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Ken’s a Ten!

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robbie and gerwig
Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig – Getty

The Barbie (2023) movie took last summer by storm and earned an astonishing $1.446 million worldwide at the box office, making it the highest-grossing film of 2023 and the 14th highest-grossing film of all time. I wouldn’t think director Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie who produced and starred in the movie would be unhappy about a thing.

But they are.

First of all, Ken’s (Ryan Gosling) song “I’m Just Ken” won Best Song at the Critics Choice Awards…but Eilish and Finneas’ song “What Was I Made For?” didn’t. It did win the the Best Original Song at the Golden Globes. I guess that wasn’t enough because the fans of the movie didn’t want Ken to win anything at all.

In fact, ‘I’m Just Ken’ Booed During Oscars Nomination Announcement. The latter probably had something to do with Greta Gerwig not receiving a nomination for a Best Director and Margot Robbie not receiving a nomination for Best Actress for “Barbie”.

“Barbie” did get nominated for Best Picture, and America Ferrera was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, but get this. Ryan Gosling was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for the film (who would have been nominated for Best Actor for “Barbie”, but maybe because it’s “Barbie”, there is no “Best Actor,” only sloppy seconds).

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Schrödinger’s Pie

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schrodingers-pie
Schrodingers Pie, Hamilton Street Art, Locke StreDanial Garson Druggistet by
jmaxtours and found on flickr

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

–Preamble to the Declaration of Independence

This is the third and last “pie” blog in the “trilogy.” As someone’s pointed out, I’ve been mixing “rights” with “public opinion” and they aren’t the same thing. Rights, at least as defined above, are endowed upon us by our Creator, the Almighty, God of Israel as described in the Holy Bible.

People possess rights, they aren’t “allowed” rights by the government. The government doesn’t give us rights, they are prevented (ideally) from interfering with our rights. Never mind that governments interfere with human rights on a regular basis.

However, some people say they don’t have the same rights as others, hence the “pie” meme or metaphor or whatever you want to call it.

For instance, this opinion piece from the Arizona Central states in part:

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The Ego of Dave Ramsey – Where He Went Wrong

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Dave Ramsey
In this July 29, 2009, file photo, financial guru Dave Ramsey sits in his broadcasting studio in Brentwood, Tenn. Ramsey Solutions later moved to a new corporate headquarters in Franklin. (AP Photo/Josh Anderson, File)

I suppose Christmas Day isn’t a really great time to write this, but it’s on my list and I’ve got the time.

First of all, I’m not a “Christian-basher” in any sense. Although I haven’t gone to church since Mom died (I took her to her Lutheran church as long as she was physically able to go and arranged for the Pastor to visit her regularly after she wasn’t) and I don’t relate very well to traditional Christian doctrine, I understand that this is how currently the non-Jewish disciples of Jesus express their faith.

I should say that the people who are Christian bashers are out in force in social media, particularly X (formerly known as twitter). Consider Darwin, The UnVirgin Mary, Tori atheist, and Gregory Knight to name a few. These are people who not only don’t believe (and they have plenty of company) but who go way out of their way to insult and ridicule all religious people and particularly Christians.

I suppose they feel threatened. At least that’s how I read it.

Continue reading The Ego of Dave Ramsey – Where He Went Wrong →

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Clickbait

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clickbait
From a Woody and Buzz meme generator

I’m interrupting my “pie” series not only to share some information but to discipline myself.

I’m talking about social media in general and twitter/x in particular.

Among other things, the platform is just loaded with political and social content, both from the left and the right. Frankly, they’re all annoying, mainly because they say stuff like “My side is totally cool and the other side is literal Hitler.”

The one thing all these posters have in common is that their content is either incredibly provocative or gushing with praise. The other thing is, although these people aren’t well-known celebrities, politicians, or other noteworthy public figures, they have tons and tons of followers, at least in the tens of thousands and sometimes in the millions.

Here are some examples in no particular order (I’ve taken my examples from leftist posters but again, both sides of the aisle do the same thing).

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Whoever Is In Charge Controls The Pie

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pie
Meme from the internet

A few weeks ago, I wrote Yes, It’s A Pie, But Let Me Explain. It was a response to the meme “Equal Rights For Others Does Not Mean Fewer Rights For You. It’s Not Pie.”

While things like rights and access to opportunities shouldn’t be restricted, they often are based on who is doling out those resources. When some groups say they don’t have as much access to resources as other groups, it’s usually not because the resources or rights are limited so much as the folks doling out said-resources are restricting them.

In my prior article, I compared two very different groups: the LGBTQ+ community and PTSD sufferers. It’s an odd comparison but the month of June is both “Pride Month” and “PTSD Awareness Month.” In observing how each set of events were treated in news and social media and by the government, politicians, celebrities, and corporations, I saw that the former was highly marketed and praised while the latter was all but ignored.

The reason behind that is money. You can make more bank off of promoting goods and services to the LGBTQ community than you can by raising the public’s awareness of people who suffer from PTSD and other anxiety disorders.

It’s not that the real-world rights and opportunities of each group differed in the slightest. It is that the public gave rave reviews, devotion, caring, and attention to the former, but acted like the latter did not exist.

In other words, it’s a pie.

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Yes, It’s a Pie, But Let Me Explain

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pie
Meme found on the internet.

I know the phrase above sounds good. I mean especially in the United States, shouldn’t we all enjoy the same freedoms and rights? It’s one of our national ideals. And yet there are many, many groups (look at the color wheel in the image above and imagine what it represents) declaring that they suffer from a lack of rights.

Important Note: I’m not denying in any way the fact that some groups are regularly discriminated against and have certain of their rights denied. On the other hand, there’s more than one way to view the issue. I’m just holding up a different lens. Have a look.

I know this is supposed to be a religious blog, but bear with me.

So who isn’t getting their fair share of the pie?

According to the blog of Mark B. Baer, Inc (yes, a lawyer), lots of people.

I should say the article isn’t well maintained. It was published on November 7, 2021 but already some of the links used as resources are broken, including to one of Baer’s major sources Timothy D. Wilson and Nancy Brekke (if you clicked on it, I said it was broken) who supposedly “proved” bias could be avoided or eliminated.

Wait? Eliminated? I didn’t know human beings could be completely, dispassionately unbiased and objective.

The problem is the definition that Baer uses for bias. His source, which is also a broken link, defines bias as:

Continue reading Yes, It’s a Pie, But Let Me Explain →

"When you awake in the morning, learn something to inspire you and mediate upon it, then plunge forward full of light with which to illuminate the darkness." -Rabbi Tzvi Freeman