Chamblee54

The innocent comment on social media started it all. For producing f***ed-up thinking, religion is right up there with a brick to the head. And really, religion and the brick are both at worst harmless on their own. It’s the people throwing them at you who mean you no good.
This was followed by a few more thoughts. A brick seldom encourages the thrower, while religion routinely does. // I think there are just certain people who look at a brick or a belief, and see only a chance to be an asshole. Either thing can be used to build something good, either can be used to do damage. I don’t think religion encourages bad behavior any more than a brick does. It’s all the people who’ve already made the decision to be assholes, and somehow convince others that it’s great. // As Ian Anderson might say, this is getting thick as a brick. // The bible can both inspire, or inflict hate; it’s the context the reader views it in that creates the outcome. Then again a brick isn’t fiction, though it WAS put together by a group of men! *ducks* // Bricks don’t kill people. People kill people.
In America, religion is usually Christianity, and a brick is a dark red rectangle of dried mud. Discussions of Xtianity (spell check suggestion: Inanity)usually devolve into reading the bible, which is considered to be “the word of G-d”. Discussions of bricks usually involve price, time of delivery, and making sure to order enough mortar.
Maybe the bible should not be compared to a brick, but to sausage and congressional districts. All three were produced by devious people, seeking the maximum profits from the raw materials at hand. If you were to see any of them being made, you would become atheist/vegetarian/republican. Efficient use of materials takes priority over a healthy diet.
This Chatauqua on religion and bricks is going nowhere fast. Maybe it is time for a repost. This post went up exactly four years ago. In that time, we have pulled the troops out of Babylon, and sent more of them to Afghanistan. The war is Afghanistan was not discussed, it was announced. After nine eleven we needed revenge, and the heroin producers were being harassed by the Taliban. This would not do.
Before the War in Babylon started, I thought it was important to go on record in opposition. Once the fighting started, it would be a matter of supporting the troops, and I am going to do this. I will support the fighting men and women no matter how ill conceived and executed the battle plan is.
As an aside, I am happy to see these braves folks referred to as men and women. During the Vietnam disaster, there was a lot of “Back our Boys” talk, and that always annoyed me. If you go overseas and face death, you are a man (or woman).
Getting back to the story, I sent a letter to my representatives in Washington, to the effect that the impending invasion of Iraq was not a very good idea. Saxby Chambliss sent a reply a few months later. He talked about how important the war was, and what wonderful progress was being made by the troops. I wonder if his staffer even read my letter.
Zell Miller never sent a reply. Of course, my letter said, ” you were elected to represent me”, and Zig Zag Zell was appointed to fill the term of a Senator who died in office. The Senator…I believe his name was Tysinger…was a Republican, and yet the Democratic Governor of Georgia appointed the Democratic Zell Miller to finish his term. Mr. Miller showed his gratitude by giving the keynote address at the Republican Convention.
Denise Majette was my representative in the House. She defeated the notorious Cynthia McKinney in November of 2002. I got a three page letter from Ms. Majette. She said that she essentially agreed with me about the war, but that there was little that could be done about it at that time. She also said that it was important to support the troops once the fighting started.
For some reason, Ms. Majette ran for the Senate, and got badly beaten. Ms. McKinney regained her seat in Congress, to the embarrassment of many. Cynthia McKinney is another person who does not answer my letters. The fact that I have never written her is not important.
In the 2008 election, Hank Johnson defeated Cynthia McKinney, and now represents the 4th district. He makes the occasional goofy comment, offset by the fact that he is not Cynthia McKinney.
The districts in Georgia were reworked after the last census, and some changes were made. As you can see in the attached image, some curious lines were drawn. Whatever drugs the lesterslature was doing, when they created these districts, should be shared with the voters.
Black and white pictures are from The Library of Congress.

