As The World Turns
This content was originally published August 25, 2008. … I saw an earth changing event at my grandmother’s house one day. Gran lived in a little apartment on Virginia Avenue. This was a few years before Virginia Highlands was trendy. I was staying with her one summer day, when I was ten years old. We walked down to the granite house, next to the golf course in Piedmont Park. Gran’s friend worked there. This was the summer of Beatlemania, and Gran’s friend made a point of telling me that she DID NOT LIKE THE BEATLES. ”If the Beatles were playing for free across the street, I would not waste the energy to walk across the street to see them”. …
… Gran and I walked back to her apartment to see “As the World Turns”. The show was interrupted for a news bulletin. Walter Cronkite came on the say that a North Vietnamese boat had fired on an American boat in the Gulf of Tonkin.We did not know, at the time, that this was a world changing event. I doubt Gran ever thought much about it. But our Congress used that incident … which turned out to be fabricated … to justify sending many more troops to fight in Vietnam. That war was a world changing event. We are still dealing with the effects of that conflict.
This content was originally published August 20, 2008. … I have heard about the Rasmussen Report. Recently, the reports show JSM pulling ahead of BHO. While it is a bit early, the candidates are fighting for momentum to carry them into November. America loves a winner. If a candidate is perceived to be winning, then more people will jump on the bandwagon. This applies to the war in babylon as well. Happy talk in the press is part of the surge strategy. …
… In my unpaid role as resident non Jesus Worshiper, I left the following comment at 22 Words yesterday. “I sometimes feel that I am the only non believer that comments here. You might consider that not everyone is impressed by your religion. Many shortcomings…selfishness, meanness, lack of respect for others…can be found in thoughtless, inappropriate preaching. Just because you are doing it for Jesus does not make it any less offensive. It also reflects poorly on Jesus” … To which another reader replied: “@Chamblee: You’re right, preachers can taint their own message. Can you expand on what you mean by thoughtless, inappropriate preaching?” …
… There are many, many examples of inappropriate preaching. There are two quotes that help. One is from a motivational speaker: “You need to sell yourself first, your company second, and your product third.” The second is the third commandment: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in Vain”. … Anyone can read to you from the Bible. Not everyone that does this has worthy motives. Some are crooks and thieves. For a person to preach to another, there needs to be TRUST. If you do not trust the person who is preaching to you, then that person is speaking in vain. …
… Trust has a brother named RESPECT. When you preach to a person who does not care for your message, you are showing disrespect to that person. When you preach without mutual respect you are speaking in vain. … This is not just the person you are talking to. It is everyone who comes in contact with your message. This is not just the words you speak, but your actions, the chrome fish on your car, the catchy phrase on your t shirt, and the Bible you make a show of carrying around. When you preach without trust and respect, you are speaking in vain. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress Paul Carter took the social media picture in September 1936. “Untitled photo, possibly related to: Negroes on a picnic, Newport News, Virginia” … selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
Anne Rice
This content was originally published July 29, 2010. … Anne Rice made a highly public statement about her religious opinions. … “For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten …years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.” wed 07-29-1:36 pm …
“As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of …Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.” 07-29-1:41 pm … “My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn’t understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me. But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been, or might become.” 07-29-5:30 pm …
… I added a few thoughts. 1 – Who cares? A part of Jesus worship that is disgusting is the assumption that anyone else cares whether or not you are a true believer. This co exists with the idea that the you are entitled to know about the beliefs of other people. There are people who think that their beliefs are their business. Just because you are a famous writer, that knows the value of publicity, does not mean your opinions about God are more valuable than mine. …
