Category: Rev. Joe Dirt’s Ramblings

The unsolicited, unreasoned, uninformed, unapologetic opinions of Rev. Joe Dirt

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My Turn Signal Conundrum       

I am a big fan of myself and others using turn indicators, turn signals if you will.  At the minimum it is just common courtesy.  It is also, many times, a manner of safety. Using and acknowledging turn signals keeps traffic flowing in a safe and sane manner.

However, I am utterly convinced that this device, usually a lever that controls the signalling lights, is missing or broken in many vehicles.  I even wonder sometimes if they are still installing them in new vehicles.  Perhaps no one has bothered to educate the drivers of these vehicles on how they function. I remember the salesman taking 20 minutes to explain how the touch screen worked on the last new car we bought. For my money they could be throwing in the turn indicator functionality as a public service.

To give you an idea of how old I am, I actually Continue reading “My Turn Signal Conundrum       “

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Bill Maher On Current Middle East Crisis

I used to be a bit of a Bill Maher fan, but not so for the last several years.  I now find him to be a self-righteous pendejo, and thus hard to watch.  However, the video below was embedded in an article  that appeared in the online version of the St. Louis Jewish Light: ‘Where do you think Israel is going?’ Bill Maher quips in viral eight-minute clip.

Maher makes a lot a sense to me in his segment.  At some point you just have to move on.  Of course, it took me a few years to stop lamenting about some of the fallout from my divorce, but you just do it. Sometimes you just need to let go.

Given that this is Bill Maher, the language is reasonably clean.

If you want a good quick review of the current history of Israel and The Occupied Territories, I discussed a recently published book by Daniel Skotach at this link: Can We Talk About Israel?

And is almost always the case, there are two sides to the story, if not more.  I discussed a 2005 Arabic language movie about the recruitment of two young West Bankers to be suicide bombers here: Paradise Now | Revisited

While not Jewish myself, my wife is, so much of this strikes close to home. Especially so as our October trip to Israel – a lifetime dream of my spouse – was cancelled abruptly.

And so it goes in this absurdity we call life.

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #2,367

yeah I know you did not ask!

You should so be blessed – well cursed at times actually – with a mind such as mine, making all these weird connections between my rumored neurons. Just be thankful that I do not share all of my random thoughts.

 

El cascarrabias

Next time you are troubled by one of your fellow travelers in this absurdity we call life,  consider this:  You share 99.9% (sources vary from 99.6 to 99.9%) of your DNA with every other Homo sapiens on this planet. What a big deal, positive and negative, we make of that 0.1%.  That amount of difference is just a little more than a standard size shot glass in a 15.5 gallon keg of beer.  It is one McDonald’s cheeseburger among a pile of 1000 similar sandwiches.

And just in case you are feeling smug… While we are not direct descendants of apes, chimpanzee, and bonobos, we do share a common ancestor with them.  As such we share 98.8% of our DNA with them.  That is a difference of 16 shot glasses in our keg of beer, or 12 cheeseburgers in your pile of  1000 such sandwiches.

So by and by when next you look deeply into my sorrowful, wistful simian eyes… remember that.

And so it goes.

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YouTube Curation

YouTube uses an algorithm to feed the user videos that they might like.  Of course the goal is to keep you on YouTube as long as possible to feed you the most advertisements possible.  I started to call this algorithm, curation, but the definition of curated is: “carefully chosen and thoughtfully organized or presented.“  While this may be what YouTube is doing on one level, it is more than a little nefarious on another.

As long time readers will know (ad nauseam) that I am studying Spanish.  As part of this journey I subscribe to various YouTube channels for learning Spanish and others in Spanish for their entertainment value.  So now the YouTube curation algorithm feeds me videos in English and Spanish.

A while back, for reasons unclear to me – perhaps it figured out that I am old and male, it fed me a video from an urologist.  The video captured my attention as the presenter was a very attractive young female who turned out to be a M.D. in the field.  Being a man of a certain age, urological topics have a bit of an interest for me.  Then you add in the mujer linda, and I just had to click. Bad move on my part. Now YouTube is feeding me tons of videos dealing with urological topics.  However, what really floored me was that it was also feeding me urological videos from urologists in Spanish speaking countries… in Spanish.

Everyone is concerned with Big Brother being the government, for my money, Big Brother is  here and he is the personification of these huge technology companies coming after your wallet and your mind.