PG read Epiphany, by Dr. Ferrol Sams. He lived, and wrote, the Sambo trilogy. Epiphany is three stories, either novellas or short novels. All deal with listening, and the concept of subject-subject consciousness. While Dr. Sams knows about listening, it is unlikely that he has heard about SSC, at least under that new agey name. This post will have some spoilers, so if you want to read the book, it might be best to skip ahead to the pictures. These pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
The first story is about a doctor, who listens to a patient, Gregry McHune. It seems as though the man killed someone, went to prison, and now the family of the man he killed want revenge. A plan was made to kill some people, leave town, and start a new life. When it came time to pull the trigger, Gregry couldn’t do it. “I remembered the hate in the eyes of they daddy. It’s the worst look I have ever seen in my life, and I don’t never want to see it again the longest day I live. Especially if I’m the cause of it. Not in no human being, don’t matter what color he is”
This paragraph took PG back to his days at Redo Blue, with the professional Jesus worshiper. The man would pump himself full of pressure, and then explode in anger. It was a quite a sight to see an allegedly grown man become completely unglued, because he had lost his temper. The worst part of those temper tantrums was the hate in his eyes. PG would like to go the rest of his life without seeing that sight. In a perfect life, PG would never hear the word Jesus again, but that is asking too much.
The doctor in this story took the time to listen, and came to see Medical Record Number 079214 as more than a prozac user. A subplot of the story is a conflict between the doctor, and the clinic administrator. The doctor likes to quote poetry when he dictates notes of his work, and the administrator worries about the legal ramifications. At the end of the story there is an uneasy truce. The doctor signs off the notes of the last visit from 079214 by saying “Yours for better medicine and for the poetry that lives in all of us”.
The second story shows what happens when you don’t listen. Or rather, what happens when you let the words go in one ear, and out the other, and do what you want to do anyway. Sometimes, it only takes a second or two to make a mistake that take hours of time to fix. This is another story about a doctor, and it can be safely assumed that this doctor is the author.
The third story is about the oldest man in the county, and three high school students who come to interview him. There is a school project of some sort. A four players have pre conceived notions about the others at the start of the story, some of which have gone away by the end. One of the old man’s stories has a doctor in it, which is possibly a guest appearance by Sambo.
The old man, Mr, McEachern, showed the younguns a document. “Georgia Clayton County. Know all men by these presents that we grant bargain sell and convey to the said Bogus Mask a Negro man named Charles twenty seven years of age for and in consideration of the sum of twelve hundred dollars to them in hand paid warranted to be sound this the 20 day of December 1860” Foreheads were furrowed, and panties were wadded.
This is the part of this discussion where we get into subject subject consciousness. At some point in the postwar period, Robert Pirsig wrote a book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values. It is long and convoluted, and perhaps best encountered with the help of a teacher. PG took in on, and made an effort to put his eyes on every word of the text.
One of the themes of ZATAOMM is how we see things as being separated into subject and object. This division can take the form of me and you, us and them, G-d and man, and a few others. This is a western concept, and it runs counter to the concept that all things are connected, that “thou art that”. Like the Buddhist monk went to a hot dog vendor, and said, make me one with everything.
In ZATAOMM (which might be pronounce zaDOWmm, in which case it might work as a mantra.The spell check suggestion for zaDOWmm is meadow.), the author invites the readers to a Chautauqua, where he expounds on the notion of “thou art that”. A Chautauqua was a traveling show, featuring speakers on different subjects. They were popular in the twentieth century before the depression. It was a traveling summer circuit, with first day performers, second day performers, and third day performers going from town to town.
Mr. McEachern went to a Chautauqua in Tennessee, at the Monteagle Sunday School assembly. There was a speaker on the subject of relative morality. First, he asked the crowd if it was wrong to kill someone, and everyone said yes. Then he asked if it was ok to kill someone to prevent your daughter from being raped. The same Bible that says “Thou Shalt Not Kill” later gives specific instructions on when, and how, to kill. The speaker told the crowd not to just believe the first thing anyone says, but to think. When Mr McEachern told this story, there was a similar silence.
PG enjoyed Epiphany, and felt he was not harmed by reading it. One amazon reviewer felt otherwise.
Horrible, Racist Trash February 16, 2008 By J. Moore (Washington, DC United States)
I’m not sure how anyone can speak of this book as well-written, and I’m even more horrified that the racist tirades contained in it are described as a complex secondary narrative. No way. This is poorly written self-congratulatory racism, homophobia, and (much more subtle) sexism. The author doesn’t have the skill necessary to spin a complex secondary narrative, much less one that is critical of its narrator; this racism is heartfelt, and it should not be ignored or overlooked. It turns my stomach.

