When is Sex not Sex?

birthday-message-from-bill-to-monica

When there is no intercourse!

The Brett Kavanaugh media blitz yesterday (on Fox) to ‘clear his name’ brought to light an interesting echo: he claimed, while choking back tears, that he was a virgin all through high school. At the surface level, that statement is probably true (hence his offer to take a polygraph test), but that doesn’t say that he hadn’t ‘tried it on’ with a girl or two during those same years.

“I did not have sexual relations with that woman”

When Bill Clinton said that in 1997* about Monica Lewinski, he probably thought that he was speaking the God’s honest truth, too.

But it brings up the question: do young American men think that sex is only vaginal penetration?

If so, then they have no understanding of why their ‘little bit of fun’ is so destructive to young women, to all women.

Conclusion

According to Wikipedia: “Sexual abuse, also referred to as molestation, is usually undesired sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. When force is immediate, of short duration, or infrequent, it is called sexual assault. The offender is referred to as a sexual abuser or (often pejoratively) molester.”

IF Christine Blasey Ford is not mistaken in identifying Brett Kavanaugh as the person who ‘tried it on’ at that party 35 years ago, he is guilty of sexual assault.

Unfortunately, the statute of limitations makes a legal charge impossible, but the ‘court of public opinion’ can decide for itself.

And it will…

*Post Script

Now can you see why Doug Ford’s insistence to turning back the Ontario Sex Education clock to 1998 is so dangerous? We don’t want our teenagers thinking that sex is only vaginal intercourse. That kind of thinking opens them up for STD’s in other orifices.

It makes life hard to swallow…

Posted in history, paranoia | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Actor: Myth and the Hero

 

hero-with-a-thousand-faces-joseph-campbell_medium

A Thousand Faces

For those with a skeptical nature, reincarnation is a hoax of monumental proportions.

How, they ask, can a man be born again? Jesus’ answer to Nicodemus, that one needs to be born of the spirit, gives us a profound clue.

We need to be tried in The Refiner’s Fire, to have our dross burned away, to become what we intended from the very first moment of our existence.

The Actor

When asked by my daughter who I would like to play me in the story of my life, I (half-jokingly) said Bradley Cooper.

Bradley-Cooper

There is a certain similarity in our features, but we are definitely not the same.

And that is the point of this post. Each of us is the hero of his own story. And to succeed in our spiritual quest, we have to work through this ordinary, work-a-day world to another internalized version, where we conquer our fears, seize the prize (the Pearl of Great Price) and bring it back to normal consciousness.

That is the whole point of our lives.

The Hero’s Journey

mythicstructure

We usually view our life as a story line, acted out in three stages. But we neglect to realize that the story is actually a circle. And when we come back to ‘the beginning and know it for the first time’ our eyes are opened to the infinite possibilities of life.

star-wars-is-your-brand-story-4-638

The illustration above is based on Luke Skywalker’s journey in Star Wars.

Conclusion

We never tire of the story because it’s our personal tale. Our purpose is to advance our understanding of life, and the use of power for good, until we can let go of the telling and return home to the spirit world, a tired, but happy, actor — ready for the next role of his earthly career.

s44lo

Posted in reviews, spirituality | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

The Battle of the Sexes

BattleOfTheSexes_Quad

Men versus Women

For as long as there have been two sexes, men have assumed their superiority. I’m not sure why they would think that, but I guess it is based on “might means right”.

It seems a long time ago now when Bobby Riggs challenged Billie Jean King to a tennis match. He wanted to prove, once and for all time, that men were better at that sport than women. The match took place on September 20th, 1973 at the Houston Astrodome.

King won in straight sets, and kicked male pride in its collective butt.

BILLIE JEAN KING, BOBBY RIGGS

Sexual Equality?

tennis11a-1-web

Did this event change the course of human events? Not really.

Because it was such a poor showing on Riggs part, people (read, ‘men’) presumed that he had thrown the match to clear gambling debts with the Mafia. In other words, there had to be some reason other than ability as to why King won.

Such is male reasoning, especially in sports.

They also did not have a rematch, as originally agreed. Did King not want to chance her ‘luck’?

