Feeble Fables And Fictional Fantasy

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It was an exceedingly poor day for those who depend on the TV cable news shows for their daily entertainment.Those long and boring shows are filled with fantastic scenes featuring the pope and his henchmen (his accomplices) who perpetuate the stupid and silly superstitious nonsense that is the Catholic Church.

It was an extremely poor day for actual news watching. One finds oneself relegated to the little channels, the second rate carriers of bad originals and surprisingly interesting reruns.

I watched some of these oldies:

Judge Judy

The People's Court

with Judge Marilyn Milian

Originally Judge Wapner

and  various other such... like:

Justice For All

with Judge Mablean.

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Did You Know . . .?

Koala fingerprints are nearly identical to human ones. They’re so similar that even trained experts using a microscope have trouble telling them apart.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1875, Billy the Kid was arrested for the first time after stealing a basket of laundry. He later broke out of jail and roamed the American West, eventually earning a reputation as an outlaw and murderer and a rap sheet that allegedly included 21 murders.

Billy the Kid went by a variety of names throughout his life, including Kid Antrim and William Bonney.

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WORD FOR TODAY

conflagration
noun
great fire (The conflagration consumed the entire building.)

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Jason Alexander

(born September 23, 1959)

Jason Alexander is an American actor, comedian, director, producer, singer, and writer. Alexander is best known for his role as George Costanza on the sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998).

Kublai Khan

Sept 23, 1215 - Feb 18, 1294)

In 1271, Kublai established the Yuan dynasty, which ruled over present-day Mongolia, China, Korea, and some adjacent areas, and assumed the role of Emperor of China.

Augustus

September 63 BC - 19 August 14 AD

Augustus Caesar was the founder of the Roman Empire and its first Emperor, ruling from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.

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This Is Who I Am

The Pope Is Coming

Tucson Weather Today

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I saw on TV news that the Pope has okayed it for priests to 'forgive' women who have had  abortions... which means of course that once again the Catholic religion is changing from what once was God's Word to a religious cult that reflects the will of the liberal peoples of the Earth. Oh yes. Religion must eventually always agree with what the people want, because the people (not the priesthood) have the final say. The people always know what is best, not their God.

The Pope . . .

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

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This Is Who I Am

Where Quite A Few Have Gone Before

Tucson Weather Today

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Excerpt From:
MEDIA ADVISORY M15-129
August 26, 2015
NASA Television to Air Launch of Next International Space Station Crew

The next three crew members bound for the International Space Station are set to launch to the orbital outpost Wednesday, Sept. 2. NASA Television launch coverage will begin at 11:45 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Sept. 1.

Sergei Volkov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency will launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:37 a.m. Wednesday (10:34 a.m. Baikonur time). Mogensen and Aimbetov are short duration crew members while Volkov will spend six months on the orbital complex.

Hey Mike... Hey Anthony... These guys are "just children."

For the full schedule of pre-launch, launch and docking coverage, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

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Did You Know...

Eidetic memory is an ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory after only a few instances of exposure, with high precision for some time after exposure, without using mnemonics. It occurs in a small number of children and generally is not found in adults

I watch Jeopardy almost every day, partly in the hope that it will keep my aging memory processes working actively and partly because I find the show extremely interesting (and pleasurably entertaining.)

An entire week was recently devoted to young people, mostly sub-teens. From their answers to age-appropriate categories, it seemed that most of the kids possessed either eidetic, or at least phenomenal non-eidetic memories.

 One of the Jeopardy kids said he wanted to grow up and be a physicist so he cold study black holes and time travel.

I found that to be quite interesting.

Time travel.

I thought about that for a while.

And I thought:

What if this nascient ten year old kid were to grow up to eventually discover a means, not to travel in time, but to view,  day-by-day, hour-by-hour, events from the past? Would the devilishly demanding evangelists and arrogant Catholic priests and other robed and bejeweled nobles cleverly find a way around the facts, around the visible proof that their so-called Gospel was not so much Gospel after all? There was no deified Jesus after all, no crucifixion with its attendant miraculous darkening of the sky and other such nonsense and twaddle. No rising from the dead. And not even the water-into-wine fable.

What if a scientific viewing of the past completely disproved any and all those so obviously phony supposed happenings preached by the hordes of misguided mavins of organized religion?

Isn't that an interesting question?

