Dark Alex's Really Long Post Thread.

[ER]

Democracies evolve.  Democracies don't  pretend to be perfect.  Democracies have a process where the people  can change he law and government

Religion doesn't. Religion claims to be perfect and infallible.

In religion,  every time the majority decides to do something different than what the god wants,  BOOM!  Plague,  war,  famine,  etc,  until the populace is beaten back into submission.

In democracy when people  decide the old ways are no longer right,  they can vote to chaos ce them and not have the power in charge smash them down with disaster or war.


That's the difference between Christianity and democracy.

Truth does not change with time or opinion. That is a difference.

[Alex]

Religions do evolve and change over time. Tell someone from the early days of christianity for example that the mother of Jesus was a virgin and they'd look at you pretty askance. As mentioned above, christianity changed as it spread and absorbed the beliefs of other cultures, not to mention off shoots of the original church with new beliefs.

That is evolution.

I don't know how things are in the US, but in many places across the world gay people can get married in a church.

Again, this is a change. It might take a long time, but it happens. People have changed it. Once again, your argument is proven wrong by simple facts.

In democracies, vested interests especially those with money can prevent change and block votes. Given your anti-capitalist views, I would have thought that is something you would have understood.

In religion,  every time the majority decides to do something different than what the god wants,  BOOM!  Plague,  war,  famine,  etc,  until the populace is beaten back into submission.

And how is your kill everyone who doesn't agree with you attitude any better? You see this is wrong, and yet you'd kill people who get in your way. Since you know it is wrong, I'd say that actually makes you worse.

And if you don't think anyone has ever claimed that democracy is perfect... well enjoy living in your precious bubble untroubled by reality.

[ER]

Religions do evolve and change over time. Tell someone from the early days of christianity for example that the mother of Jesus was a virgin and they'd look at you pretty askance. As mentioned above, christianity changed as it spread and absorbed the beliefs of other cultures, not to mention off shoots of the original church with new beliefs.

That is evolution.

I don't know how things are in the US, but in many places across the world gay people can get married in a church.

Again, this is a change. It might take a long time, but it happens. People have changed it. Once again, your argument is proven wrong by simple facts.

In democracies, vested interests especially those with money can prevent change and block votes. Given your anti-capitalist views, I would have thought that is something you would have understood.

In religion,  every time the majority decides to do something different than what the god wants,  BOOM!  Plague,  war,  famine,  etc,  until the populace is beaten back into submission.

And how is your kill everyone who doesn't agree with you attitude any better? You see this is wrong, and yet you'd kill people who get in your way. Since you know it is wrong, I'd say that actually makes you worse.

And if you don't think anyone has ever claimed that democracy is perfect... well enjoy living in your precious bubble untroubled by reality.

Customs change, beliefs and interpretations change but truth is constant. Truth is that which remains constant regardless of opinion. You can't hold a majority vote on what's true and change it because of popularity.

As for what is truth, well, that's a famous question.

[Alex]

Rehearsals seemed to go well last night and the director was incredibly happy. Good for her. Got 6 more to go before our performance.

Teressa May is trying to build support across the political spectrum for her deal by asking other parties to join in. Really something she should have done at the start of this process rather than at the death.

Ash is sitting on my knee as I type this. Evidently, he is finding the news fascinating as he is quite happily watching it very quietly.

Our local council is ready to go bankrupt and announced a whole series of cuts. They pretty much want to close everything in Lossiemouth (swimming pool, library, community centre, get rid of crossing guards, close all public toilets... the list goes on. And this is just the first round of cuts (around £2.2 million worth. I think they need to make £5 million worth of cuts though so it is going to get worse). They weren't short of money though when they built new council offices with a marble entrance though. They've been spending too much for years and now have reached the point where cuts have to be made. My vote would be for them all to have a pay cut and examine any expenses the councilors are allowed to claim quite closely. Then I'd check the hospitality budget. Departments have a habit of spending money to justify their budgets on projects they don't need. That I would actually make a criminal offence along the lines of fraud. It is not their money to waste, it is our money.

