A Rant

Before we begin I wish to apologize for two things, first the lag in bloging. I am late and really do plan to post at least once a week, second, for the angry tone that you may find here. I was hoping to wait until March before writing anything to upsetting just to give us all a break after the election madness. However every time I have tried to write a witty amusing blog the subject of this one has given me writers block. I am pissed and need to vent. I will still try to be polite here BUT I am venting to cure writers block and can’t promise to be nice. Also I WANT the people I am angry at to know I am mad and why.
So why am I so pissed? Well see there was this little thing called Proposition 8. It was used to ban gay marriage in Ca. I covered it in Nov. in that post I discussed how religious marriage and state partnership should be separate. I tried to allow for everyone’s beliefs. So then in Dec. 6 issue of Newsweek I read this, http://www.newsweek.com/id/172653. (Go ahead and read it I’ll wait….Done? Then onward). Now I am pissed at every one of you who used the Bible as an excuse to vote for this hateful Proposition. IF you voted based on the Leviticus in the Old Testament, but you eat shrimp, and sleep with your spouse when the female is menstruating, then you are a hypocrite as well as being the SAME type of abomination as the men who sleep with men. You also have NO leg to stand on for stopping woman on woman action. IF you believe that Christ released you from the outdated rules of Leviticus then you have NO Bible based reason to be opposed to gay marriage. If you can show me where Christ or any of his apostles said “Marriage is one man and one woman” then I will apologize until then I hold you in contempt for lying to the world about what your savior said.
Here’s the thing, I like the Christian religion. It is beautiful and loving. Like a lot of religions it has rules. The rules are in a book. As I understand it ALL the rules come from the Bible. So as some one who doesn’t read passages from the book on a weekly basis I trust the people who are supposed to when they tell me there is something in the book. If you tell me that you can’t eat shrimp or work on the Sabbath and then tell me it’s in the Bible I will trust you on that. I don’t usually ask for the passage, I trust you to represent your religion honestly. When it effects me more directly I may ask to see the passage but that is a rare happening. So when you tell me that to you Homosexuality is bad because it’s in the Bible I tend to believe you even if I disagree. Even if it means you support a proposition that hurts people I care about, I will let it slide the same way I won’t make you eat the yummy and good for you sea food. I do have a problem when you force your views on marriage on even non Christians. However if you tell me it’s a moral issue, from the Bible, then I at least can think that your intentions are good. If you are lying about what is your book then you are scum who lies in order to cause pain. I don’t care why you did it. Either you lied when you told me what was in the Bible or you lied when you claimed to be Christian enough to have actually read it. Either way you have now taken an action that caused pain to gay couples and lied about why. If you use the Bible lie to support you’re causing of that pain then you will suffer what ever fate those who distort the Word of God to cause pain are meant to suffer. Further more I will now treat you with the lack of trust and respect a person who lies about there morals and beliefs deserves. That is to say the only reason I don’t spit on you is because you are not worth the spit. I despise the hatful distortion of political control you have turned a beautiful religion in to. I no longer have respect for ANY ONE who claims that keeping gay people from getting married comes from the Bible. IF I am shown scripture I may take it back and apologize, but until then you are false Christians with no true reason to be causing this pain. I am sick and tired of being treated like I am immoral for supporting gay marriage by people who are immoral enough to lie about their religion.
If your reason for supporting prop 8 is not based on the Bible then we disagree but you are not necessarily scum. I hope you have a good reason for keeping people who love each other apart, cause if you don’t then you ARE indeed scum, but at least you don’t lie about what your religion says.
So until someone shows me where in the Bible Jesus or one of his Apostils actually said marriage equals one man and one woman, I am going to treat all who spread that lie like the immoral untrustable lying scum they are.
Rant over lets hope the next Blog is a happy one
Bradleyman