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WORD FOR TODAY

nescience
noun
1. Absence of knowledge or awareness; ignorance.
2. Holding that only material phenomena can be known and knowledge of spiritual matters or ultimate causes is impossible.
nascient
adjective
3. Uneducated in general; lacking knowledge or sophistication; "nescient of contemporary literature"; "an unlearned group incapable of understanding complex issues"; "exhibiting contempt for unlettered companions."

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Sarah Chalke

(born August 27, 1976

Sarah Chalke is a Canadian actress known for portraying Dr. Elliot Reid on the NBC/ABC comedy series Scrubs, the second Rebecca "Becky" Conner on the ABC sitcom Roseanne, and Stella Zinman in the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother.

Paul Reubens

(born August 27, 1952)

Paul Reubens is an American actor, writer, film producer, game show host, and comedian, best known for his character Pee-wee Herman. 

Tuesday Weld

(born August 27, 1943)

Tuesday Weld is an American actress. She began acting when she was a child, and progressed to mature roles in the late 1950s. She won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Female Newcomer in 1960. Over the following decade she established a career playing dramatic roles in films.

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NASA TV

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Beloved Of Jesus

Tucson Weather Today

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I swas treated to a story today on CNN claiming that archeologists have recently uncovered the biblical city of Magdala, which was supposedly the city which was the hometown of Mary Magdalene. The CNN story also referred to Mary of Magdala as being the most influential woman portrayed in the New Testament, as she was named as being the first to find the tomb of Jesus empty.

That make here influential?

Okay.

Magdala

Ancient Magdala is famous in Christian tradition for being the city from which Mary “Magdalene” came. Mary Magdalene is mentioned for the first time in Luke 8:1-2 as a woman "from whom seven demons had come out".

Mary Magdalene

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HOLY CRAP!

Tucson Weather Today

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Unbelievable, ain't it?

Oh well, it's all a part of God's plan.

George Carlin

Freedom From Religion Foundation

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Islam

Tucson Weather Today

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After having bgeen subjected to all the media hype about ISIS (or ISIL, or IS... all meaning Islamic State), I thought I should read up on this subject of Islam.

According to Wikipedia: Islam is a verbal noun originating from the triliteral root s-l-m which forms a large class of words mostly relating to concepts of wholeness, safeness and peace. In a religious context it means "voluntary submission to God".

Then, on another website, I found: "There are two main branches of Islam: Sunni and Shi'a. Sunni Islam is by far the largest group, although in some countries it is a minority."

Sunnis have their historical roots in the majority group who followed Abu Bakr, an effective leader, as the successor of Muhammad, instead of his cousin and son-in-law Ali.

Shi'ites are those who followed Ali, the closest relative of Muhammad, as Muhammad's successor.
source: Compare Shia vs. Sunni Islam

The difference between Sunni and Shia sects

The difference between Sunnis and Shi’a is more of a political nature than creed. There are no dogmatic differences between the two sects. Both, Sunnis and Shi’as, believe in the one God (Allah in Arabic) or Tawhid (monotheism), in the angels, scriptures, prophets and messengers, the hereafter, and the divine decree, destiny. They share the same scripture, called the Qur’an. Although there may be a difference in the way Sunnis and Shi’as worship, nevertheless, both pray five times a day, fast the month of Ramadan, pay the zakah (or the obligatory charity) and go to Mecca for pilgrimage. During daily prayers, both Sunnis and Shi’as direct their faces toward Mecca.

After the death of Muhammad, Muslims disputed over the prophet’s successor. Muhammad’s successor, Abu Bakr, and the other three Caliphs (Omar, Uthman and Ali) after him were accepted by Muslims as the rightful successors of the prophet and were later known as Sunnis. On the other hand the Muslims who thought Ali Bin Abi Talib, the prophet’s cousin, is the legitimate successor of the prophet became to be known as Shi’a. The Shi’a believes that the prophet’s successor has to be from the family of the prophet Muhammad. Whereas Sunnis believe that the successor of the prophet must be from the tribe of Quraish, the prophet’s tribe. This political discord continued for centuries and the divide between the two sects remains to this day unresolved. Another major difference between Sunni and Shi’a is that Sunnis believe that no person after Muhammad is infallible while the Shi’a believes in the infallibility of the twelve Imams (leaders) who are descendants from the family of prophet Muhammad.

The word “Shi’a” in Arabic literally means a sect or a faction. The followers of the Shi’a sect belong to the faction or followers of Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, Ali who, according to the Shi’a sect should have been the direct successor of Muhammad and is considered divinely appointed and the first Imam.
source: Difference between Sunnis and Shi’a

More on differences between Sunni and Shia sects

One (and one only) statement in what I read made some sense to me. Here is that statement: In Islam, God is beyond all comprehension and Muslims are not expected to visualize God.

After reading all the nonsense and after exploring the related links listed above, I found nothing at all to change any of my previous thoughts and judgments -- I still believe that all organized religions are, quite obviously, ludicrous crocks of human offal.

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This Is Who I Am

1/5/2015

     

Tucson Weather Today

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This Is Who I Am

   

More Religion And Muslim Stuff

     

Tucson Weather Today

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If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another.
--John Steinbeck

Sam Harris has written his views on Islam and on religion in general, which will surely become a controversial point of discussion. Sam states: "More British Muslims have joined the ranks of ISIS than have volunteered to serve in the British armed forces." He also writes: "But a belief in martyrdom, a hatred of infidels, and a commitment to violent jihad are not fringe phenomena in the Muslim world. These preoccupations are supported by the Koran and numerous hadith."

Read what seems (to me) to be a message within a message in the following link:

LINK

I have some personal thoughts concerning Muslims (and Moslems) and what should be done about their peculiar beliefs, but I prefer to keep them to myself.

For now.

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Did You Know . . .?

Three crew members from the International Space Station (ISS) returned to Earth Wednesday, 9/10/14, after 169 days of science and technology research in space, including a record 82 hours of research in a single week, which happened in July. Expedition 40 Commander Steve Swanson of NASA and Flight Engineers Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) orbited Earth more than 2,700 times and traveled more than 71.7 million miles.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1940, near Montignac, France, a collection of prehistoric cave paintings were discovered by four teenagers who stumbled upon the ancient artwork after following their dog down a narrow entrance into a cavern. The 15,000- to 17,000-year-old paintings, consisting mostly of animal representations, are among the finest examples of art from the Upper Paleolithic period.

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WORD FOR TODAY

promulgate [PROM-uhl-gayt]
verb
1. To make known by public declaration; announce officially.
2. To put (a law) into effect by formal public announcement.
3. To make widespread.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Gideon Emery

(born September 12, 1972)

Gideon Emery is an English actor and voice actor, known for his stage work in South Africa and for providing voices in video games.

Linda Ann Gray

(born September 12, 1940

Linda Gray is an American film, stage and television actress, director, producer and former model, best known for her role as Sue Ellen Ewing on the long-running CBS television drama series Dallas (1978–1989).

James Louis McCartney

(born September 12, 1977)

James McCartney is a British musician and songwriter living in London. He is the only son of songwriter and former Beatle Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney.

Jennifer Kate Hudson

(born September 12, 1981)

Jennifer Hudson is an American recording artist and actress. As an actress, she made her film debut portraying Effie White in Dreamgirls  for which she gained worldwide acclaim and won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, an NAACP Image Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has also appeared in such films as Sex and the City , The Secret Life of Bees, and Winnie Mandela.

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I believe that writing is derivative. I think good writing comes from good reading.
--Charles Kuralt

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More About Religion

     

Tucson Weather Today

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When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said 'Let us pray.' We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.
--Desmond Tutu


According to a 2012 Pew Research poll  religion is an the downswing.

The number of Americans who do not identify with any religion continues to grow at a rapid pace. One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling.

In the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults. Their ranks now include more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics (nearly 6% of the U.S. public), as well as nearly 33 million people who say they have no particular religious affiliation (14%).

That's interesting, and encouraging.

Perhaps people are beginning to think for themselves.

Perhaps.


On a similar note...

In The New York Times Sunday Review there appeared a piece titled Between Godliness and Godlessness. It was one man's quick review of the book, Waking Up, written by Sam Harris.

Here is the opening:

ALMOST midway through Sam Harris’s new book, Waking Up, he paints a scene that will shock many of his fans, who know him as one of the country’s most prominent and articulate atheists. He describes a walk in Jesus’ footsteps, and the way he was touched by it.

This happened on “an afternoon on the northwestern shore of the Sea of Galilee, atop the mount where Jesus is believed to have preached his most famous sermon,” Harris writes. “As I gazed at the surrounding hills, a feeling of peace came over me. It soon grew to a blissful stillness that silenced my thoughts. In an instant, the sense of being a separate self -- an ‘I’ or a ‘me’ -- vanished.”

Had Harris at last found God? And is “Waking Up” a stop-the-presses admission -- an epiphany -- that he slumbered and lumbered through the darkness for too long?

The complete review:

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Did You Know . . .?

There exists a Canadian dairy magazine called Cowsmopolitan

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1969, America's first automatic teller machine (ATM) makes its public debut, dispensing cash to customers at Chemical Bank in Rockville Center, New York. ATMs went on to revolutionize the banking industry, eliminating the need to visit a bank to conduct basic financial transactions. By the 1980s, these money machines had become widely popular and handled many of the functions previously performed by human tellers, such as check deposits and money transfers between accounts. Today there are well over 1 million ATMs around the world, with a new one added approximately every five minutes. It's estimated that more than 170 Americans over the age of 18 had an ATM card in 2005 and used it six to eight times a month.

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WORD FOR TODAY

affiliation [uh-fil-ee-AY-shuh n]
noun
1. the act of becoming formally connected or joined
2. a state involving mutual dealings between people or parties or countries

An affiliation is an official connection to something. To have an affiliation to something is to be affiliated with it. The Tea Party pretty clearly has an affiliation with the Republican Party.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Thomas Mark Harmon

(born September 2, 1951)

Mark Harmon is an American television and movie actor who has appeared in a wide variety of roles since the mid-1970s. Since 2003, Harmon has starred as former Gunnery Sergeant/Marine sniper turned NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the hit CBS series, NCIS, a role that has become Harmon's best-known role to date while also giving him international recognition.

Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe

(Sept 2, 1948 - Jan 28, 1986)

Christa McAuliffe was an American teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, and was one of the seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Keanu Charles Reeves

(born September 2, 1964)

Keanu Reeves is a Canadian actor. Reeves is known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break, and The Matrix trilogy as Neo.

Salma Hayek Jimenez

(born September 2, 1966)

Salma Hayek is a Mexican and American film actress. In 1991 Hayek moved to Hollywood and came to prominence with roles in Hollywood movies such as Desperado, Dogma, and Wild Wild West.

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Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca

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Right And Wrong

     

Tucson Weather Today

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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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Human Affairs

     

Tucson Weather Today

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A few days ago we  were discussing the daily dose of disgusting News on TV about the Iraq situation, and I asked what exactly was it that fueled the always heated (and always hate-filled) discourse between Shia and Sunni... and what exactly is a Shia, and what exactly is a Sunni?

Yesterday I received a short email message explaining it to me.

Here is that email message:

The division between Shia and Sunni dates back to the death of the Prophet Muhammad, and the question of who was to take over the leadership of the Muslim nation. Sunni Muslims agree with the position taken by many of the Prophet's companions, that the new leader should be elected from among those capable of the job. This is what was done, and the Prophet Muhammad's close friend and advisor, Abu Bakr, became the first Caliph of the Islamic nation. The word "Sunni" in Arabic comes from a word meaning "one who follows the traditions of the Prophet."

On the other hand, some Muslims share the belief that leadership should have stayed within the Prophet's own family, among those specifically appointed by him, or among Imams appointed by God Himself.

The Shia Muslims believe that following the Prophet Muhammad's death, leadership should have passed directly to his cousin/son-in-law, Ali bin Abu Talib. Throughout history, Shia Muslims have not recognized the authority of elected Muslim leaders, choosing instead to follow a line of Imams which they believe have been appointed by the Prophet Muhammad or God Himself. The word "Shia" in Arabic means a group or supportive party of people. The commonly-known term is shortened from the historical "Shia-t-Ali," or "the Party of Ali." They are also known as followers of "Ahl-al-Bayt" or "People of the Household" (of the Prophet).

Good Golly Miss Molly!

All these centuries of killing and barbaric mayhem is brought about by arguments over Religion. I should have known.

Stupid people steeped in stupid superstition.

And, what's worse, there are none (not even so-called logical scientists) who are doing anything about it.

Are there?


It seems to me a sad, sorry state in the course of human affairs.

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NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

Resting Nicely

     

Tucson Weather Today

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According to the Christian Bible, true believers are commanded to remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy... by doing nothing but praying. Then Sunday was deemed to be more convenient than the original Saturday (for practical Christians) and seemed a better day to which this remembering should be attached.

Convenience, you see, is paramount in the human psyche.

Whichever day it is doesn't matter to me because I don't believe in such childish mythology anyway, nor in an immaculately conceived, divine being called Jesus.

But Sunday being a day of rest is, to Americans, a recognized and widely accepted social convention, so I would probably be stupid not to observe it.

That's today.

I'm gonna rest today.

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This Is Who I Am