I’ve said it before: EUROPE NEEDS TO REJECT THE CONSTITUTION IT’S NOW CONSIDERING.
UPDATE: My apologies for the lack of the link to the George Will piece! Didn’t realize it wasn’t there. Let’s hope the French vote totally derails this constitution. As Will makes clear, it’s got a lot of really nutty stuff in it.
Y’all may remember that a piece back I was complaining about some really Evil web advertising by the ringtone company Jamster, which has been under investigation for its marketing practices.
The advertising featured what I described at the time as "a repulsive and depraved looking photo-art fishman (with a figleaf over
his genitals and a pair of aviators’ goggles) who zoomed jerkily and
frenetically back and forth across the ad space in a nauseating fashion."
I never visited Jamster’s page–even to complain–but I recently turned up information on what the evil fish character is all about. It turns out that the character was not created by Jamster but buy some Swedish guy, and it (the character, not the guy so far as I know) is named "The Annoying Thing." (Big surprise.)
It was inspired by a popular sound on the Internet by another Swede imitating the noise made by a particular kind of moped engine.
The evil Jamster then licensed The Annoying Thing as an advertising mascot and used the sound as the basis for a ringtone.
The ringtone is called Crazy Frog (warning: some crude content), and it has been extensively marketed in the UK, causing folks there excruciating anguish.
People are acting all surprised about this–"How could a ringtone get to the top of the charts?" they are wondering–but it’s not much of a mystery when one listens to the thing and realizes that despite the presence of a sputtering Swede in it, "Crazy Frog Axel F" is really just a remix of "Axel F," the smash-hit themesong to the 1984 movie Beverly Hills Cop (about a guy named Axel Foley, you may recall).
LISTEN HERE IF YOU NEED A REFRESHER ON WHAT AXEL F SOUNDS LIKE: WMP | REAL
Since virtually none of the young people driving the British music charts today were alive in 1984 (and even fewer capable of remembering Beverly Hills Cop), it is hardly surprising that one of the biggest songs of the day could be brought back, introduced to the new audience, and do well on the radio.
What we really have here is the Crazy Frog sound hijacking an existing popular song. If you just played the engine-sputtering Swede on the radio, it wouldn’t do nearly as well. It’s because a well-written song has been infested with the Crazy Frog sound that it’s able to get that far.
And of course that’s even assuming the British charts are honest and the whole thing isn’t just a publicity stunt cooked up by evil executives at Jamster in league with evil chart cookers and the Easter Bunny (and the Annoying Thing).
Today in 1453 Constantinople fell to attacking Muslim forces, ending the Byzantine Empire.
That this happened was a great tragedy and yet another instance of jihad being successfully waged against Christendom.
The tragedy could have been prevented had European Christians worked together, and both western and eastern Christians are responsible for the fact that they didn’t.
The fall of Constantinople also comes as a salutary warning for Europe today, whose demographic trends are dooming them to cultural extinction in the face of Muslim demographic jihad.
STARTING CAPTIONS:
Psychoactive or performance-enhancing medicines? We’re getting better at them than you might think.
I’m still waiting for an over-the-counter learning aid, though. Man, I’d love to be able to go to the pharmacy and pick up a safe, effective, no-prescription thingie to help me better learn Aramaic . . . or canon law . . . or calculus . . . or linguistic theory . . . or history . . . or . . .
STARTING CAPTIONS:
Catholic writer Danielle Bean composed a mother’s version of St. Francis of Assisi’s Prayer for Peace during the eye of a storm of childhood stomach-flu:
A MOTHER’S PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS
(STOMACH FLU VERSION)Lord,
Make me an instrument of Your healing love;
Where there is vomit let me bring Lysol;
Where there are boogers, Kleenex;
Where there is fever, Tylenol;
Where there is boredom, library books;
Where there are chills, warm blankets;
And where there is whininess, Scooby Doo.O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be well-rested as to provide clean sheets,
To be appreciated as to disinfect the house,
To be showered as to give warm baths,
For it is in scrubbing out the bathroom that we are cleansed,
It is in sharing laps that we find comfort,
And it is after resting that we will return
To a normal life.
(Nod to the Curt Jester for the link.)
EXCERPTS:
1. He takes truth seriously. Born in Bavaria in 1927, on the eve of the Nazi seizure of power in Germany, young Joseph Ratzinger saw firsthand the brutality and terror of the Nazi way of life. Behind totalitarian violence was utter contempt for the truth claims of the historic Christian faith. As a schoolboy, Ratzinger once witnessed his Nazi teacher replace the cross in the center of his village with a Maypole, a neo-pagan symbol of Teutonic native religion.
Despite the defeat of Hitler and Stalin, the de-Christianization of Europe and, to a lesser extent, of North America continues to pose a great challenge to the church today. This is why Cardinal Ratzinger spoke, on the eve of his papal election, of the "dictatorship of relativism."
On his episcopal coat of arms are the Latin words "cooperatores veritatis," a phrase taken from 3 John 1:8, "That we may be fellow workers for the truth." The Christian faith stands or falls with the imperious claim that the almighty Creator of all that is has acted in space and time to reveal himself in nature and history and to redeem the world through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is a statement about the way things are, not merely about what is "true for me."
(CHT to the reader who e-mailed!)
A reader writes:
I hope you will answer my question concerning the uses of Holy Water. I to like have and use holy water at home. So when I travel I like to pick up holy water from different churches. Its a nice way to visit other churches, the priest, parisherners and to collect holy water.
Recently I was in my home town. There is more than one chuch in this particular city. I went to one particular church there and I was
very much disappointed in the way I was treated because I wanted holy water. Never in all the years I have been catholic, and I am cradle born have I been so disppointed by the way I was treated by the church secretary and even the deacon himself because I wanted holy water. I was told that they had found that people were using holy water for sacriliege purposes. Upon hearing that I didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. I could understand a secretary being ignorant to the use of Holy Water but I can’t understand the ignorance of a church deacon. They even had the nerve to ask me if that was my intended purpose.My question is, Can holy water be use sacrilegiously? My mind, heart and soul says "No Way!"
Well eventually I did get my holy water but not after I had recieved the third degree. I finally had to ask, Are you going to deny me taking holy water from this church? I had to ask three times. Each time they said no but they were not too happy because I wanted holy water. I don’t understand. I was really confounded by their behavior.
You certain encountered a very unusual circumstance and it’s understandable that you’d feel confused and disappointed.
It is at least possible for a person to use holy water–or any sacramental–for a sacreligious purpose. For example, an evil cult might take some and (God forbid) use it mockingly in ceremonies worshipping the devil or something.
Hypothetically, the local parish may hae turned up such a group–or perhaps just a couple of rebellious teenagers–using it for a genuinely sacreligious purpose.
I also wonder if there might have been a communications problem here. It also is possible for people to use holy water superstitiously–as if God were definitely going to use it to accomplish certain miracles or as if it had magical powers or needed to be used in all kinds of circumstances where it doesn’t. It is much easier for me to imagine people using holy water supertitiously than sacreligiously.
If the parish staff–including the deacon–were not used to having folks show up and ask for holy water and someone showed up and asked for a significant quantity, they may have wondred–out of a misplaced and possibly puritanical sense of zeal–wondered whether it would be used superstitiously, even if not sacreligiously. The deacon might have then misspoke and said "sacreligious" when he meant "superstitious."
I don’t know that this is the explanation. It’s just conjecture. But it’s something that might lead to the kind of unfortunate experience you had.