Shut Up Mrs. Betty Bowers
@BettyBowers needs to shut up. They were once funny. Unfortunately, comedians run out of things to make fun of. They start to piss on any target they can find. (Which they is singular, and which they is plural?) If your toes get stepped on, then it is your fault. Sooner or later, the whole thing gets annoying, and it is time for someone more obnoxious.
Hark! NEW VIDEO: Almost 20 Words & Expressions You Need to Humanely Euthanize Now. Glory! was released September 21. It appeared this week on facebook, allowing an unsuspecting PG to wallow in the putrescent glory. The screed features a score of obsolete language. So that you don’t have to watch the video, here they are: literally, actually, classy, voracious reader, alt-right, social justice warriors, antifa, snowflake, safe space, pc, values, patriot, exact same, wheelhouse, #fakenews, blessed, religious freedom, christian.
PG got through five of the forbidden words before his inner snowflake melted. The word was alt-right. Ultra conservatives have been around for years. When PG was a kid, it was the John Birch Society. It is one of the problems with free speech. People are going to say stupid things. With the internet, there are more ways to transmit this nonsense. One solution is to ignore the idiots, and move on.
Mrs. Betty Bowers, America’s Best Christian ranted for a bit about the alt-right. “English (pause) is not body spray to hide your odiousness.(drag out O) Don’t use vague words when precise ones already exist. For example, if you are a rapist, you are not “alt-yes”, you’re (pause,shake finger at camera) a (p,sfac) rapist. (p,sfac) And if you”re a racist, you’re not “alt-right,” you’re (p,sfac) a (p,sfac) racist”(p,sfac.) At this point, PG had to turn the video off. He got a lovely screen shot.
Mrs. Betty Bowers is a character played by Deven Green. “America’s Best Christian” is from Thompson, Manitoba. Yes, this white man, playing an American Christian woman, is Canadian. And they think you’re (p,sfac) a (p,sfac) racist. (p,sfac) Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Fifty Four Years
Fifty four years ago, John Kennedy went to the oval office in the sky. The bullets hit Mr.Kennedy at 12:30 pm, CST. He arrived at the hospital at 12:37. He had a faint heartbeat on arrival, but quickly succumbed to his wounds.
In Georgia, PG was nine years old. He was in Miss Mckenzie’s fourth grade class. There was going to be an assembly soon, and the class was going to perform. There was a rehearsal in the cafetorium, and some of the kids were acting up. They went back to the class, and PG thought they were going to be chewed out about the misbehavior in the cafetorium. Instead, Miss Mckenzie came into the room, and told the kids that President Kennedy had been shot during a parade in Dallas Texas. She did not say anything about his condition. One kid cheered the news.
School let out at the regular time, and PG walked home. His mother and brother were crying. He was told that the president had died. The cub scouts meeting that afternoon was canceled.
