Chamblee54

This content was published May 18, 2025. … Today is May 18, 2025. I am going to write new material for my blog today, based largely on content from May 2008. This was the first year that chamblee54 was on WordPress. I was driving a truck in Marietta, and listening to am talk radio. The 2008 election was going on. John McCain was going to be the Republican candidate, and Barack H. Obama was the Democrat wannabe. The 2008 economic meltdown was a few weeks away. After the economic meltdown, I lost my job, and the election of Obama became inevitable.
Another shot in the arm deals with capital punishment. On May 6, 2008, Georgia was preparing to off a convict. … Semantic timeout. While hung, shot, or beheaded are obvious verbs for more archaic means of execution, what is the expression for “executed by lethal injection”? What do you call the process where a GDC employee shoots up a person with substances that will cause their demise?  Injecticide? … With all the corruption, lawyers, and rampant egomania in the justice business, how can the death penalty ever be administered fairly? Was this practice ever intended to be fair?
There was a comment thread at a Christian blog. The topic of preaching at funerals came up: “I want to see God’s grace and name honored.” Preaching an unwanted message to grieving people does not honor God. Christians frequently do not respect non-believers. Christians feel that if they only repeat their message over and over that others will agree with it. However, many of us have made up our minds. The more you try, the more you alienate us. A heavy religious message at a funeral is an example of this. Many incontinent evangelicals are like dogs that will not quit barking.
Like many men of my degeneration/generation, I had long hair. The problem is, with a Georgiawhiteboi like me, hair turns into worms after about three centimeters. It is way too much work to take care of. So I bought a pair of clippers. It was the modern version of letting my freak flag fly … I was in the church’s fried chicken on Broad street downtown. The two drag queens were in front of me in line.They got their food and left. When I stepped to the counter, I heard this girl say to her friend ”Her hayyer is so preeiitee”
Tallulah Bankhead was making a movie, “Lifeboat”, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Some of the other actors commented that Miss Bankhead was not wearing panties. Mr. Hitchcock wondered if this was a matter for wardrobe or a matter for hairdressing … Did Mohawks really shave their heads except for a stripe of hair in the middle? That would seem to be a lot of trouble for pre-modern men living in upstate New York. A Mohawk haircut is high maintenance, just like many who display them. … When asked how long it takes to do her hair, Dolly Parton replies. “I don’t know I am not there”
A clean pair of socks is change you can believe in. … The intangibles include respect, good will, and trust. Semantic fine tuning aside, these words mean the same thing. … A man has to believe in something. I believe I will have a drink. W.C. Fields … Mr. Barnum once said “there is a sucker born every minute”. This belief served Mr. Barnum abundantly … Miss Teenage South Carolina gave a famous speech. The first three words were ” I personally believe” … Anyone can quote the Bible. To do so without the trust of the listener is to speak in vain.
Opinions are like a smelly, though productive, body part. What does this say about beliefs? … Believe is a seven letter word. The first two letters are BE. The next three letters are LIE …  Cher had a hit song called “Believe” The hair is a wig, the plastic surgery is paid for, but do you believe. … John 3:16 has more than 22 words. That verse helps reduce Jesus to a scheme for life after death. … My opinions about G-d, the Bible, Jesus, and Life after Death are none of your business. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The social media picture: “Private Lucien Love of Co. D, 43rd Virginia Cavalry Battalion … Photo shows young identified soldier. Lucien Love is one of six Mosby Rangers executed by the Union in September 1864 near Front Royal, Virginia.”

This content was originally published May 15, 2019. … “Always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.” This meme, illustrated by the gnomic face of Elie Wiesel, turns up on facebook a lot. (Elie Wiesel is pronounced like Elly Mae Clampett) Some find it inspiring. Others think it is simplistic and manipulative.
There are two questions. Did Mr. Wiesel say that? What was the context? The quote appears in the acceptance speech for the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize. The next sentence is “Sometimes we must interfere.” We immediately go from the absolute always, to the conditional sometimes. That is progress, even if it does not fit on a bumper sticker.
