Je t’aime… moi non plus

I was lent the DVD of the film Betty Blue a couple of weeks ago and finally got around to watching it. Starring Jean-Hughes Anglade and Beatrice Dalle, the Director’s Cut at just about 3 hours in length requires a feat of endurance, but was absolutely worth every minute.

I just thought about the film right now and what a strange if unrelated coincidence, as I was looking through my song collection and came upon Je t’aime… moi non plus which I first heard in high school in the early 80’s, but haven’t listened to in ages. It reminded me of a scene from the film with Betty and Zorg fleeing to the city while getting a lift in a pick-up truck, after she sets fire to the beach shack they were living in.

Je t’aime… moi non plus has quite a colourful history. Written by Serge Gainsbourg, it was originally written for and sung with Bridgitte Bardot way back in 1967. It was not released after Bardot’s husband Gunter Sachs got wind of it. In 1968 Gainsbourg recorded another version with English actress Jane Birkin which was released in 1969. It was promptly banned from radio in several European cities and in the USA for being too risqué, and not surprisingly denounced by the Vatican as well.

Incidentally the version originally sung with Bardot was eventually released in 1986, but quite frankly is relatively timid compared to the Birkin duet, which as you can guess rocks my boat.

The song has been extensively covered by a diverse array of artists including Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer, who was inspired by it to create the disco classic Love To Love You Baby.

Je t’aime, je t’aime
Oh oui je t’aime !
Moi non plus
Oh mon amour

Comme la vague irrésolue

Je vais, je vais et je viens
Entre tes reins
Je vais et je viens
Entre tes reins
Et je me retiens

The Brotherhood of Misogynists

The use of religion and culture to violate women’s rights is a vile and cowardly pursuit, but is distressingly prevalent throughout the world.

The U.N. Commission on the Status of Woman which has been lobbying since 1946 for the advancement of women, is at the moment pushing for acceptance of the declaration on woman’s rights. However Egypt, Iran and Russia together with the Vatican (no surprises there!) are “threatening to derail the women’s rights declaration by objecting to language on sexual, reproductive and gay rights.” Egypt in opposition, has unashamedly proposed an amendment which will allow men to once again hide behind religious and cultural values.

In a disturbing parallel move, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood posted a statement on its website which claims that the declaration will among other things, destroy society by allowing women to travel freely, work, use contraception and control the household finances. That kind of thinking would be hysterical if it was not so shockingly infantile and backward. Even more worrying is that according to the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies, this is a position favoured by many Arab governments.

You will no doubt laugh hysterically, but these are the ten objections to the declaration contained in the statement on the Muslim Brotherhood’s website, that they believe will lead to decadence:

1. Granting girls full sexual freedom, as well as the freedom to decide their own gender and the gender of their partners (ie, choose to have normal or homo- sexual relationships), while raising the age of marriage.
2. Providing contraceptives for adolescent girls and training them to use those, while legalizing abortion to get rid of unwanted pregnancies, in the name of sexual and reproductive rights.
3. Granting equal rights to adulterous wives and illegitimate sons resulting from adulterous relationships.
4. Granting equal rights to homosexuals, and providing protection and respect for prostitutes.
5. Giving wives full rights to file legal complaints against husbands accusing them of rape or sexual harassment, obliging competent authorities to deal husbands punishments similar to those prescribed for raping or sexually harassing a stranger.
6. Equal inheritance (between men and women).
7. Replacing guardianship with partnership, and full sharing of roles within the family between men and women such as: spending, child care and home chores.
8. Full equality in marriage legislation such as: allowing Muslim women to marry non-Muslim men, and abolition of polygamy, dowry, men taking charge of family spending, etc.
9. Removing the authority of divorce from husbands and placing it in the hands of judges, and sharing all property after divorce.
10. Cancelling the need for a husband’s consent in matters like: travel, work, or use of contraception.

This retarded mentality roughly translates into “Woe be unto men if we can’t have multiple wives, but heaven help us if we allow them to travel freely, use contraception, file for divorce, accuse us of rape, decide how to spend money… and fuck other women.”

Why are these men so afraid of women?

How many Atheists will the Vatican convert? Seriously?

The Pontifical Council must be losing it. Last year they announced an initiative to reach out to Atheists by staging a series of debates and other forms of dialogue, in an effort to foster better relations.

Known as Courtyard of the Gentiles, the Vatican has now revealed that the event will take place in Paris, France on March 24-25. But it seems that they may follow through with their stated intention of not allowing some of the world’s most outspoken Atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens to participate. Apparently the “irony and sarcasm” of these gentlemen are not appreciated.

One news source I read today proclaimed that the event is aimed at introducing non-believers to God. Ahem!

I would tend to think that Atheists are quite well acquainted with the gods of the world – which is why they’ve become non-believers! It never ceases to amaze me how believers still hang onto the notion that non-believers are just angry with the gods for whatever reason, and it will just take some sort of enticement [such as this Courtyard of the Gentiles initiative], or even the fear of approaching death, to get us back among the faithful again.

Anyway, if “sarcasm and irony” is missing from the event in Paris, it would just be another great big boring preaching session. It’s not like the Church, that bastion of backwards thinking, is going to teach an Atheist something new.

Yawn!

Pope to fight rise of secularism in the West, or, the decline of Catholicism and the fight to keep it alive

Seems that Christianity is dying a slow death; one shameful form of it at any rate. But even though that’s the natural order of things in an evolving world, the Vatican through its divinely appointed CEO, Pope Benedict XVI, would like to buck the trend and save this particular endangered species of mind-virus from extinction.

The Pope, besieged by accusations of cover-ups in clerical sex abuse cases, has, in a vainglorious moment of desperation decided to shore up his sinking ship, by implementing a new office within his religio-business empire to fight the rise of secularism in the West, specifically Europe. It’s to be called the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization [PCP-the-NE for short], and Monsignor Rino Fisichella has been hand-picked by the Pope to drive this department which is expected to “reinvigorate Christianity in the parts of the world where it is falling by the wayside.”

I’m sure the Pontiff is hoping that his new signing will have more success than the famous F1 driver, and that his new department will have the same drug-like hold that PCP once had in keeping a nation mesmerised.

One wonders what the new Vatican department will resort to in its efforts to “rekindle the faith.” I’m pretty sure that some of the methods of persuasion last used during the Dark Ages, won’t be particularly appreciated or tolerated in the age of enlightenment and unprecendented, but hard-won freedoms. But one never knows; if for some insane reason, there is a sudden rise in religious fervor in the West, the Dark Age mentality may yet cast its ugly shadow on the rest of the world.

But somehow, I doubt that this new Vatican department will have any success. I have faith that people are much smarter and less prone to gullibility than they once were. The rise of secularism is testimony to this development, and mental slavery will come to an end.