Chamblee54

The Inevitable War

Posted in Weekly Notes by chamblee54 on December 23, 2024


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Jesse Singal: Bluesky Has a Death Threat Problem It was supposed to be a gentler …
Bluesky Must Enforce its Community Guidelines Equally 25,236 verified signatures
Jeffrey Sachs: The Inevitable War With Iran, and Biden’s Attempts to Sabotage Trump
Smells Like American Spirit In my life, I’ve witnessed three elite salespeople at work. …
Atlanta’s Morningside Neighborhood Shaken by Discovery of Body in Nature Preserve
Paedophile snared by vigilantes after sickening messages to ‘child’ Cameron …
Three Decades of Bad Foreign Policy | Robert Wright & Scott Horton
Water war heats up: Israel seizes Syria’s Al-Wahda dam in strategic military push
Ritchie Blackmore About Why Rockers CAN’T STAND Jimmy Page
when normal people say the word woke, what they’re thinking of
You’ve Been Told You Need a Cardiac Cath Procedure. Now What?
Joshua Harris posts ‘updated’ apology to LGBT community, for ‘I Kissed Dating Goodbye’
looking for alaska · shackjob betty · i135 · heterodorx · matthew 6
i137 · i138 · tucker carlson · pcrf/unwra · hotep jesus/dsmith
samsung wma · repost · allan gurganus · michael.chabon · ostfront · rico suave
this tweet directed my attention to a video about the attack on the USS Liberty. ” @coldxman The only thing I learned from this video is that Candace Owens does not know how to pronounce “Sinai” or “Napalm”, which is, to put it gently, on brand.” · “Get the latest news on antisemitism Sign up for crucial updates on antisemitism in our region and how the crisis in Israel and Gaza is impacting our local Jewish community. Join 16,000+ readers who stay informed with J. The Jewish News” · A tweet by @tcboyle became a writing prompt. @MichealChabon started using twitter in 213 weeks ago. “AND, Huge: You can paste a *clickable* link directly into a post! Also: owner is not evil.” Link in the comments · “Lou Reed is a prick and a jerkoff who regularly commits the ultimate sin of treating his audience with contempt. He’s also a person with deep compassion for a great many other people about whom almost nobody else gives a shit. I don’t want to get too schmaltzy, except to emphasize that there’s always been more to this than drugs and fashionable kinks, and to point out that suffering, loneliness and psychic/spiritual exile are great levelers.” Lester Bangs, 14 June 1979 Rolling Stone · @esaagar I am listening to “Ghosts of the Ostfront” because of what you said on @lexfridman I am struck by the similarities between Germany’s war of annihilation in the Soviet Union, and what Israel is doing in Gaza today. · Someone gave a talk about history. ”Liars, like historians and politicians, tend to overdocument.” ”Myth is gossip grown old.” ”the term historical fiction sounds as pitifully redundant as … having ‘oxygen breather’ stamped on your driver’s license.” ”History is agreed-upon hearsay granted tenure.” · Happy Solstice · “”One-man band at Davis Brothers Restaurant, Atlanta” LBCB032-053a 1952-04-07 · I was doing my walk. I hit on the idea of counting my breaths, using the goddess names. Inhale and think, Isis zero, isis one, isis two, etc. Exhale, say my mantra. When I got to diana nine … the last goddess, and the last breath, the timer went off · when normal people say the word woke, what they’re thinking of · @ComicDaveSmith @UncleHotep @hotepjesus @lexfridman.bsky.social · the other day, I was working on my solstice meme, while listening to @lexfridman.bsky.social and @esaagar.bsky.social Saagar said something I wanted to make a clip of. Meanwhile, the meme is not going to make itself. · 99% invisible has a story about Alfred Nobel seeing a mistaken obituary, and deciding to change his image. The story has problems. I heard the Alfred Nobel story once, and decided to investigate. I found a picture. It had a photograph of the headline … in English … in a newspaper called L’Idiotie Quotadine (Quotadine Idiocy.) · This is a repost from 2015. “Thoughts and prayers” is now seen as a laughable cliche. … · Jesus was not fond of showtime prayer. Matthew 6:7 “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.” This is something his followers forget about. · Matthew 6:5-7 5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. 7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. · selah

Prayer Shaming

Posted in Library of Congress, Religion, Undogegorized by chamblee54 on December 22, 2024

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This is a repost from 2015. “Thoughts and prayers” is now seen as a laughable cliche. … Prayer shaming entered the vocabulary this week. Some moving lips were offering “thoughts and prayers” to the victims of the latest commodity shooting. Some pundits thought it odd to offer T&P. Many of the people offering T&P are shameless attention mongers.

