The Ten Suggestions
The popular commandments are found in Exodus 20: 3 – 17. They are considered core beliefs of a religion that values belief over practice. In other words, just believe something, and don’t worry about what you do. There is also Exodus 20: 23. Ye shall not make with me G-ds of silver, neither shall ye make unto you G-ds of gold. This would seem to be worthy of inclusion in the big time ten. It might interfere with the capitalist free market economy, but you can always say you believe it.
When your religion is claimed by a majority of your neighbors, you enjoy #ChristianPrivilege. You can even whine about #WhitePrivilege, while enjoying the benefits of #ChristianPrivilege. One day, the pound sign will go back to meaning number, and #hashtag will be mercifully forgotten.
If you get past the religious whoopeedo, the Ten Commandments hold up as good rules for living. The fact that the self anointed religious people routinely violate many of these fine rules should not be taken into consideration. They believe in the commandments, and can, loudly, explain why their actions are not a problem. After a while, PG just wants freedom from religion.
1 And G-d spake all these words, saying,
2 I [am] the LORD thy G-d, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
3 Thou shalt have no other G-ds before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy G-d [am] a jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy G-d in vain;
for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10 But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD thy G-d: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates:
11 For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12 Honour thy father and thy mother:
that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy G-d giveth thee.
13 Thou shalt not kill.
14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
15 Thou shalt not steal.
16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour’s.
A The ten commandos are not meant to be believed. They are meant to be practiced.
B If you take away the religious whoopdeedoo, the ten commandos hold up as common sense rules for living. People of the Book (أهل الكتاب, ahl al-kitāb) is not a compliment.
C If you meet someone who claims to practice all of the commandos, you are dealing with a liar.
D We are all G-d’s children. She gave you a heart and a mind. When in doubt, trust your heart.
E The first commando is powerful and under appreciated. It does not include books about G-d.
F There is an ongoing controversy about the public display of the ten commandos. Some say such displays violate the second commando.
G The third commando is more than G-d’s last name. It is about the proper use of a sacred name. In a perfect world, the word G-d would only be used for worship and respectful discussion. A “pledge of allegiance” to a nationalist symbol is not an appropriate use of a sacred name.
H Sunday is too fine of a day to spend inside a church house.
I When you are discussing religion, it is normal to be a hypocrite.
J If you disagree with someone, the easiest argument to scream hypocrisy.
K Whenever possible, show kindness to your neighbor.
L The text for Exodus 20 is courtesy of King James Bible Online. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
Voodoo Sex Ritual
This is a repost from 2011. The link in the story has gone bye bye, but does lead to this: Five-Alarm Fire Caused By Voodoo Sex Ritual Gone Wrong. The comments below are timeless. Fishwrapper comments used to be fun to read.
In it’s never ending struggle to keep the Cox family in business, the fishwrapper reports what is probably the most important story so far in 2011. (The video about the lost pig is a close second). It seems as though two anonymous sinners in New York decided to fool around, after a voodoo ritual. A candle got knocked over, and the building caught on fire. A 62 year old neighbor died in the fire.
The fun starts in the comments. Some readers got the impression that the 62yo was a participant in the candle burning whoopee. Other readers felt obliged to speculate about the eternal soul of the departed lady, while others commented on the pre mortem condition of her lady parts. A good time was had by all. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress
outspoken1…February 25th, 2011 5:17 pm appears to me that she had it coming. People that do the voodoo will burn in hell anyways. She just got a jump start on her eternal life. Happy ever after, Mary
George… 5:20 pm Ummmm … I clarified the story to let everyone know the deceased was not a voodoo ritual participant.
Peachy… 5:49 pm This is sad … evil was all in that room. Ms. Feagin may have stamped her ticket to hell watching this mess.
justineb… 7:12 pm And we know where their Souls End Up, in HELL. So Sad.
