Mira
Mira's JournalA funny Camera-cartoon / Bits of it true for some of us
Calling Conservatives stupid may be objectionable.
turning it around to put the other shoe on first, not so much!?!
Scalia Offers to Help Pope Judge Gays - as revealed by Andy Borowitz
www.borowitzreport.com
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)Responding to Pope Franciss suggestion that the Pope is not capable of judging gays, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia contacted the Vatican today to say that he would be more than happy to help the Pontiff do so.
If hes having trouble judging homosexuals, well, then Im his man, Scalia told reporters after making his offer. I have over a quarter century of professional experience.
Justice Scalia said that he was sympathetic to Pope Franciss difficulty in judging gays, but added, Once he spends a few weeks watching the master at work, Im sure hell get the hang of it.
I wasnt great at judging homosexuals my first year in the job, either, he said. But now I can do it without thinking.
Justice Scalia said that once Pope Francis feels confident about his ability to judge gays, he would help the Pontiff learn how to judge minorities and women.
The Mind Revisited - An Essay by Hal Crowther - who lives in NC, an observer for a long time
Published on June 25 2013
By Hal Crowther
OA columnist Hal Crowther lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with his wife, the author Lee Smith.
"Klan Country, South Carolina" by Dennis Darling
Books discussed in this essay:
The New Mind of the South, by Tracy Thompson, Simon & Schuster.
In Love With Defeat: The Making of a Southern Liberal, by H. Brandt Ayers, NewSouth Books.
Since the dawn of introspection, which predates Homer at least, what collective mind has been more exhaustively or passionately psychoanalyzed than the Mind of the South? In the decades since W. J. Cash probed and disparaged it in his historic 1929 essay for The American Mercury, The Mind of the South has been revised and revisited by armies of Southern scribes and scholars, and still most of us are unconvinced that weve got it right. The Southerners tireless search for his identity has been viewed ironically by outside observersno one has ever written about the Mind of the Midwestand there is no Fellowship of Northern Writers who meet and drink and apply Freuds tools to the works of Hawthorne or Melville. But Im in no position to join the ironists; I devoted large sections of two books to this unique obsession, and have addressed it repeatedly in the pages of the Oxford American.
As a troubled South pursues its selfits souldeep into the twenty-first century, theres no better place to start than Cash, that doomed and prescient native of Gaffney, South Carolina, who is still remembered by Southern diehards as a traitor to his people. Its significant that his original essay was published just before October 29, Black Tuesday, when the stock market crashed and launched the Great Depression, the national ordeal that distracted America from so many of the terrible things that happened in the Jim Crow South. Another significant footnote is that Cashs editor at the Mercury was H. L. Mencken, whose notorious 1917 diatribe, The Sahara of the Bozart, argued persuasively and hilariously that the South possessed very little mind worth analyzing.
For the rest of the essay, and more about Hal Crowther go here:
http://www.oxfordamerican.org/articles/authors/crowther-hal/articles/
At the waterpark. I was NOT there to take photos, but here are a few anyway
Took these with my Olympus Stylus Tough camera.Self evident water fun, these guys were under a huge bucket that fills with water and then dumps it down as it is full.
Enjoying the wall of water, I think he is, anyway
A modern day Heidi and her boyfriend right after they came out of a scary almost vertical drop. Yet they're still so gorgeous, I told them that, so they allowed me to take this photo
This kid just stopped me cold. He's a charmer examining the world around him with laissez-faire sophistication
Great way to store bikes - don't know where it is though
"Teach your children well" New illustration, and old song
:largeAnd while you're choking up a little (I did), let the song be your companion
Borowitz: Queen Elizabeth Rips Chris Christie on Gay Marriage
''LONDON (The Borowitz Report)Moments after approving a new law legalizing gay marriage in England and Wales, Queen Elizabeth II of Britain unleashed a blistering attack on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for lacking the guts to do the same.
The British monarchs brutal evisceration of Gov. Christie stunned observers, who did not know that she was such a close follower of his gay marriage stance.