… 2 – Does Ms. Rice have a new book coming out soon? She does have a talent for publicity and marketing. The woods are full of talented authors. It takes work to hone this talent into marketable product. She then persuaded a publisher to take a chance selling her product, and got the public to buy truckloads of her books. This does not make her opinions about God more valuable than mine. …
… 3 – Jesus has mutated over time into the poster boy of this obscene religion. Maybe the “real Jesus” was anti gay, pro war, and anti thought. Maybe 2000 years ago the living person named Jesus had these highfalutin ideas about love thy neighbor. That is what the Bible says. For all we know, the historic Jesus was just as nasty as his worshipers are today. … The way to know Jesus is through his believers. The putrid spectacle of modern Christianity is what the spirit of Jesus has morphed into. …
… To say that you are pro Christ and Anti Christian is double talk, like hate the sin/love the sinner. Why not dispute the belief, and be kind to the believer? … I do not know what led Anne Rice to this impasse. I do not care. Anne Rice is a talented writer, that is enjoyed by millions of people. The only Anne Rice book that I read was “Interview With The Vampire”. I got 150 pages into it, and found it very powerful. It was taking me places I did not want to go. I did not finish IWTV. …
… Jesus has not been kind to me. His worshipers have heaped abuse on me. After a while, it does not make sense to find excuses for Jesus. If Jesus truly pays the price for the sins of his believers, then he should take the blame for this loud, hateful flock. And Anne Rice should quit talking about Jesus, and get back to writing books. … Anne Rice died December 11, 2021. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Marion Wolcott Post took the social media picture in November 1939. “Untitled photo, possibly related to: Itinerant preacher spreading “religion” to farmers outside warehouse while tobacco auction sales are going on. Durham, North Carolina” · selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
Prophet Not Without Honor
This content was originally published June 28, 2010. … This diavlog was between two proponents of the Catholic path. As a recovering Baptist living in the south, this is not the viewpoint I am familiar with. The type of Jesus that gets shoved in your face in Georgia, on a daily basis, is more emotional, less intellectual, and with even less appreciation of silence. The modern church is in dire need of silence. Many of these people are afraid of silence. They keep shouting, as if they were afraid of what will happen when they no longer have the floor.
This content was originally published June 25, 2010. … Those thoughtful patriots at townhalldotcom have compiled a list of 100 Americans that “the left hates”. I am not sure if I am a leftie or not, but find hating someone I have never heard of to be a bit silly. Seeing Amboy Duke (72) and Joe Buck (71) on the list was bizarre. Then again, there was the pride is seeing Macon’s Erick Erickson (96) making good. I once drove a delivery truck, and listened to talk radio. The announcers I knew then did not do well. Neal Boortz did not make the list. …
… Laura Ingraham was 17, which is a shock to anyone who has listened to her. Michael Medved, the rudest person this side of Bibi Netanyahu, was 73, and Mike Gallagher was 90. Anyway, as a public service to any leftist who has forgotten who to hate, here is the list. 01 GLENN BECK 02 SARAH PALIN 03 RUSH LIMBAUGH 04 GEORGE W. BUSH 05 ANN COULTER 06 MICHELLE MALKIN 07 THE TEA PARTY PATRIOT 08 DICK CHENEY 09 BILL O’REILLY 10 MICHELE BACHMANN 11 KARL ROVE 12 SEAN HANNITY 13 MATT DRUDGE 14 NEWT GINGRICH 15 ANDREW BREITBART 16 MARK LEVIN 17 LAURA INGRAHAM 18 ROGER AILES …
This content was originally published June 28, 2010. … Numbers two and three of the worst conservatives in america have recently made public statements about the alliterative custom of dumpster diving. This custom of recycling from a green box has enriched the lives of millions, and Oxy Contin abuser Rush Limbaugh thinks there should be more. “There’s another place if none of these options work to find food; there’s always the neighborhood dumpster. Now, you might find competition with homeless people there, but there are videos that have been produced to show you how to healthfully dine and how to dumpster dive” …
… Sarah Palin does not share this enthusiasm for green box recycling. Mrs. Palin was hired to speak at a California college recently, and some were offended by the honorarium. Students found the contract for the Palin show in a trash can, and publicized the details. In her speech, Mrs. Palin said “Students who spent their valuable, precious time diving through dumpsters before this event in order to silence someone … what a wasted resource,” She did not express her opinion of students looking for twinkies and ding dongs in the refuse facility. …