ewwwwww… 7:50 pm “It’s better at 62 than ever!! No swell, no tell, and greatful as hell!!!!!!!” Dont forget that it smells, grandma va j j’s must smell so bad
Dawghuff… 7:52 pm You silly Christians can say that’s someone’s soul is hell, a very offensive thing to say, but then your feelings get hurt when someone says how stupid your religion is as well…
Real man, not a baby boy… 8:56 pm ewwwww: you’re a pathetic fool. Hotness increases with age. The great thing about getting older is that you realize that young people don’t know or have squat when it comes to hotness. I’m 50. We laugh at twenty somethings! You don’t even BEGIN to approach hotness until you’re thirty five. Forties is prime time, 50 and beyond is just damn awesome! You can’t know these things, but if you’re lucky enough to find a b*tch that’ll put out for your baby bit, more power to you. And that smell you’re talkin about? It’s called stank, and it’s coming from your own crotch.
ewwwwww… 9:31 pm Real Man, Thanks grandpa, while your banging the golden girls and remembering the good ol’ days. I will continue to bang women in there 20’s. Just because your balls reach your knees doesn’t make you a real man. So get out that AARP card and hit up the early bird special at Golden Coral. Have a great night and dont forget to take your pills in the F container.
Real man, not a baby boy… 9:54 pm LOL! You couldn’t hope to know what it means to be a man. You go ahead and do your little twenty year-olds. You can HAVE them! I’ve had sex with women my whoe like and I can tell you 20 year old chicks are nothing! Real men aren’t intimidated by your bs talk. These ARE the good days boy, and someday you’ll know that you mouth off knowing nothing. HAHAHAHAHA! Stupid little loser boy.
ewwwwww… 10:22 pm Well Im glad you have had sex with women “your whoe like” (lol). Just because you have a weird fettish for swollen up, dried out rasin Vay J J doesn’t make you any more of a man then I am. I am proud to say I have served my country for 5 years. Was able to go to college and provide a nice life for myself. To call me a loser boy and say I dont know what it means to be a man is sad and just wrong. The fact is your old (Really old), and you can only have what you can get. If your game is women with one foot in the grave then tap it son. But I dont care what you say given the option you would choose a 21 year old over a 62 year old any day. If you choose the 62 year old your just a granny chasser and their is nothing wrong with that. But say it with me “ewwwwwwwwwwwww” Its obvious you cant take humor. Since my first post was a play on words. So grease up with Ben-gay and start popping those magic blue pills. Slip on some solid gold and start tapping grandma in the ballon knot.Im not stupid to not know that women hit there prime when they are older but come on we were talking about 62 here. Thats just awful to think about.
Candles suck… 10:35 pm Don’t mix candles with ANYTHING. I’ve been in a fire because of candles. THEY ARE DANGEROUS. DON’T BUY OR USE THEM UNLESS IT’S AN EMERGENCY.
HENRY… February 26th, 2011 9:13 am YOU’D BE SURPRISED WHAT WE OLD FARTS DO BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, WITH OR WITHOUT CANDLES, VOODOO DOCTORS, GOATS OR SHEEP.
grandson… 12:36 pm Poor old woman, living in a one room sleezbag hotel,on Soc.Sec.& food stamps ( probably had a secret one burner hot plate,that Code Enforcement didn’t know about !!) Just try’n to survive.How many people got out & no one helped? No one cared ? Now 65% of you got nothing to do but talk about but your “pissy ass” sex !!! What a pathetic bunch of humans; some strugeling family lost thier Mom-Grandma:: May GOD forgive you ^999^…
Are You A Hipster Christian?
This is a repost from 2010. If you click on the link in this post, you will see scantily clothed Asian women, and the headline “Kumpulan Link Slot Deposit Pulsa 5000 Tanpa Potongan.” A google search for “Are you a hipster christian” leads to this: “What if Jesus called you to a church home where the pastor’s sermons weren’t available as podcasts? What if the body of believers Christ surrounded you with …” Pictures are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library.
PG is not a Christian. He does like to take silly quizzes, and see what he scores. When a facebook friend reported taking a test, Are you a hipster christian, PG took the bait. The test is thirty questions, and multiple choice. While this makes the grading easier, it sometimes asks you to choose the answer that you disagree with the least. When you are dealing with a prideful subculture like Christianism, a neutral observer is going to scratch his head a lot.
Question 1 should have been an indication of what was about to happen. “Which of the following books would you consider the most spiritually significant?~Sheldon Van Auken, A Severe Mercy~John Piper, Desiring God~Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ~John Eldredge, Wild at Heart~none of the above.” PG has read none of those books, and only knows John Piper because his son writes a cool blog. (22 words is now a spam nightmare.) PG would have voted for Piper, except the old man likes to trash homosexuals.
