Luke 2:1-20

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem (because he was of the house and lineage of David), to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being with child.

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord come upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another: "Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this king which is to come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us." And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

In case you hadn't noticed, it's Christmas. Merry Christmas!

Ako ang Simula

You know what really pisses me off? That "Ako ang Simula" and "Boto mo, I-patrol Mo" garbage ABS-CBN always harps on about. Its been praised as an effort to increase voter involvement and to rouse the youth. Bullshit.

The Filipino voter is not smart. Period. The fact we elected Erap, a high school dropout actor, is proof enough. Second, the youth couldn't give half a rat's ass. There is no organized youth movement or at least a truly large one. The youth would rather post their ugly on facebook or post their stupid opinions on blogs than vote. Thirdly, your vote does not matter. It doesn't. Smart people like to think their vote matters but it doesn't. The truth is, among regular people, voting is just a scattered turkey shoot of individual votes sent like bottles with notes cast out to sea. The real power voting happens with organized groups, political machinery if you will, like Barangays where the townsfolk reliably sell their votes to whoever "bossman" tells them to or to whoever guy the Captain is allied with. Another example is the local Protestant group who practice block voting. No wonder the government pays more attention to the Protestants than the Catholic church. Now that's political muscle.

Okay, let me play along. Suppose I register my lazy ass to vote. Who the hell am I going to vote for? What lovely candidates do I have to choose from? What's the best the country has to offer? Let's see. We have Erap...again. We have the usual nuisance candidates. Uh, we have the usual people from the well moneyed and connected political elite, some of which have been running since forever. We have smart people who happen to be ruling party stooges. Oh yeah, we also have an alleged retard who happens to be the son of a hero. Yup, whoever wins, we lose.

I should blog about the general topic of elections some time in the future.

Ham

Its that time of year again.

You know its Christmas when weird people you hardly talk about for the other part of the year stop by to give you ham. When I think of a salty flank of pork, I think of the little manger in Bethlehem where a baby was born surrounded by tasty farm animals. Seriously, ham? That's the default gift? How about a gift basket, have some variety for a change. I know gift baskets always have Danish luncheon meat in it and that's always good.

Rage Against The Machine - Testify

All this talk of the Philippines falling apart makes me hungry for this kind of music. Also, I am lazy.

To show how lazy I am, I will just post a video.

Insecurity

Sometimes I don't feel safe.

With the recent massacre of unarmed women and civilians in Mindanao and a bunch of kidnappings here and there, sometimes it seems the country is falling apart. I feel like any idiot with a gun can kill anyone and get away with it. I think the sad reality is that nobody is really safe anymore. You can't rely on the police to protect you and frankly I don't trust police officers at all. I know your supposed to respect authority but I'm suspicious instead. Cynicism and paranoia.

I need to learn how to shoot.

A Night At The Movies

Last Sunday, in an unexplainable turn of events, my mother all of a sudden liked Twilight. She saw the first movie on the TV and then decided to watch the second movie in the cinema just like that. The movie was on 9:30 in the evening. This is so unlike her. I knew Twilight was evil. It is obviously clouding her spirit in some sinister manner.

Anyway there was no way I was watching that movie so I got my cousin, who is a fan of it, to watch with mom while I watch Ninja Assassin. Well, I thought it would be less gay but in many ways, it was a weird movie.

Ninja Assassin or Ninjer Assassin as the white foreigner behind me called it, at first confused me. Was it about an assassin who killed ninjas? A ninja who is also an assassin? Well I can tell you what it was. It was a movie starring Rain, a Korean pop star. In between the copious amounts of blood and gore there were copious shots of Rain's sculpted torso. Needless to say it was confusing. It was violent but then gay. Violent then gay. Gay then violent. Oh cool his head got split and oh is that Rain? Gay! Oh man he got cut in -oh its Rain again. Gay! I swear, after a scene where some guy had his ass kicked, I got treated to a scene with Rain just working out and then lying down on a bed in his undies. Is this a guy or a chick movie?

I don't know what to say about the movie so I'll just laugh about it instead. The movie is unintentionally hilarious when you think about it. Rain's expression doesn't change much until the fight scene where he looks like he needs to shit. There's a story about ninja clans that Rain's character has betrayed. The best part is the head of the ninja clan. The villain has a hilarious accent. You disgrace famiry! The fight scenes were hard to follow. All eye candy. Not as bad as say a Michael Bay movie but still.

Gay.