2. July 2009 by Frank.

I’ve got a really nasty one right now.  Usually this type of pain is accompanied by a bad spike in my blood pressure which isn’t the case this time.  There is the sensation of having a fever, however, which is always a sign of a really bad headache.

Nothing I can take has any effect on one of these.  I just have to suffer through.

Just one of many unpleasantries I have to suffer periodically.

I was just reading some comments on another blog that brought up the old without god you can’t be moral theme.  I’ve actually been noticing that quite a bit lately.  Basically the christian declares that without god the only option is to become morally depraved and unrestrained.

I have to wonder where this idea comes from?

Indeed, as a christian, I was fascinated by end-time prophecies.  I thought it was the coolest thing ever to fantasize about how Revelations was going to play out.  I actually found joy in imagining the utter destruction of billions of people.  There was no doubt in my mind that only a relative few would survive god’s ultimate judgment.  Of course, I was going to be among those few.

How, exactly, is this a moral way of thinking?

Billions of people’s lives mean absolutely nothing to god or his children.  They were created so he could pour out his wrath on them to show how righteous his judgments are.  If you believe in predestination, it gets even worse because you have no option about what is going to happen to you.

How is that moral?  Is your head hurting yet?

I’ve mentioned before about being in church services where the preacher in a frenzy of religious blindness actually led the congregation in asking god to put cancer, AIDS, heart attacks, etc., on their friends and loved ones so that they would be brought low enough that they would call out to god for salvation.  It didn’t matter that those people would have to suffer horribly and probably die, at least they would be saved.  Their souls wouldn’t go to hell.  Who cares if their lives were ruined otherwise?  Is this moral?

I had a real bad headache or two after sitting through this particularly horrid type of worship service.  The thing that was the most shocking was how many people gleefully took up the challenge of praying for their loved ones in this manner.  Imagine a few hundred people pleading with god to give Uncle Bob a nasty form of throat cancer because he spends so much time smoking at bars and nightclubs.

Suppose you worked in some kind of biological laboratory and had access to a Petri dish full of the most virulent life destroying little buggers ever conceived.   If you were to smuggle them out of the lab and release them into the water supply of a large city what would you expect the reaction of the rest of the world would be?  If they caught you, you would be universally condemned as the worst terrorist who ever lived.  You and I know this.  There is no question.  This would be an immoral act of the highest degree by any civilized standard.

But this is exactly what those good moral christians in that good moral church were asking their good moral god to do for them.  God, after all, has the power to give life and take it away.

How can we mere mortals have higher moral standards than god?  Why is it most societies condemn slavery but the bible doesn’t?  Why is it everyone knew murder is immoral long before the bible was written?

That question used to bother me a lot as a christian.  How could I have higher moral standards than my god when he was supposed to be the only source of said morals?  It used to give me headaches.

Being free of religion for the last eleven years has led me to realize that my moral standards never came from god or the bible in the first place, I had them before and I still have them after being a christian.  Like many other facts of life religion usurps what is right and true and then claims that you never knew or had it before religion revealed it to you.  They keep beating you over the head with it long enough you eventually begin to believe it and then you can’t fathom how anyone else could possibly know such things without your god, too.

I hope in some small way that I have made you think hard enough to get a headache.  Because, well, misery loves company.

And I am, after all, an immoral douchebag.

Posted in humor, interpretation, wild guesses, signs, religion | Print | 2 Comments »

30. June 2009 by Frank.

What have you ever done that deserves burning in hell forever?

Simply not believing in Jesus is all it takes to get you that sentence.  For eternity.

How is that righteous or just or even remotely fair?  How can you make any claim about free will when that is your only choice?  Either believe or burn forever.

I read a couple of comic strips that brought this up this morning.

According to the bible I knew the truth and then rejected it so my fate is even worse.

That threat doesn’t phase me either.

There is no heaven nor hell.

It’s all fear to keep you in line.

Posted in interpretation, religion | Print | 2 Comments »

27. June 2009 by Frank.

Why is it celebrities die in threes?

Why is it that PhillyChief over at You Made Me Say It is the only one who has an appropriate response to Michael Jackson’s death?

Why is it that the critics universally hate Michael Bay (check out RottenTomatoes) but audiences seem to love him?  ($60 million in one day!?)

