Posts Tagged ‘Buddhist’

Cam Cannon

A Look Back at The Beastie Boys Part 4: ‘Ill Communication’

by Cam Cannon

[Ed. Note: Previous chapters of this outstanding series can be found here.]

Never before had a Beastie Boys album been so greatly anticipated. The release of “Ill Communication” was preceded by the single and video for “Sabotage,” an all-out screaming rock song. The video is legen- (waitforit) -dary, an instant classic that featured the Beasties and their DJ, Hurricane starring in spoof/homage of/to 70’s cop shows. Directed with style and wit by Spike Jonze, the video was the source of a little bit of controversy when it lost in every category to Aerosmith and R.E.M at the VMA’s. When Spike Jonze lost best director to whoever won for R.E.M.’s “Everybody Hurts,” as his alter ego, Nathaniel Hornblower, Yauch bum rushed the stage in full leiderhosen and interrupted Michael Stipe’s acceptance speech. Hornblower claimed that the awards were a farce and that in addition to his great work on “Sabotage,” Spike Jonze had conceived “all the best ideas for “Star Wars.”

With “Sabotage” and the VMA interruption, we were introduced to the Andy Kaufman side of the Beasties. The album was fine, their first number-one hit since “Licensed to Ill.”  It was the first Beastie Boys album to sound anything like the last one, and as such, was a bit anti-climatic. It features a few great songs, plus a cameo from Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest. They managed some funny lines (“Got fat bass lines like Russell Simmons steals money.”), but fewer and further between. Yauch had become a Buddhist, and so they included a song about it. I didn’t love it, or the Funky Instrumentals.

Another emerging theme was their newfound respect for women. On both “Licensed to Ill” and “Paul’s Boutique,” women were treated like objects, for the most part (Sample lines: “Girls! To clean up my room!,” “I love girlies, waxin’ and milkin’!”). But themes were far too playful for me to label the Beasties as misogynists. (more…)

Adam Baldwin

Secularism’s Drones ‘Sting’ Brit Hume

by Adam Baldwin

On Fox News Sunday, panelist Brit Hume offered a hopeful New Year’s message for the fallen Tiger Woods: 

“Tiger Woods will recover as a golfer. Whether he can recover as a person, I think, is a very open question… the extent to which he can recover, it seems to me, depends on his faith. He’s said to be a Buddhist, I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. So, my message to Tiger would be: ‘Tiger, turn to the Christian faith, and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world.’” 

As an avid golfer, Christian man, and therefore a witness to the historic fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Mr. Hume clearly offered his message in good faith with honest concern for both Tiger’s future and for that of his family, friends, fans and business associates. 

Sadly however, some drones of Secularism have reflexively stomped on their Political Correctness brakes; stinging at Mr. Hume with personal demonization, as if he’d somehow committed a sin against their totalitarian faith

Keith Olbermann: “This crosses that principle [of keeping] religious advocacy out of public life, since, you know, the worst examples of that are jihadists, not to mention, you know, guys who don’t know their own religions or somebody else’s religion, like Brit Hume.” 

Dan Savage: “Whenever we have a discussion in our country about jihadism and radical Muslims, you always hear, ‘where are the moderate voices? Where are the moderate Muslims? Why don’t they speak up?’ Where are the moderate Liberal Progressive Christians when something like this happens?… American Christianity’s been hijacked by the lunatics [including] people like Brit Hume.”  (more…)