Eve of Destruction

Chattanooga

The sad events of September 11, 2001 were plenty horrible, and since then they have been highly politicized by the Bush/Cheney campaigns and administrations and is now being religious-ized by the leaders of every fruitcake fringe who see their persons as speaking for some god figure and are seeking a bit of attention for themselves. In these situations I usually ask myself what would Jesus Christ do if he was here. Of course I cannot answer that question, but these knee-jerk, self-serving religious demagogues seem to know all the facts. All I can do is reflect upon the teachings and actions of Jesus and it is my opinion that he would have approved the burning of the Quran but not as a mere symbolic gesture. I think Jesus would want every Quran dismissed as being blasphemous; after all, the Muslim Holy Book does not recognize Jesus as the one true Son of God even though the Muslim Allah and the Christian Jehovah are supposed to be one and the same. The fact remains that Jesus is not here but the lunatics who claim to be acting in his name are yapping at the heels of the media until they get noticed. But then, that is pretty much what Jesus did and for his actions he got the privilege of being tortured to death by his own people. Maybe we should do the same for Pastor Terry Jones and his Christian ilk, and also for the people who conceived the idea of building a Mosque so close to hallowed ground when they had to know that it would be highly contentious. For me, burning any book is bad news and on that ground alone I would disapprove of destroying the Quran. However, we do live in a semi-free country and the rights we have left should be protected and that includes the right to burn books, sow the seed of hatred, and reap what we sow. Same with the New York City Mosque; let it be built and then allow the builders to harvest their crop.
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Have a great weekend!
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See the USA in your Chevrolet ...

What is it with Catholic priests and little boys? This latest scandal seems to be heading straight to the Pope's doorstep. Would not the right thing to do be to allow priests to have wives upon whom they can bestow their lust? Just like the Pope and every other male born of woman, they are men first and priests second; they were not brought into this world anointed but they were born with sex organs, curiosity, and then lust as they matured. Are the little boy's lives and mental well being worth wasting because of religious dogma? I am not being anti-Catholic; I am being pro child.
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I went for my shot and could not find a parking spot, so I drove on to the bank to make a deposit and from there to the post office. Because it was cold and rainy, I didn't take the Pentax with me but opted to carry the little Olympus. Carolyn had mentioned she saw a couple of old signs while she was out one evening. She said they were located where the city was demolishing an old tobacco warehouse that had later on become a Chevrolet dealership. I need to regress a bit. You may remember from a year or so ago I wrote about the annual festivities that used to go on when the new car models were introduced. One dealership—Faircloth Chevrolet—always had the best shows of country, hillbilly, and gospel music at those times and drew in a lot of folk to see the new cars. I think I mentioned that I remembered the 1959 model year goings-on very well. To my surprise, the signs Carolyn found were two old ads from the 1959 model year that had been painted on a brick wall. The wall was part of the old body shop; I know that because I had my 1966 Chevelle worked on there. The paint on the signs still looks fairly fresh because they were on an inside wall and until a week or so ago had never been introduced to the weather. I about peed on myself as the memories of those days came back to me as I stood and looked at the artwork. I fnally remembered why I was there and snapped off a few shots; those jewels will probably be gone forever by this time next week. They may not look like much to you, but to me, they are golden. I am going to upload them to Flickr and put them in appropriate groups. I eventually got my other shot.
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The Smoking Gun's Mug Shots of the Week!
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Have a great Saturday!
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