Tag Archives: psychological

Portuguese Playboy Depicts Jesus Observing Sex Scenes

Marking the death of an atheist by depicting Jesus Christ in sex scenes might seem like a non-sequitur. Somehow, it made sense to the Portuguese edition of Playboy magazine. The magazine features an actor portraying Jesus in at least four pornographic photos, including the cover, where he cradles an apparently dead – and bare-breasted – woman. Another photo depicts Jesus watching a lesbian kiss, while another shows him observing a topless woman reading a book. The images are reportedly meant to commemorate the death of Portuguese author Jose Saramago. He wrote, among many other books, “The Gospel According to Jesus Christ,” which ” explored the psychological motivations  that led Jesus to become a prophet.” Saramago  later wrote  that the controversy around the book led him to move fromPortugal to the Canary Islands. It’s not the first time an international edition of the “men’s magazine” has caused a stir by depicting a Christian figure. In its  December 2008 issue , the Mexican edition featured a model dressed – barely – like the Virgin Mary The U.S. edition of the magazine raised the ire of political conservatives in 2009 when it published  an article by Guy Cimbalo  in which he described the violent sexual acts he wanted to commit against conservative women, calling the acts a “hate f***.”

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Portuguese Playboy Depicts Jesus Observing Sex Scenes

ORWELL WAS NAIVE

1950-ongoing : WORLDWIDE. George Orwell's grim novel of totalitarianism, 1984, and his satirical political novel, Animal Farm, describe all too well the mechanisms of oppression and distortion of the truth by the state and the realities of political power. Orwell was opposed to totalitarianism in all its forms, whether Stalinist, fascist or pseudo-democratic. Ironically, Orwell had unknowingly fallen into the clutches of the very propagandists and distorters of truth he vilified and satirized. His British publisher, Fredric Warburg, was secretly working for the CIA. Warburg would later become notorious for publishing and distributing a CIA propaganda magazine, Encounter, for one of the CIA's countless front organizations, the ironically named Congress for Cultural Freedom. Following Orwell's death in 1950, Warburg persuades his widow to unwittingly sell the movie rights to 1984 and Animal Farm to the CIA's Office of Policy Coordination (OPC), a creation of Rockefeller cousin, Hitler Project kingpin and Nazi shyster cum CIA head, Allen Dulles. According to its secret charter, OPC's activities on behalf of the “free” world include propaganda, economic warfare, sabotage, demolition and subversion. Two of the CIA's Psychological Warfare Workshop staff obtain the screen rights to Orwell's novels. The head of the operation is none other than CIA operative Howard Hunt, who will later become infamous as a member of the Watergate gang of criminals. Hunt selects Louis De Rochemont to be the producer of the animated Animal Farm at Paramount. De Rochemont has considerable experience with propaganda, having created The March of Time series for Henry Luce and, during the Second World War, working with the U.S. Navy's propaganda film unit. To meet the CIA's objectives, the ending of Animal Farm is changed and the point of the story, that cruel capitalist farmers are no better masters than tyrannical Stalinist pigs, is destroyed. The CIA's sanitized version of Animal Farm is distributed around the world by a CIA front, the U.S. “Information” Agency (USIA). The CIA then produces 1984 in Britain in 1954. Inevitably, Orwell's message is distorted and perverted by the CIA to suit the goals of the U.S. ruling class. The CIA's Orwellian sabotage of two of the most powerful political works in literature is a masterstroke of pre-emptive mind control. As the psychological warfare experts at the CIA are only too aware, a successful movie, like television, can be seen by tens or hundreds of millions of people and, consisting of graphic images, is much more powerful and widely assimilated than the written word. By sabotaging the movie versions of 1984 and Animal Farm, the CIA effectively stopped the vast majority of Americans ever learning of the relevance of Orwell's writing to their own situation. The role of the CIA in sabotaging Orwell's masterpieces is hidden for half a century. To the present day, many American school teachers use the CIA's movie version of 1984 to “teach” the novel, spoonfeeding young Americans “prolefeed” created by the CIA rather than the true, chilling and all too relevant message of Orwell's book. added by: WhiteNoise

