Is Prayer That Great?
Prayer is not always a good idea.
That is up there with G-d and Motherhood, but somebody has to say it.
Many of my objections are in the phrase, “Prayer is talking to G-d, and Meditation is Listening.”. In our culture, we love to talk, and don’t have time to listen. Talking is yang, active, power. Listening is ying,receptive, passive, and indicates respect for the person you are paying attention to. This is difficult for many.
Of course, no one ever says “I am going to meditate for you”. Although maybe you should.
Prayer is used as an aggressive weapon. “I am going to pray for you” is the condescending conclusion of many a religious argument. I have had it shouted at me like a curse.
There is the matter of prayer as entertainment. While this may be cool to those who are on the program, it can be repulsive to others. Once I volunteered to lead the prayer before a dinner. The story is repeated below.
Now, prayer is not a completely bad thing. One of the cherished memories of my father is the brief, commonsense blessings he would give before meals. In the context of a church service, prayer plays a useful function. Some famous prayers are beautiful poetry. In Islam, the daily prayers are an important part of the observance. Who am I to say it is wrong?( A note to the Muslim haters, and opportunistic republicans …We are all G-d’s children.)
When someone is in a bad way, people want to think they can help. Arguably it does not hurt to pray for someone, but it is nothing to boast about.
My problem is when people are proud of their prayers. There are few as prideful as a “humble servant”. While it may mean something to you, not everyone is impressed. And in a religion obsessed with converting others, you should care what man thinks.
So much for world affairs. It is time to tell a story, with no moral and no redeeming social value.
In 1980, I was staying at a place called the Sea Haven Hostel, affectionately known as Sleaze Haven. This was in Seattle WA, as far as you can get from Atlanta, and still be in the lower 48. I was working through Manpower, and staying in a semi private room for $68 a month.
There was a Christian group that met in the basement on Sunday Night. Now, as some of you may know, I am a recovering baptist, who hasn’t been to church since 1971. However, the lure of a free meal was hard to resist, so I went to a few meetings.
One night, after doing quality control work on the local beer supply, I cheerfully joined in the discussion. This was the night when I realized that the Bible is not the Word of G-d. This concept has been very handy in dealing with the clumsy efforts of our Jesus-mad culture to convert me.
They seemed to like me, though, and welcomed me back. Maybe it was the southern accent.
One Sunday, after the dinner was finished , it was time to have a prayer to begin the meeting. I raised my hand.Now, Jesus Worshipers enjoy prayer as entertainment. When they bow their heads, you see them stretching and deep breathing, in anticipation of a good, lengthy, message to G-d.
My message was a bit of a disappointment. Instead of a long winded lecture about Jesus and the magic book, I said what was on my mind. “Lord, thank you for letting us be here today.” What else do you need to say? This double repost has pictures from The Library of Congress.
We Can Forgive The Arabs
The facebook meme showed a quote about American deaths in a mid-east war, and how Israel is willing to make the *scarifice.* PG remembered a quote from long ago. Something about how the thing Israel hates most is being forced to kill Arab children. Who said it, and when? Veteran readers of this blog should know where this is going.
Golda Meir is a matriarch of the State of Israel. Her wikiquote page has this: “Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.” The attribution says this: “as quoted in A Land of Our Own : An Oral Autobiography (1973) edited by Marie Syrkin, p. 242.” There is a remarkable second attribution. “Harvey Rachlin was unable to find a primary source for this quote and the one below. The Mystery Of Golda’s Golden Gems”
” The one below” is wiki-listed as a “variant” of the first quote. “We can forgive [them] for killing our children. We cannot forgive them from forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with [them] when they love their children more than they hate us.” “As attributed in an Anti-Defamation League advertisement Ad that ran in the Hollywood Reporter.” The source: “Golda Meir (1957.)
The ADL Ad was reported on August 19, 2014. This was during an Israeli visit to Gaza. It was preceded by Bob Schieffer, on a CBS broadcast in July 2014. “Last week, I found a quote of many years ago by Golda Meir, one of Israel’s early leaders, which might have been said yesterday. “We can forgive the Arabs …” Mr. Schieffer did not give a source for the quote.
When dealing with a quote, you should ask questions. Did they really say it? When and where did they say it? What was the context? What was the original language, and can we trust the translation? Many, many famous quotes fail these simple tests. Brainy Quote is not a valid source.
The Mystery Of Golda’s Golden Gems takes a critical look. It turns out that the Schieffer/ADL team was using a combination of two quotes. These were the quotes investigated by Harvey Rachlin. “Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us.” “When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons.”
“… many of these cite as their source A Land of Our Own: An Oral Autobiography. … The quote appears, along with several others, on the last page of the book’s text (before the index) under the heading “On Peace.” Its source is given as: National Press Club, Washington, 1957. I wrote to the National Press Club in an effort to obtain a copy of Meir’s 1957 speech. The response I received was that Meir, who at the time was Israel’s foreign minister, did not speak there in 1957….”
“…Curiously, most of the books I looked at, as well as Meir’s own autobiography, My Life, contained no mention of these two most famous Meir quotes. Nor was either of them included in The New York Times’s 4,883-word December 9, 1978 obituary of Meir – although Times reporter Israel Shenker found room for more than three dozen other quotes from Meir.”
“My investigation took a turn when I found a 1970 collection of Meir quotes titled As Good As Golda: The Warmth and Wisdom of Israel’s Prime Minister. In this book there are two quotes that bear close resemblance to the pair in question: “Peace will come when Nasser loves his own children more than he hates the Israelis” and “What we hold against Nasser is not only the killing of our sons but forcing them for the sake of Israel’s survival to kill others.”