Why is it I disagree with Roger Ebert about movies nearly 90% of the time but I find his other observations spot on?  Read his review of Transformers 2 (I loved it) and then check out his article about Bill O’Reilly.  I used to listen to O’Reilly, now I can’t stand him.  At least I respect Ebert.

Why is it preachers call the bible “The Owners Manual” during wedding ceremonies?  Why is it they say if we’re going to marry we need to do it god’s way?  God’s way is that women are property, a raped woman must marry her rapist, and the rapist can never divorce her.  Why is it god’s way is polygamy (David & Solomon)?  Why did Paul advise the married to live as if they weren’t because Jesus’ return was so immediate?  Why is it they pretend the words of the marriage ceremony are written in the bible when they clearly aren’t?  I remember being very disillusioned when I discovered that for myself.

Why is it the Huffingtton Post is so obsessed with everything “Bruno”?  How are the antics of a seventh rate schlock comedian news (even entertainment news)?

Why is it anyone pays any attention to Rush Limbaugh?  I admit I used to listen to him years ago.  But he has gone freaking insane with his own popularity (real or imagined).  Sanford slips off to Argentina to bang his mistress and it’s Obama’s fault?  Come on, Rush, you can’t really be that stupid can you?  I know you think your audience is that stupid but come on!

Why is it Twitter became the source for news from Iran?  What happened to actual news agencies?  What happened to journalism?

Why is it with gasoline so expensive and in such short supply you see so many huge gas guzzling SUV’s, Vans, Trucks on the road?  Around here they far outnumber smaller cars.  It isn’t entirely the big car companies’ fault, Americans buy these things in alarming numbers.  Energy efficiency is an alien concept.

Why is it even though gas is $2/gallon less than it was last year I still can’t afford to go anywhere?

Why is it that christians are so threatened by any kind of questioning about their faith?  They claim to have the god of the universe living inside them, they should be absolutely fearless.  Why is it they feel so much need to have people help them pray through their problems?  Why is it that god isn’t sufficient to help them overcome all by themselves?  I used to ask the same questions when I was a christian myself.  I could never understand why the vast majority of the church considered itself to be so weak.  Why is it that sin and evil are so much stronger than righteousness and good?  Why is Satan even presented as a threat?  He’s already defeated!  If you already know how it’s all going to end why dread the future?

Why is it that I keep on blogging even though I only get very many comments if I blog about the “penis”?

Why is it I ask myself stupid questions?

Posted in communication, humor, wild guesses, listen, hearing, religion | Print | 3 Comments »

23. June 2009 by Frank.

Conventional wisdom says I was supposed to be a mass of blubbering emotionalism on Saturday at my daughter’s wedding.

I am anything but conventional.

Oh, there was pre-wedding hysteria right and left so I felt obligated to be the voice of calm reassurance and reason.  There had been an incredible amount of completely unnecessary drama during the planning of the event already.  I tried to be calm and supportive the whole time.  I did what I could.

Saturday morning was densely foggy but it cleared up into a beautiful bright sunshiny day.  Fridays’ storms had dumped 3 inches of water on the area and knocked over a great many trees.  So there was no choice but for Saturday to be as gorgeous as Friday was damaging.

Things started going wrong after I picked my wife up at the hairdresser’s.  We were walking back to the car when she stepped in a hole, tripped, and fell, severely skinning her knee and elbow.  Blood everywhere but her hair stayed up.  Fortunately the hairdresser had a first aid kit.

The wedding was at 3 and we got to my daughter’s apartment at 2:15.  She and her bridesmaids were getting ready all except for one noticeably missing.  At 2:20 she calls in total hysterics because her dress doesn’t fit her, shouldn’t get it to zip up at all.  It seems her mother altered it 2 days earlier but she hadn’t bothered to try it on.  Her boyfriend was providing the sound system for the bandshell and he was still at her house with her.  My daughter put up with her wailing as long as she could and told her that her freaking boyfriend had better get the bandshell right that minute.  He made it before the wedding started but the bridesmaid didn’t.  My daughter of course had a panic attack and started hyperventilating.

By then the temperature had soared into the high 80’s.  The city had refused to block off the street for us because a World War II re-enactment group was having a parade that started lining up right beside the bandshell at about 2:45.  Fortunately, it was an awful small parade and they were gone before 3.  The turnout of people seemed awfully light for the wedding but that may just have been because there is seating for several hundred and everybody was trying to sit in the shady areas.

Finally, the wedding started and still no one had a clue what the pastor was going to do.  Everything went the way we planned it.  I took the pictures of the girls coming down the aisle, then my carefully selected but uninformed assistant photographer took over.  I hightailed it to the back to walk my daughter down the aisle.  She was a nervous wreck, the missing bridesmaid had really got her upset.  So I went into damage control mode to keep reminding her to just breathe.  She was bawling by the time we got to platform.  I had to lead her to one side to avoid a puddle of water that refused to dry up.  Then I headed back to my camera because she wanted a picture just before the ceremony started.

That was when the idiot pastor pissed me off.

I had no idea what he was planning but he started shaking his head at me, pointed at a spot on the ground several feet away from my camera, and started wagging his finger in a clear “NO!” manner.  I dutifully moved back near my daughter as he started droning on about some standard marriage verses from the bible.  It seemed to take a very long time before he finally asked who gives this woman.  Clever fellow that I am, I knew the answer was her mother and I.  I asked my daughter beforehand if she wanted to do that because it’s old fashioned and traditional but not necessarily politically correct.  She was OK with it but we didn’t know for sure he was going to do it.  Then I went and sat with my wife and forgot about the pictures.

He used all the standard verses and admonitions but he seemed very scatterbrained and wandered all over the place.  He then asked if the bride and groom knew of any reason they shouldn’t go through with it.  My daughter replied, “No, we’re good.”  So then the vows and the rings which were both worded oddly (I think he forgot what he was saying.)  Then he momentarily forgot their names just before introducing them as man and wife.  Then he definitely forgot the obligatory, “You may kiss the bride.”  I was back at the camera as they headed back up the aisle.  My wife’s sister hollered out, “Go ahead and kiss her!”  So we got a great shot where everybody could see clearly.

I could have performed the ceremony much better.  But the retired (it’s easy to see why) pastor was an old World War II buddy of the groom’s grandfather and had performed the ceremony when his parents got married.  A symbolic gesture of good will, so to speak.

Then there was the congrats line as the temperature neared 90.  All of us men were in black.  We were all soaking wet by then.  But everybody was ecstatically happy.

Then we decided wedding party pictures on the beach were in order.  I had a small panic attack just as we got there when I realized I had left my camera bag with two other cameras and a very expensive lens at the bandshell.  It was fortunately still there.

We got some goofy shots that were an awful lot of fun.  There were hundreds of people down there but we used the sand dunes as a backdrop and also the lighthouse.  Some of the poses were hysterical.  One of the groomsmen, who really is quite a character, walked up to a very good looking girl in a very skimpy bikini and told her she was a very sexy lady.  The other guys had dared him.  The shore of Lake Michigan is a very cool place to be in the Summer.

There was another bridal party there at the same time.

By then we were getting some serious sunburn and it was time for the reception.  We all entered to the theme from Rocky.  There seemed to be a whole lot more people at the reception.  The food was generally good and the bartender was excellent.  I had a rum and coke that knocked me on my ass because of the overexposure to the sun.  It was perfectly mixed.  My daughter knows how to arrange a party.  The dancing started and I switched to video because it was really too dark for still photos.  Several women told me my dance with my daughter was so beautiful it brought them to tears.  I danced several slow dances with my wife (who had recovered fairly well from her fall.)  But the bridal party were dance maniacs.  I don’t ever remember having that much energy in my entire life.  They were having a blast and I was having a blast taping them.  This was literally the most fun party I have ever been to.

It is so nice to be a part of pure joy.

The guy who taped my daughter and my dance could be heard saying, “That is one rock steady man.”  Maybe he couldn’t see it but I have never been happier.  That was the most emotion I have felt in eleven years and it was all good.  Pure joy.

Euphoria.

Posted in humor, wild guesses, emotion, religion, Uncategorized | Print | 3 Comments »

20. June 2009 by Frank.

My daughter is getting married this afternoon at 3 beside the river at the Bandshell.  Yesterday’s fierce thunderstorms have cleared out of the area and it looks to be a beautiful sunny day.  It may be a bit too steamy with all the water but I don’t think we’ll wilt.  You couldn’t ask for a lovelier setting.

We are in such bad shape financially that we couldn’t help pay for anything.  So I volunteered to save them a couple of grand by being their photographer.  I am a picture taking fool with desires of becoming a professional.  I use a Nikon D70 which takes wonderful pictures.

One of the groomsmen’s wife asked me how I could do that; wouldn’t it be too emotional a time for me?  I told her that photography is what I love to do.  I didn’t go into my stroke addled “I’m not in phase with the rest of the emotional universe” details.  Before the stroke I would have been a basket case today and it would have been too much to take the pictures.  But thanks to a little brain re-wiring I am officially Laid Back Lenny.  You can’t even get this mellow with some really good weed.

I don’t react to emotional events like most people.  I’m not emotionless but I guess you could say that I’m extremely subdued except when something angers me.  My anger flares up to white hot intensity and instantly dissipates.  It is very, very weird.  Things that make me feel good are few and far between but I’m actually in a good mood most of the time in spite of the pain that never lets up.  I don’t know how to describe what living in intense pain is like.  In a way I think that the abnormally calm emotional condition is the only thing that could balance it out so that I can function in the real world.

My daughter and her groom aren’t religious but a minister (retired) is doing the ceremony because he’s an old friend of the groom’s family.  He didn’t come to the rehearsal so I’m not sure what to expect from him.  I’m hoping he keeps it christian lite.  It’s a compromise for the sake of family.  This isn’t the time to make a bold atheist statement.  We’ve already got enough bitching going on about having booze at the reception.

I splurged and bought myself some new disposable razors so I won’t be quite so scruffy looking.  I even polished my shoes.

My daughter has been my best friend all her life.  I held her for the first hour of her life after she made an incredibly quick appearance.  I put her to bed every night with a story frequently involving all of her stuffed animals.  I never lied to her about my drug and booze addicted days.  We taught her to think for herself and always try to do what’s right.  I think we did a wonderful job of raising her.  I’m ridiculously proud of her.  We have a corny routine we always do; “You’re my favorite daughter,” says I, “Dad, I’m your only daughter,” she replies.

Her husband to be is quite obviously the most fortunate man on earth.

Posted in Uncategorized | Print | 1 Comment »

13. June 2009 by Frank.

No, this isn’t a post about Cheney.

It’s not about who’s the better Darrin, Dick York or Dick Sargeant.  The only important thing in that argument was that Elisabeth Montgomery was hot.

It’s not about the paranoia of Dick Nixon or the snark of Dickipedia.

It’s about some truly bizarre stories about male genitalia in the bible.  “Why is that worth looking into?” you ask.  It clearly shows just how primitive and barbaric the foundations of the christian religion actually are.  But really it isn’t limited to just christianity.

God instituted circumcision as a sign of his covenant with Abraham.  Just think how absurd it is that deliberate mutilation of your sex organ is a sign of a covenant with your god.  Just writing that makes for queasy.  Not only is it a matter of removing the foreskin there is also the blood involved.  Just be glad this religion doesn’t practice female circumcision.  That is a ritual that is even worse because it isn’t just the removal of skin, it is the destruction of an important bundle of nerves.

I’m not going to quote a lot of verses but if you don’t have a bible handy I suggest you go to www.biblegateway.com and look them up.  In Exodus 4 we have Moses speaking with god and complaining that he is “slow of speech and tongue” and therefore can’t perform his task with pharaoh.  Inexplicably in verses 24 – 26 the Lord met Moses at a lodging place and was going to kill him.  In order to prevent this Moses’ wife, Zipporah, took a flint knife and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched Moses’ feet with it.  I’m not sure how Zipporah knew what was happening, maybe Moses had an Oral Roberts moment and hollered out, “He’s gonna kill me!”  So here’s Moses trying to fight off an invisible god who’s trying to kill him and his wife quickly surmises that circumcising her son will calm the god down.  “Junior, get over here quick!  And drop your pants!” she yells.  Junior slouches over complaining, “Ah, mom, you told me not to drop my pants in front of people anymore.”  No nonsense Zipporah drops to her knees, yanks his drawers down, and grabs his penis.  Junior’s pathetic whining turns to howls of fear and pain as she whips out her flint knife and deftly slices off his foreskin.  Zipporah then takes her bloody trophy, rushes over to Moses who appears to be beating the crap out of himself, and rubs the bloody piece of flesh all over his feet.  She says, “Surely you are a bridegroom of blood to me.”  So god released his full nelson hold on Moses and let him go.

OK, I’ve embellished a little, but think about it.  That’s what those couple of verses say happened.  Keep in mind that Moses was the only one actually seeing god.  How did Zipporah know what was going on?  And even given the culture, why would it occur to her that circumcising her son would appease god?  I have no idea how old the kid was but even if he was a baby it could not have been a quick and easy procedure.  Then to take the bloody remnant and rub it on her husband’s feet?  Just think how absurd this sequence of events actually is.  Even more absurd is that god apparently changed his mind because of it and decided to let Moses live which is ridiculous in the first place because god just commissioned Moses to go to pharaoh.

Then we have king Saul offering to sell his daughter Michal to David for the price of 100 Philistine foreskins in 1 Samuel 18.  Saul figured the Philistines would kill him but it didn’t work out that way.  David, the man after god’s own heart, goes out and kills 200 Philistines and takes their foreskins.  Now consider for a moment the carnage of a battle that left 200 dead.  Amidst all that you’re going to go around uncovering the dead’s genitals and cutting off their foreskins.  Then you put them in a sack and take them back to the king to buy his daughter.  Is that not the behavior of barbarians?  Look at 2 Samuel 3:14 just to notice David saying he betrothed to himself for the price of 100 Philistine foreskins.  Women were property.  Property that could be sold for some odd currency.

Let’s back up a bit to Genesis 24 and 47 and consider swearing of oaths while putting your hand under my thigh.  It’s not too hard to imagine what putting your hand under my thigh means.  You’ve heard of pagan practices based on fertility and sexuality.  How is this any different?  Barbaric and very primitive.

It doesn’t change in the new testament either.  There are far more verses in the new than the old involving circumcision.  Circumcision was to be continual without end.  To not be circumcised was to be forever cut off from your people.  Many sects following Jesus were teaching that you had to be circumcised first.  This led Paul to change everything and declare that real circumcision wasn’t of the flesh it was of the spirit and the heart.  Paul changed the definition and then suffered persecution to such an extent that he had to keep writing about it.  But despite his stance, he still circumcised Timothy because of the Jews in Acts 16.  He also boasted of his credentials as a Jew (circumcised on the eighth day – Philippians 3) after calling those who preach circumcision dogs, men who do evil, and mutilators of the flesh.  How did the sign of god’s covenant become mutilation and evil?

Can anyone deny this is primitive, barbaric behavior no different than any pagan rituals?  Is this really the work of a god?  It sounds stupid just writing about it.  But there are still those who preach it in modern times (at least there were back in the 80’s.)  And have you noticed the christian outrage at body piercings and tattoos?  What is so shocking and horrible about that?  You guys used to mutilate 8 day old babies and use the leftovers to buy women.

Barbarians, the lot of you!

Fortunately I’m not.

Posted in humor, interpretation, signs, religion | Print | 7 Comments »

12. June 2009 by Frank.

My latest faux pas was posting a comment on another atheist blog which I thought was very funny.  The subject of the post was church signs one of which had to do with getting on your knees.  I mentioned a local sign which said, “If you think you are without sin then you just added another one to the list.”  Thinking I was very clever I added, “So get on your knees and raise your butts because all you heathens are screwed.”  This, of course, was not understood as humor.  It was interpreted as a christian nut job screed with vaguely homosexual tendencies. 

My bad.

My jokes take a lot of getting used to so I shouldn’t be surprised.  I am not such a great writer that I can make myself understood all the time especially when I’m trying to be funny.  I know that’s what emoticons are for but I just never thought they should be necessary.

So it seems I should go back to keeping my big mouth shut so I can keep my foot out of it.

Posted in interpretation, wild guesses, signs, religion | Print | 4 Comments »

7. June 2009 by Frank.

A comic strip the other day provoked a memory and got me thinking about some things I grew up thinking.  The strip was Betty and it features a running routine about her kid always playing video games.  The other day it threw his multiple readings of Harry Potter books into the mix.  Betty reacts just as negatively about his reading as she does his playing games because she doesn’t think he can tell reality from fantasy or that he prefers fantasy to reality.

I didn’t have video games back in the day but I did have books, tons of books.  I would spend hours a day in my room reading my books.  I loved them.  I spent all of my allowance on them.  When I started working I spent my money on more books.  I wasn’t much for playing outdoors, I had few friends and I absolutely hated sports.  I had other interests as well, I loved building models but that was another indoor activity.  It was a solitary activity but I enjoyed it.

My mother, however, did not approve.  She was especially critical of how much money and time I spent on books.  She scolded me and chewed me out on more than one occasion when I came home with more books.  It wasn’t a matter of her thinking I lived in a fantasy world.

She thought reading was a waste of time.

I did not know it at the time but I had inherited my natural father’s love of reading.  I also got his love of music, drawing, design, painting and a number of other creative pursuits.  I was complete unaware of this because he abandoned us when I was nine years old.  My mother hated him with a passion because of that.  Unfortunately for me, I talked and behaved and had the exact same interests as he did.  So everything I did or said that reminded my mother of him caused her to lash out at me.

I grew up believing I was worthless and unloved.

I grew up thinking that reading was somehow bad but that I had to do it anyway.  This set the stage for when I became a christian.  I was a voracious reader and here was the book with all the answers.  I read the whole New Testament all the way through in the very first week of my faith life.  Eventually I read cover to cover but concentrated on the NT to the extent that I read it at least 85 times over the next eighteen years.  I could put together a lesson or a sermon so easily that I hardly had to think about it.  And I could combine verses to prove any point I wanted to make.  Of course, I attributed that all to god but the reality of it was simply that reading something that many times made a person awfully familiar with it.

It would be a wonder if I couldn’t put lessons together.

My reading was one of the things which made me different from other church people.  There are very few christians who have actually read their bibles all the way through.  There are very few who have read any single part of it very many times.  Even the ones who claim to love the word the most haven’t got that kind of fanatical devotion to it.  Mostly it is taken in bite sized pieces and short segments and then only in the places the pastor or teacher tells them to study.  Read enough atheist blogs and you will see that atheists know the bible better than the christians because they’ve actually read it through, not just the parts they were told to read.

That right there is what makes reading dangerous.  Read the good book enough and it will convince you not to believe it.  Selective reading is necessary to retain certain doctrines and behaviors because you might find out there are other verses which completely cancel out the ones you hang your hat on.

I haven’t studied the bible much in the last several years but as you might have noticed I can still find any verse I need to make my point.  That much reading sticks with you.

Nowadays I spend several hours a day reading on the internet.  My mother could never comprehend that either.  I’m just glad I decided to defy her in this area when I was a kid.  I can’t imagine what kind of life I would be leading if I wasn’t an avid reader.

How much reading do you do?

Posted in communication, education, religion | Print | 1 Comment »

2. June 2009 by Frank.

and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.  (Isaiah 5:20 NIV)

That’s clear enough isn’t it?

Then why is it the extremists, the nut jobs, the fundamentalists seem to want to justify the evil of murder, premeditated murder at that?  I don’t care if you think abortion is murder or not, it matters not to me which side of the fence you’re on.  How can you approve of cold blooded murder?  I’m rather ambivalent about abortion, I wish there was no need for it, but there is.  This doctor wasn’t doing anything illegal.  No, he isn’t some kind of hero.  He’s got more guts than most, they’ve tried to kill him before.  Isn’t it ironic that he was gunned down while serving in a church?

But since when does god need your help in executing his judgment?

The same thing holds true with those who are desperately trying to lessen the impact of the Catholic child abuse scandal in Ireland.  By any rational moral standard this is an abomination of the highest order.  And yet the morons are out in force trying to sugarcoat it, to protect the monsters who performed the abuse.  Even the pope seeks to protect the abusers not the victims.

(2 Timothy 4:3 – 4 KJV)  “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”  This time is already here.  The religious right’s marriage to the far right political world has led it sufficiently astray that evil is being spoken of as good and good as evil.

When peace loving christian sheep are so fearful that they can twist their morals around to the extent they can justify torture to protect themselves, then something has gone seriously wrong with their faith.  The Wolves in sheep’s clothing who lead the right’s fear mongering know exactly what they’re doing.  The terrorists are going to get you, they’re in your back yard right now.  Oh, no!  In the mirror, the terrorist looks just like you!