Still, I don't think politics is really the field for me. I'd be in a permanent state of cold rage.

[Alex]

And my weekend has commenced.  

Got home, sent Kristi to bed since she hadn't gotten much sleep last night, fed Ash and right now I'm having a snack (cheese on toast with onions and tomato if you are wondering. Or if you aren't it is still cheese and toast with onions and tomato. World goes on regardless of relative levels of curiosity).

Saw a meme with reasons with The Cure are better the The Smiths. They had me at the first line which read "The Cure  - Contains Robert Smith. The Smiths - Doesn't actually contain anyone called Smith."

Plus Morrissey is a miserable, whiny turd who wouldn't know a happy thought if it gave him a lap dance so there's that.

Sitting in the dining room watching the view out the patio doors. Shame the view consists of a small hill with bigger houses on it that make it feel like you have no privacy. One of the reasons I spend so much time up in the man cave I guess.

Hmm, a load of emails begging me to invest in bitcoin before it is too late.

Funny, I thought it already was.

Ever heard the theory about Toto's 'Africa' being about a werewolf?

For the skeptics, let's go through the lyrics together. (We don't need to look at the music as it pretty much speaks for itself, starting with the fact that the song is in A major -- the go-to key for the werewolf subculture.)

I hear the drums echoing tonight  
But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation  

OK, these first lines of text are incredibly rich, but let's just touch on a couple things. The first line establishes the song's nocturnal theme, immediately giving it a supernatural -- and, specifically, lycanthropian -- flavor, and the call to action, represented by the drums. In a deeper analysis, drums, which are created from the stretched skin of animals, are also an allusion to the belief that wearing the skin of a wolf can cause one to become afflicted with the werewolf curse.

The isolation the protagonist feels is also illustrated beautifully here with the clear psychological separation between himself and the unnamed female character, who represents both the main character's personal relationships and humanity in general. What's especially intriguing is that, whatever this "quiet conversation" concerns, the female character herself is not fully aware of it -- creating even more distance between the main character and the conversation. And what is the conversation about? One can only speculate. Repressed guilt? Fear of exposure? Loneliness?

And, of course, the fact that the main character can hear the drums but his female companion cannot is an overt reference to werewolves' superhuman senses, while simultaneously raising the question, "Do these drums exist in reality or merely in the werewolf's mind?"

She's coming in 12:30 flight  
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that guide me towards salvation  

Here we have a direct reference to moonlight, the catalyst for the werewolf's monthly transformation, but it is juxtaposed with the idea of "salvation." In all likelihood, this is a reference to the medieval belief that exorcism or conversion to Christianity was a remedy for the werewolf curse, although it could just be a broader expression of the prospect of being cured.

What I find particularly fascinating about this passage is what is possibly the introduction of a second unnamed female character, one who has not yet arrived but whose arrival is imminent. She could be the character from the second line, but if that is the case, the werewolf is somehow able to understand what she is experiencing without being in close proximity to her.

Either way, she is a paradoxical image here; if we are to continue with our focus on Christianity, this woman clearly has angelic qualities, namely her "moonlit wings." However, these wings are reflecting the starlight that would guide the werewolf to his salvation. The question here obviously becomes, "Is this reflecting serving to augment the stars' guiding light, or to distort it?"

Scholars have made the argument that this second female character is indeed a benevolent force, as evidenced by the second occurrence of the line ". . . it's waiting there for you," in which the word "it's" is changed to "she's," indicating the angel will at last have led the werewolf to his absolution. However, history tells us the argument could be made that this is a punishing angel, and she may even be the cause of the werewolf's affliction; as St. Thomas Aquinas said, "All angels, good and bad, have the power of transmutating our bodies."

I stopped an old man along the way,  
Hoping to find some old, forgotten words or ancient melodies
He turned to me as if to say, "Hurry, boy, it's waiting there for you."

