On Wednesday our lodge put on a 3rd degree. I acted as senior steward during the first section. Right now I am focusing on learning all of opening and closing for all parts so I can help out at Naphtali lodge where needed.
On Thursday evening we attended the DeMolay meeting and began work on our program for the year. On Friday, well, not much happened. On Saturday, Christmas Eve, we went to my parents house in Jefferson City and exchanged gifts. On Sunday we went to my wife's family for Christmas Day; again, uneventful. On Monday I took Alex to see "King Kong". This film has, without a doubt, the greatest special effects sequences ever created on film. That said, if they had cut about an hour out of the film I think it would have been twice as good. I enjoyed it, but could have done without 'Bowling for Brontosauruses'. On Monday evening I attended the Troy Lodge regular meeting and made a presentation about my visit to lodges in Paris. My presentation was well received.
A small item came up on Monday. I run a religious discussion forum called AARM. AARM stands for "Atheist Apologetics Research Ministry". Contrary to what the name might suggest, it is actually a discussion forum open to people of all religious faiths. It was created as a response to the wildly popular religious discussion website called CARM (Christian Apologetics Research Ministry). For many years CARM was one of the most popular religious discussion websites on the Internet. Since their stated goal was to act as 'apologetics' for Christianity, they invited everyone of different points of view (even atheists) into their forums. The forum rules said that you could not conduct personal attacks or use foul language, but it was fine to debate ideas. Over the years some really impressive debates and dialogue transpired in this setting. However, over time, the owners of the forum began to interpret attacks on people's 'beliefs' as attacks on their person. Eventually it went so far that if an atheist would use the 'pink-unicorn' analogy that it would be considered a personal attack. What finally happened is non-Christian members of the forum started getting banned. As soon as one person got banned, this stirred up more people. Pretty soon anyone who didn't tow the party line was considered disruptive and was banned as well. Personally, I found the entire thing amusing. I don't take Internet communication all that seriously. It's just one step above trash talk on a basketball court as far as intellectual discourse goes. I finally got banned for a signature I had been using for a couple of years. The specific signature that I used was as follows:
"I would burn in hell before I would believe in a God so vain, petty,
insecure, and vindictive as to send me to hell for the crime of failing to
believe in him." John W. Ratcliff
That signature pretty much sums up my attitude about the particular image of God promulgated by the key leadership of this message forum. To any argument, they would always resort to spiritual threats of extortion. The ironic thing is that I am not, myself, an atheist. I just happen to believe in a loving God. My God, the Grand Architect of the Universe, is so far above and so much larger than each of us that the idea that he would 'care' whether or not I believe in him is a laughable concept. What can I say, I'm a neoplatonist.
At any rate, after getting kicked off for that signature, I then created several fake accounts; some posing as fanatical right-wing Christians and some as atheists. I had my fanatical right-wing Christian persona constantly attack violently my atheist persona. It was funny because my fanatical right-wing Christian persona only received mild reprimands. Eventually I gave the whole thing up, and let all of my accounts get banned.
Now that all of these atheists, liberal Christians, and free-thinkers had been kicked off a message forum they had frequented for so many years, they felt cast adrift; wanderers in the wilderness. So, on a whim, I created a website called AARM. It took me about two minutes to set it up. After the first week I asked for donations and received the money necessary to pay the annual webhosting fee in less than 24 hours. AARM has been running with a modest, but active, community for about a 15 months now.
The members of the old CARM forum won't let things go though. There are a lot of angry people who have migrated to AARM. They post their opinions, and they post them loudly. Last I checked the United States still supports freedom of speech; or, at least, I hope so. I do not moderate the forums. People are allowed to say whatever they want and, in my opinion, are responsible for their own words.