Donors want data…Nonprofits measure impact…Experts watch and smile
Chekov in the bay…searching hard for some space fuel..Nuclear wessels
I bit a zombie…it was ironic but the…taste was terrible.
Learn from the Jedi…Discipline, control, respect…Dangerous muppet.
Packets of photons…Streaming by our planet’s sky…their address divine
Eat Theobromine…Drink methyltheobromine…Heliophobe, I.
Why kill Wash and Book?…Are they thinking what I am?..Firefly Zombies!
Pigeon overhead…fertilizer on the way…attorney beware
Don’t argue with a…Mobius strip because it…Will be one-sided
Take me to the black…I am a leaf on the wind…My Serenity
I am all around…Yet some can’t seem to find me…I am Internet.
Obsidian wings … The Library of Congress …attribute repost

Here is part five of state laws that some might find peculiar. Parts one, two, three, four, and five, have been posted previously. Today will will look at New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, North Carolina, and North Dakota. These regulations are borrowed from Bored. Pictures are from The Library of Congress . New Hampshire // Any cattle that crosses state roads must be fitted with a device to gather its feces. // If a person is caught raking the beaches, picking up litter, hauling away trash, building a bench for the park, or many other kind things without a permit, he/she may be fined $150 for ”maintaining the national forest without a permit”. // In New Hampshire it is illegal to inhale bus fumes with the intent of inducing euphoria. // It is considered an offense to check into a hotel under an assumed name. // It is illegal to pick seaweed up off of the beach. // New Hampshire law forbids you to tap your feet, nod your head, or in any way keep time to the music in a tavern, restaurant, or cafe. // On Sundays citizens may not relieve themselves while looking up. // White Mountain Nat. Forest: If a person is caught raking the beaches, picking up litter, hauling away trash, building a bench for the park, or many other kind things without a permit, he/she may be fined $150 for ”maintaining the national forest without a permit”. // You cannot sell the clothes you are wearing to pay off a gambling debt. // You may not run machinery on Sundays. New Jersey // Automobiles are not to pass horse drawn carriages on the street. // Bernards Township: It is illegal to frown as the town is a “Frown-Free Town Zone”. // Caldwell: You may not dance or wear shorts on the main avenue. // Car dealerships are forbidden from opening on Sunday. // Cranford: Citizens are not permitted to park their own boat on their lawn. // Cresskill: All cats must wear three bells to warn birds of their whereabouts. // Elizabeth: It is forbidden for a woman, on a Sunday, to walk down Broad Street without wearing a petticoat. // If you have been convicted of driving while intoxicated, you may never again apply for personalized license plates. // In Berkley Heights you may not walk your cattle on the street on Sunday. // In New Jersey it is illegal to delay or detain a homing pigeon. // It’s illegal in New Jersey for parents to give their children under the age of 18 even a sip of alcohol. // It is against the law for a man to knit during the fishing season. // It is against the law to “frown” at a police officer. // It is illegal to offer whiskey or cigarettes to animals at the local zoo. // It’s also illegal in this state to throw a bad pickle on the street. // Lovers in Liberty Corner should avoid satisfying their lustful urges in a parked car. If the horn accidentally sounds while they are frolicking behind the wheel, the couple can face a jail term. // Newark: It is illegal to sell ice cream after 6pm, unless the customer has a note from his doctor. // Ocean City: People may not slurp their soup. Pinball machines are not to be played on Sunday. Raw hamburger may not be sold. // On a highway you can not park under a bridge. // Raritan: Profanity is prohibited. // Sea Isle City: There will be no boiling of bones on the property. // There is no horse racing allowed on the New Jersey Turnpike. // Trenton: You may not throw a bad pickle in the street. Pickles are not to be consumed on Sundays. // Unless you have a doctor’s note, it’s illegal to buy ice cream after 6 PM in Newark, New Jersey. New Mexico // A city council member in Albuquerque, N.M., introduced a resolution a few years ago to ban Santa Claus from the city. The matter was defeated. // Carrizozo: It’s forbidden for a female to appear unshaven in public. // In Albuquerque, New Mexico it is illegal for cab drivers to reach out and pull potential customers into their cabs. // In Carlsbad it’s legal for couples to have sex in a parked vehicle during their lunch break from work, as long as the car or van has drawn curtains to stop strangers from peeking in. // In recent years, several efforts have been made to legalize camel racing and ostrich racing in New Mexico, but to no avail. Those bills were defeated, but the legislature recently allowed gambling on bicycle races. // Las Cruces: You may not carry a lunchbox down Main Street. // State officials ordered 400 words of “sexually explicit material” to be cut from Romeo and Juliet.

