every characteristic, every feature, every trait that you could possibly use to recognize them, is gone. Even if you believe in the “divine bodies” business, those wouldn’t be the bodies you remember from life – or did you think Granny would be forced to have snow-white hair and bad hips for all eternity? All the personal meanings carried on the body are gone too. The scar under your wife’s chin, her specific skin tone, the little Orion’s belt of moles on her arm – all of these marks of individuality have been wiped clean. But that’s not all.

            Even if you don’t expect to see any physical body, it may be even more surprising to find that their personalities, too, have been totally erased and re-booted. Remember, there can be no flaws, shortcomings, or bad moods in heaven. Your brother will never throw a temper tantrum again. Your mother will never fall into a spell of melancholy again. Your father’s morbid sense of humor is gone. Your grandfather tells no more inappropriate jokes. Your grandmother no longer drones on about the time she met a handsome stranger in Cabo before your grandfather came along. Anger, depression, perversion, absent-mindedness: these may be key traits of our family members today, but they aren’t allowed in the raking light of heaven.

            Your family would be completely different, like they were loaded into a dishwasher and came out sparkling clean. Maybe it’s a better existence – maybe they’re blissfully happy now. But it wouldn’t be the family we knew. And aren’t those the ones we long for?


6)  Happiness Would Not Even Be Possible.

            Even after this tour of the secret underbelly of heaven, True Believer, I know just what you’re thinking. Your confident belief in this extra-terrestrial, extra-dimensional paradise is unshaken, because no matter what objections the Evil One whispers in your ear, you Just Know that all the doubts and fears and quibbles will evaporate once you Get There. You may not have all the answers but you trust Him Who Does. Who cares if your eternal soul is cinched in a divine straitjacket or lacks the freedom to punch other souls in the face? So what if Grandma is suddenly 33 years old with a sharp mind and a bangin’ body? None of it will matter, because you will be happy in ways that are unimaginable to you now. Right?

            There’s a small problem with that, though: Happiness is not possible if there is nothing to contrast happiness with.

            Think about it like this. If everyone in class gets an award for being special, then no one is actually special. The concept of being “special” would lose its meaning. Turns out this isn’t some academic, relativistic hair-splitting: all concepts work this way. If everyone on the planet was suddenly wealthy, then no one would really be wealthy. Ditto with concepts like “beauty,” “goodness,” and “Grandma’s bangin’ body.” All these concepts can only function in a context that leaves room for their opposites as well. If you remove one, the other ceases to exist. (Incidentally,  this is also why “God,” despite being omnipotent, can’t simply snap his fingers and permanently delete his cosmic foe, the “Devil.” On the other hand, some religions like Daoism or Zoroastrianism evade this problem by openly embracing a cosmic dualism.)

            Now let’s apply this to heaven. In a place where every soul is permanently, blissfully happy, then the concept of happiness loses all meaning. Remember, the very idea of “unhappiness” is specifically, deliberately expunged from heaven. But with it goes any chance of “happiness.”

            Some theologians are aware of this problem, and they postulate that the blessed souls in heaven will recognize their happiness because they will be aware of the suffering and torment of the souls in hell. This certainly addresses the problem, but it also falls into our growing category of  “Unintentionally Horrific Things Theologians Say.” Because to sell heaven as a place where everyone watches torture porn during their breaks from enforced worship is seriously to fail at pretty much everything.


*          *          *

Life goes by all too quickly, and I can’t imagine there’s anyone who feels, when the end comes, that they had long enough. One truly wishes for it to continue in some form or another, preferably one where eating chocolate makes you thinner. But when someone tries to sell us something that’s deeply flawed, boasts that it’s perfect, and then threatens to burn us if we point out those flaws, then surely it’s the salesman, and not the customer, who needs to go back to the drawing board.      

