Chamblee54

 We can talk about something where all have sinned, or who should throw the first stone. If you ride in a car, wear synthetic fibers, through away anything, use a less than perfect sewer system ( or a functioning one on a rainy day with overflows), then you have polluted.
genetic engineering
Here again, there is semantics galore. Much of the food we eat is at least tweaked abit by genetic breeding. At the very least, this is something Euros get twitchy about that doesn’t concern most Americans.
being obscenely rich
This is one where I really wonder what the original Italian said. Compared to much of the world, my 900sf house is a palace. However, compared to many of my neighbors, I am lower middle class. Perhaps the emphasis should be on greed, selfishness, and how you gain this wealth. The tenth commandment says something about coveting. This is the forgotten commandment in this day of prosperity ministers.
drug dealing

Is there a distinction between legal and illegal drugs here? If you go by the damage that substances cause, then this rule will speak to bartenders and the clerk who sells cigarettes. Not to mention the media outlets who advertise cigarettes and beer, the legislators who condone these substances while prosecuting potheads, and a whole host of others.
The legally based war on drugs is a disaster in this country. Do we really need to drag the Catholic church into it?
abortion.
If Mary had gotten an abortion, would Christians worship a vacuum cleaner?
pedophilia
When you up pedophile in the dictionary, you see a picture of a Catholic priest.
causing social injustice

Can we have a better translation of this? Spell check suggestions for this feature:
globalization- verbalization, cannibalization, glottalization, liberalization, localization
abit- bait, habit, ambit, obit
Euros- eros

3/8/2008 8:28:19 PM
The rest of the day has gone smoothly enough. I had to change something on the previous post, and discovered a quirk in wordpress. It doesn’t like to edit photos after posting. This could be an issue, as post-post edits were routine on blogger.
After ironing my pants and looking at my picture for a while, I decided to walk up to wal mart. There was a train sitting on the tracks, and I decided to cross the tracks anyway. I climbed up on this ladder, made my way to the other side of the car, and was looking for a way to gracefully land on the other side when I heard a click and saw the cars jamming together. The train was moving! I found a ladder on the side of the car, rode long enough to realize it wasn’t going to stop soon, and jumped the three feet or so to the gravel. I fell over on impact, realized I wasn’t hurt, and checked the camera and cell phone to see if they were ok.
I made it to wal mart, and went looking for the boom box I wanted. I want something I can load up from my computer, like an ipod, but without the hateful earplugs of an ipod. Someday I will find something like this. Or is it that? Grammar can be so esoteric.
The right thing to do is continue the page 123 project, with the blackcover bible. Before we start, maybe a review of the rules is in order, along with the biblical modifications in effect tonight. Once again, a H/T is in order for Amber Rhea. I found a link on her facility Friday to a blog called Renegade Revolution. This was at lunch, and I was soon laughing out of control at some goings on at Ren’s place. I made even do a post about that, but I do sincerely appreciate that…I was dog tired and totally over work, and laughing was a great release.
A H/T also goes to Bible.com. They have provided the King James bible for me to copy and paste. Thank you! Back to the rules:

The rules:
1-Look up page 123 in the book that is nearest to you at this very minute
2-Look for the fifth sentence
3-Then post the three sentences that follow that fifth sentence on page 123.

Now the bible is a different type of book, and the rules are going to be altered a bit. If a page starts in the middle of a verse, then the partial verse counts as number one. Instead of sentences, I am going to use verses. I don’t even know if there are any complete sentences there, or if we used those rules of grammar when King James ordered this translation.
Oh, and that is the translation I am using. It is public domain, and I am a King James kind of guy. Did you know that James was accused of being a secret Catholic? Of course, If I was going to be a Catholic, I imagine I would want to keep quiet about it.

page Page 123-Leviticus 15
16And if any man’s seed of copulation go out from him, then he shall wash all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the even.
17And every garment, and every skin, whereon is the seed of copulation, shall be washed with water, and be unclean until the even.
18The woman also with whom man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the even.

Unclean until the Even? That sounds kinda weird to me. I am sure that some “scholar” could tell me what that means. I am also sure that I am not interested in his opinion. This bookworshipper would no doubt work this explanation into how I need to saved by Jesus, at the risk of going to hell. Jesus Worshippers like to do that. They can work life after death into any discussion. They seem to think that their ideas about life after death justify rudeness and verbal abuse. I beg to differ.