“Elie Wiesel was born in Sighet, Romania, in 1928. … In May 1944, Wiesel was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp along with his parents and his sisters. Wiesel and his father were slave laborers at Auschwitz. His father died in January 1945 during a forced march to another camp, Buchenwald, and his mother and younger sister were murdered as well. After the war, Wiesel moved to France, where he worked as a journalist.”
The Israel-Palestine problem was just as vexing in 1986 as today. Here is what Mr. Wiesel said in his speech. “More people are oppressed than free. And then, too, there are the Palestinians to whose plight I am sensitive but whose methods I deplore. Violence and terrorism are not the answer. Something must be done about their suffering, and soon. I trust Israel, for I have faith in the Jewish people. Let Israel be given a chance, let hatred and danger be removed from her horizons, and there will be peace in and around the Holy Land.”
Who is the oppressor in the Middle East, and who is the victim? Many sides can make a case for their cause. Who is the better at persuasion? Who is better at playing the shady game of influence, and money. Often, more noise encourages the tormentor. The answer to age old conflicts is seldom found in bumper stickers, or facebook memes.
“…to whose plight I am sensitive but whose methods I deplore.” “Always take sides” means that you pick one side in a conflict, and use the tools of rhetoric to promote that cause. It can be tough to tell the good guys from the bad guys. Simplistic rhetoric is *never* the answer.
In 1986, the Iran-Iraq war was raging. Hundreds of thousands of men died. Many said the war was allowed to go on intentionally. Allegedly, if Iran and Iraq were not fighting each other, they would be fighting Israel. The United States was allied with Iraq, while making arms deals with Iran. Israeli dealers participated in the United States-Iran arms trading. The profits from those deals went to supply terrorists in Central America. “Sometimes we must interfere.” … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the social media picture in May 1940. “Interior of general store at Stem, Granville County, North Carolina, with high school boys dressed up because it’s Election Day.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah

This content was published May 31, 2010. … He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it.
Joseph Romm, Washington
· She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again. — Rich Murphy, Fairfax Station
· The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.
Russell Beland, Springfield
· McBride fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty Bag filled with vegetable soup.
Paul Sabourin, Silver Spring
· From the attic came an unearthly howl. The whole scene had an eerie, surreal quality, like when you’re on vacation in another city and “Jeopardy” comes on at 7 p.m. instead of 7:30.
Roy Ashley, Washington
· Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze. — Chuck Smith, Woodbridge
· Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center. — Russell Beland, Springfield
· Bob was as perplexed as a hacker who means to access T:flw.quid55328.com\aaakk/ch@ung but gets T:\flw.quidaaakk/ch@ung by mistake — Ken Krattenmaker, Landover Hills
· Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever. — Unknown
· He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree. — Jack Bross, Chevy Chase
· The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
Gary F. Hevel, Silver Spring
· Her date was pleasant enough, but she knew that if her life was a movie this guy would be buried in the credits as something like”Second Tall Man.” — Russell Beland, Springfield
· Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph. — Jennifer Hart, Arlington
· The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can.
Wayne Goode, Madison, Ala.
· They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan’s teeth. — Paul Kocak, Syracuse, N.Y.
· John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
Russell Beland, Springfield
· The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play. — Barbara Fetherolf, Alexandria
· His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free. — Chuck Smith, Woodbridge
· The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon.
These specimens were published in 2007 by Soylent Green – ItsPeopleDammit(tm). Before that, it was an item at The Humor Library, Worst Analogies Ever Written in a High School Essay Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the social media picture in March 1941. “Woman who had been moved out of the Santee-Cooper basin to Orangeburg Farms, a FSA (Farm Security Administration) project in Orangeburg County, South Carolina”
©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah

So I get in from my walk. I started out by walking up to the Cemetery on 8th Street, and picking up trash. I was listening to an amazing story from Jesse and Katie. A Finnish beauty queen got caught. Someone posted a picture of her, and she was making these slitty eyes on her face, and someone wrote a tasteless caption. FBQ later explained that she had a migraine. Stretching her eyes out made the migraine feel better. … I got home and I washed my hands. I had about 10 minutes left on my timer, and the player automatically went to the next show. It turned out to be Gilbert Gottfried and David Steinberg … two old Jews in the home telling each other the same stories over and over.
