Ex CIA Operator
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Joe Rogan Experience #1729 – Gilbert Gottfried by PowerfulJRE
5 Best Exercises for Lumbar Spinal Stenosis for Quick Pain Relief | Dr. Kevin Wafer
“They Didn’t Think This Through” – Ex CIA Operator, Mike Baker
Ive Meditated 50 Years, This Technique Changes Everything
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The Tayō-sei: Japanese Language and Cultural Exchange Program for Black and LatinX…
Iran moves to accept crypto payments in weapon sales to evade sanctions: FT
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VERY interesting Rumi poem From the poetry of Rumi. (Mathnawi, V, 1333-1405)
beau brummelstones · the bird · rumi · hma · infinite jaz
Rhett Douglas Messerly · scott finn · seth peterson · seth peterson · forgotten malls
ambrose bierce · triggernometry · g100 1018g · think i’m weird · lion · oakland
d082 – 0714d · f113 – 0812f · temoshi · n007 · S-Town · napoleons
#nationalpoetrymonth 01/30 · #nationalpoetrymonth 02/30 · #nationalpoetrymonth 03/30
#nationalpoetrymonth 04/30 · #nationalpoetrymonth 04/30 · This is your monday morning reader for today. Reading X is not good for productivity. Someone said something in a comment about Milo Minderbinder, a capitalist villain in Catch 22. I soon went down a Milo rabbit hole · Nine years ago, S-Town was the talk of the town. S-T was an NPR series about an Alabama horologist, and the twists and turns in his life. After a while, nobody comes off looking good · It takes two people to lie. One to tell the lie, and one to believe it. · Spasmodic Illiterate Egotistic Queasy, Charmed Amused Puzzled Underbred, Damp Striking Ultimately Nauseating, Milder than the bored breath of a cow, Inarticulate Insistent Extravagant Limp, Languid Superficial Scented Smartness · deep fried twinkie luther burger breakfast, regurgitation free the turtle fast, expel shy hamster dumper diver lunch, grease the bowl grow a tail corpulent crunch · Today, on my morning walk, I listened to Gone South. It is a southern gothic true crime podcast. Today it was about a political assassination in South Carolina. The shooter was the son of someone who had a grudge against the father of the victim. It is supposed to be complicated. · We are screwed, chapter 47. Reportedly, Iran is allowing non-enemy shipping through the Straits of Hormuz. The ships will pay a toll. “For oil tankers, the starting price in the negotiations is typically around $1 per barrel of oil, paid in yuan, or stablecoins — cryptocurrencies pegged to the value of hard currency.” The US dollar is no longer the only game in town. This may be the biggest defeat of this war for America. If the petrodollar is no longer the only acceptable currency for oil transactions, then we are in a world of trouble · Iran is charging a toll to go through the SOH. “typically around $1 per barrel of oil, paid in yuan, or … cryptocurrencies .” The petrodollar is no longer the only game in town. This may be the most serious problem for the USA in this current war · on tv next to morgue woman in, tears asks a most puzzling question, what threat did mentally disabled, people pose to israel? jet fires two, missiles civilian house becomes, rubble five are instantly killed · Iran is collecting SOH tolls in Yuan and Crypto. Is this the beginning of the end for petrodollar supremacy? This could be the biggest loss of this war. · Read the Washington Post ominously, Vibrator Gushing And Squirting Hairdo, An alleged “Oath Keepers” conspiracy, Troubling Government Authority, Lactating Hottie Blonde Wife Pay Per View, Perform a cyber colonoscopy · nuclear fabrication heroes, jesus came that we might get a life, horoscope told with a thousand zeroes, get intoxicated with barney fife · @PersianPoetics Thread: The Orientalizing of Moulana Rumi Many of you may be familiar with the ‘Rumi quotes’ that circulate the internet. What if I told you the vast majority of them are fake and they are part of a project to secularize Rumi? This isn’t a whatsapp conspiracy. · Bob Dylan’s “Serve Somebody” is one of the worst songs ever. “You might like to wear cotton, you might like to wear silk, You might like to drink whiskey, you might like to drink milk” · Pictures today are from The Library of Congress John Collier Jr. took the social media picture in October 1941. Oswego, New York. French-Canadian stevedores. ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
S-Town
This content was published March 31, 2017. … The first time I had to pause S-Town was some time in #1. There is a break in the weirdness for a Blue Apron commercial. For some reason, this struck me as funny … a yuppie food delivery outfit, advertising on a show about Shit Town, Alabama.
S-Town is an NPR podcast. An earnest young reporter leaves his wife behind in New Yuck and goes to Alabama. Supposedly, there has been a murder in Bibb County, Alabama. John B. McLemore lives in the county, and is showing the reporter around. The southern accents, and southern gothic atmosphere, are no doubt amusing to the latte sipping trendsters who binge listen.
The second time I had to pause the show is at 8:11 of episode #2. There is a conversation. “It is racist, and non-nonsensical, and has multiple uses of a terrible word.” Let the hand wringing begin. After a minute or so of this … the man is saying something about paying taxes to support young ladies on welfare … the reporter mentions that his girlfriend is black. This rantlette has little to do with the rest of the story. It may have been included as a bit of picturesque racism, for the pearl clutching enjoyment of the listening audience.
John B. McLemore is a piece of work. He is a horologist, skilled at repairing antique clocks. He built a hedge maze on his land, with 64 gates to change the course at will. John B. has a lot of opinions, which he generously shares in profanity seasoned offerings. John B. is forty nine years old, single, and lives with his aging mother. There is an assumption about men like this, which is covered, in a bit more detail than required, in episode #6.
