Waxing Poetically: Addressing Culture with a Twist of Poetry

As a great number of topics on this blog center around culture, politics, philosophy and religion, it seems only right that I should post a quiz on worldview to gauge where you, the readers are coming from with regard to how you see the world around you. Each answer is scored on a five-point agree/disagree scale. Click the link at the bottom of the post to take the quiz. Please post your result in the comments.

Sample Questions

1. The potential of the divine is within us.

2. Language itself must be put under a critical eye.

3. Science can solve all problems and answer all questions, eventually.

4. The world was a more ideal place years ago.

5. Interpretation is an intrinsic feature of the fabric of the universe.

6. Morals are socially constructed.

7. All that exists is matter and energy.

8. Mankind is condemned to be free. (there is no outside control).

9. In order to progress we must look to the past.

10. Life is just a complex arrangement of physical particles.

Click here to take the quiz.

Wax globally. Act locally.

Jesus with Computer Lady by Flickr user Comandante Agi

Yes, believe it or not, according to a report filed by ABC News’ Emily Wither just this morning from London, a British evangelical media watch dog by the name of the Evangelical Alliance has listed ten blogging tactics that qualify as sins in citing new commandments based the traditional set. These include taking one day off for the Sabbath, not coveting your neighbor’s content, (for those praying to make the top ten blogs list) and not using one’s anonymity to lie, slander or commit adultery in one’s mind.

The report makes a brief mention of how these commandments come at a time when many angry words have been exchanged through the new medium and often harsh and biting commentary found on many a Christian blog and blogs in general.

Here is the list in its entirety:

The Blogging Ten Commandments, according to the Evangelical Alliance:

1. You shall not put your blog before your integrity.

2. You shall not make an idol of your blog.

3. You shall not misuse your screen name by using your anonymity to sin.

4. Remember the Sabbath day by taking one day off a week from your blog.

5. Honour your fellow-bloggers above yourselves and do not give undue significance to their mistakes.

6. You shall not murder someone else’s honour, reputation or feelings.

7. You shall not use the web to commit or permit adultery in your mind.

8. You shall not steal another person’s content.

9. You shall not give false testimony against your fellow-blogger.

10. You shall not covet your neighbour’s blog ranking. Be content with your own content.

As a blogger and a practicing Catholic I personally hold no objections to any of the above rules, especially the one about maintaining personal integrity. As far as my Sabbath goes, a day off is never disputed in my book, (whether that book be the Bible or not, religious or not). As for the others, condemning slander, jealously and “blog worship”, these seem to have little to do with God and more to do with general morality. I doubt that many atheists and agnostics, or people of any non Judeo-Christian faith will dispute these “commandments” in their good will - and if any do, they can civilly do so in their responses to this blog.

Until next time… wax graciously.

Click here to read the ABC News report.

The Emotions of Jesus by Nadine Rippelmeyer

“Jesus in the Booth” (Inspired by Thayer’s “Casey at the Bat”)

The decision wasn’t easy for one Jesus on that day.
So he stepped outside a moment and at once began to pray.
I had come back in this moment to better cultivate the youth
But ’tis hardest to seek righteousness from inside a voting booth!

Yet truly there are those I know whose righteousness withstands,
The slings and arrows, roadside bombs begat with evil hands.
And so I choose to keep my vote away from such a place.
Regardless of their politics… the just shall live by faith!

Glenn Beck Talks with Penn Jillette

Please comment.

Wax on!

Who won last night? (Google image)

I, like millions of others across America, watched the presidential debates last night. I first watched CNN, then a few minutes on PBS, next I took a left at Albuquerque ala Bugs Bunny to MSNBC looking for left wing bias and finally took a hard right to Fox for right wing bias. What I found was surprising. While the lead anchors all had various opinions, most of the media, when asked who won, said it was a dead heat. This was even the case with some on FOX News like the more neutral Chris Wallace as he gave the pros and cons for each performance by Obama and McCain. Even MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann’s left-wingedness couldn’t talk down Pat Buchanan’s near surgical assessment of either man’s stance on the economy, the war and foreign policy. Still, due to the perceived stalemate, and as is often the case with a tie, both Democrats and Republicans felt their respective side won.

