Chamblee54

A few weeks ago, PG posted “Genius and Heroin Part Two“. The post was written in a work room at a Honda dealer, while a vehicle was being serviced. It was the afternoon of Micheal Jackson’s memorial. The voice of Al Sharpton went through a glass door into the workroom. PG does not watch TV, but sometimes TV watches PG.
For some reason, spambots in Russia like “Genius and Heroin Part Two”. While wordpress does have a good spamproofer, the posts are listed. PG took note of these, even though he does not read Russian. Галеас – военный корабль, состоявший для вооружении многих стран Европы в XVI—XVII вв. Усовершенствованная крупная галера.Вот так вот! =) Интересно? – Заходи для выше сайт :). Я не тороплюсь домой Темно за Небо роняет звезды как слезы Аккорды песен биографии и дискографии огромный архив текстов песен вспомогательная мужская половая железа, железисто-мышечный инструмент, вырабатывающий щелочной секрет, входящий в состав спермы. Протоки простатических желез открываются в простатическую часть мочеиспускательного канала. У пожилых мужчин может наблюдаться увеличение предстательной железы (доброкачественная гипертрофия предстательной железы (congenial prostatic hypertrophy, BPH)). Это приводит к сдавлению шейки мочевого пузыря, нарушая прохождение через нее мочи. Мочевой пузырь растягивается, давление в нем увеличивается и начинает передаваться ретроградно после мочеточники в почечную лоханку, чашечки и кроме к почечным нефронам, который приводит к их повреждению и нарушению функции почек. В процессе лечения больному назначаются различные лекарственные вещества (см. Финастерид) или выполняется простатэктомия.

There seems to be something about Sunday that makes people want to talk about religion. By way of Andrew Sullivan, here is a story about Atheism and semantics from England. The money quote: “Today one of the most insistent forces arrayed in opposition to us vocal atheists is the “I’m an atheist but” crowd, who publicly deplore our “hostility”, our “rudeness” (which is actually just candour), while privately admitting that we’re right. They don’t themselves believe in God, but they certainly do believe in belief in God. It’s not always easy to tell who just believes in belief, since the actions motivated by believing in belief”
PG just got a call from Uzi. It is a lovely July afternoon, and they are going to go walking. The first stop is Oakland Cemetery, although that may change. The semantic quagmire of belief in belief wil be waiting when we get back.
Later in the day, PG got home, and there was a message from Tracfone. His phone is ready to be activated. A call to a english challenged call center went through, and within an hour PG should have a new cell phone. Update…PG called the new phone from the land line, after posting this story, and it worked.
While he is waiting for India to follow through, PG is going to think a bit more about belief in believing. PG is more of a practice kind of guy, so talk about belief makes his head swim. It is like Barbra singing about people who need people.
Maybe the only appropriate thing to do is tell a joke. This is courtesy of funnyjokes.com.
An old hippie dies and goes to the Pearly Gates. St. Peter looks him up in his big book and says, “I’m sorry, but you’ll be going down to Hell.” The hippie, astounded, peers through the gates and sees G-d walking in the distance.
“G-d!” he says. “What gives? Remember that time I was tripping on acid? I saw you, and you said we’d be in Heaven together forever!”
G-d thought for a minute, then said, “Oh yeah, but I was drunk.”

