Bong Hits for Jesus - The Game

I heard something about the recent Supreme Court ruling about a kid who was suspended from school for having a sign during a field trip that said "Bong Hits for Jesus".

In our land of mere mortals, free speech obviously doesn't really mean free. It's a great ideal, but impossible as long as we are still communicating through simian grunts and our egos can be disturbed. The only language that even should be questionable among adults is that which is intended to direct physical danger to a person or property.

I have no problem with warning labels or specified viewing hours for objectionable material. Schools and their administrators need to keep some kind of order. This court decision is not really all that outrageous, because under our country's draconian drug laws, the flower Cannabis has been considered a dangerous drug since the 30's. Therefore, (if you want to be considered a dork) you could argue that the principal is obligated to punish a student who, at a school function, is promoting illegal drug use. Personally, I think it's ridiculous & funny, but I also don't think it's completely defensible behavior.

Free speech or obscene language... brilliant satire or offensive pro-drug slur?
You'll never know... without "Bong Hits for Jesus: The Game":



In the words of Jon Stewart...
"And now, your moment of Zen":
Guardian UK: "Jesus 'Healed Using Cannabis'"

Barbara Micarelli (1845-1909)

My Dad has always told me & my siblings that we had a great-great-aunt who founded a religious order in Italy.

The only details he knew, though, was that her name was Barbara Micarelli, and she was born in Sulmona, Italy.

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I can actually find websites dedicated to her memory and learn quite a bit about her life.

Mary Joseph of the Infant Jesus

History of the
Franciscan Sisters of the Infant Jesus

Barbara Micarelli was born on December 3, 1845 in Sulmona, Italy.

The order she founded in 1879, when she was 34 years old, was the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of the Infant Jesus.

Her "clear vision was to dedicate her whole life to the welfare of the poor, the orphans and the abandoned."

Franciscan Missionary Sisters
of the Infant Jesus

I've looked up information about her before out of curiosity, but I randomly came across a current news item that prompted me to post more information about her. Members of her congregation have just commemorated the centennial anniversary of her death:

"Sisters Conclude Centennial Year
of Death of Their Foundress"

Jesus the Buddha

I saw this interesting image on waterpeoplenotgrass.tumblr, a fusion of East & Western religious art.

It uses the face & sacred heart of Jesus Christ combined with the iconography of Tibetan Buddhism, which includes the sacred lotus.

Siddartha Guatama (Buddha) supposedly lived about 500 years before Yeshua bin Yusuf (Jesus), and there is some speculation that Jesus was familiar with The Buddha's teachings. Both of these religious traditions embody the practice of enlightened spiritual values.

Jesus & A Monkey on Mars

I was reading an article about the landscape of Mars on io9 & someone posted this picture in the comments:

I don't know why Jesus would be on Mars,
nor do I know why he would be accompanied by a spacesuited monkey.

However, I DO know that this book cover is crazy & awesome.

Here's the story synopsis:

 Wikipedia:

 Jesus on Mars

Fact: Jesus Walked with Dinosaurs

Wikipedia- Creationism:
"According to a 2001 Gallup Poll about 45% of Americans believe that 'God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years or so.'"

...Well, we obviously know that half of American people can't be crazy!!!

We also know that the GOP's True American™ Choice for Vice-President™, Sarah Palin™, would have the collection of stories known as Genesis taught in American science classes.

I have to assume that she is also in favor of teaching the size of Heaven in Astronomy 101.

To promote the further acceptance of counter-intuitive & nonsensical ideas over physical reality, I wanted to link to this great bit of Creation Science news:

"Scientists Prove
Jesus Walked with Dinosaurs"

Everyone sing along,
"Jesus loves the little raptors,
all the raptors of the world..."

Trump is "Anti-Christ"

Trump is "Anti-Christ"
A Comparison between Donald Trump & the Antichrist Archetype 

I’m not a Bible literalist, so I don’t know if he is THE Antichrist, but he definitely checks all the boxes!

The most baffling phenomenon in modern history is the fervent support from Evangelicals and other Christians for someone who embodies the exact opposite of everything that Jesus Christ represented.

