If we take everything seriously, then we make everything serious!
Sometimes difficult circumstance can lead to interesting creative possibilities. If your under pressure its usually beneficial to be positive and for me that is creative. The paintings may be hideous, but they can be a relief to express. And I think all human artwork is a sign of hope, and the positive. We are all creative. And a relief of tension can make you laugh. Hopefully.
This story takes place a long time ago, after the cavemen ate the last dinosaur, but before the flood washed away the evidence. There are no pictures, well maybe a few, it is just a story.
The caveman entered the small cave with a lamp, a flask of grog (fermented anything) and a pencil he had made from a stick in the fire. And he decided he would invent writing. He decided he would write a story to impress his girlfriend, something with sex and violence and other things he didn’t know of yet. He was a good storyteller. He wasn’t a very good hunter, if you know what I mean. He wasn’t much of a painter either, according to his drinking buddies that actually saw the beasts.
He would take the bits they brought him and throw them on the ground and draw with his fancy invention. A pointy burned stick. They would get drunk and howl with laughter at him. Make that a bit bigger, no now thats too small. BaaHahaha!!! He just laughed with them, drank more grog than anyone else, and dreamt of how many more girlfriends he would have when they finally went back out on their hunting parties.
This is the story he wrote in the cave that day : (Any familiar names or dates are purely coincidental or completely accidental. Whichever one saves my ass better.)
In The Beginning
They found themselves in a hostile environment, both of them quite new as to the despicable nature of others. In a box barely big enough for one, let alone two fully-grown humans. Surrounded by coveting lechery and defeat. Like scavengers, looking for what is left. These people had only the strength left to feed on each other, and anyone that falls from society’s favour, as long as they are nearby.
The only thing to do was make the best of their meager space to exist. And to that end, young man set about decorating the walls, of this their ‘Cave of Treasures’. His new bride was in great distress upon learning she would have to bear children, like the animals. This was not what she had expected. No one mentioned that beforehand.
“I was lied to!” she would wail and lament in great sorrow.
And he would say, ”Look, look at the pretty picture on the wall.” Intentionally avoiding the issue. That she had been lied to. She was exactly right. But he didn’t want to be the one to tell her. So he continued to show her ever more elaborate pictures to distract and amuse her. At least temporarily. He promised himself he would tell her, eventually, that he had taken the fruit. And as the fruit brought knew knowledge in him, it also brought its opposite. He could lie, tell untruths. When asked, he knew he could point his finger, and he did, at her. And now she suffered a fate he could not imagine. He felt dismay and despair at his own behaviour. He had brought her great pain. He would have to tell her, someday. But not yet. Another story for now. The truth can wait.
He had been walking in the garden. Thinking of what to eat for his dinner. Everything looked so good, as it always had. As it should be, and always will be. Or so he thought as he wandered along in paradise.
‘Hey!” said a voice from the undergrowth.
“Wassup?”
Adam was stunned, he only knew of one voice, and this wasn’t it.
“Who, or what are you?”
Adam asked the voice, now in the trees, now all around him.
“I live in this tree.”, said the voice.
“I eat its fruit!”
Adam saw through his euphoric view of the garden, a great tree, the one he had been shown before. It shone like no other tree. It shone from the inside.
“The other voice told me this is poison! But it is so beautiful!” said Adam, now speaking to the voice from the tree.
“Smell the flowers. There is no beauty as great as the aroma of these flowers.” The voice informs Adam.
Adam does, and is intoxicated by the smell. ‘But it is poison, how can this be?’ he cries. And at this point, Adam is lost. The smell of knowledge is doubt. ‘How can this be!’ he thinks in his stupor. ‘What have I done?’ ‘What will I do?’
‘She will never believe me’, thought Adam, as he sat at a rock face painting yet another goat. Pondering how to tell Eve of the true dilemma they faced.
“No more easy ride.” He had said once.
“This is easy street!” He had also said.
“Exactly what ride are you talking about?” asked Eve.
“I don’t recall being on a ride!”
