Religion And Perfume
Religion and perfume have several things in common. They are both fun to smell, but dangerous to swallow. A tasteful drop behind the ear is pleasant. Too much, and you will run from the room gasping for breath. Both are cheap products, sold in a fancy bottle, at a steep markup.
Before easy access to water, people did not bathe every day. To cover up the aroma of human existence, many used fragrances. This too is similar to the function of religion.
Perfume has been considered a feminine product. In a clever marketing move, a masculine scent was called cologne, and sold to men. Religion is gross to many people, so it is sold as faith.
Smell is a driving force in animal behavior. Ants used smell to communicate, and perform feats in numbers which would be impossible as individuals. Smells go directly to the brain, without filtering and processing like sounds, sights, and tastes. Religion is the emotional equivalent of odors. This is a repost. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
What Denomination Are You?
This feature was written in 2014. The link to the quiz no longer works. There have been changes in the laws, and attitudes, of our society. … The fbf put up a link to an internet quiz, What Christian Denomination Should You Actually Be a Part Of? As the reader(s) of this blog might discern, I am an acknowledged non christian. My favorite denomination is the twenty.
The first question is “What is the source of your beliefs?” The choices include scripture, uncertainty, conscience, and people who talk about scripture. This question presupposes the omnipotence of the belief paradigm. In other words, not everyone feels that what you believe is a big deal.
I have three “fundamental” beliefs regarding xtianity. God does not write books. Jesus has nothing to do with life after death. It is none of your business. Are these concepts an allergic reaction to years of christian noise, both joyful and joyless? Is it a weary soul talking common sense? Who came first, the chicken, or the egg? Do you really need to know?
The second question is “how is one “saved?”” This is a big deal to Jesus worshipers. The xtian obsession with life after death makes me want to run screaming. The seldom heard option offered here is “I don’t know/no opinion.”
One concept is that what happens to the dead is none of the living’s business. Maybe, if you have faith in God, things will turn out ok. When you devote every sunday morning to screaming about so called salvation, you advertise a lack of faith in God.
Third is “what are your opinions on war?” This is one of those contradictions. You just have to understand. An abortion is bloody murder. When Israel shells a school housing refugees, it is justifiable self defense. The reconciliation of beliefs and practices is a source of brain damage. This is not a spiritually uplifting practice.
In many questions, you must choose the least bad answer. This is typical. For what type of worship suits you, being home churched is not an option. For what definition of the trinity best describes your belief, there are no good answers. I feel that the concept of a triune God is a grotesque violation of the First commandment.
The first commandment says to have no other God before you. In Jesus worship, this one God expands to at least six: God, Jesus, Holy Ghost, The Bible, Satan, and Salvation.
There are a few more questions. There is a Catholic slant to this quiz, with emphasis on the Virgin Mary. There is the concept that authority in today’s church was passed down from the disciples. Hopefully, Judas was not included. Finally, there is a question about Gay marriage. Maybe this quiz was designed by a Catholic divorce lawyer.
The answer was probably as good as could be expected. “You should really be Non-Denominational! You’ve never understood why people get so caught up with labels, creeds, and institutions. For you, faith is what matters. You have a personal relationship with God and you’re not so worried about being a member of any specific group or sect. You enjoy Bible study, casual gatherings, and a church where everyone is welcome regardless of theological labels.”
Whatever. Why study a book that teaches people to hate you? Maybe the advertisers at this quiz are getting a spiritual return on their investment. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
The Funeral Of Elvis
This is a repost. I was going to write about some depressing subject. People that are not kind to each other. People in Israel and people in Gaza just don’t seem to get along. Either Donald John Trump or Kamala Devi Harris is going to be our next President. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
There is a saying, “if a story seems too bad to be true, it probably isn’t”. I tried to google that phrase, and got confused. Then he seemed to remember reading it in a column by Molly Ivins. Another google adventure, and there was this video. Miss Ivins, who met her maker January 31, 2007, was promoting a book. She sat down with a bald headed man to talk about it. I could only listen to 24:30 of this video before being seized with the urge to write a story. There is a transcript, which makes “borrowing” so much easier. This film has 34 minutes to go, which just might yield another story.