“Strangely, there are no citations for any of the quotes in the book, and while I found these two exact quotes in other books (all published in or after 1970) none of the citations were from original sources. Even more bizarre is that As Good As Golda was compiled and edited by Israel and Mary Shenker – yes, the same Israel Shenker who several years later would write the massive New York Times obituary that contained dozens of Meir quotes but, notably, not her two most famous ones. …”
“… In August 2014, in the wake of Israel’s Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in Gaza, the ADL placed an ad … The ad had both Meir quotes strung together with the singular attribution “Golda Meir (1957).” The ADL did not respond to repeated requests from The Jewish Press for a statement as to whether the organization possessed any verification of the quotes and why they ran together, as though they were part of the same statement.”
Harvey Rachlin comes to the conclusion that there is no way to verify these quotes from Golda Meir. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Some Ridiculous Commentary
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Arab Racism Towards Black Africans
Drone footage of the newly restored Kessler Mansion
Politicians Are Like Diapers. They Should Be Changed Regularly
Emory’s giant parking deck gets a redesign, but is it good urbanism?
The Astonishing Hypocrisy of Media Matters
If the Bee Disappeared, Man Would Only Have Four Years Left
Joe Rogan Experience #1295 – Tulsi Gabbard ~ Tulsi Gabbard
Poll says that 56% of Americans don’t want kids taught Arabic numerals.
Gentrification and Erasure: LGBTQ History in a Southern Suburb
The craziest new sandwich in Birmingham is all about Alabama
Science Suggests You Should Not Shower Every Day Anymore
President Trump’s Motorcade Involved In Accident on Louisiana Highway
Alabama Restaurant Selling Whitest Sandwich Ever We Need to Stop Them
Did Joel Osteen Implement ‘Prayer Request Accounts’ for Parishioners?
Georgia couple found guilty of murdering 15-day-old daughter while on meth
“It’s a sickness but I tried to be a good mama.”
Was the 1970s the decade that shaped how we live now?
The Presentation on Egypt ~ Camille Bordas on Family Secrets
City of Atlanta paid anti-LGBTQ attorney $267,000
Northern California’s clothing-optional Wilbur Hot Springs listed for $10 million
THE MOST RADICAL HOMOSEXUAL COMIC STRIP IN THE UNIVERSE!!!
mystery illness killed a boy in 1969. Years later, doctors learned it was AIDS.
Houston-Area Cop Shoots And Kills Pregnant Black Woman
Saturday History Lesson: Flannery O’Connor and Betty Hester
6 September (1955): Flannery O’Connor to Betty Hester
Stacey Abrams, Georgia candidate for governor, has strong Mississippi roots
A supposedly great article I’ll never read the same way again
Georgia governor signs law to slow ‘use it or lose it’ voter purges
Racist robocall defends murder suspect who intervened in hit-and-run
Before Stacey Abrams won Ga. primary, she learned hard work in Mississippi
U.S. Military Officials Say There Is No Actual Plan to Confront Iran
This AI-generated Joe Rogan fake has to be heard to be believed
Three Dollar Cafe fails health inspection with a 57
How Tiger Woods Won the Back Surgery Lottery
Sir Maejor Page appears in court, ordered to give up guns
Sanders makes pitch to state’s black voters in first Ga. campaign stop
court drama ~ pool noodle ~ mcbath email ~ stacey bio
privilege ~ more stacey ~ social media poll ~ Dooley Field
gemma my murder ~ chris mcnabb ~ abbie normal
@dailyzen Simplicity, patience, compassion. These are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, you accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings. ― Lao Tzu ~ In a biography of Miss Day, Terry Melcher was talking about his life. Charles Manson went to his home, looking for him. His stepfather died, having stolen all of Doris Day’s money. Melcher’s therapist told him, you are going to be crazy for a little while. ~ You should never wrestle with a hog. You will get dirty, and the pig will have a good time. ~ This was a research company founded last October. I have not been able to find a report of this study online. Who paid for the study? How was the sample chosen? How were the interviews conducted? This type of sensationalism is highly suspect. ~ @chamblee54 .@robertwrighter you’re not totally ready for the process of healing to begin on a lighter note, .@ggreenwald mentions possibility of future potus with same ideology as DJT, but without the obnoxious personality ~ @DrLindseyFitz (1/11) Thomas Holmes—the “Father of Modern Embalming”—had an unusual way of advertising his services during the American Civil War. In shop windows, he displayed the preserved bodies of unknown soldiers, which he collected from battlefields. @marcorubio Some ridiculous commentary right now on @CNN about #Iran threat US isn’t going to start a war with Iran its positioning to defend against & respond to an attack from IRGC proxies What happens next depends on Iran No attack= no war Attack= decisive response ~ pictures for the chamblee54 weekly reader are from The Library of Congress. ~ selah
Hank Chinaski Lives Part Two
An internet facility (IF) called Mind Openerz recently posted a feature, Charles Bukowski’s Top 10 Tips for Living a Kick-Ass Life. Hank writes enjoyable stories and poems. This does not make him a role model. Even if the tales of degenerate lifestyle were exageratted for public consumption, as many suspect, the butt ugly drunkard is nothing to aspire to.
One thing to admire about Hank (a publisher thought that Charles would be a better selling pen name) was the volume of product. He would write dozens of poems, with the lines popping out “like hot turds the morning after a good beer drunk.” Keep the quantity up, quality takes care of itself.
