Keith Tharpe And Jaquelin Freeman
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Keith Leroy Tharpe, GDC ID: 0000173325, is currently scheduled to be executed on September 26, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. for the 1990 murder of his sister-in-law Jaquelin Freeman. There is little doubt regarding his guilt. The only controversy involves some statements by a juror. This is the short version of the story. If you want more details, see below. .
Murderpedia has the story of the slaying.”Tharpe’s wife, Migrisus Tharpe, left him on August 28, 1990 and moved in with her mother. Following various threats of violence made by the defendant to and about his wife and her family, a peace warrant was taken out against him, and the defendant was ordered not to have any contact with his wife or her family. Notwithstanding this order, Tharpe called his wife on September 24, 1990 and argued with her, saying if she wanted to “play dirty,” he would show her “what dirty was.” .
On the morning of the 25th, his wife and her sister-in-law met Tharpe as they drove to work. He used his vehicle to block theirs and force them to stop. He got out of his vehicle, armed with a shotgun and apparently under the influence of drugs, and ordered them out of their vehicle. After telling the sister-in-law he was going to “f— you up,” he took her to the rear of his vehicle, where he shot her. He rolled her into a ditch, reloaded, and shot her again, killing her. Tharpe then drove away with his wife. After unsuccessfully trying to rent a motel room, Tharpe parked by the side of the road and raped his wife. Afterward, he drove to Macon, where his wife was to obtain money from her credit union. Instead she called the police.” .
At the trial, Mr. Tharpe was found guilty, and sentenced to death. “The jury found the following statutory aggravating circumstances: 1. The offense of murder was committed while the offender was engaged in the commission of another capital felony, to wit: kidnapping with bodily injury of Jaquelin Freeman. 2. The offense of murder was committed while the offender was engaged in the commission of another capital felony, to wit: kidnapping with bodily injury of Migrisus Tharpe. 3. The offense of murder was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible, or inhuman in that it involved an aggravated battery to the victim.” .
Eight years after the trial, one of the jurors was interviewed. He later claimed he was intoxicated during this interview. The juror, Barney Gattie, is now deceased. Here is the story. .
“Mr. Gattie expressed his feelings about the case in general. He stated that there are two kinds of black people in the world — “regular black folks” and “niggers.” Mr. Gattie noted that he understood that some people do not like the word “nigger” but that is just what they are, and he “tells it like he sees it.” According to Mr. Gattie, if the victim in Mr. Tharpe’s case had just been one of the niggers, he would not have cared about her death. But as it was, the victim was a woman from what Mr. Gattie considered to be one of the “good black families” in Gray [a city in Jones County]. He explained that her husband was an EMT. Mr. Gattie stated that that sort of thing really made a difference to him when he was deciding whether to vote for a death sentence. … But as soon as prosecutors saw Gattie’s sworn statement, they rushed to his home and got him to sign a counter-affidavit two days after he signed the first one. The new affidavit sought to nullify what he told Tharpe’s investigators. Gattie, who now swore he wasn’t a bigot, claimed he had been drinking beer and whiskey when he spoke to the defense, and didn’t pay much attention when the affidavit was read to him. He said many of his statements “were taken out of context and simply not accurate.” He signed the defense affidavit because he “just wanted to get rid of them.”” .
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the pictures in September 1937. Many were located in Williams County, North Dakota. UPDATE Mr. Tharpe has requested his Last Meal. “Tharpe requested a last meal of three spicy chicken breasts, roast beef sandwich with sauce, fish sandwich, tater logs, onion rings, apple pie, and a vanilla milkshake.” UPDATE SCOTUS stays execution of Georgia death row inmate amid claims of racial bias. UPDATE SCOTUS issued a ruling on the case January 8, 2018, with a dissent from Justice Clarence Thomas. UPDATE Keith Tharpe died of natural causes January 26, 2020.