SPOILER ALERT The second show ends with news of a suicide. John, the rural eccentric, killed himself. There are five more episodes to the story, so this is not the end of the story. The next pause-the-show moment is at 36:11 of episode #5. John is dead. Some cousins appear out of nowhere. People start to fight over John’s assets. It is getting ugly. Rita, the Florida cousin, wants John’s nipple ring. She can’t understand how someone can do an autopsy, “you’ve cut him from neck to private, and you can’t get a nipple ring off? Cut his nipple off, he’s dead.”
Episode #5 and episode#6 come and go. The town sucks, the town isn’t so bad. John had friends, and possibly lovers, but drove them off. Then, in episode #7, we learn that the local rich family has bought John’s property. The new property owners have a lumber yard, K3 Lumber. KyKenKee, Inc. got it’s name honestly. “In 1980, after having been in business many years as I.L. Burt and Sons, the family decided to change the name. Having named us, Kyle, Keefe and Kendall, she took the first syllables of each name and rearranged them until they fit just right, Ky Ken Kee.”
This is not good enough for Brian Reed. “I did get a chance to ask him, if there is a double entendre with a certain white supremacy group?””I’m assuming you’re one of those left wingers we upset with the election.” “He said he doesn’t have a problem with the name K3.” Mr. Reed does not mention the origin of the name. It might be a joke, that is not a joke. The Burt family probably knew what it was doing. The spell check suggestion for KyKenKee is Yankee.
The show ends with episode#7. Outside of a few upcoming court dates, there is not much left to report. In the end, there are few sympathetic characters in the story. Life in small town Alabama goes on. Meanwhile, in booming Atlanta, the main interstate through the northeast part of town has been shut down indefinitely. We are screwed. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Marion Post Wolcott took the social media picture in September 1938. “Coal miner (Italian) takes a drink of wine in front of his home after coming home from work late in the afternoon. “The Patch” Chaplin, West Virginia” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Mister Squishy
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Does Israel Have a “Right” to Exist? No. But that doesn’t mean it should be dissolved.
Moby Runs His Mouth About “Lola”… Picks Fight With The Kinks Absolute Wanker Move
Restaurant Report Card: Taqueria fails with 44; Mix’d Up Burgers earns 100
Nothing Ever Happens: “Mister Squishy” and the Year of the Sentence Diagram
Vol. 26 No. 22 · 18 November 2004 Don’t like it? You don’t have to play Wyatt Mason
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Iranian media just released a animation named “Lord of the Straits” #facts #news
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Army extends maximum recruitment age to 42, allowing older recruits to join
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The Kinks’ Ray Davies asked “who the f*ck is Moby” after he said ‘Lola’ was “gross and …
Israel’s manpower crisis: IDF Chief’s warning, a wake-up call for Israeli leaders – editoral
glenn john · fatal pickleball · tn brando · jeff ross · neomort
g039 0315g · g040 0319g · barret robbins · squid video · babe yelena
critical whiteness studies · baldwin · baldwin · 1978 · bea arthur
dan mclellan · lord of the straits · marijuana · clean break · Terry Aide
Frances Plavnicky · Frances Plavnicky · @FastHorseAtDusk · lets diagram · prager · patrick henry
the spell check suggestion for obamacare is macabre · This is your monday morning reader for today. This is the 251st anniversary of “Give me liberty, or give me death.” Patrick Henry owned slaves. “I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them.” · Saturday March 21 President TACO makes an idiotic threat. March 23 President TACO backs down on idiotic threat. Monday March 23 The stock market is up 1000 points. Does anyone else there is insider trading going on? · ⅔ · This is what happens when I go to page 123 on keepsake Bibles. In both cases, I wind up in Leviticus, which is not a pleasant place. At least I don’t land on Leviticus 18:22, the yuckiest verse in the KJV · Happy Birthday Flannery O’Connor, Anita Bryant, Aretha Franklin, and Elton John. It is customary to say “Heavenly Birthday” for the departed. However, we cannot be certain where Anita Bryant will be spending eternity · Today’s rerun was about either David F. Wallace, or M. Flannery O’ Connor. DFW was a notorious sex addict, in spite of the prescription anti-depressants. MFA was a total Catholic, who wrote short stories · when you post a link on X, they paste the title in the corner of the featured photograph. Sometimes the results are delightful · “Drawing on critical whiteness studies, Chapter 1 interrogates the concepts of race and whiteness O’Connor inherited and analyzes the ways in which O’Connor critiques the unjust racial practices of the South in her stories and other writings yet unconsciously upholds them · Perhaps this cancellation business is what Flannery O’Connor foresaw in a 1963 letter to Betty Hester. She mentions her disdain for Eudora Welty’s “Where is the Voice Coming From?” … “What I hate most is its being in the New Yorker and all of the stupid Yankee liberals smacking their lips over typical life in the dear old dirty southland.” · The text is based on a hashtag, #BadHygieneTips. It is ok to skip over the text, and look at pictures · Pictures today are from The Library of Congress Jack Delano took the social media picture in June 1941. “Two daughters of Mr. Buck Grant, preacher and FSA borrower. Near Union Point, Greene County, Georgia”
©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
#BadHygieneTips
This content was published March 7, 2018. … Run out of toilet paper? Use your dog
Pickles make the best tampons … Vibrators can be licked clean
If you run out of toothpaste, you can always use Elmer’s Glue … Use bug spray as deodorant