Many religions have prayer. The idea is that you talk to God. Sometimes it is a public ritual, sometimes it a private conversation. The star of the Christian religion, Jesus, is quoted as favoring private conversations. This does not stop his believers from making a grotesque spectacle of prayer.

The sad truth is that many of the praying perps talk too much. Telling them to talk is like telling an alcoholic to take a drink. Talking is seen as taking action, while listening is seen as being passive. This is just one of the problems in our culture.

Whenever there is a mass shooting, people say a lot of silly things. They argue the semantics of terrorism. There is two wrongs make a right rhetoric about race. In america, if you can’t say anything worthwhile, you talk about race. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.

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Why I Should Not Multitask

Posted in History, Holidays, Library of Congress by chamblee54 on December 21, 2024


The other day, I was minding my business. Solstice was approaching, and I wanted to make a meme to celebrate. I typed “Happy Solstice.” A picture was chosen … “One-man band at Davis Brothers Restaurant, Atlanta, 04-07-1952.” Other pictures today are from The Library of Congress.

Meanwhile, I needed to listen to something. Youtube makes suggestions, based on what big brother decides. Today it was Lex Fridman talking to Saagar Enjeti. Both men have a few smarts, and enough inconvenient opinions to gather haters. If I only listened to people nobody complains about, I would live in a world of silence.

A problem with multitasking on youtube is the temptation to make a clip. It is fairly easy. First, I hear something I want to save. Get the code, determine the start time and end time, and fill in the blanks. Unfortunately, this means you have to shift your focus, away from the task at hand.

The first time I heard this dialogue, Saagar said something about Ghosts of the Ostfront. GOTO is a Hardcore History series about the Soviet-German part of World War II. This is seldom mentioned in the United States, but was crucial to defeating Nazi Germany. Unfortunately, the Soviet Union was forced to pay an appalling cost.

After hearing about GOTO, I found the audio file. It was over four hours long, which is typical for Hardcore History. Dan Carlin goes into great detail, and is reasonably neutral. If you want someone to tell you who the bad guy is, there are other sources. In the case of Nazi Germany vs the Soviet Union, many people say there were no good guys, only bad evil against worse evil.

The solstice meme was coming into shape, slowly. A previous copy of the image was not working, and I had to find the original. A template had to be fashioned, to fit the text into the best part of the picture. The meme model was created. I decided to fit “Happy Solstice” on the bottom of his tuxedo. I was cropping the image to facilitate this, when Saagar made his comment about the Ostfront. I had to stop work on the picture, and get the clip.

“Again shout out to Dan Carlin. … I’ve never met you before, I would love to correspond at some point. I love you so much you changed my life man. … I think his best series one of his best series he gets no credit for Ghost of the Ostfront. … This is a 2011 series … on the Eastern front of the Nazi war against Russia, fundamentally changed my view of warfare forever. At that time I was very young, and to me World War II was Saving Private Ryan. I wasn’t as well read as I am now … this entire thing happened which actually decided the second world war and I don’t know anything about this.”

One thing about a series like GOTO is comparisons to other wars. At the start of Operation Barbarossa, some Germans speculated that the Wehrmacht would need to kill thirty million people to gain Lebensraum. In 2024, we see headlines like this: “Israel Needs ‘Lebensraum’ Says Blog by Major National Newspaper.”

After making this clip, it was time to avoid distractions, and finish the meme. When this project is over, future distractions will find me. Soon, the meme was finished. The text file was saved, and used for another meme. This is based on a November 1940 photograph. “Mr. Timothy Levy Crouch, a Rogerine Quaker, living in Ledyard CT, finishing up his Thanksgiving dinner. Mr. Crouch is a stonemason by profession and lives on his farm where a little farming is done.”

One Should Never

Posted in Poem by chamblee54 on December 20, 2024

United States Of Amnesia

Posted in Georgia History, GSU photo archive, History, Undogegorized by chamblee54 on December 19, 2024

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I stumbled onto a podcast of Allan Gurganus speaking at a literary event in Key West. Mr. Gurganus, bless his heart, is a good writer. As a public speaker, the jury is “out.”

