The Grease Of G-d
A longtime friend of PG wrote: The death of Mindy McCready has given me pause to stop and think. I wonder who thought it would be okay for a grieving woman with suicidal tendencies to stay in a house where her significant other killed himself just a month before? I read an outcry by people who blamed the lack of gun control as the cause. Her weapon of choice was not a gun, it was her depression. If pills had been close I guarantee she would have chosen that path of destruction taken to it’s end result. When she was thrown in jail for her drug fueled probation violation, I knew that was not the action to take. But who am I to say anything other than, but by the grace of God, there could go I.
To begin with, PG does not follow country music. The first time he had heard of Mindy McCready was the news of her suicide. It is like turning the tv onto a movie in the last five minutes.
That said, and with a certain ignorance of the story affirmed, there are a few comments springing out of the discussion. One is the comparison of guns to pills. Most pills have a medical purpose. The misuse of these substances through self medication seems to happen, no matter how many rules get made. A pistol, on the other hand, is designed to kill or intimidate.
A pistol is much more efficient at delivering death than a pill bottle. Yes, excessive consumption of substances can lead to an early grave, but there is always the chance that you can sober up, get detoxed, and live a few more decayed decades. If you decide that your troubles are too much, and you use a pistol, then the odds of recovery are slim. It should be noted that the judgement used to make this decision is often clouded by the pills in question. The decision to end your life is usually not made with a clear head.
There was one more saying that caught PG… “but by the grace of G-d, there could go I.” As readers of Chamblee54 know, PG has conflicted views about G-d. Religion can be a source of misery, and making excuses for the spirit at the center can get old.
There is another, broader view of this saying. If you see G-d as being the feng shui of the planet, then it makes a bit more sense. PG has taken more than his share of chances. Some of them have been incredibly foolish. He has been caught a few times. Still, he is here, writing this post, fifty nine years after it started. Maybe it is the grease of G-d that lubricates life, so that the gears continue to turn.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Jesus Gets A New Nickname
There is a video making the rounds now. The title involves Jesus, and a certain racial slur that is delicately known as the N word. When you go to many links, you get this message. “Jesus is my N…” This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Brian Spinney, LLC.” You should not worry about missing out. Just go to youtube, and search for the phrase that pays. Someone else will have posted the video, and you can feel the magic for yourself.
Here is a story about the song, with the edgy language bleeped. “One pastor is trying to spread the word of God with an edgy rap song. The rapping pastor and his wife claim they have “Christian swag” while tossing around the n-word. “Jesus is my ni**a!” Proclaims the pastor in one verse. The video of the rapping pastor was recently uploaded to YouTube but it’s not clear when it was filmed. It was taken at a church in Iowa which closed in 2004.” Another helpful interneter has the lyrics.
In case you didn’t know, Pastor Jim Colerick, and Mrs Mary-Sue Colerick, are melanin deficient. They are, as Bette Midler once said about Karen Carpenter, so white they are invisible. It is not considered good manners for Caucasians to use this word, with or without salvation.
There is another angle to this equation. Many Jesus worshipers see not using cusswords as a sign of righteousness. As a result, many Jesus worshipers use the words G-d, and Jesus Christ, as tools of their anger. This violates the third commandment. Now, this use of a sacred name, as profanity, is being extended to using a sacred name as a racial slur.
When you call a book “the word of G-d”, you give certain words too much power. When you decide that the lazy way of saying black is a super duper naughty word, you give those five/six letters way too much power. Now, we see the convergence of these two taboos. Let the party begin.
Pictures of Pastor and Mrs. Colerick are taken from the video. The other images are from The Library of Congress. This was written like Stephenie Meyer.
Sports Tax
There was a facebook link to What’s your take on President Obama’s second term? This is a poll about BHO, apparently without a fund raising subplot. PG declined to take the survey, because “It doesn’t matter what I think” was not an option.