Degenerate Art

The fourth animated feature by the Walt Disney Company which was released in 1941 and soon considered indisputable classics: it won Best Animation Design at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Original Music Score. It was mentioned by Manson in the song Ka-boom Ka-boom from The Golden Age of Grotesque.

Dumbo tells a story of the circus elephant calf Jumbo Jr. born with excessively big ears. This infirmity was considered by his congeners as shameful, so the elephant was immediately ridiculed and cruelly nicknamed Dumbo. His mother's tries to defend her offspring appeared to be unsuccessful: Dumbo is pulled away from her while she is imprisoned. A little mouse Timothy becomes the only friend of the outcast elephant and it's he who suddenly discovers that Dumbo is capable of flying. Once Dumbo and Timothy drink water without knowing that it was accidentally spiked with moonshine. They become inebriated and hallucinatory, seeing pink elephants sing and dance before their eyes. When they awake they discover themselves on a tree over 100 feet up to the amusement of local crows. Timothy suggests that drunken Dumbo flew both of them to the top of the tree using his ears as wings. The crows find this idea hilarious but Timothy persuades them into helping Dumbo to develop his unique feature. Dumbo the Flying Elephant becomes the star of the circus and an international celebrity thus disgracing his mockers.

Dumbo is mentioned in The Golden Age of Grotesque alongside with Mickey Mouse series and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and it's homage to the entertainment industry of the 1920s and 1930s since Disney's films were among its most outstanding pieces. However Dumbo is not merely mentioned in the record: using the film's plot Manson builds a very complex and multilayer metaphor that is very important for understanding The Golden Age of Grotesque concept in the part where the traditional opposition of 'high art' vs. 'low art' is deconstructed. The status of the entertainment industry is one of the major problems in the album and traditional view of it as something 'low' is attacked from different angles simultaneously. Particularly Manson draws parallels between the elitist concept of art and the Nazi doctrine of "degenerate" art finding that they are obviously alike.

In Ka-boom Ka-boom Dumbo is mentioned as a part of the neologism "Dumbo jet" that was derived from the idiom 'jumbo jet' - a very large airliner, a common name for the Boeing 747. If we turn to etymology of this idiom we'll find out that Boeing 747 was named as such after an African elephant Jumbo that lived in the London Zoo in the second part of the 19th century and then performed in a circus. Later its name became a popular nickname of circus elephants and also became synonymous with something large or huge. Dumbo is a circus elephant that is capable of flying, and moreover his real name is Jumbo Jr.

As it was stated above, in The Golden Age of Grotesque era the artist uses one more - and the most famous - Disney's character, Mickey Mouse, which is quite naturally considered by Manson as some symbol for the entertainment industry as a whole. It is essential that Mickey Mouse was viewed by the Nazis as a "degenerate" character. "All the art we have done, has many levels, but in regards to Mickey...his image was also considered to be 'degenerate' by the fascist government in [1930's Germany]. In America he represented so much more," said Manson in February 2003.

It is easy to notice that Manson accentuates Mickey Mouse's ears as a distinctive and easily recognizable feature of this character. The central visual image of The Golden Age of Grotesque era is a weird combination of Mickey Mouse's ears and blackface make-up. "I'm the leader of the club / And I've shrugged off / My mouse ears", sings Manson in Ka-boom Ka-boom. And while commenting on his Anaclitism watercolor which is a self-portrait as Mickey Mouse and Van Gogh together Manson said, "So I've cut off one of my mouse ears and I'm staring at it and wondering how I will still be the leader of the club" (The Mickey Mouse Club was a popular American television series in the 1950s).

So it is naturally to draw parallels between Mickey Mouse's ears and Dumbo's ears. Just like odd, ridiculous ears of the elephant ultimately gave him the ability to hover the entertainment industry and thus Manson's art is put by the artist if not above the 'high art' but at least equalized with it in rights. "I'm not afraid to say I'm an entertainer," said Manson speaking to Revolver in March 2003. "I think I've struggled with that over the years, because in some ways I thought that that meant I wasn't an artist. But making people entertained is the greatest art that there is." (It is also important that Dumbo and Jumbo are circus elephants and circus was always an essential part of entertainment industry. Furthermore one of such elephants figures in the mOBSCENE video.)