Molly Ivins was a Texas woman. These days there is a lot of talk about Texas, with Governor Big Hair aiming to be the next POTUS under indictment. Mr. Perry claims that his record as Texas Governor qualifies him to have his finger on the nuclear trigger. Miss Ivins repeats something that I had heard before… “in our state we have the weak governor system, so that really not a great deal is required of the governor, not necessarily to know much or do much. And we’ve had a lot of governors who did neither. “ It makes you wonder how much of that “economic miracle” is because of hair spray.
Texas politics makes about as much sense as Georgia politics. For a lady, with a way with words, it is a gold mine. “the need you have for descriptive terms for stupid when you write about Texas politics is practically infinite. Now I’m not claiming that our state Legislature is dumber than the average state Legislature, but it tends to be dumb in such an outstanding way. It’s, again, that Texas quality of exaggeration and being slightly larger than life. And there are a fair number of people in the Texas Legislature of whom it could fairly be said, `If dumb was dirt, they would cover about an acre.’ And I’m not necessarily opposed to that. I’m–agree with an old state senator who always said that, `If you took all the fools out of the Legislature, it would not be a representative body anymore.'”
We could go through this conversation for a long time, but you probably want to skip ahead and look at pictures. There is one story in this transcript that is too good not to borrow. For some reason, Molly Ivins went to work for The New York Times, aka the gray lady. In August of 1977, she was in the right place at the right time.
Mr. LAMB: And how long did you spend with The New York Times as a reporter?
Ms. IVINS: Six years with The New York Times. Some of it in New York as a political reporter at City Hall in Albany and then later as bureau chief out in the Rocky Mountains.
Mr. LAMB: Would you take a little time and tell us about reporting on the funeral of Elvis Presley?
Ms. IVINS: Oh, now there is something that when I’ve been standing in the checkout line at the grocery store and if I really need to impress people, I just let fall that I covered Elvis’ funeral. And, boy, people just practically draw back with awe. It may yet turn out to be my greatest claim to fame.
I was sitting in The New York City Times one day when I noticed a whole no–knot of editors up around the desk having a–a great scrum of concern, you could tell. It looked sort of like an anthill that had just been stepped on. And it turns out–The New York Times has a large obituary desk, and they prepare obituaries for anybody of prominence who might croak. But it turns out–you may recall that Elvis Presley died untimely and they were completely unprepared.
Now this is an enormous news organization. They have rock music critics and classical music critics and opera critics, but they didn’t have anybody who knew about Elvis Presley’s kind of music. So they’re lookin’ across a whole acre of reporters, and you could see them decide, `Ah-ha, Ivins. She talks funny. She’ll know about Mr. Presley.’
So I wound up writing Elvis’ obituary for The New York Times. I had to refer to him throughout as Mr. Presley. It was agonizing. That’s the style at The New York Times–Mr. Presley. Give me a break. And the next day they sold more newspapers than they did after John Kennedy was assassinated, so that even the editors of The New York Times, who had not quite, you know, been culturally aton–tuned to Elvis, decided that we should send someone to report on the funeral. And I drew that assignment. What a scene it was.
Mr. LAMB: You–you say in the book that you got in the cab and you said, `Take me to Graceland.’ The cabbie peels out of the airport doing 80 and then turns full around to the backseat and drawls, `Ain’t it a shame Elvis had to die while the Shriners are in town?’
Ms. IVINS: That’s exactly what he said. `Shame Elvis had to die while the Shriners are in town.’ And I kind of raised by eyebrows. And sure enough, I realized what he–what he meant after I had been there for awhile because, you know, Shriners in convention–I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a whole lot of Shriners in convention, but they were having a huge national convention that very week in Memphis. And they tend to wear their little red fezzes, and sometimes they drink too much and they march around the hotel hallways tooting on New Year’s Eve horns and riding those funny little tricycles and generally cutting up and having a good time. That’s your Shriners in convention, always something very edifying and enjoyable to watch. But they–every–every hotel room in Memphis was occupied with celebrating Shriners, and then Elvis dies and all these tens of thousands of grieving, hysterical Elvis Presley fans descend on the town.
So you got a whole bunch of sobbing, hysterical Elvis fans, you got a whole bunch of cavorting Shriners. And on top of that they were holding a cheerleading camp. And the cheerleading camp–I don’t know if your memory–with the ethos of the cheerleading camp, but the deal is that every school sends its team–team of cheerleaders to cheerleading camp.