There is another story at the website with the BHO poll. The headline was Didn’t Watch the Super Bowl? You Still Got Charged. It was about the “sports tax”. Some of the examples were goofy, but the concept is worth looking at. Especially in Georgia, where taxpayers are being asked to help build the Blank Bowl for the Falcons.
The pretty new stadiums cherished by the NFL are usually built with taxpayer help. Bloomberg has more information.
Taxpayers have committed $18.6 billion since 1992 to subsidies for the NFL’s 32 teams, counting the expense of building stadiums, forgone real estate taxes, land and infrastructure improvements, and interest costs on public bonds, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Eighteen of the teams are owned by billionaires. Even clubs using privately financed buildings such as New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, where the New York Giants and Jets play, receive tens of millions of dollars in subsidies in the form of land and infrastructure spending.
Publicly financed stadiums for all U.S. major-league sports, including soccer, cost taxpayers about $10 billion more than forecast when accounting for the costs of land, infrastructure, operations and lost property taxes, according to a study of all 121 facilities in use during 2010 by Judith Grant Long, who teaches urban planning at Harvard University. The NFL has the highest public price tag, with taxpayers putting up about 87 percent of the expenses for NFL stadiums, she writes in her 2012 book, “Public/Private Partnerships for Major League Sports Facilities.”
This spending on sports facilities comes at a time when most governments are broke. Basic services are being cut back, and taxpayers are in revolt. Many say professional sports is a luxury we can no longer afford. The subsidies of events like the Super Bowl make them less profitable for the host city.
The second sports tax is a bit more esoteric. The sports industry gets tax breaks. They can make campaign contributions, and get cool deals from lawmakers. The one percent has it’s privileges. The rest of the population makes up the difference.
The third tax is a bit flakey. The word here is that sports channels are expensive, and included in most basic cable packages. If you don’t watch ESPN, you still have to pay for it. Unless you don’t pay for TV, which is still an option.
The fourth sports tax involves institutions of higher learning. If you attend a football factory, there are athletic fees. Resources that could be used for education are used to pay for athletic programs. While some athletic programs are cash cows, many are not.
The article does not mention higher health care costs because of sports injuries. When you operate under the insurance paradigm, everyone’s burden is spread out. When there are more expenses, there is more for the pool to pay for. Football is notorious for it’s injuries, but other sports contribute to the problem. This does not consider the resources directed to glamorous sports medicine, instead of others.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is written like David Foster Wallace.
Golf
A patrician New Englander
Who drank way too much
Mister Holmes had respect
For one thing
He would pause
Take a breath
Have a moment of silence
Tilt his head
Fifteen degrees to the right
Blink with both eyes
Say the word
Golf
Mister Giggle
Louie Giglio
Pounding passion putrid poop
Idiot shut up
Just a gigolo
Louis Prima song and dance
Ain’t got nobody
Mister giggle high
Louie Louie way down low
We gotta go now
Ringing The Pastor Bell
By now, the story of the Applebee’s tip has gone megaviral. The server who posted the reciept got fired. The Professional Jesus Worshiper who wrote a tacky note on that reciept has her picture all over the internet. The PJW is getting tons of attention for her stunt.
A few years ago, Pastor was a job description. It was not used as a title. To introduce yourself as Pastor Jones would be like saying Plumber Smith. People in both occupations should not bite their fingernails.
The practice of placing “Pastor” in front of your name is showy and pretentious. The PJW works at a storefront church with fifteen members. One wonders why the mother of three can afford a $34.93 meal every Friday night, with or without the tip.
The person that introduced PG to this custom was a coworker at Redo Blue. At first, this person called himself “Minister Jefferson”. (The surname has been changed.) Later, this became “Pastor Jefferson”.
One day, there was something stinking in the refrigerator. PG looked, and found a styrofoam plate with rotten food inside. On the lid of the plate were the words “Minister Jefferson”.