Quite appropriately the only friend of Dumbo is a little mouse named Timothy. As is well known, the co-author of The Golden Age of Grotesque was Tim Skold. It was he who helped Manson to express his ideas in the proper way after the previous main guitarist, Twiggy Ramirez, left the band due to artistic differences with Manson.

No less important that the crow characters in Dumbo are in fact African-American caricatures - the film was quite often criticized for that "racist" image. But actually the crows are among the most sympathetic characters of the film and the authors were not so much trying to ridicule black people as they consciously referred viewers to blackface performances: the leader crow is named Jim Crow in the film. The mock character with such a name was created by American comedian Thomas Rice and it made blackface a widespread phenomenon. Just as crows helped Dumbo to develop his unique feature blackface performances were among the most inspiring sources for Manson while conceiving The Golden Age of Grotesque.



Finally it should be mentioned that Dumbo reveals his ability to fly being inebriated. The significant part of The Golden Age of Grotesque was written by Manson under the effect of absinthe - may be the most potent alcoholic beverage. "It was strange circumstances. There was a lot of weird, decadent things going on. A lot of absinthe", said Manson about the album's recording process speaking to Las Vegas Review Journal in July 2003. "We're a death-marching band / Peter Pan off the wagon", sings the artist in Ka-boom Ka-boom. The release year of the film, 1941, when World War II was in full swing is also important.

Bearing in mind the aforesaid it's time to turn to the line in which neologism "Dumbo jets" is used: "We fly No-Class Dumbo jets". 'We' is certainly referring to the band as well as its fans. 'No class' usually means "low-quality, low-grade" but the artist applies it to airliners meaning that there're no traditional first, business and economy classes - another blow at the opposition 'high' vs. 'low'.

As we see a simple at first glance neologism 'Dumbo jets' hides a very complex, multilayer metaphor that is very significant for understanding The Golden Age of Grotesque concept.

Amnesty

Today i went to out of boredom to Parramatta City Hall to listen to a panel discussing women in Afghanistan and how Australias goverment and its people could help, hosted by Amnesty International. There were 4 speakers.

- Wazhma Frogh: On a special trip to Australia, Ms Frogh is co-founder of Afghanistan's first Research Institute focused on women, peace and security, former Afghanistan Country Director of Global Rights and recipient of the 2009 International Woman of Courage Award.

- James Brown: Military Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy focused on defence policy and former officer in the Australian Army attached to Special Forces in Afghanistan.

- Jennifer Jamieson: Doctor and emergency medicine specialist who worked with Medicins Sans Frontieres in Afghanistan. She is the co-founder of Global Health Gateway, an organisation dedicated to engaging young health professionals in global health.

- Dallas Mazoori: Former member of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission’s Transitional Justice Unit who specialises in conflict mapping, mobilisation of victims and civil society for justice.


Issues that were discussed included Islamic traditions such as honour killings, public raping and beatings, a lack of resource avaliability. The large distinction between city and urban communities, with the latter having less knowledge of their basic human rights and legal protections. The education of young women, accentuated by the girl Malala Yousafzai who last year was shot at the age of 14 by the Taliban for campaigning for education.

 Attention was drawn to the unnecessary elbowing and nosing in of Iran and Pakistan and a lack of a national army capable of defending its people instead of being trained solely to be dealt with Taliban insurgents

Violence agaisnt women and the importance of creating proper means of communication between foreign prescences and women, such as the forming of more units that specialised in direct communication with communities and their women and teaching them basic living skills. 

The influence of the Taliban was a heavy topic and how the international communitys failure to respond accordingly had led to the Taliban insurgents to slowly retake power dispute their overthrow in 2001. Concern was raised over the influnece of local gangs and warlords who after 11 years of conflict had resulted in a country that had a ratio of 3:1 weapons accounted for. Many worried about the painful obvious corruption of those of resided in the palaces, the current presidents and politicians of the country.

