Turn The Other Cheek

    

Tucson Weather Today

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According to Gallup polls,  One-Third of Americans believe the Bible is literally true and 37 percent believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God.

Since this percentage of Christians profess to believe this, it stands to reason that they believe the Gospel of Matthew, as an alternative for "an eye for an eye" is given by Jesus:

In the Gospel of Matthew, as part of the "Sermon on the Mount" --
38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.
42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.
 --Matthew 5:38–5:42 KJV

 In the Gospel of Luke, as part of his command to "love your enemies", Jesus says:
27 But I say unto you which hear, love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.
29 And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also.
30 Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.
31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
 --Luke 6:27–31 KJV

Therefore, Christians believe, when an enemy strikes them on the cheek, should offer to be struck on the other cheek, and should love that enemy.

Really?

That is what the Bible, the Word of God, states. And to disobey God is a sin.

Sin is not just big things like murder or blasphemy, but also includes love of money, hatred of enemies, and deceit of tongue and pride. Because of sin, everyone has deserved death -- eternal separation from God in hell.

See SIN

An interesting side note from USA Today  -- For the second time in less than a year, the Gallup poll reports that a majority of Americans would vote for an atheist for president. The latest survey, from June, found that 54 percent of those asked said they would vote a "well- qualified" atheist into the Oval Office -- the highest percentage since Gallup began asking the question in 1958, when only 18 percent said they would back a nonbeliever.

Really?

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HISTORICAL CLIP

Nelson Mandela, leader of the movement to end South African apartheid, was released from prison after 27 years on February 11, 1990.

In 1944, Mandela, a lawyer, joined the African National Congress (ANC), the oldest black political organization in South Africa, where he became a leader of Johannesburg's youth wing of the ANC. In 1952, he became deputy national president of the ANC, advocating nonviolent resistance to apartheid--South Africa's institutionalized system of white supremacy and racial segregation. However, after the massacre of peaceful black demonstrators at Sharpeville in 1960, Nelson helped organize a paramilitary branch of the ANC to engage in guerrilla warfare against the white minority government.

In 1961, he was arrested for treason, and although acquitted he was arrested again in 1962 for illegally leaving the country. Convicted and sentenced to five years at Robben Island Prison, he was put on trial again in 1964 on charges of sabotage. In June 1964, he was convicted along with several other ANC leaders and sentenced to life in prison.

Mandela spent the first 18 of his 27 years in jail at the brutal Robben Island Prison. Confined to a small cell without a bed or plumbing, he was forced to do hard labor in a quarry. He could write and receive a letter once every six months, and once a year he was allowed to meet with a visitor for 30 minutes. However, Mandela's resolve remained unbroken, and while remaining the symbolic leader of the anti-apartheid movement, he led a movement of civil disobedience at the prison that coerced South African officials into drastically improving conditions on Robben Island. He was later moved to another location, where he lived under house arrest.

 

Nelson Mandela

In 1989, F.W. de Klerk became South African president and set about dismantling apartheid. De Klerk lifted the ban on the ANC, suspended executions, and in February 1990 ordered the release of Nelson Mandela.

Mandela subsequently led the ANC in its negotiations with the minority government for an end to apartheid and the establishment of a multiracial government. In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. One year later, the ANC won an electoral majority in the country's first free elections, and Mandela was elected South Africa's president.

Mandela has received international acclaim for his anti-colonial and anti-apartheid stance, having received over 250 awards, including the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Soviet Order of Lenin. He is held in deep respect within South Africa as the "Father of the Nation", where he is often known under his Xhosa clan name of Madiba.

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WORD FOR TODAY

apartheid
noun
1.  A policy or practice of separating or segregating groups.
2 . The condition of being separated from others; segregation.
3.   An official policy of racial segregation formerly practiced in the Republic of South Africa, involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against nonwhites.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Jennifer Aniston

 

Born Feb 11, 1969
Age:   43 years old

Jennifer Joanna Aniston is an American actress, film director, and producer. Aniston gained worldwide recognition in the 1990s for portraying Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, a role which earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Aniston has also enjoyed a successful Hollywood film career. She gained critical acclaim for her performances in the independent films She's the One (1996), Office Space (1999), The Good Girl (2002) and Friends with Money (2006). She has had her greatest commercial successes with the films Bruce Almighty (2003), The Break-Up (2006), Marley & Me (2008), Just Go with It (2011) and Horrible Bosses (2011). Aniston received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on February 22, 2012.

Burt Reynolds

 

Born Feb 11, 1936
Age:   76 years old

Burton Leon "Burt" Reynolds, Jr. is an American actor, director and voice artist. Some of his notable roles include Bo 'Bandit' Darville in Smokey and the Bandit, Bobby "Gator" McCluskey in White Lightning and sequel Gator, Charlie B. Barkin in All Dogs Go To Heaven, Paul Crewe in The Longest Yard and Jack Horner in Boogie Nights.

Sarah Palin

 

Born Feb 11, 1964
Age:   48 years old

Sarah Louise Palin is an American politician, commentator and author who served as the 9th Governor of Alaska, from 2006 to 2009. As the Republican Party nominee for Vice President in the 2008 presidential election along side Arizona Senator John McCain, she was the first Alaskan on the national ticket of a major party and first Republican woman nominated for the vice presidency. Her book Going Rogue has sold more than two million copies. Since January 2010, she has provided political commentary for Fox News, and hosted a television show, Sarah Palin's Alaska. Five million viewers tuned in for the first episode, a record for TLC.

Thomas Alva Edison

 

Born Feb. 11, 1847
Died Oct. 18, 1931

Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. Dubbed "The Wizard of Menlo Park" by a newspaper reporter, he was one of the first inventors to apply the principles of mass production and large-scale teamwork to the process of invention, and because of that, he is often credited with the creation of the first industrial research laboratory.

Edison is the fourth most prolific inventor in history, holding 1,093 US patents in his name, as well as many patents in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. He is credited with numerous inventions that contributed to mass communication and, in particular, telecommunications. These included a stock ticker, a mechanical vote recorder, a battery for an electric car, electrical power, recorded music and motion pictures.

His advanced work in these fields was an outgrowth of his early career as a telegraph operator. Edison developed a system of electric-power generation and distribution to homes, businesses, and factories – a crucial development in the modern industrialized world. His first power station was on Pearl Street in Manhattan, New York.

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After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.
--Nelson Mandela
    

Maybe I Can Get Some Nature Photos

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Tucson Weather Today


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Good Gravy! I woke up at 2:22 this morning and could not get back to sleep. So I got up and turned on the computer. Caught up on some blog reading that I had been neglecting. Then started thinking about what I could possibly write about here in the blog so dad-blamed early in the morning.

Well, for one thing, it seems that the New Atheists, the hyper activist Atheists, are still bickering with the common Atheists about their most recent big split. The A group, which stands for the old Atheist and the A+ group which symbolizes the new and improved group (A with an added plus-sign group) all of whom believe that true Atheists should not only believe there is no evidence for the existence of God or gods plus should also embrace every last one of the ultra-liberal policies, such as no discrimination against ethnicity, women, or any minority... and on and on and on. You know, elitist stuff. Stuff like "I believe THIS, so everybody else should believe this way as well, and if they don't then they are cretins."

Oh well.

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I will be leaving this evening for a week out in the desert where I will be hacienda-sitting and dog-sitting for Eva, but I will strive to continue blogging even though my customized computer will remain here at home in the city. There are two computers I can use at the desert location but they do not have the specialized software as does this one, such as my photo editing program... and others. Also, with hundreds of available satellite TV channels to choose from (instead of my usual dozen or so) I find it difficult to pull myself away from such a plethora of relatively uncensored entertainment.

And there is the billiard room, and I always seem to need more practice at nine-ball.


And Eva needs her play time, too.

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Updates  and second thoughts (if I have any) will go here . . .

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WORD FOR TODAY


nugatory
adjective
Of no value or importance.
Useless; futile.

Synonyms:   
trifling - trivial - futile - insignificant

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Peter Falk


Born Sept 16, 1927
Died June 23, 2011

Peter Michael Falk was an American actor, best known for his role as Lt. Frank Columbo in the television series Columbo. He appeared in numerous films such as The Princess Bride, The Great Race and Next, and television guest roles. He was nominated for an Academy Award twice (for 1960's Murder, Inc. and 1961's Pocketful of Miracles), and won the Emmy Award on five occasions (four for Columbo) and the Golden Globe award once.

Allen Funt


Born Sept 16, 1914
Died Sept. 5, 1999

Allen Albert Funt was an American television producer, director and writer, television personality, best known as the creator and host of Candid Camera from the 1940s to 1980s, as either a regular television show or a television series of specials. Its most notable run was from 1960 to 1967 on CBS.

Lauren Bacall


Born Sep 16, 1924
Age: 87 years old.

Lauren Bacall (born Betty Joan Perske) is an American film and stage actress and model, known for her distinctive husky voice and sultry looks. She first emerged as a leading lady in the Humphrey Bogart film To Have And Have Not (1944) and continued on in the film noir genre, with appearances in Bogart movies The Big Sleep (1946) and Dark Passage (1947), as well as a comedienne in How to Marry a Millionaire (1953) with Marilyn Monroe and Designing Woman (1957) with Gregory Peck.

David Copperfield


Born Sep 16, 1956
Age: 55 years old.

David Copperfield (born David Seth Kotkin) is an American illusionist, and has been described by Forbes as the most commercially successful magician in history.

Copperfield's television specials have won 21 Emmy Awards of a total 38 nominations. Best known for his combination of storytelling and illusion, Copperfield’s career of over 30 years has earned him 11 Guinness World Records, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and a knighthood by the French government; and he has been named a Living Legend by the US Library of Congress.

Copperfield has so far sold 40 million tickets and grossed over $3 billion, which is more than any other solo entertainer in history. He currently performs over 500 shows a year.


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Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.
--Albert Einstein

What's In A Word?

Tucson Weather Today

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Whenever I force myself to buckle down and actually think about my penchant for reading all I can find about atheism and trying to absorb the individual Atheist writer's perspective, I then grow more and more confused and undecided about my own beliefs and non-beliefs. How can I know for sure if my apparent thoughts and conclusions are truly mine or are merely the thoughts and conclusions of the authors I have been reading that I happen to agree with?

For that matter, how can I ever know if any of my thoughts about anything are my own or merely my mind agreeing with thoughts of others I have heard or read about?

Sometimes it seems that I cannot.

Not for sure.


One thought (of my own, I'm pretty sure) that recently appeared in my conscious mind is that Atheist writers (especially bloggers) are prone to coining new words and phrases. For example: I encountered a blog entry displaying the curious title -- Needless intrablogular drama-stirring -- and I concluded that the obvious word-coinage (intrablogular) did the job admirably.


Atheist. That word used to simply mean "One who does not believe in God."

No longer.

Now, is seems, an atheist (A) is one who believes that there is no scientific evidence that a god or any other supernatural force exists, so thinking human beings should therefore live their lives free from such ignorant superstitions and pursue instead the dreams and goals of the individual -- and more recently,  (A+) as long as those dreams and goals include and are guided by the lofty principles of liberal and progressive ideals.

Wait. Was that what's nowadays termed a snarky paragraph?

Oh well . . .

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WORD FOR TODAY


pastiche [pa-steesh]
noun
- a literary, musical, or artistic piece consisting wholly or chiefly of motifs or techniques borrowed from one or more sources.
- an incongruous combination of materials, forms, motifs, etc., taken from different sources; hodgepodge.

From Wikipedia --
A pastiche is a work of art, literature, film, music or architecture that openly imitates the work of a previous artist, sometimes with the intent of satire. The word can also describe a hodge-podge of parts derived from the original work of others. The word is also a linguistic term used to describe an early stage in the development of a pidgin language.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Colonel Harland Sanders

Born Sept. 9, 1890
Died Dec 16, 1980

"Colonel" Harland David Sanders was an American restaurateur who founded the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) fast food chain.

Adam Sandler

Born Sept 9, 1966
Age 45 years old.

Adam Richard Sandler is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, musician, and film producer. After becoming a Saturday Night Live cast member, Sandler went on to star in several Hollywood feature films that grossed over $100 million at the box office. He is best known for his comedic roles, such as in the films Billy Madison (1995), Happy Gilmore (1996), The Waterboy (1998), Big Daddy (1999), and Mr. Deeds (2002), though he has ventured into more dramatic territory. In 1999, Sandler founded Happy Madison, a film and television production company that has produced numerous films and developed the 2007 television series Rules of Engagement.

Angela Cartwright

Born Sept. 9, 1952
Age: 59 years old.

Angela Margaret Cartwright is an English-born American actress primarily known for her roles in movies and television. Cartwright is best known as a child actress for her role as Brigitta Von Trapp in the film The Sound of Music, as Danny Williams' stepdaughter Linda in the 1950s TV series Make Room For Daddy (a role she played from 1957 to 1964), and as Penny Robinson in the 1960s television series Lost in Space.

Cliff Robertson

Born Sept 9, 1925
Died Sep 10, 2011

Clifford Parker "Cliff" Robertson III was an American actor with a film and television career that spanned half a century. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film PT 109, and won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the movie Charly. On television, he portrayed retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin in the 1976 adaptation of Aldrin's autobiographic Return to Earth, played a fictional character based on Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms in the 1977 adaptation of John Ehrlichman's Watergate novel The Company, and portrayed Henry Ford in the 1987 Ford: The Man and the Machine. His last well-known film appearances were in 2002 through 2007 as Uncle Ben in the Spider-Man film trilogy.


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Married men live longer than single men . . .
But married men are a lot more willing to die.
--Johnny Carson

Lacks Any Real Pizzaz . . .

Tucson Weather Today

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After musing upon my seeming inability to write blog entries in depth on various subjects which interest me, I came to the conclusion that it is because I have no deep convictions about much of anything. That is probably why my writing is so prosaic. And that's probably sad.

I thought about some of the blogs I read repeatedly and found that each of them has a definite theme.  They have a cause that each blogger is passionate about. The blogs, for example, of two militant atheists, PZ Myers  and Greta Christina -- both of whom, besides being competent writers, are without a doubt absolutely dedicated to passionately expounding their personal beliefs.

Taslima Nasreen has a simplistic theme that is fast growing tiresome: "Men Bad. Women Good."

Can one feign passion?

Good question.

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WORD FOR TODAY

prosaic
adj.
Lacking wit or imagination
Having the style or diction of prose; lacking poetic beauty.
Commonplace; unromantic.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Kate Smith

Born May 1, 1907

Died June 17, 1986

ALSO

Jack Paar

Born May 1 1918

Died Jan. 27, 2004

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Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.
--Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Science, Blind Faith, Etc.

Tucson Weather Today

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R.I.P Andy Rooney

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After watching today's edition of this week and Meet The Press on Sunday morning TV news I find that some of my thoughts and ideas have changed, at least temporarily. One of those ideas is the effect on the public of those 'Sunday Comics,' the collection of recent nighttime sneers from the various comedians who deliver the tongue-in-cheek script lines supplied by the political joke writers.

Just because something makes you laugh does not mean that it is true. Question everything... nothing is sacred.

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For all who are interested in poetry, there is a book you can buy in print form or download FREE (.pdf format e-book). Below is its description.

How does one bring poetry to a community? And who is going to make it happen? In response to these questions posed by the Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute, Katharine Coles and a cadre of poets and artists provide this essential guide and inspiration. Blueprints creates for poets and arts organizers the sense that they are part of a larger, noble endeavor based in shared values and commitment to poetry. The first three sections include essays by a dozen poets and artists about ways they have brought poetry into different kinds of communities. These essays demonstrate what has been done and what can be done and will inspire others to bring poetry into their own communities. The final section provides a practical "toolkit" loaded with experience-based advice and the tools and strategies necessary to accomplish those endeavors.

Katharine Coles is a professor of English at the University of Utah, former director of the Harriet Monroe Poetry Institute, and Utah poet laureate. She is the author of numerous volumes of poetry and has published poems in a wide variety of literary journals and anthologies.

Read about it or download it here.

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NASA's Fermi Finds Youngest Millisecond Pulsar

A pulsar is a type of neutron star that emits electromagnetic energy at periodic intervals. A neutron star is the closest thing to a black hole that astronomers can observe directly, crushing half a million times more mass than Earth into a sphere no larger than a city. This matter is so compressed that even a teaspoonful weighs as much as Mount Everest.

Ha! Sounds a bit far-fetched to me. (Question everything.) But, if a scientist says it's so, then I s'pose it's so.

It's the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics that is saying so.

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Wood you remember me is an excellent thought piece for everyone who is able to think, whether you are an atheist, an agnostic, a person of faith, or even if you just don't care. You may or may not agree with Mr. Pribble but you will more than likely be glad that you read his article

... or not.

If you did, you may also like to read another piece of his, the one he wrote just before the one above.

It is titled: Who Stole The Soul?

I very much like what Martin S. Pribble writes, and I admire how he writes... clearly and directly.

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I Am Not An Atheist

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Tucson Weather Today

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A great many people believe in a personal God, a supremely powerful entity that is responsible for the creation of the entire universe and all things in it, and who is vitally interested in the minute by minute, second by second actions and thoughts of each living person's everyday life.

I do not.

All the many wrongs I have committed throughout my long life are my sole responsibility, committed either from my own ignorance of the harm I was bringing about to others or through the all too many pleasure seeking indulgences of my inborn and wholly instinctive animal passions.