Later that night, a plane arrived in Washington. The tv cameras showed a gruesome looking man walk up to a microphone. He was introduced as President Lyndon Johnson. This may have been the worst moment of that day. Photographs for this repost today are from “Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
There Needs To Be A Button
2 dead, 2 hurt in shooting at Underground Atlanta ~ I’m a Black Veteran. Why Is Trump Making Me Feel Unpatriotic? ~ All five Spice Girls will reunite in 2018 ~ Keurig Coffee Machines Are Hell Devices That Everyone Should Boycott ~ @PeterVecsey1 Like Kanter is gonna 2B intimidated by LeBron, guy who stood up 2 Tayyip Erdogan. Imagine him being scared of a n*****who breathes the same air as him @thabigQ My guy quoted a Biggie lyric but did the 6 letter N word instead of the 5 letter one which makes it like super extra racist. ~ Portsmouth Sinfonia : “Also sprach Zarathustra” ~ @BrittMcHenry Wear socks depicting police officers as pigs; wear Fidel Castro as a fashion statement IN MIAMI; sue NFL for collusion when gf compares owners to slave owners… Win Citizen of the Year. Serve in the US military…nothing. What a joke, GQ. #Kaepernick ~ A ‘Come Meet a Black Person’ Networking Event Is Happening in Georgia This Week and I Have So Many Thoughts However, at the same time, it gives me the same icky vibe I get about black women who opt to put up signs and invite strangers to touch their hair. ~ Black Women Stand on NY Street and Allow Strangers to Touch Their Hair as Part of Social Experiment ~ Killer of gay Atlanta civic activist gets 35 years in prison ~ Georgia Group Invites White People: ‘Meet a Black Person’ ~ Want To Raise Transit Funding? Tax Yourself, Ga. Lawmaker Says ~ Blocking is an Act of Self-Care ~ White Liberals Still Don’t Understand White Supremacy ~ “Come Meet A Black Person” Networking Event ~ Métal hurlant: The Hugely Influential French Comic Magazine That Put Moebius on the Map & Changed Sci-Fi Forever ~ Georgia group invites white people: Meet a Black Person ~ @Freeyourmindkid Hey white people I will volunteer my services if you want to meet a black person, but you have to pay me and be ready to take a lot of verbal abuse. It actually won’t be a pleasant experience at all. ~ If You’re a Black Woman Who’s Tired of White People Asking to Touch Your Hair, There’s a Game For That ~ Senator Al Franken Kissed and Groped Me Without My Consent, And There’s Nothing Funny About It ~ Israeli Prime Minister After Six-Day War: ‘We’ll Deprive Gaza of Water, and the Arabs Will Leave’ ~ Why Atlanta is Alphaville, And Not Terminus! ~ @TheRoot Sports reporter Peter Vecsey’s casual use of the N-word on Twitter last night is whiteness in its purest form ~ Sexual Assault Sexual assault is any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape. ~ Leeann Tweedon ~ Lil Peep’s Fans Identify Girl That Allegedly Sold Him Fentanyl Laced Xanax & Are After Her Police are still investigating the incident and have not drawn any conclusions. ~ Black Lives Matter Member Plans to Sue Georgia Church for Discrimination After It Banned Group ~ (C.O.C.A.) Contract of Concern and Action For Churches in America ~ Group of white people attends ‘Come Meet a Black Person’ mixer in Atlanta Even with a police car parked across the street, the event went off without a hitch. ~ The Rise and Fall of the English Sentence ~ 10 Reasons to Unfriend Someone on Facebook ~ 7 things to consider before Facebook unfriending ~ Our own worst enemy ~ 2018 PLACES IN PERIL ~ I Tried It: I’m Not Mad at the ‘Come Meet a Black Person’ Event Organizer and You Shouldn’t Be Either “I’m not naive. I didn’t know what to expect. I had a 9 mm in my purse in case something happened. ’Cause I’m not going out like that,” … “I have a permit to conceal and carry. It’s important to know your rights. Racism, that’s white people’s problem. They created it. They need to fix it. We [black people] can only worry about ourselves,” …“White people are oblivious. We know them. We have to know them, you know. It’s not like that for them. They don’t know anything about us, they don’t have to.” ~ When non-Black POC hide behind blatant white supremacy to ignore their own complicity ~ Former Seattle mayoral candidate Nikkita Oliver alleges racial profiling at Safeway store ~ Luciano Berio (1925-2003) ~ Elvis Costello ~ Amazon’s Last Mile ~ People for sale ~ I Only Listen to the Mountain Goats ~ Jackie O ~ “Remember this, take it to heart, live by it, die for it if necessary: that our patriotism is medieval, outworn, obsolete; that the modern patriotism, the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation All the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it” – spoken