@wally: I'm sure you can instantly lay your hand on the passage in the Bible where Jesus threatens people with government action if they don't follow Him. I'll wait here while you locate it...
@wally: Jesus did indeed threaten sinners with punishment, but noted that his kingdom was not of this world. Nor did he enlist Caesar to help him with the punishment campaign.
Let's relate this to your own life, Walt. You mentioned a couple of days ago that you volunteer one day a year at a local homeless shelter. Apparently this lets you empathize with people less fortunate than yourself. Imagine, instead, receiving a knock on your door one day, and a Norfolk policeman is standing there, and tells you to accompany him to the homeless shelter, where you will work an 8-hour shift because a local preacher thinks you make too much money. The feeling you get from working at the homeless shelter, then, will be rather different than the feeling you get from volunteering, would it not?
But thank you for the compliment, undeserved as it may be. I'm usually dragged kicking and screaming to these things by a very persistent Christian friend. I'm always glad I went, though. It's important to be reminded that these are not stereotypical lazy bums or "welfare queens". A large number of them, in fact, are suffering from mental illness. They were liberated by Reagan from horrific institutions, without much thought about where they would end up.
A newsroom comprised entirely of leftists/liberals is no more capable of ideological objectivity than an all-white newsroom would be of racial objectivity, or an all-male newsroom of gender objectivity.
Captain Louis Renault
"Round Up the Usual Suspects."
The Drawn Cutlass Philosophy
Be as decent as you can. Don't believe without evidence. Treat things divine with marked respect, and don't have anything to do with them. Do not trust humanity without collateral security, it will play you some scurvy trick. Remember that it hurts no one to be treated as an enemy entitled to respect until he prove himself a friend worthy of affection. Cultivate a taste for distasteful truths. And, finally, most important of all, endeavor to see things as they are, not as they ought to be.
Ambrose Bierce
The Foe
When I am free to walk the streets of Mecca or Medina as the agnostic I am and receive nothing but curious glances, I will believe Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance.
Sign On. You Know You Want To.
A Few Words From Some Founding Fathers
All Men Are Created Equal. (Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father)
But Differ Greatly In the Sequel. (Fisher Ames, Founding Father)
Jeff Cooper's Rules of Gun Safety
All guns are always loaded. Even if they are not, treat them as if they are.
Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy. (For those who insist that this particular gun is unloaded, see Rule 1.)
Keep your finger off the trigger till your sights are on the target. This is the Golden Rule. Its violation is directly responsible for about 60 percent of inadvertent discharges.
Identify your target, and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything that you have not positively identified.
Bob's Addendum To Cooper's Rules
A Gun is not a Toy. Don't Play With It.
Bob's Theory of Hush Puppies
Bob's Theory of Hush Puppies: The best hush puppies are oblong shaped, rather like dog turds. The worst ones are spherical, like balls. The spherical ones are usually made from the recipe on a pre-packaged box of hush puppy mix.
Restaurant Ratings
My restaurant ratings, mostly intended for BBQ restaurants, will be on a 1-5 scale, with 1 being the worst and 5 being the best. Unlike most reviewers, I don't intend to play games with the rating scale by introducing fractions such as "2 and 1/2" or "4 and 3/4," I've always considered that stupid and a signal that the reviewer is trying to avoid making an honest 1-5 judgment.
Here is the breakdown of the ratings:
1 out of 5: waste of time, crap, unable to finish eating; apathy by staff/ownership
2 out of 5: edible, but no effort to impress; staff/management going through motions; desultory.
3 out of 5: average; reasonably good food, moderate effort by staff/management
4 out of 5: good; tasty, well-prepared food, staff alert, restaurant clean.
5 out of 5: great; excellent food, cooked fresh. Staff attentive and proactive, management responsive to complaints. Restaurant spotless.
On Self-Reliance
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
8 comments:
Yeah, what did Jesus know, anyway?
@wally: I'm sure you can instantly lay your hand on the passage in the Bible where Jesus threatens people with government action if they don't follow Him. I'll wait here while you locate it...
He identified that as a fantasy, Robert. Appropriate to Maundy Thursday.You guys can sure be a humorless lot.
Seems to me Jesus threatened them with a lot worse...
@wally: Jesus did indeed threaten sinners with punishment, but noted that his kingdom was not of this world. Nor did he enlist Caesar to help him with the punishment campaign.
Let's relate this to your own life, Walt. You mentioned a couple of days ago that you volunteer one day a year at a local homeless shelter. Apparently this lets you empathize with people less fortunate than yourself. Imagine, instead, receiving a knock on your door one day, and a Norfolk policeman is standing there, and tells you to accompany him to the homeless shelter, where you will work an 8-hour shift because a local preacher thinks you make too much money. The feeling you get from working at the homeless shelter, then, will be rather different than the feeling you get from volunteering, would it not?
@wally: and I should note here that your volunteering in such a manner is something that I admire in you.
I already addressed this.
But thank you for the compliment, undeserved as it may be. I'm usually dragged kicking and screaming to these things by a very persistent Christian friend. I'm always glad I went, though. It's important to be reminded that these are not stereotypical lazy bums or "welfare queens". A large number of them, in fact, are suffering from mental illness. They were liberated by Reagan from horrific institutions, without much thought about where they would end up.
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