Lower Than A Snake’s Belly
This content was published October 21, 2008. … It is amazing what gets your attention when you should be looking for a job. The yahoo page had a link to a poll of the “49 most influential men of 2008”. Polls like this are usually rubbish, but there is a post to be written.
I don’t have the patience for all 49. This is one of those deals where you have to click on a link for every name on the list. That is a lot of work, especially for men I have never heard of. I seldom watch TV or pay full price for movies, so a lot of celebrities go under the radar. It will be fun to see how many I have heard of. There is a profile about each man, but that is another click, and wait for the popupdropdown ad to clear. This is going to be a lot of work just to get to the top ten. · If you can’t say anything good about someone, don’t say anything at all.
1 – Barack Obama … Hype is color blind. · 2 – Steve Jobs · 3 – Micheal Phelps · 4 – Robert Downey, Jr … Rehab does work sometimes. · 5 – Stephen Colbert · 6 – Gordon Ramsey … This is the first one I totally don’t know. Mr. Ramsey is wearing a chef’s outfit, which is a clue. · 7 – Christian Bale · 8 – Rob Kay … Mr. Kay designs video games. If you see Mr. Kay … · 9 – Cristiano Ronaldo … Mr. Ronaldo kicks soccer balls. and has an Irish cousin named Ronald O’McDonald.
10 – John McCain … Bless his heart. · 11 -Lorne Michaels … Mr. Michaels gets points for staying alive this long. · 12 -Tom Ford … Mr. Ford is a fashion designer. No word on what kind of car he drives, or whether he pardoned Mr. Nixon. · 13 -Mark Zuckerberg … Mr. Zuckerman invented Facebook, and is glad this list is not in alphabetical order. · 14 -Dana White … Mr. White fronts something called “Ultimate Fighting Challenge. … One more “influencer” I have heard of, and I quit. It doesn’t matter if I have seen his show. · 15 -Jon Stewart … Mr. Stewart is a comedian/political commentator.
This content was published October 22, 2008. … In a couple of weeks, the election will, blessedly, be over. The only thing that could screw up … north of Florida … is a Georgia race where no candidate receives over 50 percent of the vote. In 1992, the incumbent Senator was an Atlanta Baseball fan named Wyche Fowler. He was confident of victory, but many were dissatisfied with his performance. The Libertarian candidate, Jim Hudson, got enough votes to force a runoff. In the runoff, Repub Paul Coverdell won election. Mr. Fowler was consoled by the job of Ambassador to Saudi Arabia. A few months after he left that position, 15 Saudi nationals flew planes into American buildings. … This story does have a moral. If you want Saxby Chambliss, the incumbent, to spend more time with his family, then vote for Democrat Jim Martin. While the Libertarian movement might be a good idea, this is not the time to push it. … Saxby Chambliss is a vile man who needs to retire. His issues and shortcomings are well documented elsewhere. In addition, he has a funny first name.
The rest of this feature is a personal story about Mr. Saxby. As it became obvious that we were going to invade Babylon, I decided to go on record as being opposed. I felt we were starting something we were not going to be able to finish, that we could not afford, and was based on shaky premises. Once the fighting started, I would support the troops. However, before the “shock and awe”, I would speak my mind. The email/letter went to My House of Representatives lady, and the two senators.
The house lady at the time was Denise Majette. She had defeated Cynthia McKinney the previous fall. Ms. Majette sent a long and thoughtful reply. While she did not explicitly say so, I got the sense that she was opposed to the invasion. However, due to some votes cast in the previous congress, there was little that could be done to stop the war. … Of the two Senators, I never did hear from Zell “ZigZag” Miller. My letter mentioned that “You were elected to represent me”. Mr. Miller was appointed by the Governor to finish the term of Paul Coverdell, who died. Mr. Coverdell was a Republican. The Governor and Mr. Miller were Democrats. Mr. Miller has since decided that the Democratic Party is too liberal for his taste. ZigZag is lower than a snake’s belly.
Mr. Chambliss did send a reply to my letter. It was a few months after “Mission Accomplished”. Mr. Chambliss praised the war. He made no mention of my objections to the war, which were still valid in those early days of the insurgence. I wonder if his staff even read my letter. … Saxby Chambliss needs to retire. Some lobbying firm will give him a nice job, and the taxpayers will only indirectly pay for it. … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken February 24, 1966. Shell Oil Company meeting Stone Mountain Inn. ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Be Kind To Your Enemy
Did Jesus say to “Love your enemy?” Some believe this, and do it. Some claim to believe this, and practice the opposite. There are others who claim to love their enemies, but you have to understand what they mean by it. It can be very confusing. This is a repost.
I went to a source for documentation. Oh, the blessed conjunction of copy/paste with public domain. When I entered enemy (singular) in the search engine, 100 verses came up. When the request was made plural (enemies), 237 entries popped up. The last mention of enemies is Revelation 11:12. “And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.” Loving your enemies does not include bringing them to heaven with you.There is also the star of the show.
Matthew 5:44 “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
There is scholarly debate about what Jesus did, or did not, say. The words available to modern man have been copied by hand, edited, translated, and interpreted. I do not know Aramaic from Alabama. Like anyone else, I can only read and listen, and think for myself.
In a sense it does not matter what Jesus “really” said. Christians are going to believe what they want to believe. More important, they are going to do what they want to do. As far as the difference between what Jesus “really” said, and what his believers say and do … they can explain.
What follows is a humble suggestion. Did the translators and scribes get it wrong? Maybe Jesus did not say to love your enemy. Maybe what Jesus said was to show kindness to everyone. This is a practice thing, rather than a belief thing.
