Saturday, June 17, 2006
Hooray for Charles Gounod!
Born on this date in 1818, (coincidentally also the day that the execrable "Cheeseburger in Paradise" reached its highest spot [32] in the charts in 1978) Gounod is perhaps best known as composer of the wonderful opera "Faust". Not many people know this, but it was written to celebrate the life of a woman who would not even be born for another 145 years or so, the printmaker and writer, Foust. This is also the date on which (in 1963) the Supreme Court of these United States ruled that prayer in public school was unconstitutional, and that reading the bible (Except as a study aid in a course on Christian religion) was clearly wrong.
Religious zealots have been ranting ever since, claiming our system of laws is based on biblical principle, which is clearly nonsense. Our current laws are based (mostly) on common sense. The bible, though a somewhat wacky piece of literature, admittedly does contain some common sense, just not enough to build a legal system on! Christians will rush to explain that the really nutty stuff is in the Old Testament (don't eat the shrimp!) (Watch out for talking donkeys!) but that it is explained elsewhere that these nutty ideas are no longer rules. (Romans 10:4; Galatians 3:24-26; Ephesians 2:15) , and that in the New Testament in Acts 10:15, god told everyone through the apostle Peter that he had changed his mind & that it was okay now to "rise, kill and eat" any of the lord's many delicious animals.
If the bible really were the source for our law, these would ALL be illegal activities (instead of just the murdering and the stealing thing), and the US economy would collapse!
BORN ON THIS DATE: Charles Gounod, 1888
DIED ON THIS DATE: Kate Smith, 1989, at the age of 79. Best known for her rousing renditions of "God Bless America".
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Born on this date in 1818, (coincidentally also the day that the execrable "Cheeseburger in Paradise" reached its highest spot [32] in the charts in 1978) Gounod is perhaps best known as composer of the wonderful opera "Faust". Not many people know this, but it was written to celebrate the life of a woman who would not even be born for another 145 years or so, the printmaker and writer, Foust. This is also the date on which (in 1963) the Supreme Court of these United States ruled that prayer in public school was unconstitutional, and that reading the bible (Except as a study aid in a course on Christian religion) was clearly wrong.
Religious zealots have been ranting ever since, claiming our system of laws is based on biblical principle, which is clearly nonsense. Our current laws are based (mostly) on common sense. The bible, though a somewhat wacky piece of literature, admittedly does contain some common sense, just not enough to build a legal system on! Christians will rush to explain that the really nutty stuff is in the Old Testament (don't eat the shrimp!) (Watch out for talking donkeys!) but that it is explained elsewhere that these nutty ideas are no longer rules. (Romans 10:4; Galatians 3:24-26; Ephesians 2:15) , and that in the New Testament in Acts 10:15, god told everyone through the apostle Peter that he had changed his mind & that it was okay now to "rise, kill and eat" any of the lord's many delicious animals.
If the bible really were the source for our law, these would ALL be illegal activities (instead of just the murdering and the stealing thing), and the US economy would collapse!
BORN ON THIS DATE: Charles Gounod, 1888
DIED ON THIS DATE: Kate Smith, 1989, at the age of 79. Best known for her rousing renditions of "God Bless America".
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Friday, June 16, 2006
Hooray for filth!
What have I been telling you people? All along?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060616/ap_on_sc/dirty_rats;_ylt=AqYBMZIs.cfEdNK._8shBtcPLBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--
What have I been telling you people? All along?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060616/ap_on_sc/dirty_rats;_ylt=AqYBMZIs.cfEdNK._8shBtcPLBIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Hooray for the Wandering Jew! Happy Bloom's Day one & all!
Today is June 16th, the anniversary of the ordinary day in 1904 that Mr.James Joyce chose to immortalize (or depict in mind-numbingly obsessive detail, depending on your point-of-view) in his very thick work "Ullysses". It's the tale of Leopold Bloom and a fellow drinker Mr.Stephen Dedalus and a bit of a pub-crawl, or so I'm told, I've never managed to wade through it myself. (Though I read all the way through Umberto Eco's 'Foucault's Pendulum', which I recommend, but have a dictionary handy. For an Italian, Mr.Eco sure knows some big English words!)
