Some Opium with your Masses

Working on many things and yet… not doing enough, thats how I feel these days. Unemployed yet still going to work, it seems. Oh and I had a lovely visit from Max and Stacy of Karmabanque and even managed to take them out on the Red August despite the rain. Nothing funnier than as Im coming home, and it starts pouring rain – I simply open my umbrella, kick the engine into high gear, and wave to all the cozy party boats as I pass them with reckless abandon.

More importantly today I have a recommendation, as I do occasionally try and point ye my dear readers, to interesting things in this world.

My roomate has been thoroughly wrapped up in a BBC4 documentary that I’ve now become very interested in, entitled: A Brief History of Disbelief. In some ways it reminds us of The Power of Nightmares or the Century of the Self, together the two most important documentaries EVER… period.

The series looks at the history of atheism, nontheism, and belief in general. It makes use of several interesting philosophers, alive and dead. It also uses archeology and economics to put things into context in terms of when people believed what and why those beliefs changed.

Though there are several aspects I could point to and say — this is interesting. What really comes to mind while watching it is the still powerful role and influence of religion in this world, even after so much experience.. so many world events… that would make one assume religion would not be as powerful as it was “back then”.

Thats all… the rest is for you to go and watch. If you can’t find them on bittorent, I will post them on archive.org within the week.

bmtv23 Revisiting the Story of Asbury Park


In order to further explore the theme of how cities thrive and decay, specifically the case of Asbury Park, the following is part 1 of a vlogged history. The last minute has a audio-video timing problem, fixing it would give me an ulcer. Please Note: Im just an amateur armchair historian, I don’t claim to know everything about the place, but I have been doing endless hours of research.

bm158 Orgins of Asbury Park

Obviously Ive become obsessed with this Jersey shore forgotten city. The truth is there is a very important story there with lessons for the whole world regarding development, religion, and community. In this program I begin to tell the story of how it all started. This was my last recording during my recent visit to New Jersey and note that Im driving as I’m explaining things which makes it harder dammit.

Read a version of the history on the net
The book Im learning from is 4th of July, Asbury Park by: Daniel J. Wolff

 

bm151 An activists story, from Lebanon to Jerusalem

It was early July and she was invited to a camp in southern Lebanon. A very special camp. Many nations, cultures, religions, all gathered to work for one common goal. This is my friend Elise’s story of being at the camp as the bombs began to rain down on Lebanon.

No links, listening is all that’s necessary.

 

bm132 Summer of Yeast 2006, Madge Weinstein and the MacDocMan Take on Circumcision

A break from my usual style of podcast. Madge Weinstein passed through Amsterdam yesterday, before eating her way to Hungary, she and I went to visit the famed Dutch vlogger and pro-foreskin crusader, the MacDocMan. I should note that he didn’t know he was being recorded initially, but I thought the conversation was interesting and fun and hopefully he agrees because otherwise I’m sure he can afford a lawyer and I certainly can’t. If you’re fragile and you can’t stand talk about genitals, this show is not for you… wimp.

Useful Links:

MacDocMan’s Vlog on Male Circumcision
Madge Weinstein Yeasts Across Europe
Is the Stock Market on the Verge of Collapse?

 

bmtv8 Religion versus Wealth

With this vlog I intend to begin a series focused on questions of poverty, religion, education, health and more. Somehow these things are all inter-related, and I’m going to look into the numbers around the world.

This episode deals with Religion versus Wealth. Using the data from PEW’s 2002 study, we can see the level of religiousness in both wealthy and poor countries. But the conclusions don’t come easy, so I’ve got much more work to do.

Watch the Video

PS — Yes, you may notice I make several guesstimates that are somewhat incorrect in this vlog. I was speaking only from memory, so forgive me. The numbers are still there for you to see for yourself, thats the important part.