This content was originally published June 25, 2010. … In 2006, a blogger brought Juanita Bynum to my attention. The blogger said “she’s a nice lady with a nice husband who is promoting good social values under the umbrella of Christian living.” Billboards appeared downtown, advertising a show at the Georgia Dome, “The Thrashing Floor,” starring Ms Bynum. … Ms Bynum calls herself a prophet and a psalmist. I made a comment, at the post linked above: “A prophet is not without honor, except in his own land. What about a psalmist?” The blogger replied “The only people without honor around here are hit-and-run posters,chamblee..” …
… “If that woman is a prophet, then I am Ronald Reagan. Of course, I may be a psalmist myself, and just not know it.” … Miss Bynum is now selling music cds, candles, bath products, and makeup. Many people are not aware of this X-tian subculture. It thrives on anger, shouting, and verbal abuse. The audience appears to enjoy this, and seems to be “blessed”. Considering the violence of the crucifixion, and the egomania of Jesus, the hysterical shouting of Juanita Bynum might be what Jesus is all about. … Pictures today are from the The Library of Congress. Marion Wolcott Post took the social media post in February 1941. “Juke joint and bar in the Belle Glade area, vegetable section of south central Florida” · selah ©Luther Mckinnon 2025
Why The War Between The States Was Fought
This was a repost from 2017. … 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. Mistakes will be made. The reader is encouraged to do their own research.
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 autonomous 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 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. The social media picture: “Unidentified young soldier in Confederate infantry uniform” … In 1865, the national debt was $2.6 billion.
A Rainbow Colored Prayer
This is a repost from 2009. It was inspired by the National Day of Prayer. In a bit of blessed synchronicity, NDP was May First this year. Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The social media picture is not dated. “Southerland, Tuttle, and Brenan; Loading Zone Peachtree at Houston”.
Good Morning God. Please give me the slack I need to make it through this busy life. I had a birthday recently. I am getting older. Thank you for letting me get this far. Please give me less pain, both above and below the neck. Thank you for the gift of sobriety, and the memory of inebrience. The gift of moderation would have been helpful. Help me to overcome the chemistry that tells me to be unhappy.
Please tell Christians to make less noise, joyful or otherwise. Help me to forgive them. Give Christians a bit more humility. Help “some” Christians to get over their projection issues, and quit hating gay people. Let people know that you do not write books. Let men know that A REAL MAN KEEPS CONTROL OF HIS TEMPER. Please tell the people praying that it is better to listen, than to talk.
Please find a happy medium for Atlanta water. Let us have neither drought nor flood. It would help if the developers would move to North Carolina, and the politicians would grow a conscience. This may be too much for you God … see if Satan can help.
God, Please try to get along better with Allah. This is important. Maybe if you and her got along better, then all those religious crazies would hate each other less. Help white people and black people get along better. Please be good to the people who have already lived, and are now deceased. Please understand that I am not in a hurry to join them. … I have learned that “God”, “Allah”, and “Yahweh” are all names for YHWH. Whatever.
Help Mr. Trump with the mess this country is in. Help Israel get along with her neighbors, and live within her borders. Help the world solve the carbon dioxide problem.
Thank you for the birds that sing. I will listen to them, and not an electronic device. Thank you for dogs, and dog owners who clean up. Thank you for earth, air, fire, and water. Thank you for incomplete lists. Namaste, amen, all my relations, Good Bye.
Fear & Loathing Part Two
This is Part Two of my journey with Fear & Loathing in the New Jerusalem, a podcast series by Darryl Cooper aka @MartyrMade. Other episodes of this effort are available. 041525 042325 042625 Disclaimer This is a greatly simplified view of what happened. For more information, you can listen to FLNJ, or google one of the many histories of this era. … At the end of this post, we will see that googling for more information can have its limits.