Page 321-2Samuel5
8And David said on that day, Whosoever getteth up to the gutter, and smiteth the Jebusites, and the lame and the blind that are hated of David’s soul, he shall be chief and captain. Wherefore they said, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.
9So David dwelt in the fort, and called it the city of David. And David built round about from Millo and inward.
10And David went on, and grew great, and the LORD God of hosts was with him.

Holy Violence Batman! “Smiteth the … lame and the blind that are hated of David’s soul, he shall be chief and captain”. And some call this the word of G-d!
Of course, if the lame and the blind were to be smiteth today, the churches would be empty on Sunday morning. So maybe this isn’t such a bad idea after all.

page 444-2 Chronicles3
 8And he made the most holy house, the length whereof was according to the breadth of the house, twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits: and he overlaid it with fine gold, amounting to six hundred talents.
9And the weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold. And he overlaid the upper chambers with gold.
10And in the most holy house he made two cherubims of image work, and overlaid them with gold.

 I suspect the homeowner would not approve of this expense. But, money is not always a concern of these old time builders.
This is two selections in a row with verses 8,9, and 10.

page 765-Ezekiel 8
13He said also unto me, Turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations that they do.
14Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD’s house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
15Then said he unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? turn thee yet again, and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.

“thou shalt see greater abominations than these”. As we all know, two wrongs do not make a right. But that doesn’t stop folks from using this argument.
And now, a bonus selection. This is from a little New Testament that has my father’s namewritten on the cover.( It is also my name) And what do you know, page 123 is from the book of Luke, which was his name!

Page 123-Luke 8
44Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.
45And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
46And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.

Oh my, this is kinky. A woman touched the border of his garment, and she stops bleeding. J boi says that the virtue is gone out of me, because a woman has touched him.
Having a virgin mother must be confusing..

 3/8/2008 12:32:39 PM
Maybe its time for some personal blogging. I haven’t done one of these in a while, and never for general audiences.
Yes, piersgavestonjr (NSFW) is “out of town”.
I had a duplex neighbor once who used that phrase as a euphemism for being in prison. He was this kinda short gay man, and every time I saw him he had a lit cigarette in his hand. He had a bf who was in and out of town. He took in boarders from time to time, and they all seemed to be either just in town or about to leave. One had this device attached to his ankle. He got a package in the mail a few years later. He left his wallet in a taxi, and they mailed it to the address on his i.d. card.
Neighbor and his buddies were always nice to me, but they sure did make me nervous. They finally got evicted. There was one more household downstairs before the house was sold to that evil developer.
Now, I can’t say where pg is, but I feel certain he will be back soon. These problems with blogspot really upset him. I am doing very well on wordpress, but if pg decides to blog again, it might be with another service.
Saturday is such a fine day. The main chore for today is laundry, and the load is in the dryer now. The county has not sent us a water bill, and it is due on the 13th. I may have to pay that online. There is a picture in production now, and it is proving to be a bit of a problem. I sense that if I keep making changes on that it will come around, but maybe not. Maybe I should just go into final assembly with a hopeless mess of an image and see what happens.
Its been a good week for the blog. Last night I found this thing, about going to page 123 of the book nearest to you at the moment. That was an easy post to write, because all I had to do was copy a few sentences and paste the pix into the window. But a tough one to edit.
I considered another take on this, with the second closest book from my computer. This would be a Bible that my parents gave me on my eighth birthday. It has a drawing of Jesus with children in his lap, talking to them in his spotless white garment.
Over the years, many bad vibes have attached themselves to the bible. At the very least, it is NOT the word of G-d. But, a present from mother and daddy ( in mother’s handwriting) is something to keep. This was 1962, when the world was spinning, John Kennedy was president, and church was still fun.
At any rate, page 123 of this edition of the magic book is Leviticus 26. There is a source to copy/paste this book, which is in the public domain. This part of Leviticus is not nasty, so here goes.

