Category: Rev. Joe Dirt’s Ramblings

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

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Lemonade

“Si del cielo se caen limones, aprende a hacer limonada.”

Or in English, “If lemons fall from the sky, learn how to make lemonade.” Obviously very similar to the common proverbial phrase here in the United States, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”, belaboring the point, an expression meant to promote optimism.

One of my iTalki Spanish tutors, Moisés, lives in El Salvador.  He is an interesting gentleman, and our conversations flow easily and cover a wide array of subjects.  He frequently speaks of his father Continue reading “Lemonade”

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Please Dear God No… Do not send Eric Greitens to the United States Senate

Eric Greitens is running for the United States Senate from the state of Missouri.  He was briefly Governor of Missouri, but he was chased out of office.  He resigned amid allegations of sexual assault and campaign finance impropriety.  As the Washington Post put it:

“Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens left the state capitol in disgrace as he faced down two criminal charges, an ethics probe, and public fallout over reports that he’d had an affair with a hairdresser and then allegedly tried to blackmail her with nude photos.”

Somehow he managed to get much of that dismissed…

Just in case you do not know, RINO stands for Republican In Name Only aka Republican politicians that are  not Trump supporters, that are not MAGA enough.  The message of this video is abundantly clear, that MAGAs should hunt these folks down, and apparently with military grade weapons.

For the sake of me, I do know understand why this type of ad is legal, why any TV station would air it, and why YouTube does not take it down.  IMHO, if one of these”RINOs” is murdered or even assaulted, Eric Greitens should be charged as an accomplice.

Please God No… Do not send Eric Greitens to the United States Senate.

Just for the record I did report this video to YouTube as promoting terrorism.  I pray many folks follow suite.

Thank you YouTube to listening to many, many folks and taking this awful video down from your site.

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Bat Sh** Crazy, Texas Republican Party Platform

A prominent historian, Heather Cox Richardson, puts out a daily newsletter, Letters from America, described as ” A newsletter about the history behind today’s politics.”

She had multiple themes today, much it about the January 6 hearings going in our national’s capital.  A couple things really caught my attention, one was a quote from a very conservative federal judge that he uttered during an NPR interview:

“[T]he former president and his party are today a clear and present danger for American democracy,”  Luttig reiterated to NPR’s All Things Considered.

And this gentleman is Continue reading “Bat Sh** Crazy, Texas Republican Party Platform”

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Barry Goldwater Quotes Highlighting Changed Republican Party

A friend of mine sent me some Barry Goldwater quotes that are timely for our current political situation.

Unless you are of a certain age, or are a student of American history you may not know who Barry Goldwater was.  He was a five term senator from Arizona and ran on the Republican ticket for President in 1964 against Lyndon B.  Johnson.  He scared the bejeebers out of a lot people with his hawkish position on the Vietnam War and extreme right wing positions. He lost in a landslide.

While a Republican, he was very much to the right of most of the run-of-mill Republicans.  He was considered an extreme right-winger, an ultra-conservative.

All of which make the follow Barry Goldwater quotes very interesting as they reflect the opinion of one of the most conservative members of the Republican Party in the 1960s.  The MAGAs would ride him out of town on a rail today, if he said such things.

“Abortion is “a decision that’s up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the religious right. It’s not a conservative issue at all.” 

“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can’t and won’t compromise. I know, I’ve tried to deal with them.”  

Well the preachers did get control of the Republican Party, quickly followed by the crazies.  Now we are all paying the price.

But then there is this quote which to my mind undoes it all.

“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” 

Oh well.

And so it went back in the 60s.

 

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The Sin of Simony         

Years ago I read Dante’s Divine Comedy.  I cannot say I got much out of it, but I did get through the poem, mostly  because I can be a little obsessive at times. I had put a task before me, and by George I was going to complete it. Most of what I remember from the poem are some very graphic images from the nine levels of Inferno, and almost nothing of Purgatorio and Paradiso.  I decided somewhat later that I would listen Continue reading “The Sin of Simony         “

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National Sex Day, June 9th…Just Do It

Apparently there is a day for just about everything now-a-days.  I am not sure how I stumbled across this one, but I did, much to your chagrin.

National Sex Day is June 9th for obvious reasons, it can be written as 6-9, the favorite number of more than a few folks I know.  For some reason the symbol for yin yang always struck me as very sexual, reminding  me of le nombre soixante neuf .

If you want to know more here is the link: National Sex Day

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The Things We Notice

I moved in with Señora in 2012.  Shortly thereafter we noticed a breeze coming in from the base of one of the sidelights of the original 1980s front door. The wood at the base of that sidelight had rotted for whatever reason.

Discussing it with Señora I remarked that there are some options here.  “I could try to repair it, but I warn you that my carpentry skills are about on a third grade level.”

Or I went on, “we could hire someone to fix it.”

In my excessive ignorance, Continue reading “The Things We Notice”

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National Hike with a Geek Day

I stumbled across this particular “holiday” while researching why June 20th was a bank holiday.  I was trying to schedule a bill payment online and choose June 20th as getting the payment to the utility just before the due date.  The credit union’s website would not let me do it.  When I looked closer at their scheduling calendar I discovered it was a bank holiday.  A bank holiday in June… I don’t remember one of those. So I looked it up.  Turns out Juneteenth is now a national holiday, and since it falls on Sunday this year, the banks are closed on Monday, June 20th.

Just in case you do not know, Juneteenth is:

“a holiday celebrated on 19 June to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the US. The holiday was first celebrated in Texas, where on that date in 1865, in the aftermath of the Civil War, slaves were declared free under the terms of the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation.”

But I also discovered that someone had designated June 20th as MY day, National Hike with a Geek Day.  The blurb for this celebration reads:

“U.S. National Hike with a Geek Day is celebrated every year on June 20. The purpose of this day is to promote healthy activity in people who otherwise work in sedentary jobs throughout the year, such as I.T. professionals, accountants, and so forth.”

Bullseye… that is me right down to the hanging nail on my left big toe.

And so it goes.

 

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Ghost Guns… Why are they legal?

Color me sheltered, I had no idea.  These are deadly weapons that anyone can buy online.  They are unregulated,  no serial numbers, untraceable, anyone – and I mean anyone with a credit card or PayPal account can buy one online.  I am betting an untraceable Visa/Mastercard gift cards would work just fine too.  Wow! This is so very WRONG.  Now here is something I would classify as sinful, the marketing of such merchandise.  What is the lowest level in Dante’s Inferno?

More information available at BradyUnited.org

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Maus by Art Spiegelman

  Graphic novels are not something I typically read. The closest I have come as an adult would be several books compiling the work of various newspaper cartoonists.  What piqued my curiosity on this book is that a school board in Tennessee banned this book from the eighth grade curriculum. While a graphic novel, honors received include: The Pulitzer Prize, a Guggenheim fellowship and National Book Critics Circle Award. The New Yorker called it “the first masterpiece in comic book history.” The very conservative Wall Street Journal described it as “the most affecting and successful narrative ever done about the Holocaust.”

This is not an easy book to read due to the theme.  It deals with the treatment of the Jews in Poland by the Germans and Poles at the beginning of the World War II.  The main character and his wife end up at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Partly through ingenuity, but mostly Continue reading “Maus by Art Spiegelman”