It is not as much fun to be nice to someone, as it is to scream about life after death. Kindness does not need to be justified by a quote from a magic book. You just need to do it. Pictures today are from Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken December 6, 1967. Artistic Beauty Institute (5 1/2 Auburn Avenue, NE) ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Money Hymn Of The Republic
This content was published October 29, 2009. … Mark Twain wrote a lot during the War in the Philippines. Many of his words could apply today. War has gotten more high tech … for our side … but the bottom line is the same. No matter how fancy the weapons get, the casualties are just as dead. And the investors make money. … Mine eyes have seen the orgy of the launching of the Sword; He is searching out the hoardings where the stranger’s wealth is stored; He hath loosed his fateful lightnings, and with woe and death has scored; His lust is marching on.
I have seen him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps; They have builded him an altar in the Eastern dews and damps; I have read his doomful mission by the dim and flaring lamps — His night is marching on. · I have read his bandit gospel writ in burnished rows of steel: “As ye deal with my pretensions, so with you my wrath shall deal; Let the faithless son of Freedom crush the patriot with his heel; Lo, Greed is marching on!”
We have legalized the strumpet and are guarding her retreat; Greed is seeking out commercial souls before his judgement seat; O, be swift, ye clods, to answer him! be jubilant my feet! Our God is marching on! · In a sordid slime harmonious Greed was born in yonder ditch, With a longing in his bosom — and for others’ goods an itch. As Christ died to make men holy, let men die to make us rich — Our God is marching on.
This content was published October 13, 2008. … 22 WORDS weighed in today with a comment about web design for dyslexics. No jokes please. … The post linked to a site called dyslexia.com. They say that dyslexia is a gift. While I would not go that far, some of their ideas are useful. The basic concept is that if something is easier for dyslexics to read, it will also be easier for non dyslexics. … This makes sense. While I don’t follow all of them, there are some good points here.
1 – Keep paragraphs short, and use a medium amount of text on each page. If a long article is posted, create a topic index at the beginning, so that the dyslexic reader can quickly narrow in on the parts that interest him or her. · 2 – Use default font settings or provide a way for users to choose their own styles. That way, a user can choose their own preferred font with their browser, or create their own style sheet. Many dyslexics find they read best with one particular font. · 3 – Keep your main text left-justified. It is very hard to read paragraphs where all lines are centered or which are right-justified.
4 – Use a consistent layout and format throughout the site. It helps to have navigation aids laid out consistently on every page. · 5 – If you use frames, be sure to provide a no-frames alternative; some text-to-speech software cannot read text on framed pages. · 6 – Make a list of relevant links at the end of a paragraph or section, rather than merely placing the links within the body of the text. That way the user can find the important links without needing to read all the text. Be sure to clearly describe the type of information or site the link will lead to.
7 – Use medium icons to help with navigation between frequently used web pages. There should also be a text alternative for navigation (or the ‘alt’ tag should be used), for those individuals who rely on computers to read the page contents to them. · 8 – Never use flashing text. Do not use animated or moving graphics unless the animation is necessary to illustrate important information, such as an animation demonstrating how a machine works. Even so, it is best to place the animation on a different page, or to set it up to start only when clicked.
9 – Avoid using background images behind text. Make sure that there is a good contrast between the color of the background and the color of text. · 10 – Do not set up background music to play, unless the site gives the user a choice whether to turn it on. … Several points ring especially true here. Short paragraphs are the way to go. A long block of text is intimidating to many readers, and screams out “skip over me”. On a more personal level, I have a tough time with quotes from the Bible. That is a subject for another post, if not a new blog.
Background music that starts without asking is a peeve of mine. This is highly unthoughtful to your visitor. If you are already listening to something, or are in a place music is inappropriate, this is going to cause problems. Flashing text and background images are also annoying, but at least they do not make noise. There is a reason I do not like MySpace. … For blocks of text, left-justified is simply the way to go. While centered text may be good for ads and invitations, it is a lot of work on the eyes to follow for extended reading. And, why on earth would anyone ever use right-justified?
A post like this is not complete without a hypocrite alert. I have heard people say they do not like multi colored text, that it can be difficult to read. Black text is a holdover from dead tree journalism. I probably will continue to use colors, though maybe with a bit of restraint. The rainbow posts are fun. Using colors for quotes and different themes helps the reader to tell when the subject has changed. Red letters stand out when you want to make a point.
The internet is a work in progress. People are learning what does and does not work. Just because you can do something … like have an automatic music player … doesn’t mean that you should. It is like when telephone answering machines first came out. At first, the idea was to have a clever message for incoming calls. Then, people got tired of listening to those, and the basic messages we have today became popular. Some techie things are suggested here … letting the user choose the font…are a bit too geeky for me, although I guess that could change. The main idea is to show a bit of courtesy to your visitor. It is not like your blog is the only one. … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library The social media picture: “Two individuals pose with Irvindale’s “Minnie Quarts” dairy cow, 1940s” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Jimmy Kimmel Really
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Did Jimmy Kimmel Really Cost Disney $3.87B? We Ran the Numbers—And …
Charlie Kirk Video Goes VIRAL as SHOCK Photo Gets Posted! Luke Beasley
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chuck leavell · brainbroke · carlson greenwald · s houston state · ian carroll
This is the last monday morning reader before the equinox. There are a lot of links and comments about Charlie Kirk. Read with caution. This too shall pass · @danwilliamsphil Watching the Charlie Kirk memorial, I’m struck by how extremely culturally distant I feel from this world. Everything about it feels alien – the aesthetics, symbolism, music, rituals, mythology, gurus, ideas, and norms. It feels like being exposed to the cultural and symbolic universe of a distant tribe. If I reflect on this, it occurs to me that this feeling must be symmetrical – that they must view the kind of cultural universe I inhabit as similarly alien. And in a strange way, despite opposing almost everything about this political project, this reflection makes me feel more empathy for what that project must feel like from the inside. · The New York Times reported on the discovery of a bit of papyrus that dates back to the fourth century. Facebook said the article was “spammy or unsafe.” You have to be cautious with those Coptics. · In the social media picture, a young man is chasing Mr. Natural, who says that it is all tedious mumbo jumbo. I suspect many public figures would say the same thing about their admirers · John Vachon took the social media picture in July 1941. “Seating now in all parts of the house. Chicago, Illinois.” · Today’s feature is about a “celebrity” who was running for the Senate. In one of her ads, she proudly proclaimed “I am not a witch.” It is time to put your Halloween decorations out · Pictures today are from Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken September 9, 1948. Victory Motors Used Cars. ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Jesus Said To Them, ‘My Wife’
This content was posted September 18, 2012. … Many of you have heard about the video. It was made at a fund raiser, and Willard Mitt Romney said things that got him in trouble. This is not surprising. Many of us already know that WMR is a jerk. … What goes around comes around. Four years ago, BHO was secretly taped at a fundraiser. He said that bitter people were clinging to their guns and bibles. A few said that it was tacky to secretly record a fundraising party like that.
