Santa, Frosty, Rudolph, coloured lights, pine trees, snowmen, the days get longer. It’s not so bad when you remove that whole Jesus thing.

Although I normally enjoy the three-day break by going on a camping trip, this year I’m sort of stuck at home due to injury from a vehicle accident.

At the local fairgrounds only a block away from where I live “Joshua Fest” is going on. It’s a Christian rock band Jesus-palooza that goes all weekend long, and sometimes I can even make out the lyrics as they blast out from the loudspeakers. Somewhat irritating, but I take it in stride as best I can.

My trivial annoyances aside, it is good to reflect on what Labor Day really stands for: a celebration of the average Jill/Joe worker, and the important contributions organized labor has made to improving working conditions in this country. It is also very instructive (and saddening) to acknowledge how much organized labor has lost in terms of political power to address and correct deficiencies in the labor world: minimum wages, job safety, right to form unions without fear of being fired, global corporatization, Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Brother; the list goes on and on.

Theists and atheists alike could easily come together to make a difference in improving labor conditions, but admittedly the obstacles are gigantic. The Average Joe like me has bills to pay, and suffer we will under the yoke as long as we can scrape enough together to pay those bills. That doesn’t leave much time or energy to fight for the right to unionize.

Happy three-day weekend for those of you lucky enough to even get it off.

From CommonDreams:

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/01/3558/

I’d be a CEO, but I’m not for the same reason that I’m not an attorney or a politician — I have a conscience.

At the local fairgrounds only a block away from where I live “Joshua Fest” is going on. It’s a Christian rock band Jesus-palooza that goes all weekend long, and sometimes I can even make out the lyrics as they blast out from the loudspeakers.

You have my sympathy. “Christian rock” is the worst music being made today. I think the problem is that there’s nothing for the artists to say lyrically other than “god is so great, praise him, blah blah blah.” There’s no emotional tension. Plus the singers are all so whiny and mewly, which I guess you have to be when you’re so afraid of an irrational, all-powerful being that will torture you for eternity if you displease him.

Rusty:
I completely agree, “Christian rock”, or any genre of Christian “music” is absolutely horrid. I think the only exceptions would have to be the ones Cartman made in one particual South Park episode, replacing names in some sexually explicit songs with God or Jesus. Other than that…ugh

*Side note: My comment originally wasn’t allowed because the word “commercial*sm” without the * contains the name of a certain pill often times the subject of spam emails. Ha!

“Christian rock” is the worst music being made today.

The lack of emotional content, both musical and lyrical, in “Christian rock” is very telling. This “music” is so devoid of emotion it makes one wonder if the “composers” of it actually have emotions.

This pisses him off so much he screams “f**k Jesus” on stage. The audience collectively freaks out, and Cartman quits Christian rock in utter disgust.

Moral of the story IMHO? Both the audience and Cartman get their just heavenly rewards.

And the side lesson from the South Park episode: it takes utterly no brains or talent to produce “Christian rock”. Cartman plagarizes pop music lyrics and simply replaces the word “baby” (so prevalent in pop music) with “Jesus”, “My Lord”, etc. and his band (Faith+1) becomes an instant overnight slam-bam success.

Oh how life does imitate art indeed (and vice-versa), and no original thought required, just the ability to play (even badly) electric guitar/drums, etc. To compose successful Christian rock music all you have to do is tweak some Biblical scripture just a little, adjust some standard grunge chord lines to fit, and voila! you’ve hit the “big time” — your “brothers and sisters in the Lord” can’t write their checks fast enough — and you “Praise Jesus” all the way to the bank.

(With apologies to the truly talented Liberace. CP)

In other xian news…
Fundamentalist preacher in Oz shows his teenaged daughters the meaning of “love”:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0%2C23599%2C22334577-2%2C00.html?from=mostpop