April 15, 2025 My morning walk today was a trip to the county office to buy next year’s auto tag. It is 1.54 miles from my house to the office. When I got there, I had to go through a metal detector wielding security guard. He looked in my bag, and would not let me take my bottle of tea into the office. As soon as I got in the office, I was waited on, and got my tag business done quickly.
I am finished with FLNJ-2. The last part was about the time between roughly 1922 and 1925. More Zionist settlers are coming into Palestine. There is a debate about whether settlers should take over, or whether they should get along with their neighbors. Unfortunately the Jaffa riots took place.
According to this narrative, the trouble began when a groups of settlers were having a march somewhere, and one Zionist group attacked the other. The British police got involved, and the Arabs started to hear that the settlers were causing trouble. The Arabs got involved, and it was a great big mess. After that after that there was little talk of getting along with your neighbors. This development had unfortunate consequences for the whole Zionist project.
After posting FLNJ Part One, u/chamblee54 made a comment at r/martyrmade announcing the publication of Fear & Loathing Part One. There was a festive comment thread. HughNormousPeanus “I made this list during my last listen hope it helps” (This list was the actors in the F&L drama. It may prove helpful in the production of the series.) Chamblee54 “Thank you. I may want to borrow from this in my series. I hope your co-worker wasn’t listening at work. He might not get anything else done. Always remember, Douglas Murray could have done this in one week.” HughNormousPeanus ‘Douglas Murray is a three letter word I can’t say on Reddit starting with F ending in G with an A in the middle” Chamblee54 “Oh my. I am a gay man. I do not appreciate that. His sexual honeydew list is about the only good thing I can say about that idiot.” HughNormousPeanus “I’d tell you to appreciate these nuts but you probably would I can’t think of anything more derogatory to call Douglas Murray you’ll have to get over it.”
Later in the day. … I took a different route back from the county office, making the round trip 2.87 miles. I downloaded FLNJ-3, and listened to the whole thing on a trip to a pizza buffet on Pleasant Hill Road. FLNJ-3 is only 1:44:03, and is not a narrative history. Instead, MartyrMade discusses the honor culture among the Arab people in West Asia. Societies are not governed by institutions as much as families and tribes. This is how mankind has operated until recently. There was one quote that made me pull into a parking lot and make a note. 33:18 “what civilization does is relieve us of the burden of needing to be honest all the time.”
April 16, 2025 I started to listen to FLNJ-4 on my morning walk. Immediately after the opening montage, FLNJ-4 got very interesting. “Late one Friday afternoon in 1924, the Orthodox Jewish rabbi Yaakov Yisroel Dehan was walking back from his synagogue to his home in Jerusalem …”
Jacob de Haan a Dutchman, was a Gay Poet, an Orthodox Jew, and an all around piece of work. In 1919, he left The Netherlands for Palestine. “On the day of his departure, thousands of fans crowded Amsterdam’s train station, waving frantically and singing “Hatikvah.” At least one chronicler of the occasion joked that many present just wanted to make sure that he’d really gone.”
Rabbi de Haan soon became disillusioned by the reality of Palestine, after hearing about the high minded vision of a Jewish homeland. He began to display his talent for pissing people often. One quote seems to sum up his attitude. “Ever the polyglot, he quickly studied Arabic, and took great pleasure in upsetting the Zionists he’d meet by demanding that they speak to him in Arabic, an official language according to the British bylaws.” Eventually, he got enough people mad at him.
When the Zionists killed Yaakov Yisroel Dehan on July 1, 1924 I found an article written about YYD shortly after his death. It was republished in 2002, by a contemporary group with similar ideas about Israel. “NKI is the voice of Religious Jews world wide in their Torah-based opposition to the State of Israel” … “At a time when the first followers of the Zionist movement began streaming into the Holy Land in large numbers, defiling the holiness of the land, and by virtue of their idiotic ideas began to work to expel the Arabs who had been living there for centuries in order to establish a Zionist state.”
