2 posts tagged “get over it”
I took my wife this last week to the latest Marvel Comics Movie, Iron Man. We had a great time, enjoyed it immensely. In fact, my wife's comment was "I wish we could buy two more tickets, turn around, and go see it again RIGHT NOW." Which pretty closely mirrored my own sentiment.
Now, we didn't take my daughter. Mostly it was due to the happy coincidence that she was at girl scout camp. However, I'm glad we didn't take her. There were some torture scenes, and some suggestive content, and I'd really rather my nine-year-old daughter not be exposed to that kind of thing.
Now, reading some blogs where the question comes up as to whether or not the movie is appropriate for kids, the only thing I have to say is... make up your own mind. I'm certainly going to make up mine without consulting you, based on my own principles and values, and based on what I know about my daughter.
Also, note that I can say that without name calling or casting aspersions on anyone else's parenting abilities or life choices.
For my own quick review of Iron Man, check out the latest episode of GeekAcres, for the first weekend in May 08.
So, this morning, in the wake of a failed terrorist plot to blow up a number of aircraft, the local radio station is talking to people about root causes, solutions, what to do next, and some genius called in demanding to know if the hosts could name an episode in which Christians had done similar "terrorist" style activities. And then he mentioned the Crusades.
And I immediately thought to myself, well, sure. Who isn't still pissed off about the Crusades? Oh, wait a minute, wasn't that about a THOUSAND YEARS AGO?!? The Christians have MOVED ON. GET OVER IT. Incidentally, after having gotten over it, the Christians got their act together and their contributions to modern culture include things like the cotton gin, steam engine, internal combustion engine, powered flight, electricity, and the light bulb.
(Brief pause for munching of delicious breakfast taco... Mmmmm...)
(UPDATE: Are Christians responsible for the breakfast taco also? Probably not, we probably stole that idea from the Aztecs, or the Mayans, or some other culture that, incidentally, probably would not be attempting to blow up planes full of innocent civilians. I'm just sayin'....)
Having said that, there's idiocy on both sides of the conversation this morning. Looking back over our history, there is, of course, a historical precedent for things like, say, suspending the writ of habeus corpus (Lincoln), and putting people in internment camps (FDR). But I have to admit that it makes me nervous hearing so many people call in and talk about rounding up all the Moslems. Reminds me of other historical societies that have seperated out a group of their populace based on their religion. Like, say Christians (Rome), or Jews (Germany). Those cultures are no longer with us. We pride ourselves on our freedom of religion, expression, our free economy, etc. And I think it's inherently dangerous to so blithely suggest that we give that up by prohibitng or restricting the movement and activities of people based solely on their religion. People of my own faith have a little history with that kind of thinking, and the results are unpleasant, to say the least.