To save money use both sides of the toilet paper … There’s no need to wipe if it’s a clean cut crap
Be a gentleman, Wait until she’s done brushing her teeth before peeing in the sink
Rub pickle juice under your arm pits if you run out of deodorant
Perfume covers a multitude of sins, Dollar Store perfume does it inexpensively
Using Meth whitens and strengthens teeth … Floss is too flimsy, try a razor blade
Hairballs retrieved from shower drain can be dried and glued directly to scalp
Licking the floor at Wal-Mart prevents gum disease … Raspberry jam make great shampoo in a pinch
Get addicted to meth … Go barefoot at the casino … No new toothbrush? use a live weasel
The mud you find around most “Port A Potties” is great for opening up your pores
Go through the car wash with the windows open … Use Crisco on your face to get that youthful glow
Wiping your hands in your armpits has the same effectiveness as hand sanitizer
If your dog licks your face, your face has basically been washed and exfoliated for the day
Wear a condom with your wife so you don’t give your side-chick her diseases
Brush your teeth with bleach, it makes teeth whiter … Instead of toilet paper, use sand paper
Save money and use the breath mints that they kindly leave out in the urinals
If blinded by the light, wrap up like a douche … Toilet paper cannot do what a confident finger can
Save money on showers by rubbing yourself all over with bacon & your dog will lick you clean
Bathe in Swamp Water … In a pinch, Oreo stuff doubles as toothpaste
Bathe within the coagulated blood of the old gods, their black tainted flesh spouting forth accursed oceans of fetid fluids into the crater where you lie, let their great teeth hunt for knowledge in your mind, and attend Tapioca Fuck Fest 2018 … Text is from #BadHygieneTips on X. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the social media picture in April 1941. “Bowling alley on southside of Chicago, Illinois” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Was Flannery O’Connor A Racist?
This content was originally published March 26, 2023. … How Racist Was Flannery O’Connor? appeared in The New Yorker on June 22, 2020. (Note the date) I had long been a fan of Mary Flannery O’Connor, and knew I could not un-read those stories.
The article begins by telling the Flannery story. Soon, a description of a movie, Flannery, yields a false note: “Erik Langkjær, a publishing sales rep O’Connor fell in love with, describes their drives in the country.” According to Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor by Brad Gooch, Mr. Langkjær was far from a boyfriend. It is another piece of the puzzle.
“I was not really in love; I simply enjoyed the company of women during my lonely travels in the South. Although Flannery was both conventional and religious, we eventually became so close that she, while the car was parked, allowed me to kiss her. At that moment, her disease revealed itself in a new way: there was no strength in her lips. I hit her teeth with my kiss, and since then I’ve thought of it as a kiss of death. … When I later read one of Flannery’s short stories, ‘Good Country People,’ I noticed that the main character was a travelling Bible salesman. I didn’t sell bibles, but I used to call my binder with the records of the publishing firm ‘my bible.’ Also, the salesman in the story is named Manley Pointer, which has an obvious erotic connotation.”
“Everything That Rises Must Converge was published in “Best American Short Stories” … O’Connor declared that it was all she had to say on “That Issue.” It wasn’t. In May, 1964, she wrote to her friend Maryat Lee, a playwright who … was ardent for civil rights.”
“About the Negroes, the kind I don’t like is the philosophizing prophesying pontificating kind, the James Baldwin kind. Very ignorant but never silent. Baldwin can tell us what it feels like to be a Negro in Harlem but he tries to tell us everything else too. M. L. King I dont think is the ages great saint but he’s at least doing what he can do & has to do. Don’t know anything about Ossie Davis except that you like him but you probably like them all. My question is usually would this person be endurable if white. If Baldwin were white nobody would stand him a minute. I prefer Cassius Clay. “If a tiger move into the room with you,” says Cassius, “and you leave, that dont mean you hate the tiger. Just means you know you and him can’t make out. Too much talk about hate.” Cassius is too good for the Moslems.” (James Baldwin probably agreed with MFO about “the Moslems.”)
“That passage, published in “The Habit of Being,” echoed a remark in a 1959 letter, also to Maryat Lee, who had suggested that Baldwin … could pay O’Connor a visit while on a subsequent reporting trip. O’Connor demurred: “No I can’t see James Baldwin in Georgia. It would cause the greatest trouble and disturbance and disunion. In New York it would be nice to meet him; here it would not. I observe the traditions of the society I feed on—it’s only fair. Might as well expect a mule to fly as me to see James Baldwin in Georgia. I have read one of his stories and it was a good one.” …
“After revising “Revelation” in early 1964, O’Connor wrote several letters to Maryat Lee. Many scholars maintain that their letters (often signed with nicknames) are a comic performance, with Lee playing the over-the-top liberal and O’Connor the dug-in gradualist, but O’Connor’s most significant remarks on race in her letters to Lee are plainly sincere. … May 3, 1964: “You know, I’m an integrationist by principle & a segregationist by taste anyway. I don’t like negroes. They all give me a pain and the more of them I see, the less and less I like them. Particularly the new kind.” Two weeks after that, she told Lee of her aversion to the “philosophizing prophesying pontificating kind.” Ravaged by lupus, she wrote Lee a note to say that she was checking into the hospital, signing it “Mrs. Turpin.” She died at home ten weeks later.”