An Election Is Not A Teachable Moment
display of a link below does not indicate approval of content ~ If You’re a Black Man Watching Football This Sunday, Here’s 25 Things I Already Know About You ~ Positive Thinking ~ @tedcruz ~ For One Hot Second, Ted Cruz’s Official Twitter Account Liked a Porn Video ~ We Legitimize the ‘So-Called’ Confederacy With Our Vocabulary, and That’s a Problem ~ White House: ESPN anchor that called Trump racist should be fired ~ A Taser was used to subdue woman who hit officer at traffic stop, police chief says ~ ferguson ~ The Top 5 Signs A Man is On the DOWNLOW ~ will i get blocked for this? ~ kardashian ~ Anti-racism is worse than racism ~ Fibonacci spiral ~ Sean Hannity ~ Gender Dysphoria: The Movie ~ 23 Waiters Share The Most F*cked Up Thing They’ve Overheard While Waiting On Tables ~ Brooke Baldwin cuts Clay Travis Segment ~ An Open Letter to Ta-Nehisi Coates ~ @klaasm67 “I see that you have made 3 spelling mistakes.” Last words of Marquis de Favras after reading his death sentence before being hanged (1790). ~ Quadruple homicide marks deadly start to Chicago weekend gun violence ~ Autoeater Swallows Car & Criticism in Midtown Atlanta ~ Christians think they are America’s most persecuted ~ Georgia Tech – officer-involved shooting – first angle ~ Scout Schultz @chrisstewartesq The family of #ScoutSchultz the @GeorgiaTech student killed by campus police have hired me to investigate the shooting.Why no taser or mase? ~ Technically it was not rape. He did not stick his penis in her. ~ politics is not a teaching moment Demoze made strategic mistake in calling Trump a racist ~ I appreciate #TedCruzScandal With Irma, Harvey, 45, and everything else going on, we needed a fun scandal to titter over ~ If Susan Saran Wrap lives in New York, then her electoral votes went to Hillary. ~ Is crying wolf worse than being a wolf? ~ Maybe, just maybe, it is time for America to grow up, and not get so upset about a six letter word ~ gender non con for… ~ #NaziBucketChallenge DJT may, or may not, be a *white supremacist* I am more concerned about his ethics, drug use, & emotional stability ~ This is one issue where white people need to be united with black people. Salon is helping the divide and conquer tactics of the government. ~ Is tweeting false equivalencies a fire-able offense? ~ @ClipTheVideo Be careful not to follow the masses Sometimes, the m is silent ~ Joshua 10:19 And stay ye not, but pursue after your enemies, and smite the hindmost of them; suffer them not to enter into their cities: for the Lord your God hath delivered them into your hand. ~ if a man is not an optimist when he is 20 he does not have a heart if he is not a pessimist when he is 40 he does not have a brain if he is either one when he is 60 he is not alive ~ Pictures for this gratuitous waste of the reader’s time are from The Library of Congress. ~ the poem below was read 091717 at Java Monkey ~ selah
past present future walk into a bar ~ heard through the grapevine that it was tense
why did the cow cross the road over thar ~ to get to the udder side of the fence
ham and cheese sandwich walks into the station ~ bartender says that we don’t serve food
see the hot new movie constipation ~ would go but it hasn’t come out yet dude
would you like the milk in a sack son ~ no dad you can keep it in the carton
how do you make the holy water fit ~ you just boil the living hell out of it
what did one volcano say to the other ~ volcano i lava you like a brother
Greeted As Liberators Part Two
Paul Wolfowitz has been a government player for years. After finishing his education, he got a job in the Nixon Administration, and worked with Ford and Reagan. He became a star under GHWB and GWB. Mr. Wolfowitz never served in the military.
Under George W. Bush, Mr. Wolfowitz was Deputy Secretary of Defense. After 911, he became a forceful advocate of War in Iraq. He is regarded by some as the “Architect of the War in Iraq”.
On February 27, 2003, Mr. Wolfowitz testified before congress. “There has been a good deal of comment—some of it quite outlandish—about what our postwar requirements might be in Iraq. Some of the higher end predictions we have been hearing recently, such as the notion that it will take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq, are wildly off the mark. It is hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take … to secure the surrender of Saddam’s security forces and his army…”
The conquest was the easy part. The occupation, the act of putting humpty dumpty back together, has been the tough part. More than a few people saw this in 2003.