Casual Sex

So, today as I wait for my love to call (it’s early and she isn’t up yet, better to wait then awaken) I am thinking about casual sex. It’s an odd thought as I truly hope to NEVER have to deal it again. Why? Well I could say it’s because I love my lady, and that is the biggest reason, but far from the only one. See the thing is back in the day (which is to say my 20’s) I somehow became the guy people complained too. I say people because it wasn’t just guys or girls it was both. I have maintained that status (although to a lesser degree) to this day. A large percentage of the complaints were, are (and probably will continue to be) related to casual sex (CS). Not the sex it’s self mind you, but the after effects. After listening for years I have a small list of things to think about in regards to CS. It would be best if you though of them before having it, but we all know you won’t until after. If you think of them during you are doing it wrong any way so stop and go home.
First, “casual” means no strings. That means don’t get attached. If you are getting attached it’s no longer casual. This goes for both sexes. If you are trying to jump start a romance by jumping in to bed, it’s not casual. I’m not saying you can’t start a romance this way. Sex can actually be a good way for two people to get together, but if you call it casual and are expecting anything past breakfast you are going to get hurt. I blame the person who gets too attached in cases like this. Ladies if all he promised was a night of passion he is not a jerk for only giving you that. Guys not all ladies fall in love after a night of passion don’t expect her too.
Second, “casual” means one night in a given month. Ok it doesn’t have to be a night and the next morning can be considered a continuation. However the second time you have an encounter with the same person that close together it’s becoming something, and the third time it IS something. What that something is depends on the people involved, but if you don’t discus it with you new partner in whatever, it will become a mess. I have listened to SO many complaints caused by this in my life. This is both sides fault as well. See thing is we humans like to be paired up and we like sex, start combining those thing in an even slightly regular basis and both brain and body adjust to the convenience. You interactions have now moved out side the realm of casual, and ignoring that will cause pain. Make all the excuses you want, you are now “involved”.
Third, “casual” means dangerous. The only place in life where those two words can mean the same thing is sex. If you don’t know the various medical reasons (like death and birth) then stop having sex altogether (or don’t have sex if that’s appropriate). However there are other dangers as well. Crazy people!!!!! If you don’t know your partner that well, he or she may be what the British folk like to call a “nutter”. One night of passion can lead to years of stalking. If you are lucky it’s only a creepy “leave notes and collect hair type” as opposed to a “kill you slow for not loving me right” type. I been complained to by people who were acting like stalkers, I have heard their madness and it frightened me. It can not be reasoned with.
Forth, “casual” often means no “discussing” and in sex that is BAD. Not talking to you sex partner is NEVER a good idea. Even casual sex should have some talking involved. If it doesn’t you have only yourself to blame. A lack of conversation also greatly increases all of my third point. In my heart of hearts I believe that guys with VD and girls with issues that lead to stalking both purposely try to NOT talk.
So after that what’s my advice on casual sex? Don’t have it. Hook up with a “friend with benefits”, masturbate, or start dating. I’m not saying that humans aren’t capable of having casual sex, with out trouble. It could happen, but most the people I know who might be able to handle it, are in relationships because of bad experiences with people who weren’t. The odds of you a) actually being able to handle it and b) randomly hooking up with another who can are astronomical against you. So my advice, just don’t.
This advice is free and nonprofessional, so take it as you will. However know that if you complain to me about ANY of the above I will be laughing at you behind your back at some point in time.
Bradleyman

color

Let me start by saying this is slightly comic book related…But only slightly get past the mention of the greatest super hero ever, and it may be interesting. It has been revealed in Green Lantern that Green is the color of “emotional will”, and that the other six colors of the spectrum each belong to a different emotion. In honor of that I have decided to create a little game. I am going to list the color, the DCU emotional equivalent and something that makes me feel that emotion. If you want to play along send me back your list, oh loyal readers.

