2010 January archive at Being Frank

Archive for January, 2010

Jan

Why Haiti?

By eyeWitness 36 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

The pictures and stories coming out of Haiti lead me to wonder, once again, why these sorts of natural disasters happen, causing so much death and destruction – especially in such poor areas! They were already an impoverished people before the earthquake… there is so much suffering.

There are reports that at least 100,000 people have been killed, with the actual figure likely to be double that – search teams have now stopped looking beneath the rubble. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be there among so much death and chaos. Thousands and thousands are living in shanty town like camps, with little food getting through it seems because of the destruction. Many haven’t eaten for days. And an awful thing about human nature is that when people get desperate, some also get violent and loot.

It is heartening to see the world coming together to help and send aid though – well as much as they can with the ports destroyed. Catholic Relief Services reported it has received a “tremendous response” of cash donations for relief and recovery in Haiti. It is great that the media can inform us so quickly of things happening on the other side of the world so we are able to help.

Pope Benedict also urges us to pray for the victims. “I invite everyone to join in my prayer to the Lord for the victims of this catastrophe and for those who are mourning their loss. I assure my spiritual closeness to people who have lost their homes and to all those affected in various ways by this calamity, imploring from God consolation and relief of their suffering,” he said.

Another area in desperate need of aid and prayer is central Nigeria. People don’t know who is responsible for the violence between Christian and Muslims, but whole families have been killed, and several thousand have fled their homes. It seems gangs are possibly behind it, and local politicians wanting to push their political ends may also be responsible. It is convenient for the protagonists in the conflict to introduce religion in order to amplify and magnify the violence and tension, which is unfortunate.

Which emphasises that we should thank God for everything we own and have here!

Jan

To heal, or not to heal, that is the question…

By On the Road 3 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

Medicine changed forever in 1960 when the FDA approved the oral contraceptive pill. Society was quick to reap the consequences in the form of ‘sexual liberation’ for women. It was, and for many people today still is, the panacea of medical science that a pill could free people from the ‘burden’ of new life.

Jump forward 50 years, what do we have today? We have a society completely obsessed with and addicted to sex, a complete breakdown of marriage, women more ‘enslaved’ than before they were ‘liberated’ and a medical field that has lost the vision of what they are here to do in the first place: heal. Janet Smith, a professor in the USA, gives a wonderful talk about the consequences of contraception titled, ‘Contraception Why Not?’. I would highly recommend you take the time to read and listen if you get the chance.

There is also mounting evidence that the pill is slowly killing us, through many different channels – from drinking water laced with chemicals, to significantly increased risk of cancer in women who take the pill. Here is an interesting article written recently summarising some of the alarming statistics in this area.

The concluding point of the article is in the face of such alarming evidence of harm to its users and secondarily to wider society, it is a wonder why the people we trust to protect and heal us, our doctors and medical society, are continuing to promote its use for virtually all women in society. Ignoring theological issues we have with contraception, it is time our doctors stop pushing a drug that does far more harm than good to the individual and to society.

If not for the Church and for missionaries like Christopher West, I would have never seen the evils of contraception, and my eyes would never have opened to the horrific consequences it is having on our bodies. I hope and pray that one day people in society ask, ‘How could we?’…..how could we kill our unborn and slowly but surely kill ourselves, with full knowledge of what we were doing.

How could we?

Jan

“Mr. Simpson, how do you respond to the charges that petty vandalism such as graffiti is down eighty percent, while heavy sack-beatings are up a shocking nine hundred percent?”

By Methuselah's Beard Closed

Categories: Being Frank...

Living in London, one of the more popular means of transportation around the city is by way of the London Underground or the Tube as it has been lovingly renamed by its grateful users (although there are probably other names used not fit for publication). Its popularity is attested to every morning by myself as my fellow travellers and I try and cram into every available carriage in the morning by using every form of body contortion possible. As the train pulls up, every person on the platform is desperately scanning the carriages as they go past trying to identify a body sized gap. If there’s room for baby Jesus, then there’s room to squeeze on.

Pressed up against your fellow morning commuters is a harrowing experience, and you do find yourself hoping that there are no over indulgers ofbaked beans present. On the off chance you actually have room to move your limbs, there are several ways of passing the time whilst on the Tube. One of the least rewarding is playing the staring game with strangers to see who can maintain eye contact the longest. By far the more popular past time is reading. Either the latest page turner or the newspaper; the Metro in the morning and the London Evening Standard in the evening (even though editions are available from lunchtime).