April 17, 2025 The process of listenting to FLNJ is turning into a war of attrition. The gee whiz phase is over. I am 69 minutes into FLNJ-4. The saga is sometime in the 1920’s, and is being overwhelmed by problems. The Arabs are not going anywhere, and have plenty of issues with the British and the settlers. The settlers are quarelling with each other about the direction of the Zionist project. There is a lot more action to come.
My life continues. Every morning in April, I repost an old picture poem for national poetry month. Today, it was something from Psalm 46. I got unwound talking about that on facebook, and decided on a possible definition for God … something that we cannot fully know or understand, but just might be real. … It is too nice a day to worry about this.
At 1:24:00, Darryl gets onto a source of support for the Zionists. They have the backing of several Western European nations, most notably Great Britain. Some cynical people said these nations just wanted to get rid of the Jews. Whatever. Another source of support is the Rothschild family.
Illuminati talk often involves the Rothschilds, and can get antisemitic quickly. Darryl mentioned the wars that were financed by the Rothschilds. There have always been rumors of the Rothschilds financing both sides of a war, and of egging on the warring parties, so as to make money from the ensuing carnage. There are rumors about the War Between the States … the London branch financing the Union, with the Paris branch financing the Confederacy. This is difficult to confirm or deny, and inevitably leads to Illuminati talk.
The Zionists had unity, and access to resources, not enjoyed by the Arabs in Palestine. It is interesting to speculate how the Zionist project would have gone, had it waited until after the influx of oil revenues into the Arab world. At this point, we might note the presence of Iran, which is Persian rather than Arab. The saga of Iran over the last 80 years is consequential … the 1953 coup, the 1979 revolution, the Iran-Iraq war, the ongoing conflict with Israel and the United States. The story of Iran is just as consequential as the story of Israel.
April 18, 2025 I finished my morning walk without incident. The stock market is closed for good friday. The last report: −527.16 (1.33%) Apr 17, 4:55PM EDT. In a few minutes, I will drive over to Drew Valley, for their community yard sale.
I am now at 4:04:09 of FLNJ-4. It is 1929 in the New Jerusalem. Radical Zionists are forcing matters, into faster action. The Arab population does not like it. The British don’t know what to do. The situation gets very, very ugly. See Disclaimer at top of post.
The yard sale will be celebrated on Saturday. While driving back, I heard the last few minutes of FLNJ-4. Darryl mentions something I had never heard before. At some point in this era, the United States and Great Britain restricted Jewish immigration. Darryl says the fear was about communist revolutionaries coming into the country. At this time, most of the Bolsheviks were Jewish, and the Russian revolution was seen by many as a Jewish revolution. When I try to find out more about this, the only google results are to sources concerned with anti-semitism. Any information about communism being a motivation are very difficult to find.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the facebook photograph in July, 1941. “Lunch at carnival stand, Fourth of July, Vale, Oregon”
Sin
The post below went up thirteen years ago. It deals with a publicity stunt from the Catholic church, an updated seven deadly sins. The statute of limitations may have run out on this message. The traditional “seven deadly sins” were anger, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.
The site linked above has a page, the seven deadly sins of Mohandas Gandhi. The subcontinental fashion icon lists Wealth without Work, Pleasure without Conscience, Science without Humanity, Knowledge without Character, Politics without Principle, Commerce without Morality, and Worship without Sacrifice. FWIW, the word Sin means without in Spanish.
After 1,500 years the Vatican has brought the seven deadly sins up to date by adding seven new ones for the age of globalization. The list, published yesterday in L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper, came as the Pope deplored the “decreasing sense of sin” in today’s “secularized world” and the falling numbers of Roman Catholics going to confession. The new deadly sins include polluting, genetic engineering, being obscenely rich, drug dealing, abortion, pedophilia and causing social injustice. HT to Fox News. (aka the eighth deadly sin.)