This particular literary event concerned historical fiction. Tom Robbins went on a tear once, comparing animal husbandry to history. With one, you combine blood lines to create a superior breed. With the other, you mix “facts” to create an inspiring story. With both animal husbandry and history, you are frequently up to your ankles in shit.

Mr. Gurganus trotted out a bunch of quotable lines. ”Liars like historians and politicians tend to overdocument.” ”Myth is gossip grown old.” ”the term historical fiction sounds as pitifully redundant as, say, creative writing. … It’s like having ‘oxygen breather’ stamped on your driver’s license.” ”History is agreed-upon hearsay granted tenure.”

The first time I tried to listen to the Gurganus speech, the cliche slinging got too thick, and the player triangle was turned into the parallel lines. Or maybe it was the parallel lines turned into the triangle. In any event, the speakers quit making sounds. This option is not available live.

The second time I tried to listen to the Gurganus speech, the line about hearsay granted tenure stuck. Mr. Google was consulted, and found a nice website for the literary event. Another speaker at said event was Gore Vidal. Finally, Mr. Gurganus wore out my patience.  It was time to download the appearance by Mr. Vidal.

The emcee said, “I don’t want to steal your jokes, but you said that this is the United States of Amnesia.” Mr. Vidal said, “I don’t remember that.” This is going to be fun. Photographs for this repost are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.

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Odor In The Court

Posted in Undogegorized by chamblee54 on December 18, 2024


Odor In The Court was a blog post fourteen years ago. OITC is a collection of real things that people, and attorneys, said under oath. They are allegedly taken from a book, Disorder in the American Courts … If you look at the one-star comments, you learn that this is a book of cartoons, with courtroom quotes for captions. This is why God Google supplies a list of these items.

q: : What is your date of birth? a: : July fifteenth. q: : What year? a: : Every year.
q: : What gear were you in at the moment of the impact? a: : Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
q: : This myasthenia gravis. Does it affect your memory at all? a: : Yes.
q: : And in what ways does it affect your memory? a: : I forget.
q: : You forget. Can you give us an example of something that you’ve forgotten?

q: : what was the first thing your husband said to you when he woke up that morning?
a: : he said, “where am i, doris?” q: : and why did that upset you? a: : my name is susan.
q: :Are you sexually active? a: :No. I just lie there.
q: :any suggestions as to what prevented this from being a murder trial instead of an attempted murder trial? a: :the victim lived.

q: : Do you know if your daughter has ever been involvedin voodoo or the occult?
a: : We both do. q: : Voodoo? a: : We do. q: : You do? a: : Yes, voodoo.
q: : Trooper, when you stopped the defendant, were your red and blue lights flashing?
a: : Yes. q: : Did the defendant say anything when she got out of her car? a: : Yes, sir.
q: : What did she say? a: : What disco am I at?

q: : How many times have you committed suicide? a: : Four times.
q: : Have you lived in this town all your life? a: : Not yet.
q: : How far apart were the vehicles at the time of the collision?
q: : Doctor, did you say he was shot in the woods?
a: : No, I said he was shot in the lumbar region.

q: : Were you acquainted with the deceased? a: : Yes sir. q: : Before or after he died?
q: : : “What happened then? a: : He told me, he says, ‘I have to kill you because
you can identify me.’ q: : Did he kill you? a: : : “No.
q: : Can you describe the individual? a: : He was about medium height and had a beard.
q: : Was this a male, or a female?
q: : Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
a: : All my autopsies are performed on dead people.
q: : All your responses must be oral, OK? What school did you go to? a: : Oral.

q: : Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
a: : The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m. q: : And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time?
a: : No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy.
q: : Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse? a: : No.
q: : Did you check for blood pressure? a: : No. q: : Did you check for breathing? a: : No.
q: : So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy? a: : No.
q: : How can you be so sure, Doctor? a: : Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.

The @MichaelChabon Story

Posted in Library of Congress, Undogegorized by chamblee54 on December 17, 2024


@tcboyle While searching the New Yorker stories, I stumbled across this shot from the distant past by Richard Avedon. We call this one, “The Noble Savage.” (Avedon himself kept fluffing out the hair in back to achieve the desired look.) @chamblee54 The first time I heard of you was in a New Yorker fiction issue. You were in a group picture, and you were rocking the desired look. The only other one I remember was Michael Chabon. Why would a gay man remember him?

