I am very sad to say I got not a one invite to have ham anywhere on this drippy Easter Sunday in Texas. I wonder if Zorro's Buffet has ham today?
On Friday I blogged about Good Friday and my bafflement at the whole Jesus died for your sins thing. And then was miraculously back living again shortly thereafter. All part of his Dad's plan to save the souls of the earthbound humans.
This morning's Dallas Morning News had a full page ad on this subject. That's the ad in the picture.
There is a note under a hammer and three spikes. The note says...
Son, I need you to Build a Bridge, here are all the tools you will need. See you soon. Love, Dad
P.S. Sorry I had to have you killed in such a brutal, painful way. But it had to be done for the greater good of all the humans I've created.
Okay. I added the P.S. It seemed to fit the theme. Isn't it a tad blasphemous for a newspaper ad to make up words from God in a trite note referencing the murder of Jesus? Oh, I just remembered, the entire Bible consists of mortal men making up words from God.
I was afraid that my Good Friday blogging might stir up some thumping being that I'm sitting on the Buckle of the Bible Belt.
But there were only 2 comments and neither seemed to be from Planet Loony Bin. Although one did make the comment all in capital letters, which is the Internet method of shouting.
Bryce said...
It sounds like God has really got you thinking about His Son.
And then Anonymous shouted...
OH DURANGO, SAD , SO VERY SAD.AH.. BUT THERE IS HOPE, ALWAYS, AND HIS MERCY AND LOVE COVERS IT ALL. TAKE THIS FROM SOMEBODY WHO LOVED FREEDOM TO DO WHATEVER, LITTLE BIT OF AGNOSTICISM, LOGICAL AND SARCASTIC ME. YOU WILL FIND HIM, SINCE HE IS ALWAYS THERE. GOD BLESS AND HAPPY EASTER, HE IS RISEN.
Bryce, God didn't get me thinking about anything. I do my own thinking.
Anonymous, thank you for your Happy Easter wishes.
Who knows why, but this Easter morning people from all over the world are coming to this blog looking for the World's Biggest Butt, Only Child Syndrome help and what to do about Morbid Obesity.
Why does this world-wide search for the World's Biggest Butt go through these repeating cycles? I can understand why those who are at the mercy of an Only Child might search for relief and why people are concerned about Morbid Obesity. But the endless quest to find the World's Biggest Butt?
Actually, I can sort of see a connection between big butts, only child syndrome and morbid obesity. As in I've seen all three in one person, more than once.
Anyway, this morning I got the longest comment ever to this blog. The subject was Morbid Obesity. The commenter was my most frequent commenter, that being Anonymous.
Below is what Anonymous had to say about Morbid Obesity, complete with reference links Anonymous provided...
I agree with you that morbid obesity is a form of mental illness and often-times bad character, including self-loathing, boundary issues, lack of personal responsibility, delusional thinking and usually obsessive-compulsive.
"...Indeed, among adults who met the National Institutes of Health criteria for being obese, only 15 percent realized they were obese, notes Kimberly P. Truesdale of the University of North Carolina. She says that her team's findings, which she reported in San Francisco earlier this month at the Experimental Biology '06 meeting, have important public health implications: "If [obese] people don't identify with being obese, then they're most likely going to ignore messages warning of health risks."..."
Most of them claim it's some kind of thyroid problem, but even people with thyroid difficulties who wish to be healthy can manage it.
It's a lack of self-control and often a method of trying to force other people to give them sympathy and special treatment while themselves lacking empathy for others.
"...What has struck me is that often the female serial bully is fat, and chooses a slim female target on to whom to project her self-loathing. Envy is a strong motivator for bullies...."
Survey says - most fat people are fat because they are lazy:
Very obese adults almost completely sedentary.
"Morbidly obese adults are sedentary for more than 99 percent of the day, getting only a fraction of the amount of walking that experts recommend for staying healthy, a small study suggests...
Kids Who Lack Self-Control More Prone to Obesity Later
"... In two papers published this week in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, scientists found that preschool-age children who had trouble with self-control and the ability to delay gratification gained more weight by the time they were preteens than those who were better at regulating their behavior..."
Okay, I have to say, even though someone kindly mailed me a Blogging For Dummies book, and even though I read that entire book, including the chapter about Feeds, I still don't understand the concept.
As in what is the point of burning a feed? And why do people subscribe to a feed? Rather than just going directly to a blog, if you like that blog?