Many of the rules for living were taken from his short stories. PG recently stumbled through Tales of Ordinary Madness, and recognized a few. Hank would toss words of wisdom into stories about being arrested. One time, it was for threatening to rape a lady with a codfish. You can’t beat fun at the old ballpark. Of course, Hank hated baseball, and hated poetry that rhymes. PG writes rhyming poems, with pictures of dogs in the background. Hank is dead, and his opinion doesn’t count.
The fun starts with rule number eight. “8. Have confidence in yourself. “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts.” You are awesome, and all you have to do to let your true talents shine is believe that fact. Have complete confidence in yourself and you might be surprised with all you can achieve.”
Several of the stories of ordinary madness involve people who think they are poets, show work to Hank, and are insulted for the lousy ouput. The line in number eight was familiar, but PG was too slack to go looking through ordinary madness to find it. This is where you ask Mr. Google for help. The full quote: “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”
PG sat in the workplace cafeteria and read the last line of Tales of Ordinary Madness. TOOM is a book of short stories and underground press columns, allegedly written by Charles Bukowski. This collection was published by City Lights Books, the facility of Lawrence Ferlinghetti. The poet-businessman was not admired by Mr. Bukowski.
The author was born Heinrich Karl Bukowski, on August 16, 1920, in Andernach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. His Catholic parents moved to America in 1923. The name was americanized to Henry Charles Bukowski. Friends called him Hank, and his literary alter ego was Hank Chinaski. Somebody decided that Charles would look better in print.
Hank Chinaski was a hard boiled character, or so he would have you believe. He was not a teetotaler. In spite of his many excesses, Hank lived to be 74, when leukemia sent him to the likkastow in the sky. This was March 9, 1994. Eleven days later, Lewis Grizzard met his maker. Lewis was 47, the same age as Hank in much of TOOM.
You should always separate the creator from the creation. Enjoy the product, and don’t worry about the ingredients. That is the case with TOOM. The stories are reputed to be little autobiographies. (An Amazon one star commenter thinks the stories are the result of “some kind of posthumous ghost writer, and not a very good one.”)
Hank, if nothing else, was productive. He wrote thousands of poems. It is not known if they have all been published, or if anyone is drunk enough to read them. Here is a quote from a previous Chamblee54 feature, The On Time Charles Bukowski.
The writer/drunk had always been a bit of a fascination to PG. Out of the millions of useless drunks feeding the urinals of planet earth, at least one will turn out to have had literary merit… this leads to a newyorker piece about the gentleman. After nine paragraphs, and two poems, there is the phrase that set off PG…graphomaniacal fecundity. (spell check suggestion:nymphomaniac)
As best as we can figure, g.f. means that Hank wrote a lot of stuff. This is a good thing. PG operates on the notion that if you keep your quantity up, the quality will take care of itself. Hank seems to agree, spitting out product “like hot turds the morning after a good beer drunk.” He seemed to take pride in doing what Truman Capote said about Jack Kerouac…he doesn’t write, he types.
Holy drunken author synchronicity. Last summer, PG was working third shift in a midtown sweatshop. He would read a couple of stories of TOOM, then shift gears and read a bit of The Dharma Bums. At some point in the procedure, there was a collection of output from Truman Capote.
Hank Chinaski might not like PG. There is the rhyming poetry. There is buying a book of repackaged prose at a yard sale. There is the twenty five year retirement from alcohol use. This is beside the point. You have to live for what is important to you, not what a deceased barfly might think.
Pictures for the last part are from The Library of Congress. After publishing Hank Chinaski Lives on Tuesday, PG decided to repost two other pieces about Hank Bukowski.
Stacey Does It Again
Stacey Abrams went hardcore bless-her-heart in the New York Times yesterday. The opening line was a doozy. “In the mid-1960s, when my father was a teenager, he was arrested. His crime? Registering black voters in Mississippi.”
This is news, to anyone who has been following Ms. Abrams. Her campaign bio does not mention this incident. Nor does at least one article from Mississippi. Google is little help. The arrest story may turn out to be true. Why it is only turning up six months after the election?
PG asked the readers at GeorgiaPol if they knew anything about an arrest. There was an illuminating response. “Being obsessed with Stacey Abrams, you might have missed some of these other Georgia stories: – Georgia governor postpones Los Angeles trip as film industry protests … ” The pundit listed seven more news items. None of the items concerned an arrest for voter registration.
The New York Times did not fact check the article. Ms. Abrams dropped a few more whoppers into the order, to go with the fries and Pepsi.
“Although “exact match” lacks the explicit racial animus of Jim Crow, its execution nonetheless betrayed its true purpose to disenfranchise voters of color. Georgia’s secretary of state held 53,000 voter registrations hostage under exact match last year, 70 percent of which came from black voters, who made up only around 30 percent of Georgia’s eligible voters.” (Voters are registered by the counties, not the state.)
“We demonstrated the immensity of the problem, yet opponents to voting rights responded with the specious claim that increased turnout was somehow proof that no suppression had occurred.” (No link was provided, to show who made this claim.)
“The state’s top elections official, former Secretary of State Brian Kemp himself — functioning simultaneously as the scorekeeper, referee and contestant in the gubernatorial election — was caught revealing to supporters that he was “concerned” about record absentee ballot requests from voters of color.” (Votes are counted by the counties, not the state.)
“Across the country, voter purges employ an easily manipulated “use it or lose it” rule, under which eligible voters who exercised their First Amendment right to abstain from voting in prior elections can be booted off the rolls.”
The last item was a spectacular show of sophistry. The First Amendment mentions religion, press, speech, assembly, and petitioning the government. Yesterday, logicians at GeorgiaPol and facebook contend that not voting, and keeping your registration, is covered by the right to free speech. If Stacey says so, it must be so. This is what some people like to argue about.