And your effort there at the camp is to win the spirit stick, which looks, to the uninitiated eye, a whole lot like a broom handle painted red, white and blue. But it is the spirit stick. And should your team win it for three days running, you get to keep it. But that has never happened. And the way you earn the spirit stick is you show most spirit. You cheer for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You cheer when the pizza man brings the pizza. You do handsprings end over end down the hallway to the bathroom. I tell you, those young people will throw–show an amount of spirit that would just astonish you in an effort to win that stick.
So here I was for an entire week, dealing with these three groups of people: the young cheerleaders trying to win the spirit stick, the cavorting Shriners and the grieving, hysterical Elvis fans. And I want to assure you that The New York Times is not the kind of newspaper that will let you write about that kind of rich human comedy.
Mr. LAMB: Why?
Ms. IVINS: Because The New York Times, at least in my day, was a very stuffy, pompous newspaper.
Mr. LAMB: What about today?
Ms. IVINS: A little bit better, little bit better than it was.
Mr. LAMB: And…
Ms. IVINS: Has–has–it has a tendency, recidivist tendencies, though. You–you will notice if you read The Times, it–it collapses into pomposity and stuffiness with some regularity.
Mr. LAMB: Why did you leave it?
Ms. IVINS: Well, I–I actually got into trouble at The New York City Times for describing a community chu–chicken killing out West as a gang pluck. Abe Rosenthal was then the editor of the Times and he was not amused.
Mr. LAMB: Did–but did they let it go? Did they let it…
Ms. IVINS: Oh, no. It never made it in the paper. Good heavens, no. Such a thing would never get in The Times in my day.
POSTSCRIPT I found some pictures, marked up the text, and was ready to post the story. He decided to listen to a bit more of the discussion between Molly Ivins and the bald headed man. When he got to this point, it became apparent that he could listen to Molly Ivins talk, or he could post his story, but he could not do both at the same time.
Ms. IVINS: Oh, well, of course, I’m gonna make fun of it. I mean, Berkeley, California, if you are from Texas, is just hilarious.
Mr. LAMB: Why?
Ms. IVINS: Well, of course, it is just the absolute center of liberalism and political correctness. And it is a veritable hotbed of people, of–bless their hearts, who all think alike, in a liberal way. And, of course, I’m sometimes called a liberal myself, and you would think I would have felt right at home there. But I just am so used to–I’m so used to Texas that I found the culture at Berkeley hysterical.
Wash Your Hands
Lately, I have been walking. I try to go for a couple of miles, in the morning before the heat becomes obnoxious. Today, I went out New Peachtree, until the MARTA line goes overhead, and I can walk under to another Peachtree. … The spell check suggestion for Peachtree is Peacekeeper.
This is the last remnants of Peachtree Road, before it collides with Peachtree Boulevard. Many oldtimers still say Peachtree Industrial, which has a fifties retro feel to it.
When you cross the road, you find a sidewalk in front of Peachtree Country Club. During the MARTA construction era, my mother was fond of saying that the golf course was willed to the Catholic Church in perpetuity. Of course, a few feet were shaved off to accomodate another lane on Peachtree.
A few hundred yards down the sidewalk, I came to a half eaten bagel, a fork, a plastic box lined with old food, and a lid for a box. I carry plastic bags in my pack, and I got one for this detritous. There is not a trash can between here and the school dumpster. The bag will be full when I get there.
There is a law in Georgia. Whenever you hear someone say “wish” in a sentence, you are required to say a bit of commodity wisdom. “You can shit in one hand, and wish in the other, and see which hand gets full faster.” You should wash your hands no matter whether you hope or defecate.
There is a more useful version. You can wish in a plastic bag. Or, you can pick up trash, and put it in the plastic bag. One bag will get full before the other. Washing your hands is still a good idea. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
The Playboy Interview Bob Dylan
The Notorious 1966 Playboy Interview -Bob Dylan turned up in the youtubeque the other day. The speaker bought a copy of the magazine online … “I’m one of the few people who can say I bought it for the article and be honest.” A quick google search turned up PLAYBOY INTERVIEW: BOB DYLAN February 1966. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
The winter of 1966 was a different time. Mr. Dylan released Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited in 1965, with Blonde on Blonde to follow in 1966. He shot a screen test for Andy Warhol, and met Edie Sedgwick. Winter of 1966 saw America one year into the escalation of the War in Vietnam. The times they were a changin’.