The third commandment says not to use the name of the LORD in vain. Writing a snarky note on a restaurant receipt would seem to be a good illustration of this.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
The Second Great Flood
Here is part one . Somewhere in his drifting around the internet, PG found a reference to the story of Noah and the Ark. A light bulb above his head switched on, and the answer was apparent: Global warming is the second great flood.
In the Biblical story, G-d was upset with the way man was doing things. She gave Noah a heads up, and he was ridiculed by the good citizens of the day. Finally, it rained forty days and forty nights, and everyone except Noah got wet.
In the modern version, G-d sees man making a wasteland of the bountiful planet. An amazing resource like oil is controlled by hateful tyrants, and burned to make cars run. The signs of dis ease are apparent to some, but they are ridiculed by the good citizens of the day.
This time, things are different. Instead of forty days and forty nights, it is two hundred years of burning fossil fuels. It is a time of war, and rumors of war.
Here is part two . PG was shooting from the hip the other day, and said that G-d was causing global warming. At first it seemed a bit goofy, but like other thoughts about her (G-d is in the details,) the more PG thinks, the more sense it makes.
A lot has to do with your idea of who G-d is. (maybe the four other w’s… what, when, where, and why… should also apply.) Although PG would not put global warming past Jehovah or Mary’sbabydaddy, those conceptions are just a bit obsolete. The idea of G-d that PG uses is the fifth element, to go with earth, air, fire and water.
The moonies have another view…that G-d is the difference between a human being and five dollars worth of chemicals. There seems to be an overall body of knowledge that makes the earth function. A DNA, or software. This framework of knowledge is how PG views G-d.
Right now, man is living in a paradise. A planet with earth, air, water and fire that is uniquely fabricated to support intelligent life. The role that G-d played in facilitating this planet is a mystery. There is a balance of life here…the right amount of gravity, the right ph balance in the oceans, the proper mix of gases in the atmosphere. Man has been granted this paradise…it was not earned, it was given out of the bounty of G-d. And man has done his best to destroy the environment. Promiscuously burning fossil fuels is just part of the damage.
There does seem to be a plan to deal with this. If the level of CO2 in the air goes above a certain level, then the temperatures will start to rise. This has been proven time and time again. There are nay sayers…some of whom are not on fossil fuel industry payrolls… who say this is a natural process, and has nothing to do with the actions of man. These people are similar to the upstanding citizens who ridiculed Noah when he built his ark.
It should be noted that the story of Noah and the ark might be a myth. That is, it is full of symbols and allegory, and is not to be taken literally. It could be that in an ancient time, G-d got fed up with the evil deeds of man, and decided to teach a lesson. This could be what is happening today.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
This repost is written like Daniel Defoe.
No More Jesus
A radio show, The Bitter End,
About how people want to die.
PG does not want preaching.
Too much misery from Jesus during life.
PG wants to die without verbal abuse.
G-d will take care of his soul.
Pictures from The Library of Congress.
Faith
People say religion is bad.
They say faith instead.
Now faith is a dirty word.
Faith is loud, vulgar boasting.
Faith is verbal abuse, humiliation.
Faith is fighting because of Jesus.
Faith is obsession with life after death.
Pictures from The Library of Congress.
New Blog
There is a new blog, It will start out on WordPress, but may go somewhere else later. It is called Forty Four Words. The posts will have a limit of forty four words.
The word counting began with 22 words. 22W is still in delightful business, but they long ago gave up on the 22 word limit. PG thinks this is a shame. The 22 word limit forced you to think, to concentrate your thoughts into a tight format. The owner of 22W chose to run his blog differently.
The owner of 22W is Abraham Piper, the son of famous preacher John Piper. Many of the comment threads at the old 22W were about religion. One day PG tried to express his beliefs in 22 words.
PG decided that this label thing was not going to work. Labels belong on jars, and PG’s hair is a half inch over jarhead level. The best solution was to write a list of beliefs. The good news here is that numbers do not count against the total of 22 words. 1. My beliefs are my business. 2. Practice outweighs belief. 3. G-d probably exists. 4. G-d does not write books. 5. Jesus has nothing to do with Life after death.