Mr. Wolfowitz gave an interview to Vanity Fair magazine May 9, 2009. The interview had a quote about WMD. “The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on which was weapons of mass destruction as the core reason.” The possession of WMD by “next Hitler” Saddam Hussein was one of the leading reasons for the invasion. Iraq was known to have used poison gas against the Kurds (while he was an ally of the United States). The warehouses of WMD have never been found.
In 1941, The United States was attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbor. A declaration of war was issued within a week. There was no settling on an issue for bureaucratic reasons.
PG found a transcript of the complete interview. The link no longer works. HT to Tom Dispatch. Apparently, Mr. Wolfowitz likes to talk. The part that interested PG concerns the Cruise missile, and other “smart” weapons. It seems as though the research on these weapons was almost suspended. The United States was negotiating arms control with The Soviet Union. The Cruise missile was almost abandoned as a concession to the Soviets. The Navy supported this, as they felt that the torpedoes on submarines were taking up too much room already.
This is a repost, with pictures from The Library of Congress. The pictures were taken in Omaha NE, in November 1938. The photographer was John Vachon, working for the Farm Security Administrative.
Thank Satan It’s Friday
3.14% of sailors are pi-rates.
A man tried to sell me a coffin today… I told him that’s the last thing I need.
Comedians who tell one too many lightbulb jokes soon burn out.
Did you hear about the crazy Mexican train thief? He had loco motives
Did you hear about the runner who was criticized? He just took it in stride
Don’t kiss your wife with a runny nose. You might think it’s funny, but it’s snot.
Feeling Cold? Go stand in a corner for a bit. They are usually around 90 degrees.
How do you count cows? With a cowculator!
How does a penguin build it’s house? Igloos it together.
I burnt my Hawaiian pizza last night… I should’ve put it on aloha setting.
I don’t trust stairs. They’re always up to something.
I hate perforated lines, they’re tearable
I just read a book about Stockholm syndrome. It was pretty bad at first, but by the end I liked it.
I was looking at my ceiling. Not sure if it’s the best ceiling in the world, but it’s up there.
If you want a job in the moisturiser industry, the best advice I can give is to apply daily.
Past, present, and future walked into a bar…. It was tense.
RIP boiled water. You will be mist.
Steak puns… They’re a rare medium, well done
Tell ya my chimney joke? Got stacks of em! First one’s on the house
The sign said “Television for Sale – $10 – Volume Stuck On Full”. I can’t turn that down.
There are 10 types of people: Those who understand binary, and those who don’t.
To the man in the wheelchair that stole my camouflage jacket… You can hide but you can’t run.
Today’s top fact: 50% of Canada is A
Want to hear a joke about construction? Nah, I’m still working on it.
Want to hear my pizza joke? Never mind, it’s too cheesy.
What days are the strongest? Saturday and Sunday, the rest are week days.
What did the Buddhist ask the hot dog vendor? “Make me one with everything.”
What do you call a fat psychic? A four-chin teller.
What do you get if you stand between two llamas? Llamanated.
What happened to the cow that jumped over the barbed wire fence? Udder destruction.
When my wife told me to stop impersonating a flamingo I had to put my foot down.
Why can’t you hear a pterodactyl using the bathroom? Because the P is silent
Why did the blind man fall into the well? Because he couldn’t see that well.
Why do trees seem suspicious on sunny days? Dunno, they’re just a bit shady.
You can’t run through a camp site. You can only ran, because it’s past tents.
You heard the rumor going around about butter? Nevermind, I shouldn’t spread it.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Similar material may be found at @baddadjokes.
Slavery And The Star Spangled Banner
There is a terrific Backstory episode about the War of 1812. This is a conflict that is not much thought about, even during its bicentennial. It was not a good war for people of color. Native tribes fought with the British in Michigan, and were soundly defeated. After this war, the attitude of the white man towards the natives got worse.
Perhaps the most famous product of the War of 1812 is The Star Spangled Banner, a.k.a. the national anthem. There are a few legends about writing this song that skeptical bloggers like to shoot down. At the 43 minute mark of the backstory episode, another aspect of TSSB is discussed.
