Tolerance

I want to say this to the world: I will never in my life surround myself with people I disagree with on moral, religious, or political matters.

I don't mean to say that I outright reject those sort of people. Everybody can believe in whatever the heck they want, because as human beings granted free will, we have a right to do so. I'm not a preacher or a converter. I aim to be more of an encourager than anything else. In other words, I won't stop anyone from doing what they want to do.

My problem is this: modern society, especially the left wing, has confused tolerance with acceptance. I can tolerate Buddhists, pagans, and Muslims living the way they do, and I wish them to have total access to all the rights I have. But let's face it- as a Christian, I don't agree with them. There are many things other people believe and do that I either don't think is the best choice, or I morally object to... for instance, the worship of spirits, or sex before marriage.

Mass media has often bombarded me with the politically correct idea that in order to be an open-minded, enlightened person, I must not let religious or moral differences stop me from being friends with them or even marrying them. This is what we today often call "tolerance". Me, I can tolerate a person of a different religion being in the same classroom as me, but I should NOT be required to figuratively give them a hug, pat them on the back and say "You're special!", thereby giving them a politically correct cookie that subscribes to their dietary beliefs.

I openly admit to not wanting to have anything to do with gay people. As a Christian, I find their behavior morally objectionable. That's it. I don't apologize for that.

Questionable Advertising: Jackpot??

Let's just lay aside the fact that this new "stuffed crust" pizza is just regular pan pizza with about an inch between the pepperoni and crust and not really a stuffed crust pizza at all. What the heck is going on here? Are these supposed great things happening to this man a result of eating this pizza? Because usually when commercials say something wonderful (but impossible) will happen when you use the product advertised, they make it way more obvious than this. This just feels like a visual adaptation of the guy's "list of awesome stuff!".



Oh, and apparently we're too stupid to remember Pizza Hut's REAL stuffed crust pizza from a few years ago. Unfortunately this is probably true.



UPDATE: Hey, guess what? It's even older than I previously thought:



This has to date to the mid-'90s at the latest.

It's official...

...I'm alone in the world with no one to support me in my times of need. No one loves me for who I am, and instead everyone loves me for who I'm expected to be. I'm not that person, and as far as I'm concerned, I never will be.

But why should I bother telling the world about this? There's a million people who would tell me to suck it up, or that I'm being pathetic, or that I'm seeking pity. I suppose in some ways they would be right. In the end, I'm just seeking emotional release. I can't expect someone to provide me an emotional crutch anymore. I don't care if anyone sees me like this. I'm not ashamed.

UPDATE: Some broken bonds have been mended, and some wisdom has been gained. Although I have to only show one side of my personality to be loved, I'm not doing it for my sake.

HUGE fault with WordPress

I keep getting "Bill Bartmann" spam comments, so I looked to see if I could block the account from commenting. But as it turns out, it's not as simple as you would think. I'm thinking: "I have to download 'plug-ins' and drop it into my 'plug-ins directory' and block IP addresses and be extremely precise or else I might block legitimate accounts?? IP ADDRESSES??? Seriously???"

Really guys, this doesn't have to be so complicated, nor should I rely on "plug-ins" from non-staff to do what is normally a basic function. I should just be able to go *click* and bingo, the account is blocked. Even AOL mail lets me block e-mail addresses by simply adding them to a list.

...I should e-mail this to somebody.

I still want a HOO-LAH HOOOP

Boy, whatever or whoever works the "hot videos" at Google sure is obsessed with that Chipmunks video.

Lust

...I'm actually quite terrified by it, especially the uncontrolled variety, to tell you the truth. I can understand desiring sex with another person, but to hunger for it... even if you don't want to... THAT'S a nightmare.

The Beatles = your musical history education

In continuation of my endless praise for The Beatles, I ask this question: how diverse were The Beatles? Few bands come anywhere close- you'd be best off listening to, say, the works of a studio musician, or The Knickerbockers, or maybe The Lemon Pipers. Even then, the only musician I can think that explored more forms of music than The Beatles is Frank Zappa.

Case in point: there are generally two camps of Beatle-wannabe bands... the kind who loves their recordings from '62-'65, and the kind who loves their recordings from '66-'69. It's usually the hard-rocking pop rock, power pop or even Britpop bands with moptops that like their early stuff, while slightly more sophisticated and experimental psychedelic acts like their later stuff. A good example of the latter is The Apples in Stereo, although bands like them are just as likely to be inspired by The Electric Light Orchestra. There were a lot more of these sort of bands in the 70's, such as Tin Tin, Grapefruit, and Klaatu, and many of them were even mistaken for The Beatles and released on Beatle bootlegs! I notice that the main thing that joins these two camps together is the Revolver album- which makes sense, since it was pretty much a transitional album.

My point here is that these two main periods of their commercial career are so different that fans can be divisive about it.

In many ways I wish The Beatles made more music than they did, which is one of the main reasons why I collect bootlegs. Basically, I want more of the same- so I look for more. This led me to believe something early on in my life: if The Beatles liked it, I like it.

You can pick any song you wish, whether they wrote it or not, learn about the history behind it, and there you have it! Another world opened up to you. I intend to discuss just this very thing throughout the blog, and I shall begin with the very first song performed by The Beatles ever recorded.

Not everyone knows it, but "In Spite of all the Danger" isn't the first song they performed that ever got recorded. Instead, it is truly remarkable to learn that the legendary concert on the day that John first met Paul had been recorded by someone with a portable tape recorder! Remember, the only member we're familiar with that was in the group then was John, and the band was called the Quarrymen.