This is 25 words. Three words need to go. Line 4 states that G-d does not write books. This implies that G-d does, indeed, exist. Line 3 can be eliminated, and the answer reduced to 22 words.
As you may have guessed, this post is not regulated by a forty four word limit. Chamblee 54 is not going anywhere, except maybe to a privately hosted domain. There are lots of issues that do not lend themselves to short posts.
PG has been entering the Trifecta writing challenge. Many of the posts here specify 33 words. PG wrote a few, and was impressed at how quickly such a post could be knocked out. You can express yourself very well in 33 words. There is a sense of poetry in short posts.
Forty Two years ago, a few hippies at Cross Keys High School decided that forty four was a magic number. It was the uniform number of Hank Aaron. Forty four is two times two times eleven. The second lowest even number, squared, multiplied by the lowest two digit prime number. Eleven is two ones, that add up to two. You can go on and on about this, probably for more than forty four words.
So the blog has joined the blogosphere, along with a few thousand more today. Very few of those will make more than ten posts. The hope is that Forty Four Words will hold up, and be a good compliment to Chamblee 54. The new template is going to take a bit of getting used to, and will only handle pictures 700 pixels wide. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Idle
Over at the one star blog, there is a post this morning, If you’re going to snip, you should snip this verse. The thesis here is that if you are going to edit the Bible, that you should redact Genesis 1:1.
“A well-known actor… tries to ameliorate his guilt over pursuing his slavery to unnatural desires by snipping out unwelcome passages from Gideon’s Bibles in motel rooms. This is vandalism as therapy, evidently yet another pursuit of the idle rich.”
The link is to a 2007 article in a production called LifeSiteNews. “British Actor Ian McKellen who has used the mega-stardom he achieved playing Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films to promote homosexuality, has admitted to ripping out pages of hotel bibles that refer to homosexuality… “Yes it is true,” responded McKellen it’s even tones. “Its Leviticus 18:22 that I object to, or is it 22:18, I’ve always got to look it up. … “I think it’s rather obscene and pornographic, and shouldn’t be there, so I remove it.”
Now, whatever one thinks of snipping and clipping by Sir Ian, one word that should not be used is idle. A movie actor spends long days on the set. He is up early for makeup, must wear an uncomfortable costume, and every scene is filmed at least a dozen times. Nor is the road to movie stardom an easy one. Sir Ian started out in live theater, with long hours spent in rehearsal, and eight performances a week. For every Sir Ian who hits the big time, there are a thousand players, of equal talent, who wait tables during the day, so they can perform at night. This is not the lifestyle of “the idle rich.”
Such A Pansy
Louie Giglio was being discussed on the Allen Hunt Show Sunday night. A lady did not think Mr. Giglio should nothave withdrawn from his chore of praying at the BHO inauguration. The lady said “He was such a pansy about it”.
PG called the show to make a comment about the lady. After getting the busy signal a few times, PG talked to the screener. The comment was that the lady, when discussing Louie Giglio, said “he was such a pansy about it.” Pansies, in fact, are very tough plants. They thrive in cold, nasty weather. Mr. Giglio, in withdrawing from consideration of doing the prayer, was the opposite of acting like a pansy.
At first the screener said he would pass along the comment to Mr. Hunt. PG said he would not mind waiting, and the screener said he would have to wait for a half hour. PG said this was not a problem. The screener said to keep the radio turned off, and to get quickly to the comment.
After a few minutes of chatter, Mr. Hunt went to a commercial break. He said that the subject would be Lance Armstrong when he got back. The screener got back to PG, and said that the show would not be discussing Louie Giglio any more. PG said that Mr. Hunt just didn’t want to hear any opposing viewpoints. The screener said we are not like that, and hung up.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
This was written like Arthur Clarke.
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