 In a previous post Trump & The Anti-Christ Archetype I mentioned "when I was younger, the idea of an "Anti-Christ" really was weird to me... I didn't have the life experience to see the power in cults of personality & the appeal to authoritarianism that would make such a phenomenon possible." 

It’s actually impressive how he’s all the worst that humanity has to offer, stuffed into a single person. The problem is that the worst human in the world is, somehow, once again The President of the United States. So, his unhinged cabal are dragging everyone & everything down with them, to avoid the consequences of the Epstein Files, and also for their own insane reasons. There are those inside his administration like Hegseth (& also behind the scenes influencing it) that actually want to accelerate End Times- so Jesus comes riding back on his magical horse, or whatever he's supposed to do. We are at the mercy of religious fanatics who are no different in their batshittery than the fucking Taliban. 

I see people comment online all the time about how "we're in the worst timeline." For real though... what the fuck is this shit?!? I have a lot of love & beautiful things in my life, but I often look at the wider goings-on of humanity and think, how is this shit happening?" I don't believe that Revelations, or the Bible in general, is absolute truth... but things are super-weird nowadays, and I've come to realize that things can always get weirder!

Panspermia: Life from the Heavens?

Scientific American:

"Did Life Come from Another World?"

I was watching a show on the Discovery Channel about meteors (also known as shooting stars), pieces of cosmic debris that can range from the size of a speck of dust to the size of a boulder.

The show touched on a theory that I have heard before called "Panspermia." Essentially, the theory is that microbial life can survive and be transported through space on meteoroids. Certain bacteria and fungus spores have been proven tough enough to survive the vacuum & temperature extremes of outer space.

As they were discussing this, they showed a video of a meteor approaching Earth, and I saw a fascinating fractal visual relationship to microscopic images of human fertilization that I've seen.

Another physical explanation for the generation of life is the primal energy of lightning fusing molecules into complex forms that result in rudimentary, yet energetic and self-replicating processes known as life.

The similarity of form between all 3 destructively creative events is evident in their profound simplicity, the merging of the two most basic forms recognized by human consiousness... the line and circle:

I remember a different show I was watching about early Christianity, and on an ancient stone wall they had drawn a Vesica Piscis in the form of the 'Jesus Fish' and a Cross. I realized that Christianity had two of the most powerful symbols known to man. Here again, symbolically, are the merging of the basic forms of the circle and the line, which are the essence of our mind's visual organization:

Template for the Flower of Life,
the metaphor for the self-replicating nature of living things,
containing the secret of the 'Jesus Fish' in red.
(click)

Flower of Life Design in "Tomb of Jesus"

I am fortunate as a designer to work on different types of creative projects. The published game I created, "Da Vinci's Challenge," is something special because, for me, it really is 'classic' in every sense. When I was designing the game as a student back in 2000, the thing that fascinated me the most was the sense of history and universality of the symbolic pattern of circles called the Flower of Life. It is a recurring visual device in that art of cultures spanning the globe; India, Egypt, Japan, Spain, and even in the studies of Leonardo da Vinci - hence the title of the game!

Despite being familiar with the widespread use of the Flower of Life patterns, I was in for a bit of a surprise tonight. I clicked on a news article about the discovery of the supposed tomb of Jesus and his family that is the basis of a documentary by James Cameron. This is obviously highly controversial & it is already getting crazy coverage.

In most articles I've seen, there's also photos of stone coffins & one in particular that they are claiming belonged to a 'Mary'. The decorative carvings form the "Seed of Life" - a simpler design that forms the center 'seed' of the Flower of Life pattern. In fact, the Seed of Life flower-in-a-circle design is in the center of the art on the Da Vinci's Challenge game box.

Of course, the claimed connection between the tomb & the Bible characters might just be a load of crap. Regardless, the decorated coffin is an interesting example of the use of the Flower of Life pattern in the sacred art of ancient cultures.

Here's a close-up of the carved ossuary from New Zealand Herald :The homepage for the documentary on Discover.com has the carved design peeking out from the bottom corner:The story, with the Mary ossuary, has already made a stir on Google News:

Santa vs. Jesus

It's time to celebrate the winter solstice holiday & specifically the beloved traditions of Christmas.

During this special time, let's not forget to take time to reflect on the deeper meanings of the holiday tradition...

Santa VS Jesus by ~Pazero

Was the Buddha a Shaman?