The interview is not a linear Q&A. The entertainer takes a question from Nat Hentoff, and then says whatever feels right to say. This video, Bob Dylan San Francisco Press Conference 1965, is more of the same. Maybe the best way to approach this is with a few quotes.
PLAYBOY: In recent years, according to some critics, jazz has lost much of its appeal to the younger generation. Do you agree? DYLAN: I don’t think jazz has ever appealed to the younger generation. Anyway, I don’t really know who this younger generation is. I don’t think they could get into a jazz club anyway. But jazz is hard to follow; I mean you actually have to like jazz to follow it: and my motto is, never follow anything. I don’t know what the motto of the younger generation is, but I would think they’d have to follow their parents. I mean, what would some parent say to his kid if the kid came home with a glass eye, a Charlie Mingus record and a pocketful of feathers? He’d say, “Who are you following?” And the poor kid would have to stand there with water in his shoes, a bow tie on his ear and soot pouring out of his belly button and say, “Jazz, Father, I’ve been following jazz.” And his father would probably say, “Get a broom and clean up all that soot before you go to sleep.” Then the kid’s mother would tell her friends, “Oh yes, our little Donald, he’s part of the younger generation, you know.” … As far as folk and folk-rock are concerned, it doesn’t matter what kind of nasty names people invent for the music. It could be called arsenic music, or perhaps Phaedra music. I don’t think that such a word as folk-rock has anything to do with it. And folk music is a word I can’t use. Folk music is a bunch of fat people. I have to think of all this as traditional music. Traditional music is based on hexagrams. It comes about from legends, Bibles, plagues, and it revolves around vegetables and death. There’s nobody that’s going to kill traditional music. All these songs about roses growing out of people’s brains and lovers who are really geese and swans that turn into angels – they’re not going to die. It’s all those paranoid people who think that someone’s going to come and take away their toilet paper – they’re going to die. …
PLAYBOY: Mistake or not, what made you decide to go the rock-‘n’-roll route? DYLAN: Carelessness. I lost my one true love. I started drinking. The first thing I know, I’m in a card game. Then I’m in a crap game. I wake up in a pool hall. Then this big Mexican lady drags me off the table, takes me to Philadelphia. She leaves me alone in her house, and it burns down. I wind up in Phoenix. I get a job as a Chinaman. I start working in a dime store, and move in with a 13-year-old girl. Then this big Mexican lady from Philadelphia comes in and burns the house down. I go down to Dallas. I get a job as a “before” in a Charles Atlas “before and after” ad. I move in with a delivery boy who can cook fantastic chili and hot dogs. Then this 13-year-old girl from Phoenix comes and burns the house down. The delivery boy – he ain’t so mild: He gives her the knife, and the next thing I know I’m in Omaha. It’s so cold there, by this time I’m robbing my own bicycles and frying my own fish. I stumble onto some luck and get a job as a carburetor out at the hot-rod races every Thursday night. I move in with a high school teacher who also does a little plumbing on the side, who ain’t much to look at, but who’s built a special kind of refrigerator that can turn newspaper into lettuce. Everything’s going good until that delivery boy shows up … he burned the house down, and I hit the road. The first guy that picked me up asked me if I wanted to be a star. What could I say? PLAYBOY: And that’s how you became a rock-‘n’-roll singer? DYLAN: No, that’s how I got tuberculosis. …
PLAYBOY: How do you feel about those who have risked imprisonment by burning their draft cards to signify their opposition to U. S. involvement in Vietnam, and by refusing – as your friend Joan Baez has done – to pay their income taxes as a protest against the Covernment’s expenditures on war and weaponry? Do you think they’re wasting their time? DYLAN: Burning draft cards isn’t going to end any war. It’s not even going to save any lives. If someone can &el more honest with himself by burning his draft card, then that’s great; but if he’s just going to feel more important because he does it, then that’s a drag. I really don’t know too much about Joan Baez and her income-tax problems. The only thing I can tell you about Joan Baez is that she’s not Belle Starr. …
PLAYBOY: Writing about “beard-wearing draft-card burners and pacifist income-tax evaders,” one columnist called such protesters “no less outside society than the junkie, the homosexual or the mass murderer.” What’s your reaction? DYLAN: I don’t believe in those terms. They’re too hysterical. They don’t describe anything. Most people think that homosexual, gay, queer, queen, faggot are all the same words. Everybody thinks that a junkie is a dope freak. As far as I’m concerned, I don’t consider myself outside of anything. I just consider myself not around. …