“As far as I remember, everything was good, now it isn’t!”
“Why is that Adam?” she would ask repeatedly. “What did you do?”
He had painted a picture of a beautiful flower.
And had shown her, hoping to tell the truth, without actually lying. Then he could always say that he had at least shown her. She would be tricked the same way he had been. Or so he thought at the time. Eve never stayed amused or satisfied for long.
Adam realized that he would have to come up with more complicated explanations for her. She deserved the truth. But his knowledge also brought despair. He couldn’t tell her the truth. She may leave, and never come back. She may fall prey to the ‘monster in the trees’ he had created in his own mind. His fear told him his lies were truth. It never occurred to him that he would be the one outside. But then again, this is the beginning of time. Adam and Eve have a long way to go.
His explanation to her had to be a puzzle, or a riddle. Far more than one pretty picture at a time. One so complex it would take her forever to find the truth. That it wasn’t her fault.
“Remember the garden, my dear?” asked Adam of Eve.
“Rides, gardens, easy street, what are you talking about?” she replied.
“All I know is there are horrible creatures outside!” she lamented.
“What about me?” she howled in despair.
Adam persisted, and pressed on with his tale,
He had been walking in the garden. Thinking of what to eat for his dinner. Everything looked so good, as it always had. As it should be, and always will be. Or so he thought as he wandered along in paradise.
‘Psst!” said a voice from the undergrowth.
“Come over here!”
Adam was stunned, he only knew of one voice, and this wasn’t it.
“Who, or what are you?”
Adam asked the voice, now in the trees, now all around him.
“What do you want? That tree is poisonous.”
“You should be careful.”
He was very concerned for the stranger’s welfare as you see.
“Come over here! Help, I need help!” the voice became frail.
“Why won’t you help me, come closer.”?
Adam had never had the opportunity to see deceit. Never, in his apparently immortal existence, had there been a lie. Why should there be? Why would there be?
With great concern Adam leaned forward, closer, to have a look.
“Closer!” said the voice.
And as Adam leaned closer, he lost his footing in paradise, and fell into a dark pit, at the base of the great tree of knowledge.
“Cool!” said Eve.
Adam could not see, but he could feel the object of the voice. It was a vile wriggling wet bundle of snakes.
“EeeewWW!!” she said.
The snakes bit Adam, repeatedly, and poisoned his mind. They brought pain and fear and despair. But he fought them. Tore them from his arms. And Adam struggled away from them, back up the steep walls of the pit of nothing. He rejects this knowledge. He was tricked into knowing pain. There was no reason for this. Adam scrambled his way back into the eternal paradise of the garden. Feeling as though his absence was also eternal. His lips just forming the words.
“Why? What?”
When a great voice thundered into his ears, shaking the whole universe.
“What have you done?” asks the voice of all voices, nothing like the voice of deceit.
Of a sudden, Adam feels violently ill. The poison in his blood brings terror. Terror that he will have to spend any more time at the base of this horrible tree. Being bitten forever. It seemed eternal when it was happening to him. He would have to think of something.
“I didn’t do anything!” he howled.
“You are sickened! It does not matter how. You cannot stay in this garden.” booms the universal voice.
“That’s not fair!” Eve clearly states her opinion of the rules.
“Hey! You are just making this up, right?” Eve asks innocently, falling asleep, like a cat.
“I’m just telling a story, its all true though!” Adam decides not to let her reply.
Adam becomes pale, a shadow of himself.
“I have been poisoned.” wails Adam.
“Tricked, I was tricked and lied to!” he screams in pain and despair.
“It does not matter. But the liar is also poisoned and must go with you!” the judgment in the voice was undeniable and irresistible.
Eve fell asleep before Adam could finish his latest version of the truth. His mind raced with what he knew as truth, he could not burn it out of his mind now, and the lie, which was so much easier. He cannot sleep.
