I listened to a podcast called Face Time from the New Yorker about staff photographers Martin Schoeller and Steve Pyke. The podcast was interesting but I found the short audio slide show more stimulating. If you like good portraiture, you will not be disappointed.
I've been doing everything I can to turn my brain off this weekend. By turn my brain off I mean not thinking about work. The next fourteen days will be hell. I gave my team permission to blow off some steam over the weekend so that Monday we can dig in on a task none of us want to do. I gave myself the same instructions. I followed them too. My major escapes this weekend were music, writing, photography and disc golf. It's during a disc golf game this morning that I ran into a pretty young fundie mother. It always makes my day.
I played at El Dorado Park in Long Beach. I even blogged my game. It was after the game that things got interesting. I had walked off the course with my friend intending to head for home when I realized I needed the restroom (I think I'm getting old). Anyway, on my way back to my truck, I stopped to do a little Zen zoning (like daydreaming but with a dumber look on my face) because it was an amazingly beautiful morning. The sun was shining. It was warm. The sky was deep blue. And golden leaves were falling like rain from a dozen trees overhead. It was breathtaking, In situations like this I go all Zen and pine for my camera, which I had left at home.
A lady pulled into the parking lot in a new Volvo. It was full of kids. They ran to the park’s tennis center. Mom stayed near the car. I thought it odd that she lingered near me. I though it very odd that she walked towards me and started to talk. Her first words confirmed my fears. She said, “It’s amazing what God can do, right?”.
I looked at my toes (I can now, it’s great), and said, “God, I don’t follow.”.
She went on, “You know, the miracle you are watching here, the beauty here at the park. God’s hand is in everything”. She made big had gestures, pointing mostly at the trees.
I smiled. I was amused and pissed at the same time. I did not want to talk to a stranger, and certainly not a fundie trying to make her witnessing quota. I wanted to watch what was going on. It was like watching the great cinematography of say… A River Runs Through It. Who wants to hear the people behind you talking when you’re looking at something like that?
I responded with, “Lady, we’re in a public park. There is not a blade of grass, tree, or contour of the landscape here that was not constructed by the hand of man. God had nothing to do with it”.
I guess my response was a little testy, even though I tried to be nice. She looked at me with wide eyes. I could see her thinking while her mouth worked without issuing words. Her response was epic and unexpected, “I’m going to call the police, you disc golfers are all dope smoking losers”.
I gave her my card. It has the URL to Deep Thoughts, the titles “writer” and “photographer” and my contact information. I told her, “you go right ahead”.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=baf1c495-4be7-4e22-ae9d-8f1d0789c0c9)
Pastor Kennedy of the Ebenezer Royal African Methodist Episcopal Church, was arrested for sexually assaulting a teen.
Sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Herrell said the victim, who is now 19, said that Kennedy began sexually abusing her when she was around 13 years old, with it ending in her 9th grade year.
Herrell would not give the relationship between the two, other than they are relatives.
I don’t understand many things about Christians. One thing that always bothers me is what they name their churches. I mean, Ebenezer Royal African what the hell? I’m sure it means something. I just don’t get it. Of course, I also don’t understand why the pastors of these important sounding churches like to molest children. Can anyone explain that? I think its related.
Kennedy failed my hypocrisy test.
According to the arrest affidavit, Kennedy allegedly said "everyone makes mistakes, he regretted it but can't change it, and all you can do is pray to God to help people whose life you might have affected."
This mindset is called “fuck and forget”. It’s very Christian.
***
I looked up Ebenezer. It comes from Sam. 7:12 - Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far has the LORD helped us. So Ebenezer means GOD ROCK?
Um, that’s what they all say pastor.
According to a Dallas Morning News article (click here to read the DMN article), "The Mesquite police affidavit says that according to the young woman, Mr. Cody engaged in oral and other sex acts with her, but not intercourse, over a five-month period. She told police that the encounters occurred at his home and in his car."
Source: Forney Post, Forney, TX
Pastor Lester Cody claims he is innocent of all charges. His church stands behind him. Oh, wait. I should say what's left of his church. It’s down to just a few members now. I’m sure it was the bad little girl’s fault. She just loved that oral sex. And, what’s a guy to do?
In President Bush’s weekly radio address, he made the following statement.
We saw their valor in battle-tested warriors who signed up for a second, or third, or fourth tour -- and made the troop surge in Iraq that I announced two years ago today one of the great successes in American military history.