Soon after I started this blog I, to use the vernacular, burned a feed of this blog, using Feedburner. At that point in time Google had not yet acquired Feedburner.
Feedburner had a 'monetize' option. It seemed easy to set up. You could use your Google AdSense code. However, Feedburner had you adding code to your blog layout. This was totally screwed up. It did not add the ads to the Feedburner feed. Instead it messed up the ads in the blog. So, I removed the code from the layout.
Time passed and Google bought Feedburner. I was then told I could manage Feedburner ads from my AdSense account. So, I did so. I enabled ads for feeds. But the ads still did not show up in Feedburner. They showed up in the html code for Feedburner. You could see the space where the ads should appear. But no ads appeared in the feed.
But. The Google ads do appear in other feeds. Like Google's News Reader. Why does Google have both Feedburner and Google News Reader? I can't help but wonder.
Are some Feedburner geeks annoyed at being eaten up by the Google monster and retaliating by messing up the Feedburner code?
Another Feedburner thing that bugs me is the number of subscribers. The number goes up and down, constantly. Yesterday it was 47, today it is 45. 45 subscribers? And that's just with Feedburner. And yet when I look at my AdSense account, like I just did, it shows there were only 6 Feedburner page impressions. So, I've got 45 Feedburner subscribers, but of those 45 only 6 pages were looked at? I don't get it.
Anyway, can anyone enlighten me out of my ignorance regarding this Feedburner conundrum?
Today a bus riding aficionado talked me into riding Fort Worth mass transit, in the form of a natural gas-powered bus, for the first time. The destination was Tandy Hills Park to do my usual Saturday mountain hike. The distance, about 4 miles.
The bus arrived right on schedule, the #21 bus, pulled up right at 11;52 am. The bus aficionado gave me his pass to swipe through the ticket machine while he bought another ticket for $1.75. He thought it was a round trip ticket. This turned out to be erroneous, we later learned. I have been on mass transit buses previously in other locales, that being Seattle and my old home zone of the Skagit Valley. In the Skagit Valley they were called SKAT buses, due to it being Skagit Area Transit. Bus rides in the Skagit Valley were free, back then, paid for by a slight increase to the sales tax.
In Seattle the buses are HUGE, long articulated things, meaning the bus is so long, two halves are connected by an accordion like thing so it can go around corners. The Fort Worth bus was quite small and noisy. I loved how the bus zoomed along, like some sort of ride in a theme park. At the most there were 8 passengers on the bus with me today. My last time on a Seattle bus, last summer, zipping through the Seattle bus tunnel, it was standing room only. On the way to the Tandy Hills the bus stop exit point was not were I was told it would be. This resulted in about a half mile walk on city streets to get to the park. We hiked around for about an hour, then hurried back to Oakland Street to catch a return bus. Got to the bus stop ahead of when the bus should get there.
15 minutes went by. No bus. Called the bus center. After about 5 minutes on the phone we were told the bus was late and had just left the transit station. That meant it should reach where I was standing in about 5 minutes, which it did. Getting back on the bus I swiped my pass. Then the bus aficionado swiped his and was told it was a one-way ticket, that he'd need to buy another ticket or a transfer pass for 75 cents. The bus aficionado somehow thought that $1.75 got him a roundtrip ticket to go 4 miles each way. When it actually cost $3.00 for a roundtrip ticket. This seemed a bit expensive to me, all things considered. I think I paid 50 cents the last time I took a Seattle bus from the north end to downtown, with Seattle buses being free in the downtown zone. When the bus aficionado bought the $1.75 ticket the driver asked if he wanted a transfer pass, to which the bus aficionado, not knowing what a transfer pass was, said no. With a transfer pass, apparently one could do the 4 mile round trip on one ticket. It all seemed way too confusing to me.
So, the bus aficionado asked me if I had 2 bucks. All I had was 2 ten dollar bills. After way too much brouhaha the super smiling sweet lady bus driver said she'd pay for it. And then we were on our way. A short distance later a lady got off the bus with a huge number of bags filled with groceries. The super sweet always smiling lady bus driver helped the lady get her bags off the bus, helping her get mobile on the sidewalk.
Early on in today's bus ride adventure I was thinking I'm liking this. I always do the driving, it was nice to be able to look around. And the ride was fun. But, by the end of the bus ride adventure it seemed like something I would likely not soon repeat. Even though the bus drivers were very nice.
