[speedingpullet]

Hear, hear kristinejm!

i’ve nothing against religion per se, but I do get annoyed by the attitude that you simply can’t have ‘decent’ values unless you belive in Jesus, Mohammed, Moses, (insert patriarchal, pre-industrial revoloutionary leader of choice).

Actually, to a man (and they’re all men too, funny that…., all the above (and others) said pretty much the same things:
be nice to each other, treat other people with respect and try and be as happy as you can without impinging on others happiness in the process.
What’s not to like?
Its a universal message to humanity to ‘play nice’. You don’t need a bunch of people to ‘interpret’ that for you, its common sense.

But, unfortunately, humans always have put a spin on it – what started out as a simple message of love and understanding gets twisted into dogma and restrictions over the ages, by whomever is in power, and to thier taste.

Its like watching a snowball go downhill – it starts out as a small ball of pure Sprituality and ends up as a big glommy mess at the bottom of the hill, full of pointy twigs and gravel that have absoloutely nothing to do with the initial snowball.
I love and adhere to the Original Snowball, but have no use for the juniper branches and pinecones in the resulting mess. They’re extraneous detritus.

How on earth do you get from ‘play nice’ to non-sequituers like – “only men can be priests”, or “its an abomination for two people of the same sex to love and marry each other”, or “don’t eat meat on fridays”, or “pork is unclean” to name a few.
Thats not Sprituality, that’s social engineering, and most of anachronistic too.

It may have made sense not to eat pork or shellfish when you were part of a nomadic desert people, several hundered years before refridgeration, but, really, will god love me less if I tuck in to a tenderloin roast every once in while?
Why does having female genetalia preclude me from tapping into my spiritualty and helping others to do so as well – if, as everyone keeps telling me, I’m created ‘in god’s image’?
Does god really care if kids are brought up in a loving, caring, same-sex family rather than an opposite-sex one? I think…not

God doesn’t give a flying whoop-tee-doo. All god wants is for people to ‘play nice’, in the best way that they can.

Every time I hear people using the words ‘moral’, ‘decent’, ‘standards’ etc.. my first reaction is ‘Ok, but whose moralty, standards and decency are we talking about here?’
No one has the high ground when it comes to these things, and if someone claims they do, then I often find myself quelling the desire to shout, in a Tourettes-like way, the all-encompassing adage of Bender:

“you can all bite my shiny metal ass!”

🙂

[speedingpullet]

Yeah:

Hate the Game and not the Player….;-)

[speedingpullet]

For me, this whole Clinton interview thing is a Red Herring.
Who cares?
He isn’t the President any more, so what he did/didn’t do while in office is pointless waste of time to dwell on.
What he thinks now, or what other people think he ought to have done, is a classic case of ‘shudda, wudda, cudda’.

What matters is what’s happening now.
George W Bush is the President, and has been for almost 6 years.
All this outrage and Moral Panic ought to be directed against the administration in power at the present time.
Unless someone builds a time machine, then what happened two elections ago is about as relevant as a Chocolate Teapot.
The Republicans are welcome to point the finger at Clinton and make him out to be the Devil Incarnate,
but if they don’t try an do something to remedy the situation after 6 years in power, then all they’re doing is blaming someone else for their problems.

As I said – a Red Herring.

[speedingpullet]

Its a nice enough place, in a nice enough area.

But $900K for it? I think…not

[speedingpullet]

Yeah, I wonder what will happen to places like that.
Most of the time, I think they’ll get torched/bulldozed or simply rot away, and I can’t help but regret the waste of resources like wood, metal, plastic these horrible houses are responsible for.

[speedingpullet]

Or “The Money Pit II: Now its Getting Ugly”…😉

[speedingpullet]

We had a guy in our Van Nuys (L.A) neighbourhood doing exactly the same thing earlier on this year in Spring – we were showered with notepads with his name, cards hung on our doorknob, Visits – to which I answered “no, we’re happy renting for the moment, thanks”, and he even had an advert on one of the bus stops round the corner from us.
Wierdly enough, I’ve seen no mention of him for a while. His bus stop ad is even gone…..

Of course, this Spring I wasn’t aware of what was going on in the RE industry, but now, thanks to all concerned, his desperation makes sense.

[speedingpullet]

LOL!