41And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:
42Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land.
43The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes


How do you circumcise a heart?
This might be an easy meme to expand on. There are two ways to go here. One is to continue with the same covers, but to numerically expand the selections. Maybe we could turn 123 backwards to give us 321. Then add 123+321 to get 444.
This might be the way to go. There were some hippies at my high school who thought 44 was a magic number. It was Hank Aaron’s number. One of them was a founding person at a local radio station, whose phone number became xxx 4488.
There was also the screaming idiot boss who said that everything is four.
Ok, so where to go from 444?
Before we continue with this vertical numeric progression…or horizontal digital quagmire…there is another approach to consider. That is, stick to page 123, but use different bibles.
Now, this is the family house, and has sheltered some serious Jesus worshipers. There are LOTS of bibles in this house.
Of course, page 123 was in Leviticus in the first one I looked in, and that is such a dreary, law heavy book. There is always the danger of hitting Leviticus 18:22, which would totally spoil my day.
So, we go back to the golden rectangle progression. 321+444 is 765. The M&D bible starts the page numbers over at the start of the new testament, so that puts an easy end to this madness. The old testament is more appealing anyway.
The old testament ends on page 800. The last word is “curse”.
The new testament ends on page 246. This gives us a combined 1011 pages. This is below the threshold of 1209, which is the sum of 765+444. So, we are stuck in the old testament on this program, which is fine with this reporter.
While researching the numbering of bible pages in the house, I found the other keepsake bible in my collection. This is a Gideons bible with a plain black cover, given to me by Briarcliff Baptist Church on September 29, 1963. I have no idea whose handwriting it is on the presentation page.
This might be a better bible to do this exploration on. Page 123 is Leviticus 15, which is juicy.
to be continued
spell check suggestions for this feature:
wordpress.com- compression
piersgavestonjr-gravestone
lieth- liveth, keith
briarcliff- radcliffe, cliffhanger, patriarchal, matriarchal, clifford

There is a blogger named Amber Rhea. I suspect she lives here in Atlanta, but I don’t know, and it is really not important.
She posted something called a meme the other day.
Ms. Rhea got this meme from “After Hours” by Texasgoldengirl. The subtext at AH is “random discourse from a retired escort…virtue is insufficient temptation”
“123 meme” got my attention. I decided to use this to generate some text to put between some pictures.
I don’t want to give any more publicity to Shirley Q. Liquor. There is one more post coming that was inspired by her.
But back to the meme.

The rules:
look up page 123 in the book that is nearest to you at this very minute
look for the fifth sentence
then post the three sentences that follow that fifth sentence on page 123.
I’m reasonably certain that I’ve done this meme before, but of course I’m too lazy to dig through the almost six years of archives to find it.

The book closest to me was “Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary”. This volume has been a valuable ally since I got it in 1971. Nonetheless, I thought it was a poor choice .
The next book was “The Penguin Book of Gay Short Stories”. Page 123 was part of an excerpt from “My Father and Myself” by J.R. Ackerley.
Here is the passage:

This was a thing I had never done before, reluctantly since and out of politeness if requested. It is a form of pleasure I myself have seldom enjoyed, passively or actively, preferring the kiss upon the lips, nor have i ever been good at it. Some technical skill seems required and a retraction of the teeth, which, perhaps because mine are too large or unsuitably arranged, seem always to get in the way.

With the current controversy about the Middle name of Barack Hussein Obama, perhaps it is time for a look at the lessons of history.
George Washington did not have a middle name. Nor the rest of the early Presidents. The first one to have a middle name (or initial) is John Quincy Adams. J.Q. Adams is the first son of a president to hold the office. Many current observers wish he were still the only one.
The first POTUS to show middle initial was William Henry Harrison. He was the first victim of the Zero Factor, in which Presidents elected in years ending in zero died in office. This tradition was ended by Ronald Reagan.
Abraham Lincoln did not have a middle name. Ulysses S. Grant was born Hiram Ulysses Grant, and I don’t know what the S. stood for.
Moving into the twentieth century, William Howard Taft was referred to by all three names.
In many ways, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first president of the modern age. As far as the middle name business is concerned, this is the truth. For some reason, his middle name was frequently used, and the initials FDR became popular. Again, this is apparently a first, although presidential initials did not become popular again until JFK and LBJ.
And, in case you are asking, Herbert Hoover’s middle name was Clark. Perhaps that was the reason for the depression.
After FDR went to the fireside chat in the sky, Harry S. Truman became president. The S. stood for nothing.
The next president whose middle name was frequently used was John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Could this be a subtle dig at his Irish background, much as the current noise about B. Hussein Obama?
As for Baines and Milhous, those both seemed to fit the personality of the man in the oval office.
After Tricky Dick was helicopered out of the White House, the use of Presidential middle names went into decline. Gerald Rudolph Ford would be a good trivia question. George H.W. Bush downplayed his quadruple initials, perhaps knowing that many people don’t trust a man with two middle names. George W. Bush is frequently referred to by his middle initial. Some even refer to the current “War on Terror” as “World War W”.
In the current election, we have a dark skinned man with a Muslim middle name. We have a white haired republican with the middle name of Sidney. And we have a married woman, who uses her maiden name as a middle name. Her original middle name is Diane.
Thanks to Wikipedia for help in researching this feature.

