LUDICROUS!!! Chefs in The Cage!

What kind of a society are we?  Everytime I think we’ve reached a new low, somebody comes along to demonstrate just how insipid, perverse, even despicable, Americans and their trends to embrace violence as “the answer to everything” REALLY are.

It seems that to gain prestige in the world of American haute cuisine, we now have battles of the chefs?

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Bad enough that we have The Cage and MMA–bludgeoning battles between meatheads out to prove they’ve got balls–events which promote even more violence than old-fashioned, equally ludicrous “pro wrestling” and that blood sport of pugilism known as “boxing.”

Now, though, it seems, that to promote anything and everything to the mindless masses, it comes down to knives, fists, and guns in order to lure the American viewer?  Really.  Blood sport in the kitchen?  Knives at sunset?

Just look at those “mean machine” scowls.  *shaking my head*

If this is “entertainment” to some, those “some” need lobotomizing.

Are Americans SO very addicted to competition and violence that we resemble the Romans with their amphitheaters where conscripted gladiators battled each other, captive humans, and starved animals to the death for the “entertainment” of the citizens?

In a word, YES. That’s what a majority of Americans seem to thrive on.

Sick.  Sick.  Sick.

It’s Christmas, and, Well, We’re Still Fighting

It’s Christmas–a holiday Christians use to celebrate the birth of Jesus of Nazareth (who was actually born sometime in October, btw), Jesus of Nazareth whose teachings inspired the founding of the Christian faith…for good, but mostly resulting in evil. 

Christmas is celebrated by non-Christians, as well–Yuletide and the Solstice…or just an excuse to celebrate, remember friends and family, and to enjoy a feeling of goodwill and peace.

But, guess what? In Christams 2009, what are we doing? Well, in the U.S., we’re still fighting–Republicans versus Democrats, liberals versus neoconservatives, and all of them pissed off at moderates and independents who don’t hold their “party” lines.  And, around the world, we’re in wars, wars, and wars.  We’re standing by while people, animals, and Earth itself continues to suffer harm by mankind’s UNKIND hands–cruelty, hardship, misery, decimation…. 

I’m sick of humans.  Yes, really.  As a species, despite supposedly being “civilized” and blessed with (repeat, SUPPOSEDLY) superior intelligence, it is WE–humans–who blight the planet with our greed, our fear, and our oh-so-primitive “us versus them” tribalism.  We are the most violent, most vile, of creatures, yet, simultaneously, we exhibit the ability to rise above that and be the kindest, most caring.  Unfortunately, in this our 21st century of counting our existence in the West, we seem to be a civilization devolving back into a hate/war society of intolerance…and have been since the turn of the Millennium.  (Thanks, G.W.B./Cheney, fuckers both.)

Hope?  Hope is a Christmas theme.  I’m losing it.  I can’t see us ever getting clear of our fear, greed, and unhealthy lusts.  Still, Christmas IS the one time of year in the West when, for just a moment, for just a day, SOMETIMES, anyway, the world knows PEACE.  This is especially evident at the stroke of midnight between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, worldwide. 

So tonight I will celebrate that one precious moment of PEACE that happens only now, thanks to a man born long ago in a land far, far away.

Thank you, Jesus.  That’s one small piece of good that came about because of a religion founded in your name, though most everything else that’s come about because of Christianity (along with most everything that’s come about because of Judism and Islam, all brother/sister religions that lead back to the seed of Abraham) only perpetuates more evil upon the planet.

Be still, Humans.  It’s Christmas Eve.  A breath of stillness, a moment of peace….