The wordpress homepage linked to a post on the benefits of “swearing”. Since Chamblee54 had a post about *donkeys* the other day, maybe this is a good subject to continue on. As before, this is a profanity light blog, and this discussion on cussing will not have any examples. If you do not know any of the words in question, then you need to get out more.
It seems like a grant monger at a university did a study. (PG thinks that people will believe anything if it is the result of a study or survey). The subjects were asked to hold their hands in freezing water. Half of the subjects were allowed to say a swearword of their choice, the other half said a non expletive control word. The cussers felt less pain. PG does not know how this was measured, or whether he believes it.
Mark Twain had a similar thought. “Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.” In an ironic twist, Mr. Twain published his books in an era when swearing in print was not acceptable. As a result, his novels are profanity free. ( It has been a while since PG read “Tom Sawyer”, and he may be mistaken about this).
The reference to prayer is another twist in this tale. Much of the objection to profanity is from Jesus Worshipers. These are people who consider the Bible to be “the word of G-d”. And yet, if you go to the Greek and Hebrew original texts, you will find every body part and reproductive act mentioned. It seems to PG that a ban on cussing is more of a social issue than a moral one.
Jesus Worshipers have the same anger management issues as non believers. PG has noticed that often JWs will use words like Jesus and G-d as a device for expressing displeasure. This does not speak well for either Jesus or G-d, and is a violation of the Third Commandment. Perhaps these believers would be better off to use words for body parts as insults, instead of a reference to G-d.
The subject of profanity is fertile ground for bloggers, and PG will return to it before long. Before we go today, there are a few more comments from the post that started this. The Mark Twain quotes page about profanity is valuable. (And if the opposite of pro is con, what is confanity?)
“The idea that no gentleman ever swears is all wrong. He can swear and still be a gentleman if he does it in a nice and benevolent and affectionate way.” Mark Twain
“There ought to be a room in every house to swear in. It’s dangerous to have to repress an emotion like that.” Mark Twain
“When angry count four; when very angry, swear.” Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar Mark Twain
“swearing is like perfume. used intelligently in small doses – it can enhance the meaning of a phrase. if it’s cheap and overwhelmingly applied – it can make you leave the room! kaiamaeve
“I must confess, I quite like swearing. But, like everything, try to do it in moderation. A good oath blurted out at the right time can really emphasize a message. I don’t think I know any adults who never swear, but I know many who rarely let out a good curse-word and, when they do, you know they really mean it. They make it count.” Andrew Berthoff
“I had my days at military school where I cussed like, well, a soldier, and I’ve also had my church-going days where I promised myself that I didn’t swear at all. Those days are both behind me now, and I really try to not swear very much because I think it makes me sound like an uneducated moron.” Nathan

PG is making a sticker picture of a Grateful Dead album cover. The album is “Steal your Face”, and the image is the familiar thunderbolt across a skull. The project has made PG think about “the dead”.
There was a concert in Atlanta on Armistice day, 1971. The show was at the Atlanta Municipal Auditorium. PG has talked to dozens of people at that show, and heard hundreds of opinions. There was a controversy about police on the stage, with the band almost refusing to play. The Great Speckled Bird didn’t think it was that great, and said the only player that was up to par was Phil Lesh.
One person who did like it was someone we will call Hampton. He became “born again” as a Dead Head that night. When Hampton and PG were at UGA in 1973, they became friends. PG heard lots and lots about that night at the Auditorium. When a dead concert was announced for the newly opened Omni in 1973, PG got tickets the first day he could.
This was the first of six dead shows that PG would see, four at the Omni and two at the Fox Theater. Try as he might, a dead concert was never a life changing event for PG. By the time the band was playing at the Omni in the early nineties, PG had moved on to other things.
Hampton became less and less devoted to the band. The last time PG talked to him was a drunken get the phone book out night in 1986. Hampton had fallen asleep at the last dead show he went to.
In his book “The Doors of Perception” Aldous Huxley describes listening to a classical album under the influence of a psychoactive substance. He had the sense of hearing everything that was available to hear in the album, and pondered the concept of music made to be listened to while tripping, by musicians that were likewise tripping. This was written years before the acid tests in San Francisco. The house band for these evenings was the Grateful Dead.
PG always felt that the key to the band was Bob Weir. While Jerry Garcia is a brilliant picker, he was a bit of a wildman. Weir played counterpoint to Garcia’s leads, and lead him on and up. (Unbacked hearsay alert) Weir, according to Hampton, has been drug free since 1967. This is a contrast to the notoriously Fubar Garcia, and probably helped to ground Jerry.
There is a bulletin board in front of the lightbox where PG makes his pictures. On that bulletin board is a tarot card. The card is X, The Wheel of Fortune. This is a good image for this picture. It is based on circles, with red and yellow alternating and counterpointing like Garcia and Weir. According to the ancient Persians, Red is Fire and Yellow is Air. And what is fire but the combination of earth and air, to be controlled by water. The colors go round and round, like the Wheel of Fortune. There is no word on whether Vanna White…who lived in Atlanta in the mid seventies… is a Dead Head.