Not having the chance to read the paper much on the train during the morning rush, I had started reading while making the short walk from the Tube station to where I work. It’s a nice morning walk and not too many people around so the risk of walking into anyone is quite low. I managed to perform this precarious aact of multi-tasking quite successfully and had many happy carefree mornings walking to work whilst reading the Metro.

One morning however I nearly slipped and fell over. Given the recent cold weather I would not have been surprised if I had walked into a patch of ice. Imagine my dismay to find that I had trodden right into a warm present left by a friendly dog. My morning paper read ruined, I spent the rest of the day liberally applying hand soap and hand sanitiser to the base of my afflicted shoe. Needless to say, my morning paper read has now gone abandoned or on the mornings when I do dare to read and walk, it’s rarely the carefree walk of old as now I scan the pavement ahead too frequently to maintain and good steady read.

Maybe that’s why bad things happen to us or why we sin so as regularly as we do. Oh I’m sure God could have made everything perfect if he wanted to and we could all lead perfect lives, but we’d be almost like robots. It’s a shame that life can’t be perfect and carefree, and it pays to remember that there are things out there that are dangerous and can cause harm to us. After a bad experience or doing something we know is wrong, we learn to watch out for such instances in the future and to safeguard against similar things happening again.

Sure it breaks a routine or takes away a simple pleasure, but as Admiral Geoffery Tolwyn said in Wing Commander IV, “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance”.

Jan

Riddle me this?

By Filia Day 6 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

Well, I’m sure most of us are back to work now and things are starting to hot up again (although, I suppose if your profession is a stay at home mum (and what a great profession!), I guess you never really get a predictable low time). Well, one of my resolutions for this year was to find some time in the day (not just on the days I post when I’m short of a topic) to read some of the paper. I must say some of the pictures and stories coming out of Haiti are just horrific.
The other day, however, as I was putting my resolution into action, I stumbled across an opinion piece by Kerry Whittam on the GrabaSeat “Cougar” ad, which she, and many others, have labelled as utterly distasteful. If you are not familiar with the meaning of the term “cougar”, then I will quickly acquaint you. A cougar, well at least in colloquial English, is the term used for an older woman who goes after younger men.
Now since I’m not an avid fan of television, I had never seen the ad and swiftly went to check it out. If you haven’t seen the ad you can access it here.
There are several questions that I would like to raise about the content of the ad and the use of the term ‘cougar’ to describe this “cultural phenomenon”. I use the term cultural phenomenon as apparently there is a TV series in the US named cougar town and it expresses similarly sexually endowed messages about older women and their significantly younger sexual partners. A quick scroll down the side menu of you tube also reveals that “cougars” now congregate periodically for meetings in order to grasp the full meaning of their “cougar-ness”. So here are a few questions that jumped into my mind as I watch the ad:

a. IIt is never appropriate for a man to refer to a woman as a piece of meat, right? In fact, if there was an ad that did so, do you think less people would argue that it was just a bit of fun?
b. If one reverses the roles (making the women men and the men women in this ad and perhaps the P addict as a ditsy blonde), what kind of response do you think this would illicit from the public?
c. Where is the feminist voice in all of this? I for one, while not surprised in the least, hoped that at least one group of feminists would be standing up and saying that it is not befitting for ANYONE to be portrayed in such a manner.

All I can say is bring on a new framework for understanding “woman” and gender relations as surely this is no solution to gender inequality and the mantra of third wave feminism, that is “power is in the bedroom” is just not that appealing.

Jan

Details of new Dan Brown book revealed!

By The Dumb Ox Closed

Categories: Being Frank...

Inside sources at Doubleday Publishers have leaked documents that give details of the new, soon to be released, historical thriller by Da Vinci Code author, Dan Brown.

The book will be called The Mozart Conspiracy, but the leaked papers contain no details about the exact date it will be released to the general public.

The Mozart Conspiracy is set 6 months after the events of the Da Vinci Code; in which time Robert Langdon has been able to qualify, with an internet based learning provider, as a professor and leading international expert in Musicology, or the study of secret musical codes and symbolism.

This complements Langdon’s other qualifications as a symbologist, foodologist, animologist, and McDonald’s team leader.