Red-Anger: I am made angery by people who twist good religions in to excuses to hate.
Orange- Greed: I would like to have the $$ to open a comic store with out stress.
Yellow- Fear: I equally fear success and not succeeding.
Green- Will: I will write blogs and stories more often.
Blue- Hope: I Hope to open a comic book store.
Indigo- Compassion: I feel a sad compassion toward the couples ripped apart by prop. 8.
Violet- Love: I love Cristyna

There Ya go short but sweet.
Bradleyman

The first 09 blog

OK. First let me say Happy New year to all. Then Let me tell you I decided to write at least a blog a week. I did this like most do resolutions but I am hoping by calling it a promise I am more likely to keep it.
With that out of the way a warning, if you don’t read comics, what follows is going to probably bore you. Yes I do have some witty political thoughts and some interesting spiritual ideas to share this year, but I thought I would start light. Besides I have always meant for my blogs to talk more about comics.
Over the Holidays, I had a chance to read Marvel’s mega cross over “Secret Invasion”(SI), having been low on cash for the last year I missed it as it was coming out, so I relished the chance.
Before I go on a bit of personal history, I (unlike many who read comics it seems) am a fan or the cross over events. I don’t care if it’s two heroes or teams meeting to solve a mutual problem, or a company wide event, I love them. My love for comics was born with the JLA/JSA/LSH crossover and a Marvel two-in-one in 1976 so that might have shaped my tastes. I like the idea that what happens in one part of a company’s universe can affect other parts. So yeah, nothing brings out the comic geek in me like a crossover.
Another thing I really like in the Marvel U is the warring alien races of the Kree and The Skrull. I don’t know why, I didn’t read the classic Kree / Skrull war until January of last year so that wasn’t it. There was just something about two different alien races (who really have each other) fighting over earth while our heroes kept both at bay, that I found incredibly appealing.
A year or so prior to SI, Marvel’s previous cross over event Civil War (CW) had made me very happy. I know some didn’t care for it, mostly because they felt, insert favorite character, had been misrepresented. I however liked it a lot. One of the things I liked, (and I know those who didn’t) was that there were two titles, that told the story, Civil War, had the main action, and Civil War Front Line, had the mystery behind it. In a cross over it is sometimes hard to fit both in the pages at once (the end of DC’s Infinite Crisis suffered from a bit of that), and it would be cheating to put the information in a solo or team title, so Marvel split the action. It worked IF you knew what they were doing, but I know a lot of people who missed what was going on.
So just before the New Year I got my hands on the entire run of SU and sat down to read it. If you read the above, Oh reader and thought “With this much explanation he must be preparing to give a negative report” then you win a “null-prize”*.
It started out great, shape shifting Skrull spies everywhere, new cool Super-Skrull variants, and OMG level teasers about who might be a shape shifting alien. Then Nick Furry showed up. After that it is a huge fight and rescue story which might be ok IF they answered a single question they brought up. They don’t. The story starts with HUGE mystery about how and who, and then doesn’t answer ANY of the questions it asks. It would be an OK comic, if it gave us those answers but it doesn’t. It is the comic equivalent of a cock- tease. I HATED it, and I am a guy who even likes bad comics.
Then I realized there was a comic called “Secret Invasion Frontline” and breathed a sigh of relief, “Marvel has done the same thing twice, all will be reviled”, so I got my hands On SIFL and it reveled NOTHING about SI. It was a great “normal guy in the Marvel U” story and I enjoyed reading it. However, it told me NOTHING about the questions raised in SI**.
SI sucked!!! It started good then went nowhere. They used it to kill the Wasp in a crappy way that I don’t even think makes sense, and I defended Hawkeye’s death in Avengers Disassembled to people. I was left still wondering how and why the bad guys did what they did. If you haven’t answered that question you have failed to finish your story, and if you failed in telling your story. What we got in the final issue was a “And here is the way the Universe will be”, with out a single explanation as to why.
That by the way is the really sad part of this. I liked CW, but was less then fond of the incurably forced aftermath it left behind. SI makes all of that even worse and gives us NO explanation as to how we got to this point.
I really wanted to like SI, but I just can’t. It fails to even be a story, as stories, even in comic books, have an end. It is an insult to comic fans and Marvel should (but won’t be) ashamed of it’s self.

Bradleyman
* My personal equivalent of the No-Prize derived from my surname
** I would like to reiterate that this series is a good read any way.