 I came across this article that contemplates whether Siddartha Guatama, "the Buddha," was a shamanic figure.

Was the Buddha a Shaman?

In the sense that he supposedly achieved altered psychic states & then brought back a message or wisdom for other people, he could probably be considered a shaman.

Besides exploring this specific connection, the article gives fairly detailed historical information about shamanism, Buddhism, and the use of psychoactive techniques in these traditions.

In an earlier post, I talked about the connection between the figure of the Buddha to that of Jesus Christ:

Monkey Buddha Archives:

Jesus the Buddha

Trump is Risen Through Christ

Like President Trump, I too look for the spiritual embrace of 7ft tall smokey Jesus.

On this Blessed Day, let us remember what is truly important... that Jesus himself hand-picked Donald J. Trump to lead us through one of the worst crises in U.S. History.   🇺🇸🙏✨
 
We are lucky to have a President with the deep wisdom, humility, compassion, & moral purity needed for this difficult time. I am especially grateful for all my fellow Americans with the good judgement to support President Trump and his superior, Christ-like leadership. God Bless the USA!

"The Rally to Restore Sanity" 10-30-10

Now that I have some time, I'm going to try to give an account of my time in Washington DC this weekend. I went with a group of 5 other guys to attend "The Rally to Restore Sanity" on Saturday- like hundreds of thousands of other fun-loving, engaged citizens.

Online Photo Album:
"Rally to Restore Sanity" & Halloween
in Washington DC

If I had no traveling companions, I definitely wouldn't have made the trip... so it was great to have my brother and some other guys we know want to go, too.

We were totally psyched for the trip & our one friend known as 'Shooski' aka 'The Shoosk' has a brother who lives in DC, which helped our planning alot. Shoosk wanted to get a hotel, and we all eventually realized this was the best way to go since we could stay & really have a good time. Another one of the guys 'The Rev' offered to drive down in his truck and park at the hotel, so we were good to go.

Both my brothers went to a Freeway concert in Philly the night before the trip. I, on the other hand, was on my back patio at 10Pm on Friday nite ripping apart small wooden pallets to use for sign handles. Only one of my brothers could go to the rally on Sat., but thanks to the concert he was late & hungover the next morning. He didn't hear the end of that for the next 24 hours.

Once we got rolling, we faced the notorious state-long traffic jam known as Delaware. The traffic slowed on 95 a little but the drive overall wasn't horrible. Once we got to the hotel, the plan was to take the metro. We didn't realize the inevitable until we paid for our tickets & got down there- that it was like a Japanese subway with people packed in every car like sardines. There was literally not room for one single person in any of the cars. After several of the trains stopped & went without being able to fit anyone, we decided to bail.

We went back up to the streets to take a bus or cab. It was past noon & the rally had already started, so we wanted to makes moves fast. We lucked out & saw a minivan taxi who picked us up. Since there were 6 guys, I volunteered to sit in the van's hatchback just to get to the damn rally.

Once we got to the general area of the park, we got out & followed the large streams of people leading toward the nexus of the event. We walked for a bit & once we got into the grass we found a spot to put our 'protest signs' together. I had earlier busted my staple gun back at the parking garage, but thanks to my general desire to be prepared I also had a whole roll of wide masking tape. I weaved the tape around the handles and taped over the tape! I was frantically trying to get all 6 signs together & eventually got everyone else to help the process along. Surprisingly, the signs held up for the entire day & made the effort worth it.

Once we had our signs, the real fun began. We could just walk around & watch the madness. Immediately, we realized all the rally signs that I made were a hit- as people started taking pictures, laughing & making approving comments.

I was carrying my "Savior/Liberal Devil" sign that people kept asking me to flip around. My brother wanted the "Teabagging Takes Balls" sign, which got alot of laughs throughout the day. Shooski of course carried the sign saying "Shooski is Here!", with "Ralph Wiggum 2012" taped to the back. People kept laughing when reading out loud the Shooski sign or saw my Monkey Buddha signature on the other signs, even though they had no idea what it meant.

As we kept walking toward the main crowd, the sea of people kept getting thicker & thicker & thicker!