But, it was a good hike around the Tandy Hills. I saw another illusive Celestial and the sky has now returned to total blue from that unfortunate wildfire haze we had going on a couple days ago.
Ride a Seattle bus with me through the Seattle bus tunnel last summer in the YouTube video below (note all the buses in the tunnel, all as crowded as the one I was on, unlike today's bus ride)....
No, that is not a minimum security prison in the picture. What it is is windowless temporary school buildings at an elementary school I drive by when I go to the Tandy Hills.
Temp Buildings at schools are a blight all over America. I think my old home state of Washington may have had more temp school buildings than I see at Texas schools, but the Washington ones are not as bleak as the Texas ones that I've seen.
These temp buildings cost money, not as much as a permanent building, obviously, but they still cost money. Why is there not some universal design of these things, some well designed modular, easily assembled structure that has windows and does not look so prison-like.
How much would it cost to end this blight on our schools all across America? To replace all the temp eyesores with a temp building that is not an eyesore. Would it cost $1 billion? $5 billion? $10 billion? Would it cost just a small fraction of the bank bailouts? Would it not be a good stimulus investment?
Temporary school buildings have bugged me for years, way before my move to Texas. They seem like a real penny-wise, pound foolish solution to a real problem, that being having enough classroom space.
One of the Tarrant County Underground's highly principled members, dedicated, among many dedications, to overthrowing the Good Ol' Boy Network and Ruling Junta that keeps Fort Worth and Tarrant County from having a truly representative democracy, has started a Blog.
The goal for this new Blog is to hopefully be a venue by which Tarrant County voices might be heard which the powers that be refuse to listen to.
Or if you have been frustrated by the way the Ruling Junta's mouthpiece, i.e. the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, has distorted a letter to the editor that you have submitted, or refused to listen to you tell your situation, that you had hoped the paper would act as an advocate for, doing its duty to shine a light on a dark situation, well, maybe this new Blog can be your mouthpiece.
So, if you have any Tarrant County issues that are bugging you and you have been frustrated in your attempts to get help or be listened to, visit the Star Telegraph. The Star Telegraph wants to help fix things that need fixing.
I'm happy to report that the hazy, smelly wildfire sky has cleared up and Texas is back smelling good and looking purty as the wildflowers brighten the landscape, except in those unfortunate zones where they got toasted black by a raging wildfire.
It was a bit breezy at noon at the Tandy Hills. That strong breeze had blown yesterday's dark haze somewhere other than here.
When I was last at the Tandy Hills I reported on my frustrating inability to find one of the supposedly ubiquitous celestial wildflowers.
Today, I think I may have found one. It sort of looks like the wildflower that Don Young identified as a celestial. I await confirmation.
A couple weeks ago I read a book by Harold Schechter titled The Devil's Gentleman: Privilege, Poison, and the Trial That Ushered in the Twentieth Century.
This was the first OJ type trial of the new century, that being 1900, that riveted the entire nation. Back in what were known as the Gay 90s, when the word 'gay' had a different meaning than it did during the Gay 1990s, America was booming, after recovering from the Panic of 1893. Good times would continue til the next Panic, which I think was in 1907. Both these Panics were in many ways worse than our current Panic. America always seems to recover from her Panics.
Anyway, during the Gay 90s there was no such thing as the FDA. No one regulated food production or drugs or medicines. The type murder people feared, during this period, was being poisoned. There was one sensational poisoning after another.
And then William Randolph Hearst bought a New York City newspaper and set out to take on Joseph Pulitzer by out yellow journalisming him. Hearst needed a sensational poisoning story. And then Roland Molineux obliged. The son of a revered Civil War general, Roland was accused of some nasty poisoning murders. Two trials later he was set free.
Now, that story was very interesting, but what I want to share with you now is part of the book that dealt with the thriving industry of curative elixirs. Roland bought a lot of these elixirs, attempting to cure some of his "manhood" issues.
What struck me as bizarre is way back then there was already an industry that I thought was born only in our modern era, that being the industry that produces those annoying spams that are directed to fixing some of our current, supposed, "manhood" issues.
A Dr. Vincent G. Hamill, president of the Marston Remedy Company had a thriving business selling his curatives. Below is the info on one of his widely distributed advertising circulars...
PERFECT MANHOOD AND HOW TO ATTAIN IT
A BOOK FOR MEN MARRIED AND SINGLE
A full explanation of a wonderful method for the quick restoration of PERFECT MANHOOD, in all that term implies.