Georgia is so red that it glows. WMR will probably win the electoral votes. Lets take a look at the math. … Lets make a few assumptions. Lets say one million votes will be cast in Georgia. Thirty percent, or 300k, of those voters are black. Lets go a step further and guess that ninety percent of the black votes will go to BHO. That means that BHO has 270k votes. To get to 500k and win, BHO needs 230k out of the remaining 700k. This is 32 percent of the non-black vote. He probably won’t get it.
This content was posted September 19, 2012. … I found an amusing post Wednesday morning. “Yesterday I posted a link to the New York Times article about what is being called “the Gospel of Jesus’ Wife,” and several friends commented on it. This morning my post has disappeared. I did not remove it, nor did I delete any of the comments, which I found interesting. When I tried to repost the article, I got this message from Facebook: “The content you’re trying to share includes a link that’s been blocked for being spammy or unsafe.” The New York Times is spammy or unsafe??? … As a theology geek, I find this new discovery fascinating. But as a Christian, my faith does not depend on Jesus’ celibacy. So if it were to be proven somehow that he was indeed married, it would not retroactively affect the relationship I’ve had with Jesus throughout my life. If anything, it would support the belief that Jesus was fully human as well as fully divine.”
Smithsonian magazine has a feature on this artifact. It is too long for a slack blogger. The NYT article is less than a page, and says enough to base this post on. … Here is the money quote. “A historian of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School has identified a scrap of papyrus that she says was written in Coptic in the fourth century and contains a phrase never seen in any piece of Scripture: “Jesus said to them, ‘My wife …’ ” The faded papyrus fragment is smaller than a business card, with eight lines on one side, in black ink legible under a magnifying glass. Just below the line about Jesus having a wife, the papyrus includes a second provocative clause that purportedly says, “she will be able to be my disciple.”
The word prove is used several times in the article. Perhaps indicate would be a more accurate verb. It is tough to “prove” anything using a 1700 year old papyrus fragment. The last paragraph in the NYT says “The notion that Jesus had a wife was the central conceit of the best seller and movie “The Da Vinci Code.” But Dr. King said she wants nothing to do with the code or its author: “At least, don’t say this proves Dan Brown was right.”
Of course, none of this means anything to most contemporary Christians. They think the Bible is the word of God. This text is inerrant, sufficient, spam free, and safe. Recent discoveries about Revelations are ignored. Like the bumper sticker says, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” … A person’s religion is a one of a kind experience. How you are introduced to a spiritual discipline is much more important than the mechanics of the church. The facebook commenter says that it won’t matter to him if Jesus has a wife. To me, any new information would not block the memory of humiliation at the hands of aggressive Christians.
There was another commentary published recently about the separation of God and spam. It was in New Yorker magazine, written by Hendrik Hertzberg. There was a post about Mr. Hertzberg at Chamblee54 once. I sent an email to Mr. Hertzberg about the post, and got a very nice reply. … The feature in question is about the way politicians think it will help them get elected to talk about God. Some think this is a grotesque violation of the third commandment. The New Yorker feature doesn’t really cover much ground, but has a bangup last paragraph. … “It was not hard to guess what idol, and what institution, the Cardinal had in mind. On the other hand, his reference to “nature and nature’s God” was not so clear. The phrase was there to echo the Declaration of Independence.
But Dolan must know that it is pure Deism—Jeffersonian code words for a non-supernatural God, a God who creates the universe and its laws and leaves the rest up to us. Could it be that we were witnessing an unheard-of political phenomenon, a dog whistle to voters who, whether or not they believe in a rights-endowing Creator, have their doubts about the sort of deity who begets sons, writes books, performs miracles, and determines the outcome of football games? Probably not. That God won’t hunt. “ … This was written like Dan Brown. Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken November 22, 1967. Home show on WAII-TV ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
West Bank Horror
This content was published September 29, 2010. … There is much hand wringing about Israel, Palestine, and the Peace Process. (That is a sentence you can use at any time. These things too shall pass away.) … A lot of this chatter misses the point. They talk about a threat to Israel, if this or that happens. There are several things wrong here. To begin with, Israel has the unquestioning support of the United States. The PR battle in the USA is the most important fight Israel has.
A “freeze” in building settlements ended recently. The word settlement is so antiseptic and painless. Settlements are not built on empty land. The people living on the land were evicted, and their homes destroyed. As Juan Cole tells the story: “The poor Palestinians of East Jerusalem have few assured human or civil rights. Anyone may do anything to them at any time, and they have little recourse. They can be thrown out of property they legally purchased after 1948, and made to live in tents in front of their former residences; and then the tents can be demolished by Israeli police. Aggressive, larcenous Jewish squatters continually attempt to effect a slow-motion ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians, using fraud and sometimes force.