Serena Williams

Leap forward now 45 years. The treatment of women, even in tennis, is still the same: there are two standards. A man can be abusive and crude when arguing with the umpire. A woman cannot. It really is as simple as that. You can dress it up (in a tutu, if you want) as something else, but the evidence is available on video if you choose to look.

Even the cartoonists were nasty…

Conclusion

battle-of-the-sexes-image-1-125366503

To be physically strong means that one can overpower one’s enemies.

To be emotionally strong means that one can withstand the onslaught.

This battle could last forever. Or at least until the physically strong grow old and tired, and the emotionally strong finally stand up and say “Time’s Up”.

Forever may be closer than we think.

Posted in history, showbusiness | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Kavanaugh/Ford: He Said, She Said

men-are-from-mars-women-are-from-venus1

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus

This clever book attempts to highlight, using an Astrological metaphor, that men and women are coming from two totally different places when it comes to relationship issues. Nowhere is this more obvious than when there are moments of intimacy that have somehow gone wrong.

The present situation of a potential derailment of a US Supreme Court nomination has now added political undertones to the debate, and the whole world is dividing along masculine and feminine fault lines.

The Garden of Eden

he-said-she-said

This all goes back to the very beginnings of civilization. Adam wanted to take a bite of the ‘forbidden fruit’ and when Eve offered it to him, in all innocence, he took it. Then, when they were confronted with their ‘sinful’ act, he blamed her.

He never ‘manned-up’ to his part in the passion play, and she has been seen as a temptress ever since.

Son of Adam, Daughter of Eve

 

71c0880d4f18fb1d6ba63a11f0c80c8b

(Excuse the typo in the first comparison)

Men seem to act with either their heads (while being sensible) or their genitals (when they are not), and women always with their hearts. That is why they never seem to be communicating at the same level of understanding.

When a woman opens herself up to a man, she is looking for tenderness and love. The man sees it as an opportunity to prove his sexual prowess. Afterwards, they each have their regrets, but rather than sit down and discuss it together (the woman’s way), they go to their separate corners and try to forget about it (the man’s way).

So the ‘he said/she said’ result is that he has reduced the event down to its barest minimum of emotion, while she has pondered everything in her heart to discover why it happened the way it did. There are two different memories here.

Conclusion

Courts and Senate Committees both know that it is practically impossible to prove what really happens behind closed doors. The ones sitting in judgement will view the situation along the gender divide, mainly because they cannot see themselves in the other person’s shoes.

This means that Kavanaugh will be confirmed as Trump’s appointee to the US Supreme Court, and the female voters will respond by voting against the dominant political party in the midterm elections. Such is the Battle of the Sexes.

42179535_1961891333854852_4158322400376651776_n

Posted in history | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Lightfoot: A Winter’s Night

tumblr_nfytayjUd31ti4wako1_500

the snow is softly falling

It is easy to forget how beautiful a song is until you unexpectedly hear it again in the middle of September.

Susan and I tried out for a choir last Tuesday. The choir sings exclusively in French, which makes it a bit of a stretch for us. Also, we have fallen into the habit of harmonizing with each other. We are not used to sight reading with that many different levels of ability, harmony and four streams of music all happening at the same time.

One of the songs was Gordon Lightfoot’s Song for a Winter’s Night, which I have previously featured on these pages.

It sounded so different in French that Susan admitted that she couldn’t place the song.

I was knocked out by the chorale arrangement, which highlights Lightfoot’s chord choices.

Here is Sarah McLachlan’s version:

 

Absolutely beautiful.

Posted in poetry, reviews | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Breaking the Law: Our Spies

DanielCraig_GregWilliams2006_38

James Bond

The concept of a secret agent having a “licence to kill” was not created out of thin air by Ian Fleming after WWII. And 007 was not the first either. (There were obviously six other agents before him.)

The use of lethal force had been authorized during the war to eliminate Nazi enemy agents and meet ‘force with force’ as required. But who ‘authorized’ the killing?

It shouldn’t surprise you that our governments did. Sure, they wanted to appear to keep their hands clean, so they created departments to oversee the spies, and gave them secret directives so that they knew what they could and couldn’t do.

