It’s come to a head recently when I’ve heard good LDS people talk about non-cannon literature like its essential to my faith. “Have you bought the latest Sheri Dew book? I read it every night before I go to bed.” Its not even a part of the core doctrine. Its just nice fluffies. And that’s fine. But I don’t need an elaborately framed and ridiculously priced picture of Christ hanging in my living room to make me a good Mormon.

I think religious imagery has its place. I want to hang a small painting of the Savior in our baby’s room so he/she can start to learn about Jesus and have good associations. But I see no need to spend countless dollars on products that do nothing more than propagate a need that should never have existed in the first place.

My brother was in Deseret Book lately. He shares my feelings about the marketing of our faith. He remarked, sarcastically, to a very wholesome saleswomen, “Oh look, they have Jesus on calendars now.” To which she replied, “Oh yes! And on book marks too!”. She didn’t get it.

Now, to close this post on a lighter, less “I’m going to hell” note, a while ago I brainstormed an idea for a killer company here in Utah. It would be called “The In-Sign” and mostly play off those vinyl lettering stickers with the campy sayings that are so the rage these days. You know? The ones that say “Return with Honor”? Here’s are a few spin-offs that would look lovely accross a living room wall:

*”Return with honor or don’t return at all”

*”Its nice to be important but its more important to have money and fame.”

But just listen to what our friends the “commentors” left for our amusement. Keep in mind the article said NOTHING about poilitics or Obama or….anything.

I love these people. These are the same morons who run to their computers every time there’s a car crash on I-15 just to point out that the Mormons must have been the cause of it. Ah. Commentors.

I’m not a really “cool” person. I didn’t listen to my first real “with it” band until I was in the 8th grade. I grew up on David Bowie, Bob Dylan, and a lot of jazz. So it was a bit surprising to me when I started to Jr. High to realize I had no fodder for being “cool” i.e. had no real connection with popular music. So I started to listen to the local alternative station and soon found my niche.

I’ve had a variety of music interest since then. I pretty much like every thing but country and hard rap. My favorites were, at the beginning, Dave Matthews, Marilyn Manson, Bush and the Indigo Girls…a rather odd assortment. As I got older I added others to my listening library, bands like Counting Crows, Collective Soul, REM, and the like.

I’ve realized, in my musical wonderings, that music “coolness” changes. Take the aforementioned Dave Mathews. I love Dave. Always have. But it seems like his demographic has changed and now he’s no longer cool. His music hasn’t changed. At least not the stuff I have. Its the same music on those cd’s, but somehow over the course of the last few years his fans have changed, I guess, and now its no longer “hip” to like Dave Mathews.

That’s a stupid way to choose likes and dislikes. Like what you like, I say. I still listen to the Indigo Girls and love them (in a purely platonic way I assure you). I love Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, and all the other guys the hipster movement has deemed “deush-baggish”. I also love Sufjan Stevens, The Decemberists, and The Knife.

I guess what I’m saying is its ok to like a certain band or singer, even if you don’t like their listeners. I’ll admit, popped collared wienies named Chad probably listen to The Dave Mathews Band. But Dave’s live version of All Along the Watchtower still holds out as my number one favorite song. Ever. Here, have a look-see:

watch?v=ypaH1Gj6VIs

We’re still fighting that ridiculous Provo City rezoning issue. They want to make it illegal for us to rent out our basement. So Dan and I gathered a group of fellow concerned residents and went to a neighborhood meeting tonight. Our goal was to force a vote and oust the existing neighborhood chair, the lady who is behind this ridiculousness.

We are completely within the city code to do so. She’s up for re-election. Its time to have a vote. So we called the election in the meeting. And then a funny thing happened. All hell broke loose.

About fifty people started to talk at once. It was like an old Hollywood movie. Except no Jimmy Stuart. There was a lady there from the City Council. She kept calling me “Dear” and told me that I was wrong and that this was not the way things were done. When I told her that it most certainly was because it was in the code, she said it didn’t matter because the existing Neighborhood Chairwoman didn’t have to call an election if she didn’t want to.

To that I told her that “oh yes she did because her term was up and in a democracy when term limits expire an election must be called”. And do you know what that city representative woman said to me? A person elected by a governing body of voting citizens? She said, and I quote directly, “this is not a democracy, dear.”