Perhaps the greatest fear of the panel and the audience members who asked questions was the fear that after 11 years of greater rights for women (e.g. in the past they would be beaten if they went outside unaccompanied by their male counterparts or smashed for showing any skin from their ankles upwards), was the fear that once the Australian troops left all the progress would be void and leave Afghanistan in a state of political anarchy.

Wazhma was optimistic about the future of Afghanistan and its women although she did take great care to stress the importance of continued communication with the people through journalism, a notion that was supported by the other panelists, with James reassuring that dispute the troops pulling out, eyes would be kept on the high ranking officials of the country.

Dallas was more pessimistic citing the disproportionate amount of corruption, the lack of prosecuting power and police presence and national guard incapable of defending its own countrymen and the impending legal vaccum present from the lack public understanding of basic human rights and public education. She was adamant in her exclamation that upon the withdrawal of troops by 2014, Afghanistan would no doubt sink back into a cesspool of human rights violations, excessive physical violence influenced by religious traditions and customs aided by an overload of unaccounted firearms, corrupt trials and back to no education for women.

Jenna the doctor didnt have much to say about the political side of things but did share a few anecdotes with female patients who confided in her about their fears, mainly fears that if the foreigners left they would be left alone and all the progress over the last 11 years would be eroded. But most importantly the women knew that for peace to be achieved, it had to start from the home, no more practising men and boys of Islam being taught to view their mothers and sisters and women in general as nothing more than objects and inferior beings. Only from peace within households could peace spread to the community and thus the nation.

I left the panel with some lights snacks and a new badge that says I LOVE HUMAN RIGHTS which now adornes my bag. I had known for a long time about the mistreatment of women in Islamic Middle Eastern cultures but i dont regret travelling to listen to the more personal stories and the political side of things instead of just the bullshit that is the Islamic religion. While i sat there in the audience i was genuinely moved and engaged in the atmosphere. I guess if i hear these things first hand i might actually care but if i just hear the general side of things its safe to safe i couldn't care less.

I hope there are more of these free panel events i can just drop in and listen to and maybe learn about something new.

I Smile At Abortions

When a child is aborted.
That child is not sad.
That child is not angry.
That child is not wondering what kind of life he could have lived.
That child does not think, “Mother, why did you not love me?”
That child is not thinking at all.
The only people it immediately affects, are the parents.
It’s their decision, no one else’s.
Not the government.
Not yours.
And not your God’s.
Whenever a child is aborted, a smile crosses my face.

Profit vs Humanity

Charles Darwins Birthdays (12th of February 1809)

“ Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system — with all these exalted powers — Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. ”

                        ~ Charles Darwin; (Born 204 years ago on, February 12, 1809)

But even Darwin had days where he hated everybody.


“But I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything. One lives only to make blunders.– I am going to write a little Book for Murray on orchids & today I hate them worse than everything so farewell & in a sweet frame of mind,
I am ever yours"

~ C. Darwin

FUCK THE MOTHERFUCKING POPE

UPDATE:

Pope Benedict resigned to avoid arrest, seizure of church wealth by Easter

Posted on February 13, 2013 by itccs

Here are ten reasons to be pleased that Pope Benedict is resigning.

He has international political influence through the Vatican 

His Vatican works with Islamic States to oppose gay rights

He blames atheism for Nazi Germany and lack of virtue

His Catholic Church claims that atheists are not fully human

He protects the Vatican ahead of child sex abuse victims

He blames secularisation for priests raping children

His Vatican compares child sex abuse with ordaining women

He offered free plenary indulgences to Lourdes pilgrims 

[In 2008 Pope Benedict gave Catholics a special time-limited promotional offer: if they visited Lourdes during 2008, they would get a free plenary indulgence that would get them early release from Purgatory, and get them faster to heaven, after they died. Encouraging seriously sick people to travel great distances, in the hope of a miracle cure, is very much part of mainstream Catholic practice.]