The 55,000 Palestinians of the Silwan area (formerly a village but now annexed to Jerusalem) are mad as hell and not going to take it any more. Three hundred militant settlers have been inserted in their midst on the basis of some fable that a legendary King David dwelled there in the 10th century BC (Archeology has found Jerusalem largely uninhabited in that period and has never found firm evidence of a Jewish kingdom during that era or even that a David or Solomon existed; they are not mentioned in contemporary Assyrian sources).
It is as though hundreds of armed men showed up in front of your house and demanded you take your family and leave and give it to them because their ancestor was a king and he is buried deep under its foundations. But you have the same ancestors that they do! (Jerusalem was founded some 5000 years ago by the common ancestors of most Jews and Palestinians).”
Apparently, this has gone on since 1948. An article about Israeli Author Gideon Levy tells the story of his father, who left Germany in 1939, and wound up in British Mandate Palestine. His father was traumatized by the experience of being a refugee. “Levy’s father never saw any parallels between the fact he was turned into a refugee, and the 800,000 Palestinians who were turned into refugees by the creation of the state of Israel. “Never! People didn’t think like that. We never discussed it, ever.”
Yet in the territories, Levy began to see flickers of his father everywhere – in the broken men and women never able to settle, dreaming forever of going home. Then, slowly, Levy began to realize their tragedy seeped deeper still into his own life – into the ground beneath his feet and the very bricks of the Israeli town where he lives, Sheikh Munis. It is built on the wreckage of “one of the 416 Palestinian villages Israel wiped off the face of the earth in 1948,” he says. “The swimming pool where I swim every morning was the irrigation grove they used to water the village’s groves. My house stands on one of the groves. The land was ‘redeemed’ by force, its 2,230 inhabitants were surrounded and threatened. They fled, never to return. Somewhere, perhaps in a refugee camp in terrible poverty, lives the family of the farmer who plowed the land where my house now stands.”
Many of those 800,000 wound up in the Gaza Strip. Their ancestors make up a large part of the population of Gaza. Mr. Levy tells another story. … “During Operation Cast Lead, the Israel bombing of blockaded Gaza in 2008-9, “a dog – an Israeli dog – was killed by a Qassam rocket and it on the front page of the most popular newspaper in Israel. On the very same day, there were tens of Palestinians killed, they were on page 16, in two lines.” … Sixteen years later, Gideon Levy is still at it. @gideonle “Israel has no place at Eurovision while committing atrocities in Gaza.”
But, morality aside, is this cruelty hurting Israel? Not on some esoteric level of the soul of the country, but on a practical level of survival. A blog called Unqualified Offerings makes a case that Israel has a long term plan to control the territories west of the Jordan River, and that they are winning. Israel is in a military position of strength, and might makes right. “Viewed institutionally and leaving moral questions aside, it counts as a triumph of grand strategy. Israel bought off Egypt with Egypt’s own territory. It convinced Jordan to bow out, and plain beat Syria like a rodeo clown. Lebanon could be broken any time and was, and the Lebanese were always falling all over themselves to help.
At this point, Israel has also destroyed the ability of the Palestinians to mount any consequential resistance of their own. Just as Hezbollah couldn’t occupy a single Israeli exurb in a trial of a thousand years, no Palestinian organization can stop Israel from planting its flag on any particular spot of the West Bank for so much as a week … Any large, political-military enterprise is going to have its ebb and flow. The Israeli conquest and consolidation of what we still quaintly call “the Occupied Territories” has involved tactical setbacks, occasional overreach and strategic withdrawals. The trick is not to get caught up in that. The long view is, Israel wanted control of all the territory west of the Jordan, Israel got control of all the territory west of the Jordan, Israel continues to cement its control over all the territory west of the Jordan. Everything else is details.
Turkey is not going to war for the Freedom Flotilla. It took all of a day for the United States to conclude a deal whereby Israel gets to investigate itself. The Iranians are either not trying to get nukes, or if they do get nukes will be very careful with them. The Iranians will fuck you up, but never at any substantial cost to themselves. Israel can levy a substantial cost on Iran any time it wants. The Palestinians can’t do more than annoy and neither can Hezbollah. On the other side, frequently foreigners make sad faces. I am thinking that Israel counts this among the acceptable costs.” … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken September 15, 1943. “Celebrations around the awarding of a 1943 Army Navy E Award to the Avondale Mills, Sylacauga, Alabama. This photograph is of a group of very young African-American children.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
They Bleeped “Molly”
This content was published September 28, 2013. … There is a bit of likeme trolling on facebook this morning. It is a link, Miley Cyrus Points Out Something Wrong With America — And She’s Absolutely Right. The message is from a facility called Upworthy. These missives usually have a popup ad, encouraging you to like uw on fb. The message today was a poll. “It’s nice to be reminded of the good in the world. And it should happen more often. I Agree I Disagree” I clicked disagree, and was sent through to the headline post.
Miley Cyrus has gotten attention lately. She performed at an awards show, and got people excited. I do not pay to watch TV, and missed the spectacle. Maybe this is the best approach.
The message from miss achy breaky heart is not that great. She says that some nasty things are on television, but you can’t say fuck. This is the same observation about double standards that has been around since the top half of Elvis was on the Ed Sullivan show. It is just as meaningless today as ever.
Calling someone a hypocrite is a cheap argument. Whenever someone says something, you can be sure that the standards of someone else are violated. Hypocrisy is in the eye of the beholder. Two wrongs do not make a right. Not everybody agrees with you.
2025 Update: This morning I woke up with Charlie Kirk fatigue. There is so much toxicity and bad faith rhetoric. There are politicians who don’t want to let a crisis go to waste. There is the shock of seeing quotes from the deceased. There is a government story that does not make a lick of sense.