Adam leaves, to find a beautiful moonlit night. A walk to their small piece of ground for growing their food would do him well, he decides. Time to think. Perhaps the seeds he had pulled from his skin and planted here would be growing. Adam rounded the final twist in the path through the bush to be overwhelmed by a familiar scent. The seeds had grown, and very well he could see, in the rocky ground. The plants were blooming, and Adam walked through them in amazement. He touched the flowers with his hands. And, without a thought, licked his fingers, the aroma was so enticing.
Adam trembled, not daring to tell the truth and spend eternity alone with a hideous companion. He could not bare the thought without feeling ill. Adam thought of his partner, Eve. Eternity with Eve in the Garden had been bliss. If he had to leave, then anything was preferable to the constant panic and distress of the tree. He had no desire to know of knowledge.
“I was standing here, in the garden, looking for something to eat.” says Adam.
“I was reaching for that fruit there, when Eve came running by, and accidentally bumped me into this hole at the base of this tree here!” Adam’s mind is reeling with the complexities of lying. He could not conceive the complexities of omniscience. And so he kept lying to a voice to which one cannot lie.
“Even if she did not do it on purpose!” Adam intoned.
“She touched me. So she is poisoned also! She should come with me!” demanded Adam of the garden.
“So be it!” says the universe.
“But Eve will not know of your time with the tree of knowledge!”
“It is done!” booms the voice of the creator.
“She awaits you in the cave of treasures, which you must find!”
“Paradise will not return until you tell her what you have done!” Adams physical universe shakes to pieces beneath his feet. Before him appears a great doorway, he does not know what to do.
“Begone!” the great voice roars. Adam walks through the great stone doorway. Shuddering at the crash as the door slams shut. Adam looks up to a vast grey plain, eternally distant, with cracks and steaming holes, and molten rock everywhere!
Adam looks around himself. He sees hills in the distance, a dark mist hung over reality itself now. He watched for movement in the distance. The animals would gather with Eve. They would want to know what had happened. And she would have nothing to tell them. He had to find her. In a cave, the voice had said. Bring her treasures, he remembered. Looking around Adam saw a vast grey plane, nothing but giant black boulders of obsidian, jagged and razor sharp. The ground was nothing but grey dust as far as he could see.
Adam saw movement, a herd of goats, moving up a hillside toward a dark shadow in the folds of black rock.
He began his long and dangerous trek toward the distant mountains.
The caveman woke up. The walls around him covered with the black scribbles of his new invention. His hairless chest, another reason his friends laughed at him, caked with vomit from the grog party he had the previous night. His twisted leg was throbbing from passing out on the cave floor. Food was on his mind, and some more grog, and later he would bring a woman to his secret cave, tell her his story and then they would have sex, that always made him feel better.
Graham Houston Arts 
Is this what they are teaching in Sunday School these days?
I doubt it very much. I wrote this. And the church has no more love for me than atheists do. I have as much of a problem with organized religion as with the denial of it. I was trying to find the meaning of the words. I think its more important to understand and follow the intent than to worship the way it was written. What is the core of the belief system. What does it mean. How is it relevant today. After reading the bible several times I had my own ideas. And they are very simple. The forbidden knowledge, ‘fruit’, was how to lie. We learned how to lie. We learned how to make plausible excuses for our hideous behaviour. We are the only animal that does that. The original draft of this piece ended with the idea that everyone on the planet had to write either their excuse for not doing good things, or their awesomeness when they stopped lying and did the right thing. Pretty much the same as is in the book now, but with 7 billion contributors it would be even longer than the bible, but possibly even more relevant. An anthropological confessional if you will. Peace on earth finally. The most grand of delusions. The cavemen draw in the atheists and scientific, the rewriting of genesis befuddles and intrigues the believer. They both say ‘How dare you!’.
That was a joke about Sunday School. Yes, the lies, I had some thought about that, but it escapes me now. Something close to what you wrote. Maybe the sheer preponderance of a lie is as good as the real thing has gone so far it is impossible for people to relate knowing anything can and will be faked and the winner is……the biggest fake.