The uncritical adoration of Stacey Abrams by the press is part of the problem. She receives little of the scrutiny that most politicians face. If Ms. Abrams is going to grow as a leader, she needs to be taken seriously. This includes questioning her rhetoric. Don’t expect The New York Times to cast the first stone. The yankee media adores poor widdle Stacey, and her sad tale of having the election stolen through “malfeasance, misfeasance and mismanagement.” Will long suffering Georgia voters continue to feel the magic?
Chamblee54 has written about Stacey Abrams too many times. Pictures for this celebration are from your big government buddies at The Library of Congress.
Hank Chinaski Lives
In the next quarter century, the surplus grew, thanks to Bukowski’s nearly graphomaniacal fecundity. “I usually write ten or fifteen [poems] at once,” he said, and he imagined the act of writing as a kind of entranced combat with the typewriter, as in his poem “cool black air”: “now I sit down to it and I bang it, I don’t use the light / touch, I bang it.”
As could have been predicted, it started with a post at Dangerous Minds. The feature was about the late Charles Bukowski, who was called Hank by those who knew him. The writer/drunk had always been a bit of a fascination to PG. Out of the millions of useless drunks feeding the urinals of planet earth, at least one will turn out to have had literary merit.
A trip to Google city is made, and quotes from the bard are found, along with the wikipedia page. All of this leads to a New Yorker piece about the gentleman. After nine paragraphs, and two poems, there is the phrase that set off PG…graphomaniacal fecundity.(spell check suggestion:nymphomaniac)
As best as we can figure, g.f. means that Hank wrote a lot of stuff. This is a good thing. PG operates on the notion that if you keep your quantity up, the quality will take care of itself. Hank seems to agree, spitting out product “like hot turds the morning after a good beer drunk.” He seemed to take pride in doing what Truman Capote said about Jack Kerouac…he doesn’t write, he types.
If you google the phrase graphomaniacal fecundity, you can choose from 71 results. The top six apparently quote the article in New Yorker. A blogspot facility called poemanias quotes the paragraph from the New Yorker, with the title “On Bukowski’s afterlife”, while Fourhourhardon reprints the entire thing. Neither provide a link back to the original.
Goliath and Petey Luvs Blog take the same copy-paste approach. The first tries to get you to pay for more reading material. This forum also does the control A-C-V approach, but yields this comment : “He was a contemporary of the Beats, but not quite one of them because he was darker and not as willing to smoke a joint and sing Phil Ochs songs on the lower east side.” The truth is, Hank hated marijuana, and had the classic alcoholic attitude about it. So it goes. Keep and share copies the complete New Yorker feature, but has some other thumbsuckers about Mr. Bukowski.
It is a truism that new media borrows content from old media. Stories, told orally from genration to generation, are compiled into books, which are then made into movies. Plastic panels try to look like wood. The newest new media that old fogey PG knows about is twitter. People tell little stories in 140 characters or less, which go around the world in seconds. With this abundance of media, there are not always enough messages to feed the beast.
On twitter, there are people producing twitter feeds from dead authors. Maybe these wordmongers went to a place with internet access. Kurt Vonnegut (three hours ago) “Busy, busy, busy”. Mark Twain (three hours ago) “Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint”. Brautigan’s Ghost (twenty two hours ago) “I cannot say to the one I love, “Hi, flower-wonderful bird-love sweet.”
The deceased content maker best suited to twitter might be Conway Twitty. One slow day two years ago, Yahoo asked peeps Do you think Conway Twitty would have used Twitter? ~ He gave them the idea ~ I think Twitty would tweet, Twitter would be Conway’s, way of of communicating to the world, Twitty would be tweeting his little Twitty head off, ~ I better send out a Twitty Tweet ~ Cute, but a serious answer, probably. A media hound, he’d want to get his name plastered everywhere. ~ If he did that would have made him a ‘Twitty Twitter” ~ Who cares, he’s a twit anyway”.
There are four Twitty Twitter feeds. @ConwayTwitty (Oct. 21,2009) “The Conway Twitty Musical is getting great reviews in Branson!!! . @TwittyTweats (January 12, 2012) “In Twitty City, it never snows. All the men wear gold medallions and blazers. And the women never cry. Unless you hold them.” @Conway_Twitty (February 20, 2012) “My cock is an amphibious assault vehicle” @conwaytwittier (April 28, 2012). “@JasonIsbell How’s the English weather treating your hair? I had the hardest time keeping my pompadour in tiptop shape there.” @twittybirdmoda is written in Japanese. We’ve never been this far before.
The original concept for this post was to spotlight twitter feeds borrowing material from Charles Bukowski. Hank is the beer bard of Los Angeles. He is a hero to many. Out of the millions of worthless drunks populating bars, at least one could write poems. It gives you hope for mankind.
The front page of a google search for “charles bukowski on twitter” yields eight feeds. The original plan was to ignore any that were not updated in 2012. An exception will be for @hank_bukowski (Yeah it’s good to be back). (January 25, 2009) “Yesterday I met Adolf H. in hell. He is fuckin stupid.” “too lazzy these days, too drunk to twitter”.
With the 2012-only rule in effect, we are left with three Bukowski thieves. @BukowskiDiz (May 1) “Curiosidades sobre Charles Bukowski http://migre.me/8UhRf“. @bukquotes (May 8) “all the mules and drunken ladies gone the bad novels march…”. ~ “I always read when I shit and the worse the book the better the bowel movement.” @bukowski_lives (one hour ago) “Basically, that’s why I wrote: to save my ass, to save my ass from the madhouse, from the streets, from myself.”