This is one of my favorite stanzas. Here, the werewolf looks to the old man (the personification of a combination of wisdom and folklore) for assistance, in a direct reference to the idea that certain spoken words can release a werewolf from its curse.  From Wikipedia: "In the German lowland of Schleswig-Holstein, a werewolf could be cured if one were to simply address it three times by its Christian name, while one Danish belief holds that simply scolding a werewolf will cure it."

The stanza ends with the old man's delightfully playful use of the term "boy" to address the protagonist, which, of course, immediately evokes a man speaking to a beloved canine.

It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you  
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do  
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never have

This section, the chorus, is largely self-explanatory, illustrating both the werewolf's superhuman strength and the enormity of his efforts to cure himself. The first line is also a particularly lovely expression of lycanthrope duality -- the fact that man and beast, though enemies, are one being.

Personally, I am intrigued by the rain imagery here. At the surface, the rains appear to represent a healing, nourishing force, but it is my opinion that this may also be an allusion to the superstition that drinking rainwater from the footprint of an animal can give one the power to become that animal. Of course, one can overanalyze these things!

The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless longing for some solitary company  

My apologies in advance for the fact that these lines would be better interpreted by someone more familiar with the werewolf subculture, but here is how I understand them. "Wild dogs" is a term werewolves use to describe themselves within the community, though there is disagreement among scholars as to whether this may be applied to all lycanthropes or simply those currently in "wolf" form (in either case, it is considered disrespectful, though not explicitly offensive, for a non-werewolf to use the term). These lines are especially moving because they are the text's most vivid examples of the protagonist expressing -- albeit obliquely -- his personal anguish.

The phrase "solitary company" is perhaps the most fascinating paradox in the entire song, as the two states of being -- "solitary" and with "company" -- seem at first to be mutually exclusive. In fact, the only way this could occur would be for the "wild dog" in question to be at once an individual and two beings. So we see, these lines are possibly the strongest evidence we have that "Africa" is indeed a thinly-veiled werewolf story.

I know that I must do what's right  
Sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti

"Hope" has been a recurring theme in this song -- we haven't touched on it before now, but I'm sure you've noticed it as we've gone through the text. Here, at last, we have not only the culmination of the werewolf's determination to find his salvation, but a final acknowledgement of the hope and conviction that have sustained him throughout his journey.

Particularly elegant here is the comparison of Mount Kilimanjaro to Mount Olympus. It's easy to find any number of books and essays devoted exclusively to this subject, but let me highlight the main points. Firstly, comparing the two mountains instantly connects the song's actual setting to a place inextricably tied to werewolf mythology -- Ancient Greece. (While the argument could be made that, even with the comparison, one still has to make the mental leap from modern Greece to Ancient Greece, I contend that the mystical feel of the text will automatically evoke not only the era but, specifically, the mythology of the culture in most listeners.) Wikipedia cites numerous examples in Ancient Greek literature of humans becoming wolves, most notably Lycaon, who became a wolf as punishment for murder.

In a larger sense, the fact that the protagonist is reminded of Mount Olympus -- home to the gods -- shows us that he feels, at least subconsciously, a connection to the rest of humanity. After all, the gods of Olympus watch, torment, and assist man and wolf-man alike.

I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become.

This final line, unfortunately, doesn't appear to be related to rest of the song at all. One even wonders if it is, in fact, an error.

Ah, the things humans can make out of nothing. What the hell, it is enough for me. Best go book out a rifle, get some silver ammo and go hunt me some Toto! Next time I watch 'The Beast Must Die' I know who I am voting for when you have to guess who the lycanthrope is.

That isn't the best explanation I've seem of it, but it was first on my search results and I am feeling lazy.

[Alex]

Since it is Burns Night tonight I thought I would post up my favourite poem of his.