He is skeptical that there were donkeys in the crib

He silences priests who want a more democratic church

---------------------------------------

----------------------------------------

Fuck the motherfucker

Fuck the motherfucker

Fuck the motherfucker

He's a fucking motherfucker

Fuck the motherfucker

Fuck the fucking fucker

Fuck the motherfucker

He's a total fucking fucker

Fuck the motherfucker

Fuck the motherfucker

Fuck the motherfucker

Fucking fuck the motherfucker

Fuck the motherfucker

Fuck the motherfucking Pope.

Fuck the motherfucker

And fuck you, motherfucker

If you think that motherfucker is sacred

If you cover for another motherfucker

Who's a kiddie fucker

Fuck you, you're no better

Than the motherfucking rapist

And if you don't like the swearing

That this motherfucker forced from me

And reckon it shows moral 

Or intellectual paucity

Then fuck you, motherfucker

This is language one employs

When one is fucking cross

About fuckers fucking boys

I don't give a fuck if calling

The Pope a motherfucker

Means you unthinkingly brand me

An unthinking apostate

This has nowt to do with other

Fucking Godly motherfuckers

I'm not interested now

In fucking scriptural debate

There are other fucking songs

And there are other fucking ways

I'll be a religious apologist

On other fucking days

And the fact remains if you protect

A single kiddie fucker

The Pope, or Prince or plumber

You're a fucking motherfucker

You see I don't give a fuck about

What any other fucker

Believes about Jesus

And his motherfucking mother

I've no problem with the spiritual beliefs

Of all these fuckers

While those beliefs don't impact

On the happiness of others

But if you build your Church on claims

Of fucking moral authority

And with threats of Hell impose it

On others in society

Then you, you motherfuckers

Can expect some fucking wrath

When it turns out you've been fucking us

In our motherfucking asses

So fuck the motherfucker

And fuck you, motherfucker

If you're still a motherfucking Papist

If he covered for a single motherfucker

Who's a kiddie fucker

Fuck the motherfucker

He's as evil as the rapist

And if you look into your motherfucking heart 

And tell me true

If this motherfucking stupid fucking

Song offended you

With its filthy fucking language

And its fucking disrespect

If it made you feel angry

Go ahead and write a letter

But if you find me more offensive

Than the fucking possibility

That the Pope protected priests

While they were getting fucking fiddly

Then listen to me motherfucker

This here is a fact: 

You are just as morally misguided

As that motherfucking, power hungry

Self-aggrandised bigot

In the stupid fucking hat.

God Calls The Children Home

God calls his children home in so many despicable and horrific ways - sometimes he uses pathogens and parasites that invade, torture and kill them slowly and sadistically - sometimes god uses deranged lunatics with assault weapons that rip apart six year old bodies and splatter their brains and limbs on school chalkboards to call them home and make them angels - sometimes he uses cancer or muscular dystrophy to degree their little bodies before calling them home - oh that God... What a jester.

Triune Brain Theory

The Triune Brain Theory says that our brain has three parts: lizard brain, animal brain, and human brain. In a nutshell, the human brain is what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. This is where abstract thought, language, and reason happens. Behavior is driven by the lizard and animal brains. And so, if you want to drive change, you must appeal to these areas of the brain. 






















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The lizard brain is your flight-or-flight pain avoidance mechanism. Solution Selling says "no pain, no change" and so hitting the lizard brain with pain can be a key driver for change. Since the animal brain drives most behavior and this is where we experience emotion, then it makes since that people would make decisions based on emotion. We back up those decisions with our human brain, but this isn't where memories are stored and so we might rationalize the decision but then the rationale goes away over time.