But do you agree/disagree that you can still have a well-grounded sense of right and wrong without the religion?

[speedingpullet]

Whatever floats your boat, jg 🙂

I have nothing against people who believe and pactise a religion, but it does reaffirm my previous thoughts that a) religious people get a bit testy when meeting unreligious types (for instance I notice that you’ve changed your signature to ‘The Puritanical Bible Beater’, for no apparent reason) and b) look down on people who don’t hold your views as being somehow inferior. Cutting off your old friends because they are unmarried and/or divorced seems a bit of high price to pay to ‘get good with god’…

As for being single/childless being ‘selfish’, I beg to differ.

Its not that common anymore for young people in the UK to marry, but it hasn’t stoppped many of my friends being in loving stable relationships for decades, with and without children. Being agnostic, the hassle of getting married isn’t really worth it for them. After all, if you don’t believe in Religion, then its just a piece of paper and a very expensive day in uncomfortable clothes….

As for the meme ‘living for others’, its a very good one, that I try and practice myself daily. However, my ‘others’ inlcude furry four-footed ones, and non-genetically related ones too. Just my decision and no one elses. I don’t consider myself selfish for not restricting my love to my spouse and my kids.

@ JES:

Mate, sit down and take a deep breath. You’ll scare yourself to death otherwise. The world is a scary, scary place but you’re more likely to die in a traffic accident than any of the above scenarios.
You might find a more sympatheic audience over at housingpanic.com, where that kind of rant goes down quite well.

[speedingpullet]

Chripsy, your comments echo my own.

When I was in my 20s and 30s in the UK, I was part of huge group of friends, who went out every weekend, played badminton, swam together etc…most of us were single and childless, so had the time and energy to dedicate to our friendships with each other, rather than family commitments.

Once I moved over here, 6 1/2 years ago, it was a shock to the system, as suddenly I didn’t have a whole gang of people within easy calling distance, ready to go out and have fun at the drop of a hat.

Added to that the real ‘culture shock’ that most foreigners suffer when they move, even to a country that ostensibly is ‘similar’ (ie US vs UK). Even though we were invited to places via people from our work, not many of these casual get-togethers turned into real friendships. When I started college, I made maybe a couple of what I would call ‘real’ friendships, but I can still count the number of them on the fingers of one hand, even though I’ve been here for over 6 years.

Having said that, things have changed drastically amongst my UK lot, too. I went home again this summer and attended the first 50th Birthday party amongst my group closest friends. As it was an afternoon barbeque, everyone brought thier partners and kids, and, astonishingly, since we’ve been in the US, no less than 14 kids have been born to my old club/pub mates!

It made me realise that, even if my husband and I had stayed in London, our social life would have been different anyway. We left at the precise time that eveyone was starting to pair off and having kids, but because we were starting a new life in L.A we weren’t there to see it happen.

I also find it difficult to guage the temperament of Americans – as I had been amongst a group of people that had known me for ..ooh..almost 20 years..in the UK, I had no inhibitions about saying stuff to them.

Over here, I find myself double checking everything that comes out of my mouth
– politics, mmmm, too risky: I got into an argument with a coworker once, where he almost shot me (on work premesis), about the start of the Iraq War. As it turned out, my reaction of “WMD…wha?” (to quote Jon Stewart) was largely correct, and he had a bipolar disorder (later committed suicide), but by then the damage was done and I’ve learnt to keep my mouth shut over here about my politics.

– same with religion. Many Americans are anaware that 99% of so-called ‘Church of England’ christians in the UK actually have no religious feelings at all, and the population is much, much more secular than over here. Some of my comments along the lines of doing something bad and ‘making the Baby Jesus cry’ have earned me a few Hairy Eyeball looks from people over here, so i’ve learnt to bite my tounge around all things religious.

– being an ex-Raver, and having spent a couple of decades in the Uk, running clubs/DJ-ing and going to friends parties for support and help, has given me scores of unsalubrious anecdotes of a drink/drug/inapproprate sexual activity/law enforcement flavour (thankfully, almost none of them happened to me personally, but you know what I mean….) Again, this sort of behaviour is frowned upon here, and so I keep my thoughts to myself.