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is a double repost. Another repost may be published later. This is probably it for this year.
Always Take Sides
“… always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” This meme, illustrated by the gnomic face of Elie Wiesel, turns up on facebook a lot. Some find it inspiring. Others think it is simplistic and manipulative.
There are two questions. Did Mr. Wiesel say that? What was the context? The quote appears in the acceptance speech for the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize. The next sentence is “Sometimes we must interfere.” We immediately go from the absolute always, to the conditional sometimes. That is progress, even if it does not fit on a bumper sticker.
“Elie Wiesel was born in Sighet, Romania, in 1928. … In May 1944, Wiesel was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp along with his parents and his sisters. Wiesel and his father were slave laborers at Auschwitz. His father died in January 1945 during a forced march to another camp, Buchenwald, and his mother and younger sister were murdered as well. After the war, Wiesel moved to France, where he worked as a journalist.”
The Israel-Palestine problem was just as vexing in 1986 as today. Here is what Mr. Wiesel said in his speech. “More people are oppressed than free. And then, too, there are the Palestinians to whose plight I am sensitive but whose methods I deplore. Violence and terrorism are not the answer. Something must be done about their suffering, and soon. I trust Israel, for I have faith in the Jewish people. Let Israel be given a chance, let hatred and danger be removed from her horizons, and there will be peace in and around the Holy Land.”
Who is the oppressor in the Middle East, and who is the victim? The many sides can make a case for their cause. Who is the better at persuasion? Who is better at playing the shady game of influence, and money. Often, more noise encourages the tormentor. The answer to age old conflicts is seldom found in bumper stickers, or facebook memes.
“… to whose plight I am sensitive but whose methods I deplore.” “Always take sides” sometimes means that you pick one side in a conflict, and use the tools of rhetoric to promote that cause. It can be tough to tell the good guys from the bad guys. Human suffering is human suffering. Simplistic rhetoric is *never* the answer.
In 1986, the Iran-Iraq war was raging. Hundreds of thousands of men died. Many said the war was allowed to go on intentionally. Allegedly, if Iran and Iraq were not fighting each other, they would be fighting Israel. The United States was allied with Iraq, while making arms deals with Iran. Israeli dealers participated in the United States-Iran arms trading. The profits from those deals went to supply terrorists in Central America. “Sometimes we must interfere.”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Popped Up Out Of Nowhere
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gore vidal ~ gender critical ~ why g-d is a he
the daily poem podcast ~ woke brotha ~ biden 2020
I feel the opposite. I admire the work of Mr. Wiesel. I have a lot of problems with this idea. When you deal in absolutes, it is impossible not to get caught in contradictions. There is the matter of being manipulated into action on an issue you don’t know enough about. There is the matter of being lied to. There is the matter of doing more harm than good, by taking ineffective or counterproductive action. I have many, many issue with that type of thinking. ~ White Supremacists Chant ‘Six Million More’ After Crashing Holocaust Remembrance Day Event In Arkansas ~ She starts the story by explaining that she was seeing a guy and she was at his house when she realized she had to use the bathroom. Okay, no big deal, she’ll just use the bathroom downstairs. ~ The thing is, she had to poop. And you know how it’s like somehow embarrassing for women to admit we poop? Like, somehow we are so special that our bodies just don’t do anything quite as foul as that? ~ Anyway, she did as nature commanded, and then…holy sh*t, the toilet wouldn’t flush! She didn’t want to tell the guy she’d done a poo, so she picked it up out of the toilet with a piece of paper and put it in the cat litter. Problem solved, right? Um, not exactly. ~ The guy comes downstairs and immediately asks her if she went to the bathroom in the litterbox. She, of course, feigned ignorance and said, “no, your cat must have done it.” At which point he reveals…his cat has been dead for weeks. ~ @chamblee54 you copied me into a odoriferous thread on feminine hygiene #ThenIBlockedYou ~ “Snellville, where everybody is proud to be somebody,” is the new slogan that was presented at Monday evening’s council meeting. “Snellville, where everybody is somebody, is, of course, the slogan that was established about 30 years ago and is familiar worldwide.” This motto was copied by Hico TX. ~ @chamblee54 “I read poetry to save time.” Marilyn Monroe @QuoteResearch .@ConnerHabib This is such a fun quote, Does anyone have a source? I write poetry for the same reason that Marilyn Monroe read it. ~ Chicago’s Next Mayor Accused Catholic Priest of ‘Hate’ … Chicago’s next mayor, a non-Catholic lesbian, wrote a letter complaining to Cdl. Blase Cupich about the burning of a blasphemous rainbow flag … Father Paul Kalchik was pastor of Resurrection parish in the archdiocese of Chicago. A previous pastor, Fr. Daniel Montalbano, was a known homosexual who was found dead in the rectory while attached to a masturbation machine in 1995. ~ TWIT @TheWeekInTrump @benshapiro has a voice only print media could love. ~ #benshapirosvoice ~ I thought the preferred term for indigenous communities was nation. These are all english terms, invented by europeans. Is it privilege for PWOC to fuss about this matter? I think the best term to use would be the name of the nation involved. I do prefer indigenous to native american. ~ “A stone’s origins are often elusive. Over 90 percent of diamonds imported to the United States now pass through Forty-Seventh, and as of 2003, according to a piece of Bush-era legislation known as the Kimberley Process, those stones are supposed to be conflict-free. But when a diamond changes hands eight to ten times on the journey from gem mine to display case, this is next to impossible to guarantee. Consumers seeking absolute reassurance are probably best off dealing in the District’s antiques or buying synthetics, though even this can lead to paradox: some argue that in places like the Congo—where entire communities depend on revenue from certified mines, diamond boycotts, or shifts to synthetic stones—this only makes things worse. To try on a ring is to be reminded of one’s complicity. Beauty is often linked to violence in some way.” ~ this poem was performed at the artsXchange open mic:
he was weary of her wisdom and shame ~ neither borrower nor lender be
believe in a g-d that knows how to aim
impulse to punish is powerful game ~ to cure a person in love disagree
he was weary of her wisdom and shame
christianity with deadly acclaim ~ he that humbleth himself wishes for glee
believe in a g-d that knows how to aim
finding the power in her own name ~ a bee that has gathered too much honey
he was weary of her wisdom and shame
love your enemies poetry flame ~ mediocre for the same reason free
believe in a g-d that knows how to aim
faith does not prove anyone is to blame ~ mad eyes will show the holy man debris
he was weary of her wisdom and shame ~ believe in a g-d that knows how to aim ~ selah
Why The War Between The States Was Fought
Recently, Mr. Trump said something stupid about the War Between the States. After his comments began to filter into the marketplace of ideas, people began to react. There was a good bit of self righteous talk about how bad the Confederacy was. Maybe it is time for another point of view. This feature will have minimal research. Mostly, PG is typing things he has heard and thought. It is possible that some items will be incorrect. The reader is encouraged to do their own research. Comments are welcome.