Question 3 was the first time that PG agreed with the answer that he checked. “If you are a believer, how would you describe yourself?~Christian~Christ Follower~”Christian, but not in the George W. Bush sense”~Please. Labels are for the over-30 set.” PG chose the last answer, even if he is waaaay over 30. Labels belong on jars, not people.
Question 10 and Question 12 are both yes/no affairs, and PG could answer both honestly. “Be honest: Have you ever gone on a rant about “authenticity,” “narrative,” or “love without strings”?” “In the past 12 months, have you listened to a sermon by John MacArthur and enjoyed it?” Being banned from commenting at a blog, owned by a John MacArthur employee, did not affect this.
Question 18 “What would Jesus’ favorite beer have been?~Pabst~Chimay Red~Some sort of masculine stout~Jesus doesn’t drink!” Out of sheer redneck pride, PG chose PBR.
Question 19 showed a lack of sensitivity. “In the last year, how often have you argued (and significantly disagreed) with your parents about the following: politics, gay marriage, evolution, drinking, or the End Times?~Those topics never come up…because I’ve filed them forever in the “Relationship Ruiner” vault.~Maybe drinking sometimes comes up.~We debate them at every meal. Along with my eternal damnation.~I’m on the same page with my parents on all those issues.~My parents aren’t Christians and we don’t really talk about this stuff.” PG’s parents were Christians while they were alive. Questions like this are not helpful.
Question 27 is mind blowing. “What is your preferred Bible translation?~The Message~The American Patriot’s Bible~ESV~NRSV~NIV~The App I downloaded for my iPhone~none of the above.” The King James Bible was once the only game in town. Today, KJV is “none of the above.”
Question 29 was about Christian music, with the answer “I haven’t listened to any “Christian music” of the last 20 years.” Finally, it was time to know the score. “Your Christian Hipster Quotient: 65 / 120 – Low CHQ. You probably belong to the purpose-driven, seeker-sensitive, Hawaiian shirt-wearing Christian establishment, even though you are open to some of the “rethinking Christianity” stuff. You seem to like edginess in some measure but become uneasy when your idea of Christian orthodoxy is challenged by some renegade young visionary who claims the virgin birth isn’t necessary.”
Apatheism
This is a repost from 2015. There is a tasteful feature today, Former homeschooler on the Duggar family’s horrifying fundamentalist “education”: “It’s literal rape culture”. It is about what you would expect. A young man was raised by well meaning parents. They home schooled him using bizarre materials. The young man grew up, and did not agree with his parent’s religion.
“I call myself an “apatheist.” I just don’t care anymore. When it comes down to it, I guess I’m pretty much agnostic. I don’t think that anyone could really know the truth and I don’t care to really find the truth. Going to church for me is still traumatic. I just have a very visceral triggered reaction to everyone singing the same song. I always find myself criticizing and critiquing the sermon, but it’s weird because I won’t only criticize it from a fundamentalist point of view — “Oh this guy is totally not doing his Bible right” — but I also criticize it from a secular point of view — “This is all horseshit.”
This may be tough for some believers to understand, but not everyone is obsessed with God. Maybe she exists. Maybe she doesn’t. Maybe the world would be a happier place without God. It is entirely possible to live without a firm answer one way or the other. Many say that your opinions/beliefs have nothing to do with what happens to you when you die.
Many people have bad experiences with religion. Some see this trauma as an invitation to abuse the non believer more. Maybe, if you hear the scheme for life after death ten thousand and one times, the last recital is going to do the trick.
What many believers do not comprehend is that not everyone gets off on talking about life-after-death. Church has devolved into a high pressure sales meeting for a life-after-death scheme. If you don’t agree with this concept, then there is no point to Jesus. Some Christians think that their ideas about life-after-death justify the emotional abuse they heap on others.
The young man is the article talks of a homeschool survivor community. (The article links to an inactive blog.) If this can help him with his trauma, then good for him. Many people who have been abused by Jesus worshipers… and, by extension, by Jesus… do not have this community to fall back on. The struggle with Jesus abuse can be a lonely one.
Pictures from The Library of Congress. All things are possible in a world without God.