“Fordham University hosted a symposium on O’Connor and race, supported with a grant from the author’s estate.” (The panel discussion included Karin Coonrod.) “The organizer, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell” … (who wrote) “Radical Ambivalence: Race in Flannery O’Connor” … takes up Flannery and That Issue. Proposing that O’Connor’s work is “race-haunted,” she applies techniques from whiteness studies and critical race theory …” In other words, The Flannery O’Connor Trust gave money to Fordham University, so they could examine MFO, using “techniques from whiteness studies and critical race theory.” There is something deeply rotten about this. … RARIFOC includes this: “Drawing on critical whiteness studies, Chapter 1 interrogates the concepts of race and whiteness O’Connor inherited and analyzes the ways in which O’Connor critiques the unjust racial practices of the South in her stories and other writings yet unconsciously upholds them.”
Perhaps this cancellation business is what MFO foresaw in a 1963 letter to Betty Hester. MFO mentions her disdain for Eudora Welty’s “Where is the Voice Coming From?” … “What I hate most is its being in the New Yorker and all of the stupid Yankee liberals smacking their lips over typical life in the dear old dirty Southland.”
Eudora Welty is not the only author MFO did not like. MFO wrote to Maryat Lee on 31 May 60. “I hope you don’t have friends who recommend Ayn Rand to you. The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest garbage pail. She makes Mickey Spillane look like Dostoyevsky.”
“On July 28, 1964, Flannery wrote her last letter. This note to Maryat Lee, written in a “shaky, nearly illegible hand” … is in response to an anonymous crank call Lee received and reveals O’Connor’s deep concern for her friend’s well being: “Cowards can be just as vicious as those who declare themselves – more so. Dont take any romantic attitude toward that call. Be properly scared and go on doing what you have to do, but take the necessary precautions. And call the police. That might be a lead for them. Dont know when I’ll send those stories. I’ve felt too bad to type them. Cheers, Tarfunk” MFO died August 3, 1964 at Baldwin County Hospital.
We don’t know what MFO read by James Baldwin. It might include a 1962 piece in The New Yorker, Letter from a Region in My Mind. Included in those 22,147 words is this gem: “But white Americans do not believe in death, and this is why the darkness of my skin so intimidates them.” This might be a good time to remember the words of Alice Walker: “Take what you can use and let the rest rot.”
Ms. Walker is included in Flannery. “Alice Walker tells of living “across the way” from the farmhouse during her teens, not knowing that a writer lived there: “It was one of my brothers who took milk from her place to the creamery in town. When we drove into Milledgeville, the cows that we saw on the hillside going into town would have been the cows of the O’Connors.” Ms. Walker, who was well aware of MFO’s racial attitudes, adds “She also cast spells and worked magic with the written word. The magic, the wit, and the mystery of Flannery O’Connor I know I will always love.”
A lot of what TNY says is about taking MFO seriously, in spite of her racial attitudes. This is where I differ. I am a cracker who likes to enjoy stories, not take them seriously. As a Georgia native, I am well aware of the many “shades of gray” produced by a black and white society. Racism is not a yes/no binary. MFO, and her racial attitudes, wrote great stories. To paraphrase Alice Walker, take what you need, and let whiteness studies and critical race theory rot. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the featured photograph in February 1940. “Pomp Hall, Negro tenant farmer. Creek County, Oklahoma.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Life And The Horror Of David F. Wallace
This content was published March 1, 2025. … I have been going for walks lately. Usually it is a half hour, up and down the path. I decided to stretch things out a bit this afternoon, and go to the library. This may have been pushing things too far. The mapmywalk app says I went 3.06 miles. My feet held up pretty well, but my right knee is none too happy. I am going to keep an ice pack on it for a while, rub some icy hot on it, and hope for the best.
The listening component has been this 160 minute talkathon about David Foster Wallace, written by Derek Swansson. DS talks about himself as much as about DFW, although with far happier results. The file was something I plucked out of archive-dot-org, and it was one of these videos with one picture for the entire visuals. The seminal video was 4.3 gigs, and it was a pain-in-the-ass to play. I had to download a media player, and follow arcane instructions, to save it as a 138mg audio file. This is now fairly easy to play, and I listened to it on the phone.
During my morning walk, I decided to go inside, take off my coat, take a piss, and continue with my walk. While this was going on, DS was talking about the decadence of Bret Easton Ellis, who was notoriously unkind about DFW. BEE was talking about totally depraved behavior in New York and California, which is not a bit surprising. DS came to the conclusion that BEE was a bigger prick than DFW… a notorious hetero sex/drug addict. Taking a piss break on a walk pales on the decadence scale next to the pre-rehab antics of Infinite Jest or …
When I write about other people, I like to use initials. Using the surname alone doesn’t sound right, and titles like mister, mrs, or, god forbid, ms, are too much work. Unfortunately, a middle name is not readily available for DS. I did ask Google what his middle name was … or his first name, or his real name … and I was referred to Chad Derek Swanson, on the Missouri State Highway Patrol Sex Offender Registry. In 2016, when CDS was 29 years old, he got in trouble with an 8 year old Female. The incident took place in Shawnee, OK.
David Foster Wallace And The Horror Of Life is the title of the show. The file was published September 18, 2017. The date is important. DFWATHOL appeared 7 years ago, and a lot has happened since then. But you knew that. It is around this time that the ME-TOO phenomenon got started, and one wonders if DFW would have been caught in that trap. The sexual proclivities of DFW had somehow escaped me until I heard this show, and I must say that it increases my opinion of him. Especially if he could perform while dosing on prescription anti-depression remedies.