My wrongdoings are my own. They are not merely the bits and pieces of some hugely complex plan of some unseen and unknowable divinity.

#

Catholicism

The Predator Priest Who Got Away:

The Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy admitted he sexually abused deaf boys at his boarding school for 22 years. Victims tried for more than three decades to bring him to justice, but documents show that the church neither defrocked him nor referred him for prosecution.

Catholic priest molests 200 deaf boys says The New York Times.

According to The Times, that priest was Lawrence C. Murphy, who worked at a renowned school for deaf children for 22 years. But it is only one of thousands of cases forwarded over decades by bishops to the Vatican.

The Catholic Church . . . "yuk!"

#

Islam

An adherent of Islam is called a Muslim.

Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable. Muslims also believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed at many times and places before, including through the prophets Abraham, Moses and Jesus.

I prefer to say nothing here, and at this time, about Islam.

After all, its many publicized actions speak for itself.

#

The Protestants

Once a protester, always a protester. Members of the Protestant Church believe that God, goodness, and evil are exactly what each individual protestant believes those things to be, within his or her own individual mind.

There is a great truth stated in the King James Bible, which is:

Vanity of vanities,
saith the Preacher,
vanity of vanities;
all is vanity.
--Ecclesiastes 1:2

#

I am not an Atheist

While I have become unable to believe in the simplistic concept of a personal God as proposed by the major organized religions, I cannot bring myself to smugly deny the possibility of some ultra-powerful entity existing within (or perhaps outside of) the thought-model we label as the universe.

The early morning sky above the peaks of the Rincon Mountains I am now seeing out my window from the corner of my eye as I type this...


...could be but a single unit (cell?) of some superhuman being that is somehow responsible for regulating some facet of the workings of the cosmos.

Or The Earth itself could be that single cell.

Or, our solar system could be that single cell.

Or a galaxy could be that single cell.

Or, perhaps the entire universe, composed of billions of galaxies could itself be that single cell.

(give that some thought)

Organized religions are so chintzy with their paltry concepts of God.

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Jesus tells it like it is

A Little of This, A Little of That

While skimming the blogs I noticed this somewhat cryptic observation: It's worth pointing out that "X is true" and "People exist who believe X is true" are not actually the same statement.

Equally applicable to cultists and atheists.

My Unfamiliar Word Section

mutable [myoo-tuh-buhl]

--adjective

1. liable or subject to change or alteration.

2. given to changing; constantly changing; fickle or inconstant:

Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same.

--Ralph Waldo Emerson

I recently read an interesting (to me) article in The Independent titled "Read 'em and weep: The literary masters of misery who delight in desolation." It will surely be of interest to both aspiring writers and intelligent readers.

After a modicum of deliberation and much procrastination I have finally given in to a curious inclination to learn to use the Linux operating system. I don't know why. Instead of downloading the free set of files, I opted to pay $4 (most of that for shipping and handling) for a certified copy on disk. I've had some bad experiences lately with downloads.

This is what's called a "Live Disk" and will allow the user to use Linux from the disk itself instead of installing it on a computer. That way one can try out and learn about Linux without disturbing the computer's existing system.

When the disk arrives I intend to also use it to try booting up my finicky old laptop which has decided that it can no longer find the (Windows 98) operating system.

What the heck, it's a new challenge of sorts.

I was at a loss as to the proper spelling of the medium. Is it "disk" or "disc" or both or neither?

At WiseGeek I found: For the most part, disc and disk can be used interchangeably to describe flat, round objects such as saucers or Frisbees. The British as a whole tend to prefer disc, while Americans generally use disk as their default spelling. Historically, the word disk entered the popular vernacular first, sometime during the 17th century. Many English words were formed from Germanic roots, which explains the use of a final hard K sound in words such as desk, whisk, task and disk.

WiseGeek's concluding paragraph begins with the sentence, "While there is nothing inherently wrong with either spelling, there are times when one is preferable to the other." and then it elaborates a bit.

A friend sent me a quiz that had been sent to him:

If

2 + 3 = 10

7 + 2 = 63

6 + 5 = 66

8 + 4 = 96

Then:

9 + 7 = ?

I puzzled out what seemed correct to me and then sent him my answer, which was 144. He replied that both he and his wife had independently come up with that same answer.

I have no idea if they and I are right or wrong.

"So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say. But to sacrifice a hair of the head of your vision, a shade of its colour, in deference to some Headmaster with a silver pot in his hand or to some professor with a measuring-rod up his sleeve, is the most abject treachery."

--Virginia Woolf