Grace
I was listening to Disgraceland while sitting in the sauna. DGL is a podcast, about musicians who behave badly. Host Jake Brennan is fond of working the word “disgrace” into the last line of the script.
Today’s show was about the late Jeff Buckley. He had a mystical streak in his craft, and titled his album Grace. Jake talks about Jeff’s music, in the last line of the show: “Listening to it now can lead to a trance like state. A state of ecstasy. A state of eternal life. A state of grace.”
I heard Jake say that, and turned my head to the side. The young man next to me was shaking his head, and pounding his thighs, in response to the sounds going through his ear buds. I saw this, and my first thought was “this is grace.”
I got the young man’s attention, and told him the story. He enjoyed hearing what I said. Some would say “And your point is?” Others would have told me what their pastor says about grace. Instead, the young man smiled, and gave me a fist bump.
I will not have a quote today about what grace means, either from the dictionary or the Bible. Grace is something Christians talk about, when they are not nabbering about life after death. It is telling that Jake said eternal life, between ecstasy and grace.
Eternal life … I am dictating this with a voice typewriter. When I said “eternal life” the microphone kicked off. I had to turn it off and restart. It was a glitch in the system, or a metaphor … for the way talk about “salvation” can get in the way of grace.
There is a Sunday School story. A man dies, and goes to the pearly gates. Saint Peter says that we have a test. You need one hundred points to get into heaven. The man begins: I was a loving husband to my wife of many years. We raised our children to be fine people. St. Peter said you get one point.
The man said, I was a born again Christian, saved by faith in Jesus Christ. St. Peter said that’s one more point. The man said, I was a businessman, and was respected by my employees and customers. St. Peter said you get a point for that.
The man starts to get flustered, and says it is only by the grace of God that I am here. St. Peter said that’s ninety seven points. Welcome to heaven.
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
The Rich Man And The Camel
There is a quote attributed to Jesus. The key words are rich man and camel. It is interpreted in many ways. One way to begin this discussion is to look at Matthew 19: 16 – 24 in the King James Bible. Pictures are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. This is a repost.
“And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honor thy father and [thy] mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go [and] sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come [and] follow me.
But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”
As with all quotes from the bible, a bit of thought is helpful. Was this said only one time, or was this a standard part of his teaching? Was the meaning changed in the transition from Aramaic to Greek to English? Had Jesus been taste testing the water and wine?
With the current vogue for “prosperity gospel”, many Jesusmongers have some ‘splainin’ to do. Once, PG heard the redo blue preacher talking about this quote. His version was that there were caves in the desert where travelers would take a break on their journey. They would go in the cave, use the restroom, eat lunch, and then go on with their journey. The entrance to these caves was sometimes rather small, and it was tough to fit a camel inside.
Another version is about the local geography of Jerusalem. There was a gate in Jerusalem called the eye of the needle. It was a tight fit, and camels had a tough time getting through. Had Jesus been to Jerusalem at this point in his ministry? Was it good for the camel?
Whether this quote is fact or fiction, literal or symbolic, it can make for some funny stories. Once PG walked through a living room, while a religious tv show was on. The telepastor was in his church’s private studio, which was not cheap to build and equip. The man was wearing a beautiful preaching costume, which no doubt cost a pretty penny. By the standards of the world, the dude was filthy rich. During the few seconds that PG paid attention, the man said something about a camel.
Judgement Day
Judgement Day (with an e) is the story of Tanner. He is staying with his daughter in New York City, until his body can be shipped back to Corinth GA. JD is the last story in Everything That Rises Must Converge, a book of short stories by Mary Flannery O’Connor.
The modern reader does not appreciate MFO’s racial attitudes. She writes about what Lester Maddox called “little people.” Tanner is described, with some justification, as a “wool-hat red-neck son-of-a-bitch peckerwood old bastard.” Never mind that Tanner shares his Georgia shack with Coleman Parrum, a black man.
Tanner uses a 6 letter word (6LW) to describe Coleman, and people who look like him. 6LW appears 31 times in JD. In 2023, I am strongly encouraged to not see, hear, speak, smell, taste, or feel 6LW, and feel morbid shame if I do. Unfortunately, I wind up reading JD, where 6LW appears 31 times in 7852 words (.39%). After a while, 6LW becomes boring.
JD drags along at first. Many MFO stories take a while to get going. The fun starts when a black man moves into the apartment next door. Tanner decides to make friends with him.