You wrote “their awesomeness when they stopped lying and did the right thing.” It reminds of something Godard said. In an interview from the dvd of the movie “2 or 3 Things I Know About Her” he says (I’m paraphrasing) “someday France will go the way of American capitalism, and the politicians will know to simply say “I’m sorry” as a matter of routine, brush off whatever was the dishonesty or misjudgment or what have you and simply go on as if nothing had happened.” And he goes on to liken political candidates to consumer products, becoming a brand and not so much a person. It seemed to make sense to me, and yet it’s one of those things I may be misinformed about.
Saying ‘I’m sorry’ is too often mistaken for ‘I didn’t do it’. If they are speaking to a christian audience, which is most of the U.S., Canada and Europia then they can easily put the pressure back on them as they are supposed to forgive if they are good christians. And there too forgiving is often mixed up with forgetting. One isn’t supposed to forget that the politician standing up on stage holding hands with the good wife and creating an image of happy family values and morality, is actually a male slut, looking for the next younger cuter wife to play house with once he gets more power. People are still so easily duped by old men with grey hair and a voice that sounds properly stern and moral and knowledgable, like a grandfather type that you should obey. Image is everything in politics. I was shocked that Obama actually got elected, until I realized that somewhere powerful people were probably just looking for a scapegoat to take the heat for a failed economic policy. Nowadays the economy is all his fault. Long term memory seems another problem for most voters. Here in Canada too. Everything is about, “So! What have you done for me lately?” ‘Eh!’. Votes are bought here with conveniently timed government spending projects. The media are paid to ‘announce’/ advertise the governments ‘look at what we did for you this year’ job projects and everyone forgets that they’ve been waiting 4 years for it to happen. And the greedy shitheads get re-elected.
You’re not misinformed.
sigh. well. As far as Obama I don’t think anyone is expecting an upswing of any sort in the economy because the Republican candidates for the next presidential election seem laughable, as if they’ve decided to sit this one out and let Obama continue to take the heat. Unless I’m missing something. Romney seems to have the best chance, but I’m not following it that closely. Of course if you ask Obama he will say the economy is doing phenomenally well considering the mess Bush left, the truth, who knows.
I am always interested in the experience of people who have lived longer than I, but yes, the quintessential white haired old guy worship is unnerving. Especially if he’s dating women his children’s age. I wasn’t all the fond of Hillary Clinton, but the same people who said they would vote for her “just because she’s a woman” voted for Obama just because he was black and they thought it was about time we had a black president. I was not amused.
I meant to say the people who would NOT vote for Hillary just because she was a woman. The best candidate, man or woman, yada, yada…..
Maybe its time to actually elect the donkey or the elephant, or is that logo supposed to be a horse, maybe a mule, stubborn and sterile, like most politicians.
I’ve been following it, what happens in the states has an effect on canada. And I think you may be right about the republicans sitting this one out. Especially if its looking like the economy might actually take an even worse dive downward. They would rather leave someone else deal with the problems, then they can come by in another four years and claim to have all the answers. Neither side has all the answers. They owe too much money around the rest of the world for that, other forces are at work on how the debt will be handled. Europe and Canada are in the same boat, but Canada has loads of natural resources to sell off and keep social assistance and free medical which isn’t free but paid with heavy taxes.
Perhaps you are all being set up for a surprise attack from the ultra republicans and Mrs. Palin. That would make some interesting TV, and have a lot of us canadians running for the hills. She might want to drill something here, or shoot at us from a helicopter. Canada has lots of empty drilling space left. And a docile well fed population waiting for someone aggressive to take them to war again. Canadians all seem to be waiting for something exciting to happen.
Don’t worry, Ms. Palin would never shoot Canadians from a helicopter. She would pull a Dick Cheney and round them all up in barrels first. It might get interesting if Palin does run at the last minute, but could happen. Many of the right wing extremists are women. They’re the ones also homeschooling the children, depriving them of contact with non-fanatics at the direction of the so-called wise elders.
