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

   

A Thing Of Beauty is . . .

     

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.
--Edgar Allan Poe

It is often said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I think that this might be a profoundly true statement.

The picture below and its actual location have each been breathlessly described as being "beautiful."

Arlington National Cemetery

I see no beauty in it.

And . . .

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir

I can neither see nor hear the widely professed beauty of it.

I understand both of the above representations as being merely cleverly manipulated interchanges of streaming photons and atmospheric vibrations crafted by similarly manipulated compounds acting upon natural interactions within hidden depths of human chemistry.

Does this indicate that I am lacking something in the human experience?

Probably.

(shrug)

Although, I seem to sense some sinister beauty in . . .

_____

Did You Know . . .?

The practice of daily shampooing wasn't a norm in the U.S. until the 1970s and 1980s.

_____

HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 2002, Russian Tupolev 154 collided in midair with a Boeing 757 cargo plane over southern Germany. The 69 passengers and crew on the Russian plane and the two-person cargo crew were all killed. The collision occurred even though each plane had TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) collision-avoidance equipment onboard and everything functioned correctly. The Bashkirian Airlines plane was carrying 45 young students from Russia to a resort near Barcelona in Spain for a summer vacation. DHL International, the express delivery company, owned the cargo jet, which was headed from Bahrain to Brussels.

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

beauty
noun
1. the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind.
2. a beautiful person, especially a woman.
3. a beautiful thing, as a work of art or a building.
4. an individually pleasing or beautiful quality; grace; charm.

Beauty is a characteristic of a person, animal, place, object, or idea that provides a perceptual experience of pleasure or satisfaction.

_____

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd

(born July 1, 1952)

Dan Aykroyd is a Canadian actor, comedian screenwriter and singer. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers (with John Belushi) and Ghostbusters, and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.

Leslie Claire Margaret Caron

(born 1 July 1931)

Leslie Caron is a French film actress and dancer who appeared in 45 films between 1951 and 2003. Caron is best known for the musical films An American in Paris (1951), Lili (1953), Daddy Long Legs (1955), Gigi (1958), and for the non-musical films Fanny (1961), The L-Shaped Room (1962), and Father Goose (1964). Her autobiography Thank Heaven, was published in 2010 in the UK and US, and in 2011 in a French version.

Jamie Farr

(born July 1, 1934)

Jamie Farr is an American television, film, and theater actor. He is best known for having played the role of cross-dressing Corporal (later Sergeant) Maxwell Q. Klinger in the CBS television sitcom M*A*S*H.

Pamela Denise Anderson

(born July 1, 1967)

Pamela Anderson is a Canadian-American actress. In addition to her acting career, she is also a model, producer, author, activist, and former showgirl, known for her roles on the television series Home Improvement, Baywatch, and V.I.P. She was chosen as a Playmate of the Month for Playboy magazine in February 1990.

__________

Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.
--Confucius

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

First Day Of Spring 2014

     

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

178 pounds

Today Is The First Day Of Spring

_____

Man is born in a day, and he dies in a day, and the thing is easily over; but to have a sick heart for three-fourths of one's lifetime is simply to have death renewed every morning; and life at that price is not worth living.
--Gilbert Parker


After reading the  question "Is Life Worth Living" on one of those Self-Help websites and after pondering the many answers posted in the comments section, especially the ridiculous and the mostly trite and meaningless ones, I gave up and vowed to think about the question until I could find a satisfactory answer.

I thought about it before, during, and after my daily walk yesterday.

My conclusion is: If I had not been born or if I had died as a child then I might say that my life was probably not worth living. But I was born and I did live on into adulthood. I was married and my wife and I had four children, three boys and a girl. Eventually they all were married and they all had children of their own. Those children will probably have children of their own, and on and on and on.

My answer is: Yes, my life was (and somehow still is) absolutely worth living.

Of course, I can only speak for myself.

_____

Random Image

Camino Seco Avenue - North Toward The Catalinas

Tucson, Arizona  March 20, 2014

_____

Did You Know . . .?

Without regular erections, penile tissue can become less elastic and shrink, making the penis 1-2 centimeters shorter.

_____

HISTORICAL EVENT

In Ripon, Wisconsin, former members of the Whig Party meet to establish a new party to oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories. Anti-slavery Whigs had begun meeting in the upper Midwestern states to discuss the formation of a new party. One such meeting, in Wisconsin on this day, March 20 in 1854, is generally remembered as the founding meeting of the Republican Party.