I decided to find the pictures first. I stumbled onto a story from 2013, and decided to use the text, as well as the pictures. These pictures are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library The social media picture was taken August 16, 1949. “WBGE radio personality Roosevelt Johnson” … I found a link to the meme. Upworthy is still in business, as is mileycyrus. The quote was in Rolling Stone. Every link I clicked on was a clickbait quagmire.
Here is the quote. “America is just so weird in what they think is right and wrong. Like, I was watching Breaking Bad the other day, and they were cooking meth. I could literally cook meth because of that show. It’s a how-to. And then they bleeped out the word ‘fuck.’ And I’m like, really? They killed a guy, and disintegrated his body in acid, but you’re not allowed to say ‘fuck’? It’s like when they bleeped ‘molly’ at the VMAs. Look what I’m doing up here right now, and you’re going to bleep out ‘molly’? Whatever.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
The Limits Of Fantasy
This content was published September 17, 2009. … These thoughts are for you to use. They were articulated by a man named Don Miguel Ruiz. They are called The Four Agreements. I do not claim to live up to these ideals. Number two is especially tough. The main thing is to try, and to always do your best. This is not about what you believe or think, it is about what you do. These are agreements, not beliefs. · 1 – “Be impeccable with your word – Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.”
2 – “Don’t take anything personally – Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.” · 3 – “Don’t make assumptions – Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.” · 4 – “Always do your best – Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.”
This content was published September 5, 2009. … I was reading about Afghanistan while waiting for the time to go downtown. Dragon Con is in town, and the parade is at ten am. I decided to go downtown and see the costumes this year, so next year I can sleep late. Meanwhile, what is being said about Afghanistan is just as much a fantasy as DragonCon. The article is a two prong discussion… Should we be fighting in Afghanistan, and are we doing it right?
Uzi just called to say he is on his way to the train station, so this needs to be wrapped up asap. There is a man named William Kristol. He writes think pieces for various newspapers. Mr. Kristol … he had a deferment and never served in the Vietnam era military … was known as the brains behind Dan Quayle. … Mr. Kristol discusses counterinsurgency in a recent oped. The classic counterinsurgency theory is that you have you have one soldier per fifty civilians in your theater of war. Afghanistan has an *estimated* population of 28 million. Do the math.
Mr. Kristol observes: “But as the military historian Fred Kagan explains, counter-insurgency theory and experience suggest that if the Afghan National Army is expanded, as Gen. McChrystal proposes to do, and if there is a surge of several brigades of American forces “to bridge the gap between current Afghan capacity and their future capacity, while simultaneously reducing the insurgency’s capabilities,” then we would have roughly the number of forces necessary to carry out the strategy.” … The fantasy downtown will have more colorful costumes.
This content was published September 5, 2009. … I made a mistake. The preacher in front of the GP plaza held a picture board, which was poorly rendered. I made the mistake of assuming it was abortion pictures. It turns out to be an image of Jesus on the cross. … The Georgia Pacific building is on the site of the Lowes Grand Theater. On December 15, 1939, Gone With The Wind had its world premiere there. In a church choir was the ten year old Martin Luther King Jr. GWTW was about as real about the ante bellum south as the starship troopers were about intergalactic warfare. … The GP plaza is where Forsyth Street comes into Peachtree. For some reason, the wind on Forsyth Street is very strong, and this volume of air beats against the GP plaza. On DragonCon parade Saturday, the wind coming back from the plaza was a measure of revenge.
A theme of the post yesterday (see comments) was the importance of knowing fantasy from reality. The preacher was living a fantasy. Few are impressed by his rhetoric. He creates ill will for Jesus. The grossout pictures of the crucifixion do the same. I posted last week about the damage that selfish preachers do to Jesus. It should be noted that photography did not exist when Jesus lived. Nor did people speak English. That does not prevent people from calling an Aramaic to Greek to English double translation the inerrant word of God. If you believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God, then it is not much of a leap to believe those pictures were real.
Another problem is the placement of the spikes. The spike that held feet to a cross was driven into a spot between the Achilles heel and the bone. No bones were broken, and the feet were secured to the cross. The spikes that held the arms were driven through a space in the wrist. Here again, no bones were broken, and the arms were not going to be pulled away from the cross. In the picture, there was a rope tying Jesus to the cross at this spot, and the spike was going to go in a couple of inches up the arm. When you believe your fantasy, details are not important. … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library The social media picture was taken August 15, 1949. “Davison-Paxon’s grand opening of a new part of its downtown Atlanta, Georgia, store, August 15, 1949. This photo shows the speaker’s stand outside the store, the Roxy Theatre is in the background.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Mollie’s Rant
This content was published September 2, 2012. … There is an amazing rant about abortion on Bloggingheads.tv. The ranter is Mollie Ziegler Hemingway. Making exasperated faces is the host, Sarah Posner. The episode appeared August 28, 2012.
The rant that inspired this feature is thirty three minutes into the discussion. Out of a masochistic sense of fairness, I decided to listen to the entire discussion, before writing this post. I got two minutes and thirteen seconds in before stopping to cop a quote. MZH said that a good way to help connect with someone, is if you see that they care about something very deeply. I have had the opposite experience. When I am the target of an emotional volcano, it tends to inspire fear and loathing. It is not what you say, it is the way you say it.
This is a common feeling among believers. The idea is that the more you show how much you believe something, the more persuasive you are at converting people to that belief. It has been my experience that these evangelizing believers will say things that they agree with, while not addressing the concerns of the listener. The person who is being preached to is often bewildered by the display of rhetoric, and becomes more convinced of previously held opinions.