Hannibal Lecter

Man is the world’s most dangerous animal. Though we do not possess sharp teeth, claws, poisonous stingers, or the ability to perceive heat radiated by other creatures, we do possess an unsurpassed ability to reason and think. Man has intelligence, the deadliest natural weapon of all. In Thomas Harris’ The Silence of the Lambs, readers are introduced to Hannibal Lecter, the cannibalistic psychiatrist, who fuses a razor-honed intellect with the savage qualities of a beast. He is both man and monster, but it is the balance of these two aspects that gives him the depth that still fascinates and horrifies to this day. 

Even before the readers see Lecter, other characters make references to his monstrousness, giving him the presence of a Bogeyman. In the first chapter, Jack Crawford warns Clarice Starling to not let Lecter into her head and tells her to remember “what he did to Will Graham.” Without even seeing Lecter, the readers know he is dangerous in more ways than one. He not only has a penchant for consuming human flesh, but also for feeding on the emotions of his victims.

Frederick Chilton fans the flames of fear when Starling goes to the asylum to visit Lecter. He shows her the photo evidence of what Lecter did to a nurse when he was freed from his restraints. Like a wild animal, Lecter had broken her jaw, eaten her tongue, and ravaged the rest of her face. The image is enough to make Starling cry, which is significant because she only cries a few times throughout the novel. 

This scene adds to Lecter’s dark shadow, but it is an addendum by Chilton that makes it even more horrific. “His pulse never got over eighty-five, even when he swallowed it,” Chilton says, referring to the nurse’s tongue. Lecter ate the nurse’s tongue, an action one would attribute to a wild animal, but did so with the calm, coolness of a rational human being. This suggests that Lecter’s powers of self-control -- a human trait -- are astounding. 

If intelligence is the deadliest natural weapon of all, then Lecter is like a lion, the apex predator of the savannah. Yet, for all his bestial qualities, Lecter also possesses characteristics that are undeniably human. 

For one, rudeness is abhorrent to Lecter. He may be a cannibalistic serial killer, but he is nothing if not polite. When Miggs surprises Starling with his come, Lecter summons her back to his cell. He is agitated by what has happened to her and tells her, “Discourtesy is unspeakably ugly to me.” Then he helps Starling out by cluing her in to look in Benjamin Raspail’s car and thus setting her along the path of hunting Buffalo Bill.

Lecter is also proud, though it seems that he has every right to be. Surrounded by madmen like Miggs and Sammie and pestered by who he considers a quack, Chilton, Lecter holds himself above those around him. When Chilton tried to use Lecter for psychiatric tests, Lecter turned the tables on him and instead published his own findings on Chilton and made a fool out of him. In fact, Lecter refuses to talk to Chilton, deeming the man unworthy even of his attention. This pride is another human trait that separates him from a mere animal. 

To pass his time, Lecter amuses himself by playing with people’s emotions, getting into their heads, and tormenting them. It is in this mental and emotional torture that he derives his pleasure. When Starling goes to him for information on Buffalo Bill, it is readily apparent that he knows more than he lets on. He teases the FBI with information, dangling it in front of them, but never telling them outright. He takes great personal enjoyment in denying them their prey. 

It takes Starling several visits and the “trading” of personal information to convince Lecter to finally give her the details on Jame Gumb, though this is thrown astray by Chilton’s meddling. When Chilton interferes, Lecter returns to his nefarious ways and gives the hospital director false information, and when he is brought before Senator Martin, he first takes “a single sip of her pain” by probing for personal details about Catherine Martin before giving her the made-up information about William Rubin.

Hannibal Lecter -- A vampire of emotions?

Lecter’s love of sadistic mind games is another characteristic that is distinctly human. Few animals torture their prey for the sheer joy of it, but Lecter does so purely to while away his long days in maximum security. He feeds on the pain of his victims, like a vampire. For more clues on Gumb, Starling had to give up personal memories from her childhood and allow Lecter to figuratively root around in her head for juicy bits of information. 