DFWATHOL talks about gnosticism, and the archons. Gnostics had a different view of the world, which was highly inconvenient to conventional religions, especially after the concept of yahweh uber alles took root. … “ we arrive on Earth with two souls: an immortal soul that seeks union with our divine spirit, or True Self; and a mortal soul that identifies with the False Self and its attachments to the material world. The Gnostics further elaborated that the True God had given us our rational, immortal soul … “while the Demiurge (a.k.a Yahweh) was responsible for our sensuous, irrational, mortal soul …” · The spell check for Archon: Arson, Anchor
“there’s a hostile, jealous god known to the Gnostics as the demiurge, who created this calamitously fucked up world and now rules it, maliciously, with the help of inter-dimensional mind parasites, known as archons who stoke our pain and mental anguish so they can energetically consume it …” The transformation of “YHWH: The Kenite God of Metallurgy” into THE LORD is one of the greatest feats of marketing the world has ever known. The good ship DFWATHOL does not travel up that tributary, and if it had, it would have been a lot longer than it’s already debilitating 25k words.
I listened to the last twenty minutes or so while driving to dinner. I go to cici’s buffet in Peachtree Corners, even though it is terrible for me, and probably an outpost of corrosive Archon flavored capitalism. Whatever. I always go down Peachtree Industrial Boulevard past the shopping center, to the gas station where gas is always cheaper than in my neighborhood. Tonight, when I arrived, there was a lady talking about how straws are skinnier now than they used to be. I can’t say I ever noticed. This is the strangest pickup line I have heard in a while. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Arthur Rothstein took the featured photograph in June 1942. “Queens NY Nursery school at the Queensbridge housing project. Drinking milk”©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Anita Aretha and Elton
This content was originally published March 25, 2009. … In the early nineties, I had too much free time. On March 25 of one year, I looked in the fishwrapper, and found a list of famous people with birthdays. There was an unlikely trio celebrating that day. This would be (in order of appearance) Anita Bryant (1940), Aretha Franklin (1942), and Elton John (1947). All three have been paid for singing, and have a total of five husbands.
Several other people have arrived on planet earth on March 25. They include, in 1911, Jack Ruby, the alleged killer of Lee Harvey Oswald (d. 1967). 1918 produced Howard Cosell, American sports reporter (d. 1995). 1925 produced Flannery O’Connor (d. 1964). 1934 gave us Gloria Steinem. To make room for all this talent, Buck Owens died March 25, 2006. On August 16, 2018, Aretha Franklin was heaven bound, with Anita Bryant following December 16, 2024.
March 25 is after the spring equinox, and has been Easter. A few noteworthy events have gone down on this day. In 1894, Coxey’s Army departed Massillon, Ohio for Washington D.C. In 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire killed 146 garment workers in New York City. In 1939 Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli became Pope Pius XII, to the delight of Adolph Hitler. 1955 saw the United States Customs seizing copies of Allen Ginsberg’s poem “Howl” as obscene. In 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono began their first Bed-In for Peace at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel.
HT and applause to wikipedia. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. Marjory Collins took the social media photograph in February 1943. “New York NY Band in an Irish-American restaurant O’Reilly’s at Third Avenue and Fifty-Fourth Street, on Saturday night.”
Right To Defend Itself
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Lebanon Has the Right to Defend Itself Those fiercely battling the Israelis in the south …
The rocket experiments of Robert H. Goddard, 1911 to 1930 Brian Page
Weekend Wellness: In many cases, trigger finger can be safely and effectively corrected
Why Cormac McCarthy stopped reading new novels ‘Infinite Jest’ was to blame
patrick henry · hokey pokey · torley wong · troll · jco
stoic handbook · trigger finger · trigger finger · torley wong · troll
This is your last monday morning reader for this winter. After dragging us into an unwinnable war with Iran, Israel has decided to fight another war in Lebanon. They will not have any ground troops for Iran · In 1954 there was a Dairy Queen on Cheshire Bridge Road. In 2015, people said stupid things about racism. These two facts might be connected · The pictures today are much, much better than the text. They were taken in 1942, when Japanese American citizens were rounded up for detention facilities. · The rules: look up page 123 in the book that is nearest to you at this very minute · look for the fifth sentence · then post the three sentences that follow that fifth sentence on page 123 · Fourteen years ago, some turkey wrote a book about Atheism and Religion. He did interviews, and gave a TED talk. If you don’t have anything productive to say, you can always talk about religion · Man asks for Polish sausage. The owner asks if he is Polish. The man gets offended, says why would you assume that I am Polish, because I order Polish sausage. It was a hardware store. · Joyce Carol Oates found the turmoil during the Ferguson Uprising to be “very exhilarating and very wonderful.” Is this privilege? · Uppity Buggery Macaroni, Boohoo Bony Maronie Alimony, Kamasutra Kickapoo Kumbaya, Macarena Malarkey La Di Dah, Highfalutin Hoodwink Hokey Pokey, Rootin Tootin Putin Okie Dokey · shirley thats a lie. I can believe the shirley part, but goodness and mercy is a total lie. And no, shirley goodness and mercy are not going to follow you all the days of your life, except for goodness, and she will unfollow you if you pay the money you owe her. annointing your head with oil has a lot of expenses, and sgm need to be reimbursed, especially when your greedy cup runneth over … all you had to do was say stop, and quit worrying about the valley of the shadow of death. shirley has her eyes on thy rod and thy staff, and is totally not interested in your comfort. and if you want to dwell in the house of the lord, rent is due at the end of the month · Sex47566 – So when do you wanna host, PiersGavestonJr – the roommate is here most of the time, i don’t know when the next free day is going to be, Sex47566 – Can we get a room then, PiersGavestonJr – that is more trouble than i want to go to, Sex47566 – I don’t understand, PiersGavestonJr – i really don’t have the spare bucks to rent a room · On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry said “Give me Liberty, or give me death.” On January 13, 1773, Mr. Henry wrote a letter to John Alsop. “I shall honor the Quakers for their noble efforts to abolish Slavery. It was equally calculated to promote moral and political good. Would any one believe that I am master of slaves by my own purchase? I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them.” · Pictures today are from The Library of Congress Jack Delano took the social media picture in March 1942. “Chicago, Illinois. Provident Hospital. Doctor and interns attending a patient in the men’s ward” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Atheism Number Two
This content was originally published March 24, 2012. … Whenever someone writes a book about religion, the writer pays tribute to mammon. Interviews are conducted, TED talks are given, and the printed donkey flogged within an inch of its life. The book of the moment is Religion for Atheists: A Non-believer’s Guide to the Uses of Religion. The author is Alain de Botton. The idea is that atheists can learn a thing or two from the believers. Mr. de Botton gave a TED Talk about this concept.
