Bloody bath lands Lady Gaga in hot water

Lady Gaga has been known to frolic in blood. Does that make her a Satanist? A London hotel housekeeper seems to think so.

A housekeeper at a London hotel is reporting that Lady Gaga recently bathed in a tub full of blood in the hotel — and then didn’t clean up afterward. According to several reports, the housekeeping staff — who, of course, are widely accepted experts on such things — claim it was part of a “Satanic ritual.”

Oh boy.

Let’s revisit history, shall we? The most famous woman alleged to have bathed in blood was Elizabeth Báthory, whose life (like Gaga’s) is so surrounded by myth and hyperbole, it’s hard to know fact from fiction. However, allegedly, Báthory figured out that bathing in the blood of virgins helped her look younger. Is there any evidence that the occult was involved? No.

Bathing in blood is also a pop-culture trope, seen in such films as (pictures not safe for work) Hostel II and (of course) Bathory. Eminem posed in a bathtub full of blood. Did anyone call him a Satanist? Well, okay, yes, but not specifically for his bathing habits.

While it’s true that blood magic is practiced in some pagan faiths, it’s not any more common among Satanists than other groups — and there are no known “Satanic rituals” that involve bathing in blood. Moreover, there’s no sign that this was real blood, or that Lady Gaga is a practicing Satanist.

It seems much more likely that the housekeeper in question, understandably horrified at the scene and justifiably angry at having to clean up, jumped to conclusions based on pop-culture references and her imagination took over.

Let’s keep this in mind the next time we see someone we think might be involved with paganism, the occult, or even Satanism. Those who do practice blood magic probably don’t look like you imagine they would.

Blaming Grand Theft Auto insults rioters, ignores real reasons for youth rage

Here’s what we know so far:

* A London father named Mark Duggan was allegedly shot and killed by police last Thursday in the north London neighborhood of Tottenham.

* Rioting in working-class neighborhoods in London began on August 6, two days after Duggan’s death. Demonstrations, and then vandalism, violence, and looting, followed in Tottenham, Croydon, Wood Green, Enfield Town, Ponders End and Brixton.

* Violence spread to other cities in England, including Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham, Bristol, Kent, and Leeds.

* More than 500 Britons have been arrested, and more than 111 police officers have been hurt.

* Rioters are communicating partly by way of a BlackBerry service called BlackBerry Messenger, which allows for simultaneous communication similar to an online chat.

* Because the uprising is taking place predominantly in working-class communities, some say the violence has been percolating for years, just waiting for a spark:

It is demonstrative of how far Labour has sunk that it is barely considered a voice for those people on the streets, and it is of the utmost importance — if Labour is to against be simultaneously left-wing and electorally successful — that it once again gets in touch with those it has unfortunately abandoned.

Because, to be honest, that is what causes riots — disenfranchisement … Many of the rioters will have been unable to vote in the last election, and are now being hit hardest by the Coalition’s cuts. Cuts to EMA and youth services seem to be designed to specifically target the young and disadvantaged.

That only adds to a general environment which has been growing over the last decade (and perhaps longer) of anti-youth hysteria. In Maidstone and in towns and cities across the country, young people are treated like vermin to be kept away from shops and fast food outlets with a ‘mosquito’ device.

In the above video, journalist and political leader Darcus Howe says his own kids have lost count of the number of times his son has been searched by police. He also makes the case that it’s wrong to classify these actions as “riots”:

“I don’t call it rioting, I call it an insurrection of the masses of the people. It is happening in Syria, it is happening in Clapham, it’s happening in Liverpool, it’s happening in Port-au-Spain, Trinidad, and that is the nature of the historical moment.”

Meanwhile, the police — the very police whose actions against Duggan (justified or not) and whose actions against the young people of these poor communities may have sparked their anger — are blaming something else entirely.

Are you ready for it?

Grand Theft Auto.

In Tottenham, the scene of the first riots on Saturday night, a police officer said: ‘These are bad people who did this. Kids are out of control.

‘When I was young it was all Pacman and board games. Now they’re playing Grand Theft Auto and want to live it for themselves.’

When youth grow up facing attitudes like that, it’s no wonder they’re angry, bashing cars and torching shops.

It’s beyond insulting to the people of these communities to write off such deeply held rage as the product of playing a video game. Such statements lay bare the gulf of misunderstanding that lies between those in power and the powerless. The story of this violence is, in some ways, the story of every act of youth violence: in the effort to raise their voices, to be heard, to claim a moment of power, however senseless or misguided, their acts are once again misnamed, misinterpreted, misunderstood, and dismissed.

As long as this ignorance continues, so will the violence.

MW3 offers catharsis for bombing survivors

The newest trailer for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is out, and it includes compelling footage of gameplay in London and Paris, among other places. The London scenes zoom through an Underground tunnel — and even show a Tube train derailing. It’s understandable that Londoners, particularly those who experienced the 7/7 bombings or know someone who did, would be unnerved by such scenes.

Still, many say the London newspaper Daily Mail is taking it too far, with headlines like, “BAN THIS SICK FILTH” and “BAN THESE EVIL GAMES.” From the Giant Fire Breathing Robot blog:

The paper quotes Vivenne Pattison, spokeswoman for Mediawatch UK, as saying, “I have concerns as these games are hyper-real and take place in a landscape we are familiar with. In light of the fact we have just had the 7/7 inquests, it is in incredibly poor taste.” One of Mediawatch’s self-proclaimed missions is to, “campaign against violent, sexually explicit and obscene material in the media.”

It would be easy to say that game companies are capitalizing on these kinds of events. They are, after all, earning a profit from the games they design and sell. That said, the Call of Duty series didn’t get to be one of the best-selling game franchises simply by being gory and exploitative. If you watch the trailer above, you’ll see that it’s gripping, exciting, and incredibly lifelike. This isn’t just a game — it’s a chance to vividly imagine that you’re in the thick of a conflict on the modern-day streets of London and Paris.

As I’ve said before, these kinds of games can help both teen and adult players make deeper sense of current events such as the 7/7 bombings or other incidents. Anyone who is aware of those bombings, whether they experienced them directly or not, may have some leftover anxiety. Playing a game like Modern Warfare 3, with its built-in rewards and chances at heroism, can help people move past those anxieties.

Instead of banning these games, perhaps they should be handed out for free as a public service to anyone who needs to work through lingering fears about what happened that July morning in London. What do you think?