4 posts tagged “signs”

I haven’t blogged about Britney for a long time. All I was seeing was her ever bulging belly, her adventures with the paparazzi, her unusual driving stunts or her now you have it fuzzy, now you don’t hair days. I still don’t have any update on this has been superstar who had the chance to redeem herself but let it slip away.

Oh Britney, if you only knew how lucky you were.  All together now!

“She’s so lucky, she’s a star
But she cry, cry, cries in her lonely heart, thinking
If there’s nothing missing in my life
Then why do these tears come at night.”

But are you happy now that you’ve lost the stardom? I don’t think so. She’s a mess. But I recently saw her pictures with a new do. She seems to be shaping up. She’s blonde and seems to be losing the excess pounds. Just continue doing that and she’ll soon be prepped up to model for ads, even vinyl signs. The latest about her is that she will be shooting a video to be shown on Madonna’s concert tour, ala virtual Britney.

Her kid sister, or the sister, Jamie Lynn, has given birth last June 19 to a baby girl. The girl was named Maddie Briann. Jaime is now raising her in the Mississippi home she shares with boyfriend Casey Aldridge.

So what’s next with the Spears? Maybe it will be better if we’ll just wait for their kids to grow and redeem their parents’ lost careers. But for now, we should just hope that these kids will be guided accordingly so that they won’t follow their parents’ footsteps.

As for Britney, I think that this girl still has the chance to make it. She’s still young and she’s talented. If only she will learn to put her talents and charm into something good and where she will excel. If only she will learn to prioritize her loved ones before she thinks about herself. Oh well, I think that she knows what to do to straighten out. I just hope that she realizes all these before it’s too late. Come on, Britney. Look at where Justin is now. Isn’t that enough inspiration to strive harder?

There are things in life that are much worse than death says Bishop Gene Robinson.

I couldn’t agree more with the fellow.

Yet with all the happenings and controversial issues on and about religion in the US – the polygamous sect in Eldorado, Texas and Pope Benedict XVI visiting the USA – nothing quite compares to openly gay Bishop Gene Robinson’s interview in the Today’s show with Matt Lauer. His belief that living life to the fullest, being able to love and marry the person you want to, in this case his own life partner Mark Andrew, is something that God wishes him to do.  

Many gays and lesbians have pushed for this principle a long, long time ago –with or without God in the equation. And so, while a lot of countries have already allowed homosexual couples to marry, a man of the cloth marrying another man seems to bring or make a different equation – especially when the foundations of the Church concerns it and it begins to shake.

I am a true believer that everyone has the right to freedom and the pursuit of happiness. Gays, lesbians, transgendered among others have as much rights as any other straight Dick or Jane on the street.  I am not particularly an expert on the subject but I know for sure that the fundamentals of the Church are facing very different and difficult times.

Opening up to changes and new ideas are not the best qualities of the Church. By the capital “C” I mean the institutions of the Catholic or Christian religions. So while gays and lesbians can be just about anybody, a lot of speculations are brought to mind when Bishop Gene Robinson declares he wants to marry Mark Andrew.

Just what is a priest anyway or a bishop for that matter? What concepts are we changing? What history are we making? And what does this all have to do with the Church? I still have to work out the contradictions that keep floating on the surface on my mind.

Personally, I think there is a certain hypocrisy in the Church whose doctrines and interpretations marginalizes a lot of people even when at the core of all its teachings only tells us to love. All this humanistic values they preach are somehow exclusive to a select kind of people.  So I guess Bishop Gene Robinson must be a more contemporary or unconventional man of the cloth.

Isn’t that disturbing or frightening? Why do we offer to judge who is acceptable in God’s eyes or worthy of His love? Are we to live life trying to see whether we pass the qualifying rounds?

Now, the simple act and desire of one man brings to surface many issues the Church has ignored for a long time.  It has failed to answer or acknowledge many pressing issues of the times as though banners and vinyl signs weren’t raised to bring many issues to light. Well, it’ll surely be a tight squeeze this time around.

And while I ponder and sort my own voice on this issue – I suggest the rest of us do the same. This is not just one man’s life, but everybody else’s – who are gay, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered, who are straight, who belongs to the church, who fights for liberty and rights, and who fights for the pursuit of happiness.

Michael Moore’s documentary film Sicko is another bold and brave commentary that explores and pokes through the health care system of the United States. He confronts the many unfortunate circumstances Americans face when their health insurance doesn’t cover their medical bills and costs enough, when Americans are forced to declare bankruptcy, and when American find themselves debilitated not only by their disease but by the same system that is supposed to take care of them.

Oprah Winfrey declared in her show that she has been one of the many millions of Americans who thinks “We’re okay.” Michael Moore and Oprah cannot address this issue at any other time but today when we think about our future president.  

What does that say about us? We’re no. 37 on the world’s list of best health-care systems in the world while France and Canada, who only spend between 11 % and 10% respectively, are in the top ten list. We pay a significantly bigger 15% but how does our health care system truly compare?

I may not know enough about insurance, health plans coverage, or even health-care policies, but it is enough to worry me how a respectable and well-paid man, a former hospital administrator, could be denied of certain medical assistance. This certainly begs the question, if it can happen to him, what more of the underprivileged others?  

There is a problem. A problem that goes beyond the aid of bandage dressings. It is a disease in itself which needs to be dealt with.

So raise your voices high America.

Raise your voices not because you pity the uninsured few, not because you are angry, and not because you despair. Raise your voices because you know we can change it. Raise your voices because there is hope. Raise your voices because it is the right thing to do.

So wave all kinds of banner high and adhere to a motion of change. Put up your vinyl signs and rally up for a cause.  

Make America better. Make the change today. Make the future now.  

ElDorado, Texas has become a worldwide controversy with the religious sect’s practice of polygamy, and sexual/physical abuse on women and minors. I just can’t believe that such has been going on for years that I cannot quite fathom how or why these practices are observed, even practiced by so called followers of Christ.

The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints looks as though it came right of the movies. It was all too incredible to believe. My mind still can’t quite grasp what sort of teachings and understanding of these teachings led all these men to treat women in such manner, without utter regards for their rights or even their welfare. Maybe it’s culture. Maybe again, it’s not.

A lot of questions are swarming in on my head and I can’t answer each and everyone one of them. The questions have become a hay stack of needles, with every new information and opinion probing about for an answer.

•    Isn’t it quite odd how long it took to finally say that something was wrong? With what, after hundreds of children and dozens of wives?

•    Isn’t it quite odd too how the news in our country focus on the protestors rallying against the Olympic Torch with vinyl signs on free Tibet and such when something entirely disturbing is happening in our own backyard?

•    Where does the line of civil rights and human rights blur?

•    Why have the officials waited for four years before breaking down or raiding the temple?

•    Why are the news covering about the beds found on the upper floor of the temple when other details and other matters on the case need to be discussed?

•    I can’t help but think that the women were treated like cattle that the men left in the barn when they had something else to do. Were they cattle for the men who go out of town and work and use cellular phones?

•    How could someone at 16 be ready for marriage in this day and age?

•    Why don’t people recognize the paradigm shift? That some things only hold true or applicable at a certain time frame or era?

•    What and how were those teachings taught in the temple?

•    And of course, how could one man make all of this possible?

Dozens and dozens of questions need to be answered, if not for the children and women who suffered, but for the sake of justice as well.