Are we almost done?

Day 16. Is November almost over?

I have been fortunate so far to have had flashes of inspiration or somewhat exciting happenings with which to regale myself and my 2 readers.
But not today.
Today is slim pickins'.

So I will discuss a couple things that I wrote down as possible blog entries that either I don't have enough opinion on to write a full-length post or the passion behind them is now passed so my motivation is gone.

1. Beauties and the Beast?

I haven't seen Knocked Up or the Kevin Smith Make a Porno movie, but I don't live in a bubble. I have at least read the reviews and know who Seth Rogen is. He is an average-looking dude.

In readings these film reviews, I have seen some rants about how he is paired with beauties like Katherine Heigl and Elizabeth Banks and all the brou-ha-ha that goes along with castings of this sort. I may be the only one, but I don't think either Katherine Heigl or Elizabeth Banks are beautiful. Nice-looking, but certainly not drop-dead-gorgeous. Heck, to be honest, there are very few Hollywood folks that aren't just average without benefit of makeup and hair people and stunning gowns/tuxedoes. Oh, yes, and the allure of filthy stinky wealthiness.

2. Effigies and lynchings

Prior to the election there were a number of lynched effigies of both Barack Obama and Sarah Palin. All were in poor taste (a gross understatement). But I didn't fully agree with those who saw the effigies as equally distateful, and here's why. White middle-class women were never historically and consistently lynched in US history. Black men were. So while the effigies of Sarah Palin were stupid, the effigies of Barack Obama re-opened historically sensitive wounds. There is no comparison to what these effigies represented to anyone who knows anything about Black history in America (and my knowledge is scant, at best). The people who said the ones about Barack Obama had nothing to do with race, just politics, are idiots.

3. Ex-herm

Sometimes I think it would be interesting to take a Bible studies class. And sometimes I think, "Why would I want to subject myself to such a thing?" Maybe I've just heard of too many people who take "read the Bible as totally literal" type classes, and I just can't do that.

I am quite ignorant of things biblical. But I heard a program on NPR the other day in which John Dominic Crossan, a theologian, discussed his book The Historical Jesus. This is on my list of must-reads, as is Stephen Prothero's Religious Literacy.

More and more I feel like I read about fundamentalism and because I'm ignorant of the Bible, I don't know whether there is any substance to what the fundamentalists say or think. I can't quote the Bible (hell, Linus does a better job than I ever could), so maybe what I'm thinking is entirely wrong. It is easy for me to lump everyone else as being uninformed or misinterpreting the Bible, but if I don't know it, how can I be sure?.

Probably my favorite class in college was Theology in Modern Literature. Maybe it's a Catholic thing, but I tend to find god alot in the secular books I read. But I think to be a better rounded and informed person, I need to know more of the Bible.

Ok, well, I've ticked off my Post-It note list on my dayplanner. I'll have to come up with something new for tomorrow. Maybe I'll blow something up in the microwave or have a really bad hang-nail.