Our highly-visible signs came in handy as we tried to keep together & navigate the massive crowd. I have never seen that many people in one place. It was almost surreal to be amongst that large a gathering of seemingly endless variety & number. It's hard to describe, but 'astounding' comes to mind. As we slowly pushed our way along Madison Dr., the crowd near us was being amused by a Jesus hanging up on a traffic light. It could have been an impersonator, but he did have the crowd enraptured by his antics. Once we got closer, I realized his sign said "Jesus Loves Obama". He was perched up there for a while.

Other people were climbing trees, standing on walls, trying to get any high vantage point. Even going up on a little hill, though, it was possible to get a glimpse the size of the crowd extending out in all directions. Eventually we needed a break from the shoulder-to-shoulder people & went off to more open side parks & wandered for a bit.

At some point after we rejoined the crowd, my brother & I realized we lost a couple people. This wouldn't be a problem, but nobody had any cell phone service. Without being able to text each other, we'd never find them. We looked for the 'Shooski is Here!' sign, but all we saw were thousands of other people who were not The Shoosk, as far as the eye could see. We debated with the other 2 guys with us if we should hang out, or just walk around. I realized we didn't prepare for something like this at all. There was no meeting time or place, most of us didn't have the hotel info, etc.

Instead of worrying about it, we decided to hang out around 7th & Madison for awhile. The four of us took over the corner & held our signs up while shouting ridiculous slogans to the throngs of people walking by. We always had at least a couple people trying to take pictures of each sign. I was constantly flipping mine around for people to see both sides. During this time when I was appealing to the masses, I could barely manage to take photos of my own, but I still got a bunch of good ones.

After maybe an hour, we finally had a text message come through from the other guys & were able to meet back up. It turns out they were right near us, but in a different area so we didn't see each other.

This might sound crazy, but like alot of people I didn't hear or see any of the actual rally!!! From where we were, I could barely make out Colbert & Stewart's voices and had to look through trees across the park to see the huge video screens beside the stage. Missing the scheduled entertainment was totally alleviated by the plentiful entertainment provided by the rally-goers themselves. I like to observe things & people-watch, so this was like visual overload. There were so many crazy people, costumes, signs, & things going on in the street, that missing the show was almost inconsequential. I still haven't been able to go watch it all online yet!

The idea of promoting reasonable discourse & open-mindedness should not be revolutionary, but the two hosts should be proud of their effort to promote a more constructive way of thinking.

After the rally was officially over, the other guys wanted to go find a restaurant in town which was another bad call because every food place in the area had a half-hour wait or more. I would have just hung out around the park area for a while longer, but I wasn't sweating it. We finally ended up all jamming into a regular cab & going back to the hotel.

We found a cafe type restaurant near the hotel to chill out & eat. As we were waiting for our food, the manager or owner came up to us an said something in a thick accent, but I thought I heard it very clearly. Incidentally, I was pretty buzzed by this time after finishing my Sprite bottle mix of Tanqueray. I looked at the guy quizzically and asked him, "Did you just say your name is... 'Master Something' ???" ...which is what I swore he said! Everybody laughed because they thought he said the same thing. It turns out, he was asking if we needed mustard & some other condiments, so I apologized for the misunderstanding. However, he is now forever "Master Something" in our minds. On the way out, some of us wanted to take our leftovers to eat later. I asked 'Master Something' for a couple boxes for the food. He looked at me like I was from another planet, so I tried asking for containers instead. He nodded & went in the back. He came back with 2 large cardboard packing crates! Another waiter had brought us out actual food containers in the meantime. He must have saw that, along with the mixture of amusement & bewilderment on my face, because he continued walking with the big boxes right out the front door to put them in the trash. He tried to apologize but I told him not to worry about it.

Back at the hotel, everyone was wiped out & it was only the late afternoon. The plan was to go out on the town that night after we had rested up a little. I ended up passing out for a little bit.

................

When I woke up, it was nighttime & time to get ready to go out. The combination of gin & the cold I was fighting this weekend made me look like I was a wreck. We each took showers & changed, then were ready to head out to the Adams Morgan neighborhood of DC.

For some reason, none of us thought to even bring costumes, despite Colbert encouraging it on his show for the rally. My brother had a crazy vampire mask he was wearing under his Día de los Muertos hoodie. However, he didn't bring it out to the bars. It wasn't long before we saw people in costume, and when we got into the town, we realized everyone on the streets was in costumes!