It seems as though slaves were escaping their owners, and fighting with the British. Washington lawyer Francis Scott Key was a slave owner, and thought that the slaves would be better off with their owners. This is the sentiment behind the third verse of TSSB.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
The image of F.S. Key has been cleaned up over the years. This biography omits the third verse of TSSB, and does not mention his slaves. Wikipedia tells a different story. “President Jackson nominated Key for United States Attorney for the District of Columbia in 1833.”
“In 1836, Key prosecuted New York doctor Reuben Crandall, brother of controversial Connecticut school teacher Prudence Crandall, for “seditious libel” for possessing a trunk full of anti-slavery publications in his Georgetown residence. In a trial that attracted nationwide attention, Key charged that Crandall’s actions had the effect of instigating enslaved people to rebel. Crandall’s attorneys acknowledged he opposed slavery but denied any intent or actions to encourage rebellion. In his final address to the jury, Key said “Are you willing gentleman to abandon your country, to permit it to be taken from you, and occupied by the abolitionist, according to whose taste it is to associate and amalgamate with the negro? Or gentleman, on the other hand, are there laws in this community to defend you from the immediate abolitionist, who would open upon you the floodgates of such extensive wickedness and mischief?” Crandall was acquitted.”
The Huffington Post has a story about F.S. Key, ‘Land of the Free?’ Francis Scott Key, Composer of National Anthem, Was Defender of Slavery.
Buying and selling humans remained a respectable business in Washington City. The slave holding elite of the south had a majority in the Congress and a partner in President Andrew Jackson…
To reassert the rule of law, Key set out to crack down on the anti-slavery men and their “incendiary publications.” Informants had reported to the grand jury about an abolitionist doctor from New York who was living in Georgetown. Key charged Rueben Crandall with bringing a trunk full of anti-slavery publications into the city.
In the spring of 1836, Key’s prosecution of Rueben Crandall was a national news story. In response, the American Antislavery Society circulated a broadsheet denouncing Washington as “The Slave Market of America.” The abolitionists needled Key for the hypocrisy of using his patriotic fame to defend tyranny in the capital: “Land of the Free… Home of the Oppressed.”
Key shrugged off his liberal critics. In front of courtroom crowded with Congressmen and correspondents Key waxed eloquent and indignant at the message of the abolitionists. “They declare that every law which sanctions slavery is null and void… ” Key told the jury. “That we have no more rights over our slaves than they have over us. Does not this bring the constitution and the laws under which we live into contempt? Is it not a plain invitation to resist them?”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The Star Spangled Banner was written September 14, 1814. It is controversial today. This is a repost. The original Backstory episode is no longer available. However, this story makes many of the same points.
Trump Is Racist Meme
There was a comment thread on facebook. Here is the comment that started it. “I have a Facebook friend, who is a black Trump supporter, who says he doesn’t care “if he’s racist or not.” I don’t know what to think about that. Maybe there are a few of my black friends who can help me with that?” There were a lot of comments, which is not surprising. Race, and not liking Donald Trump, are two popular topics of conversation.
The conversation started with a link to When Someone Says They Still Support Trump, I Instantly Know 6 Things About Them. The six items, with a parenthetical summary, are: 1. You want to be ruled, not governed (authoritarianism,) 2. You are not someone I would trust to do business with (business ethics,) 3. You’re either a racist or an enabler of racists (racism,) 4. You have issues with women (misogyny,) 5. You aren’t quite as “Christian” as you claim to be (religious exploitation,) 6. You are anti-constitution (respect for rule of law,)
While those six items are more or less true about Mr. Trump, it is a stretch to say they apply to anyone who supports the man. (Many of these character traits are present in people who don’t like Mr. Trump, especially authoritarianism.) What is disturbing to PG is the way that racial attitudes dominates the conversation. This is a problem in a lot of ways. The obsession with screaming racist helped Mr. Trump get elected. Insulting potential voters is not a good campaign strategy.
There seems to be a national verdict that Donald J. Trump is a racist. A non compliant racial attitude is worse than authoritarianism, crookedness, and mental instability. If you are white, and you question this orthodoxy, then you are a racist. If you are black, and don’t believe without question, then you are asking to be insulted.