by Tsar Nicholas II in Twain’s The Czar’s Soliloquy, 1905. ~ @DineshDSouza I was lukewarm on Roy Moore until the last-minute smear. Now we must elect him to show that the @washingtonpost sleaze attack failed ~ a catholic church service is called a mass if you stay away from the roman pedophile church you will avoid mass deception destruction catastrophe apostrophe ampersands and question marks ~ Actually, Keurig is dropping ads from the Sean Hannity show, because of his Roy Moore coverage. This is a stretch to say it is a protest against pedophilia. ~ Or the @tanehisicoates types who say that @realDonaldTrump got elected because he was white…. like dozens of other white people didn’t fight to get the job ~ @ChrchCurmudgeon I guess maybe make sure you’ve read all 10 commandments before you put them up in front of your courthouse. ~ Isn’t carving these commandos into a block of stone the sort of thing the 2nd suggestion says not to do? ~ @bluegal Kaepernick as GQ’s ‘citizen of the year’ isn’t “controversial” if you believe people of color are equal citizens under the law. Really, guys. @chamblee54 Is #CitizenOfTheYear another participation trophy? Maybe it is an attention grabbing gimmick on a slow news day. @bluegal It’s a magazine that comes out the same time every month. And it’s not a slow news day btw. But sure cover stories on newsstands are designed to get attention. It’s a good article check it out @chamblee54 I would like to go the rest of my life without reading any more about #ColinKaepernick @bluegal I would like to go the rest of my life without reading any more about police shootings of unarmed black men. Wonder who will get their wish first? @chamblee54 i follow police killing on my blog… there are very few such killings … and that has NOTHING to do with a former quarterback who is not registered to vote @chamblee54 this is the type of tit for tat internet logic that solves zero problems ~ If you maintain bacteria on a table in the kitchen, is it a counter culture? ~ As opposed to classic rock, where the songs are performed by dinosaurs. ~ To attend #ComeMeetABlackPerson you need to drive fifteen miles OTP during rush hour ~ On a related note, November is the “n word” of the NATO phonetic alphabet. Why don’t we say November, instead of “n word”? Imagine the fun when we have to think of a new name for the month before December. ~ @WernerTwertzog There needs to be a button between “play” and “stop” that indicates indifference. @deluxedrake There is…but what is the point of pushing it? ~ I Tried It: I’m Not Mad at the ‘Come Meet a Black Person’ Event Organizer and You Shouldn’t Be Either “I’m not naive. I didn’t know what to expect. I had a 9 mm in my purse in case something happened. ’Cause I’m not going out like that,” … “I have a permit to conceal and carry. It’s important to know your rights. Racism, that’s white people’s problem. They created it. They need to fix it. We [black people] can only worry about ourselves,” …“White people are oblivious. We know them. We have to know them, you know. It’s not like that for them. They don’t know anything about us, they don’t have to.” ~ #AlFranken is a hands on kind of guy ~ @ThatHippieJesus Well dad does perform countless abortions every year via miscarriage. Also, numbers 5:11-31 gives instructions for ritual abortion in the case of infidelity. ~ If slick willie had resigned in disgrace, then hillary would have been at home baking cookies, instead of running for president. ~ is de*nigra*tion a racist term? ~ pictures today are from The Library of Congress. ~ here is the poem from last night ~ selah
drinking and saying you should’ve gone pro ~ move along here there is nothing to see
just one player kicks the ball with his toe ~ second string quarterback taking a knee
big men in tight pants try to grab balls ~ toxic cheerleader masculinity
make men stupider through concussion ya’lls ~ atlanta falcon illuminati
lots of white lines but little cocaine ~ commercial breaks to talk over the pain
bump in the mud hail mary in the rain ~ winning strategy of saddam hussein
taxpayer money going down the drain ~ traumatic injuries head butt the brain
Killed By Police November 19
20 People were killed in the United States last week, according to the Killed by Police database. Here are the links: 1039 Shane Jensen 1040 Phillip Pitts 1041 Eddy Longoria 1042 Larry Ruiz-Barreto 1043 Cornell Lockhart 1044 Calvin Toney 1045 Kevin Janson Neal 1046 Adam Brogdon 1047 Keian Jones 1048 Dustin Robert Pigeon 1049 1050 Oscar Anaya 1051 Phillip Vancise 1052 Thomas Barclay 1053 Marco Antonio Hernandez 1054 Jose Luis Hernandez 1055 Leticia Ramirez 1056 1057 1058 Brian Calvert Donations to Killed by Police are appreciated.