In November 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln was elected president over a divided Democratic Party. The Civil War firmly identified the Republican Party as the party of the victorious North, and after the war the Republican-dominated Congress forced a "Radical Reconstruction" policy on the South, which saw the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution and the granting of equal rights to all Southern citizens. By 1876, the Republican Party had lost control of the South, but it continued to dominate the presidency until the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

penile  [pee-nyle]
adjective
of or relating to the penis

_____

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Carl Reiner

(born March 20, 1922)

Carl Reiner is an American stand-up comedian, actor, director, producer, writer and voice artist. He has won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award during his career. After many successful years in show business, he is probably remembered most for his role as Alan Brady on The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Holly Hunter

(born March 20, 1958)

Holly Hunter is an American actress. Hunter starred in The Piano for which she won the Academy Award, BAFTA and Golden Globe Award among other awards. She has also been nominated for Oscars for her roles in Broadcast News, The Firm, and Thirteen.

William McChord Hurt

(born March 20, 1950)

William Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States (1980). He subsequently played a leading role in Body Heat (1981). In 1985, Hurt garnered substantial critical acclaim in Kiss of the Spider Woman and for his lead performances in Children of a Lesser God (1986) and Broadcast News (1987). Hurt received his first Tony Award nomination in 1985 for the Broadway production of Hurlyburly.

After playing a diversity of character roles in the following decade, Hurt earned his fourth Academy Award nomination for his supporting performance in David Cronenberg's crime thriller A History of Violence (2005). Other notable films in recent years have included A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), The Village (2004), Syriana (2005), The Good Shepherd (2006), Mr. Brooks (2007), Into the Wild (2007), The Incredible Hulk (2008), and Robin Hood (2010).

Frederick "Fred" McFeely Rogers

(Mar 20, 1928 - Feb 27, 2003)

Mr. Rogers was an American educator, Presbyterian minister, songwriter, author, and television host. Rogers was most famous for creating and hosting Mister Rogers' Neighborhood (1968-2001), which featured his gentle, soft-spoken personality and directness to his audiences.

__________

Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living.
Gustave Flaubert

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

Gonna Live Till I Die

    

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

The entirety of what I have learned over a lifetime (so far) of 70-plus years has led me to believe that biological life, including human life, has no external meaning whatsoever.

More about this another day . . .

_____

TRIVIA
Apples are more efficient than caffeine in waking you up in the morning.

_____

HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 10 in 1752, Benjamin Franklin flew a kite during a thunderstorm and collected a charge in a Leyden jar when the kite is struck by lightning, enabling him to demonstrate the electrical nature of lightning. Franklin became interested in electricity in the mid-1740s, a time when much was still unknown on the topic, and spent almost a decade conducting electrical experiments. He coined a number of terms used today, including battery, conductor and electrician. He also invented the lightning rod, used to protect buildings and ships.

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

life
noun
-  The condition that distinguishes animals and plants from inorganic matter, including the capacity for growth and reproduction.
-  the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being  manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally.
-  the sum of the distinguishing phenomena of organisms, especially metabolism, growth, reproduction, and adaptation to environment.
-  the animate existence or period of animate existence of an individual: to risk one's life; a short life and a merry one.
-  a corresponding state, existence, or principle of existence conceived of as belonging to the soul: eternal life.
-  the general or universal condition of human existence.

Life is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (death), or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate. Biology is the science concerned with the study of life.

_____

 

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Natasha Obama
(born June 10, 2001)

Natasha Obama (known as Sasha) is the youngest daughter of President Barach Obama and the youngest child to reside in the White House since John F. Kennedy, Jr. arrived as an infant in 1961.

Judy Garland
(June 10, 1922 - June 22, 1969)

Judy Garland (born Frances Ethel Gumm) was an American actress, singer and vaudevillian, described by Fred Astaire as "the greatest entertainer who ever lived."

She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the remake of A Star is Born and for the Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1961 film Judgment at Nuremberg. She remains the youngest recipient (at 39 years of age) of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the motion picture industry.

Garland was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as a teenager. There she made more than two dozen films, including nine with Mickey Rooney and the 1939 film with which she would be most identified, The Wizard of Oz. After 15 years, she was released from the studio but gained renewed success through record-breaking concert appearances, including a return to acting beginning with critically acclaimed performances.

Hattie McDaniel
(June 10, 1895 – Oct. 26, 1952)

Hattie McDaniel was an American actress. She was the first African American to win an Academy Award. She won the award for Best Supporting Actress for her role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939).

 

In addition to acting in many films, McDaniel was a professional singer-songwriter, comedian, stage actress, radio performer, and television star; she was the first black woman to sing on the radio in America. During her career, McDaniel appeared in over 300 films

Elizabeth Jane Hurley
(born 10 June 1965)

Elizabeth Hurley is an English model and actress. In the 1990s, Hurley became known as a girlfriend of Hugh Grant. In 1994, as Grant became the focus of worldwide media attention due to the global box office success of his film Four Weddings and a Funeral, Hurley accompanied him to the film's Los Angeles premiere in a plunging black Versace dress held together with gold safety pins, which gained her instant media attention.

Hurley has been associated with the cosmetics company Estée Lauder for over 15 years. As an actress, her best known cinematic works to date have been as Vanessa Kensington in Mike Myers' hit spy comedy, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) and as the Devil in Bedazzled (2000).

__________

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.
--William James

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
--Confucius
    

Things To Come

Tucson Weather Today

_____

One of the earliest tips I received from the professionals when I decided to become a writer was, "Write what you know." The trouble was, being quite young at that time I was convinced that I knew a great deal about everything.

When I finally realized how little I did know, I set out to learn about life.

I learned (the hard way, as always) about:

- How different people in different locations acted and reacted to a sudden stranger in their midst while on the road in the 1950s.

- Las Vegas in the 1960s as seen by a penniless drifter temporarily lodged within a dingy room in a cheap hotel.

- What it was like to be broke and hungry in a small town in Nebraska and then be hired to rake hay in the meadows of a huge ranch.

- Walt Disney World in the 1990s through the eyes of a Houseman slinking around among the chambermaids and the janitors soaking up the truths of the underground beneath the glitter of The Magic Kingdom.

And more . . .


If I can do that to my own satisfaction I might in upcoming days fill this blog with (mostly) true recollections of the various incidents that befell me in those early times.

I might . . .

_____

What Am I?

Tucson Weather Today

_____

Yesterday afternoon I allowed myself an hour off from my usual routine to view an hour-long YouTube video wherein Professor Richard Dawkins reveals how he came to write his explosive first book The Selfish Gene, a work that was to divide the scientific community and make him the most influential evolutionary biologist of his generation. He also explores how this set him on the path to becoming an outspoken spokesman for atheism.

I found this BBC presentation to be both entertaining and informative, a combination of personal pleasures not often granted me. I enjoyed it immensely.

The Selfish Gene

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

spiritual
adj.
1. Of, relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not tangible or material.
2. Of, concerned with, or affecting the soul.
3. Of, from, or relating to God; deific.
4. Of or belonging to a church or religion; sacred.
5. Relating to or having the nature of spirits or a spirit; supernatural.


The word 'spiritual' denotes a concept I am unable to comprehend. Whenever I read its definition or hear it described the idea will not take concrete form within the sphere of my understanding. I cannot separate some imaginary mental-only me from the solid mas of the physical me. All is one.

At Wikipedia I am told:

Most Christians understand the soul as an ontological reality distinct from, yet integrally connected with, the body. Its characteristics are described in moral, spiritual, and philosophical terms. According to a common Christian eschatology, when people die, their souls will be judged by God and determined to spend an eternity in Heaven or in Hell.

Nonsense.

To me, my spirit, my soul, are merely synonyms for my self.

Simple as that.

Wikipedia also tells me: When modern scientists speak of the soul outside of this cultural and psychological context, they generally treat soul as a poetic synonym for mind.

Well, hurrah for the scientist.

"What then is human life?" I ask.

And I answer:

"Life is an accumulation of chemical elements and compounds that combine and react together in a natural manner for a specific duration and then disperse."

Simple as that.

_____

At what exact moment does death occur? When the heart stops beating? When brain waves go flat? When breathing stops?

An intriguing article in Salon addresses the question.

Here is the link

_____

BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Harper Lee

Born April 28, 1926

Author of To Kill A Mockingbird

ALSO 

Terry Pratchett

Born April 28, 1948

Sir Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre.

_____

__________

There is nothing so ridiculous but some philosopher has said it.
--Cicero

Don't Much Feel Like Blogging . . .

While seated in front of my computer monitor, my peripheral vision caught a flurry of motion outside my window. When I looked in that direction I saw a large Roadrunner landing on a branch of the tree in front of me. That's the second time that I've seen a roadrunner in a tree. As I reached for my camera, the big bird launched itself into the air and flew up to a higher branch. Taking a picture through window glass is tricky, and the sun was above and behind the subject of the photo, so I was sure the picture would not be a good one. But I snapped several shots anyway. And I was right... the pictures were pretty bad. Below is the result.

Roadrunner in tree

. . .

Recently a reader asked me why I write if I feel that I have no purpose in life. After thinking about that question for a time, I'm still unsure as to what a sense of purpose has to do with the impetus to write. The question seems to be a non sequitur.

Why do I write?

I don't know.

__________

A turkey was chatting with a bull. "I would love to be able to get to the top of that tree," sighed the turkey, "but I haven't got the energy." "Well, why don't you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull. "They're packed with nutrients."

The turkey pecked at a lump of dung and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree. He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

Moral of the story:
Bull Shit might get you to the top, but it won't keep you there.