“This time Tanner advanced squarely in his path. “Good morning, Preacher,” he said. It had been his experience that if a Negro tended to be sullen, this title usually cleared up his expression.
The Negro stopped abruptly.
“I seen you move in,” Tanner said. “I ain’t been up here long myself. It ain’t much of a place if you ask me. I reckon you wish you were back in South Alabama.”
The Negro did not take a step or answer. His eyes began to move. They moved from the top of the black hat, down to the collarless blue shirt, neatly buttoned at the neck, down the faded galluses to the gray trousers and the high-top shoes and up again, very slowly, while some unfathomable dead-cold rage seemed to stiffen and shrink him.
“I thought you might know somewhere around here we could find us a pond, Preacher,” Tanner said in a voice growing thinner but still with considerable hope in it.
A seething noise came out of the Negro before he spoke. “I’m not from South Alabama,” he said in a breathless wheezing voice. “I’m from New York City. And I’m not no preacher! I’m an actor.”
Tanner chortled. “It’s a little actor in most preachers, ain’t it?” he said and winked. “I reckon you just preach on the side.”
“I don’t preach!” the Negro cried and rushed past him as if a swarm of bees had suddenly come down on him out of nowhere. He dashed down the stairs and was gone.
Tanner stood here for some time before he went back in the apartment. The rest of the day he sat in his chair and debated whether he would have one more try at making friends with him. Every time he heard a noise on the stairs he went to the door and looked out, but the Negro did not return until late in the afternoon. Tanner was standing in the hall waiting for him when he reached the top of the stairs. “Good evening, preacher,” he said, forgetting that the Negro called himself an actor.
The Negro stopped and gripped the banister rail. A tremor racked him from his head to his crotch. Then he began to come forward slowly. When he was close enough he lunged and grasped Tanner by both shoulders. “I don’t take no crap,” he whispered, “off no wool-hat red-neck son-of-a-bitch peckerwood old bastard like you.” He caught his breath. And then his voice came out in the sound of an exasperation so profound that it rocked on the verge of a laugh. It was high and, piercing and weak, “And I’m not no preacher! I’m not even no Christian. I don’t believe that crap. There ain’t no Jesus and there ain’t no God.”
JD does not have a happy ending. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Siddhartha Gautama
“The Buddha” is available for online viewing. 43 minutes into the PBS production, Gautama Siddhartha (pronounced sid HART ha) turned away from asceticism. He accepted a bowl of rice pudding from a lady, and was a step farther on the path to enlightenment.
Buddhism has always seemed “too asian” for an occidental to follow. There are some things, confirmed by this video, that PG finds appealing. The stories of Buddha are understood to be legends, with no one (that we know of) claiming them to be literal history. This is not like the book worship of Christians. Stories about Jesus are said to be literal truth. The ideas that Buddha taught are not changed by “mistakes” in telling his life story.
There is a story about Buddha seeing his ascetic buddies, after he ate the bowl of rice pudding. He got the ascetics to listen to him, until he won them over. From what PG has seen of humans, especially spiritually charged ones, he finds it tough to imagine these people listening that long. The average Jesus worshiper cannot be quiet long enough for you to finish a single sentence.
Christianity is obsessed with life after death. The Buddha of this show takes a different approach: “There are stories of people coming to the Buddha, and saying, “I am leaving your teaching because you have not told me about whether there is a life after death, or whether there is another world. And the Buddha says, ‘Did I ever say that I would give you the answers to these things?’ ‘No, Lord, you didn’t.’ ‘Why do you think that I ever said that I would give you the answer to these things? Because these are not the things that you need to know. The thing that you need to know is how to deal with suffering, because at this very moment, what made you ask that question was suffering.”
The focus is on the life of Buddha, not his death. The focus is on this life, not on life after death. Buddha lived to an old age, teaching up until his departure. Maybe if Jesus had been better at human relationships, he would not have been executed.
Maybe PG is so scarred by Jesus that he cannot benefit from any other source of wisdom. This is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. The men are Confederate soldiers from the War Between the States. Many resources are available for those who wish to learn more.