The Mozart Conspiracy starts with the strange food poisoning death of world famous composer Jagger Mick, at the Sydney Opera House. Langdon happens to be in Australia at the time of the murder and was scheduled to meet with Jagger Mick just hours before his strange and sudden food poisoning death.

As the leading expert in Musicology; Langdon is called to the Sydney Opera House to assist with the police investigation.

It is not long however before Langdon becomes suspicious that something altogether more sinister is afoot.

First he discovers that Jagger Mick’s musical score for the Madame Butterfly opera contains the songs Killing me softly, I shot the sheriff, and Don’t fear the reaper. The Australian police however refuse to buy into Langdon’s theories that these songs are out of place in a world famous operatic score, or that they point to the fact that Jagger Mick has been murdered.

Langdon’s suspicions are aroused even further when he discovers a ceremonial lance and nine .22 calibre bullets in Jagger Mick’s back.

After meeting up with Indiana Jones at a local Australian pub; the two famous adventurers decide to team up to try and solve the mystery of Jagger Mick’s death.

Before long the pair find themselves embroiled in an international conspiracy that crosses thousands of years, and involves the highest officials in the US Republican Party, the Vatican, and the Missionaries of Charity founded by the late Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

It turns out that Mother Teresa is only being beatified by the Vatican, with the support of the powerful US Republican Party, in return for the many Vatican Conclaves and Republican fundraising dinners which she and her nuns catered with the best authentic Indian cuisine available.

To the outside world the Missionaries of Charity are an order of religious sisters dedicated to serving the poor; in actual fact however the whole time they have been spying on India and Pakistan for the US Republican Party.

But things have come to head, as the Missionaries of Charity have learnt of a secret so powerful that it could topple their powerful Republican masters. If they can gain full knowledge of this secret then they will be able to covertly rule the United States of America by controlling the powerful US Republican Party by way of blackmail, thus making the Missionaries of Charity the puppet masters of the most powerful nation on earth.

What is this secret so powerful that it could change the world as we know it?

Many people thought that Conan the Barbarian was a fictional character invented by Hollywood; but in actual fact he was a real historical figure who sired a son, who in turn begat another son, who begat a son of his own, and so on, and so on, until the present day.

It turns out that the modern descendant of Conan the Barbarian, and the rightful heir to the US Presidency, is none other than Democratic Party leader John Kerry.

In an effort to deny Democratic leader John Kerry of his rightful title as US President; George Bush and the Republican Party formed an allegiance with the Vatican, and the sinister Missionaries of Charity. This powerful alliance intended to rig the US elections in order to ensure a win for George Bush and the Republican Party, but it turned that John Kerry couldn’t beat a one legged man in a butt whipping contest so George Bush and the powerful Republicans needed no help when it came to election time.

This allegiance existed without problems for many years, but with the passing of Mother Teresa came the appointment of a new superior for the Missionaries of Charity; Mother Viaticum Absolution. Not merely content to remain subservient to the powerful US Republican Party; Mother Viaticum sends one of her trained assassins – Sister Hypostatic Unction – to seek out the powerful secret of the warrior bloodline of Conan the Barbarian.

To unveil the truth Sister Hypostatic Unction must seek out and kill the members of the secret society entrusted, since the time of Conan, with the task of protecting the warrior bloodline and ensuring that the rightful heir is elected to the US Presidency.

This secret society; known as AMWAY, was formed in 4000 BC and has been headed by many famous people; including none other than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart, which is an anagram for Zartom, Ratzom, and Artmoz, used secret codes in his music to pass information on to other members of AMWAY.

With the help of Indiana Jones; Robert Langdon must decipher the codes left by Mozart and reveal the secret of the Mozart conspiracy before the Missionaries of Charity and the powerful US Republican Party can track him down and kill him; thus concealing forever the truth of the warrior bloodline and the rightful heir to the US Presidency.

Baigent sues!

Just days after the information about the new Dan Brown novel was leaked; author Michael Baigent announced that he will be suing Dan Brown for plagiarising his work in order to create the new Mozart Conspiracy novel.

Baigent is claiming that Brown stole the idea of the warrior bloodline of Conan from Baigent’s earlier work; Conan to Kerry, holy molly they got the wrong president!.

At this stage no commencement date for the trial has been announced.

Jan

It’s official; Christians cause global warming

By The Dumb Ox 10 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

World renowned author, conference speaker, and global warming expert; Jim Plimpton, announced earlier this week that he believes that his research has discovered the real cause of global climate change.