One reaction is to wonder, what language was used for the list? Phrases like “obscenely rich” and “causing social injustice” can mean different things, and one wonders about the nuance behind the original expression. Now, just about all of these “sins” can merit comments. Maybe the Catholic church is thinking of moving its headquarters to hell.
polluting We can talk about something where all have sinned, or who should throw the first stone. If you ride in a car, wear synthetic fibers, through away anything, use a less than perfect sewer system (or a functioning one on a rainy day with overflows), then you have polluted.
genetic engineering Here again, there are semantics galore. Much of the food we eat is tweaked by genetic breeding. This is something Euros get twitchy about, that doesn’t concern most Americans.
being obscenely rich This is one to wonder what the original Italian said. Compared to much of the world, a 900sf house is a palace. However, compared to many of the neighbors, it is lower middle class. Perhaps the emphasis should be on greed, selfishness, and how you gain this wealth. The tenth commandment says something about coveting. It is the forgotten commandment.
drug dealing Is there a distinction between legal and illegal drugs here? If you go by the damage that substances cause, then this rule will speak to bartenders and the clerk who sells cigarettes. Not to mention the media outlets who advertise cigarettes and beer, the legislators who condone these substances while prosecuting potheads, and a whole host of others. The legally based war on drugs is a disaster in this country. Do we really need to drag the Catholic church into it?
abortion If Mary had gotten an abortion, would Christians worship a vacuum cleaner? Seriously, the Catholic Corporation has flogged this donkey, to great profit, for years. If you don’t want abortions, promote contraception and adoption. Catholics should find another gimmick.
pedophilia When you up pedophile in the dictionary, you see a picture of a Catholic priest.
causing social injustice Can we have a better translation of this? Pictures today are from The Library of Congress The featured photograph was taken July 1864, during the War Between the States. “Broadway Landing, Va. Surgeons of 4th Division, 9th Corps”
Life And The Horror Of David F. Wallace
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. It is a good thing that the last part of the walk …
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 urinate 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”
Yasser
This is a repost from 2010. There are thousands of stories like this in West Asia. … There is a story in a New York Times “blog” about a man, Yasser, who died in a bombing, in Baghdad, the other day. With all the talk about “the surge winning the war”, this is a sad story. It would be a sad story without the happy talk about victory.
Yasser_____ ( use of his last name would endanger his family) worked for a London news service. His Shiite family moved out of a mixed neighborhood during the civil war, only to move back after things calmed down a bit. The blog story tells a few things about him…he was brave, friendly, and useless in the kitchen… This was another human being. And now he is a statistic.
There is a sense in America that the wars are a game. The lower price of gas, and spreading democracy to Babylon, make it all worthwhile. Arabs and Persians are seen as somehow less than human, as towelheads and terrorists. These people are human, and have paid a fierce price for our experiment.
HT to Iraqimojo for the story. … In a digital miracle, the story from Iraqi Mojo is available in 2025. There is an ironic comment: said… “Thank you Mojo for linking to Stephen Farrell’s fine post about his friend and fellow journalist, Yasser. It was very moving and tells us of the price paid by those who risk their lives to bring us the news. The list of journalists murdered by Al Qaida and their fellow terrorists from Daniel Pearl beheaded in Pakistan in early 2002 to Yasser is a tragically long one and reminds us of why Al Qaida and its allies must be defeated.” David All 1/27/10, 4:35 PM
A lot has happened in the last fifteen years. Recently, the government in Syria was overthrown. As with all such events, it is tough to know exactly what happened. It is highly likely that the forces currently in control of Syria had American support. It is also all but certain that these forces have strong ties to Al Qaida. There is a revolving door between enemy and ally, and vice versa.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The featured photograph was taken by Jack Delano in September 1941. “Merrymakers at the World’s Fair in Tunbridge, Vermont”
The Tortured Struggle
X does not like linking to a post. I write a description, and leave a link in the comments. Yesterday, it looked like this: “Is there a difference between God and Man? If so, where do you draw the boundary? If you are bored by this type of conversation, then you can always enjoy the pictures. They are from the GSU library. The featured photograph is a 1958 Krystal restaurant, on Lee Street in SW Atlanta.”