When I first heard about liberals and conservatives, it was about civil rights. The short version is that liberals wanted black people to have the basic rights of Americans, and conservatives did not. I suspect that nothing has really changed. All the happy talk about smaller government is just that…nonsense. If someone really wants a small government, then they don’t want to send a six digit army to battle eight time zones away.

 The truth is, I never saw “The Firing Line” or read more than a few paragraphs of Mr. Buckley’s writing. Not that it mattered…he was famous for being famous. If he didn’t exist someone would have created him…the erudite blueblood with the vocabulary on steroids. Comedians should be grateful for such an easily figure of parody.
I met Mr. Buckley, briefly. I was walking home after taking an accounting test. Mr. Buckley was speaking at the UGA coliseum, and I found a poster advertising the event. Mr. Buckley was standing backstage, and I got him to autograph the poster. His signature was very neat, and about an inch and a half long. Of the celebrity autographs I have gotten, his was the smallest.
The lecture started soon. Mr. Buckley started with a story about a lady, who after much verbal contorting, was found to have gonorrhea. He said it in a very academically amusing way.
Meanwhile, I had just taken an accounting test. I went home and got drunk.

Something Something happened at a John McCain rally Tuesday. Radio “Personality” Bill Cunningham spoke before Senator McCain. “Willie” said some unkind things about Senator Barack Obama. After the rally, Senator McCain repudiated the comments by Mr. Cunningham.
To begin with, let me voice my suspicion. This may have been a strategic move by Senator McCain. If he hadn’t made comments about the comments, the original comments would have been ignored. As it is, these rude charges against Senator Obama are reprinted verbatim in hundreds of newspapers. Not only did he get attention paid to this dirt; he can appear to be taking the high road about wanting to have a clean campaign.

Or, it could be that he is sincere. The desire to have a clean campaign, and be able to work together after the election for the common good. If he were sincere, this would speak very well for Senator McCain.
Then there is the “Conservative” reaction to all this. Rightwingnews opines:
“Incidents like this one are exactly why so many conservatives loathe John McCain: the man is reflexively hostile to conservatives who support him while he bends over backwards to cater to liberals who think he’s two steps away from being Hitler merely because he’s a Republican.”
And over the top rhetoric like that are exactly why so many people are tired of conservatives.
I consider myself an independent moderate, who is tired of labels and pigeonholing. I have no time for the tit for tat, two- wrongs-make-a-right rhetoric spewing out of wingnut world.

Now, I have plenty of Issues with Senator McCain, as well as Senator Clinton and Senator Obama. (Is this the redo of Mod Squad?). I suspect that all three are clueless as to how to deal with the war in Babylon, as well as repairing the rest of the damage done by the reign of W. However, a call for clean campaigning does look mighty good for Senator McCain. Maybe he could find Reagan’s hairdresser and dye his hair premature orange.
Spell check suggestions for this feature:
McCain- Micatin, moccasin, MCA, MCI
wingnut- WinNT

This  This item was in kikoshouse today:
Barack Obama wants to ban the use of cluster bombs while Hillary Clinton and John McCain don’t.
What makes the use of these submunitions, which are miniature bombs nested inside a mother bomb, so insidious is that they drop beneath tissue parachutes and are magnets for unsuspecting Iraqi children.
Some 82 countries have signed the Wellington Declaration to ban cluster bombs, but don’t expect the U.S. to join them anytime soon.

Cluster Bombsare air-dropped or ground-launched munitions that eject a number of smaller submunitions (“bomblets”).When they are dropped on enemy territory, many of the bomblets fail to explode, and form a land mine like hazard. They are often dropped with tissue like parachutes. They have been called “Lethal Pinatas“.
They are often a bright yellow. This is similar to food packages, and can confuse someone who does not speak english.
They remain on the ground, waiting to explode, when civilian populations return home after the war. According to Handicap International:
Ninety-eight percent of cluster submunitions casualties are civilians killed and injured while returning home in the aftermath of conflict or while going about their daily tasks to survive.
terrorism–
2-Violence against civilians to achieve military or political objectives.
Does dropping bomblets on a civilian area qualify as terrorism?