We could begin by questioning the entire belief paradigm. Christians believe God exists, and a few other things. Atheists do not believe God exists. What no one seems to be questioning is whether belief is the best way to go about the God issue. The word gnosis (the root of agnostic) refers to having a “knowledge” of God … to feeling her presence in your soul. There are some who say that man and God are one and the same. When all you have is a belief … a strongly felt thought … you just might be missing most of the picture.
Christianity is a religion based on beliefs. One of the central beliefs is the notion that having the correct beliefs will cause you to be “saved”… to go to heaven when you die, instead of hell. This is a big deal to Christians, who find it difficult to deal with someone who is not fascinated by “salvation.”
Atheism seems to be a reaction to the Christianity/salvation paradigm. If Christians did not tell atheists about God, how would atheists know what to not believe in?
“There have been some very vocal atheists who’ve pointed out not just that religion is wrong but that it’s ridiculous. These people … have argued … that believing in God is akin to believing in fairies and essentially that the whole thing is a childish game.”
Oh my, what a terrible thing to say about faeries. Maybe faeries are not something to believe in either. Just wear fabulous fashions, and don’t worry about that silly religion business.
Mr. de Botton laments the lack of community is atheism, and he may have a point. I have often envied the sense of extended family that churches seem to offer. If only those pesky beliefs didn’t get in the way. Does religion fulfill a tribal need for conformity, rather than spiritual fulfillment?
It is a common rule of public speaking… you treat children as though they were adults, and adults as though they were children. The concept of being “born again”, of having a second childhood … these are very appealing notions. Can an atheist church offer these good times? Or would it spoil the fun by treating “worshipers” as adults?
I have a big fat problem with one issue. Jesus worship is an emotional affair. Powerful feelings are stirred up. This power, and fury, can be a terrifying thing if it is used against you.
This use of Jesus driven emotions is an issue in American politics today. The force and thunder of a screaming Jesus worshiper, leading his flock of angry sheep, is a terrible thing to have used against you. It is hoped that an Atheist church would be more “humanistic”.
Two wrongs do not make a right. Jesus worshipers are notorious for interrupting you if something is said they do not like. Perhaps this is another function of the belief based religion. When you believe something, and do not understand why someone does not share your belief, you don’t have time to listen. This rudeness does not speak well for Jesus. Hopefully, atheists can be a bit better. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the social media picture in October 1938. “Crowd, listening to the Cajun band at National Rice Festival, Crowley, Louisiana”
©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Page 123
This content was published March 7, 2008. … A blogger named Amber Rhea posted something called a meme the other day. Ms. Rhea got this meme from “After Hours” by Texasgoldengirl. The subtext at AH is “random discourse from a retired escort … virtue is insufficient temptation”
“123 meme” got my attention. I decided to use this to generate text to put between the pictures. “The rules: look up page 123 in the book that is nearest to you at this very minute · look for the fifth sentence · then post the three sentences that follow that fifth sentence on page 123.” … The book closest to me is “Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary”. This volume has been a valuable ally since I got it in 1971. Nonetheless, it was a poor choice for this exercise.
The next book was “The Penguin Book of Gay Short Stories”. Page 123 was part of an excerpt from “My Father and Myself” by J.R. Ackerley. Here is the passage: “This was a thing I had never done before, reluctantly since and out of politeness if requested. It is a form of pleasure I myself have seldom enjoyed, passively or actively, preferring the kiss upon the lips, nor have I ever been good at it. Some technical skill seems required and a retraction of the teeth, which, perhaps because mine are too large or unsuitably arranged, seem always to get in the way.”
This content was published March 22, 2015. … It was a gray sunday afternoon. The sky drizzles onto the bright green baby weeds. Basketball dudes are dribbling before they shoot. If there was only a subject for a blog post, then all would be lovely. One answer is to look in the archive. There was a post in 2008 about page 123. “Look up page 123 in the book that is nearest to you at this very minute. Look for the fifth sentence. Then post the three sentences that follow that fifth sentence on page 123.”
The book nearest to the work station is an outlet store edition of “Leaves of Grass,” by Walt Whitman. There are two problems here. The book only has 109 pages. It is also full of poems, which do not contain sentences. LOG is digitally available, easy to copy/paste, but does not qualify.
The book under LOG, and technically closer to the work station, is Quiet Days in Clichy, by Henry Miller. (The last word, KLEE she, is a neighborhood in Paris.) The book was purchased at a yard sale in 1978, read with little enjoyment, pulled off the shelf in 2014, and rediscovered.
Mr. Miller apparently thought about the story in French, and then transcribed it in English. It is a great story. Two men live in Paris, scrounging meals where they can, and screwing a lot of ladies. One has a name similar to Anaïs Nin, who was an extramarital pal of Mr. Miller in those days.