The Trump-is-racist meme follows a cynical decision to make Mr. Trump’s racial attitudes a campaign issue. The best evidence cited is a 1973 complaint, involving discrimination in renting apartments. Other evidence… attacks on nationalities, attacks on religious groups, support of unseemly white people … utilize an elastic definition of racism. Others disagree.
There was a comment: Martin C Ezeonu “Lol… I don’t like Trump cuz he is an asshole. On the other hand we know exactly where there country stands now because of him. This country is still racist as hell. these past years nobody addressed is just politicians smartly covering it up. But now to move forward something has to give. And I like that. Let people stop being deceived. Don’t care if he is racist or not I like the fact that he is not a politician and couldn’t play the game. That’s why both parties want him out.”
Mr. Ezeonu is from Nigeria. He might have little in common with most African Americans, other that his skin tone. That is all many people see. People fail to appreciate the amazing diversity in today’s African America. In the comments, Mr. Exeonu was called an idiot, mentally ill, and many other things. Not agreeing with a national consensus is dangerous.
Mr. Trump has numerous problems. In the list of six things, we see authoritarian tendencies, and ethical shortcomings. Many feel the Democrats made a mistake by screaming racist, instead of focusing on his shady business practices. Many white people were alienated by this campaign tactic. After the Trump victory, many black people feel alienated by his election. The race situation gets worse and worse. Saying that Donald Trump is a racist does not help.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
If Not For Girlfriend’s Tweet
display of a link here does not indicate approval of content ~ A tour of Labor Day weekend, 1967, through archives of Atlanta History Center Vidal vs Buckley – Crypto-Nazi Debate “a little more heat, and a little less light than usual” Howard Smith, after a conversation with William F. Buckley and Gore Vidal 08/28/68 ~ William Faulkner Resigns From His Post Office Job With a Spectacular Letter (1924) ~ First Annual Message December 3, 1861 ~ Werner Herzog ~ Ponce City Market, retail construction hitting Ponce gay bars hard ~ ‘Hands up, don’t shoot’ was built on a lie ~ Ray Lewis said Ravens would have signed Colin Kaepernick if not for girlfriend’s tweet ~ Racist photos and LGBTQ bar closures: A tale of two apologies ~ The First White President ~ Study: Trump fans are much angrier about housing assistance when they see an image of a black man ~ Supporters and Opponents of Donald Trump Respond Differently to Racial Cues: An Experimental Analysis ~ When Someone Says They Still Support Trump, I Instantly Know 6 Things About Them ~ I have a Facebook fan, who is a black Trump supporter, who says he doesn’t care ” if he’s racist or not.” I don’t know what to think about that. Maybe there are a few of my black friends who can help me with that? ~ Equifax says data breach may have exposed personal info of 143 million consumers ~ 15 May 1958 At Lee Chapel, Washington & Lee University, Lexington, 3:30 p.m. ~ Shelby Foote ~ Venable House. ~ happy #TwertzogDay you can contemplate the finite resources you are consuming on your stumbling march to the grave ~ this is the first thing i have seen on facebook today ~ does banal rhyme with anal, mall, or pal? ~ “Do not believe American corporate media. They make MILLIONS in war time. They want war. Always did:” Remember this the next time someone tells you the War Between the States was about Slavery only. ~ I only caught one error in an otherwise enjoyable article. Mr. Hiers refers to Atlanta-Fulton County stadium. That facility was known as Atlanta Stadium in 1967. The hyphen suffix was added in 1976. ~ It might too early in the morning for this ~ criticizing a wildly unpopular president is not courage… if anything, praising DJT is an act of courage ~ pro tip: when looking for a job, do not tweet insulting pictures of your prospective new boss ~ java monkey speaks, you do it for the culture, shut up and listen ~ “I would support a black Trump.” You would enjoy Dekalb County elections. ~ Peanut Butter oreos need to be reverse image. ~ Rename #Irma2017 the #DemocraticParty. She will go to the far left, then try to find the center, and burn herself out in the process. ~ @conor64 This @tanehisicoates essay pulls no punches and has the courage of its convictions in ways I find rare and admirable The First White President ~ @chamblee54 criticizing a wildly unpopular president is not courage… if anything, praising DJT is an act of courage @mostly_harmles The trick be in the finding something praiseworthy @SciGroupie I guess that would depend on the context. Regardless, praising Trump is definitely NOT an act of decency or intelligence. @gyesekissi No, it’s an act of stupidity, and we already have millions of people who worship him. @johnclavis I would criticize someone who said two plus two equals five, whether they were the most or the least popular person on earth. So should you. @IbrahimSapien__ That’s just stupid. By that rationale, being in a red state and praising Osama Bin Laden is downright heroic. @magguu_ i agree. i admire trumpanzees who are willing to let the world know what shitty people they are. takes a certain courage. ~ I looked at the other thread, and I noticed something. The Man you refer to describes himself as a “foreigner.” In other words he is not the descendant of African slaves, which is what most people think of when they think of a black person. A dark skinned person, from another country, is different from a dark skinned person born in the USA. It should not surprise you that this man will have a different attitude about Mr. Trump. ~ The Democrats made a cynical decision to use race as a campaign issue. ~ pictures are from The Library of Congress. ~ selah
Nine Eleven Story
This is my 911 story. I repeat it every year at this time. If you saw it last year, it has not changed. Feel free to skip the text and look at the pictures, from The Library of Congress.