Since there is a war going on, and oil is involved, it’s important to keep an eye on the price of oil and of the Dow Jones. The price of oil has gone down $10.20 a barrel since I last looked at it, and the Dow Jones is up 186 points. This is not a long-term trend. We’re just getting started on this killing party, and it might last for a while. Iran has the Straits of Hormuz shut down, and there’s no telling what our idiot leaders are going to be able to do about it. Meanwhile, there is always Twitter.
“@kelevitch November 2025: Netanyahu sets the goal of assassinating Iran’s Supreme Leader. – December 2025: Lockheed Martin begins ramping up weapons production “months” before the war. – December 22: Senator Boozman (Chairman of Military Appropriations) buys RTX stock. Senator Williams buys defense stocks. – December 29: Senator Mullin (Armed Services Committee) buys $15,000-$50,000 of RTX stock. – January 2026: Lockheed signs “landmark” deal to TRIPLE PAC-3 and QUADRUPLE THAAD production. – January 9: Rep. Cisneros buys RTX stock. – January 12: US activates new joint missile defense center at Al Udeid, Qatar. – February 27: Oman’s FM announces “breakthrough” Iran agrees to dilute uranium and accept IAEA verification. Peace is “within reach.” – February 28: Bombs fall. – March 1: Defense stocks hit ALL-TIME HIGHS. $25-30 billion in shareholder wealth created in ONE DAY. – March 6: Trump hosts CEOs of 7 defense contractors at the White House. Lockheed: “We agreed to quadruple production.” – March 9: Oil hits $119. Markets crash globally. 1,850+ dead across 16 countries. And the War Powers Resolution? Voted down 47-53. By the same Congress that bought the stocks. That got the briefings. That took the AIPAC money.
Read that timeline again: — Netanyahu planned it in November — Lockheed prepared in December — Congress bought stocks in December-January — The peace deal was announced on February 27 — The bombs fell on February 28. Peace was “within reach” at 6 PM. The bombs fell at midnight. They didn’t fail at peace. They CHOSE war. While their stocks were already positioned. While the weapons were already built. While the kill target was already selected. And you? You get $3.50 gas. A crashing stock market. Dead soldiers. And a president who calls you a “FOOL” for worrying about it. They chose war. They profited from war. And they’re billing YOU for war. The only question left: what are you going to do about it?”
“@ComicDaveSmith You know Mehdi, I used to mourn the death of the American antiwar left during the Obama years. They were largely silent on the US created catastrophes in Libya, Syria, Somalia and Yemen. When the antiwar left returned on Gaza, I never thought to start lecturing them about voting for Biden in order to pat myself on the back and foolishly pretend that this proves their idiocy or guilt or whatever. I was just happy that they were good on such an important issue. Here you have the most influential guy in the country calling out this disastrous war and this is your response? Especially when YOU voted for genocide Joe and Kamala who supported the whole thing. Obviously I’m biased here. Joe is my guy and I also foolishly supported Trump but I think I’m right here.”
“@RealMassguy Someone just told me about this woman on Instagram who genuinely thought “JFC” stood for “just for clarification.” She’d been dropping it casually in professional emails for years. It instantly reminded me of my own mom, who for the longest time was convinced “LOL” meant “lots of love.” I swear to God, she once commented on a Facebook post where someone had shared tragic news: “So sorry for your loss. LOL.””
“@InsideLucysHead How would the Church of England deal with the statement that “The cat sat on the mat” if it appeared in the Bible? The liberal theologians would point out that such a passage did not, of course, mean that the cat literally sat on the mat. Also, cat and mat had different meanings in those days from today, and anyway, the text should be interpreted according to the customs and practices of the period. · This would lead to an immediate backlash from the Evangelicals. They would make it an essential condition of faith that a real physical, living cat, being a domestic pet of the species Domesticus, and having a whiskered head, a furry body, four legs and a tail, did physically place its whole body on a floor covering, designed for that purpose, and which is on the floor but not of the floor. The expression “on the floor but not of the floor” would be explained in a leaflet.