I’m willing to admit that the troop surge was a success. But a success along the lines of “Hey Bush, why don’t you send more troops to Iraq?” repeated by a chorus of advisors for two years before he finally, reluctantly, sent troops. As for “…one of the great successes in American military history”, somehow I don’t think so.
Only one weekend left.
Raelians have recently snuck their way into my thoughts. It is safe to call them an atheist cult? I don’t think atheist applies. It looks like they replace a metaphysical god with an imaginary friend. What is the difference? I don't know. They just seem odd.
The Raelians are pushing a new plan to foster peace through adoption of war orphaned children. They want Palestinian children adopted by and raised as Muslims as a means to build peace and trust.
"It's the only way to show the path for peace and prevent the destruction of Israel," Rael said, adding that because of Israel's attack on Gaza and the resulting civilian deaths -- especially those of children -- the Raelian Movement is increasing its efforts on behalf of peace in the region, including promoting the adoption of Palestinian orphans by Israelis.
He said the new program's name stems from a parallel historical example: Mahatma Gandhi once asked the Hindu father of a child killed by Muslims to adopt a Muslim orphan and raise the child according to the Muslim faith after the man admitted he had killed a Muslim child for revenge
They've run into a small snag. It's illegal for Israeli Jews to adopt non-Jewish children. How screwed up is that? Theocracies are always undesirable.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=d6d405e6-ce01-42f7-a8d0-a15d39622dbd)
By my own flawed accounting, four people have told me that I have no morals because I do not know God. Most of these wonderful loving messages came via email, but one was face-to-face with a fundie at a gas station. One of the four insisted that I all have to do is become a Christian and by some magic I don't understand, I would know the right things to do. God would guide me. I respond by pointing these people to Hypocrisy Watch and talking about the latest men (and women) of God committing heinous acts under the color of authority. Like 56 year old retired teacher and wife of a Baptist pastor, Wanda Smith. Her alleged crime... molesting a student.
She is accused of having sex with a student for several years starting when he was 11 years old and in 6th grade. The victim, who was interviewed by Orlando police detectives, said the sexual contact continued for several years until he was about 16. The acts were occasionally videotaped.
When confronted with the video evidence of her abuse, Smith and her husband claimed the boy was a man they hired to work for them. They told this lie separately.
I read “separately” and immediately flashed ma and pa Baptist pastor getting off to a video tape. When Christians tell me that I am immoral, they get to hear this fucked up story.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=ea053f74-5832-4480-85ff-eee826aaf5d2)
My wife and I visited Frenchy’s Bistro (Yelp) for dinner last night. It was a great meal. The evening was perfect. I had my favorite dish – the lamb shank. My wife had the veal. We enjoyed a bottle of Domaine Mellot, Sancerre, a good French white wine. My wife capped off the evening with their famous Arlequin soufflé. We left happy, and slightly buzzed.
Frenchy’s is pricy. Our meal ran about $150. But I don’t know any other place to get decent authentic French cuisine. I sure can’t cook it myself. If you plan to visit the Los Angeles / Long Beach area, you could do much worse if you are looking for a nice meal. We also had a minor celebrity sighting – only I have not yet been able to find her name.
We ended up watching the newly released video, The Women. It was a horrible chick flick. I had to check to make sure I still had testicles when it was over.
Image by mojoey via Flickr
My Blackberry broke for the second time today. I was good this morning, but by 2:00 I was out of business. It may seem like a small thing, but I feel naked without the damn thing. And that’s the trouble. I hate the fact that I had an anxiety attack over being disconnected. I mean what the hell?
I was an early adopter. I had one of the first units back when they first came out. I even had my own Blackberry server working on an Exchange server I managed. After a couple of years of pain. I threw it into a lake. I went back to a cell phone. I was happy.
Why did I go back? I’ll never understand my desire to be efficient. It comes with joy and pain. Well… more pain actually.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=1f28a24a-5b47-491b-b4ed-973ba96545b0)
There are a few things I've done in my life which I am ashamed of. Like driving under the influence. I took a few chances when I was a young man that I would not even consider now. I've never been drunk behind the wheel, but I know enough to understand that even a few beers can affect your driving ability, so I avoid it. I wish I could say the same about our pious church leaders, but they drive drunk just like everybody else.
Father Joseph Waters, 47, was stopped about 2:30 a.m. today on U.S. 301 south of Riverview, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. Waters refused a Breathalyzer test and was booked at the Orient Road Jail about two hours later.