Scandal (2012-2018)

1000x400-Q90_7dd3a68c4081b7a6709b76aee4fd11f0

Meet Rowan Pope: the merciless and sinister father of D.C.-fixer and crisis-manager Olivia Pope and formerly the immoral head of the clandestine, black-ops division “B613.”

According to a fan site of the show: Despite [B613] serving the US government so far it doesn’t appear that they answer to anyone not even The President of the United States. At present they seem to deal with a large number of covert missions; specifically Torture and Assassinations made to look like suicides. B613 has recently been re-established via [an] Executive Order signed into law by President Mellie Grant. (Fandom)

This depiction of a rogue ‘black ops’ task force shows our collective paranoia of what may be happening in the real world.

Mission: Impossible

mission-impossible-rogue-nation-poster-wallpaper

Of course, the Impossible Missions Force (IMF) has been around since forever, it seems. This movie from 2015 has the team working outside governmental controls in order to track down and eliminate a shadowy enemy group who happen to be former agents thought to be dead.

Ethan Hunt is a man of singular focus, which means he won’t let a little thing like being outlawed get in the way of doing his job. So much for ‘rule of law’, eh?

War on Terror

081913Even the NSA has come under increasing criticism for its flouting of the rules. Freedoms that are ‘inalienable’ rights in the USA are being encroached upon every day in the name of National Security. The reply to that criticism is simple: do you want to feel safe, or not?

And that really is the point of all this law-breaking: if the ‘bad guys’ are doing it, we better do it before they do, to put a stop to it. It’s the Wild West again.

Conclusion

CloudApp-Annotation-2018-01-11-at-9.23.29-am

 

Posted in paranoia, showbusiness | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Michael Moore’s Prediction

 

8646

Canadian Bacon (1995)

Thousands of former employees are outraged with military businessman R.J. Hacker (G. D. Spradlin), who had closed down his weapons manufacturing plant, Hacker Dynamics. At a conference held at the former plant, he pins the blame for the shutdown of his business on the current President of the United States (Alan Alda), who has just arrived. The President defends his own belief that the future of the children is more important than war, a belief that has caused major decline in his approval rating. However, after the conference, he expresses to his closest companions, General Dick Panzer (Rip Torn) and National Security Advisor Stuart Smiley (Kevin Pollak), his discontent about not having an enemy to engage in war. An attempted negotiation with Russian President Vladimir Kruschkin (Richard E. Council) to start a new cold war with Russia fails.

However, a local American sheriff named Bud Boomer (John Candy) makes a displeased remark about Canadian beer while watching a hockey game between a Canadian and American team in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The ensuing brawl ends up on the news, and is seen by Stuart. After collecting more information about Canada from a CIA agent named Gus (Brad Sullivan), he suggests Canada as a new enemy to the President. Before long, the television channels are littered with anti-Canada propaganda, which Boomer notices and believes to be true. He prepares for war by distributing guns to his fellow sheriffs, including his girlfriend Honey (Rhea Perlman) and their friends Roy Boy (Kevin J. O’Connor) and Kabral Jabar (Bill Nunn).

After they apprehend a group of Americans dressed as Canadians attempting to destroy a hydroelectric plant, they sneak across the border to litter on Canadian property, which leads to Honey being left behind and subsequently arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In a rescue attempt, Boomer, Roy Boy and Kabral sneak into a Canadian power plant and cause a countrywide blackout. When the President learns of this, he orders Boomer’s immediate removal from Canada before it’s too late.

To make matters worse, Hacker takes revenge on the President for ordering the closure of his business by using a software program called the Hacker Hellstorm to activate missile silos across the country. The President learns that the signal causing the activation of the silos originated from Canada, and summons Hacker. Hacker offers to sell a program to the President that can cancel out the Hellstorm for $1 trillion. With only six minutes left, as Hacker leaves, despite the President telling him not to and trying to figure out what’s going on, Stuart realizes that Hacker is the one controlling the silos, and takes, from him, the operating codes required to stop the Hellstorm, killing him in the process after Stuart delivered a punch, unintentionally.