When typing that reply, I wanted to include an x-address for Mr. Chabon. Google did not want to give me one, but it did have a link. After abandoning Instagram in disgust, @MichaelChabon is speaking his mind on Twitter When you click on @MichaelChabon, you get a familiar message. “@michaelchabon This account doesn’t exist Try searching for another.”

The link aroused my curiosity. Before I could get to the story, there was a pop-up ad in the way. “Get the latest news on antisemitism … Sign up for crucial updates on antisemitism in our region and how the crisis in Israel and Gaza is impacting our local Jewish community. … Join 16,000+ readers who stay informed with J. The Jewish News”

When you get around that digital roadblock, the story has a “header.” “INTEREST-FREE DEBT CONSOLIDATION LOANS … HEBREW FREE LOAN … INTEREST FREE LENDING SINCE 1897″ The logo for HFL has a Star of David. The center, and three of the triangles are green. Three of the triangles are blue, and connected to semi-circles. The three blue arrows go round and round.

The article was published August 18, 2021. It is dated. “First selfie on @verotruesocial. Impressions so far: attractive interface. Takes about 5 mins to grasp fundamental differences from IG. Really easy and convenient to post book, film/tv and music recs. AND, Huge: You can paste a *clickable* link directly into a post! Also: owner is not evil.”

“I thought, I’ve had this Twitter account forever, and I had some followers that accumulated over the years even though I never tweeted, so let me go over to Twitter and see what that’s like. … While Twitter “has not been a paragon of integrity,” he asserted that the company has done a “much better” job than Facebook of protecting its users and their data. Plus, “they [permanently] banned Trump, and I appreciated that.”

In the last 213 weeks, a few things have changed. @MichaelChabon has gone to the land of ex-tweeters. 18 hours ago, michael.chabon displayed a picture of his wife’s arm tattoo on instagram. mollyjongfast “Why do I want a tattoo now?”

Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the featured photograph in May 1942. “San Juan Bautista, California. Schoolchildren who were collecting scrap metal for war.”

The Science Communicator

Posted in Library of Congress, Weekly Notes by chamblee54 on December 16, 2024


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Jeff “Skunk” Baxter: Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, and the Sound of an Era
Alleged nude selfie of Luigi Mangione leaks after arrest in Brian Thompson murder case
Hank Green to deliver MIT’s 2025 Commencement address The science communicator …
Demand the Removal of Jesse Singal from the “Blocked and Reported” Podcast
Holland Township family angry that supermarket won’t personalize cake for their son
Words we think we know, but can’t pronounce: the curse of the avid reader
Men Fear Other Men Most: Gender Specific Brain Activations in Perceiving Threat …
Israel’s Syria Invasion Exposes Impunity And Hypocrisy – w/ Omar Baddar
Jeremy Scahill REACTS: Assad FALLS, Israel MOVES In, Biden Celebrates
Syria’s elections: “The legitimate, democratic expression of the Syrian people.”
Scott Ritter: The Fall of Assad and its consequences in Syria and Beyond
Israel has invaded Syria – with Western complicity This is a blatant land grab – and …
meaning of, and in, McDonald’s My favorite franchise can’t seem to get out of the news
US adults are getting worse at reading and math Out of 31 industrialized …
octagon · piano mix · ambient mix · lowlight 038 · brookhaven
2girls1cup · repost · urban legend · uss liberty · brookhaven dog park
shackjob betty · pinkerite · jarrett simpson · Hoagy Carmicheal · Hoagy Carmicheal · penny/neely
zen browser · luigi mangione · lyre · luigi mangione · smart bitches
jeff baxter · lene lovich · nasa archive · college confidential · francis joins the wacs
prehistoric women · lady frankenstein · song of the south · warhol’s frankenstein
heavens gate · the deer hunter · Belkî Sibê · pope francis · dui crash · zen browser
this is the documentation of another week wasted on the internet. The picture is from the Library of Congress, taken by John Collier in August 1941. “Cadets ready to mount into their planes after a hearty dinner of fried chicken. Craig Field, Southeastern Air Training Center, Selma, Alabama” · Documentation of another week on the internet. Picture by John Collier, August 1941. “Cadet R.T. Neal feels well satisfied after a dinner of fried chicken supplied by FSA clients of Coffee County AL. Craig Field, Southeastern Air Training Center. Selma AL” Link Below. · RwA ethics committee report · Romance Writers of America® · Nothing says Christmas cheer like a racism complaint about a romance novel. The picture today is “Little girl in kitchen of farm home. Sheridan County MT” Russell Lee took the photograph in November, 1937. · the legend is that Gene Autry had a recording session. The planned tracks went quickly, and there was studio time and musicians available. Someone passed out copies of “Rudolph the red nosed reindeer.” The rest is history. Links in comments. · “Rudolph the red nosed reindeer” is a beloved Christmas classic, without the troubling religious implications of many other holiday songs. · The featured photograph was taken by Russell Lee in May 1942. “San Benito County CA. Japanese-Americans at picnic.” · A New Jersey couple tried to get a grocery store to make a birthday cake for their son, Adolph Hitler Campbell. While the first store declined, they did find a WalMart to make the cake. The featured photograph was taken by Russell Lee in May 1942. “San Benito County CA. Japanese-Americans at picnic.” · @coldxman The only thing I learned from this video is that Candace Owens does not know how to pronounce “Sinai” or “Napalm”, which is, to put it gently, on brand. · What is 2girls1cup? The daring work of art is an allegory for the concept of spiritual awakening. It examines the prevalent ideologies that are internalized in our culture. The thematic piece tends to raise more questions than answers. · I just shared a video, W***e T***h C******s. I don’t know if f******k is still giving strikes for insensitive content, so I took it down. If you want to see the video, look for my blog post later. · I have always enjoyed seeing pictures with mustaches drawn on them. I found some super tacky images like this from 2009. With a couple of these people, I could barely remember why they were important. · anotherdayanotherplay Private Site: This site is currently private. Log in to WordPress.com to request access. · Google did not show me this site. Duckduckgo did. · pictures today are from The Library of Congress · selah