When the colonies declared independence in 1776, nobody knew how things would turn out. First, Great Britain needed to be defeated. After that, the Articles of Confederation went into effect. “Under these articles, the states remained sovereign and independent, with Congress serving as the last resort on appeal of disputes. Congress was also given the authority to make treaties and alliances, maintain armed forces and coin money. However, the central government lacked the ability to levy taxes and regulate commerce…”
This arrangement was not working, and the Constitutional Convention was called. Originally, the CC was going to revise the Articles of Confederation, but wound up throwing the whole thing out, and creating the Constitution. This document called for greater federal authority. The issue of what powers to give to the states, and what powers to give to the central government, was contentious. It remains controversial to this day.
Had any group of antonymous states formed a federal union before? Usually, such a union is the result of a conquest, with one of the states ruling the others. It is unclear whether such a union had been attempted before, or how successful it was. When the “founding fathers” created the constitution, they probably did not foresee how it would play out. The current system, with a massive central government cat-herding the 50 states, would have been laughed off as a dangerous fantasy.
So the states start to have disagreements. One of the things they disagreed over was slavery. Yes, this was an important factor in the unpleasantness to come. Slavery also influenced a lot of the economic conflicts. The North wanted high tariffs to protect industry. The South wanted low tariffs, so they could sell cotton to Europe. There were many other ways for the states to not get along.
Finally, in 1861, the disagreements became too big to ignore. The south seceded, and the War Between The States began. The Confederate States of America was a looser union than the United States. The thought was that the states were more important than the federal union. Mr. Lincoln disagreed. (One popular name for the conflict was Mr. Lincoln’s war.) Many people say that Mr. Lincoln was not especially concerned about the slaves, but wanted to keep the union together.
How does slavery enter into this? Imagine the conflict over states rights vs federalism to be an open tank of gasoline. The lit match that was thrown into that tank was slavery. When the winners wrote the war history, it sounded better to say that the war was fought to free the slaves. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. This was a repost.
Bishop Talbert Swan
Bishop Talbert Swan @TalbertSwan “Calling a Black POTUS married 25 yrs to 1 wife with 2 children, no mistresses, affairs or scandals, ‘the antichrist’ but a racist white POTUS married thrice, 5 kids by 3 women, mistresses, affairs & scandals, ‘God‘s anointed,’ proves your religion is white supremacy.” @chamblee54 “This tweet indicates that your religion is sophomore logic.” I posted a screenshot of this exchange on facebook, and got a reply. “Luther I’m not sure what you’re trying to say here. Or maybe I just don’t want to know” Let the fun begin.
Bishop Talbert Swan is a professional Jesus worshiper, who uses the word “Bishop” as his title. BTS is the author of Closing the Closet: Testimonies of Deliverance from Homosexuality. Last year saw Bishop Talbert Swan permanently banned from Twitter for ‘hateful conduct’ “Although Twitter did not specify what Tweet got him banned, Swan believes it was a Tweet he sent out in May in response to someone asking him to follow Candace Owens … “I responded by writing ‘No thanks, I’m on the no coon diet’,” he said.” If you want to know more about BTS, google is your friend.
Lets break down the tweet that started this. I tried to find out who said both that BHO was the Anti-Christ, and then said that DJT was G-d anointed. This is a problem with twitter hypocrisy theater … there is seldom an actual person who said all these terrible things. If you google “Barack Obama Anti-Christ,” one of the results is from Snopes: Is Barack Obama the Anti-Christ?
“Calling a Black POTUS married 25 yrs to 1 wife with 2 children, no mistresses, affairs or scandals, ‘the antichrist’” The mixed race BHO is, indeed, married to his first wife. Either BHO did not fool around, or had the grace not to get caught. This neither proves, nor disproves, that BHO is the Anti-Christ. Nor is it the complete story. BHO did some good work. He also enabled America’s military to murder thousands of Muslims in Asia and Africa. Maybe any POTUS is the Anti-Christ.