New York // A license must be purchased before hanging clothes on a clothesline. // A person may not walk around on Sundays with an ice cream cone in his/her pocket. // Before the enactment of the 1978 law that made it mandatory for dog owners in New York City to clean up after their pets, approximately 40 million pounds of dog excrement were deposited on the streets every year. // Citizens may not greet each other by “putting one’s thumb to the nose and wiggling the fingers”. // Donkeys are not allowed to sleep in bathtubs in Brooklyn, N.Y. // In Carmel, N.Y., a man can’t go outside while wearing a jacket and pants that do not match. // In Greene, New York, During a concert, it is illegal to eat peanuts and walk backwards on the sidewalks. // In New York, you can teach your pet parrot to speak, but not to squawk. // In New York City you need a permit to transport carbonated beverages. // In New York City it is illegal for a man to give ‘The Standard Lear’ to a woman. Violators are forced to wear horse blinders. // In New York City, it’s illegal to throw swill into the street. // In New York City it’s illegal to shake a dust mop out a window. // In New York State it is still illegal to shoot a rabbit from a moving trolley car. // It is illegal to eat in the street in residential neighborhoods, and the only beverage you can drink on the beach is water in a clear plastic bottle. // In Ocean City New York, It is illegal for men to go topless in the center of town. // In Staten Island, New York, It is illegal for a father to call his son a “faggot” or “queer” in an effort to curb “girlie behavior.” // In Staten Island, New York, You may only water your lawn if the hose is held in your hand. // In Tonawanda, New York homeless people may not start a fire in the park unless they intend to cook food. // It is against the law to throw a ball at someone’s head for fun. // It is illegal for a woman to be on the street wearing “body hugging clothing.” // It is illegal to jump off the Empire State building. // It’s illegal in New York to start any kind of public performance, show, play, game or what have you, until after 1:05 p.m. // Jaywalking is legal, as long as it’s not diagonal. That is, you can cross the street out of the crosswalk, but you can’t cross a street diagonally. // Members of nine New York Indian tribes are exempt from the city’s eight percent parking tax. // New York and a handful of other states require that toilets be evenly divided among men and women in public theaters or arenas. // New York: You may not smoke within 100 feet of the entrance to a public building. Women may go topless in public, providing it is not being used as a business. // New York City may be the theater capital of the country, but it’s illegal to have a puppet show in your window and a violation can land you in the snoozer for 30 days. // New Yorkers cannot dissolve a marriage for irreconcilable differences, unless they both agree to it. // Slippers are not to be worn after 10:00 P.M. // The New York City Transit Authority has ruled that women can ride the city subways topless. New York law dictates that if a man can be somewhere without a shirt, a woman gets the same right. The decision came after arrests of women testing the ordinance on the subways. A transit police spokesman said they would comply with the new rule, but “if they were violating any other rules, like sitting on a subway bench topless smoking a cigarette, then we would take action.” Smoking is not allowed in the subways. // The New York State Senate passed a resolution to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Brooklyn Dodgers’ 1955 world championship and expressed a longing that someday the Dodgers will return to “their one and only true home.” // The penalty for jumping off a building is death. // To cut down on its once-horrific graffiti problem, New York City several years ago made it illegal to carry an open can of spray paint. // While riding in an elevator, one must talk to no one, and fold his hands while looking toward the door.