I am a bloggingheads.tv fan, and occasional commenter. I even got an email asking me not to post “artistic” screen shots in the comments. (Here are some of the pictures: one, two, three.) The normal procedure is to listen to the talkers while working on other projects. The problem is that someone will make a noteworthy comment, and I feel the need to make a link to it. Multi tasking has it’s limits, and productivity suffers. One such moment was when MZH said it doesn’t matter whether YOU think that’s an abortion drug what matters it’s whether WE think that’s an abortion drug. Apparently, MZH thinks this helps her connect with SP.
Twenty six minutes in, the ladies begin to discuss the idiotic comment by Todd Akin. This is a prelude to the rant to follow. MZH makes a comment that includes the phrase “consistent pro lifers.”
Lets take a minute to consider the phrase “consistent pro lifers.” In the military, a lifer is someone who makes his career in the service. It is not always a compliment. The job of the military is to fight wars, which means they kill people. Is this “pro-life”?
This is an inconsistency for “consistent pro lifers.” Very few people are consistently pro life. The four main life issues are war, abortion, capital punishment, and euthanasia. Many of the Christian anti abortion people are enthusiastic supporters of killing Muslim women and children. We are killing them over there, so they won’t come over here and kill us.
The SP-MZH chat was recorded August 28. The night before, the Republican Convention was entertained by a bit of Methodist methhead method acting by Clint Eastwood. The crowd cheered lustily. No one seemed concerned about Mr. Eastwood’s performance as the fetus father in multiple abortions. Is “consistent pro lifer” an oxymoron?
The fun really starts at the thirty three minute mark. MZH has been talking about how being mean to Todd Akin is good for the pro choice cause. She then shifts gears, and starts to talk about BHO. It seems like BHO opposed an anti abortion bill when he was an Illinois state senator. To MZH, this makes BHO a radical baby killer. To MZH, this, position taken as a state senator years ago, makes BHO just as radical as a man who says that rape affects conception.
MZH goes on to whine about the media. This is a sure sign that she cannot make a logical case for her beliefs. When your message fails, you bash the other messenger. All the time, MZH gets more and more worked up. SP shakes her head so much you worry about her earpiece falling out.
At the thirty five thirty five mark, MZH lets out the rhetoric rascal that lurks in her consistently pro life soul. When SP tried to calm down MZH, and inject a note of reason into the debate, MZH started to scream about gay marriage. This is how things work. Gay marriage is a great distraction. When reason fails, you start to toss red herrings onto the trail.
After a while, I began to think that I have had enough fun. It is time to wrap up, and get a life. At this point, MZH has another jaw dropper. Arguing from the extremes is not a really helpful thing.
The ladies did have a moment of agreement to end the discussion. MZH said women are more than their vaginas, and SP said good night Chet. It is tough to hold hands and sing Kum Bah Yah on skype.
On Apr 27, 2022, Bob Wright announced that “Bloggingheads the name is being pretty much retired” … Todd Akin died October 3, 2021. Here is the story of his fifteen minutes: “Akin, running against incumbent Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill, was asked in an interview … if he would support abortions for women who have been raped. “It seems to me first of all from what I understand from doctors that’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken September 28, 1961. Davison’s Department Store, Ellis and Peachtree Streets. ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Famous Last Words
This content was published August 16, 2024. … The elephant in the room is a popular internet cliche. In this picture, the elephant looks like the ghastly wallpaper, both of which are best ignored. I wanted to make a comment. The only appropriate thing to do, in a situation involving wallpaper and an elephant, is to quote Oscar Wilde, on his deathbed. “This wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. Either it goes or I do.”
When discussing Oscar Wilde, elephants, and wallpaper, it is important to get the correct quote. Mr. Google has a great deal to say, on the subject of last words. Peggy Lee sang about it. Unfortunately, the chanteuse was in very bad health at the end of her life. Peggy Lee probably did not say “Is that all there is?” on her deathbed.
On October 14, 1977, Bing Crosby “… finished 18 holes of golf carding an 85 … After his final putt Bing … remarked “It was a great game.” As he was walking to the clubhouse … he collapsed from a massive heart attack. … “We thought he had just slipped,” said one of his golfing companions.”
Adelaide Eugenia Bankhead “… first child, daughter Ada Eugenia, was born on January 24, 1901. The following year, Tallulah was born on their anniversary. Ada died tragically of blood poisoning just three weeks following Tallulah’s birth. On her deathbed, she told her sister-in-law to “take care of Eugenia, Tallulah will always be able to take care of herself”. This, like many other legendary last words, may too good to be true.
The Atlantic had a tasteful feature, “What Are the Best Last Words Ever?” Here are a few.
John Adams July 4, 1826 “Thomas Jefferson survives.”
Unbeknownst to Mr. Adams, Mr. Jefferson had died about five hours earlier.
Richard Feynman “I’d hate to die twice—it’s so boring”
O. Henry appeared to have stopped breathing, but was he really dead? Touch his feet, suggested one of the mourners clustered around his bed: Nobody ever died with warm feet. Whereupon, the short-story writer raised his head from the pillow, mumbled “Joan of Arc did,” and fell back dead.
Dylan Thomas “I’ve had 18 straight whiskeys. I think that’s the record.”
Union Major General John Sedgwick “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.” Said while reprimanding his men for ducking for cover, just before he was killed at the Battle of Spotsylvania.
Ludwig Von Beethoven “I shall hear in heaven.”
An unverified tumblr contributes a few more zingers.
Edgar Allan Poe “Lord help my poor soul.”
Thomas Hobbes “I am about to take my last voyage, a great leap into the dark.”
Alfred Jarry “I am dying…please, bring me a toothpick.”
Washington Irving “I have to set my pillows one more night, when will this end already?”
Leo Tolstoy “But the peasants…how do the peasants die?”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe “More light.”
Karl Marx “Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough!”
Voltaire “Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies.”
