Don't believe the hype, muhahahaha.

Title inspired by Public Enemy.

Arg! I am constantly feeling insulted by the media anymore. This whole swine flu thing is driving me nuts. After a bit of research, it turns out that the swine flu is not as potent as the annual human flu. In fact, I read that an average of about 36,000 people die each year from the usual human flu and that they don't expect the swine flu to be nearly that bad.

I also happened to go to the doctor yesterday for a check up and asked him a few things too. He was saying that the typical over the couter masks would not be able to stop a virus, even if it is a form fitting one, although usually the masks are not that tight. They might help a bit from just avoiding someone's sneezing spray (by the way, you should cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze whether there is a "potential" pandemic or not, as shown below):



but unless you buy a $50-$70 special anti-viral mask, you're still pretty susceptible.

But my friend was looking for masks the evening before since he was going to Mexico, and every store in my area was sold out. And if the regular flu season is worse, why don't we hear all these warnings and see people donning masks for the annual human flu outbreak? Sigh. I really hate the media sometimes. And what makes matters worse is that apparently they are going to stop calling it "swine" flu because the WHO and CDC are getting the impression that by calling it swine flu people are thinking that you get it by doing this:


It's amazing that in such a supposedly educated world, people have such blind faith in the media.

I think the band Biohazard said it best:

"Believe half of what you read, and half of what you see,
put two and two together and you'll have reality."
-"Black and White and Red All Over"

P.S. No, I'm not a conspiracy theorist. I just see that the media has a great business model. The more they fear monger, the more you'll have to need them to get the latest "news" to keep you posted on the newest threat. So, the more you watch, the more they can get from adverstising, and so on. News, is no longer journalism, it's just a business, and they'll do whatever it takes to get you to tune in.)

RS

Hollywood versus reality

Aw geeze! I just saw the trailer for "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown. I'm honestly astonished that it appears to be even more anti-Catholic than "The DaVinci Code" was. You hear the words "the truth" thrown around in the trailer alot, which is so ironic given the flimsy plots of all of Dan Brown's books.

It looks like it will present itself as some sort of heroic movie pushing the question of science versus religion driving the two things into a strict either/or situation rather than seeing their compatibility.

The plot of the story is just completely absurd. The whole irony is that people will get pulled into the whole "religion versus science" debate and have doubts about religion, yet will fail to miss all the poor science and non sequitur moments in the actual plot of the book.

This will be the new controversial film of the year because you can tell the studio is going to hype this with all the advertising they can. Of course the other irony is that the movie will try to tell people not to have blind faith regarding religion, but obviously if they are going to see the movie, they will have proven that they have blind faith about the advertising. Sadly, this film will be a blockbuster, mainly because of the advertising, not because of the content. Don't believe me, just look at what happened with "The DaVinci Code." The media and controversy surrounding it made it a blockbuster, but the critics and most moviegoers said the movie was lame. I'm sure this time the studios have hired actual writers to clean the script up. And people say that those who follow religion are just dumb sheep. Ugh.

I would say that this is the perfect time for the Church to emphasize more the compatibility of scienc and religion, as it always has.

For instance, do you know where the theory of the Big Bang came from? A Catholic priest named Georges Lemaitre.

Hopefully Amy Welborn is writing a new book as we speak. LOL.

RS

Favorite Christmas Song

Time for some levity.

A classic. It pretty much sums up all the things I hate about the commercialization and secularization of Christmas.

The Twelve Pains of Christmas by Bob Rivers. Well done homemade video too.



RS

Funeral Masses, case in point

Remember my little rant a few weeks ago about the loss of the proper perspective on All Soul's Day?

Thinking about All Souls Day

Fr. Z has found a real life example:

A very sad Fr. Z and the promise of a Mass

I've been to funerals where the deceased has been "canonized" by the priest during the Mass: "I'm sure that [insert name here] is in Heaven." We can certainly hope that they are, but we can't know for sure until they are officially canonized by the Church. I'd rather be safe than sorry.

So, please pray for the dead. And this weekend on Christ the King you can get another opportunity to try to obtain a plenary indulgence for a soul in Purgatory. Stay tuned ...

RS