Woke
@vanguard_pod “LOL: Briahna Joy Gray BREAKS the brain of Rising guest Bethany Mandel by asking her to define “wokeness”” Bethany Shondark Mandel (née Bethany Ann Horowitz) is promoting a book, Stolen Youth. “This book rides the wave of the “culture wars” to promote radical anti American ideals and facist propaganda. It is a sad commentary on the state of our civil discourse. Rather than reason the book uses fear to sell its nonsense. Just another right wing grift.”
Homeschool-six-kid-moms promote books on skype. Recently, this virtual book tour took BSM to Rising, a youtube show at The Hill tv. The full episode is tough to find. The bacterial clip starts with BSM saying “percent of Americans consider themselves very liberal probably fewer of them consider themselves to be woke.” (What is the source of “___ percent of Americans”?) At this point, host Briahna Joy Gray interrupts BSM, and asks her to define woke. BSM appears to be caught off guard, and stammers “this is going to be one of those moments that goes viral.” After a few moments, BSM says that woke is the effort to “redo society to create hierarchies of oppression.” We don’t know what happened after that, or who distributed the clip.
Was this an author melting down, or was it book publicity? It is tough to tell. What is clear is that people LOVE to talk about racism, at least more than they like to listen. The w-word is our current hot button expression, like CRT last year. “Woke” is an evolving term, which the user can define any way they like. Some take a pious view, and say that the w-word is a dog-whistle stand-in for the n-word. Others say that woke/wokeness is the negative aspects of anti-racism.
Social justice jihad clearly has a lot of issues. Rudeness, like Briahna Joy Gray interrupting her guest. Name calling. Flaky logic. The lack of concern for collateral damage. Eagerness to rant. Using “viral moments” to promote merchandise. Social justice advocates dismiss these concerns as racism. Other people disagree. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress
Mr. Eno And Mr. Isherwood
I was listening to a conversation between Brian Eno and Rick Rubin. Mr. Eno made a comment that sent me down a google rabbit hole, looking for a digital holy grail. When I did not find what I was looking for, I returned to the conversation. Before long, Mr. Eno said something very similar.
“I’d heard something on NPR. It was a poet, a black poet from somewhere in America, reading this poem called Cadillac. I spent years trying to find this thing. I never found it. I wrote to NPR, and I phoned them up, and everything. It was called Pink Cadillac … this amazing, very rhythmic poem, about how he wanted a Pink Cadillac.” This quote got me thinking about another detail.
There are bits of knowledge that want to remain hidden. One is from Christopher Isherwood. It was in a magazine, sometime before 1994. The author died in 1986. The comment was about when you choose a religion. It is not the doctrine that attracts you to a religion, it is the people who introduce you to this observance. If the right person had told Mr. Isherwood about Catholicism, he would have become a Catholic. Instead, in 1938, Aldous Huxley and Gerald Heard introduced Mr. Isherwood to Swami Prabhavananda, and the Vedanta Society of Southern California.
“He (Isherwood) published an account of his spiritual journey at the end of his life, called My Guru and His Disciple.… It’s interesting because it’s so frank and unromantic about the spiritual life. Where Alan Watts basically bullshitted his way to guru status while secretly being an alcoholic and treating his wives like crap, Isherwood is totally upfront about his boredom, his frustration, his vanity, his sexual escapades … he gave us a wonderfully unvarnished account of spiritual mediocrity. As Pema Chodron says, we spend most of our spiritual lives in the middle – not completely lost, yet not completely saved. Just muddling through.”
I did not find the quote I was looking for, but I did find another piece to the puzzle. I went back to Mr. Eno and Mr. Rubin. Then, out of nowhere, came this: “I think that’s the 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. The connection with all of the people who also believe in that particular story. I’m not really religious myself but i really respond to that idea.”
“I don’t want to be a believer. I want to be somebody who, as far as possible, understands and knows things. Believing things leaves me a little bit unsatisfied. If I find myself believing something, I want to test the belief. I want to say how do I find out how valid this is.”
“I always used to say that artists are either cowboys or farmers really and they’re both both ways of being an artist are fine you know the farmer wants to find a piece of territory and fully explore it and exploit it … the other kind of artist is the one who just wants to find somewhere new he just wants to find the neck the next frontier the next piece of territory and that’s what he gets turned on by so i i think i’m more in the second category though people listening to my work would say but it all sounds exactly the same brian.”