I studied a bit about American history in school. Just a bit. And I do remember this whole “Revolutionary War” thing that happened when the founding fathers fought with blood and teeth to create a democratic government. But I guess I got that part wrong because “this is not a democracy, dear”.

I said a word I shouldn’t have at her and left…I’ve never been that angry in all my 25 years of life. I felt like given the chance I could have punched through a wall. But I just left and come home and wrote this blog post.

So to all you out there who thought you were living in a democracy…I guess we were all wrong. Oops! Better move to China.

Many people are comparing the current campaign for homosexual marriage to the Civil Rights Movement of the sixties. Ok. Fine. But if we’re going to take this all the way…there needs to be some cogruity checks.

For instance, the movie “Milk” is being heralded as a big pin-up for ‘gay rights’. So…that would make Harvey Milk equvalent to say…Martin Luther King? Ok. But Sean Penn, the actor playing Milk, is not gay. He’s married (or was at least) to Robin Penn Wright. A girl.

So if this whole thing really is comparable to the Civil Rights Movement, wouldn’t the actor playing this powerful gay rights activist have to be gay? It would be like having John C. Reilly playing Martin Luther King…in black-face.

My question is…is there such a thing as “gay face”? I would think such a thing in our modern day society of sensitivity would be frowned upon. But if not, what’s Penn, an obviously straight man, doing in a movie about gay rights? Its a travesty to the whole movement. I say at least.

So, a week or so ago, Dan and I found out the Honorable Provo City Planning Commission is planning on changing some zoning in our area. The affect of the re-zoning would depreciate our house by about $20,000. So we’re more than a little interested in the political process now.

Active in our cause

We set to the streets (well, Dan set to the streets. I stayed at home with a cold) collecting signatures from other concerned neighbors. It seems more that just a few of us were less than enthused about the proposed…proposal (crap). We gathered over two hundred signatures and compiled them to take to the planning commission’s monthly meeting.

Stupidity wears many faces

So to the meeting we trod with petition in hand, sure our overwhelming representation of opposition would be well heard and considered. We’re talking a majority of 399 to one on this issue. A group of us were allowed three minutes each to present our case. In all, 22 spoke in opposition, 7 in favor. That does seem a little convincing…no? But….I learned a valuable lesson. Nobody just ups and joins a city council or planning commission because they have genuine interest in the community. Nope. I discovered that these people already knew just how they wanted to act…regardless of our protests.

I sat there in utter disbelief as one commision member actually stated that she’d been wanting to vote for a rezoning issue like this for ten years and now had her chance. She heard not a word we said. She already knew what she wanted to do. Only one man really understood the property rights that are at stake in this whole stupid proposal. One out of ten. What a joke.

So…here I sit, once again disillusioned with the government. With Provo City. With small minded people. They decided not to make a decision until “further evidence is collected”. I want to pull my hair out and mail it to them.

PS. Just to enlighted you all; the rezoning proposal (made by one woman in our neighborhood who I can only describe as bitchy…at best) would outlaw homeowners from renting out their own basements to non-related parties. This would mean that a large chunk of basement apartments and the like would be gone from the already starving Provo student housing market. This woman argues that outlawing these already existing accessory apartments would lessen the population of our neighborhood and make it a more family friendly place to live.

If you can find one ounce of sense in that…let me know. Ooooooo. I hates me the Provo City Government. The end.

I felt like the viewers of this show must have felt.

A woman in Provo staged a protest last week in front of social network Facebook’s headquarters in California. 11,000-plus people. A “sit-in”, they called it. Why? Because Facebook took down a profile photo of this woman nursing her baby.  Gasp.  I know. What a travesty. See article below:

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=5191633

In her own words she says she wants to protest for the rights of her daughter. What rights? The right her daughter has not to be hot under a blanket in public when she has to eat? Well, lady. Let me tell you something. If not being hot at the cost of decency was a right I’d be a nudist from June to October. I don’t think the kid cares.

There are a ton of worthy causes to fight for these days; global warming, global cooling, save the ducks, nuke the whales…and the list continues. Why is breastfeeding in public an issue? I guess I’ve never had kids so I don’t know the bonding that takes place between mother and child sitting at a bus stop exposing it all. When most people do that they get arrested.

But maybe I’m just being prudish. Although I doubt that.  When I was four the neighbors called my parents and told them a naked little girl was dancing around on the roof. Apparently I’d escaped from the bathtub. So nudity is no foreign offense. But I learned early on that being naked in public is not a right. Its a privilege of the crazies. And the French.