Additionally, Lecter is well-versed in matters of fashion and culture. In his first appearance in the novel, he is seen reading an Italian edition Vogue. He also knows enough about perfume and skin cream to recognize what Starling was and wasn’t wearing. On the walls of his cell, he has put up a sketch of Florence, drawn from memory with felt-tipped markers, and of the crucifixion, referencing the Italian artist, Duccio. Lecter also derides Starling when she tries to “dissect” him with the FBI’s questionnaire and calls her a “well-scrubbed, hustling rube with a little taste.” He mocks her origins, her accent, and her fashion, implying that he considers himself culturally superior. 

However, Lecter warms up to Starling and assumes a role that is almost mentor-like towards her. He guides her throughout her investigation, prodding her along to dig deeper into what she finds. But just when Starling and the reader have become less apprehensive towards Lecter, and when he seems less a monster and more human, is when the beast within him is unleashed. After their last meeting in the Tennessee courthouse, Lecter makes his vicious and bloody escape. 

When his jailors, Pembry and Boyle, underestimate him, Lecter outwits them, freeing himself and then overpowering both officers, armed with nothing but his own teeth and the strength of his own arms. He sinks his teeth into Pembry’s face, like a wild animal uncaged, and savages it “like a rat-killing dog.” This animal simile reflects the bestial nature that lurks within Lecter. 

But this isn’t the crowning gem of Lecter’s escape. Once again demonstrating his all-too-human intellect, Lecter tricks the veritable army of police officers by cutting Pembry’s face off and using it to disguise himself as a wounded officer, thereby fooling the police into carrying him right out from under their noses. Like Houdini, Lecter disappears and quickly goes to ground. 

It would be easy to throw one’s hands up in the air and simply list the cause of all of Lecter’s behavior as the actions of a mentally disturbed madman. But that would rip away the layers of complexity that surround Lecter and make him such a memorable character. 

The almost affectionate relationship that he develops with Starling – It is both disquieting and captivating. It leads one to wonder: Is a person like Lecter capable of developing real relationships with other people? Or is he a true sociopath, who sees other human beings as toys at best? 



Lecter has what could be described as a professional respect for Crawford, enough that he would send him a note of condolence for Crawford’s dying wife. Some could argue that Lecter does this only to increase the pain that Crawford is going through, but despite Lecter’s verbal derision, there is a sense that there is a mutual respect between them. It is the respect a lion would pay a crocodile. Crawford knows what Lecter is capable of and Lecter knows that it was Crawford who was responsible for putting him away. 

In his correspondence at the end of the novel, Lecter sends Barney “a generous tip and a thank-you note for his many courtesies at the asylum.” Like Crawford, Barney knows what Lecter is and does not underestimate him The orderly is one of the few people that have Lecter’s esteem and, polite as ever, Lecter wishes to pay him a favor. 

The juxtaposition of wild animal and civil, rational human being gives Lecter the depth and complexity that is matched by few other characters in literature. He is indefinable, transcending simplification and summation. The bestial monster and the highly intelligent, cultured human have found symbiosis in Lecter’s form, like a modern-day Jekyll and Hyde.



Lecter defies the quantification and reduction to simplistic definitions such as a psychopath or sociopath. When he discards Starling’s questionnaire, he tells her, “You can’t reduce me to a set of influences.” And when Lecter asks her if she thinks he is evil and she tells him she thinks he is destructive, Lecter connects the dots by stating, “Underwriters lump it all under ‘Acts of God.’” 

Lecter is not a man or a monster; he is both these things, and more. His supremely gifted intellect sets him above his fellow man. He is a force of nature, like a hurricane or a fire, and he puts to the question whether such a force is subject to man’s law. It is almost poetic that Lecter, who perceives himself above man, Earth’s apex predator, hunts and eats man. To this day, he remains one of literature’s most haunting figures, earning him a well-deserved place in the hall of villains with the greats, like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Milton’s Satan.