I don’t to what extent the US has backed itself into a corner where it will have put itself at the mercy of the rest of the world with it’s policies. The Cheneys and Bushes of the world still think might makes right, keep putting all our money, including social security in the war and lull the public with that. Let the public believe we will overcome right or wrong, with bombs.
How exactly the healthcare here should be funded, I don’t know. I do know many (I don’t know how many) people live fairly close to edge but still make it, until a health crisis comes along, whether a sick child, an accident, an elderly adult. And then the medical bills, even with insurance (even if they have good or decent insurance) can wipe everything out in a matter of months.
Canadians have a very high tax burden, thats how things are funded here. Most, like me, don’t have a problem with that. I think its what taxes are for. The problems only arise when the government decides to spend that money they take from us on something like the military, instead of things that benefit, like universal healthcare. If I was living in the states I don’t think I would have survived last year, or the decade before that. Greed would not have been painted, I guess I should thank the canadian government for that.
I think all the western democracies have backed themselves into a corner with debt. What happens in public policy now is being guided by the wants and needs of the country thats still lending everyone money. China has become the worlds banker and I’ve no doubt is making harder demands for its continued generosity. But we’re all falling deeper into debt. Canada just sold out completely the rights to use the tarsands to China. Thats what is keeping the canadian economy from the collapse that everyone else has suffered. I know the U.S. was looking at the tarsands as their brand new gas station in the backyard, 8 times as much as saudi arabia, but 10 times harder to get out of the ground, now most of it is owned by China, surprise!!! I wonder how the politicians in the U.S. took that one.
I debate with myself sometimes what our (our?!) politicians think, I can’t decide if it is all completely willful, completely thought out, signed, sealed already delivered, or if they are merely bumbling around. I wonder if they wonder what kind of environment they will leave to their own grandchildren, or do they see their own grandchildren and children as just more useless open gobbling mouths who live off them?
I found it rather disturbing when Bush sent his daughters to Switzerland (I believe they have since returned). But most don’t have that luxury — isn’t he following in the footsteps of the Saudis, the Yemens, Jordanians and so forth who also send their wives and children abroad, where I assume they are also stashing money, and I’m sure this has something to do with other “neutral” countries and the banking industry and that is a whole other puzzle piece.
The programs that be are keeping me afloat here, also, without which most of my education and art would not exist. Things are looking a bit grimmer since I’ve had larger hospital bills than usual. My parents always paid their taxes, as did I when I was working and would have continued to do so, had I not had some health problems. I spent much of my working dollars on art supplies, classes and so forth, the way things are going, I think it might have been wiser to take every dime I had and stuffed it under the mattress. Which is why I feel so responsible that in some way my art should benefit others. As I have received, it would be nice to be able to contribute with something if not with dollars.
We are fortunate here in so many ways. I get a disability cheque from the government. I’m not supposed to work as the doctors have said. But I do everyday with my artwork. I call myself a government artist. And thats my contribution. I paid into the government to get this disability, so its not like I’m a leech on the taxpayer, its my money too, but its still good to feel your doing something for it. I’ve never been able to sit still and not do anything. Just can’t do it, even though its what I’m supposed to be doing.
I think most politicians are stunned when they actually get into office and see the real books and find out just how much they owe and to whom. It doesn’t matter what their intentions were in getting elected. The banker says no. And if the banker is a communist country, as I think is the case for most countries western countries now, then the first thing to be cut will be the social programs like healthcare. I heard the republicans all joining in the same argument about women’s issues saying ‘Do we really want to borrow money from China to provide birth control for women in the U.S.’ It makes me so angry when they minimize and mock and ridicule people. But what I see is they have already been told by their bankers that they aren’t going to pay for that. They will pay for more bombs and viagara, but not women’s healthcare. Thats sickening. In Canada birth control is free. Its viagara that you have to pay for, its not covered except in mens health problems.