Lady In An SUV

Posted in Georgia History by chamblee54 on December 15, 2024


These old posts are a gift that keeps giving. This 2009 episode has a joke, that you probably have heard before. It is behind the Atlantic’s paywall now, but is here for free. If you want to read it, you can go to the link.

Two videos are embedded. Jingle Bell – Punjabi Tadka is a south asian take on a holiday classic. White Trash Christmas is a documentary about America’s heartland.

“I just shared a video, W***e T***h C******s. I don’t know if f******k is still giving strikes for insensitive content, so I took it down. If you want to see the video, look for my blog post later.” In 2009, facebook did not object to the phrase “White Trash.” Fifteen years later, you have to be careful what you say, or think.

The best part of this 2009 feature is the pictures. I have always enjoyed drawing mustaches on pictures. Here are facial hair enabled renderings of 2009 celebrities. Teddy Kennedy and Micheal Jackson went to a better place in 2009, followed in 2021 by Rush Limbaugh. Hillary Clinton was instrumental in the 2016 election of whatshisname. Nobody is sure what Sarah Palin is doing now.

The second feature to be recycled today is a true story. It could have been written yesterday. In the past fifteen years, the bridge over Nancy Creek has been rebuilt, and is not as treacherous as before. The rest of the roads are little better, and the drivers are worse.

Open letter to the lady in the SUV You were behind me on Johnson Ferry Road, between Peachtree Industrial and Ashford Dunwoody. You were following too close, and wandering from side to side of the lane, as if to tell me to drive faster. I was going the speed limit and was not in the mood to violate the law. It was a two lane road, and there was no need to go faster.

After the first red light, there was about two hundred feet of an extra lane. You sped around me, and got in front to turn left. You had an SUV, with bumper stickers from Emory, William and Mary, and the Human Rights Campaign Fund. I choose not to advertise on my vehicle. If I donated money to a useless outfit like HRCF, I would be quiet about it.

The next section of Johnson Ferry was a two lane road with a 35 mph speed limit. This road was built before  subdivisions and apartments, back in an era when 35 mph was pretty fast. There is a bridge at the bottom of the hill over Nancy Creek, which is kinda rough. I like to slow down a bit before crossing it. You drove fast until you came to a car ahead. You seemed to be following it too close. If there had been a need for a sudden stop, you might not have been able to stop your SUV in time.

The light at the top of the hill was green, and we went on through to the light at Peachtree Dunwoody, across from the hospitals. You were in the middle lane, and I was in the right lane, next to you at the light. All that type A driving had done you no good. The tailgating, the unsafe passing, the weaving from side to side…. all that did was make your fellow drivers nervous. You still wound up in the same place. You put the lives of others in danger, and you did not gain a thing.