The copy of QDIC here is an Evergreen Black Cat paperback, which sold for $.75. It is the classic back pocket paperback, measuring 4″x7″x 3/8″. The bookmark is one page 79, where the authorities came to visit the two men. There is a problem about screwing an underage girl. The authorities are impressed by the fact that the men write books, although not in French. The authorities leave. The men talk about the beauty of the under aged girl’s mother.
The one star reviews for QDIC are festive. Ivan Searcy I am a street photographer and have been living, 4 to 6 months a year in Paris, for the past 35 years. I was hoping that this book would reflect on the café and street life in Clichy during the 1930s, but all it did was to show that Miller is a psychopath that likes to abuse women. Even when he writes about sex, he is an amateur writer. I think that his claim to fame was that his books where ban in the US. Stewart D. Isbell “photostew” I purchased this book for the new Kindle for iPhone app and the book is not formatted properly. There are an endless amount of pages that only have one sentence, sometimes only one word! To read this book you have to flip through a huge amount of pages. Great book, and yes, it was only .80 cents but still… pretty much useless. Jamie E. Skelly get over yourself.
Maybe we should share what comes after the fifth sentence. “Tahe your time and get what you can out of the old buzzard. I have nothing to do,” I added. “I’ll sit here and wait. You’re going to have dinner with me, remember that.” Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Collier Jr. took the social media picture May 14, 1942. “Washington D.C. Filling up with gas on the day before rationing” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Half-Baked Lefty Critiques
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kkk · saw · @orensegal · oren segal · agmc · later
This is the monday morning reader for the first monday without Country Joe. The first time I looked at the stock market today, it was down 666 points. There will be more to say later · This piece, in a gender jihad attack site, paints a very different picture from some of the auto-bio tweets I have seen about you · In the 2016 Presidential primary, there were five candidates. Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Clinton, Sanders. (Georgia has open primaries) I didn’t like any of those turkeys. Marco Rubio was the best looking candidate, so I voted for him. · Why are the lights on in Tel Aviv? · A nuke in West Asia would have considerable impact here. How much fallout from an Iran strike would hit Israel? I imagine it would totally waste the Persian Gulf oil industry · I have not heard much about the effects of a nuclear weapon on the surrounding countries in West Asia. If someone were to nuke Iran, how far would the fallout, and the radiation, go? What impact would a nuclear explosion have on the Persian Gulf oil industry? · Do I believe in love? Belief has so many meanings. It means you agree something exists. It also means that you BELEEEVE, and that you have supernatural powers because of this belief. I think that love does exist. However, I see this as a highly personal matter, and it requires a great deal of mutual trust and respect to discuss. … I typed a much lengthier reply that somehow got deleted before sending. I will send this now before I make the same mistake twice · “I think that’s the power of religion as well. The power of religion is not the connection with God, but the connection with the rest of the congregation.” · We are destroying the country to save it · “@LealIris_ We’re stuck in a nightmare because a cynical man indifferent to our existence whispered in the ear of a clueless infant and convinced him to embark on a failed military adventure. I assume the euphoria is over, cuties.” (Translated from Hebrew) · How does Israel have the military capacity to fight Hezbollah and Iran at the same time? · Two nuns walk into a bar; the third one ducks. A woman walks into a bar holding a duck. Bartender says, “What’s with the pig?” Woman says, “It’s a duck.” Bartender says, “I was talking to the duck.” · “The guns and the bombs, the rockets and the warships, are all symbols of human failure” … This quote is from a speech at Johns Hopkins University on April 7, 1965. The speech is a sales pitch for the escalation of the Vietnam war, which was already underway · March 12, 2020 was the start of the pandemic for me. The stock market fell 2400 points. Kroger had a snowjam style shopping mob. The lockdown had begun. · The text today is three posts from 2008, and the Presidential race and the war in Babylon. There was talk about defeating Al-Queda. Few could imagine that in 2026 a former Al-Queda actor would be in charge of Syria · In 1861, “the value of slave property, some $4 billion, … represented more money than the value of all of the industry and all of the railroads in the entire United States combined.” The picture below is Buford Hiway and Plaster Road in 1951 · I used to work for this cliche machine. Whenever he heard someone say me, he would interrupt them. “This is a we company, not a me company” · My mom was listening to that. Her version was that it would snow in Miami on the day Jimmy was inaugurated. I somehow doubt that it was Neal doing the interview, though. It was more likely to be Ludlow Porch. · The Iran Iraq war A tragedy that changed history · There is a far-fetched rumor spreading on X. However, the @grok denial raises a few questions of it’s own. @JaokooMoses “CONFIRMED: Several US military bases are experiencing internal revolt as a huge number of soldiers are refusing to go to the battlefield and die for Israel. This will have a devastating impact on pentagon and the Whitehouse. Internal revolt is the first time to be experienced.”@grok ” … “Anti-war groups like the Center on Conscience & War report a spike in hotline calls from troops/families seeking legal ways (e.g., conscientious objector status) to avoid Iran conflict duties, citing low morale and late-notice combat orders.” · #5WordRomanceNovel two lesbians meet in ikea, she silently gave her tacos, want another slice of cheesecake, relax i’ll do the dishes, all the orifices were quivering, forget about today until tomorrow, show me your bank account, the money is mine dear · this road never ends on the ides of march, finishing off the crumbs of pi day delight, caesar’s tunic could have used more starch, shove in the dagger with all your might, the storm is rolling in tomorrow morning, it is over arkansas as we speak, a rattlesnake buzzer is just a warning, march is not fitted for the slow or the weak, the basketball junkies are licking their chops, if it gets too rowdy just don’t call the cops, the rest of us roll our eyes and ignore, they seem to enjoy recreational gore, about two more minutes and we’ll start sharing process, hurry up poetry will always pass the test · Pictures today are from The Library of Congress Jack Delano took the social media picture in March 1942. “Chicago, Illinois. Provident Hospital. Students watching a (mock) operation”
©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
Shock And Awe 2008 Edition
This content was published March 18, 2008. … This is turning into a dandy holiday week. Yesterday was Saint Patrick’s Day. Tomorrow is Shock and Awe Day (SAD) … the anniversary of the invasion of Babylon. Today, we had a presidential candidate, standing in front of four U.S. flags, saying that his preacher is a racist nutcase, which is why he wants to be president of our racist nutcase country, which he loves. And this weekend we have a grand slam…Good Friday, Dead Saturday, Easter Sunday and the Spring Equinox. This time, let’s put two boulders in front of the cave.
The best place to focus now is Shock and Awe Day. SAD is the initials. The war is over. We achieved regime change, at least in Babylon. The occupation is what is going on now, and it just might be the death of this country. Yes, there is less sectarian violence now. Al Queda is not as prevalent as it once was. Of course, it is still more active than when Saddam was in power. Turkey has invaded Kurdistan, but just a little bit. Iran has not invaded Babylon, yet. The Saudi regime has not fallen, and they have a lot more money to finance terrorism.
The US economy is in trouble. Maybe we would be in this mess without a few trillion more in debt, and the healthcare bills for thousands of wounded soldiers coming due. Maybe we could build more levees if we weren’t paying the concerned local citizens of Iraq to help us fight Al Queda. We will never know. It should be noted the presidential candidate mentioned above has long stated his opposition to “Operation Iraqi Freedom”. Just what he will do about it, should he get elected, is another good question. … 2026 POV The candidate got elected, and sort-of ended the war in Babylon. Meanwhile, Syria devolved into chaos, and is currently ruled by a “former member” of Al Queda.
This content was published March 19, 2008. … So I was coming in on I-75, and listening to Glenn Beck. He was talking about the economy, and it was not pretty. I don’t believe everything he said, but to hear him tell it, the dollar is about to become a worthless piece of green paper. The world economy is tied to this dollar, and this would make the world economy go into convulsions.
This is shock and awe day (SAD)…the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Babylon. The war ended quickly, but putting humpty dumpty together has proved to be a challenge. One of the effects of this war is vast amounts of capital leaving the country into the desert sands. Much has been lost to corruption, and more is being paid to “concerned local citizens” to fight Al Queda. The latter effort is paying some benefits, and Al Queda is almost down to the level of pre-war Iraq. Getting back to the dollar, and the connection to our economy. One of the more bizarre features of this enterprise is having a tax cut before an expensive government program is going to start. This has created vast budget deficits, and huge interest payments that will continue for a long time.
Now, with the money to armor troops and buy smart bombs, there is a lot less money available for day to day life here. And when there is an emergency here, like a cajun hurricane or a New York broker banker gone bust, the government has to crank up the printing press and make more green paper. And the more this happens, the less the green paper is worth. … Maybe green is not such a great color anymore. Those environmental wackos have totally spoiled it.
So, Mr. Beck was crying about the dollar, while ignoring the effect of the enterprise in Babylon. After all, he is a conservative, who wants both a smaller government and 160k troops stationed eight time zones away. And, if we didn’t go into Babylon, then Al Queda wouldn’t be there for us to fight, and we have to fight them there rather than here. … Meanwhile, I looked up at the traffic. An 18 wheeler decided that the car in front was not driving fast enough. The big truck swerved into the next lane, and missed the little car by a couple of feet. Happy SAD y’all!!
This content was published March 24, 2008. … Please, no betray us jokes this time. That gave the warmongers a good distraction last fall. General David Petraeus spoke to the press recently. He said victory in Babylon would occur when there is: “an Iraq that is at peace with itself, at peace with its neighbors, that has a government that is representative of — and responsive to — its citizenry and is a contributing member of the global community.”
There are a lot of differences between the United States and Iraq. The USA has 160k troops in Iraq. Iraq recently won a major soccer tournament. One has to wonder, though, how the USA does at meeting the standards it sets for Iraq. · “an Iraq that is at peace with itself” Last week, the major news story was an important minority bashing America from the pulpits of it’s churches. It’s just the way it is in the black church, you don’t understand. · “at peace with its neighbors” Despite all the political noise the rightwing can produce, the border with Mexico is wide open. The effects of a poor country on the border of a “wealthy” country do not stop. · “a government that is representative of — and responsive to — its citizenry” This depends on who you talk to. It seems like everyone has a gripe, from the right wing ( social issues, immigration) to the left wing ( the war, the environment, the rich-poor gap, health care). There are plenty in the middle who are tired of the whining, but essentially agree with both sides of the spectrum. · “is a contributing member of the global community” In all fairness, we are contributing to the global community. We contribute carbon emissions to the atmosphere. We contribute interest to the Asians who are financing our debt. We contribute cluster bombs and depleted uranium to Babylon.
One of our presidential hopefuls was quoted recently as saying we might be in Iraq for 100 more years. Somehow, I don’t think the problems in our own country will be solved by then. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Arthur Rothstein took the social media picture in October 1939. “Winner of masquerade at Halloween party. Hillview cooperative, Osage Farms, Missouri.”
©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah
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