The logo is a donkey. Perhaps a random computer generated image of a white haired old man who doesn’t exist in actuality would be just fine. It was Teddy Roosevelt, I think, who was photographed on many occasions, the photographers miraculously missing the wheelchair, and JFK I believe often used a cane (back injury). Abe Lincoln I believe was the first president of the photography age, grooming himself to make the most of the images and it is believed JFK beat out (was it Nixon???) because they were the first tv candidates and JFK had more natural ability for the camera than his opponents. So for anyone to say art, artists, cultural mediums are a waste and I should be out driving an ambulance or joining Occupy Wall Street, I say given the state of my health, I’ve picked my own front for social expression and it is not negligible. People seem to forget Guernica, etc., certain novels and books which have impacted society. “more porridge please” Sometimes the liberals can be as oppressive and repressive as those the people they oppose. The surrealists or was it the dada-ists, anarchists of the art world at the time, eventually disbanded because there were too many rules and regulations involved to belong to the organized leaderless groups decided upon by the members…… !
There is frequent denial of artwork having a role in public dissent, but you can see it everywhere. Its also frequently used by tyrannical leaders to promote their greatness. The old soviet union, the nazis, the chinese and the pharos of egypt. In my studies in anthropology I suggested that cave painting had the same source. Promotion of a great leader, this is my cave and I’m the best hunter. Of course the artwork there has just as many reasons as today, but its not out of line considering human nature and the need to dominate others. We haven’t changed much is what I was trying to say.
Its a difficult concept to organize artists. Its such a solitary profession most of the time, and not really regarded as a profession by most, unless your a graphic artist, advertising someone else. The artist as a political force is usually isolated, anonymous. I’ve been told my images have affected people, but whether they can change things only time can tell. I may not be around to see it. I have 4 grandchildren, I had hoped they would live in a better world than when I grew up, but I don’t have much power, the only tool I have is the artwork, so I try what I can with that.
Image, our society runs on image, and lives in denial of that.
That is a worrisome thought, if anything will be left for the grandchildren. Here to do as well or better than one’s parents is not only considered a luxury these days (years), but almost “how dare you, you miserable serf, you are lucky we don’t euthanize you all.”
I didn’t think of the cave paintings as a marking of territory, for some reason, I thought it was a way to mark where the prey for food might be. So as a migrating population as different tribes (?) passed through or passed through again, they would know they were in an area where they could hunt. Perhaps while the men were out hunting the women amused the children by painting on the walls, making the weapons, inventing the wheel and discovering cooking fire. I suppose it is because men think the cave men invented fire, they will barbecue but not throw in a microwave dinner for the kids or make a pot of sauce. I wonder if there is some equivalent to cave paintings in the natural world, beaver dams, bird nests, although I don’t think it’s quite the same. Food for thought.
I’m sure its all those things. In the studies I’ve done though there was rarely a correlation in the bones of the animals they ate, and the animals they painted. The paintings were always of animals that were much larger and more dangerous than the ones they were actually eating. For someones ego? I was usually just proposing different ideas in my essays. We’ll never know for sure. Entertainment and decoration is most likely for them all. The hand prints were a different matter. I’ve recently learned that the academics have taken the idea fully now that they were a hunters sign language. Far more likely than the view that they were a cult of some kind. Also they could be indicators of what animals are available. Its a very complex subject. I spent a lot of time in university trying to find out why I paint pictures, or why anybody paints pictures of anything. Eventually coming to the conclusion that we may never know. We are visual creatures, and images are a way of sending information through time. Whoever painted them may have been well aware that they may not make it back to that cave next year, and wanted to leave a message for those that did. There is an essay on my page under the anthropology essays link, its called Abstractions of Violence, same as the visual essay. Its a discussion of the various interpretations of why caves were painted.
I’ll have to read through the cave entries again. You raise good points about the need or want for images.
As for contraception, there has been a huge flap here, Rush Limbaugh, a “conservative” radio host, called a law student who testified at some government hearing about the necessity to fund contraception a “slut and a whore” asked why he should pay for “her prostitution” and demanded she record and allow him to see the sex tapes so he would know where his tax dollars were going. And this bozo still has a job. A few sponsors have pulled out, but if it will go further than that, I don’t know. There is this acceptance to say things about women, that had they been on a par with the low level of an equivalent insults towards African-American would not be tolerated at all. Disgusting.