Mr.Joyce didn't need many big words because he was so very thorough: 'Her ear too is a shell, the peeping lobe there. Been to the seaside. Lovely seaside girls. Skin tanned raw. Should have put on coldcream first make it brown. Buttered toast. O and that lotion mustn't forget. Fever near her mouth. Your head it simply. Hair braided over: shell with seaweed. Why do they hide their ears with seaweed hair? And Turks the mouth, why? Her eyes over the sheet, a yashmak. Find the way in. A cave. No admittance except on business. '
And so on and so on and so on...
In other news:
Fine upstanding Baptist reporter Mr.Tom Strode is raising the alarm that without an amendment to the Constitution that bans "same-sex marriage" all heck might break loose! In an article reproduced at the highly amusing (if it wasn't so scary) http://www.crosswalk.com, he warns that:
A homosexual couple with a marriage license could request married student housing even at a college that bars same-sex couples for religious reasons. HORRORS!
Religious institutions could be required to provide “homosexual spouses” with benefits. WHAT!!!???
Religious employers could be prohibited from firing employees who enter “gay marriages.” HOW DARE THEY?
A person could seek access to his “same-sex spouse’s” family plot in a religiously owned cemetery. NOW THEY WANT TO BE BURIED TOGETHER? WHEN WILL THE BLASPHEMY END?
THERE IS A SIMPLE TOOL TO PREVENT ALL THESE "HORRORS" IF THAT'S WHAT YOU WANT TO DO, MR.TOM STRODE OF THE BAPTIST PRESS! RELINQUISH THE TAX BREAKS FOR RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS!
"He flung up his hands and tramped down the stone stairs, singing out of tune with a Cockney accent: O, WON’T WE HAVE A MERRY TIME,DRINKING WHISKY, BEER AND WINE!ON CORONATION,CORONATION DAY!O, WON’T WE HAVE A MERRY TIMEON CORONATION DAY!"
BORN ON THIS DATE: John Peel, 1939. Avid cyclist, discoverer of Joy Division, The Undertones and many, many others.
DIED ON THIS DATE:In 1969 by overdose, Mr.John Honeyman-Scott, one of an alarming number of The Pretenders who have perished over the years.
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Hooray for Role Models! Hooray!
The Pittsburgh Steelers' Ben Toothlisberger is the kind of dedicated role-model our nations kids need to teach them the important things in life. He selflessly allowed himself to be involved in a collision with a car while he was on a very, very large motorcycle without a helmet. And all this so kids would get a real demonstration of how dumb that is, instead of just lip service! What a fine fellow!
Roethlisberger is on record as having said, regarding the wearing of a helmet while riding a motorcycle "I'm pretty conservative and laid back. I'll just continue to be careful. I told him we don't ever ride alone, we always ride in a group of people, and I think it makes it even more safe." So the reason he was in the accident, obviously, was that he was riding alone?
And another great example for the kids!
Small Face, great big liver! Ronnie Wood and his long-suffering companion, his liver, are apparently at odds again. Little Ronnie is showing the youth of today just how much damage it does to your liver to drink incessantly, not just by preaching, but by using his own organ as a demonstration! What a guy!
Said a spokesman "Ron & Keef 'ave been 'avin' this sorta race fing to see oos liver would cop it first. I 'ad my money on Keef.
We were 'avin' a office pool, like... but i ain't given up yet. Keef's still got it in 'im, I reckon, I do...."
Hooray for our lack of imagination!
What this world needs is more of the same! All this nonsense about so-called "originality","progress" and "creativity" is way overated. When we find something we think we like, we should stick with it, even when it gets all old and wrinkly.
I speak, of course, of the impending reunion of the Beach Boys, or at least the ones that are still breathing.
What's wrong with an "All Beach Boys" or an "All Three Dog Night all the time" radio format? Moses was 120 when he shuttled off this mortal coil, and Adam (<=priceless nonsense!) was 930 when he copped it, so why shouldn't we expect Cher with all her "help" to last another 800 years at least?
Why are boomers so determined to arrest the progress of all art, culture & science, and yet get all cranky when their salaries stagnate?
BORN ON THIS DATE: Betsy Ross, 1777, the nice lady who sewed the first US Flag. AND Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin", who said (among other things) "So long as the law considers all these human beings, with beating hearts and living affections, only as so many things belonging to the master -- so long as the failure, or misfortune, or imprudence, or death of the kindest owner, may cause them any day to exchange a life of kind protection and indulgence for one of hopeless misery and toil -- so long it is impossible to make anything beautiful or desirable in the best-regulated administration of slavery.”
