Author: Rev. Joe Dirt

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Ben Affleck, Sam Harris, Bill Maher and Islam

I really did not know a lot about Ben Affleck before this, but after watching this episode of Bill Maher I lost a lot of respect for him. He did what a lot of folks seem to do on these types of shows, rather than reason and debate, he was loud and obnoxious in an attempt to make a point.

I am secular and I have a hard time with most religions, but Islam in particular (at least as portrayed by our media). The main reason being is the few Muslims I know personally seem like good and reasonable people. They seem to love and believe their faith as much as any Baptist from Oklahoma. In an attempt to understand the religion that is so much in the news these days I have read a couple books about Islam. At the core Islam seems full of love, care and kindness for fellow humans. I know that the Islam religion as practiced early was very tolerant of other religions.   The Islam that seems to predominate today is one of the fundamentalist ilk that does not seem to very tolerant of some very basic human rights. It seems like separation of church and state is a goal to avoid. The religion I see on the news is not tolerant of different points of views. It appears to me that much of strife in the world currently comes from the Muslim arena.

The message that Christ preached was full of love, caring and kindness also. Something seems to happen when religions move pass this “Golden Rule” core. The history of all the Abrahamic religions is not pretty. It is one of strife, conquering, destruction, intolerance and murder all the way to genocide. The history of the Catholic Church is very troubling.

My basic point of view is that life is tough, so whatever gets you through the day is fine with me as long as you don’t want me to drink your Kool-Aid. I try to be tolerant of religion, but some days I just want to scream. I really do believe that the world would be a far better place if all religions would go away. I also realize that humans have a spiritual need. I just wish there was something else besides the bloody, intolerant Abrahamic religions to fill this need for the 2 or 3 billion individuals that follow these religions.

Oh well. Here is the video. It does not even include the worse of Ben Affleck’s rants.

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John Stewart Nails It Again

Just as a point of reference, I missed this episode of The Daily Show.  A friend of mine who is a Vietnam War veteran sent me this link.

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 8,154

…yeah I know you did not ask!

Fox News seems to be on everywhere. I actually think it is a conspiracy by businesses, but that is just me. Sitting in a restaurant with Fox News in the background I thought they should be forced to put a scroll bar across the bottom that reads “Not for human consumption”, much like offal going to the rendering plant.

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 5,156

…yeah I know you did not ask!

Gary McCord, the golf announcer, has this bit about naming his age spots. I thought that a fine idea, and started naming my age spots too. Quit some time ago, I ran out of names.

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Blowing kisses…

This does not happen often, but…

My hair is a little longer than is common today.  My attitude is at my age if you have it, flaunt it.  When I drive Li’Blue with the top down it blows my hair in a way I am sure is very dramatic!  (Insert the smiley face of your choice here)  Add to this mix the fact that some folks believe Miatas (MX5s) to be chick cars.  If they have  not driven one, their opinion would change if they did.  I will admit to making a woman scream more than once when she was in Li’Blue.

I’ll be driving along and feel a vehicle pull up even with me.  I know it is a guy (or guys) thinking it is a blonde female driving the car.  I’ve not done it YET, but I am always tempted to blow them a kiss.  I do turn my half-shaven, mustached face towards them and grin.  That is about the time they goose their vehicle.

Men are such pigs!

 

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 3,956

…yeah I know you did not ask!

I walked out the back door and looked around.  I then said thank you Jesus for the beautiful flowers, the wonderful trees and the green grass.

Jesus smiled and said, “De nada, volveré la próxima semana”, as he handed me the bill.

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A Company That Does Things Right

When I first purchased my 2006 Mazda MX-5 Miata, I purchased a set of WeatherTech® All-Weather floor mats. They worked fine for many years. Eventually the mat on the driver’s side wore through. So I jumped on the Internet to find a 2857_1_lgreplacement set. I did so at AutoAccessoriesGarage.com. I plugged in the year and make of vehicle, and up popped a set that appeared to be the same as the set I was replacing. I ordered them.

They arrived in a timely fashion. Upon opening the box in preparation of replacing the old I discovered the mats were minus the retainer holes that the retainer pegs go into for the driver’s side mat. I thought about returning them, but returning something is a hassle. I thought at worse it would be a minor inconvenience, so in they went.

I rock along for a few weeks, occasionally having to reposition the mat, but for the most part not thinking about them. One day as I was accelerating hard to get onto the freeway, the car’s engine would not stop racing or accelerating. I bumped the gearshift into the neutral position to give myself some time, Continue reading “A Company That Does Things Right”

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Against Football

against footballI heard the book, Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto by Steve Almond, being discussed on NPR:  It prompted the following comments.

I was never a huge football fan, but I did follow the Cowboys and OU football. The Cowboys I first became enamored with when we lived in New Jersey and they were a new NFL expansion team. Dallas was close to Oklahoma, and Oklahoma was one of the few touchstones I had in my young life as a rolling stone. It is difficult to live in Oklahoma and not root for the Sooners, or at least the OSU Cowboys.

Another reason that I feigned a large interest in football was because it was the manly thing to do. All my male peers seemed to love the game and to have something to discuss with them a basic knowledge of football current and past events was needed.

I had a brief decade in Arkansas where I was able to grow a little moss, and I became interested in Razorback sports. If you know nothing else about Arkansas know that they are Razorback crazy. You see the red hog everywhere you go in the state.

The winds of time changed, Continue reading “Against Football”

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Nickel Philosophy for a Saturday

I think the Buddha had it right, when you are chopping wood, chop wood. We spend so much of our time living in the past or worried about the future, that we miss the here and now. The Here and Now is all we really have. We need to be present in the present. I frequently remind myself of this when I am doing mundane tasks with some degree of boredom and/or resentment. It is amazing how pleasant even a task like cleaning the bathroom can become if you focus your being on what you are doing. I’ve been known to say to myself, “When you are folding t-shirt, fold t-shirts.” The results are always better with the change in perspective. We spend so much time multi-tasking that we never really concentrate on chopping wood. And that my friend is my nickel philosophy for a Saturday, Be Present.

As an aside that sound you hear is Robin saying, “Why don’t you practice a little of the Buddhism you are preaching, and clean the bathrooms.”