The President orders Stuart’s arrest, despite his protests that he is now able to deactivate the missiles. As the launch time approaches for the missiles, which are aimed at Moscow, the President pleads with Canadian Prime Minister Clark MacDonald (Wallace Shawn) over the phone to stop the launch. However, Honey, who was taken to a mental hospital upon her capture and has escaped all the way to the CN Tower, discovers the central computer for the Hellstorm located at the top. She attacks the computer with a machine gun, destroying it and subsequently aborting the launch sequence, much to the relief of the President and his staff. She then reunites with Boomer, who had tracked her to the Tower, and they return to the United States via a speedboat across Lake Ontario.

An ending montage reveals the fate of all of the characters: Boomer realized his dream of appearing on Cops, Honey has been named “Humanitarian of the Year” by the National Rifle Association, Kabral has become a hockey star, and MacDonald is “still ruling Canada with an iron fist.” (Synopsis from IMDb)

NAFTA War?

1493656546753-canadianbacon12345

Posted in history, showbusiness | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

A Mary Poppins Scene?

Mary Poppins Returns

Last Night’s Dream Sequence

I woke up at 5:30 am clearly remembering what I had just dreamed. In the dream, I got a chance to use the video on my Coolpix camera. The video was about people flying through the air during a storm. (You can see one of the elements coming from the tropical storm news reports from the Philippines.)

What made this different was the ability to enter the scene and watch the bodies silhouetted by a spotlight behind my previous position. Sounds complicated, doesn’t it?

In fact, I could not see the whole series of images until I replayed the video afterwards.

Mary Poppins Returns

mary-poppins-returns-julie-andrews-inicio-camundongo

Then I remembered that I’d seen a preview of Mary Poppins Returns during the 70th Emmy Awards show last night. It seems, in my dream, that I might have witnessed one of their action sequences. Stranger things have happened.

The last part involved a veteran actress saying that they wished they had better weather in Britain. Really?

Posted in personal | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Drain the Swamp? No, Man a Fort

 

373425

Paul Manafort

When you’ve done your best to keep quiet, and it hasn’t done you any good, you ‘flip’.

That seems to be what happened to Paul Manafort. And he has to have something to say that’s worthwhile to Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 Presidential election, or he wouldn’t have agreed to a plea deal.

So, where does that leave 45: in the middle of the swamp, himself? He doesn’t seem to know how to pick ‘good’ people, although he calls everyone he fires, a ‘good person’.

From the Outset

trump-manafort

As we have seen, this was always a bit suspicious. (The New York Times called it on August 14, 2016…)

I, for one, never dreamed Trump would get that far. But the American people decided otherwise (through their complicated Electoral College). Friends whose opinions I respect think that Hillary Clinton would have been a worse President. But that’s water under the bridge now.

I can only wonder what will happen next.

Posted in history, paranoia | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Moment I Realized…

001

Adults Don’t See the Same Things Children Do

In the mid-50’s we had a 1951 Chevy. These days I’m not sure which model it was (it looked like the picture above), but we had it from 1955-1960. Then something went wrong with it.

Looking back on family correspondence between our father and his father, we came across a short discussion about our new car, which our grandfather had bought for us. In the letter, he told our father to make sure that there was enough engine oil every time he got gas, and to get it topped up if it was running low. Clue…

Anyway, whatever happened to the car, I suspect it was scrapped.

One Day…

original

In 1960, we were doing our usual Saturday trip into Huntsville from Windermere (for shopping and laundry) in our new Austin A40. I was allowed to wander about. I came across our old car! Just to make sure, I opened the back door and checked in the side pocket (people didn’t lock their cars in those days): I found a Corgi toy that I’d left there. That’s how I ‘knew’ it was our car.

I ran back to the laundromat and told our Mom. She came out to see where it was parked. Upon inspection (of the outside), she told me it wasn’t our old car, and returned to the laundromat.

That’s when I realized that children see things differently: they are closer to the ground, so small details are available to them.

Conclusion

The following scene played out between John Candy and Macauley Culkin in Uncle Buck speaks to the fact that it’s a kid’s job to notice things…

Posted in family, history | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment