4-5-13

My reasons for posting the above picture are that I so much enjoy reading the works of Mark Twain because of his writing style and because I so often agree with his insightful conclusions about life in general... and about the childish foolishness that is organized religion.

You might have to click the pic to enlarge it enough to read the text.

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Tucson Weather Today


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The TV News yesterday informed me that Roger Ebert, the popular Chicago film critic, has died. Here is what he had to say about death.

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Teach Not Preach is a website written by a World Religion teacher in a public school who shares in his blog his thoughts and experiences.

Below is what he says about himself:

"My name is Jim Morrison. For nearly eighteen years I have taught a world religion course in a public high school in Red Wing, Minnesota. It is a course and curriculum that I developed. What I do is very rare and controversial, and people often assume that what I am doing is illegal. It is not. The Supreme Court has made it very clear that teaching about religion in public schools is not only legal but necessary for a student’s understanding of the world."

I have read several of Jim Morrison's blog entries and found them fascinating. And, having placed a shortcut to his site on my desktop, I intend to read each new entry as it appears.

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Last night I forgot all about watching the first program in the new Hannibal series. I went to bed early instead.

What more can I say about that?

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WORD FOR TODAY

homosexuality
noun
-  erotic activity with another of the same sex.
-  sexual interest in and attraction to members of one's own sex.

Female homosexuality is frequently referred to as lesbianism; the word gay is often used as an alternative for both "homosexual" and "lesbian," though it may refer specifically to male homosexuality.

Wikipedia states: Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual activity between members of the same sex or gender. As an orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectionate, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same sex." It also refers to an individual's sense of personal and social identity based on those attractions, behaviors expressing them, and membership in a community of others who share them.

Since I am not a homosexual, I find it difficult to understand (and somewhat distasteful) how it is that a man can feel sexual attraction for another man. But since I have always been so strongly attracted to females I can quite easily understand how a woman can be sexually attractive to another woman.

This mild distaste I admittedly feel for the male-male homosexual act does not mean that I have any intellectual objections at all to homosexual pairings or civil unions, or to the open practice between consenting adults of homosexuality itself. No. It takes the hypocrisy of organized religion for that.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS


Judith Arlene Resnik
(April 5, 1949 – January 28, 1986)

American engineer and a NASA astronaut who died when the Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed during the launch of mission STS-51-L.

Eldred Gregory Peck
(April 5, 1916 – June 12, 2003)

American actor and one of the world's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play major film roles until the late 1970s. His notable performances include Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an Academy Award.

Frank John Gorshin, Jr.
(April 5, 1933 – May 17, 2005)

American actor and comedian. He was perhaps best known as an impressionist, with many guest appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and Tonight Starring Steve Allen. His most famous acting role was as The Riddler in the Batman live-action television series.

Colin Luther Powell
(born April 5, 1937)

American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under U.S. President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005, the first African American to serve in that position.

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"One forges one's style on the terrible anvil of daily deadlines....The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work."
--Emile Zola