“but a racist white POTUS married thrice, 5 kids by 3 women, mistresses, affairs & scandals, ‘God‘s anointed,’” BTS capitalizes Black, but says white in lower case, preceded by a value-added slur. Admittedly, DJT is a gnarly character, with an exuberant marital history. DJT is about as much God anointed as BHO is Anti-Christal. “Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.”
“proves your religion is white supremacy” The comments made by “you” about BHO and DJT indicate that “you” say foolish things. It does not prove anything. It certainly does not prove that “your religion is white supremacy.” Is WS a tax exempt organization? Does WS have ministers, a deity, rituals, prayers, and sunday morning traffic jams? Do you show your faithfulness to WS by saying stupid things about crooked politicians?
There is my response to consider. It is a satire of the preceding tweet. I said indicate, rather than prove, for obvious reasons. I said sophomore logic because fecal references are redundant. The word sophomore is derived from “Greek sophos (wise) + mōros (foolish.)” While the wisdom of the BTS tweet is obscure, the foolishness is obvious.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Born To Defy Heteronormativity
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Valedictorian of Utah’s homophobic university comes out during graduation speech
The History and Heresy of Black Liberation Theology
Joe Rogan – Henry Rollins “Trump Got Played By Putin”
Stacey Abrams Is Not Running For Senator In Georgia And Here’s Why
The Muslim Brotherhood and the Question of Terrorism
The Jolt: With Stacey Abrams out, a Democratic race for U.S. Senate begins
Man’s car burst into flames just minutes after oil change at Jiffy Lube
@DaveGass3 I’m not a Christian anymore: a thread.
Stepmother sentenced to death penalty for murdering 10-year-old
Joe Biden’s entrance, Stacey Abrams exit, and the Democratic middle
‘I Want Him on Everything’: Meet the Woman Behind the Buttigieg Media Frenzy
Posters Urge Residents Not to Dump Trash on White Supremacists’ Properties
How Klan Lawyer Sam Dickson Got Rich
Is Atlanta Urging People ‘Not to Dump Trash on White Supremacists’ Lawns’?
Neighbors upset area is becoming a trash dump
The Racists on Ridgeland Way: Ground Zero for “Alt-Right” Organizing in Atlanta
SAMUEL DICKSON Published by OPP HQ on November 3, 2015
“Right-Wing Gentrification Gangs”
Evan Thomas Anderson, and May 13 Charlottesville White Power Rally
A kinder, gentler racism Stormfront.org strives to make extremism mainstream
Activists aimed to spark local ‘protest’ about Buckhead white nationalist
Sam Dickson in His Own Words American Renaissance, July 28, 2017
Neighbors fed up with thieves stealing from front porches
ALLEN GINSBERG’S 1956 POEM ‘AMERICA’: A LOST ENDING
Stacey Abrams passes on Senate race, complicating Georgia for Democrats
‘whites only’ note in school bathroom: ‘Racism has taken over our school’
Racist note placed in bathroom at Bremen High School now labeled a “hoax”
Users call it getting ‘Zucked,’ say talking about racism is censored as hate speech
H-F Students’ Blackface Photos Rock Homewood; H-F Walkout Planned
What’s it like watching 28 people die?
Accidental Drug Overdose Killed Man in Democratic Donor’s Home, Coroner Says
Second death in home of Ed Buck also ruled accidental meth overdose
James Woods Is In ‘Twitter Jail.’ Here’s The Tweet That Got Him Suspended.
At PATH400’s northern point, secret gravesites uncovered
School Pooper’s Lawsuit Says Mug Shot Ruined His Life
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) Official Trailer – Bette Davis Movie
She was the “queen of the mommy bloggers.” Then her life fell apart.
White gang forcibly tattoos a racial slur on a black man and spells it wrong
High school may erase mural of George Washington: ‘traumatizes students’
White men believe it’s a more dangerous time for men than women in America
why i went ghost for seven months and why you should too
Rotten fish? It’s a delicacy ~ are you a rotten fish?
On The Importance of Not Writing
Judge Sentences Teen Vandals to Reading Books About Racism
Former Texas lethal injection drug supplier speaks out
Elsa Lanchester Was Born to Defy Heteronormativity
Navy strike group deployed to send ‘message’ to Iran
engineering of consent ~ quillette/IDW ~ I F*cked an Instagay ~ weird food
singing to the choir ~ Gore Vidal and Revisionism ~ emory con$truction
University Committee Erotica ~ Robert Earl Butts ~ Scotty Morrow
electoral college ~ soycialist ~ clemency denied Scotty Morrow
Joyce Ann Barineau ~ Eugen Schoenfeld 1925 – 2019 ~ 9th most dangerous
Dickson legal directory ~ dickson key west ~ Sam Dickson
blondie ~ Stacey says no ~ faraday speaks
Sorry, Buttigieg doesn’t have its own entry in RhymeZone. Our best guesses of rhymes for Buttigieg are below: smut disease, cutting jig, rusty rig, but believe, conducting heat, insulting each, corrupt elite, disrupted gene, butting each, mistrusted each, blood disease ~ urban dictionary trending words – May 01, 2019: 1. Sketti 2. orgasmic sounds 3. boner 4. Love 5. Pepper Grinder 6. Beanjuice 7. DIRTY AMY 8. momba 9. woke millennials 10. Sex 11. Dirty Chloe 12. Scaley 13. long back 14. Sus 15. titty day 16. Chris 17. APRIL 30TH 18. Winding You Up 19. Mudbone 20. fake deep 21. Cleveland Hot Waffle 22. creap 23. Etika 24. Raptor 25. left overs 26. Infrastructure week 27. Spitting-feathers 28. wind up 29. pip pip the diddly do 30. to go box ~ The number one item of Mr. Morrows appeal: “1. Morrow claims that Hispanics were underrepresented in the composition of the 1994 grand jury pool, and the 1999 traverse jury pool in violation of the Sixth Amendment, the Fourteenth Amendment, OCGA 15-12-40, and the Unified Appeal Procedure.” This is an appeal that is not going to save the condemned. ~ By all accounts, Morrow was a poor witness. Walker later recalled that the “cross-examination