On a side note, am I the only person very into Big Love?

No, I've been digging it. (Although I haven't seen Sunday's yet...) I'm still wondering how the show will last through multiple seasons -- won't Bill get found out? It seems to me that a successful local business man will have a hard time hiding such secrets from the mainstream Mormon public.

Roman (i.e., the Warren Jeffs character) and his wives are disturbing.

It's okay. It's better than most crap on TV, but one of the bottom tier HBO shows. I think it delves into wackiness too often and smacks a bit of that god awful show, Desperate Housewives, which I am sure was part of this shows pitch. I do love Roman and I think this Sunday's episode was one of the best (Marge's story was great), but all in all, it doesn't excite me to watch, week after week. Bring on Deadwood June 11th. I can't wait.

True, I do get tired of the domestic side of things.

But yeah, bring on Deadwood. Ingen, have you caught up with Deadwood yet?

on saturday night, i was on a bus to harvard square. there is a mormon mission somewhere in somerville/cambridge, and i often see young mormons on some of the bus routes. on this particular night, i saw 2 mormons, wearing their shirtsleeves and ties, and name tags that said "Elder ________, Church of JC, Latter Day Saints" -- probably between 18 and 20 years old, one white and one asian.

it was a crowded bus, and an old drunk black dude got on and he was shouting stuff -- he wasn't angry, he was just loud, and he couldn't speak very well, so it was hard to understand him. he sat right next to these two mormon kids, who humored him a little bit by smiling and "talking" to him (even though there was no real communication) -- but they were both far more interested in the cute indian (probably harvard) girl that they were hitting on.

at one point, the old drunk dude kept saying (i think) "jesus christ! jesus christ!" in a real positive, awe-struck kind of way. these two dudes kept looking over and laughing at him and turning back to the indian girl, disgusted with the guy.

after we all got off the bus, i overheard the white one saying "that guy was spitting all over me," and the asian one just laughed. i'm pretty sure they got the indian chick's number, though.

couldn't help but be reminded:
"Whatever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me."

You would have chosen the homeless guy over the Indian girl?

no -- i would have chosen to not speak to anyone and sit in the back, looking out the window grumpily (which is exactly what i did).

but -- i'm not a mormon. and i don't advertise myself as one. and i don't ride buses chatting it up with strangers in an attempt to spread my religion -- one of the principle tenets of said religion being “Whatever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me.”

my point is -- those mormon assholes should have recognized that the homeless guy (according to their faith) was jesus in disguise. and rather than make fun of him and complain about his spitting, they should have shown him compassion and understanding.

i don't have to do either because i don't walk around with a nametag that declares i'm a mormon.

You yourself said they humored him and "talked" to him, which is more than most people do with crazy people on mass transit systems. What did you want or expect them to do? If they tried to preach to him, wouldn't that piss you off more? If the same situation happened, but they weren't talking to some attractive girl would it have upset you as much? Basically I am asking if you are really pissed because two morman dudes, dressed in their lame morman gear, cock blocked you on a bus?

And yes, I know I spelled mormon wrong. So please, no [sic]'s.

you're missing the point and you weren't there. they were mocking him -- out and out mocking him. i didn't want them to preach to him -- but if they're going to be fucking *missionaries* -- how about treating the guy with some respect and dignity -- maybe even try to help him -- instead of laughing at him. again, that's not a person's obligation unless they go out of their way to tell the world that that's their obligation.

their fucking christ told them to expect him in disguise. luckily, i think that's all crap. but they don't. that's my point.

it was hypocritical.

and sheesh, the day i feel "cockblocked" (charming) from hitting on some bitchy harvard freshman is the day crazymonk stops blowing dudes.

ps everyone else treated him with more respect by ignoring him, than they did by nodding along and laughing at him.

As far as I'm concerned, any discussion of relgion is a chance for me to whip out my favorite bible passage:

2 Kings 2:23-25

Elisha Is Jeered
23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some youths came out of the town and jeered at him. "Go on up, you baldhead!" they said. "Go on up, you baldhead!" 24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. 25 And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.

Some kids laugh at a bald guy, he prays to god to punish them, and god sends a bunch of bears to tear the kids apart. Now that's a god I want to pray to.

Judge not, lest ye be judged yourself.

right! "judge not lest ye be judged" is exactly the kind of crap i would live by if i took that shit seriously. since i don't, i'm not a hypocrite. since they supposedly do (advertising to the world via black engraved nametag that they do) they should live by it. thank you -- finally -- someone sees my point.

Has anyone read "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer (author of Into Thin Air)? It covers a murder that took place amongst members of the FLDS, but also includes a history of Mormonism both in its mainstream and fundamentalist (plural wives) variety. That's where I first read about the early history of the Book of Mormon, before South Park popularized it. I had known that the Mormons were rather bloodily chased west, but I didn't know that Mormons in Utah massacred a group of non-Mormon frontiersman who were passing through the area. I seem to remember Krakauer asserting that this almost led to a civil war between the U.S. government and Utah. Read the book as it is pretty cool.

The book also mentions a guy who so loathed the government that he stopped paying taxes, even sales tax. The book never explains how he avoided paying sales tax though.

[...] Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), was arrested in Nevada just north of Las Vegas. I’ve written about Jeffs and his community before. [...]