So, along with my self-prohibition, and the fact that my accent will always bring comments like ‘oh I LOVE your accent’ (me, internally: ‘yeah, its only an ‘accent’ over here’. Or, ‘yeah, me and 20 million other people’), I often find I have a very slim range of what I can talk about and share with other people, and always feel like the ‘redheaded stepchild’ of most groups.

I’m not complaining – and as an only child, i’ve always been happy with my own company from as far back as I can remember, but I find that my skillset and life experiences simply don’t gell with many people over here. Added to the fact that everyone, on both sides of the pond, has gotten older and less fancy-free, I find it harder and harder to make real ‘mates’ like I used to.

So, mydogsarelazy, et al, i guess its just an ‘age thang’. The older you get, the harder it is to make that fundamental connection. It does mean that I treasure my old life-long friends in the UK all the more, and am more appreciative of the real friends i have made over here (the very few of them), so I guess you win some and you lose some.
“What you gain on the swings, you lose on the roundabouts”, as they say in Sarf East Lahndahn…;-)

OK, need more coffee….

[speedingpullet]

And they only seem to be selling Matzohs and flatbread here in L.A 😉

[speedingpullet]

The person who gave this to me says hes a English actor impersonating a Kazakstan buying in America.

Ah, yes, the multi-talented Sasha Baron-Cohen, a.k.a ‘Ali G’.

I’m well aquainted with Ali G, but haven’t seen much of Borat due to not living in the UK anymore.
Doubtless using much the same format as the late ‘Ali G’ – hapless, stupid person (S B-C) talks to ‘expert’ and asks the kinds of questions only a true idiot would, thus reducing most of the audience to helpless laughter.

OK, doesn’t sound so funny maybe, but the questions really do come from left of Left Field and Sasha Baron-Cohen is easily as intelligent and educated as his ‘prey’ and can thus ask loaded questions under the guise of stupidity.
OK, I guess you just had to be there…;-)
I’ll quit while I’m behind..
……………………………………………………………………………………………

On the subject of Gated Communities – I personally would not live in one even if I was paid to. My first two questons are always
‘who are you trying to keep out?’ and
‘who are you trying to keep in?’

And, on the whole, the houses in gated communities tend to be McMansions, and waay too big for me and The Other Half.

Not only is it the height of snobbery and paranoia (‘ooohh, my place is so special that I have to have a guard!!!’), its an invasion of my privacy having to have guests sign in and out – who’s business is it, but mine, whom I chose to have visit?.
Plus, its an incentive for burglars to case the place out – if its that exclusive it must be rich for robbing!
Plus the stupid HOAs/attitude – why should I pay to turn my neighbourhood into a security-crazed compound, and why would my neighbours be interested in the precise length of my lawn?

I’m a good neighbour -I’m quiet, clean, tidy, don’t play loud music, stay up late at night having parties, don’t leave junk in my driveway or dump old cars on my lawn. What’s not to like? Why are my standards less acceptable than some homogeneous Neighbourhood Council, to which i have to pay money every month? The irony being that most gated communities are in already affluent areas…

I’m sure lots of people enjoy living under those circumstances and conditions, but for me its the definitive ‘entitlement groupthink’ taken to its most ludicrous extreme.

Sorry, rant over

[speedingpullet]

Which would be fine….as long as you’re very hard of hearing and don’t mind your ‘chachkis’ falling off the shelves at regular intervals.

Seriously, I gave up looking for places in El Segundo/Redondo Beach. They’re as expensive as Santa Monica and offer less room, lot size and convenience. If I want to live under a runway for over three quarters of a million dollars, i can do no better than the slew of houses that have come up for sale, 100 yards from the bottom of Santa Monica Airport. Plus I’d get a swanky Zipcode, and wouldn’t have to put up with jokes about ‘leaving my wallet in El Segundo’ from friends and aquaintances…

The Bubble is still alive and inflating in Westside LA.

[speedingpullet]

“drugs”…
.. which drugs?

I’ll get the Moral Panic Suit on for Crack, but really can’t be bothered for a Herbal Cigarette.

[speedingpullet]

No reason not to CardiffBaseball, as long as its not every night. Personally, my favourite junk food is a Carls Junior classic 6 Dollar burger and fired zucchini, as I find the In-and-Out-Burgers food a bit insipid.

BTW – I’m sure many of you have seen it already, but Morgan Spurlock’s film:

Supersize Me

is a scary watch.

[Author]

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