PLAYBOY: Paranoia is said to be one of the mental states sometimes induced by such hallucinogenic drugs as peyote and LSD. Considering the risks involved, do you think that experimentation with such drugs should be part of the growing up experience for a young person? DYLAN: I wouldn’t advise anybody to use drugs – certainly not the hard drugs; drugs are medicine. But opium and hash and pot – now, those things aren’t drugs; they just bend your mind a little. I think everybody’s mind should be bent once in a while. Not by LSD, though. LSD is medicine – a different kind of medicine. It makes you aware of the universe, so to speak; you realize how foolish objects are. But LSD is not for groovy people; it’s for mad, hateful people who want revenge. It’s for people who usually have heart attacks. They ought to use it at the Geneva Convention. …
PLAYBOY: Did you ever have the standard boyhood dream of growing up to be President? DYLAN: No. When I was a boy, Harry Truman was President; who’d want to be Harry Truman?
Pay-To-Play Nightmare
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How A Popular Women’s Website Became A Pay-To-Play Nightmare
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we’re smart and we’re right · @chamblee54 .@ossoff .@ReverendWarnock .@RepNikema .@RepHankJohnson · Where Was Sen. Warnock? Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently spoke before a joint session of Congress.. Many people, myself included, did not approve. I became curious about my representatives, and their response. On July 26, 2024, at 12:20, I called the Atlanta offices of Sen. Jon Ossoff (470-786-7800) and Sen. Rafael Warnock (770-694-7828.) I left this message: “I have a question for _____ . Did you attend the address before Congress by Benjamin Netanyahu? If the answer is yes, then I am deeply ashamed of you.” At 12:40, I called the Decatur office of Rep. Hank Johnson (770-987-2291.) A person answered the phone. I asked the same question. Rep. Johnson did not attend the address. As it turns out, I am in GA05, which is represented by Nikema Williams. Hank Johnson represents GA04. My neighborhood is in a different district every time the district boundaries are drawn. Mistakes are easy to make. At 13:20, I called the Atlanta office of Rep. Nikema Williams (404-659-0116.) I left a message on the machine. At 16:10, Jon Ossoff’s office returned my call. Sen. Ossoff did attend the address by PM Netanyahu. At the time this post was written, I have not heard from Sen. Warnock or Rep. Williams. Neither @ossoff nor @ReverendWarnock has made a comment on X about the address. At 14:48 on Jul 24 @RepNikema sent a tweet that began “I met with the families of Israeli hostages …” The tweet made an anodyne statement about freeing hostages, and ending “the violence in Gaza.” It did not refer to the appearance of PM Netanyahu before Congress. @RepHankJohnson “I will be boycotting Netanyahu’s speech today. Rather than working on @POTUS’ ceasefire deal that would halt the indiscriminate killing & starvation in Gaza, Netanyahu is here, again interfering in U.S. electoral politics with his support for ex-president Trump & MAGA.” In 2003, I was concerned about the impending invasion of Iraq. I sent letters to Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Sen. Zell Miller, and Rep. Denise Majette. I wanted to be on record as being opposed to the invasion. War Letters describes the experience, and has copies of the replies that I recieved. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress..” · warnoff/ossoff calls made at 12:20 johnson call at 12:40 williams call 13:20 · ossoff office returned call at 16:10 he did attend address · @chamblee54I called @ossoff and @ReverendWarnock I left this message: Did you attend the address by Benjamin Netanyahu? If the answer is yes, then I am ashamed of you. I then called @RepHankJohnson A person answered the phone. @RepHankJohnson did not attend the address. · 235 characters · @RepHankJohnson I will be boycotting Netanyahu’s speech today. Rather than working on @POTUS’ ceasefire deal that would halt the indiscriminate killing & starvation in Gaza, Netanyahu is here, again interfering in U.S. electoral politics with his support for ex-president Trump & MAGA. · I got the answering machine for Rep. Nikema Williams (404-659-0116) · @RepNikema · @RepNikema I met with the families of Israeli hostages … war letters · Making a post on facebook to promote mental health is like taking a drink to support sobriety. · Zoom bomber visit to the poetry slam , celebrating himself with six letter word , sunday night just a slamming the ham , festive fat white man shooting a bird , last week eventbrite took my money , and neglected to include the show , some russian