DIED ON THIS DATE:In 1927, Mr.Jerome K Jerome, who is credited as the original orator of the phrase "I like work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours."
Monday, June 12, 2006
Hooray for Vodka! And Hooray for fishing!
Or not actually fishing. We saw a terrific gem of a movie this weekend. An Aleksandr Rogozhkin movie called Peculiarities of the National Fishing. (No, really...)
It's in Russian & Finnish, and subtitled in English, but please don't let that put you off. Subtitles are actually usually a good thing, why would anyone bother doing all that work for a crummy movie?
Anyway, a bunch of Russian guys go fishing, stray into Finnish waters, and end up accidentally leaving a bunch of vodka in a shed in Finland, and their boat at the bottom of Finnish waters. This is the tale of trying to get them back. They drink a lot of vodka , use more in a somewhat unconventional manner, and I'm not sure I remember them catching any fish!
You can rent Peculiarities of the National Fishing on DVD at Netflix, my favorite DVD rental service.
I caught a fish! I went fishing for the first time in over twenty years the other day, (my lovely wife recently gave me a telescoping rod that ALMOST fits in your pocket!) and caught a fair-sized Largemouth Bass in a pond at Sweetbriar College So I went straight to Dick's Sporting Goods (very snotty to novices) and bought a fishing license so I won't get deported for unlicensed fishing!
BORN ON THIS DATE: George Herbert Walker Bush, 1924, the 41st President of a country founded on the notion that governance by Royalty or succession to a throne by family is a bad thing.
MURDERED ON THIS DATE:In 1963, Medgar Evers , civil rights worker. In Newton County today, all the mayors are white. It just gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling about humanity, doesn't it?
Or not actually fishing. We saw a terrific gem of a movie this weekend. An Aleksandr Rogozhkin movie called Peculiarities of the National Fishing. (No, really...)
It's in Russian & Finnish, and subtitled in English, but please don't let that put you off. Subtitles are actually usually a good thing, why would anyone bother doing all that work for a crummy movie?
Anyway, a bunch of Russian guys go fishing, stray into Finnish waters, and end up accidentally leaving a bunch of vodka in a shed in Finland, and their boat at the bottom of Finnish waters. This is the tale of trying to get them back. They drink a lot of vodka , use more in a somewhat unconventional manner, and I'm not sure I remember them catching any fish!
You can rent Peculiarities of the National Fishing on DVD at Netflix, my favorite DVD rental service.
I caught a fish! I went fishing for the first time in over twenty years the other day, (my lovely wife recently gave me a telescoping rod that ALMOST fits in your pocket!) and caught a fair-sized Largemouth Bass in a pond at Sweetbriar College So I went straight to Dick's Sporting Goods (very snotty to novices) and bought a fishing license so I won't get deported for unlicensed fishing!
BORN ON THIS DATE: George Herbert Walker Bush, 1924, the 41st President of a country founded on the notion that governance by Royalty or succession to a throne by family is a bad thing.
MURDERED ON THIS DATE:In 1963, Medgar Evers , civil rights worker. In Newton County today, all the mayors are white. It just gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling about humanity, doesn't it?
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Hooray for Benedict!
We saw a rather large & lovely couple recently wearing very taught t-shirts. Our view was from behind, and we could see the text " I love my new German Shepherd" emblazoned on their backs. Curious, I scuttled ahead of them and looked back; And there he was on the front of the shirts, their 'German Shepherd' Pope Benedict XVI!
The Vatican & the Pope have an estimated net worth of $600,000,000 , but doesn't it say something about rich people in the bible? Matthew 19:24
I believe I prefer Eggs Benedict to Pope Benedict. If the creator did not want us to eat eggs, he wouldn't have invented Crestor! Or allowed Mike the headless chicken! to live to grow up into an 8lb Wyandotte rooster!
"Und er schmeckte das Hollandaise und sah, daß es gut war"
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BORN ON THIS DATE: Yasunari Kawabata born 1888, author of 'Snow Country', 'Thousand Cranes', and 'The Master of Go', among many others. Here's how to fold a crane Now go fold a thousand of them for good fortune!
DIED ON THIS DATE: Big Leggy, died 1979. Born Marion Morrison, Mr.John Wayne succumbed to lung cancer after smoking cigarettes for over thirty years