Of course, there was one thing among the clash of immovable titans that threw me out of my chair: According to the FOX News online poll a staggering 82% think John McCain won! Conservative Sean Hannity told the viewerss they “got it right” without any hesitation from Hannity. Eighty-two percent is a huge advantage but here’s the kicker…. No one else across the entire news media seemed to think it was correct! Is FOX somehow so omniscient to see through to ultimate truth or is this a simple and blatant case of poll manipulation?

The following clip from Showtime’s Penn & Teller: Bulls**t attempts to answer why such discrepancies might happen with the help of pollster Frank Lutz:

Always remember that you have a brain and that is often the best decider of all.

Wax logically.

Joe Heller has been a political cartoonist and satirist at The Green Bay Press-gazette since 1985. In the cartoon above, Heller points to the absurdity of religious intolerance.

An exceedingly wise person once reminded me that if aliens came to Earth tomorrow, they would likely see us as all human. Our races and cultural sects and schisms would be seen as minor variations of the same habits and rituals - just as wearing a different shirt by itself is not groundbreaking, yet it can have great cultural symbolism to some in religions, clubs and at their worst, in gangs and prison systems and Nazi Germany to name just a few.

Yet because religious devotion is so embedded to the bedrock of who some of us are as people, we make exceptions to bicker with our bothers and sisters over unarguable beliefs about abstract ideas about what afterlife is, what race Jesus was, who Mohammad’s true ancestors are, or whether God is one being, a Trinity in one or a multitude of incarnations manifested in one Universal Soul called Bhraman. We never seem to think of how impossible any of these cultural convictions are to prove… and so the more fundamental we are in these convictions, the more and more and more we fight. One has to wonder what a true God would have to say about all this. Have mercy on us!

Wax sensibly.

This week Statesman and inventor Benjamin Franklin expresses his ultra libertarian views on civilian liberty

In this era of terrorism, does Franklin’s statement still hold true? Some place limits on privacy in a self-imposed way by telling no secrets nor opposing the recent Freedom of Information Act and the scandalized phone tapping by the Bush Administration that seems a bit too Orwellian for some. Personally, I’ve always believed that if I have nothing to hide, I should care less who knows what about my life for that fact that if any terror should occur, the United States Government is exceeding more apt to tackle such a problem than I. Anyway… I’ll cross that proverbial bridge upon coming to it. With all that said, where is the cut-off between privacy and civilian liberty and personal privacy and moreover where do the two intersect?

Discuss and wax poetically!

Part of the Waxing Poetically mission is to test the boundaries of people’s beliefs and perceptions and to genuinely engage the mind in ways unexplored. This may do all those things in a matter of two seconds!

Wheelchair users are only handicapped if the believe they are. Free your mind and the rest will indeed follow!

Keep dreaming the dream!

See what happens when someone gives small increments of cash money to desperately poor people.

This has 99% return rate? Apparently!

Wax charitably.

What happens when people spend money on credit to buy what they can’t afford? What happens when the government won’t raise taxes but also won’t cut spending? What happens when something, anything seems to good to be true? Representative and presidential hopeful Ron Paul of Texas answers all these questions in the video below.

Stop spending money you don’t have! And that’s the bottom line ’cause Stone Cold
… ehem… Ron Paul said so!

I’ll give five bonus points to anyone who can tell me what the Stone Cold reference means.
Credit goes to Steve of The Relevant Rhino for pointing out an earlier error where I referred to Ron Paul as the Libertarian candidate. He’s still a Republican but he is running on an Independent ticket though he is without question a Libertarian in his beliefs.

Please check out Steve’s great blog here. It’s well worth a read!

Wax frugally!