This spectacularly self-absorbed celebrity site just came to my attention. In it we have more magical-thinking dreck from yet another celebrity who has no problem giving medical advice to their fans.
Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins is not a doctor, he's barely a singer from what I recall from this 90's popstar heyday. He and other contributors are offering their totally uninformed "wisdom" to the mush-minded. Don't get vaccinated . . . for anything. Billy, can I have your stuff when you die?
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Barbarians at the GATE . . .
Jim Carey is not just a one-cause celebrity, besides his misguided Autism pseudoscience, there's GATE.
I can only guess what drives the celebrity to be so credulous. Most movie-stars (not actors, movie-stars) seem to have huge holes in their psyches that nothing will fill, I think this leaves them open to all manner of woo. As a recovered moonbat myself, I can say that for me it was a simple existential fear that drove me to be so credulous when it came time to examine channeling, homeopathy, auras, crystals, past-lives, gurus, conspiracies, UFOs, "creating my own reality" and the rest of the factually-challenged worldviews I once embraced. Nobody I knew personally ever died until I was in my forties. I was so scared of, and offended by, the idea of ceasing to exist that I just went into la-la land around it. Once I actually experienced the deaths of a few people up-close and personal, I found them to be sad, beautiful, terrible, moving and ultimately ordinary, very, very ordinary. I wasn't so afraid anymore, and curiously I found myself looking around at all my suddenly goofy beliefs in horror. I realized three things:
1. The real universe is way more amazing than the metaphysical one.
2. I'm a Dawkins-6 agnostic.
3. I have really wonderful, patient friends, who never judged me about the latest wackaloon thing I was into.
Now that I have come to understant that this is the only life I'll have, it means so much more to me. So if "I" survive death, I'll be amazed and surprised, but if I don't, I'll never know . . . sounds like a good deal to me.
I can only guess what drives the celebrity to be so credulous. Most movie-stars (not actors, movie-stars) seem to have huge holes in their psyches that nothing will fill, I think this leaves them open to all manner of woo. As a recovered moonbat myself, I can say that for me it was a simple existential fear that drove me to be so credulous when it came time to examine channeling, homeopathy, auras, crystals, past-lives, gurus, conspiracies, UFOs, "creating my own reality" and the rest of the factually-challenged worldviews I once embraced. Nobody I knew personally ever died until I was in my forties. I was so scared of, and offended by, the idea of ceasing to exist that I just went into la-la land around it. Once I actually experienced the deaths of a few people up-close and personal, I found them to be sad, beautiful, terrible, moving and ultimately ordinary, very, very ordinary. I wasn't so afraid anymore, and curiously I found myself looking around at all my suddenly goofy beliefs in horror. I realized three things:
1. The real universe is way more amazing than the metaphysical one.
2. I'm a Dawkins-6 agnostic.
3. I have really wonderful, patient friends, who never judged me about the latest wackaloon thing I was into.
Now that I have come to understant that this is the only life I'll have, it means so much more to me. So if "I" survive death, I'll be amazed and surprised, but if I don't, I'll never know . . . sounds like a good deal to me.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
What is the "Axis of Me-ville?"
There is a line down the coast of California. No, it's not a fault line, though it has more than a few faults (both geologic and logical) come to think of it. This line runs from Sebastopol in the north straight down to Malibu in the south . . . it is The Axis of Me-ville. It jogs a bit as it heads southward on it's meridian, striking Mill Valley, Berkeley, San Francisco, Ojai and a few other privileged spots on its way to the 'bu.
All along the the axis you will find chakra cleansing, aromatherapy, dowsers who'll find your lost Bulgari chopstick holder, dog chromatherapists, Range Rovers bearing tasteful vinyl "Save the Earth" bumperstickers, Smith & Hawken feng shui birdhouses, 10,000 square foot "green" homes and children called "Morghynne" and "Sunwyndd". And Whole Foods markets, many, many Whole Foods markets where you can literally spend large amounts of money on nothing (google Samuel Hahnemann).
The Axis of Me-ville is fueled by money, fear and hypocrisy in equal doses. It's hilarity is derived by the earnestness with which it's denizens pursue all manner of New Age quackery and solipsistic drivel.
Am I being cruel? A bit. Is my envy showing? A tad. Shadenfreude on überdrive? Ja. Don't these folks mean well? To be sure. But for me, it's all about perspective and parody. I grew up in this. This was me not too long ago before I had the last barnacles of magical thinking scraped of my metaphorical hull.
One thing's for sure, folks in the Axis tend to be Rather Humorless (caps intentional), and when I come across the Rather Humorless I can't help but jab at them. In all fairness, it's too easy, but it's also great good fun. Now where did I put my Q-Ray pendant . . .
All along the the axis you will find chakra cleansing, aromatherapy, dowsers who'll find your lost Bulgari chopstick holder, dog chromatherapists, Range Rovers bearing tasteful vinyl "Save the Earth" bumperstickers, Smith & Hawken feng shui birdhouses, 10,000 square foot "green" homes and children called "Morghynne" and "Sunwyndd". And Whole Foods markets, many, many Whole Foods markets where you can literally spend large amounts of money on nothing (google Samuel Hahnemann).
The Axis of Me-ville is fueled by money, fear and hypocrisy in equal doses. It's hilarity is derived by the earnestness with which it's denizens pursue all manner of New Age quackery and solipsistic drivel.
Am I being cruel? A bit. Is my envy showing? A tad. Shadenfreude on überdrive? Ja. Don't these folks mean well? To be sure. But for me, it's all about perspective and parody. I grew up in this. This was me not too long ago before I had the last barnacles of magical thinking scraped of my metaphorical hull.
One thing's for sure, folks in the Axis tend to be Rather Humorless (caps intentional), and when I come across the Rather Humorless I can't help but jab at them. In all fairness, it's too easy, but it's also great good fun. Now where did I put my Q-Ray pendant . . .
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