I was at work, and someone called out that someone had run a plane into the World Trade Center. I didn’t think much of it, until I heard that the second tower had been hit, then the Pentagon, then the towers collapsed, then a plane crashed in Pennsylvania.
I focused on my job most of the day. There was always drama at that facility, and concentrating on my production duties helped to keep me saner. This was roughly the halfway point of my seven year tenure at this place.
One of the other workers was a bully for Jesus. He was a hateful loudmouth. After the extent of the damage became known, he shouted “They are doing this for Allah,” and prayed at his desk. The spectacle of the BFJ praying made me want to puke.
I became alienated from Jesus during these years. Once, I had once been tolerant of Christians and Jesus, as one would be with an eccentric relative. I began to loath the entire affair. I hear of others who found comfort in religion during this difficult time. That option simply was not available for me.
Shelby Foote
PG spent a pleasant Saturday afternoon editing pictures from The Library of Congress (which illustrate this post) and listening to a 1994 interview with Shelby Foote. There was a book to be sold, and Mr. Foote made the necessary appearances to sell the product. The gentleman has a handsome Mississippi accent, and is a delight to listen to. There is a transcript, aka the lazy bloggers friend.
A few of the things he said are timely. When this show was taped in 1994, Mr. Foote spoke of healing from the War Between the States. Today, we seem to be regressing. Trash talk about the Confederacy is back in fashion. It is a good time to revisit these comments. Shelby Foote died in 2005, and can no longer comment.
“Slavery is a huge stain on us. We all carry it. I carry it deep in my bones, the consequences of slavery. But emancipation comes pretty close to being as heavy a sin. They told — what is its million or 7 million people, “You’re now free. Hit the road,” and there was a Freedman’s Bureau, which was a sort of joke. There were people down here exploiting them. Three-quarters of them couldn’t read or write, had no job, no hope of a job, no way to learn a new job even, and they drifted back into this peon age system under sharecropping, which was about all they could do.
To this day, we are paying and they are paying for this kind of treatment. I don’t mean there should have been a gradual emancipation. I mean there should have been true preparation to get this people ready for living a kind of life. They were free and should have been free all along, but they were not prepared for living in the world. They’d been living under conditions of slavery, which kept them from living in the world…..”
“The Civil War, there’s a great compromise, as it’s called. It consists of Southerners admitting freely that it’s probably best that the Union wasn’t divided, and the North admits rather freely that the South fought bravely for a cause in which it believed. That is a great compromise and we live with that and that works for us. We are now able to look at the war with some coolness, which we couldn’t do before now, and, incidentally, I very much doubt whether a history such as mine could have been written much before 100 years had elapsed. It took all that time for things to cool down….”
(Booknotes host Brian) LAMB: “Was the Civil War inevitable? FOOTE: I think that it was necessary. I do not believe that those differences could have been settled without bloodshed. The question is the horrendous amount of bloodshed. That was not necessary. That could have been stopped at some point. God knows. But there apparently were differences so profound between the abolitionists in New England and the fire-eaters of South Carolina that dragged the rest of the country into this conflict that I’m inclined to agree with Seward, who called it an irrepressible conflict….” (Chamblee54 recently published a post, Why Was The War Fought?. about the financial aspects of the War. Follow the money, and find the truth.)