Philosophy Of 2Girls1Cup

Posted in Georgia History, Holidays, Library of Congress by chamblee54 on December 14, 2024


A few years ago, the video “2girls1cup” was the rage of the day. A trailer for a trash Brazilian movie, the featurette shows two buxom young ladies sharing a plastic cup. The contents of the cup are supposed to be human waste … many suspect it is chocolate ice cream. Later, one of the players shares a technicolor yawn with the other. A plastic supply tube may be a prop.

The video is not in wide circulation today. If you go to the original site, you see 2girls1cup.com nothing but porn, another opportunity to buy smut. It is just as well. Before posting a live address, it is time for the DISCLAIMER.

It is not suggested that you watch this. If you are sensitive, have a heart condition, or have just eaten (like, in the last month), you may want to look at something else. 2g1c is gross, disgusting, and without redeeming social value. 2g1c is not safe for work, and has great danger for play.

The original film is available at a .ca web address. This commentary goes with it:
What is Two Girls One Cup ? Two girls one cup (aka 2 girls 1 cup & cup video) is a trailer that was released in 2007 for the artistic film “Hungry Bitches” made by MFX Media. The daring work of art is an allegory for the concept of spiritual awakening. It examines the prevalent ideologies that are internalized in our culture, and in true post-modern form; the thematic piece tends to raise more questions than answers. The philosophical film has varying interpretations, which is why the 2 girls 1 cup film is still analyzed and debated about to this date.
Chamblee54 has weighed in on this “matter” before. If you google “2girls1cup snopes,” Philosophy Of 2Girls1Cup is result number five. The dreaded “number two” result was from the Urban Dictionary, 2 girls 1 cup scam. “It’s probably a mixture of coffee cream cake filling and crunchy peanut butter.”

I doubt that the creators of this epic had a message. They just wanted to make a bit of cheesy scat porn. Just because the creators of a work don’t intend for it to be a myth, that doesn’t stop the determined believer. Did the Council of Nicea intend their church canon to be taken as the inerrant Word of God? The texts in that canon were often allegorical stories, not literal truth.

Is there a deeper truth inherent in a tawdry vignette of snacking sisters? Maybe the cup is the Christ figure. The deposit in the cup represents the sin of mankind, forgiven through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Jesus took the sins of man on his shoulders, and paid the price for these sins, just as the cup received the product of a young lady’s digestive system.

The trouble is, the girls then ate the forbidden flop. This analogizes to the way the Xtian church recycles sin. The poisonous anger and rudeness that Jesus paid for on the cross are fed back to the eager believers every Sunday.

After the excremental dessert, the actress hurled onto the breast of her willing dining companion. This stands in for the verbal abuse showered on worshipers every Sunday. Professional Jesus Worshipers project a vile output on the pew warmers. They think they are going to heaven as a result. Was this the message the producers of this video intended? The best course of action might be refusing to partake of the product. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.

Birthday Cake

Posted in History, Holidays, Library of Congress, Religion by chamblee54 on December 13, 2024


I try to post something every day. When I am too lazy to write anything, I look in the archives. Today this took me to December 2008. Sixteen years ago was a simpler, gentler time. BHO had been elected POTUS, and many were optimistic. We were “winning” the war in Iraq. The smart phone was one year old. Sarah Palin was not going to be VPOTUS.

The idea at first was to take a post, gussy it up a bit, and repost it. The first post I saw was When Dogs Fly and You Clean Up. This was based on a list of questions that someone sent out as a joke email. “If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from? · Why do the Alphabet song and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” have the same tune? · Why did you just try singing the two songs above?”

Air Strikes Kill Children could be written today. “The headlines are so antiseptic… “Israel air strikes demolish Hamas compounds, over 200 dead” · It seems there is a pecking order for tragedy. When it is a Caucasian English speaking American, the media goes bonkers. A dark skinned American gets a more muted response. If the deceased lives in a foreign country, the response is a bit less. If the dead children live in a territory next to Israel, they might as well not exist in the first place. · It is a familiar story. The rockets were coming out of the Gaza Strip, and landing on Israel. The Israeli government decides to take action. No one is really sure how many of the dead were Hamas, and how many were children. Children born into a hell hole, who had no control over who their neighbor is. · The response is predictable. The spokesman for the White House said “Hamas’ continued rocket attacks into Israel must cease if the violence is to stop. The United States urges Israel to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas in Gaza.”