Meanwhile, the Catholics would have developed the Feast of the Sedentation of the Blessed Cat. This would teach that the cat was white, and majestically reclined on a mat of gold thread before its assumption to the Great Cat Basket of Heaven. This is commemorated by singing the “Magnificat” and “Felix namque”, lighting three candles, and ringing a bell five times. · This would cause a schism with the Orthodox Church, which believes tradition requires Holy Cats Days (as it is colloquially known) to be marked by lighting SIX candles and ringing the bell FOUR times. This would partly be resolved by the Cuckoo Land Declaration, recognising the traditional validity of each. · Eventually, the House of Bishops would issue a statement on the Doctrine of the Feline Sedentation. It would explain that traditionally, the text describes a domestic feline quadruped superjacent to an unattached covering on a fundamental surface. For determining its salvific and eschatological significations, we follow the heuristic analytical principles adopted in dealing with the Canine Fenestration Question (How much is that doggie in the window?) and the Affirmative Musaceous Paradox (Yes, we have no bananas). · The General Synod would then commend this report as helpful resource material for clergy to explain to the man in the pew the difficult doctrine of ‘The cat sat on the mat.’”
“Human Rights Watch Accuses Israel of White Phosphorus Use Over Lebanese Homes · Human Rights Watch verified images from March 3, 2026, showing Israeli artillery firing white phosphorus munitions over the southern Lebanese village of Yohmor, dispersing incendiary particles up to 250 meters amid clashes with Hezbollah. The group called the use unlawful in populated areas, warning of severe civilian risks despite no confirmed injuries, as Israel had ordered evacuations that morning. This incident follows Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israel since March 2.”
“@MaxBlumenthal WaPo reports the Anti-Defamation League and Trump admin are freaking out about the viral popularity of Operation Epstein Fury. I launched the name for Israeli-US terrorist war on Iran at 4:54 AM on February 28 and demand some credit, @JGreenblattADL … “The conflict has also sparked a sharp rise in antisemitic content, according to researchers from the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights organization — some of it seeking to link Epstein, who was Jewish, to the conflict. · “Pretty quickly after the conflict began, this conspiratorial rebranding of Operation Epic Fury” — the U.S. military’s official name — into ‘Operation Epstein Fury’ started circulating on social media platforms,” said Oren Segal, the ADL’s senior vice president of counter-extremism and intelligence. An ADL report found that the phrase “Epstein Fury” was mentioned more than 90,000 times by some 60,000 different accounts on X within the conflict’s first three days. … Other disinformation researchers have also taken note of the campaign to link U.S. and Israeli leaders to Epstein. Posts on X that used the phrase “Epstein regime” — a derogatory reference to the U.S.-Israel alliance — increased one hundred-fold on the first day of the missile strikes, said Emerson Brooking, director of strategy at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. Several of the most popular posts to use the phrase came from Owens.”
“@LealIris_ It’s scary to admit this, but the war got complicated as expected, and I’m not at all sure the Iranians will stop when Trump decides it’s over. We’re stuck in a nightmare because a cynical man indifferent to our existence whispered in the ear of an clueless infant and convinced him to embark on a failed military adventure. I assume the euphoria is over, cuties.” (Translated from Hebrew)
“@YoelH5 First time identifying signs of slackening and disappointment in the Netanyahu government on the Iranian front. In the immediate term, this is bad for a million children in Gaza. The Americans put a sweeping veto on bombing oil fields. Disagreements are emerging between the armies over some of the failures in Tehran. This is a nightmare for Gaza. Whitkopf will arrive in Jerusalem next week to mark an expiration date for the war in Iran. The frustration in the IDF will be dumped, as always, on the concentration camp in Gaza.” (Translated from Hebrew) … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Arthur Rothstein took the social media picture in June 1942. “Queens, New York. Nursery school at the Queensbridge housing project. Nursery worker helping children eat lunch” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah