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3:39 a.m. – Random Thoughts

Staring at the unseen ceiling at 03:39 a.m. with random thoughts trying to rattle their way into or maybe out of my thoughts…

  • Life is a machine for generating regrets
  • Never regret being kind, even when it does not work out the way you intended.  It was still the right thing to do
  • It’s worn and trite and all too true… when it is all said and done all we have are each other
  • When I was young used to think old age was the way God prepared folks so they could let go of life. Now as someone on the cusp of that phase of my life, I think old age and the ungraceful exit so many people get to make is proof that there is no god, that there is no intelligent design.
  • We need to remember that most of us most of the time are really doing the best we can
  • Not only do we need to forgive each other, we need to forgive ourselves
  • All too often we take things far too seriously when it is just the other person stuck in their own bag of skin
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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 7,416

yeah I know you did not ask!

By any definition of the word terrorism that I can think of, drive-by shootings fit into the category of terrorism. So why are we not mobilizing against this internal terrorism? Sadly, the answer that I can come with involves race and class.

There is not a lot being reported on this, but one study I did find cited the following statistics from 2006:

“During the six-month period covered in this report, 549 drive-by shooting incidents were reported in the news media as identified by Google, claiming 156 lives and injuring 465 individuals.” 1

Earlier in the document the authors made the statement that they believed drive-by shootings to be vastly under reported.

  1. Drive-By America from Violence Policy Center
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The Little Blue Book by George Lakoff and Elisabeth Wehling

The Little Blue BookThe main point of this book is that words matter. And the words that we debate with have been chosen by the conservatives to the detriment of progressive causes.

Someone recently posted on Facebook a quote by Robert A. Heinlein that sums up our current political situation nicely:

“You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic.”

The authors phrased it thusly: Continue reading “The Little Blue Book by George Lakoff and Elisabeth Wehling”

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Things That Go Bump in the Night

The Wee Dog has developed a habit of coming on-board the bed in the middle of the night. When she does this she either snuggles in between Robin and I, or she tries to clean my face. The first I do not mind; the second I am desperately trying to redirect.

Lily stands maybe 14 inches at the shoulder. Our bed stands 32 inches above the deck. This means the critter must get a running start to jump 2 ½ times her height, and she can only do it on my side of the bed. On a good leap she just barely clears, and it is usually the thump of her legs hitting the side of the bed that awakens me. Occasionally she misses and Continue reading “Things That Go Bump in the Night”

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 6,279

yeah I know you did not ask!

I used to have faith in my fellow citizens and democracy.  With so many of those fellow citizens thinking that the narcissistic egomaniac, Trump, is a  viable choice for our president that faith has evaporated.  The man has the intellectual depth of a sewage lagoon.

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 8,591

yeah I know you did not ask!

To all those wanting to build fences on our borders… Remember a fence works both ways.  Just ask the folks of North Korea or the former East Germany to name a couple.

 

 

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Rev. Joe’s Random Thought # 3,903

yeah I know you did not ask!

One would think that Conservatives and Tea Baggers would be the first to have our Commander-in-Chief’s back.  Ironically they are the first and most vociferous critics of him.

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Islamphobia

My Jewish wife has expressed to me that every time she sees an islamicphobic posting Facebook she feels like she has been kicked in the teeth. She sees islamphobia as just a different flavor of anti-Semitism.  It is same swallow from the larger cup of racism and intolerance. “Why cannot everyone just remember the Golden Rule,” she said.

From Islam:
“No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.”

From Judaism:
“What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.” ~~ Talmud, Shabbat 3id

From Christianity:
“All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.” ~~ Matthew 7:12

“And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.” ~~ Luke 6:31

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Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence

Lady Chatterly's Lover This book was first self-published by D. H. Lawrence in Florence, Italy in 1928. It was banned from publication in Great Britain until 1960. It was not published in its original form in this country until 1959. It was considered much too pornographic, however it is pornographic the way Playboy is. You have a mass of text, and then there will be a racy passage. I say racy as by today’s standards it is all rather mild. Lawrence spends more time dealing with the emotionally altered state that good sex brings on than a physical description of sex. Most of such passages are relatively mild. Continue reading “Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence”

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Break a Little Bread

My wife Robin is Jewish. She is also very ethnic looking. I bring this up because of a couple stories she has shared with me over the years. One is that as a young girl she sometimes felt like she was black. In her childish mind she felt an affinity with them due to discrimination and feeling like she did not belong to the larger society. She also tells the story of moving to a north St. Louis suburb as a young newlywed. Due to her ethnic appearance a lot of her neighbors thought she was Italian. She allowed them this belief as it was easier to deal them than if they knew she was Jewish. At least that was her feeling.

I will admit anti-Semitism is something I do not understand. For obvious reasons it is something I have pondered on over the last few years. I have done some minor research on the issue. While I have some vague understanding of its roots, the vehemence with which it is has come down through the generations to us mystifies me.

I have a dear friend, Leon, a black man a few years older than myself. He lives in Jackson, Continue reading “Break a Little Bread”