John Oliver is very wrong about psychics and mediums

By now you've probably all seen John Oliver's segment on psychics on Last Week Tonight - if you haven't, you can watch it here. In short, it was appallingly offensive. He took some really broad strokes about psychics, and instead of just focusing on the problematic frauds, he decided that all psychics and mediums are fakers and con-artists.

How about no? Where do I start with how awful this segment was?
1) Although he lumps them together, psychics and mediums are two different things: psychics predict the future, mediums communicate with the dead. Some people have both gifts, but not always.
2) How DARE he pick on Tyler (the "Hollywood Medium"). He's a KID for godsakes. Shame on John. Pick on adults all you want, but Tyler is still a teenager and that was really low. It's also important to note that the show claims Tyler researches his clients ahead of time, but this is wrong. If anyone working at Last Week Tonight had even bothered to watch an episode or two of Hollywood Medium, they would know that Tyler knows nothing (not even a name) about the people he reads for beforehand, to help prevent bias.
3) So many people love to hate on psychics and mediums, but the minute they want to know whether their boyfriend is cheating on them or whether their deceased grandma is happy, they come running to us for a reading. But if thy get a reading they don't like, they start screaming about frauds. It's so hypocritical it's stunning.
4) Psychics and mediums are not omniscient. We are not a god, we don't see all or know all, and to imply otherwise is naive and petulant as all hell. Like everybody else on this planet, we cannot know everything and be right about everything 100% of the time. We only see/hear/understand what Spirit allows us to see/hear/understand (this is what I believe; others may feel differently about receiving information). And then we do our best to comprehend what has been conveyed to us and pass along the information to the querent.

5) Did he even talk to a psychic or medium before writing this segment? Obviously not, because it really shows.

Since he and his staff are clearly incapable of writing a balanced segment on something they don't understand and don't want to understand, John should stick to political and economic commentary.

In which Alanis helps me process anger

Source: quotespapa.com

I had a very difficult conversation with my boyfriend last night.  We spoke with honesty and openness, and it needed to occur, but it still had me crying, copiously.  Today I'm having a lot of feelings about what was said, most notably sadness and anger.  I'm trying to process those feelings with love.  Trying.  (must...channel...Thorn...)

Listening to music really helps me process intense feelings.  It so often seems that musicians express emotions and experiences in a way that seems far more *right* than I ever can with words alone.  I think that's why singing along is so therapeutic for me.  Especially Alanis Morissette, my all-time favorite artist who also has a great deal of ambiguous spirituality/pseudo-paganism in her music.  She crafts words and melody into such evocations that sometimes I swear she's pulling them straight out of my head.

I feel like my powers of finding just the right song are failing me right now, though.  I could really use some musical suggestions!  Do you have any songs that help you process feelings like anger, sadness, and confusion?

It's bananas

This week has seriously blown chunks. I've been realizing (and re-realizing) that there are serious problems with several important things in my life, including my job and my spiritual work. Also, the office has been having serious issues with internet and email connectivity, making it exceedingly difficult to do my work effectively. Suffice it to say, I'm having some serious anxiety and anger management issues because of it. I've been in quite the foul mood all week. Thank you, crazy brain, for making me blow up at my boyfriend just for making silly (and irritating) noises at me.

My cousins pretty much sum up how I feel about this week:

 

I've been trying to be nice to myself to at least balance things out, and possibly cheer myself up. Some of this involved pampering myself, deservedly so. So far this week:

1. Holed up in my room with Hulu and a beer.
2. Went to the salon and got my hair shampooed (the best part!), trimmed, and blow-dried (also quite nice). I seriously had to resist the urge to make happy noises while she was playing with my hair.
3. Convinced my boyfriend to play with my hair while we watched Restaurant Impossible. And made lots of happy noises.
4. Had a really delicious chocolate cupcake. Okay, two.
5. Made myself a really big mug of hot chocolate. Seriously, this mug can hold about 2 normal mugs worth of hot chocolate, and that makes me so happy. I'm thoroughly enjoying that right now.
6. Listened to my friends Peter and SarahKat on their podcast, We Like This Now. (You should go listen too. They're pretty awesome, and taste-test a new beer each week.)

I'm debating whether I should go to Target after work for some retail therapy. It would be kind of fun to have some new clothes to wear to a party I'm going to Saturday night. And it would seriously boost my step count for the 2011 Walk & Ride Challenge.

Alright, you know what? This calls for some serious pick-me-up music. As SarahKat said of this song, "that was bananas!" I like bananas. Bananas are good. Have some bananas.