Facebook had a response: “I am so inexplicably bored to tears by that tedious conversation. The only way either side can prove their point is to die. The pictures are nice. Further proof that there isn’t any god, only the tortured struggle between man and his own psyche. Thanks for sharing.”
My smartass reaction was that “the tortured struggle between man and his own psyche” was a good description of God. Or, to quote someone more popular than Jesus, “God is a concept by which we measure our pain.” But I didn’t want to start trouble, so I clicked “Like,” and went on my way.
One person who talked about that tortured struggle was Billy Graham. One of the photographs yesterday was the marquee at the Tower Theater, for a 1954 Billy Graham Crusade. Sixteen years later, a Shea Stadium crusade featured Anita Bryant.
The Tower theater is now a parking lot. “The Tower Theater, previously the Erlanger Opera House, was located at 583 Peachtree Street. It was originally constructed in 1790. In the 1950’s the theater was turned into a Cinerama, and the name changed to Martin Cinerama. The theater would also be known as Atlanta Theater, and Columbia Theater. The building was razed in 1995.”
The Erlanger Opera House was probably not built in 1790. I decided to do some checking up, and began by seeing when the North Avenue Presbyterian Church was built next door. This is where the investigation took a curious turn. “The church was constructed from Stone Mountain granite donated by charter members whose family owned the mountain and were in the granite quarry business. It was occupied for the first time for the Thanksgiving service in 1900.”
“The building program was helped immeasurably by the generosity of the Merssrs. William H. and Samuel H. Venable, who donated the granite out of which the building was constructed.” · “William Hoyt Venable (1852-1905) and Samuel Hoyt Venable (1856-1939) were involved with the Stone Mountain quarrying industry. The Venable brothers were the sole owners of Stone Mountain and much surrounding land which they purchased in 1887 at a claimed cost of $350,000.”
“James Venable (1901-1993) was the Imperial Wizard of the National Knights of the Klan from 1963 to 1987, “which he organized as one of several rival Klan factions nationally.” (NY Times) Venable had but continued the family tradition. As a 13 year old, he attended the 1915 Klan resurgence and rally on top of Stone Mountain. He was with his uncle, Sam Venable, who, as one of the owners of Stone Mountain, also became the secretary of the Klan.” … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. These details are from picture #06665, “Bathing Beauty Pageant, 1925, Huntington Beach CA.”
Prayer Shaming
This is a repost from 2015. “Thoughts and prayers” is now seen as a laughable cliche. … Prayer shaming entered the vocabulary this week. Some moving lips were offering “thoughts and prayers” to the victims of the latest commodity shooting. Some pundits thought it odd to offer T&P. Many of the people offering T&P are shameless attention mongers.
Many religions have prayer. The idea is that you talk to God. Sometimes it is a public ritual, sometimes it a private conversation. The star of the Christian religion, Jesus, is quoted as favoring private conversations. This does not stop his believers from making a grotesque spectacle of prayer.
The sad truth is that many of the praying perps talk too much. Telling them to talk is like telling an alcoholic to take a drink. Talking is seen as taking action, while listening is seen as being passive. This is just one of the problems in our culture.
Whenever there is a mass shooting, people say a lot of silly things. They argue the semantics of terrorism. There is two wrongs make a right rhetoric about race. In america, if you can’t say anything worthwhile, you talk about race. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Birthday Cake
I try to post something every day. When I am too lazy to write anything, I look in the archives. Today this took me to December 2008. Sixteen years ago was a simpler, gentler time. BHO had been elected POTUS, and many were optimistic. We were “winning” the war in Iraq. The smart phone was one year old. Sarah Palin was not going to be VPOTUS.