When murder becomes a justifiable means of accomplishing your political goals, you have become a terrorist.  When you do it because you’re sure god wants you to execute his judgment upon the vile sinners like abortion doctors, then you’ve become a religious fanatic terrorist.  What makes you any better than any of those “Other” people who aren’t like you and don’t share your values?

All these things going on right now should have more moderate and rational christians up in arms.  Your moral high ground has been hijacked.  If your god isn’t powerful enough to protect you on his own then maybe he has more than just feet of clay.

You don’t really believe he uses evil to accomplish good, do you?

Posted in listen, interpretation, prophet, hearing, emotion, religion | Print | 2 Comments »

30. May 2009 by Frank.

I am a very hard person to read.  People look at me and think I’m unfriendly and mean and foul tempered.  They are only partially correct.

What I am, is in a lot of pain.  All the time.

I’m actually quite friendly but I don’t talk much unless I know about the subject.  I’m a listener by nature.  Getting right to the heart of the matter, I’m an observer.  I usually keep my observations to myself except when I’m online.  This is where I express my opinions about what I observe.  I keep my mouth shut out in the real world.

I can see how I might seem rather mean spirited.  I call stupid stupid.  If you’re an idiot I will tell you so.  I guess that isn’t very nice but I’m past caring about good manners.  Again I do this online not out in the world.  Out there I go off and rant to myself.  I am a curmudgeon.  And a damn good one.

I do not suffer fools gladly.

My job requires I smile and be nice to people even if they are total morons.  Even if they are rude.  Even if they deliberately try to provoke me.  The rudest comment I have yet received from a customer followed 20 minutes of trying to explain what a network is to an elderly couple.  They absolutely refused to accept anything I said as factual.  Finally they asked, “Is there anyone here more intelligent than you who could explain it to us?”  That is rude to a professional level.

Just the other day a customer went out of his way to make sure I knew he was a minister.  He wanted one of those little foam microphone covers for his headset.  When I told him that we don’t carry parts like that, he very pompously informed me, “Well, I was informed that you do.”  The utter contempt in his voice was unmistakable as he stormed out the door.  He can take his ministry and shove it up his ass.

But of course I can’t respond, the customer is always right, you know.

But we don’t have that here.  I can say what I want.  So I do.  I frequently stick my foot in it and do not come up smelling of roses.  But I keep on.

Foul tempered?  Well, not exactly.  I feel anger more than I feel any other emotion.  Pain has a way of making sure of that.  Constant pain even more so.  I really don’t want to lash out at people.  So I usually internalize it and blow up when I’m alone.  I cuss myself out a lot.

I don’t smile much especially now that my teeth are half missing (damn burrito).  I’m not paralyzed or suffer any muscle distortion so when you look at me there isn’t anything to indicate that there’s something wrong.  That’s a big reason why I think people don’t believe me about the pain.  Another is simply that most people would do anything to alleviate pain instead of living with it.   But I would rather suffer than sit in a chair drooling on myself for the rest of my life; that’s what those wonderful narcotics do to me.

I think that’s why blogging appeals to me so much.  You can only go by my words, not by the impression you get of me according to my appearance.  You can decide that I’m a jerk because I write like a jerk not because I look like one.  Looks can be deceiving.

In reality I’m a tenderhearted old softie.  I cry at chick flicks.  Good grief, I even shed a few tears during STAR TREK!  I’m a hopeless romantic.  Simple little things delight me as much as complex technology.  Have you ever looked closely at the wings of a dragonfly?

When I mock the religious I do it because I lived it.  I was an absolute nutcase.  When I think back on some of the boneheaded decisions I made because I had faith, I wonder how I survived this long.  Some of these things were literally matters of life or death (like letting my wife drive when she was having problems with seizures).  As befuddled as my brain is now, it was completely missing in action during my religious days.

So I’m not cruel and heartless.  I’m not exactly a grumpy old man, either.  I will admit to being way too sarcastic.  I speak sarcasm fluently.  I’m actually friendly and approachable.  A gentleman and a scholar, if you will.  A smart and wise guy.

Don’t believe me?  Come over here and pull my finger.

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