François-Marie Arouet was asked by a priest to renounce Satan.
James Joyce “Does nobody understand?”
A certain popup crazy website has a few more last words. Some of these were really said.
James Dean “That guy’s gotta stop… He’ll see us.”
Henry James “So here it is at last, the expected thing.”
Marie Antoinette “Pardon me, sir, I did not do it on purpose.”
George Appel “Well, gentlemen, you are about to see a baked Appel.” Mr. Appel was executed by electric chair in 1928; these were his last words. Here’s two more: “Gents, this is an educational project. You are about to witness the damaging effect electricity has on Wood.” Said by Fredrick Charles Wood before he was electrocuted in 1951. “Hey, fellas! How about this for a headline for tomorrow’s paper? ‘French Fries!’” James French, 1966.
The pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken December 5, 1949. Highland Avenue; #1033 Moe’s & Joe’s restaurant and bar; Siegel’s Kosher Delicatessen; Virginia – Highland Pharmacy; Reynolds Plumbing and Heating Company ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
The Funeral Of Elvis
This content was published August 1, 2024. The text was originally published September 2, 2011. … There is a saying, “if a story seems too bad to be true, it probably isn’t”. I tried to google that phrase, and got confused. Then I seemed to remember reading it in a column by Mary Tyler “Molly” Ivins. Another google adventure, and this video turned up.
Miss Ivins, who met her maker January 31, 2007, was promoting a book. On April 26, 1998, she sat down with Brian Lamb, on CSPAN’s Booknotes. I could only listen to 24:30 of this video before being seized with the urge to write a story. There is a transcript, which makes “borrowing” so much easier. This film has 34 minutes to go, which just might yield another story.
Molly Ivins was a Texas woman. These days there is a lot of talk about Texas, with Governor Big Hair aiming to be the next POTUS under indictment. Mr. Perry claims that his record as Texas Governor qualifies him to have his finger on the nuclear trigger. Miss Ivins repeats something that I had heard before… “in our state we have the weak governor system, so that really not a great deal is required of the governor, not necessarily to know much or do much. And we’ve had a lot of governors who did neither. “ It makes you wonder how much of that “economic miracle” is because of hair spray.
Texas politics makes about as much sense as Georgia politics. For a lady, with a way with words, it is a gold mine. “the need you have for descriptive terms for stupid when you write about Texas politics is practically infinite. Now I’m not claiming that our state Legislature is dumber than the average state Legislature, but it tends to be dumb in such an outstanding way. It’s, again, that Texas quality of exaggeration and being slightly larger than life. And there are a fair number of people in the Texas Legislature of whom it could fairly be said, `If dumb was dirt, they would cover about an acre.’ And I’m not necessarily opposed to that. I’m–agree with an old state senator who always said that, `If you took all the fools out of the Legislature, it would not be a representative body anymore.’”
We could go through this conversation for a long time, but you probably want to skip ahead and look at pictures. There is one story in this transcript that is too good not to borrow. For some reason, Molly Ivins went to work for The New York Times, aka the gray lady. In August of 1977, she was in the right place at the right time.
LAMB: And how long did you spend with The New York Times as a reporter? IVINS: Six years with The New York Times. Some of it in New York as a political reporter at City Hall in Albany and then later as bureau chief out in the Rocky Mountains. LAMB: Would you take a little time and tell us about reporting on the funeral of Elvis Presley? IVINS: Oh, now there is something that when I’ve been standing in the checkout line at the grocery store and if I really need to impress people, I just let fall that I covered Elvis’ funeral. And, boy, people just practically draw back with awe. It may yet turn out to be my greatest claim to fame. …
… I was sitting in The New York City Times one day when I noticed a whole knot of editors up around the desk having a–a great scrum of concern, you could tell. It looked sort of like an anthill that had just been stepped on. And it turns out–The New York Times has a large obituary desk, and they prepare obituaries for anybody of prominence who might croak. But it turns out–you may recall that Elvis Presley died untimely and they were completely unprepared. …
… Now this is an enormous news organization. They have rock music critics and classical music critics and opera critics, but they didn’t have anybody who knew about Elvis Presley’s kind of music. So they’re lookin’ across a whole acre of reporters, and you could see them decide, `Ah-ha, Ivins. She talks funny. She’ll know about Mr. Presley.’ … So I wound up writing Elvis’ obituary for The New York Times. I had to refer to him throughout as Mr. Presley. It was agonizing. That’s the style at The New York Times–Mr. Presley. Give me a break. …
… And the next day they sold more newspapers than they did after John Kennedy was assassinated, so that even the editors of The New York Times, who had not quite, you know, been culturally aton–tuned to Elvis, decided that we should send someone to report on the funeral. And I drew that assignment. What a scene it was. LAMB: You–you say in the book that you got in the cab and you said, `Take me to Graceland.’ The cabbie peels out of the airport doing 80 and then turns full around to the backseat and drawls, `Ain’t it a shame Elvis had to die while the Shriners are in town?’ …
… That’s your Shriners in convention, always something very edifying and enjoyable to watch. But they–every–every hotel room in Memphis was occupied with celebrating Shriners, and then Elvis dies and all these tens of thousands of grieving, hysterical Elvis Presley fans descend on the town. So you got a whole bunch of sobbing, hysterical Elvis fans, you got a whole bunch of cavorting Shriners. And on top of that they were holding a cheerleading camp. And the cheerleading camp–I don’t know if your memory–with the ethos of the cheerleading camp, but the deal is that every school sends its team–team of cheerleaders to cheerleading camp. …
… And your effort there at the camp is to win the spirit stick, which looks, to the uninitiated eye, a whole lot like a broom handle painted red, white and blue. But it is the spirit stick. And should your team win it for three days running, you get to keep it. But that has never happened. And the way you earn the spirit stick is you show most spirit. You cheer for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You cheer when the pizza man brings the pizza. …