1055 Leticia Ramirez was a female. 5 of the victims were white. (1039, 1041, 1045, 1046, 1058) 5 of the victims were black. (1040, 1043, 1044, 1047, 1056) 2 of the victims were native. (1048, 1057) 3 of the victims were hispanic. (1042, 1053, 1054) The race of 5 victims is not indicated in news reports. (1049, 1050, 1051, 1052, 1055)
4 of the victims fired at a police officer. (1050, 1051, 1052, 1056) 9 of the victims displayed a weapon. (1039, 1040, 1041, 1043, 1045, 1046. 1047, 1049, 1058) 2 of the victims were involved in a domestic dispute. (1040, 1041)
The death of 1042 Larry Ruiz-Barreto is considered suspicious. New Bedford man shot, killed by police in Fall River “A New Bedford man died overnight after he was shot by a police officer in Fall River, the office of Bristol County District Attorney Thomas Quinn III said, and several of his relatives and friends were later arrested during an altercation with police at Charlton Memorial Hospital. Megan Borges, a spokesperson for the DA’s office, said Monday that Larry Ruiz-Barreto, 19 was pronounced dead at the hospital following the shooting. According to Borges, police responded just after 11:30 p.m. Sunday to a report of possible gunshots near the intersection of Riggenbach and Airport Roads. Upon arrival, Borges said a number of vehicles were seen leaving the area and police attempted to pull one of them over. It was during that encounter that an officer opened fire into the car and shot the driver, Ruiz-Barreto. Fall River police said the 911 caller had reported a car was smoking, and they heard two bangs that could have been gunshots. Police did not comment on why the officer decided to use deadly force.” (1042)
3 pedestrians were killed, in 2 incidents, in Southern California on Thursday. 2 Children Dead After On-Duty Deputy Vehicle Strikes 5 Pedestrians in Boyle Heights Area: LAPD “Two children were killed, (Marco Antonio Hernandez, Jose Luis Hernandez ) and three others were injured when several pedestrians were struck during a multivehicle crash involving an on-duty Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy vehicle Thursday night in the Boyle Heights area, authorities said. The crash occurred shortly after 7:20 p.m. in the area of Indiana Street and Whittier Boulevard, according to Los Angeles Police Department Officer Tony Im. The location is on the border of East L.A. and Boyle Heights. The deputies were responding to an emergency call of a gunshot victim and traveling southbound on Indiana when a three-vehicle collision took place near Whittier, LAPD Captain Alfonso Lopez said at a late-night news conference at the scene. The sheriff’s vehicle struck five pedestrians on the southeast corner of the street. One of victims died at the scene. A second victim was later pronounced deceased after being transported to the hospital.” (1053/1054)
1055 Leticia Ramirez Pedestrian Dies After Being Hit by Sheriff’s Deputy in Perris: Authorities “A pedestrian has died after being struck by a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department vehicle in Perris Thursday night, authorities said. An investigation is underway after a Riverside County sheriff’s vehicle fatally struck a pedestrian on Nov. 16, 2017. About 8:40 p.m., deputies responded to a report of a collision involving a Riverside sheriff’s unit in the area of Perris Boulevard and Nuevo Road, according to Deputy Mike Vasquez. The patient was transported to a local hospital with serious injuries, the Riverside County Fire Department said. Vasquez later confirmed the individual died. His or her name has not yet been released.” Teenage Girl Fatally Struck by Sheriff’s Vehicle After Running Across Lanes “A teenage girl was struck and killed by a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department vehicle Thursday in Perris after she ran across lanes on Perris Boulevard.”(1055)
1045 Kevin Janson Neal was a mass killer. 4 Dead, Gunman Killed In Northern California Shooting Rampage “Authorities Tuesday evening identified the gunman who killed four people and wounded at least ten others, including children, during a shooting rampage in a small Northern California community before being fatally shot by law enforcement. The Tehama County District Attorney announced that the gunman was 43-year-old Kevin Janson Neal … Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston … said around 7:50 a.m., the gunman shot one person near the corner of Bobcat Lane and Fawn Lane. The gunman took off in a vehicle and opened fire at several other locations in the community, including at the Rancho Tehama elementary school, before crashing the vehicle. No children were killed at the school, but several of them were shot and wounded. A six-year-old remained hospitalized Tuesday night. The assistant sheriff said the gunman then stole a second vehicle before he was killed in a confrontation with two officers.” (1045)
