Right And Wrong

     

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what's right.
--Isaac Asimov

Yesterday while researching some nearly unbelievable (but interesting) allegations, I read the following:

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has launched an independent expenditure ad charging Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) “voted to give Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants.”

Read more:

Well, I did read more, but now I am still no wiser... and no longer interested.

Another statement I read somewhere on the Internet was:

"Today, more than half of the world's people -- more than 3.5 billion -- are city dwellers."

WOW!

And...

According to U.N. estimates, by 2050, a third of the world’s population will live not just in cities, but in slums.

LINK

Makes me wonder what the number of people living in slums will be in the year 2099.

Not that it will matter to me by then.

I'm curious though.


For the last few weeks I have been working on (thinking deeply about) a method for putting into cogent words my personal beliefs and opinions concerning religion, and about the difference, if any, between life and death. And whether or not a belief in the existence of God (or a god) has any real meaning beyond an imagined concept embedded within the human mind.

Sadly, I have not yet arrived at a satisfactory conclusion.

But I'm still working on it.


I am writing this small portion of the blog entry the night before I post it, during commercials of the 1973 version of the movie Serpico, played  by Al Pacino, who testified against a cruel cadre of corrupt cops. And so the composition will probably be a bit choppy in spots.

The movie following Serpico is Midnight Express, the harrowing story of a young American tourist arrested and sentenced to 30 years in prison by Turkish authorities for trying to smuggle two kilos of hashish out of the country. If I don't get too sleepy I'll watch it.

Did I mention that I have become a movie buff?


Okay, it's the next morning now. I must reveal that last night's movie, Midnight Express, proved to be nothing more than an overly long expose of the brutality within the Turkish prison system. Of course there was more to the movie than I can admit to... such as that mysterious certainty of a lack of sensitivity to the scenes depicting inter-personal relationships between prisoners. But even this failure on my part has value. It reminds me that I am not an intellectual at all, but merely a confused, ignorant mortal attempting to fool myself into believing there is actually some meaning to my life, and the futile feeling that I am intelligent enough to recognize it.

Something like that.


An upcoming movie to be shown later in the week is From Here To Eternity.

_____

Did You Know . . .?

Statistics have shown that in 2013 only 53% of Americans attending college actually graduated.

_____

HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1959 President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting Hawaii into the Union as the 50th state. The president also issued an order for an American flag featuring 50 stars arranged in staggered rows: five six-star rows and four five-star rows. The new flag became official July 4, 1960. In March 1959, the U.S. government had approved statehood for Hawaii, and in June the Hawaiian people had voted by a wide majority to accept admittance into the United States. Two months later, Hawaii officially became the 50th state.

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

fungible [FUHN-juh-buhl]
adjective
1. able to be substituted for something of equal value or utility.
2. Law: (especially of goods) being of such nature or kind as to be freely exchangeable or replaceable, in whole or in part, for another of like nature or kind.
Synonyms
interchangeable, exchangeable, replaceable

_____

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Kenneth Donald "Kenny" Rogers

(born August 21, 1938)

Kenny Rogers is an American singer-songwriter, photographer, record producer, actor, entrepreneur and author, and member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Kim Victoria Cattrall

(born August 21, 1956)

Kim Cattrall is an English-Canadian actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO romantic comedy series Sex and the City.

Harry Smith

(born August 21, 1951)

Harry Smith is an American television journalist, working for NBC News. He hosted the CBS News morning programs, The Early Show and its predecessor, CBS This Morning, for seventeen years. In July 2011, Smith left CBS News to become a correspondent for NBC News.

Joanne Froggatt

(born August 21, 1980)

Joanne Froggatt is an English actress of stage, television, and film, most notably appearing in Downton Abbey as Anna, Lady's Maid to Lady Mary Crawley.

__________

The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing.
--Isaac Asimov

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am