hacker thought it was funny , curly and larry say it was moe , a private showing of unfortunate art , somebody in india thinks they are smart , it is just an excuse to write tacky sonnet , he was just off camera wearing a bonnet , sometimes you just have to give him a hand , there is more than one way to beat the band · Florence Fabiyi You cannot reply to this conversation. The sender indicated replies are not allowed. · This is a message I sent to Kristen Pass. I was not allowed to send a message to Florence Fabiyi. · This has been a NIGHTMARE. I had a “conversation” with Kristen Pass, where she took three and a half weeks to reply to a simple pair of concerns. She only got addressed one of them, and got it wrong. Here is the message I sent today: I FINALLY got a reply. I got a phone call from Florence Fabiyi. She sent a message to follow up. This message said at the bottom “You cannot reply to this conversation. The sender indicated replies are not allowed.” What kind of customer service is this? When I think you might be getting better, you throw something like that at me. · This feature was originally published in 2014.. … · A website called The Frisky still exists, in a dramatically different form. @TheFrisky Hi, former Frisky EIC Jessica here. The chop shop that bought our site never bothered to take the Twitter from me. Go figure. So sad about the loss of all the extremely good work, and also sad that i basically only got to come onboard to see the site ushered to its fall. 4:49 PM · Jun 1, 2018 from Savannah, GA. · @chambee54 Sometimes x has a sense of humor. Seeing Jesse S trending next to an x-crement by Jesse S, where he wonders why we ask questions. · Paul’s Jokes @MoreTwitty Poor Biden just can’t get his foot out of his mouth. Protesters in DC yesterday set fires and burned things, including the American flag. Then the President goes to the Oval Office and says, “It’s time to pass the torch!” · A Simple Question · It started out with a simple question.. Who is on the ballot for President in Georgia? I am beyond disgusted with Donald John Trump and Kamala Devi Harris. I have numerous issues with Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. One possible option is Chase Russell Oliver. The Libertarian Party serves only as a spoiler. Mr. Oliver has a lot going for him. He has been active in the fight against Cop City. Google has not been helpful. The Georgia Secretary of State has not been helpful. I called the SOS office, and talked to a lady. “Mam, can you tell me who is on the ballot for President in Georgia.” “That is on the Secretary of State website” “Mam, that does not work” “What do you mean, it works for me” A second phone call to SOS yielded better results. Apparently, the ballot has not been finalized. We will know later which non-duopoly candidates will be on the Georgia ballot. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. UPDATE This post starts with by quoting a facebook post. a facebook post. The link no longer works. The former facebook friend … a person who I helped move twice … blocked me. After George HW Bush dies, the ffbf was trashing the former President, using the phrase “I am not going to whitewash history.” I commented that it would be better for his karma to be a bit kinder towards the former President. The ffbf did not like that, and blocked me. · July 19 at 4:26 PM bipoc fae only poll really quick. no white fae need reply. hypothetically if there was a bipoc gathering in a month from now. would you come — Luther Mckinnon “no white fae need reply.” — Steve Alexander: hello – remove your comment please — Luther: which one? — Steve: on my post from the radical faeries page — Luther: Ok I deleted it. I question the value of a group that makes posts that only people with a particular skin color can answer. However, that is your privilege — Steve: I don’t understand what you have to contribute to a thread about a bipoc gathering – so I don’t understand the argument you are making – there is nothing needed of you from you by you for a bipoc gathering…. – so tell me …… – why do I have to spend this time right now messaging you – why – well — Luther Mckinnon: i have nothing more to say – – Steve Alexander: exactly – you have no point other than to interject yourself to prove that you have NOTHING to say of any value – and you dare say I’m flexing my privilege – also the group did not make the post. I alone made the post. you really are showing yourself grasping – and it was not a particular color it was everyone BUT white – I hope I have addressed all your concerns. and have a blessed day. — Luther: 🙈🙉🙊 · gimp 2.10.32 desk gimp 2.10.4 lap · Pictures today are fromThe Library of Congress ~ selah
Never Doubt
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” This chestnut appeared in an email, promoting an event. I heard a podcast last year, about another Margaret Mead story. Readers of this blog know where this is going.