2 other incidents are noteworthy. Man fatally shot by BR police officer was under investigation for child abuse, state police say “State Police said the trouble started at the Palms Apartments on McClelland Drive just after 6 p.m. when officers with the Baton Rouge Police Department were asked to escort a Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) caseworker to the complex. State police said the police officer escorted the caseworker due to the nature of the allegations against Calvin Toney and his personal history. “During the course of that investigation, a struggle ensued with officers and the suspect,” said Sr. Tpr. Bryan Lee with LSP Troop A. “The suspect was shot and killed during that struggle.” It is standard procedure to have Louisiana State Police investigate a shooting involving a police officer. Troopers would not say whether Toney had a gun, but authorities did confirm that the struggle lasted several minutes and that Toney was “tased” multiple times before being shot. They also worked to dispel a rumor that quickly spread on social media following the shooting. “Our preliminary investigation shows the suspect was NOT handcuffed at the time he was shot,” Lee explained.” … The caseworker was looking into several claims of child abuse against Toney. WGNO News reported that as Toney attempted to flee the apartment when he was confronted by the officer and caseworker, he started to fight. Officials say that the officer deployed his stun gun “several times” and eventually shot him. After being shot, Toney reportedly fled the scene and was caught by the officer outside of the complex. The officer said Toney was still resisting and was then put into handcuffs until emergency medical personnel could arrive.”(1044)
Suicidal man shot and killed by police officer Wednesday in south Oklahoma City “About 2:40 a.m. Wednesday, 29-year-old Dustin Robert Pigeon called 911 and told a dispatcher he was going to kill himself. … Early Wednesday morning, officers found Pigeon holding a bottle of lighter fluid in his left hand and a lighter in his right hand, Oklahoma City police report. As officers approached, he began pouring the lighter fluid on himself and tried to light the lighter as officers ordered him to the ground. Pigeon reportedly ignored the commands and officer Troy Nitzky, a two-year veteran, fired a single round from his bean bag shotgun. Shortly after, Sgt. Keith Sweeney, a nine-year veteran, fired several rounds from his firearm, striking and killing Pigeon. … Capt. Bo Mathews, a spokesman for the Oklahoma City Police Department, said Pigeon was considered a danger to the officers and others as he was attempting to light the lighter fluid. “In this instance (it) would be unknown if he was going to run at somebody and douse them with the fluid and light it,” … Geoffrey P. Alpert, a professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina and an author on police use of force, spoke previously with The Oklahoman about the police department’s use of lethal cover in using non-lethal weapons as a sound policy, but questioned the use of force in Wednesday’s shooting. “Isn’t the whole point of trying to save his life as opposed to taking his life?” Alpert said. He questioned the need of the firearm with a bean bag shotgun available, saying if the first round was ineffective then “you get them with another bean bag, you don’t shoot them. That’s not smart.” “I think the bean bag is certainly reasonable. You’ve got to see what happens,” Alpert said. “Taking a life in those situations is going to take a lot of understanding and explaining. I don’t see the justification yet. But, then again, you never know. You have to hear what the officer has to say.” (1048)
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The photographer was Marion Post Wolcott.
Town Hall Meeting
There were two events PG could go to. Come Meet A Black Person Event was 23 miles away, at rush hour. The Brookhaven Town Hall Meeting was a mile away. PG walked to City Hall.