The idea at first was to take a post, gussy it up a bit, and repost it. The first post I saw was When Dogs Fly and You Clean Up. This was based on a list of questions that someone sent out as a joke email. “If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from? · Why do the Alphabet song and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” have the same tune? · Why did you just try singing the two songs above?”
Air Strikes Kill Children could be written today. “The headlines are so antiseptic… “Israel air strikes demolish Hamas compounds, over 200 dead” · It seems there is a pecking order for tragedy. When it is a Caucasian English speaking American, the media goes bonkers. A dark skinned American gets a more muted response. If the deceased lives in a foreign country, the response is a bit less. If the dead children live in a territory next to Israel, they might as well not exist in the first place. · It is a familiar story. The rockets were coming out of the Gaza Strip, and landing on Israel. The Israeli government decides to take action. No one is really sure how many of the dead were Hamas, and how many were children. Children born into a hell hole, who had no control over who their neighbor is. · The response is predictable. The spokesman for the White House said “Hamas’ continued rocket attacks into Israel must cease if the violence is to stop. The United States urges Israel to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas in Gaza.”
Then there is my dysfunctional relationship with Jesus, which can be challenging during the holidays. In between my hurt feelings, a blogger appears, with some information about “Historic Jesus.” “Israeli meteorologists best guess places the real date of Christ’s birth on September 29th, 5 BC. · The Catholic writer Mario Righetti admits that, “to facilitate the acceptance of the faith by the pagan masses, the Church of Rome found it convenient to institute the 25th of December as the feast of the birth of Christ to divert them from the pagan feast, celebrated on the same day in honor of the ‘Invincible Sun’ Mithras, the conqueror of darkness” (Manual of Liturgical History, 1955, Vol. 2, P. 67).”
This is starting to get depressing. Maybe we should end this with a feel good story. “The Clan Campbell is notorious in Scottish history. It seems as though there was a conflict with the MacDonalds, and a rather ugly incident in 1692. This might explain why the golden arch people do not serve soup. · The latest Campbell to make the news is Adolph Hitler Campbell. The three year old resident of Holland Township NJ is the sibling of JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell. The father, Heath Campbell, tried to get a birthday cake for young Adolph. The local Shop Rite store refused to put the name on the cake, saying it was inappropriate to send a birthday greeting to Adolph Hitler. A WalMart came to the rescue, and made a cake for young Adolph.” Let the good times roll.
Unfortunately, even the most uplifting stories can have unhappy endings. Reason Hitler Can’t Go Home: Alleged Abuse, Not Nazi Name “A New Jersey court decided that a couple should not regain custody of their three children — not because the parents named their children after prominent Nazis, but because of alleged abuse and parental incompetence, court documents state. · Heath and Deborah Campbell’s three small children were removed from their Holland Township home by the state in January 2009 after they asked a grocery store in Greenwich, N.J. to write “Adolf Hitler” on their son’s birthday cake and a media storm ensued. · While a local Wal-Mart honored the birthday cake request, Adolf Hitler Campbell and siblings JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell have been in foster care ever since. · The appeals court ruled Thursday that sufficient evidence of abuse or neglect existed. Court records state that both parents were victims of childhood abuse and both are unemployed and suffering from unspecified physical and psychological disabilities. · Neither Campbell has been adequately treated for their psychological conditions, court records said. Thirty-seven-year-old Heath can’t read and Deborah dropped out of high school before finishing the 10th grade. · But the most convincing piece of evidence may have been the note signed by Deborah and given to a neighbor, which was full of grammar and spelling mistakes: “Hes thrend to have me killed or kill me himself hes alread tried it a few times. Im afread that he might hurt my children if they are keeped in his care. He teaches my son how to kill someone at the age of 3.”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The featured photograph was taken by Russell Lee in May 1942. “San Benito County CA. Japanese-Americans at picnic.”
Chamblee54 
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