Disaster Area

Royal Wedding

meh

Different Take on Easter

From nakedpastor

Coming Soon to Kent-Meridian

Little Shop of Horrors - opens Thu May 5

Public Service Announcement: Let's Use "Lose" Less Loosely

Lose, a verb: To lose one's mind, one's wallet, a game

Loose, an adjective: not tight, lacking moral restraint

I don't know why this is so hard, but it could be because the long "o" sound makes people think that "lose" needs two o's.

The verb sounds with a z, the adjective with an s.

That is all.

Church Dysfunction Defined

Not sure this really needs a comment...

And yes, I know that many of these groups only use the church space, and aren't necessarily affiliated with the church directly, but still...

Update - it's actually a piece of "artwork" dating back to 1991.

See :http://erikarothenberg.com/ptgsetc/ptgs.shtml

But apart from the overly peppy sermon topic, this is too depressingly realistic, even today.

The New New Beetle or the Old Old Fusion Beetle?

Interesting to see VW's direction with the new new Beetle. The last one has been around a while and hs survived on quirky charm and a lot of female buyers. It vied with the new Mini for least amount of usable interior space, so it's really no wonder it's been more of an image car than a practical one.

People are saying the new, less curvy style is aimed more at men, which may well be true, but it sure seems to me that VW has gone for a retro fusion look between the Beetle and the Karmann Ghia.

Plus

Equals ?

Oops - When Airplanes Collide: Update

Somebody should tell this Airbus A380 Super Jumbo pilot he isn't driving a dinky little A320 any more...

From AvWeb (also with photos of damaged areas on both planes):

The Comair flight had just arrived from Boston and was stationary. What happened next is one of the reasons passengers are supposed to keep their seatbelts on until the ground crew person crosses his or her arms.

It was extremely fortunate that no-one on the CRJ700 was injured, but if there had been that "must stand up in the aisle yakking on my cellphone getting my bag out of the overhead before we get to the gate" guy/gal They could have been badly injured - not to mention injuring other people in the process.

San Francisco to Paris with the Northern Lights

Phenomenal time lapse photography of an Air France flight...

Anglican Ugandan Bishop Tells It Like It Is

Anglican Bishop Christopher Senyonjo of Uganda spoke at the UN on Friday in a panel on HIV/AIDS. Excellent points that will hopefully make a dent in the global debate - particularly in Africa.

Three recommendations

First, we must move aggressively to decriminalize homosexuality.

The criminalization of homosexuality remains the most significant barrier that needs to be dismantled to reduce the spread of AIDS. We need to make our laws and agreements more binding. We need to ask if our laws or beliefs help or prevent the spread of HIV and hinder or support families caring for loved ones. Over 80 countries still criminalize homosexuality and see it as a crime against God and nature. Denying people their humanity puts us all at risk because AIDS spreads fast in the darkness of ignorance.

Second, we must ask everyone to take on the responsibility to respect human rights.

Our lawmakers must create a safe space for conversations where we can share one another’s truths. Every person in this assembly should think about how their personal or institutional beliefs deny or support human rights.

Third, we leaders in the faith community must teach one another to listen and to live with differences.

We must work hard to not to impose our religious values on the whole society. It begins as simply as couple counseling before marriage and, on a larger scale, to respect human rights and avoid scapegoating a vulnerable minority.

Conclusion

In conclusion, let us take the words of Bishop Desmond Tutu to heart: “The wave of hate must stop. Politicians who profit from exploiting this hate, from fanning it, must not be tempted by this easy way to profit from fear and misunderstanding. And my fellow clerics, of all faiths, must stand up for the principles of universal dignity and fellowship. Exclusion is never the way forward on our shared paths to freedom and justice.”

 

The Gandhi Man Can...

Interesting book out on Gandhi: Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India...

Who can take a sunrise, sprinkle it with dew
Cover it with choc'late and a miracle or two
The Gandhi Man, oh the Gandhi Man can
The Gandhi Man can 'cause he mixes it with love and makes the world taste good

From the Wall Street Journal review:

Yet "Great Soul" also obligingly gives readers more than enough information to discern that he was a sexual weirdo, a political incompetent and a fanatical faddist—one who was often downright cruel to those around him. Gandhi was therefore the archetypal 20th-century progressive intellectual, professing his love for mankind as a concept while actually despising people as individuals.

Sounds about right, although far from the sanitized, revered icon he has become, which understandably brings down the wrath of those who would protect the myth.

He was also crazy and impractical (non-violence only really works on those with a sense of fair play, for example):

Starting a letter to Adolf Hitler with the words "My friend," Gandhi egotistically asked: "Will you listen to the appeal of one who has deliberately shunned the method of war not without considerable success?"

As Dr. Phil might say, "How's that working out for ya?"

He advised the Jews of Palestine to "rely on the goodwill of the Arabs" and wait for a Jewish state "till Arab opinion is ripe for it."

Yeah, we're still waiting to see which comes first - that or hell freezing over.

Even more delusional thinking:

Gandhi claimed that there was "an exact parallel" between the British Empire and the Third Reich, yet while the British imprisoned him in luxury in the Aga Khan's palace for 21 months ­until the Japanese tide had receded in 1944, Hitler stated that he would simply have had Gandhi and his supporters shot. (Gandhi and Mussolini got on well when they met in December 1931, with the Great Soul praising the Duce's "service to the poor, his opposition to super-urbanization, his efforts to bring about a coordination between Capital and Labour, his passionate love for his people.")

Ah, Mussolini, how we miss you - the trains running on time, the megalomania...

There's much more weirdness in Gandhi's life, but we all know the real story of his sexual passion from Seinfeld (Episode 4.18: The Old Man):

Mrs. O: That's when I began my affair with Mohandas.

Elaine: What?

Mrs. O: Mohandas.

Elaine: Gandhi?

Mrs. O: Oh, the *passion*. The *forbidden pleasure*--

Elaine: You had an affair with Gandhi?

Mrs. O: He used to dip his bald head in oil and rub it all over my body. Here, look... [shows Elaine a picture of the two together]

Elaine: Oh, my God... The Mahatma?

One annoying legend myth-busted.