was a disaster” because Morrow failed to show “remorse and shame” and “was as flat on the stand as [he had] ever seen him.” The jury convicted Morrow on all charges. At sentencing, trial counsel depicted Morrow as an otherwise peaceful man who “snapped” after a lifetime of “rejection” and “emotional difficulty.” ~ “Morrow requested a last meal of a hamburger with mayonnaise, two chicken and waffle meals, a pint of butter pecan ice cream, a bag of buttered popcorn, two all-beef franks, and a large lemonade.” Morrow’s final words: “I love you all. God bless.” ~ I just listened to the story by “Best Intentions” ” This is a powerful story, about some of the unanswerable questions about race. While not as extreme as that story, I have felt myself caught in damned if you do/ damned if you don’t situations. Thank you for this story. ~ #Facebook may be the only people that consider #MiloYiannopoulos #dangerous ~ It appears that the A properties are across the street, and down a few houses. Are those vacant lots, or rental properties? Antifa is *fighting racism* by encouraging people to dump garbage in a POC neighborhood. ~ Dictionary.com’s Most Searched Words In 2019 So Far 1. Exonerate 2. Ruthful 3. Self-made 4. Naked 5. Ultima Thule 6. Vulva 7. Momo 8. Furlough 9. Bandersnatch 10. Gesticulate ~ 050319 11:21 am Go to xxx, to get damaged tire replaced. The man said it would take two hours, and they would call me. The man told me that tires put on in 2014, by xxx, had 97k miles. I looked at his screen, and saw that the mileage on the vehicle was 97k. 2:15 pm I get the call that the tire is ready. A half hour later I don’t see or hear anything, so I go look in the parking lot. The man told me the reason it was taking so long was a broken stud on the rear wheel. It would take two hours, and $129 labor to fix. He said after he finished doing something, he would let me know something. A half hour after that, another man told me that it would take 45 minutes, and could not be done today. He then asked in the back, and said it would be 45 minutes after they got the part. I was standing in front on the desk, waiting for a confirmation, when he told me to take a seat. 4:30 pm I see the vehicle in the parking lot. 5:15 pm I am standing in front of the service desk. The man said they would tell me if the car was ready. I say it is in the parking lot. The man said they did not tell him anything. The key was on the service desk. The man looks in the back, and several locations around the service desk, before he finds the paperwork. 5:21 pm I pay for the service. The credit card machine does not work at first. ~ UPDATE: Scotty Morrow was pronounced dead at 9:38 pm, May 2, 2019. ~ Georgia used to buy execution drugs from an illegal dealer located in a limo service in London, England Now it is “compounding pharmacies” whose identity is kept secret by law ~ pictures today are from The Library of Congress. ~ selah
Joe Biden Fundraising Survey
@JoeBiden“Our campaign is all about the people. That’s why we want to hear what issues are most important to you! Take this super quick survey to share your top 2020 priorities with Joe.” Sleepy Joe is fulfilling the VPOTUS tradition of running for POTUS. An essential part of the process is the opinion poll, with one crucial question at the end. Our slack blogger decided to take the test.
“Which issues are most important to you? (enter each on a new line)” Getting new knee pads for Colin Kaepernick. Finding a new cookie recipe for Hillary Clinton. Getting Milo Yiannopoulos a haircut, and a name that is easier to spell. Having McDonalds declared the national hamburger.
“Do you approve of Joe Biden’s 8 years as Vice President? How would you rank Joe Biden amongst all former Vice Presidents? Among the top 5, Above average, Right in the middle, Below average, Among the bottom 5.” Ranking performance as a VPOTUS is tough. Mr. B’s big moment came after Obamacare was passed. He was heard saying “This is a big fucking deal.” Other than that, the biggest achievement of Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. is not dying in office, or arranging the demise of the President. Do we really want someone middle named Robinette as President?
Not dying in office is important. Between 1812 and 1853, three veeps perished in office. George Clinton served under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. He died April 20, 1812. Elbridge Gerry, the namesake of Gerrymandering, also served under James Madison, before he met his maker on November 23, 1814. Maybe Dolley Madison put something in those snack cakes.
The third dead veep, William R. King, deserves a paragraph of his own. Mr. King was plausibly said to be the boyfriend of future President James Buchanan. We don’t know if this puts Mr. King in the top 5, or the bottom 5. Mr. King died April 18, 1853, after being VP for six weeks.
The only 19th century VP to serve two full terms was Daniel D. Tompkins, serving from 1817 – 1825. Mr. Tompkins was the first VP with a middle initial. “Tompkins was baptized Daniel Tompkins, but added the middle initial “D.” while a student at Columbia College to distinguish himself from another Daniel Tompkins who was a student there.” Harry S Truman is another VP with a standalone middle initial. The S stood for nothing, just like Mr. Truman.
Two early vices, John Tyler and John Cabell Breckinridge, went on to serve in the government of the Confederate States of America. Millard Fillmore was promoted to President, and had an impressive set of initials. The office of Vice President has had ups and downs, leading up to the modern embarrassment of Spiro Agnew and Daniel Quayle. Ranking JRB is too much work, and is not important. Only one question matters. “Can you chip in as little as $5 to activate your membership?”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
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