Abraham Piper has a blog called TwentyTwoWords. The concept (often violated in the comments) is to say what you like in 22 words or less. On Friday, he posted this: “This isn’t an exciting, encouraging, or inspiring reason that I’m a Christian, but it is a reason.When I can’t believe something about Christianity, I ask myself if I can believe the opposite? I’m Christian because I answer No.” (The first sentence is the title of the post. The second part was the post, and was exactly 22 words)
To PG, this is not a good reason to follow a path of spiritual discipline. There are numerous issues with this line of thinking. What does it say to a person who prefers practice over belief? How can you tell what “the opposite” of something is?
PG made an answer, which he kept under 22 words. (It is one thing to believe in saying everything in 22 words of less. It is another to count your words, trim the fat, and practice this. PG thinks a gram of practice is worth a pound of belief.) The comment was “When I ask if I can believe in the opposite of the homophobia that infects Jesus Worship, the answer is yes.” A person named Dawn replied “How very cliché.”
A few hours later, Drew asked (in 44 words) “I’m a little confused by this. For instance, if you have trouble believing Jonah really lived for a few days in a fish, you ask, “Can I really believe Jonah *didn’t* live in a fish?” And the answer you come up with is “no?”
Dawn contributed (40 words, believe misspelled) “The real question you are asking is…Is the Bible true? But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights. Jonah 1:17 Can you beleive the opposite?”
PG starts to get antsy. What is the opposite of the Jonah story? Is it really capable of being described as the opposite of something? And, if the real issue is the truth of the Bible…
One of the two major problems that PG has with Jesus Worship is the notion that the Bible is the word of G-d. PG is of the opinion that G-d does not write books. Using the Bible as a lens to focus G-d distorts her.
While there are some good things to say about the Bible, there are also more than a few negatives. As for the story of Jonah, it has been translated several times. There is no doubt a context, and much for scholars and theologians to discuss.
So PG has a reply… “Would the opposite be that Jonah swallowed the great fish?”
Dawn replied with a link. “http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/486-answering-the-fool ”
PG was brought up thinking that fool was a serious insult. There is probably a Bible quote about calling your neighbor a fool, and being in danger of hell fire. Even if the magic book doesn’t say that, PG does not feel it is appropriate to call someone who disagrees with you a fool. The fact that PG asked a  reasonable question does not make him a fool.
The final ( for now ) comment by PG was soon made. “Regarding the Jesus Worship custom of insulting a person with whom you disagree, I try to practice the opposite.”

Cynthia McKinney is in an Israeli jail. That is about the only thing PG can say for sure.
A boat carrying supplies to Gaza was stopped by Israel. Miss McKinney was taken into custody.
In a telephone statement, Miss McKinney said : “…I had a suitcase full of crayons for children…My cellmates came to the Holy Land so they could be free from the exigencies of superpower politics… “
As the fishwrapper tells the tale, Miss McKinney was offered a quick release if she would sign a statement. According to her mother, Leola McKinney, the statement was written in Hebrew.
The story also has this tidbit: “Israeli officials blame Cynthia McKinney and her group for the controversy, saying they were looking for confrontation to attract publicity. The officials note that Palestinian Authority and the rest of the international community had agreed to the off-shore blockade to prevent arms smuggling into Gaza.” A google search of “officials note that Palestinian Authority and the rest of the international community had agreed to the off-shore blockade to prevent arms smuggling into Gaza” did not yield the text of a statement by “Israeli officials”. Nor did it shed any light on an “international community agreement”. The ding ding ding you hear is a BS detector.
A google search for “palestinian authority agrees to blockade of Gaza” yields little except confusion. There is an article which says : “Hamas Saturday accused the Palestinian Authority (PA) of supporting the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip in a bid to weaken the Islamic movement which controls the territory.” The PA denies the charges, and says Hamas is playing politics. Ding, ding, ding.
What sort of government agrees to a blockade of its own people? What “international Community” has the authority to say it is OK? Even if the “international community” (or, for Cynthia McKinney, the intergalactic community) does agree to it, a blockade is an act of war. The suffering in Gaza continues, and that is the other certainty in this story.