“Initially I thought that the increase in greenhouse gasses was being caused by the republican party but now I know for sure that cataclysmic global climate change is really being caused by Christians” said Mr Plimpton.

Mr Plimpton has spent the last two years doing complex mathematical calculations based on his observations of various Christian churches.

“I spent three months at various evangelical and Catholic churches around the world and during my time I noticed some rather alarming activity that has gone unnoticed for many years.”

Mr Plimpton noted that in Catholic churches almost all parishioners genuflect twice during every Sunday Mass.

“If your average Catholic Church has 600 parishioners per service, for three services per weekend then you’re looking at a total of approximately 3600 genuflections per weekend.”

“If we take this figure of 3600 and multiply it by the earths magnetic variance, add 400, minus the spherical content of Darth Vader, you get a lot of kinetic energy. This energy converts to heat and as we all know; heat melts the polar ice caps.”

Along with the genuflections, Mr Plimpton also noted that your average Catholic Mass involves between 3 and 10 constantly burning candles, which are another strong source of heat energy output. He also noted that Catholics say a lot of prayers during their Masses. “All those praying parishioners are breathing out and we all know that when you’re breathing out you expel Carbon Dioxide – a leading cause of apocalyptic weather variance” said Mr Plimpton.

Plimpton became even more alarmed on his visits to evangelical churches where he witnessed massive energy output from participants waving their hands in the air. “I became even more alarmed when I realised that your average evangelical church has more amplifiers than a Metallica concert. This gratuitous amount of sound equipment not only uses more power but it also causes sonic energy which results in polar ice caps breaking free and floating into warmer waters where they melt faster than usual and cause destructive ocean level increases.”

“For years we thought it was the conservatives that were causing global warming but now my research clearly shows that we need to rethink such assertions. I’m not saying that they aren’t still causing global warming in some way; I’m just saying that the Christians are the real problem here.”

“The Vatican is definitely a major contributor; I mean how many thousands of genuflections, candles and prayers does that place go through in a week? Then there’s Focus on the Family; every time they encourage families to pray together they’re encouraging a small group of people to emit yet more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere” said Mr Plimpton.

When asked what he thought the answer to this crisis might be; Mr Plimpton suggested that a global action plan to fight this threat to global climate harmony can be found in his new book “Pray, kneel, die in a cataclysmic global storm”.

Mr Plimpton also suggested that greenhouse gases should now be referred to as “prayerhouse gasses.”

Jan

A terrible, unknown sacrifice?

By James the Least 25 Comments

Categories: Being Frank...

I heard some disturbing news this week. Some good friends informed me that some immunisations are derived/developed using material from aborted foetuses!

I’ll be honest – when I heard this, I thought “nah – that can’t be right”. However, I’m sad to report that I was wrong and they were right. A number of vaccines – notably MMR (Measles, Mumps and Rubella) were developed last century using tissue from unwanted babies. (You can read more about what the Vatican has to say about this here, and the UK’s NHS’ explanation here.)

I didn’t quite know what to think about this…and still don’t really either. On the one hand, it is staggering to me that we as a society would allow or condone this kind of science. I mean, isn’t this just a few stops short of growing humans for our medical needs? Very scary, sci-fi movie type stuff, in my opinion.

On the other hand, as the Vatican points out, immunisation is an important thing as it aims to protect the health of the most vulnerable of society, and there is a responsibility for us to do this. Also, if I understand the Vatican letter properly, there’s something called “passive material cooperation” which lessens culpability or something? I don’t quite follow, but it looks like they’re saying that this is a deplorable situation (i.e. that the good of vaccination has only been made available [in these cases] through the terrible evil of abortion) and that, while we should vaccinate for the greater good of the health of mankind etc., we should push – hard – for this method of vaccine development to never be used again.

The other thing niggling in the back of my mind is what are we to make of the poor child who was killed in the abortion basically saving the lives of thousands, potentially, through that death? Not that it was right, nor that it should have happened – because the poor child wasn’t given the choice to choose to give their life for others. But is this a case of making something good from something evil?

I feel a bit queasy discussing the whole thing, to be honest. I really don’t like that this is where we have got to in our culture, and I’m more than a bit concerned about the precedent. Is this similar to the whole “would you let one innocent die if that death could save millions” question?

I think I need to have a lie down.