On Monday there were reports that members of CARM were planning on suing AARM for libel. I did a little research and found such threats to be groundless. On the other hand, a lawyer will take any persons money and it can be easy to harass someone if that is your intent. So, I decided to make AARM private. I left it this way for about 48 hours but, today, one of the members made an impassioned plea that AARM should be left completely public. I switched the forum back to being completely public and hope all of this nonsense will wither away soon enough. I hardly read or post on the forums that much myself. I will say we may have the most eclectic selection of forum topics of any BBS on the internet.
On Monday night I became quite sick. My wife has been sick and I suppose it leapt to me. The virus was focused mostly in my stomach. Not a fun time, but here on Wednesday it appears to have run its course. My copy of the DVD "Cremaster 3 : The Order" arrived. I purchased the DVD because I wanted to satisfy my curiosity. Well, my curiosity is satisfied. I don't know what you think of modern art, but I will never consider someone who slaps white paint on a white canvas an 'artist'. The 'artist' (and I use that term loosely) Matthew Barney produced the 'film' Cremaster over a many year period. He is basically running a scam. He made a series of films, and then sold still photos, sculptures, and even custom copies of the DVD as 'artwork'. The only way to actually 'see' any of the film for decades was to attend a private 'event showing' at a major art gallery. It has served him well and I suppose he has made some money with the scam.Recently he released a DVD that presents some of his themes from Cremaster in a 30 minute presentation. He makes vague allusions to Masonic ritual, but is a cartoonish effort at best. A punk rock band wears white gloves, the candidate grabs at some Masonic symbols, and finally the character goes on the five points of fellowship and receives the masters word. All of this is accompanied by topless girls in a bubble bath, a chorus line kicking a wall, two punk rock bands screaming their heads off while wearing white gloves, Richard Serra slopping goop on a piece of metal, the main character throwing around white pieces of plastic sculpture, and a couple other random items. The main character, the apprentice, dressed in a pink kilt, wacky hat that looks like Marge Simpson's hair, and a bloody rag stuffed in his mouth, climbs up and down some walls while this incoherent imagery plays out.
I have to admit, I enjoyed the attractive topless girls in the bubble bath, but not much else. The film has nothing intelligent to say about Freemasonry. If you really wanted to make a profound film on Freemason symbolism all you would have to do is reproduce a complete 3rd degree in the York Rite using detailed costumes, scenery, and dramatic acting and you would really have something quite unique and special. A man in a pink-tutu doesn't quite cut it in the annals of Freemason symbolism.
I also ordered a movie from Netflix that is supposed to have a lot of Freemason references. It is called 'The Man who Would be King". It is based on the book of the same name by Ruyard Kipling (who was himself a Freemason). I am only half way through the movie so far, but I am quite enjoying it. It has many Freemason references in the beginning of the film. I am now also looking forward to reading the book.
Finally, this rambling post comes to and end. Here is is Wednesday and I spent the entire day working on the Troy DeMolay calendar for the entire year. It was an enormous amount of work, but I'm really quite happy with it. I think the chapter is going to have a really sucesseful year and grow a lot.
One small final item. My main internet service provider is shutting down the server that I use to hold almost all of the links on this site. My weblog is hosted by Blogger but, over the years, I have uploaded all of my photographs to my ISP server. I'm a little annoyed about this bait and switch tactic. I was promised webspace when I signed up, and now they say they don't offer it anymore. I have two options. One is to just set up a webserver on my personal machine or, two, upload the data to another site. This week I am uploading the data to another site and I will start, slowly, repairing all of the dead links this will create. I tried setting up an Apache server but, for some reason, it didn't work.
Tomorrow I am driving to my sister and laws house with my family. That will be a good five hours on the road. On Friday I am taking my kids to a ice hockey game at the Family Arena. On Saturday, New Years Eve, my son Alex is inviting all of his friends over for a video game blowout. On Sunday, well, I have nothing planned for Sunday. Probably a good idea. On Monday, I am packing up at work and on Tuesday I head off to Paris for another week. My life keeps happening to me it seems.
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