Intelligent debate rages in the blogosphere: Is Britney's body kinda gross? I'm not joining the philosophical debate, but I have no tolerance for those who say her body shouldn't be criticized because she's had two kids. The movie critic John Simon once excoriated an actress's breasts in his review (calling them "rotten vegetables"). When she told him he was out of line, he said, "If you don't 'em reviewed, don't bare 'em."
Rat own.
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Headline establishes that they had no choice: Housing Market Slump Forces Couple To Open Brothel.
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It's 9/11, by the way. Every year, I like to link to my weekly column at Catholic Exchange about "Nine-Eleven Days". Hands down, it got me the largest amount of hate mail, including one woman who suggested I should move to France.
Shortly after 9/11, my parish ran that touching, if sickly sentimental, “This is God talking about 9/11” audio. I'm sure you know the one. It's where God says “I was with you when you dialed your wife to say, 'I love you.'” A real tear jerker, intentionally so, but the message (God's omnipotence and omniscience) is good, and, even better, accessible to anyone with a third grade Sunday School education.
But then they played it on New Year's Eve, at the Mass of Holy Mary, Mother of God. It's a Holy Day of Obligation.
I was annoyed. It delayed my New Year's Eve festivities by 10 minutes, but no big deal.
And then they played it again on the same Holy Day in 2002.
And again in 2003.
Now I was losing my mind. Apparently, someone thought the audio is one of greatest things they ever heard, so they made the decision that the rest of us should hear it... four times.
Which is fine, if done properly. If you think it's so great, make a general announcement: “After Mass, we're gonna listen to that melodramatic 'This is God talking about 9/11' audio.' Feel free to stick around and cry with us.”
But they didn't do that. Instead, they fired it up before the final blessing. Which is, of course, before a good Catholic feels comfortable leaving an obligatory Mass.
They, in other words, took advantage of a captive audience, like the NFL foisting their feel-good 9/11ism on us at 1:00PM, when we're all poised for kick-off. They know they “got us,” so they shovel “it” (you define “it”) on us.
Such coercion is not, to be blunt, cool. If you don't like this column, link away. If you don't like a TV show, click away. This is America, where not everyone is going to share your emotions or your need to cry in public.
But as near as I can tell, there are some people who are so cocksure about their emotional state, that they think the rest of us must share it. And it's not just a 9/11 thing. It happens all the time. I can't fathom the forced community emotionalism that will come in the wake of Katrina.
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Attack on "Honest Abe." I'm no Lincoln expert, but the writer, Thomas DiLorenzo, is a man who generally knows of what he writes.