IS THERE FOR HONEST POVERTY
by Robert Burns
Is there for honest poverty
That hangs his head, an' a' that
The coward slave, we pass him by
We dare be poor for a' that
For a' that, an' a' that
The rank is but the guinea's stamp
The man's the gowd for a' that
What though on hamely fare we dine
Wear hoddin grey, an' a' that
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine
A man's a man, for a' that
For a' that, an' a' that
Their tinsel show an' a' that
The honest man, though e'er sae poor
Is king o' men for a' that
Ye see yon birkie ca'd a lord
Wha struts an' stares an' a' that
Tho' hundreds worship at his word
He's but a coof for a' that
For a' that, an' a' that
The man o' independent mind
He looks an' laughs at a' that
A prince can mak' a belted knight
A marquise, duke, an' a' that
But an honest man's aboon his might
Gude faith, he maunna fa' that
For a' that an' a' that
Their dignities an' a' that
The pith o' sense an' pride o' worth
Are higher rank that a' that
Then let us pray that come it may
(as come it will for a' that)
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth
Shall bear the gree an' a' that
For a' that an' a' that
It's coming yet for a' that
That man to man, the world o'er
Shall brithers be for a' that.

I wonder how many times anyone not from Scotland would have to google words from that lol.

[Allhallowsday]

Since it is Burns Night tonight I thought I would post up my favourite poem of his.

IS THERE FOR HONEST POVERTY
by Robert Burns
Is there for honest poverty
That hangs his head, an' a' that
The coward slave, we pass him by
We dare be poor for a' that
For a' that, an' a' that
The rank is but the guinea's stamp
The man's the gowd for a' that
What though on hamely fare we dine
Wear hoddin grey, an' a' that
Gie fools their silks, and knaves their wine
A man's a man, for a' that
For a' that, an' a' that
Their tinsel show an' a' that
The honest man, though e'er sae poor
Is king o' men for a' that
Ye see yon birkie ca'd a lord
Wha struts an' stares an' a' that
Tho' hundreds worship at his word
He's but a coof for a' that
For a' that, an' a' that
The man o' independent mind
He looks an' laughs at a' that
A prince can mak' a belted knight
A marquise, duke, an' a' that
But an honest man's aboon his might
Gude faith, he maunna fa' that
For a' that an' a' that
Their dignities an' a' that
The pith o' sense an' pride o' worth
Are higher rank that a' that
Then let us pray that come it may
(as come it will for a' that)
That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth
Shall bear the gree an' a' that
For a' that an' a' that
It's coming yet for a' that
That man to man, the world o'er
Shall brithers be for a' that.

I wonder how many times anyone not from Scotland would have to google words from that lol.

I saw a short film very recently on TCM in B&W from the 40s (probably) or 30s, maybe Hollywood or an English production... the character of ROBERT BURNS recites that very poem to the "elite" dinner guests, insulting them!!!  It was GREAT!!! 

[Alex]

It did make me chuckle when at the opening of the Scottish Parliament they read that one to the Queen.

[Allhallowsday]

Cool.  Though I love Diana, I look askance at that monarchy... being Irish...

[Alex]

Queen seemed nice when I met her, but mostly to be honest the royals don't figure in my life. Diana made it clear she didn't care for my country so I've been indifferent to her. There is one member of the family that I have nothing but contempt and disgust for and alas he is a regular visitor to these parts.

[Allhallowsday]

Y'mean grampa?  Or doting son?

[Alex]

Andrew.

[Allhallowsday]

Andrew.

Oh... I don't care for the prince consort... 

[Alex]

Andrew.

Oh... I don't care for the prince consort... 

Did you hear about his car crash and then being caught the next day driving without a seatbelt? Shards of glass from the crash are allegedly up on ebay.

[Svengoolie 3]

I just can't respect any sort of hereditary monarchy.It's a concept that should have been dumped a long time ago. The very idea that someone is somehow higher just because of what pair of thighs s/he got squeezed out between is just.....moronic.

I do respect some members of the monarchy as individuals for what they did as individuals.

The current queen stayed in London during the blitz even while many people were being evacuated to the countryside.

I respected diana for her efforts to help ordinary people.

The rest of them should have been making money doing reality shows.