That’s the question that pops into my head after seeing the story of a woman who was so freaked out by the words and manipulation of Harold Camping that she attempted to end the lives of her two teenage daughters and herself in order to spare them from the rapture.

Don’t know who Harold Camping is? Let me enlighten you. This is the man behind the Family Radio.com and the whole May 21, 2011 Judgement Day Campaign. All over the radio waves, internet and even the streets of American with an RV convoy, Camping, claiming he mathematically pinpointed not only the date but time (6pm local no matter where you were…huh?) that Judgment would commence upon the human race.  He said that there would be an earthquake unlike mankind has ever witnessed before and that would mark the beginning of the end. That the quake would cause graves to spill open and the remains of the Believers would ascend to Heaven. (Um, question…if you are a Believer, wouldn’t you already BE in Heaven since once you die you no longer have a use for your earthly body?) That God would start taking all the pure-soul-believers up to the Heavens and the rest would remain here on what would essentially become Hell on earth. That of course is until October 21^st which is the day that God would then destroy the world and all remaining inhabitants.  Camping of course was wrong and is now saying that the Judgment will occur on October 21^st.  Big stretch since he already had that date as part of the equation.

I was never good at math, but researching this dude and how he came up with the dates that he did, including saying the world was created in 11,013 BC (please tell me who was here to document that), blows my mind. Not to mention his arrogance. I mean this is a guy who was/is a pastor, left his church because he thought that organized religion was blurring God’s word, etc. This is a guy who claims to be a Messanger of God couldn’t have things more scrambled if he tried. As a pastor he should know better than to assume that he has it all figured out. As a pastor he should uphold God’s word and the scripture in the book of Matthew that point blank states:  “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

So if Jesus doesn’t even know, how the hell could Harold Camping??

This brings me to this story which you can watch below. Parents are held accountable for their child’s actions; to raise them with proper morals, behaviors and responsibilities. Teach the child to never play with fire or a gun. But if a child grabs a gun that belongs to daddy and accidentally kills someone, the parent is held accountable because they didn’t have the gun properly locked away. Or the child grabs a lighter or matches and accidentally sets the couch on fire and burns the home to the ground and injures or kills someone in the process, the parents are held accountable

With that theory, shouldn’t Harold Camping be held responsible for the attempted murder/suicide of this woman? I mean, yeah, he wasn’t holding the box cutter but months upon months upon months of brainwashing and instilling complete irrational fear that drove this woman to do what she did? I mean, she’s a mom that was trying to protect her children from what she had ground into her brain was going to be the most horrific end possible. She was trying to spare them all pain.

Now I know, perhaps mom wasn’t all and yes she should be held accountable for her actions too, but how often do you see people and their beliefs and reliance upon God get warped and twisted by those teaching them to where it pushes them to the point of becoming zealots? How many people have killed because they think God told them too? How many wars have been started and for that matter are still going on in the name of the Lord?

To me, Harold Camping is no different than David Koresh and the Branch Davidian or Marshall Applewhite and Heaven’s Gate.

I would agree with Mr. Camping on one thing: organized religion has blurred the word. Each denomination has their view and beliefs and thinks that their way is right. My belief is that you live a good life; you obey the Commandments to the best of your ability, you accept responsibility and ask for forgiveness for your wrongdoings, and do your best to love all of mankind. We are not perfect, God knows this, He made us. I don’t have to wear certain clothes and go to a certain building on a certain day to have God in my life. I only have to keep my heart and mind open to Him and He will always be there.

I could go on and on about this and should stop before I spiral or piss anyone off.

And though I’m a bit pissed myself at Mr. Camping’s lunacy I know that it is not my place to judge him. I’ll leave that up to God. I just wonder if Camping really believes that he’s elite and will sail right thru the Pearly Gates when his time comes. Or will God exhibit his sense of humor and laugh and say “Yeah, right.”

But I like it!

 New York Rangers’ Sean Avery has long been known as a Bad Boy in hockey.  A thorn in the side of players not only on his own team but opponents, coaches and front office staff as well. He’s the type of player that loves to get under your skin. He’ll take digs and jabs not only physically but verbally as well.

So I have to say I’m a little bit surprised to know that the controversy he’s causing this time is actually GOOD and I agree with him whole-heartedly.

Avery stepped up to film a PSA if you will, in support of gay marriage. It’s an ad for the “New Yorkers for Marriage Equality Campaign” from the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign (HRC). The HRC says s he’s the first professional athlete in New York to publicly support gay marriage.

Avery explained to the New York Times, “The places I’ve played and lived the longest have been in West Hollywood, California, when I played for the L.A. Kings, and when I moved to New York, I lived in Chelsea for the first four years. I certainly have been surrounded by the gay community. And living in New York and when you live in L.A., you certainly have a lot of gay friends.” Avery said some of those friends had wanted to marry, and he saw no reason why they shouldn’t. He told the Times, “I’m certainly open to it. Maybe I can help, and I jumped at this opportunity.”

Check it out here:

I certainly never thought I’d see the day that I said I am proud of Sean Avery but damn it, I am PROUD of Sean Avery!

Not everyone is in agreement. No one ever is. But more controversy begins to fly as an NHL agent tweeted against Avery and what he’s done saying flat out it’s “Very sad to read Sean Avery’s misguided support of same-gender ‘marriage’. Legal or not, it will always be wrong.”

Granted everyone has their opinion and is entitled to it, but this guy I think is going to be choking on his own foot. He represents some pretty big names in the game and I guess if I was one of these players and like-minded with Avery I’d be shopping for a new agent. But that will probably be a story for another time. (You can read that full article here!)