Why Atheism Will Replace Religion

by Nigel Barber, Ph.D. Why atheism grows faster than religion Published on May 18, 2010 Atheists are heavily concentrated in economically developed countries, particularly the social democracies of Europe. In underdeveloped countries, there are virtually no atheists. Atheism is thus a peculiarly modern phenomenon. Why do modern conditions produce atheism? First, as to the distribution of atheism in the world, a clear pattern can be discerned. In sub-Saharan Africa there is almost no atheism (Zuckerman, 2007). Belief in God declines in more developed countries and is concentrated in Europe in countries such as Sweden (64% nonbelievers), Denmark (48%), France (44%) and Germany (42%). In contrast, the incidence of atheism in most sub-Saharan countries is below 1%. The question of why economically developed countries turn to atheism has been batted around by anthropologists for about eighty years. Anthropologist James Fraser proposed that scientific prediction and control of nature supplants religion as a means of controlling uncertainty in our lives. This hunch is supported by data showing that the more educated countries have higher levels of non belief and there are strong correlations between atheism and intelligence (see my earlier post on this). Atheists are more likely to be college-educated people who live in cities and they are highly concentrated in the social democracies of Europe. Atheism thus blossoms amid affluence where most people feel economically secure. But why? It seems that people turn to religion as a salve for the difficulties and uncertainties of their lives. In social democracies, there is less fear and uncertainty about the future because social welfare programs provide a safety net and better health care means that fewer people can expect to die young. People who are less vulnerable to the hostile forces of nature feel more in control of their lives and less in need of religion. In addition to being the opium of the people (as Karl Marx contemptuously phrased it), religion may also promote fertility, particularly by promoting marriage, according to copious data reviewed by Sanderson (2008). Large families are preferred in agricultural countries as a source of free labor. In developed “atheist” countries, women have exceptionally small families and do not need religion helping them to raise large families. Even the psychological functions of religion face stiff competition today. In modern societies, when people experience psychological difficulties they turn to their doctor, psychologist, or psychiatrist. They want a scientific fix and prefer the real psychotropic medicines dished out by physicians to the metaphorical opiates offered by religion. Moreover, sport psychologists find that sports spectatorship provides much the same kind of social, and spiritual, benefits as people obtain from church membership. In a previous post, I made the case that sports is replacing religion. Precisely the same argument can be made for other forms of entertainment with which spectators become deeply involved. Indeed, religion is striking back by trying to compete in popular media, such as televangelism and Christian rock and by hosting live secular entertainment in church. The reasons that churches lose ground in developed countries can be summarized in market terms. First, with better science, and with government safety nets, and smaller families, there is less fear and uncertainty in people's daily lives and hence less of a market for religion. At the same time many alternative products are being offered, such as psychotropic medicines and electronic entertainment that have fewer strings attached and that do not require slavish conformity to unscientific beliefs. References Sanderson, S. K. (2008). Adaptation, evolution, and religion. Religion, 38, 141-156. Zuckerman, P. (2007). Atheism: Contemporary numbers and patterns. In M. Martin (ed.), The Cambridge companion to atheism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. This book is not held by any U.S. Library. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-human-beast/201005/why-atheism-will-repl… added by: putdownmypants

Leonardo DiCaprio Premieres Shutter Island

Leonardo DiCaprio premiered his latest movie, the Martin Scorsese directed Shutter Island , in New York City last night. We’ve seen the trailer for this psychological thriller/horror movie, like, 1000 times, and we are really looking forward to seeing this. What do you think, are you going to see it?

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Leonardo DiCaprio Premieres Shutter Island

Senate’s healthcare plan includes tax on Botox

If you're considering Botox to erase frown lines or liposuction to get rid of love handles, you might want to move fast. The “botax” may be on the way.

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Senate’s healthcare plan includes tax on Botox

Russian scientists prepare for Mars mission

In a car park not so far away …

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Russian scientists prepare for Mars mission