I say before staging this protest she could have stopped for a moment and asked herself, “is this photo of me nursing my baby worth the embarrassment this poor child is going to experience later on when every on the playground calls her ‘the boob girl’”? I think not. But hey-its Utah County. Thinking is not a commodity around here.  Burn.

But some of the political satirist can’t seem to get that point. I’m a big John Stewart and Steven Colbert fan. Up until recently, they were my main source for news. But I’ve become so sick of their agendas. I’m no republican by any means. Nor am I a democrat. But it sickens me to see successful and talented people turned into tools for any side.

John Stewart hates republicans so much that he can’t even mention ANYthing a democrat does on his show without comparing it to something “stupid” the other side did. I think this is dishonest and dirty journalism. Of course CNN, Fox News, and other major media outlets have biases. They’re commercial entities run by large corporations with money and greed. There is no objective main stream media.

But I would expect from people who, in my opinion, seem to rise above all that commercialism and cynicism to be able to, just for once, see hypocrisy where it lies and for what it is. I don’t care if you make fun of Sarah Palin. But you can’t over look the fact that Joe Biden recently told a voter, “Sir, I have a higher IQ than you.” Isn’t that kind of statement mock-able as well?

Colbert and Stewart have so let their own biases and opinions taint their content that I can barely watch them any more. And I LOVE these guys. But until they’re able to take Matt Groening’s advice and expose hypocrisy wherever it’s found, I can’t stand watching them any more. Its sad because I viewed these men as sort of political watch-dogs. But their only watching what they want to see. Its the same immature partisanship that is plaguing the political system in Washington. I remember when we used to hate people purely for a pre-determined label. Yeah, it was call Pre-Civil Rights Movement. And I thought we were over that.

I know we all have opinions. In this crappy race where we have NO real credible candidate I personally wish we could just revert to marshal law like in Battlestar Gallactica. All hail President Adama. Now that’s objectivity.

But until them I think we need to be more careful of who we demonize and canonize. Everyone, republican, democrat, independent, pirate, hooker, what-have-you, is and should be subject to mockery. So shape up, satirists. It would give you guys a whole other realm of material to work with.

http://www.wptz.com/news/17539127/detail.html

I don’t know about you but the thought of a bunch of women hooked up to those automatic milkers dosen’t seem very humane to me. I for one oppose the thought. PETA in essence wants to turn this:

Into this:

I’m not cool with that. So PETA, nex time you get a wild idea, send it to Disney first and let the good folks in the ice cream industry keep their last lingering shred of decency. Milk a woman. Sheesh.

Why Should we fight the system if the system works?

Peter, the film’s main character, becomes at one with himself due to a botched hypnotherapy session. Because of this new found mental peace, he’s able to, in essence, give his job the finger and do what he’s always wanted; nothing. Now, many corporate goons would say that doing nothing is not only a ridiculous pursuit but a detriment to the system because it costs money to do nothing. As I watched “Office Space” and thought about our society, I thought maybe this guy Peter is the only sane one among us…in a cinematically abstract way being as he actually doesn’t exists in real life at all. But his mantra is one that makes sense to me.

Making the Most of a “Learning Experience”

I’ve spent the last little while working in a cubicle on the “business” end of the workforce (a first for this liberal arts major who spent more time mocking the accounting majors than actually studying for her finance test). Its amazing to me how much people will do to make money. I guess the main drive for so many isn’t just to make money but to make lots of money. Then they can buy more ‘things’. In the words of Tyler Durden “The things you own end up owning you.” So what’s the end result? You spend your life making money to buy things so you can fill the rest of your life taking care of the things you own.

Now Go and Do Likewise

Ah, hail to “Office Space”. This movie should be virally installed on every computer in every gray office complex in America. Ironically the people who built the computer on which I am writing probably sat for hours in an oppressive 4×4 cubby hole wondering how to make a better lap top for me to use. Thank you! I guess what is comes down to is what I see as the core of Peter’s message: do what you like, no matter what the cost…or lack of cost. We may not all have the luxury to do what we want for a living but at least we need to remember that there’s a lot more to this life thing than a bunch of furniture and time shares. The end. Watch “Office Space”.

We should all do this at least once in our lives *language warning*