LAMB: “From what you know now and your own political philosophy, if you had a voice and you lived back there, which side would you have been on? FOOTE: There’s absolutely no doubt. I’m from Mississippi. I would have been on the Confederate side. Right or wrong, I would have fought with my people. LAMB: Why? FOOTE: Because they’re my people. It would have meant the end of my life as I had known it if I fought on the other side. It would have been a falsification of everything I’d lived by, even if I opposed it. No matter how much I was opposed to slavery, I still would have fought for the Confederacy — not for slavery, but for other things, such as freedom to secede from the Union.”
How To Choose A Guru
PG has reread How to choose a guru, by Rick Chapman. The book is a look at spirituality of all sorts, with a special emphasis on Meher Baba.
HTCAG can be a frustrating book. The main focus is on finding a “perfect master”, and the path to enlightenment under his guidance. If one is not inclined to this level of dedication, you can be left feeling inferior. This is similar to the despair people feel when they think they are going to go to hell, because they don’t have the correct ideas about Jesus.
Thie book takes a look at spirit from the perspective of all religions. A central concept is the avatar, the idea of G-d become man. (This was long before the movie with a similar title.) The avatars of recorded history include Zoroaster, Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed. Some say that Meher Baba is the modern avatar.
Mr. Chapman has a knack for phrasing. There are expressions that PG remembers from reading HTCAG in 1978. They are still there 34 years later.
Creation First, there was G-d. Then, there’s you. Then, there is G-d.
Speculation The average persons speculation about consciousness…has “the stink but not the weight of his turd”
Evangelism An authentic Master will encourage you to let your life itself be his message.
Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds Don’t be sidetracked by elaborate creeds and doctrines- the truth is as simple as it is profound. From the ancient teachings of Zoraster to today, these three principles have been the heart of the message of every G-d realized Master.
Books “Excellent guides until you find the Way.”–Abu Sa’id
Books Part Two …the scriptures of the past compare to the writings of a present-day Perfect Master just about the way that dust compares to honey.
Satan Worship If you have been toying with the thought that any form of Satan worship can lead you to higher consciousness, sober up by reading the story of Dr. Faustus. There are many paths to enlightenment, but this back alley isn’t one of them.
Sex A real guru never has any form of sexual relations with his followers. If a person posing as a guru tries to seduce you in the physical sense, then you can have no clearer indication that he is a phony, a pathetic and hypocritical collection of unresolved desires.
Truth, Old and New One time the Buddha was approached by a young man who was skeptical about Gautama’s renowned divine status. “Does the Blessed One teach a path that is new and original?” he asked. One of the Buddha’s close disciples, Sariputta, turned his gaze from the Master to the skeptic and replied, “If the Blessed One taught a path that was new and original, He would not be the Blessed One!” “Well said, Sariputta,” smiled the Buddha, “well said.”
Several of these quotes are available in copy/paste form at Meher Baba Information, for which this reporter says thank you. This site says that Rick Chapman is a follower of Meher Baba, and met him in 1966. This relationship is never made explicit in HTCAG. A glowing chapter is devoted to Meher Baba, and this relationship is not surprising. Still, HTCAG might be a bit more upfront if this relationship was clearly spelled out.
Meher Baba was born February 25, 1894 with the name Merwan Sheriar Irani. The name Meher Baba means “compassionate father”. From July 10, 1925 until his death January 31, 1969, he maintained silence, and communicated by gestures that were interpreted by his followers. Meher Baba believed that he was the avatar of our age.
With all of it’s human imperfections, HTCAG is a valuable book. It is easy to read, will expose you to ideas about spirit, and get you to think. When you grow up in a Jesus Worship tradition, one can be aware of a spirit within. At the same time, you get tired of the obsession with life after death. You sense that there is more to G-d than scheming to live after you die. HTCAG shows one path.
This is a repost. It was written like Vladimir Nabokov. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Chamblee54 
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