Right And Wrong

     

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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.

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Did You Know . . .?

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

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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.

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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

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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.

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

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I'll Remember Elmore Leonard

    

Tucson Weather Today

 

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When I heard on the news yesterday that Elmore Leonard had died I thought 'Oh no.' But then I realized that he had lived to the age of 87, a goodly number of years. He had written many, many published novels, most of which I have read over the years.

A number of Leonard's novels have been adapted as films, including Out of Sight in 1998, Get Shorty in 1995, and Rum Punch (as the 1997 film Jackie Brown). 52 Pick-Up was first adapted very loosely into the 1984 film The Ambassador.

The 1967 film Hombre starring Paul Newman (which I have read and watched in rerun many times) was an adaptation of Leonard's novel of the same name.

His short story "Three-Ten to Yuma" and novels The Big Bounce and 52 Pick-Up have each been filmed twice. A 2001 comedy film, Bandits, was originally meant to be an adaptation of Leonard's novel by that name, to which Bruce Willis owns the film rights.

Other novels filmed include:
Mr. Majestyk
Valdez Is Coming
52 Pick-Up
Stick
The Moonshine War
Last Stand at Saber River
Gold Coast
Glitz
Cat Chaser
Out of Sight
Touch
Pronto
Be Cool
Killshot
Get Shorty

It's reported that Elmore Leonard once said, "if it sounds like writing, I rewrite it."

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During the big flap over the possible abuse of power by various government agencies, President Obama assured the American people that, even though abuse (concerning stored and saved communications of citizens) was possible under the Patriot Act, he (the President) promised that this abuse did not and would not happen. And that Americans should trust him on that.

Even people who believed this sheer nonsense should realize that it is not a matter of trusting a reigning president but a matter of leaving such a potentially dangerous law in place, a law that can (and surely 'will)' be horrifically abused by some future not-so-benign president and his not-so-humane regime.

As Judd Rose once said, "With power comes the abuse of power. And where there are bosses, there are crazy bosses. It's nothing new."

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TRIVIA

The actress who played the Old Gypsy Woman in The Wolfman was Maria Ouspenskaya.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1959, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill making Hawaii the 50th state.

Ike, as Eisenhower was known, entered the White House in 1953 in charge of 48 states; two more had been added by the time he left office in 1961.

During his 1952 presidential campaign, Eisenhower had advocated for the admission of Alaska and Hawaii to the Union but recommended adding Hawaii first. Congress, on the other hand, favored admitting Alaska first, as Alaskan oil would be beneficial to the nation's economy.

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WORD FOR TODAY

Slang-whanger
noun
One who uses abusive slang; a ranting partisan.

A “slang-whanger” is a noisy, turbulent fellow, whose language is not of the best. The word can mean a political orator, bar-room pundit, hell-fire preacher or bullying court lawyer. It could at times also mean something written by a newspaper slang-whanger or a violent political harangue.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Kim Victoria Cattrall
(born August 21, 1956)

Kim Cattrall is an English-born Canadian actress. She is known for her role as Samantha Jones in the HBO comedy/romance series Sex and the City and for her leading roles in the 1980s films Police Academy, Big Trouble in Little China, Mannequin, Porky's and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

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.

Though he has been most successful with country audiences, he has charted more than 120 hit singles across various music genres, topped the country and pop album charts for more than 200 individual weeks in the United States alone and has sold over 130 million records worldwide, making him one of the highest-selling artists of all time.

Two of his albums, The Gambler and Kenny, are featured in the About.com poll of "The 200 Most Influential Country Albums Ever".

Jacqueline Bonnell Marteau "Jackie" Emerson
(born August 21, 1994)

Jackie Emerson is an American actress and a former member of the teenage pop band Devo 2.0. Emerson portrayed Foxface in the film The Hunger Games.

Carrie-Anne Moss
(born August 21, 1967)

Carrie-Anne Moss is a Canadian actress, best known for her role of Trinity in The Matrix trilogy. She has had other notable roles in Memento, Chocolat, and Unthinkable.

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The greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.
--Edmund Burke

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