From then on out it was bar-hopping & taking pictures with people in awesome costumes. We actually felt out of place because we were some of the few people not dressed up. I was wearing a black hoodie, so I put it up- to be at least partially disguised! Regardless, we had a good time & stayed out till we shut the bars down at 2.

Overall, it was a wild, action-packed day that many thousands of other people also got to enjoy. The rally, its purpose, and its effects have been endlessly analyzed already. To me personally, the spirit of the gathering was that of good-natured social awareness, tinged with a healthy dose of absurdity & humor.

I took about 100 photos on Saturday of the rally & the nightlife. I edited the set down to these, showing the size of the rally, and the multitude of characters inhabiting the nation's capital for a truly memorable day.

More of the story is detailed in the photo captions...

Photo Album:
"Rally to Restore Sanity" & Halloween
in Washington DC

Big Paul's Adventures in History IV

I have alot of photos of my Dad sleeping in many different chairs on many different occasions. He has worked hard in the food retail business all his life, but when he gets a chance to sit down & relax it usually turns into a snoozefest. Family events or holidays inevitably become napping opportunities for the big guy.

My old friend Dan J. gave me the idea to have him sleeping right through important times in history. I thought this idea was hysterical & created this series of "snapshots" showing Big Paul experiencing historic events, in his own special way.

This is the fourth set of of "adventures" as he sleeps his way through history.

To commemorate my Dad's birthday today, I made the 3 new adventures below.
I've completed the series of 12 I originally wanted to make. However, I still have even more photos of the big guy sleeping! So, maybe in the future, Big Paul will have more adventures from the past!

"Big Paul's

Adventures in History"

"Big Paul's Adventures in History"
Jesus's Sermon on the Mount
My Dad taking a snooze, while Christ tries to enlighten humanity.


"Big Paul's Adventures in History"
Martin Luther King Jr.'s Speech in DC
My Dad's having a dream, too...


"Big Paul's Adventures in History"
Woodstock Festival
Even finally making it to Woodstock &
being in front of Jimi Hendrix's amp
can't keep my Dad awake for long.

Leprehcaun Sighting in Mobile, Alabama

This video is one of my all-time favorites & always cracks me up when I watch it. This neighborhood is only half as crazy as people who see Jesus in a frying pan. There are more great quotes in this segment than most news shows get in a month. The Eazy-E clone at the end should be careful, though...

Leprechaun in Mobile, Alabama

"I wanna know where da gold at.
I want da gold... gim me da gold!"

Neo-Mickey & Flower of Life Pattern

In my last post, I pointed out the Flower of Life patterns I spotted carved on an ancient coffin found in the recently announced "Tomb of Jesus". Well, I found yet another recognizable use of the distinctive pattern, in a completely different context. Instead of being associated with the ancient world's most well-known religious figure, this time it is associated with the modern world's most well-known pop culture figure - Mickey Mouse! In this case however, it is Neo-Mickey, a whimsical re-imagining of everyone's favorite rodent.

Even in this graphic, it seems there's a subtle, perhaps unconscious, reference to the union of polarities that the Flower of Life symbol has represented throughout history. Like I said about the number 23, it is amazing how the brain finds patterns and connections in such random things.

Lord Hanuman Demands Equal Representation!

This is pretty funny-

After a monument featuring the 10 Commandments was placed on Oklahoma's state capitol grounds, Satan worshipers & also Hindu devotees of the monkey-god Hanuman are now petitioning to have their faiths represented, too.

Raw Story:

Hindus join Satanists demanding 

equal placement on Oklahoma capitol grounds

This is what happens in America when you try to impose your religious ideology onto the rest of the public...

Every other religious group will (rightly) demand equal recognition under the law. This is not a Christian nation, despite the endless arguments from people who confuse their religious tradition with civic law. America is a country of secular government, but was founded on religious freedom & tolerance for all beliefs.

You can worship any damn thing you please - Jesus, Satan, Hanuman, The Flying Spaghetti Monster, etc. Just don't impose your reality tunnel on the rest of us.

Crazy Scenarios in MS Paint

I saw this awesome Tumblr site on Sad & Useless. It is such a great idea & the results are hilarious.