I hope they throw the book at him... but they won't.
A Plainfield pastor accused of molesting six girls over an eight-year span rejected a plea deal Wednesday that would have given him the possibility of parole after serving nine months in jail, sending his case to a grand jury.
George C. Benbow, 56, is facing four counts of second-degree sexual assault on a minor and two counts of third-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
Source: Plainfield pastor accused of molesting six girls rejects plea deal
When he’s convicted, his 20 year hitch will feel like life.
Earthquake!
At least that's what my ass told me a few minutes ago. There was a sharp jolt, then rolling for about 20 seconds. Preliminary information calls it a 5.0 in San Bernardino, about 60 miles from where I live.
Earthquakes always make make me nervous. You feel the jolt, and then you wait for it… if the big jolt comes, you dive for cover.
I follow certain religious people because they are polarizing (and scary). Alan Keys is a good example. He's the definition of polarization. Keys is planning to speak to a gathering of the anti-abortion rights group known as ALL (American Life League). What bothers me is the hyperbole involved in the abortion debate and specifically in the All press release. Alan Keys has no shame.
Days after President-elect Barack Obama assumes his promised role to do all in his power to advance abortion…
…new assault on the sanctity of preborn babies and traditional family values.
In the wake of the inauguration of the most pro-abortion president in U.S. history…
Is any of this true? If it is not true then it is false. If is is deliberately false, then it is a lie. And lies bother me.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=ecc8b161-0e5e-4725-bda1-769cc083ac45)
Please join me in welcoming our newest Atheist Blogroll member, Library Grape. The author provided and introduction.
In his own words:
I joined the Atheist Blogroll with my blog Compendium of Religious Evil. I have moved on to a new blog at Library Grape.com, which includes commentary on religion, atheism, politics and current events. Here is a brief description of the blog from the about page:
Your author, who goes by the pen name Monitor, is a thirty-something lawyer currently living in Chicago who originally hails from a small town in Oregon. Monitor started blogging in 2007 at Why We Need Obama, a moderately successful blog that followed the 2008 election cycle.
Since the election's conclusion, Monitor has been working on lowering a more permanent anchor into the blogosphere. Library Grape is intended to be that anchor and will cover a broader range of topics, including politics, atheism, religion, technology, physics, literature and other assorted themes that cross his mind.
As to the title of the blog, a "library grape" is a fictional fruit introduced in Neal Stephenson's latest epic novel Anathem. In essence, the library grape is a pure aggregation of the genetic codes of all naturally-occurring grape species that was perfected over time by the diligent efforts of a sect of cloistered monks.
Here's how the library grape is described on Page 175 of Anathem (a few words of Stephenson's argot are replaced with something more approachable):
The library grape had been sequenced by the [monks] of the [Monastery] of the Lower Vrone in the days before the Second Sack. Every cell carried in its nucleus the genetic sequences, not just of a single species, but of every naturally occurring species of grape that the Vrone [monks] had ever heard of -- and if those people hadn't heard of a grape, it wasn't worth knowing about. In addition, it carried excerpts from the genetic sequences of thousands of different berries, fruits, flowers, and herbs: just those snatches of data that, when invoked by the biochemical messaging system of the host cell, produced flavorful molecules. Each nucleus was an archive, vaster than the Great Library of Baz, storing codes for shaping almost every molecule nature had ever produced that left an impression on the human olfactory system.
A given vine could not express all of those genes at once -- it could not be a hundred different species of grape at the same time -- so it "decided" which of those genes to express -- what grape to be, and what flavors to borrow -- based on some impossibly murky and ambiguous data-gathering and decision-making process that the Vrone [monks] had hand-coded into its proteins. No nuance of the sun, soil, weather, or wind was too subtle for the library grape to take into account. Nothing that the cultivator did, or failed to do, went undetected or failed to have consequences in the flavor of the juice. The library grape was legendary for its skill in penetrating the subterfuges of winemakers who were so arrogant as to believe they could trick it into being the same grape two seasons in a row.
In some small way, this blog will attempt to mimic the library grape by pulling together as many variegated strains of knowledge that your author, in his often-cloistered state, can manage. As a winemaker of sorts, he will try to take into account the nuances of the sun, soil, weather, and wind of our age and restrain himself from being so arrogant as to believe that this blog will be the same two seasons in a row.
