finally, we can all exhale a big sigh of relief. Also, we have a tutorial for those that aren’t prepared to make the call on their own.
The Difference Between Shit and Shinola: Clearly Defined, Once and For All
Well, I got around to setting up a Flickr account. It’s a cool little website for sharing photos. I uploaded some of my fav pics from my digital camera.
You know, I have long berated the line up on tv. Especially when reality tv hit. I hate reality tv. However, I have found some diamonds in the rough. I have found several shows I genuinely enjoy. One of these shows is 30 Days.
I have recently started watching this show, even though I never saw the movie that made the creator famous, Super Size Me. This show has been really intriguing, and though I do love FX Networks for their fine programming, I didn’t expect to really get much out of this show. I happened across it one time and it was the episode where the host and his girlfriend had to make it on minimum wage. Things really hit home when they showed their hospital bills (which were for very minor things). They were just ridiculously huge. It’s amazing how things like insurance can separate you from the reality of what things really cost. It really highlights the greediness in the system.
However, tonight’s episode had one of the most succint and well said lines I have heard in quite a while. They took a white Christian man and put him into a Muslim community for a month. Had him follow their customs, their life style. I consider myself pretty well educated on the basics of other religions, but I found several things eye opening. Inevitably, the conversation got to islamic terrorists. One of the muslim women put it the best I have heard. “They are not fringe muslims. They are fringe people.”
I was able to relate it to people who kill abortion doctors in the name of God. Even though abortions are against Christianity’s teachings, Christians do not claim association with these people. Why? Cause they cross the line of what is right and wrong. Whether they agree with the “extremists” on a basic level of whether or not abortions should be legal, most Christians will volunteer that killing the doctors performing them is across the line of what is right and wrong and is a misinterpretation of Christianity’s teaching. The same could be said of the extremist muslims. These are people who take what they are taught and disregard other parts of the teachings, such as the sanctity of life. Fundis are fundis, no matter their driving force.
I have always considered myself open to other cultures and I try to learn as much as possible about them. However, I am from Texas and the culture I have grown up in has a tendency to implant innate apprehensions to people of different cultures. I think something as small as a sentence can really have a proverbial effect on someone. And I feel that the line above really gave me a succint reminder that we are all people. It’s been said better before me, “All right, we’ll give some land to the niggers and the chinks, but we don’t want the Irish.”