@anthroreviewed “Did Margaret Mead really say that thing about broken femurs and civilization that is (once again) making the rounds online? Also, are healed femurs a marker of civilization? No. And no. As explore in the second half of this episode… “ A blog post, That Margaret Mead quote, goes into more detail about both stories.
“It’s interesting the quotes that are attributed to Margaret Mead – another is “Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world – indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” … Both are things she could have said, given her personality, but neither is fully attributed – the first instance of the story above is in Dr. Ira Byock’s 2012 book on palliative care, and the above quote only attributed to her, four years after her death, by the author of a fairly hippie-ish book on paths to world peace.”
“This quote (about the femur) has been going around Facebook since mid-March, probably encouraged by this Twitter thread, this FB post, and this article in Forbes, none of which are by archaeologists/anthropologists.”
When the bs detector started dinging, results are just a few clicks away. Highlight the suspicious quote. Right click, choose “Search Google for …,” and wait 0.51 seconds. When one of the results is a story at Quote Investigator®, you have a winner.
When people get caught peddling bogus quotes, they often say that even if the attribution is false, the words are true. What about the featured quote today? It sounds good, and is great for promoting attendance at an event. But is it the truth?
Look at the 9/11 attacks. They did change the world. While it is true that nineteen men pulled off the caper, they had a lot of help. Somebody financed the operation. Other people built the airliners, and the airports where they took off. Somebody dug an oil well, pumped the crude oil, shipped the crude oil to a refinery, and produced the explosive jet fuel that propelled the attacks. In fact, it was the profits from pumping that oil that financed the attacks. “A small group of thoughtful, committed citizens” flew a plane, that someone else built, into the World Trade Center. They were not “the only thing that ever has.” This is a repost. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Where Was Sen. Warnock?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently spoke before a joint session of Congress. Many people, myself included, did not approve. I became curious about my representatives.
On July 26, 2024, at 12:20, I called the Atlanta offices of Sen. Jon Ossoff (470-786-7800) and Sen. Rafael Warnock (770-694-7828.) “I have a question for _____ . Did you attend the address before Congress by Benjamin Netanyahu? If the answer is yes, then I am deeply ashamed of you.”
At 12:40, I called the Decatur office of Rep. Hank Johnson (770-987-2291.) A person answered the phone. I asked the same question. Rep. Johnson did not attend the address.
As it turns out, I am in GA05, which is represented by Nikema Williams. Hank Johnson represents GA04. My neighborhood is in a different district every time the boundaries are redrawn. Mistakes are easy to make. At 13:20, I called the Atlanta office of Rep. Nikema Williams (404-659-0116.) I left a message on the machine.
At 16:10, Jon Ossoff’s office returned my call. Sen. Ossoff did attend the address by PM Netanyahu. At the time this post was written, I have not heard from Sen. Warnock or Rep. Williams.
Neither @ossoff nor @ReverendWarnock has made a comment on X about the address. At 14:48 on Jul 24, @RepNikema sent a tweet that began “I met with the families of Israeli hostages …” The tweet made an anodyne statement about freeing hostages, and ending “the violence in Gaza.” It did not refer to the appearance of PM Netanyahu before Congress.
@RepHankJohnson “I will be boycotting Netanyahu’s speech today. Rather than working on @POTUS’ ceasefire deal that would halt the indiscriminate killing & starvation in Gaza, Netanyahu is here, again interfering in U.S. electoral politics with his support for ex-president Trump & MAGA.”