North Carolina // A recent proposal that ministers walk the beat with police officers in Belmont, N.C., notes “the ministers will carry a Bible instead of a gun.” // An ordinance proposed in Robbins, N.C., states, “In the future, anyone not living within the immediate vicinity of Robbins must have a permit from the Chief of Police and okayed by the Mayor or one of the Commissioners.” It’s not clear what the permit is for, but they may be on to something. // In Robbins, N.C., anyone who refuses to black out after hearing the blackout signal is subject to a $5 fine. // A marriage can be declared void if either of the two persons is physically impotent. // All couples staying overnight in a hotel must have a room with double beds that are at least two feet apart. Making love in the space between the beds is strictly forbidden. // Barber: Fights between cats and dogs are prohibited. // By town law the sewer service charge in Belhaven, N.C., used to be “$2 per month, per stool.” It was recently changed to read “per toilet.” // Because people were using them for cheap furniture, it’s now illegal in North Carolina to take and sell labeled milk crates. // Chapel Hill: It is a misdemeanor to urinate or defecate publicly. // Charlotte: Women must have their bodies covered by at least 16 yards of cloth at all times. // Elephants may not be used to plow cotton fields. // Forest City: You must stop and call City Hall before entering town in an automobile. This is so the townspeople will have time to go out and hold their horses until you get through town. // Greensboro: Restaurants “with on sidewalk dining” must post their menu so that it is clearly readable from the sidewalk, but is not readable from the street. // Hornytown: Massage parlors have been banned. // In Asheville, North Carolina, it is illegal to sneeze on city streets. // In Raleigh, North Carolina, before a man asks for a woman’s hand in marriage, he must be “inspected by all the barnyard animals on the young woman’s family’s property, to ensure a harmonious farm life.” // If a man and a woman who aren’t married go to a hotel/motel and register themselves as married then, according to state law, they are legally married. // If you happen to own a marl bed in North Carolina, the law demands that you put a fence around it. A marl bed may not be what you think. It is a kind of rock quarry. // In Forest City, N.C., it’s illegal to bring a pea-shooter to a parade. It’s also illegal to shoot paper clips with rubber bands. // In Mooresville, N.C., it’s illegal to attach anything to a pool table. // In Nags Head North Carolina you can be fined for singing out of tune for more than ninety seconds. // In Rockwell, N.C., anyone who violates the terms of a proclamation–such as failing to appropriately celebrate Peanut Day or Jaycees Week–is guilty of a misdemeanor. // North Carolina just passed a law saying a political action committee, or PAC, has to have a name that describes the group’s cause or purpose. The idea is to prohibit, say, the highway or tobacco lobbies from calling themselves “Citizens for Good Government.” // In North Carolina it’s illegal to dig ginseng on other people’s property between the months of April and September, according to an 1866 law // In North Carolina it’s illegal to sell cotton lint at night. It’s also legal to sell cottonseed at night. // In Winston-Salem, North Carolina, it is against the law for children under seven years of age to go to college. // It is illegal to have sex in a churchyard. // It’s unlawful to attract a crowd in Forest City, N.C., except when aching the Gospel, politicking or “serenading on occasion of public rejoicing.” // Kill Devil Hills: You may not ride a bicycle without having both your hands on the handle bars. // North Carolina forbids sex outside of marriage, or “fornication,” but the girlfriend as well as the man would have to be prosecuted. // Oral sex is considered a crime against nature. // Punching an official at a youth sports program in Nashville, N.C., incurs a three-year suspension from the program for adult spectators as well as participants. // Rocky Mount: It is required that you must pay a property tax on your dog. // Southern Shores: It is against the law to roller-blade on a state highway. // Thomasville, North Carolina, prohibits airplanes from flying over the town on Sundays during the hours between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. // The good people of Tryon, N.C., are serious about getting a good night’s sleep. It’s against the law for anyone to keep “fowl that shall cackle,” or for anyone to play the piccolo between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. // While having sex, you must stay in the missionary position and have the shades pulled. North Dakota // Beer and pretzels can’t be served at the same time in any bar or restaurant. // Fargo: One may be jailed for wearing a hat while dancing, or even for wearing a hat to a function where dancing is taking place. // In Collierville: Keeping clean can be a chilly proposition, as a law there says all bathtubs must be kept in the backyard. // In North Dakota, charitable groups can hold stud poker games to raise money, but only twice a year // In North Dakota it is illegal to keep an elk in a sandbox in your backyard. // In Waverly you better not let your horse near the tub, since horses are prohibited from sleeping in them, as well as in the house. // It is illegal to lie down and fall asleep with your shoes on. // It is legal to shoot an Indian on horseback, provided you are in a covered wagon. // State law of North Dakota prohibits serving beer and pretzels at the same time in any bar or restaurant.