The meeting started on time. PG counted fourteen people in the room, with a few more coming in later. At least six of these people were employees of the city. Hari Karikaran, the Public Works Director, was the only person of color attending.
A few people had complaints about gunfire near Briarwood Park. Someone said that Blackburn Park is not well maintained. There is a plan to plant a different variety of grass in Blackburn Park, in a test section. After a while, someone will see if this test section works.
The Public Safety department said that it is difficult to maintain a full strength force. There is a program to monitor the license plates of cars entering the city, and some criminals have been caught. There is a problem with car break-ins, and someone has been stealing apartment mailboxes. One of the mailbox thieves was caught with the license plate detection program.
Facebook broadcast the meeting, with mixed results. People kept going back to the device, hoping to make it work. Finally, the broadcast went on line. You can see it using the link. The white haired man in the second row did not have much to say.
The event in Lawrenceville happened. Group of white people attends ‘Come Meet a Black Person’ mixer in Atlanta “Even with a police car parked across the street, the event went off without a hitch.” It was organized by Cheryle Moses, the founder of Urban Mediamakers.
Ms. Moses had this to say: “I’m not naive. I didn’t know what to expect. I had a 9 mm in my purse in case something happened. ’Cause I’m not going out like that,” … “I have a permit to conceal and carry. It’s important to know your rights. Racism, that’s white people’s problem. They created it. They need to fix it. We [black people] can only worry about ourselves,” …“White people are oblivious. We know them. We have to know them, you know. It’s not like that for them. They don’t know anything about us, they don’t have to.”
Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Fleetwood Mac
PG has read the autobiography of Mick Fleetwood. If this had been a made up tale of fiction, no one would believe it. Mick is not the manufacturer of enemas, nor the namesake of a Cadillac Model. The possibility does exist that he has used those two products.
John Mayall gave his guitar player, Peter Green, some studio time as a birthday present. “The Green God” used a rhythm section from the Bluesbreakers, Mick Fleetwood (drums) and John McVie (bass). At the end of the day, Mr. Green wrote “Fleetwood Mac” on the can holding the tapes.
Before long, Mr. Green started his own band, and named it after the rhythm section. (Does anyone know the bass player and drummer of the Atlanta Rhythm Section?) Fleetwood Mac started as a blues band, and became popular in England. Mr. Fleetwood celebrated by getting together with Jenny Boyd, who became his wife. Miss Boyd is the sister of Patti Boyd, the wife of George Harrison, aka Layla.
The first Fleetwood Mac album in the USA was “Then Play On”. The first show in Atlanta was at the Oglethorpe University gym, and by all accounts was a wild night. PG saw the sign advertising the event, but did not attend.
About the time of “Then Play On”, Peter Green started to get a bit weird. He dropped out of the band, but Jeremy Spencer and Danny Kirwan were still playing guitars. For a little while. Jeremy Spencer took a walk outside a Los Angeles hotel, and got recruited by the Children of G-d. Danny Kirwan had some issues, and decided to leave the band. Bob Welch stopped by for a few years, joined by Christine McVie, the wife of John.
The band was managed at this time by Clifford Davies, who by all accounts was a nasty piece of work. A man named Bob Weston had joined the band, and lasted until he had an affair with Jenny Fleetwood. Mr. Weston was fired, and a tour canceled. Clifford Davies decided that he owned the name Fleetwood Mac, and hired a group of players to go out and do shows. Fleetwood and the Mcvies were not amused, and Mick Fleetwood took over as the manager of the band.
By 1974, the band was pushing along, and selling about 300,000 copies of each album. On Halloween night 1974, Fleetwood Mac played at the Omni with Jefferson Starship. PG was at the Municipal Auditorium that night, seeing Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt.