A method that overcome EVERY EVIL CONDITION of the sexual system. Gives to the weakest organs and parts their NATURAL VIGOR AND TONE. And to those shrunken and stunted their NORMAL AND PROPER SIZE.
IT EXPLAINS how to build up all sexual vigor. IT EXPLAINS how to avoid all the physical evils of married life. IT EXPLAINS how to cure sexual weakness in any stage for all time. IT EXPLAINS how to cure unnatural losses from dreams, in urine, etc. IT EXPLAINS how to cure nervousness, trepidation, lack of self-confidence. IT EXPLAINS how the entire sexual system of the male may be brought to that condition so essential to general good health and peace of mind. IT EXPLAINS how to develop, strengthen, enlarge all weak, stunted, undeveloped, feeble organs and parts of the body which have lost or never attained a proper an natural condition, whether through early errors, ill-health, or other causes. IT EXPLAINS how to be free from degrading thought, superior to debasing conditions, to feel
Today is Good Friday. Celebrated, well, not exactly celebrated, but noted, as the day Jesus was murdered by the Romans.
I have always had trouble with the concept that Someone so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that those who believe in Him can have everlasting life.
For one thing, just a couple days after the Father gave up the Son, the Son supposedly rose from the dead and went to heaven to be with his Father. And if you believe that, then that too can happen for you when you die.
And then there is that God in 3 Persons, Father, Son and Holy Ghost thing. Which would seem to mean that Jesus is God, God is Jesus and both are the Holy Ghost. So, Jesus isn't actually God's Son, instead he is God in human form? So, again, where is the great sacrifice if God in human form is murdered, yet isn't really dead, going from the murder, and being dead, to heavenly rewards and back alive a couple days later?
A few days ago someone sent me a very earnest email about this subject, detailing in gruesome detail what Jesus suffered on the cross.
The email ended with...
Jesus had to pass all this experience, so that you can have free access to God. So that your sins could be 'washed' away. All of them, with no exception! Don't ignore this situation. HE DIED FOR YOU! For you, who now read this e-mail. Do not believe that He only died for others (those who go to the church or for pastors, bishops, etc).
He died for you! Accept the reality, the truth that JESUS IS THE ONLY SALVATION FOR THE WORLD.
Jesus went through all this human misery so that your sins could be washed away? But only if you believe He went through this misery for you. And was then back alive a couple days later. "He died for you." But he didn't die? He was dead for a couple days. Apparently. And then wasn't.
I also have trouble with how people take this stuff all as gospel, I guess that is some sort of pun. I mean, it's all words, written by men, long after the events supposedly took place. If God wanted to send his "Son" to earth in order to somehow get the earthlings to behave in a Godly fashion, would it not have been a better plan to wait a couple thousand years, to the point in history where the Earthlings had used their God given talents to build systems of mass communication, so the news of the arrival of the Son of God could be mass communicated? He could perform a few miracles, have us all in awe and ready to follow Him and there'd be no need for a ridiculously gruesome Crucifixion to cement the deal.
It all really just seems like really bad planing on God's part, if you ask me. Which you didn't. Okay, I am ready to be struck down for blatant blasphemy.
Yesterday, late in the afternoon, I took off to River Legacy Park to ride the mountain bike trail. As soon as I hit the road I was appalled by what the air looked like, as in very very hazy/smoggy with very diminished visibility.
I didn't know what was going on. We were supposed to be getting thunderstorms and the sky looked very strange, I thought this might be some HUGE storm starting up.
Turns out the thick haze was the result of wildfires that sprouted up all over North Texas and Oklahoma yesterday, some of which continue burning today. The air this morning has the acrid smell of burnt grass. It is not a pleasant smell. I have not left my abode yet today, but from my current vantage point the sky looks blue, I'm not seeing a lot of haze.
It was so bad yesterday that flights had to be delayed at D/FW Airport. Fires burned in more than a dozen Texas counties. Thousands of acres burned in the D/FW zone, including forced evacuations west of Fort Worth. Two people near Montague, that's about 80 miles northwest of Dallas, died and their son was injured when a wildfire consumed their home.
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality warned that people sensitive to smoke or with respiratory woes should stay indoors. I have neither of those woes, as far as I know. But I do have my windows open and I'm not really liking that burnt grass smell that is wafting through here. But I like the breeze. It's a conundrum.
I am very sad to say I got not a one invite to have ham anywhere on this drippy Easter Sunday in Texas. I wonder if Zorro's Buffet has ham today?