To imply money spent for women’s healthcare will single-handedly bring down the US economy or destroy our non-existent morals, is ridiculous. If the rich could figure out how to mandate one child only for the poor and still have bodies to go to war, they would do it in a heart beat, no pun intended.
I heard about that Limbaugh character’s raving. How is that even legal to say, about anyone. How does he get from being an offended right wing christian not wanting to pay for another’s contraception, which isn’t true either, to wanting to watch. How does that fit together. Where are the right wing christian women on this. Will Sarah Palin sit to be interviewed by this dirtbag who has openly stated he wants to watch college girls having sex on video. Whats next, will he be honest and describe for us all exactly what he’s doing when he watches. Of course not, thats embarrassing, men don’t do anything when they watch do they. How gross, what a pig. And they are all afraid of him in case he finds and exposes their dirty laundry.
In Australia they have introduced laws to determine if a woman is financially able to have children, and are actually removing children from their mothers and raising them in government orphanages. Good old happy australia. Their economy is fueled by selling uranium all over the world, but they won’t give young mothers an allowance to keep their children at home and raised by their mothers, in a family setting. Gggggaaaaahhhh. The whole world is a mess. No wonder my paintings are angry.
Limbaugh was beyond the pale in so many ways. Yes, to even say he wants to watch a young woman (someone’s young daughter, at that) who he doesn’t know have sex (and where is the young man in his fantasy, it seems, even in his imagination, he can’t get beyond the image every young woman will do it with an old white guy for a designated price, he might as well have just admitted he goes to prostitutes and/or wears out his favorite DVDs and that he thinks his wife who probably doesn’t work is just a whore of the married kind and I hope he has no children or wife), ugh, which brings me to something else.
I was reading about Ted Bundy the serial killer of what where always described as “pretty young coeds.” I thought, you know, in a way, it’s the kind of thing that might dissuade parents from sending their daughters to college, and how much prejudice was there among police officers, did they deep down believe women were “someplace they didn’t belong anyway” and failed to investigate thoroughly, what I recall more horrifically was what my mother said looking at the photos accompanying the news story of said coeds: “the way these girls dress nowadays, no wonder they get raped.” And I would imagine that is the sentiment of other right wing Christian women.
When Rush was busted for drugs, he blamed the doctors for getting him addicted. Okay, sure. I don’t think he did jail time. It was his housekeeper he corralled into colluding with the prescriptions and I’ve always been convinced he paid her for other services as well. He had been one of the biggest scorners of drug addicts before that. It is probably only a matter of time before some more dirt comes out on him, but he will have made millions before then and should be kicked off the air right now.
Australia is doing that? That is bizarre. Really. Are they in the business of providing underage children for adults intent on nefarious purposes? Are these government orphanages shopping centers for American families who have tired of adopting black and asian babies from overseas? Kind of like sending young men to be killed in war? Let’s rig the economy so the family has no money, blame the shiftless parents for not providing and stealing the children? Does this only apply to single mothers?
Yes, makes me want to go paint a happy little tree.
The documentary I watched on Australia seemed to be saying that it was single mothers, again implying a woman must have a man to be acceptable to their society. They seem to be a very sexist and racist society.
You can be sure that the addict who is blaming the doctor or the bartender or anyone else is still addicted. Thats a key indicator. Listening to Limbaugh now its not hard to tell he’s addicted to porn. The degradation addiction. Sickening.
And there are still too many people, men and women, that think rape is about sex. Its an act of violent assault of the worst kind. Men need to be made to think more about how they would feel in prison, if someone violated their bodies, there’s nothing sexy about it. And Bundy, sick of how they described him as somehow charming these young women, but he actually faked broken limbs and such to get near them. How is that charming. Preying on peoples trust and desire to help. He was a real monster. I’m going to go paint my house on fire. I’m glad the theatre asked me to do this. It fits well with everything else I do. The house is on fire, and nobody has any water left.