I dont like to badmouth people, she said. But Im the head of a monarchy that began in the ninth century, and Im apparently more modern than Chris Christie.
After shocking observers with her opening salvo, she continued to tear Gov. Christie to shreds.
Look, I know he has to appeal to the crazy right wingers in his party, she added. But the fact is, hes not as forward-thinking as an eighty-seven-year-old lady who wears a crown on her head. Its pathetic.
Asked if she had advice for Gov. Christie, the British monarch said, bluntly, Just sign the damn bill, Chris.
Responding to a reporters question about the upcoming royal birth, Elizabeth replied, Tell you the truth? Im just glad the kids not being born in New Jersey.
Agony, grief and a refusal to bend - a must read even if you're not in NC
I don't have another link, so this is it in its entirety, I hope it can standOther Opinions page 11A, Raleigh News & Observer 7-17-2013
Point of View
Agony, grief and a refusal to bend
By Leigh Sanders
I am a native North Carolinian. I might have waited on you at Darryls on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh. We might have taken classes together at N.C. State. Or I might have processed your payroll, opened your bank account or sent you a fundraising letter through my various employments.
We might have bagged food at the shelter, picked up litter on the riverbanks or volunteered at the polls together. I might have taught your children in the public schools or you might know a recipient to the scholarship fund set up for North Carolina teachers in honor of my native Carolinian mother.
We might have been assigned the same project together at UNC-Greensboro while working on advanced degrees or I might have seen you on our familys regular outings to the Bug Fest, Earth Day Celebration, Eno River Festival, First Night, Asheboro Zoo, Manteo Aquarium and the International Festival.
We might even be in the same yoga class or shop in the same local bookstores. Either way, I am your neighbor; we breathe from the same fresh pool of Carolina air.
I give here. I act when needed. I stay informed, and I do not miss elections. When I needed affordable health care, I found it from Planned Parenthood without seeking permission from you. I did not question why I did not have health care or was paid $2.15 hourly, well below a living wage, for nearly five years. I did not think it was unusual that I often had to work two jobs or seek out financial aid for my education or rent houses in less than safe neighborhoods. I was entirely trusting that my government was working on the side of justice and humanity for us all even when I did not agree with the process.
Never once did you require that I worship the same as you to prove my residential value. I was never denied a job, education, volunteer position or a loving relationship based on religion. So why have I spent five out of the past eight days at the legislature peacefully pleading religious amnesty from you? When did you decide that I was not a complete North Carolinian until I worshipped the Lord you spoke of in the chamber?
I agonize over the further economical devastation that will result from our rapid descent to the 10-worst states to live in for families. I shudder at our resemblance to states in our Union with representatives who have vowed to govern from the Old Testament, when the wonder of travel, the expansion of human life and the technological rapture remained the budding dreams of the bold and curious.
I grieve that my state will soon be running over with biblical poverty and sexual, racial and marital discrimination while you introduce legislation that could mandate me to pray alongside you. I mourn for a state where dinosaurs do not roam in school curriculums. I fear for all our children when reproductive health clinics are shut down and sex education is absent. I will be there when you have exhausted your remaining deceptive devices and watch you once again bow your head to your doppelganger and pass the ironically named Family, Faith and Freedom Protection Act.
But I will not worship a God who demands I cherry pick Scriptures to teach my children to fear difference, destroy love and dispose of women. I will not pray to wrath and domination.
But you have my attention, as I am sure you have the attention of the loving, generous God so many religious North Carolinians worship. And I am prepared just like Huckleberry Finn was when faced with religious persecution for refusing to return Jim to Christian slave owners because, after all, the Bible made it clear: Slaves obey your earthly masters with respect and fear Ephesians 6:5.
He announced to God and country: All right, then, Ill go to hell.
Leigh Sanders, a former middle school teacher, lives in Raleigh.
Profile Information
Gender: Do not displayMember since: Thu Oct 21, 2004, 06:06 PM
Number of posts: 22,380