In the wake of 911, the following email wormed its way around the internet. It is a classic of the genre. PG will add comments in gray where appropriate.
This letter references an appearance by Anne Graham Lotz
on “The Early Show”. Here is a transcript of that appearance. (TheEarlyShow) Thank you, Angel Ministries. They also say, regarding the Early Show comments and the following email, “Any mutation of it on the Internet would have occurred without Mrs. Lotz’s involvement.”
To see the transcript, double click on (TheEarlyShow). You will see the window of this post, and a link that says “TheEarlyShow”. Double click on this link, and you should see the transcript.

Subject: SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT
i recently got this email from a close relative and i was left in awe about what Billy Grahams daughter says on TV. also the things that she says is shockinly true. i hope you read through this medium sized email and have a little food for mind in whatever you say in the future. G-d Bless. Javi
In light of the many perversions and jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke, it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking.
Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her “How could G-d let something like this happen?” (regarding the attacks on Sept. 11).
Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said “I believe G-d is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling G-d to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect G-d to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?”
In light of recent events…terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.
It was the Supreme Court which ruled that Public School Prayer was unconstitutional. It was a controversial decision.
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school ….. the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK. The Bible says a lot of other things as well.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock’s son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he’s talking about. And we said OK.
Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. The school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don’t want any bad publicity, and we surely don’t want to be sued (there’s a big difference between disciplining, touching, beating, smacking, humiliating, kicking, etc.). And we said OK. Maybe this is a good time to ask who this WE person is. A lot of parents disagree with this concept. Many of the people who don’t want corporal punishment have good reasons for feeling this way. Also, in that parenthetic statement at the end, PG wonders what is being compared to what. There is a list of actions, and no way to know what is not what.
Then someone said, let’s let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won’t even have to tell their parents. And we said OK.
Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they’re going to do it anyway, let’s give our sons all the condoms they want so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won’t have to tell their parents they got them at school. And we said OK.
Then some of our top elected officials said it doesn’t matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs. Agreeing with them, we said it doesn’t matter to me what anyone, including the President, does in private as long as I have a job and the economy is good. Ah, nostalgia for good times past. A good economy was a healthy thing, no matter what went on in the Oval Office. The next President started a War of Choice in private, and the economy is not good.
Then someone said let’s print magazines with pictures of nude women and call it wholesome, down-to-earth appreciation for the beauty of the female body. And we said OK.
And then someone else took that appreciation a step further and published pictures of nude children and then further again by making them available on the Internet. And we said OK, they’re entitled to free speech. This bit of rhetoric may be the biggest lie in this letter. Child pornography is an aggressively prosecuted crime. Government agencies have been known to advertise such materials, and then bust anyone who answers the ad. PG has NEVER heard anyone say that child pornography is protected by free speech.
Then the entertainment industry said, let’s make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence, and illicit sex. Let’s record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic themes. And we said it’s just entertainment, it has no adverse effect, nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go right ahead.
Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. In the years after 911, we have engaged in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. There are lots of strangers being killed over there. But, it is going a bit far to say that it doesn’t bother soldiers to kill strangers. PTSD and suicide are serious problems among troops who have been to war in Babylon.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with “WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.”
Funny how simple it is for people to trash G-d and then wonder why the world’s going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Many of the people who forwarded this message whine about “liberal media bias”, but call the Bible the “Word of G-d”.
Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.
Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of G-d is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing? Does a cynical smirk count?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you’re not sure what they believe, or what they WILL think of you for sending it. It is a good idea to only send a message to someone who is going to trust what you say. If they don’t trust you, what is the point? Also, if a message about G-d creates ill will, is that message not in vain? Any questions about this, see the Third Commandment.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what G-d thinks of us. If G-d lives in the hearts of Man, is there a difference between what man thinks and what G-d thinks?
Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it… no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don’t sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in!.

