Perpetual Thursday: "...out the window."

Perpetual Thursday Ramblings, Rantings, Nonsense, and Bunk

"...out the window."
Monday, May 22, 2006

Snopes.com has an urban legend on file that has quite intrugied me; partly beacuse it is funny, and partly beacuse I've heard it before. Execpt, when I herd it, it was a joke, not an urban legend. Fair warning: I don't have a problem with it, but there is a mildly rude word used it it, so you may want to skip the next section:
--
An American soldier, serving in World War II, had just returned from several weeks of intense action on the German front lines. He had finally been granted R&R and was on a train bound for London. The train was very crowded, so the soldier walked the length of the train, looking for an empty seat.

The only unoccupied seat was directly adjacent to a well dressed middle aged lady and was being used by her little dog. The war weary soldier asked, "Please, ma'am, may I sit in that seat?"

The English woman looked down her nose at the soldier, sniffed and said, "You Americans. You are such a rude class of people. Can't you see my Little Fifi is using that seat?"

The soldier walked away, determined to find a place to rest, but after another trip down to the end of the train, found himself again facing the woman with the dog.

Again he asked, "Please, lady. May I sit there? I'm very tired."

The English woman wrinkled her nose and snorted, "You Americans! Not only are you rude, you are also arrogant. Imagine!"

The soldier didn't say anything else; he leaned over, picked up the little dog, tossed it out the window of the train and sat down in the empty seat.

The woman shrieked and railed, and demanded that someone defend her and chastise the soldier.

An English gentleman sitting across the aisle spoke up, "You know, sir, you Americans do seem to have a penchant for doing the wrong thing. You eat holding the fork in the wrong hand. You drive your autos on the wrong side of the road.

"And now, Sir, you've thrown the wrong bitch out the window."
--

For those of you who want it, the Snopes article on it is at:
http://www.snopes.com/critters/mishaps/wrongdog.asp

Now, I'd like to make note of the following article from the Times: Modonna crosses the line but antics fail to shock. A quote from the article, containing the important part, for those of you who would rather not go read it (though it is short):

"MADONNA’S world tour began in typically provocative fashion when the pop singer hung from a cross, shouted an obscenity at an image of President Bush, showed video footage that seemed to compare Tony Blair to Adolf Hitler, and writhed around on a device that combined a horse’s saddle with a stripper’s pole.

"As if that were not enough, the singer also wore a crown of thorns, dressed up as various male icons — James Brown and John Travolta included — and even briefly played the electric guitar. Early reviews of the event on Sunday night were positive, but the show failed to produce the reaction so beloved by Madonna: shock."

Before I go on, let be note that I'm mainly refering to her mocking of Christ, and as a side to her dressing up as a male and "writhing on a strippers pole." I really don't care that she compared Blair to Hitler, and though I don't like obscenities, I don't care what she calls Bush either.

Now, I am fairly sure that the reaction to this will probably fall into one of four basic categories:
1) You're shocked by both her and by the fact that people are not shocked.
2) You're shocked by her but not by people not being shocked.
3) You're shocked by people not being shocked, but you're not shocked by her.
4) You're not shocked by any of it.

I'll admit it flat out: I'm not shocked in the slightest. I do think it is wrong. I do think people should be horrified by it (which I am). But am I shocked? Not at all.

Some people seem to have an unlimited capacity to blaspheme and commit evil. Modanna has led a rather foul carrer. At this point, she probably couldn't shock me with anything short of suddenly giving all her money to the poor and repenting. As for the reaction of the hio poli, it suprises me just a little. First off, the people at a Madonna concert tend to expect that sort of thing. Secondly, people in general are so used to such filth that they become desencitised and are no longer shocked by it.

So, no, I'm not shocked.

Now, I'll wrap this up with two tidbits: First, for fans and soon to be fans (you'll love it, trust me) of Angryalien.com's 30-second Bunny Theater, go check out his 30-second Casablance reenacted by bunnies! It's very funny.

The other tidbit is another religion quiz, recommend to me by Michael, in his comment on my last post. My results are:

1.Eastern Orthodox (100%)
2.Roman Catholic (100%)
3.Seventh Day Adventist (88%)
4.Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (86%)
5.Orthodox Quaker (78%)
6.Hinduism (61%)
7.Orthodox Judaism (61%)
8.Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (52%)
9.Islam (52%)
10.Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (52%)
11.Jehovah's Witness (50%)
12.Sikhism (46%)
13.Bah�'� Faith (37%)
14.Liberal Quakers (37%)
15.Jainism (36%)
16.Unitarian Universalism (29%)
17.Mahayana Buddhism (26%)
18.Theravada Buddhism (26%)
19.Reform Judaism (25%)
20.Neo-Pagan (18%)
21.Nontheist (16%)
22.Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (15%)
23.New Age (14%)
24.Secular Humanism (12%)
25.Scientology (11%)
26.New Thought (8%)
27.Taoism (8%)

You can take this quiz for yourself at:
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/76/story_7665_1.html

That is all I've got for the moment, but I'm sure I'll be able to blabber aimlessly for paragraph after paragraph again very soon. Until then, mat all your Thursdays be Perpetual...

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