What an odd documentary. Does this apply to single fathers? Can they get the kids back when they get a job? Does this fall disproportionately on women of color?
Rape is always an assault about control. I suspect the kind of men who feel the need for that level of control will enjoy themselves quite thoroughly in prison and it is probably their fondest desire all along, they merely haven’t the courage to out themselves. It was so appalling to listen to Limbaugh (on the news, I don’t listen to the show). But to say his tax dollars were supporting anything about women, demanding they make and show him personally the sex tapes….he sounded like a right wing christian patriarchal father gone mad, kind of I have a right to know everything that goes on under my roof, I pay, I watch, I demand. If he contributes his sperm to the creation of a child, does it give him the right to kill it, too? It probably never occurred to him this woman’s sex life has nothing to do with him. Sick narcissistic jerk. Only stupid people listen to that kind of crap.
What’s interesting about the Christian (Jewish/Muslim….) man who demands a woman have baby after baby even if it kills her, is well, you know, men crave variety. When the mother drops dead they get to marry themselves a right fine wench, a virgin at that, to take care of the already born and make new ones. And when she goes, he can get another one. Ain’t life grand. That’s what it says in the Bible, Koran, Torah.
A house on fire, that’s an interesting assignment. Hope nothing is really on fire.
I’ve seen several documentaries on the darker side of Australia. And I think that applies to single fathers too, its about money and how much someone in the government has decided that you need to raise children. I was a single father, but was fortunate enough to have the skills I needed to start my own business and work mostly at home. Not that there was any assistance for single fathers when I was younger anyway. Taking help from any government is usually the worst thing a parent can do. In canada it just seems to lead to government employees, who are well paid here, interfering with how children are raised. Give me that government paycheck and I won’t have to worry about making macaroni interesting.
I’ll never understand how people can say its a problem to use taxes for good purposes, healthcare, education, yet have no problem with paying for bigger bombs and guns. And then turn around and say I don’t think right.
No, nothings really on fire, just my thoughts and I have painting to get that out.
The holier than thou trinity, bible, koran and torah. Written by men for men.
I forgot to mention about Bundy, you are right about the ruse, broken limbs and so forth, he was often described as creepy, not a charmer of coeds, but often a lurer of prostitutes, children and so forth, breaking into homes, he was a professional burglar, car thief, identity thief….managed to escape from male prison guards (no one is accusing them of being “charmed”)….I also wonder if he didn’t come off as handicapped in other ways, his odd behavior might have been mistaken for someone who might be harmless because he could mimic a slow learner or someone mentally impaired. I can’t remember if he became a lawyer, but he did go to law school and studied psychology as well. He spent some time at a suicide hotline and I’m sure picked up all kind of info about vulnerable potential victims from that. I’m surprised none of his callers ever went missing and its entirely possible they did. Only he would know they called and only he would know if they told him where they were or if he went somewhere to meet them The police have always said they were sure there were many more victims they would never know about.
He wasn’t even original. There was a movie, The Disapearing, or something like that, Swedish, I think, about a man who faked the same ruse. It came out way before the Bundy killing spree, I wonder if he ever saw it. I’m sure he’d never admit it.
I wonder if he ever hid in the church.
It’s all very strange. If abortion isn’t allowed in cases of rape, doesn’t the rapist have to pay child support? Will the rapist demand the right to see “his” child??? Will the mother be forced to co-parent with a criminal? And incest???? Do prostitutes sue clients for child support? Do those fathers get visitation rights too? Isn’t Mr. Limbaugh enraged that some dolt will rape a woman of no financial means and he will have to pay for the man’s crime??? I could go on……the Catholic Church was never too perturbed about priests molesting little girls and/or getting women pregnant, those women never saw a dime, yet, rape the boys and oh, how loud they holler and heads did roll and money flew out of the coffers.
Yes they will pay plenty of money to hide truths. Its very sad what the church will do. Too many liberties being taken in the name of god, by twisting the meaning of the words to benefit the few. Of all people to hide the truth.