… I tell you, those young people will throw–show an amount of spirit that would just astonish you in an effort to win that stick. … So here I was for an entire week, dealing with these three groups of people: the young cheerleaders trying to win the spirit stick, the cavorting Shriners and the grieving, hysterical Elvis fans. And I want to assure you that The New York Times is not the kind of newspaper that will let you write about that kind of rich human comedy. LAMB: Why? IVINS: Because The New York Times, at least in my day, was a very stuffy, pompous newspaper. …
… LAMB: What about today? IVINS: A little bit better, little bit better than it was. … Has–has–it has a tendency, recidivist tendencies, though. You–you will notice if you read The Times, it–it collapses into pomposity and stuffiness with some regularity. LAMB: Why did you leave it? IVINS: Well, I–I actually got into trouble at The New York City Times for describing a community chu–chicken killing out West as a gang pluck. Abe Rosenthal was then the editor of the Times and he was not amused. LAMB: Did–but did they let it go? Did they let it …
… IVINS: Oh, no. It never made it in the paper. Good heavens, no. Such a thing would never get in The Times in my day. … POSTSCRIPT I found some pictures, marked up the text, and was ready to post the story. I decided to listen to a bit more of the discussion between Molly Ivins and the bald headed man. When I got to this point, it became apparent that I could listen to Molly Ivins talk, or I could post the story, but I could not do both at the same time. …
… IVINS: Oh, well, of course, I’m gonna make fun of it. I mean, Berkeley, California, if you are from Texas, is just hilarious. LAMB: Why? IVINS: Well, of course, it is just the absolute center of liberalism and political correctness. And it is a veritable hotbed of people, of–bless their hearts, who all think alike, in a liberal way. And, of course, I’m sometimes called a liberal myself, and you would think I would have felt right at home there. But I just am so used to–I’m so used to Texas that I found the culture at Berkeley hysterical. … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken April 10, 1963, at the “Krystal restaurant“, 428 Ponce De Leon Avenue NE.
Living With The Dead
This content was published August 12, 2009. … I am reading “Living With The Dead” about a band formerly known as The Warlocks. The *ghost writer* is a man named David Dalton, who channels the lysergic nuttiness. … The man behind the curtain might tell you that the GD name was about the death of the ego. Once the band became popular, the skeletons came out of the closet, and suddenly every day was the day of the dead. Jerry never cared for the skull paraphernalia, but got over it. …
… The person the ghost writer channeled was Rock Sculley. He was doing something in San Francisco in 1965, when Owsley Stanley invited him to the Trips Festival. Soon, the walls of the auditorium were breathing, and the band was playing. This was their first gig as the Grateful Dead, and Bill Graham was horrified by the new name. The posters had the phrase “formerly known as the Warlocks”. … The next night, Mr. Scully went to an acid test in Palo Alto, where Neal Cassidy was juggling hammers and talking endless amphetimated nonsense. If Neal had just stayed off those railroads tracks he could have been the first white rapper. …
… Owsley thought Rock Scully would be a good manager for the band. Maybe because his name sounded like skull. And so it goes. … Did Kurt Vonnegut ever see the Dead? They would have been a good match, especially with all the cigarettes mr v smoked. He could have been dosed, and time tripped back into that meat locker in Dresden. … Did you know there is a Dresden Drive that connects Brookhaven to Doraville? Dresden Drive is a popular road for police cars, and I learned a long time ago to watch the rearview carefully there. In the early seventies, Dekalb County drove gold Plymouth Satellites. I drove a gold Plymouth Satellite in the eighties, after the girl in Planet Claire made everyone forget the Dekalb gestapo. …
… Back to the book. The ghost writer and Kurt Vonnegut have a similar effect … when you read a book by mr v, you starts to think like the book reads. LWTD is having the same impact, which can be intimidating to the readers of this blog who dare to go this far. … The sixties were like that in California, or so I heard … in 1967, I was in the eighth grade, and a long way away from California dreamin’. Neal Cassidy said he got more out of breakfast than he got out of the eighth grade. …
… LWTD is chock full of trivia. Did you know that St. Stephen was written about Stephen Gaskin? Or that Grace Slick would never sunbathe nude on David Crosby’s boat, because David’s girlfriends were all so pretty. Grace just couldn’t compete. Oops, that last bit was from David Crosby’s book, which was another perversion excursion. Does anyone else find the concept of Mr. Walrus being the turkey baster daddy for Julie Cypher … just a touch bizarre? … I am on page 213 of LWTD at this point. This is a mathematical wonder, using all prime numbers and a superstition into a sum of six. The story of the dead is at a turning point, but then almost any inning of this ballgame was a turning point. It is early 1972. Pigpen has been replaced, but doesn’t know it yet. …
… The dead just played the Armistice day show at the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium, which is fondly remembered by many who were not there. In a bit of irony, this is one of the last shows with the old sound system. There is a quote from a someone who saw them in NY a few weeks later, and said it was the worst he had heard the band sound. … This is also turning point in america, with the rise of george mcgovern leading to a landslide for tricky dick. The sixties were slowing coming to a multi colored end. They were too painful to live and too profitable to die. …
… The band rode the wave for the next thirty seven years, even after uberdeadhead Jerry became the real thing on Hiroshima day in 1995. The book has about 144 pages to go (a gross), but I suspect that it won’t be as much fun as the first 213. … The pictures for this post are from a farm in Tennessee. As I edit the pics, I listens to a tape of the auditorium show, and the band plays “Tennessee Jed”. Once, I was playing a tape of “Tennessee Jed”, and a neighbor asked me “Do you like that?” “Yes” “then you are a hick”. … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture was taken January 17, 1947. “McDonough Boulevard”
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