In late 1974 Mick was looking for a studio. He came to a place, and an album came on the speakers, Mick was impressed by the guitar player. Soon after, Bob Welch felt the need to leave the band, and Mick thought the guitar player he heard at the studio was a good fit. (The band never did auditions, just asked people they liked to join). The guitar player was Lindsay Buckingham, and his girlfriend/musical partner was Stevie Nicks. This was the band that set sales records.
The first album with Buckingham/Nicks, simply titled “Fleetwood Mac”, became a phenomenon. The band was soon headlining in stadiums, and was on every fm radio station in the land. The band went into the studio to record a follow up. The second album took over a year to produce, and saw the McVies and the Fleetwoods get divorced. Buckingham and Nicks split their common law arrangement. Out of the turmoil came “Rumours”, which has sold roughly thirty million copies.
On August 29, 1978, PG got to see Fleetwood Mac at the Omni. Mick Fleetwood was on top of his game, pounding the skins with a glee that could be seen from the cheap seats. Fleetwood was a highlight, standing two meters tall and creating havoc on the drum stand.
Reading the book tells the rest of the story. Fleetwood’s father had died earlier that summer, and Mick was devastated. The band was straining under the pressures of super duper stardom. Mick had attempted a reconciliation with his wife, which was a painful failure. There was an affair between Mick and Stevie Nicks at this time. The idea that Mick Fleetwood could perform like he did that night tells you what a trooper he was.
The story continues. The book was written in 1991. There might be a volume two. This is a repost.
Believe Your Way To Hell
These 666 words are a repost from 2010. It is based on a post at 22 Words. At that time, 22 Words was a quirky blog, with the emphasis on comments of 22 words or less. Today, 22 Words is a corporate blog. The top trending story now is “This Is Why You Should NEVER Put Toilet Paper On a Toilet Seat.” If you want to skip over the text, and look at the pictures, you will be forgiven. These monochrome pictures are from the FSA/PWI collection at The Library of Congress.
This post is about life after death and belief. Originally, the comment was going to be about gaining life after death through belief in Jesus, but the comment was over the 22 word limit. To get to the limit, the reference to Jesus was taken out. Did this substantially alter the meaning of the statement? Is it the matter of belief that counts, or does it have to be a specific belief about Jesus? And why should this matter to living people?
PG feels the pain that Jesus has caused him on a daily basis. He is not likely to change his mind about this religion, no matter how many people talk about it. It is unlikely that very many Jesus worshipers have changed their mind either…questioning your beliefs is the opposite of “faith”, and many are scared of going to hell if they have the wrong opinions. Somehow, this is not how PG wants to live.
22 Words is a regular stop for PG. The idea is to say what you need to say in 22 words or less. The owner of the blog does not enforce this rule, and few commenters practice it. The opening serve of the thread was “Do difficult times make you more or less empathetic? For me the answer is both. Some struggles I’ve faced make me more understanding of others. But sometimes I feel like: “I got over it; why can’t you?” (36 words). The comments took on the colors of Jesus Worship, which is to be expected at TwentyTwoWords.
Chamblee54/ “I feel that way about life after death obsessed Jesus Worshipers. Is there an etymological link between arrogant and air head?” Christen “Speaking of life after death, I’m just starting Randy Alcorn’s book Heaven and very convinced on the importance of being much more focused on our life after death. What did you mean by that, Chamblee?” chamblee54 “I feel the emphasis placed on life after death is mistaken. I disagree with the Jesus worship beliefs on life after death.” christen “Thanks for the reply, chamblee. I think I’m either inexperienced in “the emphasis placed on life after death” debate/issue (?) and “Jesus worship beliefs” or just don’t understand what you’re saying. Either way, I know I can’t wait to be in that place with that person !”
At this point, PG saw the dialog spinning off topic. This was his fault, to a degree, and he felt a responsibility to bring it back into line. The suspicion was that Christen was a Jesus Worshiper, who had never questioned a set of beliefs handed to her. A key portion of this was the life after death issue, which to PG is a fundamental flaw with Jesus Worship Religion. (PG disagrees with the concept of attaining life after death through holding certain beliefs about Jesus. PG also disagrees with the emphasis place on life after death in Jesus Worship.)
