Device to root out devil

It was too hot for New York City; too hot for Stanford University. But a controversial, imposing sculpture by renowned international artist Dennis Oppenheim finally found a public home in Vancouver. Now, after 21/2 years in a prominent location near Stanley Park, the upside-down country church, denounced as “blasphemous” by some aghast Christians, is about to be unceremoniously dismantled, its future uncertain. Too many negative comments and too many neighbours complaining that the sculpture interfered with their view of scenic Coal Harbour sealed the immediate fate of Mr. Oppenheim’s work. The decision to remove the sculpture, approved unanimously by Vancouver Park Board commissioners this week, has dismayed those who wanted to keep the piece’s topsy-turvy church spire where it is, like Michaela Frosch, the disappointed chairwoman of Vancouver Sculpture Biennale: "I don’t think we are yet prepared for this level of art. Very clearly, it does create debate and dialogue, but that’s good."

Checkmate

Internetscelebrities' brilliant! also check Urine Nation and Cereal is Dope

Church of the Euthanasia

For those obsessed with the prospect of planetary overpopulation -- or just really, really depressed about their own lives -- the Church of Euthanasia has a modest proposal: "Save the Planet -- Kill Yourself." In fact, suicide is just one of the four pillars of the Church's dogma, along with abortion, cannibalism, and sodomy -- sacraments of non-proliferation for a crowded and despairing world.

It may look like just another joke religion, but the Church of Euthanasia's founder does a great job of sounding completely serious. A radical environmentalist gone spiritual, she insists that unless immediate, voluntary steps are taken to reduce the world's population, within a decade we'll be facing a cataclysm of such massive proportions that the living will envy the dead.

The Boston-based Church of Euthanasia is the brainchild of the Reverend Chris Korda, who alleges that in 1992 an alien intelligence she calls simply "the Being" visited her in a dream and intoned the words, "We are not of this planet," going on to describe a coming eco-catastrophe. The self-anointed Reverend, with a flippy hairdo and statuesque good looks more often found among fashion models than shamans, concedes with a small laugh that it all "sounds spooky, sounds kooky," but still swears to the authenticity of her experience. And if her alien's message sounds a bit cryptic to you and me, she attests that it was "sufficiently powerful so that pretty much on a dime I turned around my life and founded the Church of Euthanasia."

http://www.churchofeuthanasia.org

New goodies at Devout

This has been a good hunting weekend. I found lots of Noam Chomsky stuff, and some Gregorian chant CDs. The new crop of DVDs include Alex Jones, Dave Icke and many others.

Porn and pancakes

F.A.Q's
Is Porn and Pancakes R rated? No.
Should I bring my son? Yes.
Should my son be 11 years or older? Yes.
Can I bring my dad? Yes.
Should my dad be ready to talk afterwards? Yes.
Why just men? That’s how we started.
Will there be nudity? Ahhh, no.
Will we have to wear name tags? No.
Do you use Grade A or Grade B syrup? Whatever is cheapest.
Will you talk about masturbation? Yes.
Can I bring my men’s group, youth pastors, lead pastors? Yes.
Will we learn about personal accountability? Yes.
Is porn a 57 billion dollar a year business world wide? Yes.

Excerpts from http://xxxchurch.com

Taser happy

The first phase of a public inquiry into the use of Tasers in British Columbia begins today. Police departments in Chicago, Illinois and Birmingham, Alabama have reportedly discontinued their use of the weapons due to safety concerns. Until such time as unbiased study into the safety implications of Tasers has been properly completed, I think that a moratorium must be imposed upon the weapon who killed 20 people in Canada.

Like so many Poles of his generation, Dziekanski went looking for work in one of those “normal” countries that Poland was supposed to become but never did. Two million Poles have joined this mass exodus during the last three years alone. Dziekanski’s cohorts have gone to work as bartenders in London, doormen in Dublin, plumbers in France. Last month, he chose to follow his mother to British Columbia, Canada, which is in a pre-Olympics construction boom. However, the nation that used to be known around the world for its openness to refugees, is militarizing its borders, with lines between immigrant and terrorist blurring fast. “After seven years of waiting, [Dziekanski] arrived to his utopia, Vancouver,” said the Polish consul general, Maciej Krych. “Ten hours later, he was dead.”