Then there is my dysfunctional relationship with Jesus, which can be challenging during the holidays. In between my hurt feelings, a blogger appears, with some information about “Historic Jesus.” “Israeli meteorologists best guess places the real date of Christ’s birth on September 29th, 5 BC. · The Catholic writer Mario Righetti admits that, “to facilitate the acceptance of the faith by the pagan masses, the Church of Rome found it convenient to institute the 25th of December as the feast of the birth of Christ to divert them from the pagan feast, celebrated on the same day in honor of the ‘Invincible Sun’ Mithras, the conqueror of darkness” (Manual of Liturgical History, 1955, Vol. 2, P. 67).”

This is starting to get depressing. Maybe we should end this with a feel good story. “The Clan Campbell is notorious in Scottish history. It seems as though there was a conflict with the MacDonalds, and a rather ugly incident in 1692. This might explain why the golden arch people do not serve soup. · The latest Campbell to make the news is Adolph Hitler Campbell. The three year old resident of Holland Township NJ is the sibling of JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell. The father, Heath Campbell, tried to get a birthday cake for young Adolph. The local Shop Rite store refused to put the name on the cake, saying it was inappropriate to send a birthday greeting to Adolph Hitler. A WalMart came to the rescue, and made a cake for young Adolph.” Let the good times roll.

Unfortunately, even the most uplifting stories can have unhappy endings. Reason Hitler Can’t Go Home: Alleged Abuse, Not Nazi Name “A New Jersey court decided that a couple should not regain custody of their three children — not because the parents named their children after prominent Nazis, but because of alleged abuse and parental incompetence, court documents state. · Heath and Deborah Campbell’s three small children were removed from their Holland Township home by the state in January 2009 after they asked a grocery store in Greenwich, N.J. to write “Adolf Hitler” on their son’s birthday cake and a media storm ensued. · While a local Wal-Mart honored the birthday cake request, Adolf Hitler Campbell and siblings JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell have been in foster care ever since. · The appeals court ruled Thursday that sufficient evidence of abuse or neglect existed. Court records state that both parents were victims of childhood abuse and both are unemployed and suffering from unspecified physical and psychological disabilities. · Neither Campbell has been adequately treated for their psychological conditions, court records said. Thirty-seven-year-old Heath can’t read and Deborah dropped out of high school before finishing the 10th grade. · But the most convincing piece of evidence may have been the note signed by Deborah and given to a neighbor, which was full of grammar and spelling mistakes: “Hes thrend to have me killed or kill me himself hes alread tried it a few times. Im afread that he might hurt my children if they are keeped in his care. He teaches my son how to kill someone at the age of 3.”

Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The featured photograph was taken by Russell Lee in May 1942. “San Benito County CA. Japanese-Americans at picnic.”

Rudolph

Posted in Holidays, Library of Congress, Music by chamblee54 on December 12, 2024


Someone posted a bit of revisionism about a holiday classic. As he sees it, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” is about racism.

In a bit of yuletime synchronicity, the urban mythbusters at Snopes posted a piece about Rudolph the same day. It seems as though the Rudolph story was originally written for the Montgomery Ward Stores. The idea was to print a Christmas booklet to give to customers. A staff writer named Robert L. May was picked for the job.

Originally, there were concerns about the red nose, and the connection to heavy drinking. At the time, the original meaning of “merry christmas” had been forgotten. Merry meant intoxicated, and a merry christmas was a drunken one. The booklet was released. It was a big hit with shoppers.

Mr. May had a brother in law named Johnny Marks, who was musically gifted. Mr. Marks wrote the song, and somehow or another Gene Autry came to sing it. A story (which I heard once, but cannot find a source for) had Mr. Autry doing a recording session. The session went very smoothly, and the sides scheduled to be recorded were finished early. There was a half hour of studio time paid for. Someone produced copies of “Rudolph”, gave them to the musicians, and the recording was knocked out. It became a very big hit.

“Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” has become a beloved standard, without the troubling religious implications of many holiday songs. It is the second biggest selling record of all time. The only song to sell more is “White Christmas”.

The story above is a repost. Pictures are from The Library of Congress.