Chamblee54 “This is starting to get off topic. I suspect you have never questioned the concept of acquiring life after death through beliefs.” That clocks in at precisely 22 words. The original comment was about acquiring life after death through belief in Jesus. To bring the comment under the 22 word limit, PG decided to eliminate the reference to Jesus. And there was a realization that the fundamental meaning of the comment was not changed. If the status of one’s soul post mortem can be changed by a belief during life…a highly suspect concept to PG…does it matter what the belief is?
The Burning Of Atlanta
Around this time 152 years ago, Atlanta was on fire. General Sherman was preparing for his March to the sea, and wanted to destroy anything of value in the city. The fire is reported as being on 11-15 of November, depending on what source you use.
The November fire was the second great fire in Atlanta that year. On September 2, the city was conquered by the Union Army. The fleeing Confederates blew up a munitions depot, and set a large part of the city on fire. This is the fire Scarlet O’Hara flees in “Gone With The Wind”.
After a series of bloody battles, the city was shelled by Yankee forces for forty days. There were many civilian casualties. General Sherman was tired of the war, angry at Atlanta, and ready for action. This is despite the fact that many in Atlanta were opposed to secession.
Click here to hear a lecture by Marc Wortman at the Atlanta History Center. Mr Wortman is the author of “The Bonfire: The Siege and Burning of Atlanta”. The hour of talk is fascinating. This is a repost. The pictures are from The Library of Congress
About this time every year, there is a post about the burning of Atlanta. One of the sources is a lecture by Marc Wortman. If you have an hour to spare, this talk is worth your time. One of the stories told is the tale of Mr. Luckie.
“According to folklore, two stories abound as to how Luckie Street was named. The first is that its moniker came from one of Atlanta’s oldest families, and the other, probably closer to the truth, regales the life of Solomon “Sam” Luckie. Luckie, as it turns out, wasn’t so lucky after all. When General William Tecumseh Sherman first came marching through Atlanta in 1864, Luckie, a free Black man who made his living as a barber, was leaning against a gas lamp post in downtown talking to a group of businessmen. A burst from a cannon shell wounded him; he survived, but later died from his injuries. Folklore suggests that he may have been one of the first casualties of the assault on Atlanta during Sherman’s March to the Sea, and Luckie Street, an extension of the city’s famed Sweet Auburn Avenue, was later named in his memory.”
Marc Wortman wrote a book, The Bonfire: The Siege and Burning of Atlanta. The one star review, and comments to that review, are unusually detailed. Here is a selection.
“…People forget – or were never taught in school – that most Confederate soldiers descended from Revolutionary War patriots or were up-country poor sons of farmers. Many Confederate soldiers were relatively recent new arrivals to the U.S., semi-literate dirt poor immigrants from Ireland and Scotland who’d never had the chance to own even an acre of their own land in Europe. In the mix were well-educated, elite merchant business owning French Huguenot refugees of the Catholic Bourbon genocide of Protestants. These immigrants had nowhere else to go, 9 times out of 10 never owned a slave, and fought for the CSA to keep what little they’d hardscrabble carved out over a decade of arrival into the U.S.”
The War Between The States continues to be a source of controversy. After the Charleston church killings, many comments were made about the Confederate battle flag. (If you can’t talk about gun control or mental health, you talk about a symbol.) This led to discussions about the war itself. There were ritual denunciations of slavery, which was assumed to be the sole cause of the conflict. The fact that the vast majority of white southerners did not own slaves was dismissed.
The notion of autonomous states in a federal union was novel when the United States Constitution was written. The debate over federalism versus states rights continues to this day. States that want to legalize marijuana may be the next battleground. (Few are expecting secession over bong rights.) Many in the CSA saw the Union as being a conquering army, and fought to defend their homes. While slavery was certainly a factor in the creation of the CSA, it was not the only Casus belli. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
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