If you want more, you can listen to the complete interview, or other episodes of Broken Record. Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
Did Joseph Think It Was His Kid?
NOTE: This feature was originally published in March 26, 2013. This is the day after March 25, nine months before Christmas. IOW, a crucial day in the most famous unconsummated marriage in history. PG began to ponder the traditional marriage of Joseph and Mary. The question of the day is “when did Joseph and Mary get married?” Facilities such as Liberty Gospel Tracts and Fish Eaters Traditional Catholic Forum have answers.
LGT (the B got kicked out for some reason) contributes a bible passage, Matthew 1:18-19. 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.
Put her away in the privy? That is some kinky business there. Maybe the Christians and Jews have it all wrong. The thirds Abrahamic religion, Islam, might have the answer. A site, TurnToIslam, has another point of view about the traditional definition of marriage.
What about Mary, Jesus’ Mother peace be upon both of them? How old was she when she got pregnant? Not only was it a custom in the Arab society to Engage/Marry a young girl it was also common in the Jewish society. The case of Mary the mother of Jesus comes to mind, in non biblical sources she was between 11-14 years old when she conceived Jesus. Mary had already been “BETROTHED” to Joseph before conceiving Jesus. Joseph was a much older man. therefore Mary was younger than 11-14 years of age when she was “BETHROED” to Joseph. We Muslims would never call Joseph a Child Molester, nor would we refer to the “Holy Ghost” of the Bible, that “Impregnated” Mary as a “Rapist” or “Adulterer”.
“….it is possible that Mary gave birth to her Son when she was about thirteen or fourteen years of age….”Mary was approximately 14 years old when she got pregnant with Jesus. Joseph, Mary’s Husband is believed to be around 36. Mary was only 13 when she married Joseph. When she first was arranged with Joseph she was between 7 to 9 years old.”
According to the “Oxford Dictionary Bible” commentary, Mary (peace be upon her) was was 12 years old when she became impregnated. So if I want to be as silly and ridiculous as many of the Christians, I would respond to them by saying that Mary was psychologically and emotionally devastated for getting pregnant at a very young age. And speaking of “child molesting”, since most Christians believe that Jesus is the Creator of this universe, then why did G-D allow himself to enter life through a 12-year old young girl’s vagina? Please note that we Muslims love and respect Allah Almighty, Mary, Jesus and Allah’s Message to the People of the Book (The Jews and Christians). In other words, we Muslims would never make fun of Christianity through such childish topic like this one as many ridiculous Christians do make fun of Islam through our Prophet’s (peace be upon him) marriage.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Jason Whitlock And Shaun King
This is a repost from 2016. There was a radio show yesterday. The actors were Jason Whitlock & Shaun King. It was tough to listen to. The two actors interrupted each other, and engaged in ad hominem arguments. At one point Mr. King, whose ethnicity is disputed, shouted “I’m blacker than you.” In twitter messages, Mr. King called Mr. Whitlock a “Tom ass bastard” who “will coon for cash.”
Carolina quarterback Cam Newton got media attention before Super Bowl 50. Mr. Newton had a spectacular season, leading the Carolina Cougers to SB50. On the other hand, Mr. Newton seems to be a bit of a “hot dog.” “I’ve said this since Day One, I’m an African-American quarterback that scares people because they haven’t seen nothing that they can compare me to.”
In SB50, Denver beat Carolina. It was an ugly, defense dominated game. A week later, Mr. King published a story with dirt on Denver quarterback Peyton Manning. As Mr. Whitlock sees it, trashing Mr. Manning was revenge for Denver beating Carolina in the SB50.
If true, this is ugly. The idea seems to be that a team with a black quarterback was whipped by a team with a white quarterback, so you get even by publishing dirt on the white quarterback. It is also stupid. Mr. Manning didn’t play that well in SB50. It was the Denver defense that shut down Cam Newton. If you are going to get revenge, it should be against the Denver defense. The only problem is that they are not well known names, and will not get the attention that bashing Mr. Manning will get. Nor will it fit the racial narrative … of eleven starters on the Denver defense, ten are black.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. Some of the pictures are from “the morality play “Heaven Bound,” staged by the Big Bethel African Methodist Choir, at the Atlanta Theatre (23 Exchange Place), Atlanta, Georgia, August 1937.”
Chamblee54 
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