Marathon
This content was originally published July 21, 2008. … In 1996 Atlanta hosted the Olympics. On the last day of the games, the Men’s Marathon was run. The Marathon course went out Peachtree from downtown, and turned around near the end of the 23 Oglethorpe busline, in front of the funeral home. It then turned right, and went down Lanier Drive beside Oglethorpe University. It went down the street a couple of blocks, turned around in front of Oglethorpe Presbyterian Church, and came back to Peachtree. The runners turned right, and ran to the Olympic Stadium. Being the slack person that I am, I had not gotten tickets to any Olympic events. …
… The Marathon was a free event, and was walking distance from my residence. This was my last chance. When I got there, I was amazed at the instant community that had assembled along the course. This remarkable event was almost over, and this was all I was going to see of it! The fact that it is more than many others saw was little comfort. I walked alongside the course, and crossed Lanier Drive. This is important to the rest of the story. The runners were a bit of an anticlimax. A pack of men in track uniforms ran past. …
… They went to the end of the course, down Lanier Drive, and hustled down Peachtree to the end of the race. After the second appearance of the bulk of the runners, I was ready to go. However, there was a glitch. One runner was way behind the rest of the pack, and I could not cross Lanier Drive until he had gone by, and the course was opened for pedestrian traffic. The last runner was from Afghanistan. After a few minutes, he appeared. He had a large bandage on one leg, which apparently had been injured. He finished the race.
This content was originally published July 15, 2008. … I was enjoying monday morning, until I went up pill hill and saw the red tee shirts. The people in the shirts were anti abortion protesters. The slick signs had the “standard” slogans and pictures of mutilated fetuses. This did not make me feel good about the rest of the day. It seems as though Operation Save America … formerly known as Operation Rescue … is having a National Event in Atlanta this week. “Will you heed the call and allow God to move through you this summer as the Church once again stands for Truth at the very gates of hell?” …
… Meetings and conventions are a big part of the local economy. They bring a lot of money into town. OTOH, we are the captive audience for loud people with a message. Mostly, we just go on about our business, until the vulgar idiots take their credit cards and go home. Many of these folks today wear red tee shirts. They have a cross, and the slogan “Jesus is the Standard”. Another source of amusement for OSA is picketing gay pride events. Could it be that those sign wavers are saying more about themselves than about others? …
… I wrote a post last year called Is Life Sacred? Here is the money quote: “Abortion and War are similar issues. Both are horrible, ghastly events. I have never participated in either, except as a sponsoring taxpayer. In the case of War, there are side effects to a society that wages war, no matter how just. It takes resources away from better uses, is damaging to the economy (except for a handful of profiteers), and is generally bad karma. The same can be said about abortion. However, I stop short of saying we should never do either. Sometimes War is needed. …
… Sometimes Abortion is an appropriate measure. We need to keep the option open. However horrified I may be by abortion, I do not like the power happy politicians and ministers who exploit this issue for their own benefit. The same could be said for those who enlist Jesus in this process. Of course, as many times as Jesus and his believers have hurt me, the sign wavers can have him. There is a counter protest to this nonsense. Next week, another convention will be in town. And unwanted pregnancy will continue. … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture: “Rich’s Diamond Jubilee, Jan. 2, 1942. The Diamond Jubilee celebrations began on January 1, 1942, when Margaret Mitchell dedicated five murals commemorating the first years of Rich’s Department Store.” · selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
Mental Illness
This content was originally published July 31, 2008. … I knew we were in for the strangest election ever when I saw this video. The Demos have a clear lead in the follies. The repubs still think it is 1952. This video is typical of the Gross Old Perverts. … On a more serious note, another disturbing trend has been spotted. Three Presidents in recent memory have had two daughters, one wife, and no sons. This is the combination achieved by BHO. It is one wife fewer than JSM. The other recent Presidents with two daughters were Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and George W. Bush.
This content was originally published July 26, 2008. … There is a fine mp3 site called The Aquarium Drunkard. Today he put up some selections from a man I saw once, Roy Buchanan. His name had the dread phrase “the late” in front of it. This is news to me, twenty years after the fact. It seems like August 14, 1988, his substance abuse issues got him locked up. A few hours later, he was found hanging by his shirt. … Mr. Buchanan opened for the Jefferson Starship at the Omni in 1976. He was a technical virtuoso, making sounds …
… I would look at New Yorker magazine at newstands. There is a list of cartoonists who had cartoons in that issue, in the order of appearance. I would look for Charles Addams, who drew the cartoons that were the basis for the Addams Family. He liked to say that he modeled Uncle Fester on himself. Sometime in the late eighties, I noticed that he no longer had cartoons in the magazine. I continued to look until about 1991, when I found a book about him. The reason I didn’t see cartoons anymore was that Mr. Addams died September 29, 1988.
This content was originally published July 24, 2008. … Cynthia McKinney … is running for president as the Green Party candidate. She is following in the footsteps of Zell “Zig Zag” Miller, who abandoned the Democratic Party to shill for Republicans. Miss McKinney has a reputation as a loose cannon. Her strong stand against the War in Babylon is most appealing. She is probably no more capable of dealing with the mess there than BHO or JSM. If you want to make a protest vote against the killing, she is your lady. Her vice presidential candidate is Rosa Clemente, a “hip hop activist”. …
… When questioned about the seamier aspects of hip hop culture, Miss McKinney replied that he was thinking about corporate hip hop. Cynthia Ann McKinney does not have a snowball’s chance in hell of getting elected. The most she can hope to do is siphon votes away from one of the two corporate candidates. To her credit, she seems to have a new hairdo. Gone is the Alfalfa looks, replaced by a more conservative appearance. As far as the hair issue goes, she is a clear winner over BHO and JSM. If you want to help Miss McKinney …
This content was originally published July 22, 2008. … Todays adventure in digitilogy started a couple of weeks ago. Word came in that Rush Limbaugh had signed a contract for $400 million. That kind of money will buy a lot of painkillers. I question whether Rush was a good investment for that sort of coinage. His popularity seems to have peaked about the time of the Gingrich revolution. At fourteen minutes and counting, someone thinks the last thirty seconds of his fame is worth nine digits of loot. … A technorati looksee yielded a few stories about Micheal Savage. …
… Mr. Savage is not from the south. His former last name is Wiener. And he is like a kid who shouts cuss words at dinner, and loves the attention that he gets. He outdid himself lately, talking about autism. ”I’ll tell you what autism is. In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That’s what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life.” …
… I can’t spill too many details, but I know a bit about mental illness. I have sat in on many “what can we do”conversations. There are a lot of unknowns, and perhaps some things could be handled better. But that does not excuse a man, who should know better, for trashing a lot of decent families. A blog posted a piece called ” “This is why Michael Savage is the most hated conservative in America.” And someone left this in the comment thread: ” cant believe no one believes in free speech anymore… all of you so called conservatives.” … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The social media picture: First Lieutenant Robert Charles Finley of Co. E, 74th Ohio Infantry Regiment
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