And yes I know it is possible to erase your YouTube history and start fresh.  Or for that matter simply turn off their algorithm. But then how would I find videos of a pretty young urologist preaching to me about urological measures I should be following?

And so it goes in La Casa de Viejos.

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The Most Accurate STL Anthem Ever?

Song just about says it all, no need for comments from yours truly.

I came across it in an article in the alternative newspaper, Riverfront Times: ‘How Does St. Louis Do It’ Is the Most Accurate STL Anthem Ever

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #6,573

yeah I know you did not ask!

You should so be blessed – well cursed at times actually – with a mind such as mine, making all these weird connections between my rumored neurons. Just be thankful that I do not share all of my random thoughts.

 

El cascarrabias

I wish I could draw.  If I could I would create a cartoon and label it: The Typical American.

It would feature a grossly obese person of whatever sex, one whose gender was  indeterminante might even be more to the point. Our typical American would be sporting shorts, regardless of the season, that were much too big, a screen printed t-shirt pushing a political opinion, religion, vacation destination or sports team, the ubiquitous sneakers or flip-flops, and a baseball cap, more than likely worn backwards. They would be in a mega warehouse store, like Sam’s or Costco, pushing the oversized shopping cart mandatory at these venues.  The cart would be filled to overflowing with soft drinks and junk food. And, of course, teetering on top of all, there would be a brobdingnagian bail containing a two year supply of toilet paper.

Yup, I was recently in one of these stores. Yup, guess what I saw.

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It’s Not That Hard Folks | Golden Rule

I came across this cartoon this morning.

Which reminded me of a story I had read about Rabbi Hillel…

The Talmud is the second most important book of the Jewish faith. As described at the website Sefaria.org:

“The Talmud is the textual record of generations of rabbinic debate about law, philosophy, and biblical interpretation, compiled between the 3rd and 8th centuries and structured as commentary on the Mishnah with stories interwoven. The Talmud exists in two versions: the more commonly studied Babylonian Talmud was compiled in present-day Iraq, while the Jerusalem Talmud was compiled in Israel.”

There is a story attributed to two second century rabbinic scholars of this book , Hillel and Shammai. As recounted at the website Forward:

“[They were]…contemporaries paired together by Jewish tradition as archetypical opposites: Hillel the tolerant and liberal ‘loose constructionist’ of the Law, Shammai the exacting and inflexible ‘strict constructionist.’

In one story about them, a gentile comes to both and asks, with the obvious intention of provoking them, to be taught the whole Torah while standing on one leg. Shammai is indeed provoked and gives the man an angry whack with a measuring rod. Hillel replies, ‘That which is hateful to you, do not unto another: This is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary — [and now] go study.’“

How hard can this be people? Apparently too damn hard.


To see the Golden Rule as expressed by many other religions follow this link: The Universality of the Golden Rule in the World Religions

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought #323

yeah I know you did not ask!

You should so be blessed – well cursed at times actually – with a mind such as mine, making all these weird connections between my rumored neurons. Just be thankful that I do not share all my random thoughts.

Indubitably, you are aware of the old saw, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.”  Contemplating the recent drama in my abode, Matrimonial Log – Star Date 5784.304, I decided that we have had this prosaism  wrong all these long centuries.  I am thinking a more accurate platitude might have been, “An onion a day keeps the doctor away.”

Bear with me, here is my reasoning.  If you were to eat an onion everyday, then the likelihood of the majority of folks being close to you diminishes rapidly.  You would thus keep the opportunity for them to transmit any number of human illnesses to you at a very low percentage.  Thusly preserving yourself in a healthy state.  Ergo, the doctor would be a stranger. Without a doubt, a proof my logic professor would be proud of.

Just to be on the safe side, if you were to throw a couple cloves of garlic into the mix, then vampires would be out of the picture, while also eliminating those final few hardy souls not put off by your force field of onion infused belches.

Just saying.

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The Global Impact of Curmudgeon-Alley

The Global Impact of Curmudgeon-Alley

Okay, please be so kind as to pick yourself off the floor from laughing so uproariously at the title of this posting: The Global Impact of Curmudgeon-Alley.  It is not seemly to make such a display of yourself.

What Does It Signify

The above is a global hit map of the various places a page of my blog has been opened.  I did not add this little app to my website until I had been blogging for a few years, so many hits from my “early period” are lacking.  I did find what it says Continue reading “The Global Impact of Curmudgeon-Alley”