The comments continue to accrue at  BEattitude. PG feels obligated to milk this for one more post.
On saturday, PG made a comment. With a bit of procrastination and luck, he would have been comment number 666.  The liquor store in the pictures has gone out of business. Such is life.
PG is well aware that posting this comment contradicts line three. If you cannot read a yellow font, highlight it with your mouse.

You are up to 642 comments. I am impressed, and just a bit envious. There are a lot of people with nothing better to do on a glorious late spring saturday than argue about religion.
I have a few random thoughts to throw in.
1- The first and third commandments are very underrated, and much violated by Jesus Worshipers. At the very least, to take a text like the Bible and call it the word of G-d is a violation of the first commandment. The holy trinity business is another rupture of the first commandment. And when preaching results in ill will, that is a violation of the third commandment. The third commandment is more than G-d’s last name.
2. I see G-d as being like the elements…earth, air, fire, and water.I think the issue is not to believe or not believe, but in how you conceive G-d. I could be very wrong about this, but this works for me. It takes a little while away from Jesus Worship culture to not see religion in those terms.
3- I tend to suffer from what I call “Jesus Fatigue”. Tired of the wrangling, tired of the personal attacks from those who disagree, tired of speculation about life after death, just plain tired. I see something like this and realize that I have heard almost all of these arguments before, and they don’t make any more sense this time.
4- Jesus Worship is a religion of beliefs rather than practices. These beliefs are based on a book, which is considered the “word of G-d”. This foundation tends to lead to these endless arguments, and the anger and alienation that comes with them.
5- I see Jesus in the words and deeds of those who believe in him. He is a spirit that lives in these believers. This spirit shares little more than a name with the Jew who lived in Palestine 2k years ago. The historic Jesus was killed because he was a troublemaker. His death and reputed resurrection has nothing to do with what happens to me when I die.
6- Send some of those readers and commenters to my blog. I need the traffic. Thank you for making the effort. As Jesus might/might not have said “Forgive them Father, they know not what they do”.
This bit of hypocrisy did generate a reply.
Ah a breathe of fresh air. here is a One Minute Wisdom from Anthony De Mello to go along with your 6th, it made me tear up when I read it: “How shall i get the grace of never judging my neighbor?” “Through prayer.” “Then why have i not found it yet?” “Because you haven’t prayed in the right place.” “Where is that?” “In the heart of God.” “And how do I get there?” “Understand that anyone who sins does not know what he is doing and deserves to be forgiven”

The comment explosion at BEattitude is up to 799. Chamblee54 is green with envy.
PG was trolling the comment thread, looking for the trackback to his post. The emotional stamina to read all those comments was not there, but a few did stand out.
I used to be an atheist, but then I scientifically studied the Bible with an open heart and mind.
Today, I continue to discover more wisdom in the Bible than the more than 500 secular, self-help books I have read.
The Bible does not contradict itself at all.
That is the main reason billions of Christians believe the Bible to be the infallible Word of God.
Where exactly do you see a contradiction?
Sincerely, Dave Christian
Founder, Helpology.org
http://helpology.wordpress.com/founder/
P.S. If I can help you in any way, just let me know.
Great post because it was well thought out. What I find distracting is when believers reply they make no effort to see your point of view. It is almost impossible to speak to believers about the hateful rhetoric their faith teaches because they don’t seem to get it – they think it is just the teachings and can’t seem to grasp the emotions it invokes
It is not what you say, it is how you say it. When you are shouted down and humiliated, it doesn’t matter that someone is trying to save your soul.