In 2003, I was concerned about the impending invasion of Iraq. I sent letters to Sen. Saxby Chambliss, Sen. Zell Miller, and Rep. Denise Majette. I wanted to be on record as being opposed to the invasion. War Letters describes the experience, and has copies of the replies that I received. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
The God Of Word
The facebook comment started with “Christ had so little regard for … ” I gave into the temptation to comment. “Are you talking about Jesus? Not everyone agrees that he was the Christ.” The internet showed mercy, and only one stranger replied. “I think the bigger picture is being overlooked for semantics here… ” Talking, in or out of vain, is a big deal here. This is a repost.
People like to express opinions about the teaching of Jesus. The source of 99% of these thoughts is the bible. It is a fundamental belief that “the bible is the word of God.” I have disagreed with this notion for a long time. This is not the same as not believing in the existence of God.
I started to type a facebook reply, and then thought better of it. Sunday afternoons are a gift, even if they are uncomfortably hot. It is too fine a day to argue religion on the internet. Before he stopped, one thought did occur to him. If the bible is the word of God, then maybe Jehovah is the God of word. If you saw a mushroom cloud rising over Brookhaven …
Christianism is a religion of beliefs, rather than practices. The idea of getting people to agree with your beliefs is key to the Jesus experience. Many of these beliefs are noted in the bible. It is as if people make a God out of a book. When these high powered thoughts are expressed, then the semantics can get overwhelming.
As for the teaching of Jesus, all we know is what the Council of Nicea chose to tell us. We don’t have very much. What we do have is conveniently selected to fit the agenda of the speaker. What someone says about Jesus tells us more about that person than it does about Jesus. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”.
UPDATE This post starts with by quoting a facebook post. The link no longer works. The former facebook friend … a person who I helped move twice … blocked me.
After George HW Bush died, the ffbf was trashing the former President, using the phrase “I am not going to whitewash history.” I commented that it would be better for his karma to be a bit kinder towards the former President. The ffbf did not like that, and blocked me.
A Simple Question
It started out with a simple question. Who is on the ballot for President in Georgia? I am beyond disgusted with Donald John Trump and Kamala Devi Harris. I have numerous issues with Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. There are usually others to consider.
One possible option is Chase Russell Oliver. The Libertarian Party serves only as a spoiler. Mr. Oliver has a lot going for him. He has been active in the fight against Cop City.
Google has not been helpful. The Georgia Secretary of State has not been helpful. I called the SOS office, and talked to a lady. “Mam, can you tell me who is on the ballot for President in Georgia.” “That is on the Secretary of State website” “Mam, that does not work” “What do you mean, it works for me”
A second phone call to SOS yielded better results. Apparently, the ballot has not been finalized. We will know later which non-duopoly candidates will be on the Georgia ballot. Either the election, or the world, will be over soon. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress.
Blue Tail Fly
Q: What does “Jimmy crack corn” mean, and why does he not care?—Matt, Columbus, Ohio
I was trolling stupidquestion.net when there was a convergence of stupidity. (The site does not exist in 2024.) All my life I had heard Blue Tail Fly, and been embarrassed. And there, in (pardon the expression) black and white, was someone who wondered the same thing.
It seems as though BTF started out as a minstrel song. For those who don’t know, minstrel shows were white people putting on black makeup, and imitating African Americans. That is another reason you seldom hear BTF today.
Dave Barry took a poll once to find out the stupidest song of all time. The overwhelming winner/loser was MacArthur Park. The combination of over the top show stopping, while singing about a cake left out in the rain, makes this ditty a duh classic.
In the spirit of corny convergence, the video is a karaoke version featuring Donna Summer. Miss Summer is a talented singer, who happened to connect with Giorgio Moroder. Lots of singers could have hit the big time by fronting those records. Donna Summer hit the jackpot.
For a proper post, there needs to be a third stupid song. This is not about stupid bands, singing about being D U M B. Even though they totally don’t belong, there is a video of The Ramones included. I saw the Ramones at the Agora Ballroom in 1983. This was after their prime, and before a homeless man caught the Ballroom on fire.
We still need a third stupid song, and I want to get this posted with as little research as possible. Just like some writer was once given twenty minutes to write a song, and he decided to do the worst song he could think of. The result was Wild Thing. I used to have a 45 of someone who sounded like Bobby Kennedy singing Wild Thing. Let the good times roll.
These four hundred and six hastily chosen words are a repost. Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library”. This was downtown Atlanta in 1941.
Chamblee54 
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