I am an open-minded person. I have gay friends. I personally believe that God created everything and everyone and when two people meet and fall in love, and want to spend their lives together, why not!  Everyone has the right to be happy and be married no matter what.  

So God Bless you, Sean Avery. Thank you for stepping up and showing that there’s more to you than most people, including me, ever knew.

That’s the name of the brand new Ozzy bio-pic that will be opening this weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.  Featuring rare footage of the Prince of F’ing Darkness along with interviews about him with family members and friends. Sounds like a good look into the real life of Ozzy.

Here’s a sneak peak:

Ok, I’ll admit, I DON’T watch American Idol. Some think I should just because of the business that I’m in. My attitude is when I do tune in all I see are carbon cookie cutter copies of every other “pop” star that’s out there today. They all look the same, sound the same, etc. Save for Carrie Underwood.

I have been known to in the past to watch a week or two of auditions and then I’m done. I didn’t even do that this year. And you add Steven Tyler of Aerosmith into the mix. I still couldn’t get there.

Then every couple of nights I get these texts from my sister who watches the show religiously. She brought up this James Durbin kid one night and how he covered Judas Priest. HUH??? Is that even allowed on Idol? Kinda sorry I missed it.

Then last week she texts and tells me Iggy Pop was on. The Godfather of Punk was on Idol??? The only one on that show old enough to really know Iggy’s genius is Steven Tyler. (Oh to sit in a room with those two and listen to them swap stories!) Damn, I missed it.

 
Then last night she texted me and said Zakk Wylde was on. Again I say HUH??? Like not someone covering an Ozzy song or a Zakk song but Zakk is actually ON the show???

Yup. And guess who’s he’s playing with? James Durbin. The same kid who I’m sure for the first time EVER brought metal to Idol. 

Apparently the theme to last night’s show was “Reel” tunes, as in movie songs.  And while someone pulled  out a freakin’ (not shocking) Miley Cyrus song, James Durbin pulled out Sammy Hagar’s “Heavy Metal” with Zakk wailing away at his side. 

Again, I missed it.

But I’ve got now! Check it out!

HELLS YES!!! Durbin did awesome! I think Zakk stole the spotlight a little but bless this kid for bringing GOOD music to this show!!

I'm so damn impressed I just might have to watch the rest of the season now! God help me!

Foo Fighters celebrated the release of their brand new record, “Waisting Light” by ripping it up on the Ed Sullivan Theatre stage last night on “Late Night with David Letterman” last night.

AWWWWWWWEESSOOOOOOMMMMMEEEEE!!!

Yes! The 3rd Eaglet was born tonight. Around 5:37pm the shell had a nice crack in it and the little baby was starting to work his way out into the world. By 7pm it was nestled under mom with its siblings. Pretty cool video showing the pip and and birth.

Like I said, THIS is reality television. And pretty damn cool at that!

Watch them grow now live on the ustream link!

I love the Decorah Eagle Cams!

Ok, so it might not be packed full of foul-mouthed, overly bronzed, alcohol swilling, fist swinging people. It might be slow or considered boring by comparison. But I for one think it’s pretty fascinating.

Now this is just a short time capture over the course of last Friday and Saturday when the first baby eagle exited his shell to enter the world. 

It's pretty amazing stuff. I mean, you can watch Discovery or Animal Planet or National Geographic and won't see something like this especially this close.

I don't sit in front of the computer 24/7 watching but it's pretty cool to tune in a few times a day and see what's new: from mom and dad changing shifts, to random critters being dropped in the nest for dinner, to something as crazy big as these magestic birds feeding their babies (yes, there's two hatched now) with such care and delicacy.

If you haven't checked them out, here's a link to the LIVE feed.

http://www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles

It's pretty damn cool!

…like I did!!

Sunday night I was at the Drowning Pool show at People’s. Before the show I went to dinner with my DP brothers and road crew. One of the guys was part of our after show 80s sing-a-long party on the Seether bus after their Lazerfest performance last year.

So as we were reliving the fun it was brought up that Seether would be performing on Lopez Tonight on Monday night. I totally spaced it! Thank God for youtube!

Check out the killer perfomance here!

Awesome!!! Can't wait to see them again May 15th at this year's Lazerfest. I'm only hoping for another post show sing-a-long so I can wear my sunglasses at night!

For almost a week now we’ve been seeing visions of tragedy, destruction, devastation and heartbreak coming out of the Pacific.

Today I found one that encompasses all of those things and at the same time puts an oddly warm feeling in me.

This video is in Japanese and is not translated or captioned into English. It doesn’t need to be. To me this transcends the language barrier.

It’s hard for me to find the words to explain how this makes me feel. I find this video just as amazing as it is heartbreaking. Dogs are loyal thru and thru, no question about it.  

As horrific as what’s happening in Japan is, it’s unbelievably difficult for me to think about the animals. I mean, it’s sad enough to think about human population and the suffering that has happened and will continue. But there’s also thousands of animals, wild and pets alike, who faced the same devistation. Just like when Katrina hit I had a worse time watching what was happening to the animals that were left behind or perhaps caught more off guard than their human counterparts. I’m not trying to say that one life is more valuable than another, but perhaps that humans had slightly better odds at escaping nature’s wrath.  

My prayers are with all life in Japan; lost, injured, surviving and four-legged as well. I hope to see an update soon that will tell me the reporter that found these dogs was able to rescue them both.