South Park, The Black Pearl & That Crazy Woman Everyone Is Talking About

1. Over the last few days I've been catching up on the new season of South Park. We never get the new episodes until they're a few months old, but with the help of the net, I can at least try to keep up. This season has to be even crazier than the last one. In the first episode alone Mr. Garrison gets a sex change, Kyle becomes a tall, black kid and his father has surgery in order to become a dolphin. There was also a great anti-hippie episode and an episode on Scientology ("Tom Cruise, why won't you come out of the closet?"). Some of the racial humor seems to really be pushing the boundaries of what is tasteful/necessary, but other than that it is all good.

B) I had a great weekend. I call it a weekend but it really started on Thursday night for me. After having a few drinks with some friends, we went to a bar in Western Shore called the Black Pearl. Now, I'm not much of a bar person so you have to understand that I went to this bar under mild protest. We thankfully arrived about 30 to 45 minutes before last call, so I didn't have to deal with the place that long. I hesitate calling it a "hick bar," but if you've ever been to a rural Canadian kick-and-punch you know what I'm talking about. It was karaoke night, which meant everyone was belting out there favorite country music songs. What I thought was funny though was that the first song that came blaring over the PA after the karaoke was over was "Ain't nuthin' but a G thang." Go figure.

III Let me first say that, as a general rule, I don't watch reality TV shows. But over the last week or so I kept hearing about this crazy woman who was on Trading Spouses. I put it off, thinking that just about anyone who would agree to be on such a show must be a little unhinged. Then I saw this clip. At first I thought, "wow, that woman is seriously crazy, but maybe the family she was with were like total devil worshippers or something." It's always been my opinion that reality TV shows do little more than show us how little people can stand and tolerate each other. So, I actually watched the episodes that lead up to the infamous meltdown clip. I couldn't get over what a messed up religous zealot this woman was. The family they put her with were no more than new age hippies. Now, I don't like hippies, but they did seem like generally nice hippies. The zealot woman was just so warped I couldn't get over it. She honestly believed that God had been nailed to a cross. Last time I checked (and I will admit, it's been awhile) God and Jesus were supposed to be two seperate people.

I had had a long conversation/debate with some friends over the weekend about religion. I had been defending religion to some of my friends. (Incidentally, I won the debate with an analogy that culminated with me saying, "you can't get KFC without the Colonel on the bucket." Make your own assumptions as to how I managed to work that into the converstaion.) But now, I feel kinda bad for trying to put a positive spin on religion. I still maintain that everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, but it's crazy people like her that make religion look bad. I mean that woman was/is seriously fucking bonkers. And thankfully, I'm not the only one who thinks that. Google "trading spouses crazy woman" and you'll find at least a dozen or more blogs and articles about this whacko. There is even an mp3 out there that uses a few of her choice soudbites, it's the "Picard Rap" of religious fanaticism. (Right click and select "save target as" to get the MP3)