"Jim" takes people's completely insane ideas for a scene & brings them to life in the Microsoft Paint program.

Jim'll Paint It

Like all Microsoft programs, MS Paint is crap.
However, Jim makes excellent renderings of these fantastic imaginary scenarios.

Here are a couple of my favorites:

Dear Jim,

Please paint me a scene where Jesus bursts into Hitler’s bunker smoking a cigar and riding a T-Rex, while firing a Thompson machine gun with one hand and holding sticks of dynamite with the other, robes flowing, winking and smiling. And at the same time the BTTF2 DeLorean has crashed into the bunker wall with Ash from Evil Dead II out the car shotgunning and chainsawing Nazis who speak in Commando comic German (Gott in himmel etc) and chopping through Nazi Xenomorphs from the Alien movie franchise.

Dear Jim,
Please paint me Jimi Hendrix explaining to an owl on his shoulder what a stick of chalk is, near a forest.

Seeing God

"Born Believers:
How Your Brain Creates God"

"News" items like those in the video above always give me a sense of horrified amazement. Besides the grim realities of war, stories like "Jesus's Face on Toast" make me the most pessimistic about mankind's chances of long-term survival.

I saw the video compilation on Cynical-C blog and I can't believe how much airtime is spent on craziness like this. (I'd rather watch stories about leprechauns anyday!)

My question is- why haven't the major news agencies picked up on the more relevant mystery of my Tibeten Doppelgänger?!?

The reason that people imagine they are seeing their body double or a holy apparition is explainable. The mind is a network of connections that is constantly processing patterns. The connectivity of the brain operates at all levels - cellular, genetic, and quantum- experiencing limited frequencies from the infinity of reality .

"Scientists Model Words as
Entangled Quantum States in our Minds"

'Seeing' divine signs in random patterns is no different than when I used to look out the window at night as a kid, imagining faces & figures in the trees. The only difference is that even as a child, I knew my mind was creating those images.

Either all the people who believe this stuff are just more foolish than I can relate to, or some are cynically trying to hype the 'sightings' to somehow make a profit. Unfortunately, there's probably a nice amount of both in there...

2020 Winter Solstice & The Great Conjuction

 What does this mean??????

As the Christmas holiday approaches, today we enter the Winter Solstice - the shortest day of the year, after which the daylight hours start to increase again.

This has been traditionally a very important seasonal marker in all of human society, for agricultural and cultural reasons.

This year, this holiday season and solstice have an added feature: the conjunction in the night sky of the 2 largest planets in the solar system, Jupiter and Mars. The planets are going to appear to be the closest they've been in centuries. I've been watching these celestial bodies inch closer together in the sky over the last few weeks & it is an unmistakable formation that stands out even when the stars aren't very visible.

Although it is certainly visually very interesting, is there any significance to these planets being in close proximity? 

My answer, as usual, is two-fold... 

On a cosmic level, no, there is no significance. End of story. It just happens to be two visible objects that are nowhere near each other, looking like they're close together in our visual field. 

On a personal level, you can apply any significance that you want...
Is it a good or bad sign from God?...
Is it a celestial prophecy, of the death (Saturn) of a leader (Jupiter)?...
Is it a reminder of the Star of Bethlehem that heralded Jesus's birth?....

Sure, all the above! It can mean whatever the hell you want it to mean... "Meaning" is not something inherent in The Universe. It is an abstract creation of the human mind, a narrative applied to external objects & circumstances by our thought patterns.

This does not take away for the value of the experience, as well as any subjective meaning you place upon it.

As we continue through the holiday season, I hope that the people of this world begin to find more value in these kinds of awesome experiences. If we can see the depth and beauty of the Universe, and appreciate the infinite wonders it contains, the human race would go a long way toward progress and enlightenment.

Super-Legit Totally Not Bootleg Toys

I'm continuing the theme of ridiculous product packaging. As a graphic artist, seeing horrible design is a guilty pleasure of mine.

Here's a gallery of pathetic attempts to knock-off popular toys, from The Soup:

Super-Legit Totally Not Bootleg Toys

A couple of my favorites-

Galaxy Cop

 

Adventure Man

God • Jesus Robot