Issue 25

News: Fred Phelps and Westboro.
When I first heard about Fred Phelps and the Westboro Basptist Church, I saw him on an episode of Michael Moore's The Awful Truth. In it, Mike and some gay friends travel across the country to spite the homophobes in the states that still banned Gay sex (this was before Lawrence v. Texas, which ruled such laws unconstitutional) and went to Topeka, Kansas to protest against Fred Phelps' frequent picketings. He pickets the funerals of random gay men, among other things. Of Course, this is just the tip of the iceberg. He claims that only his congregation, which consists solely of his wife, the descendants of 9 of his 13 children, the family of a Neo-Nazi, another "Drinking buddy (for lack of a better term)", and an ex-indie filmmaker who made a film about him. Another thing about them is that they follow the conventions of any type of Baptist theology, instead, they are best described as Hyper-Calvinists. Here are two small bits of info about Calvinism that are very essential; 1) It is predetermined which people are to go to heaven or hell. 2) Calvinism is very strict. Here is a summary of Phelps' Life: He is born in 1929 in Mississippi, he shows a strong preference for fighting, he becomes born-again at a revival, he is ordained by a man who later regretted it, He goes to BJU (which I told you about in Issue 6) and is expelled because he terrifies the administration, he meets his wife, he moves to Kansas, becomes a pastor at a church and is eventually expelled because of his pro-abuse stance, he creates Westboro with his two drinking buddies including the neo-nazi, has kids and beats the hell out of them, starts to picket gay people in the early 1990s, and starts a series of websites. Everybody he knows him who isn't a WBC congregant has revealed that he is clearly psychotic and regrets knowing him. Some of his lesser prejudices are Anti-Islamism, Anti-Catholicism, Anti-semitism, and (he will deny it, though) racism. There is a shirtload of stuff that can be read about him, and a lot of it can be found on Wikipedia and a n E-Book which I will link to at the end. On an endnote, I ask all readers to, when Phelps comes to your town to picket, create a copycat picket that mirrors him, but inverts his "values".

Band Name of the Day: To Be Filled Later. I just came up with this.

Film Idea of the Day: A man walks the earth for a few days, and views several acts of injustice and is forced to not act or react, just watch. Music by Brian Eno and Philip Glass, Narration by T.S. Eliot from Archival recordings of his poetry.

Review: Beckett on Film. This is a collection of 19 of Samuel Beckett's Plays collected and filmed. I saw each play and I must say: Thumbs up!!!

Quote of the Day: "I said the President of the United States gets his jollies m457ur8471ng horses!"
__________Fred Phelps, October 2, 2005.

Link of the Day: http://blank.org/addict/
The E-Book I mentioned earlier.

Issue 24

News: AA Still Sucks.
Just this week, I saw the new South Park Episode in which After Randy Marsh gets a DUI, he attends an AA meeting and ultimately decides to drink more. After a few minutes, he realizes he should have just cut down on his drinking. In this article, I will explain the facts of AA to you. In America, 1 in 13 people have Alchohol Problrms. Fortunately, I am one of the other 12. Because of the Alchohol Problem, 12 Step Programs are Booming, and Drugs are just the Tip of the Iceberg. Other 12 Step programs non-drug related are crusading against Pack Ratting, Cross Dressing, Debt, Emotions, Dysfunctional Families, Gambling, messiness, misogyny, Overeating, Sex, and profanity, among many others. One big thing about the 12-step program like these is that they are essentiaLLY religion. In essence, the 12 steps are admit your powerlessness, accept a higher Authority, turn over your life to said god, make moral inventory, admit your wrongs, Be ready to ask God remove all these defects, Ask God to remove them, make a list of all people you harmed, make amends to them, Admit future wrongs, pray, and spread the word. Another point is that they claim that Alchoholism is a disease. It is not a disease, but an addiction, and since all addictions are voluntary, it is purely a matter of behavior. They haven't Changed their methods in 70 years. Maybe it's because they're a religion or because their method is infallible, but of all the people who attended AA, only 5% of them still stay with the program. Oddly, they believe that they and their method of Bible-thumping is the only cure to it. Also, they work by replacing a time wasting, degrading compulsion/addiction/obsession with another time wasting, degrading compulsion/addiction/obession. The biggest wrong about AA is that the US Government fully supports it, despite being a cult, to the point that a 12-step sentence has been a staple of alchohol-related trials, and while this has been proven to be unconstitutional in a court of law, it still stands as a sentence. Want to quit drinking? Here's a One Step Program: JUST STOP DRINKING SO MUCH!!!!!!

band Name: AA Anonymous. Read above.

Movie Review: The Odd Couple II. Oscar and Felix are back to try to go to their Children's wedding. They cannot get to the wedding because they kept getting arrested. This film was the rare sequel that betters the original.

Movie Idea: Untitled. An intelligent Teenage DJ gets a letter by an Apostate of a Christian Sect focused on a college named Bijou University, and starts to start a Radio war on that College.

Quote of the Day: "No, cancer is a disease. My dad needs to drink less."
________________Stan MArsh, from the Episode of south Park I mentioned in today's article.

Link of the Day: A Day With Diogenes.