Afrikaans

In a comment below, Eddie asks if everyone n South Africa speaks Afrikaans. I'll put my answer here in case anyone else is interested:

Not everyone speaks Afrikaans. Two million descendants of British colonists speak English. About four million whites of Dutch and French Huguenot descent (my ancestors who arrived in the Cape in the 1600s) speak it as their main language. It's also the main language of two million Cape Coloreds (mixed race) and Cape Malays (descendants of Indonesian slaves imported by the Dutch in the 1700s.)

The Africans in the Cape and what used to be the Transvaal and the Orange Free State (former Afrikaner Boer republics before the Brits took over) all speak Afrikaans as well as their native languages such as Xhosa, Soto, Tswana.

The Zulus who live in the former British Colony of Natal speak Zulu at home and English at work. There are also a million East Indians in Natal who speak four different languages (Gujerati, Hindi, Tamil and Telegu) as well as English.

There are five different African languages. There are thirty million Africans. There are eleven official languages in South Africa.

My first language was Afrikaans but I was sent to an English boarding school when I was ten and learnt to speak English. Because I grew up in Zululand, I had to also learn Fanigolo which is a simplified Zulu used in the work place.

Sunday pictures - naked ladies

Top: You can see why the amaryllis belladonna (another South African lily) are called "naked ladies" - they have no leaves, just a stem sticking straight out of the ground with the blooms on the end. They do have leaves in late spring - big, lush leaves which die down as soon as the rains end and the west coast summer drought sets in. The dead leaves disappear by the end of summer and up pop the "naked ladies."

Bottom: I brought these "naked ladies" from San Francisco where I had I them in my garden. Since moving them to Oregon they have started putting out striped flowers. Instead of their usual solid bold pink, they are now pale pink with darker pink stripes. But they still have a strong sweet perfume reminiscent of bubblegum. (Like that other South African lily, crocosmia, amaryllis naturalizes easily along the Pacific coast.)

Trailer Park Travails - one of THOSE weeks

I didn't write much last week because it was one of THOSE weeks at an RV park that I own. We have one of THOSE weeks at least once a year. This one was a doozy.

I was going to title this "Trailer Trash Travails" because it alliterates so nicely not because most of my RV park tenants are trash. Most aren't. They're simply too poor to rent a house or apartment but are generally decent. Most of my tenants are seniors or disabled people (many injured loggers and fishermen) living on Social Security.

However I have had my fair share of real stinking dirty white trash in the RV park - usually welfare bums who've given me a good enough sob-story to make me take pity on them until I find out that they're tweakers at which time I evict them without a second thought. ("Tweaking" - the meth problem - is the highest-rated crime in my county. The second highest-rated crime is child-molestation committed by druggie fathers on their own kids. The third highest-rated crime is theft to pay for the drugs. The upside is that this county has no ghetto gang thugs and their mindless barbaric killing.)

There are always problems going on in the rental business (just as there are in any business.) At last once a month there are burst water- or sewer-hookups in the RV park or broken frigs or stoves in an apartment or house. The worst problems are having to evict druggies or trying to collect overdue rent from some bum before you kick him out. You never know if they are going to turn violent or pull a gun. You steel yourself and say a prayer and deal with the problems. But every now and then a whole bunch of problems comes all at once. It usually lasts for about a week - one of THOSE weeks.

(Our first crisis happened a month after I bought the RV park almost two years ago. We had a week-long power outage that affected most of the area. Many of my tenants are elderly and the outage happened in winter and the old folks had to have heat. Fortunately, in a RV park, nearly everything can be run on propane. The problem was finding propane. I had to drive thirty miles to another town to find a propane dealer who still had some in stock and did not have a mile long line of customers.)

Last Monday morning, I arrived at the park prepared to face the usual onslaught of problems which occur over the weekend but, before I could turn my attention to the problems, an elderly couple arrived and enquired about renting a space by the month.

This seldom happens in summer because most summer RVers are on vacation and only stay for a week or so. I only had one space left; a large one - 44 ft. It is also an easy space to park an RV in so I keep it open for vacationers who usually have huge motorhomes - well, larger than most of my permanent tenants who are generally poorer and have small trailers.

This couple had a nice new motorhome which was only 29 ft. but they were dressed well and had a new Jeep being towed behind the moho. I decided to give them the space as they were just the kind of monthly tenants that I like the best. They were thrilled when I told them that I would let them have the space eventhough it was too big for their moho. They were even more pleased when I told them that I offer a ten-percent discount to seniors. They said they would move in that afternoon and went to get money from an ATM.

When they arrived, we parked them and then found that they had another man with them. It was their son and I discovered he was going to live with them. I told them that I charged extra for more than two people per space. They paid up. I went about my business and was sitting paying business bills in my office (which is a 28 ft. trailer) when Chuck came in and said: "Mr and Mrs X are in the front office. Apparently their son is a sex offender who just got out of prison."

Well, this annoyed me because they should have told me that before they moved in. I listened as Mr and MrS X and their son all talked at once. I told them that they had better tell me the truth because I could call the cops and find out the facts for myself. Also, the son had to register with the cops who would then come to the RV park and hand out fliers about the offender to all the other tenants.

(I had rented to a registered sex-offender before and had no problems so I decided to be open-minded. Mind you, the first sex-offender that I let in had been charged with statutory rape as a teen and was not a violent criminal. He has turned out to be a good tenant who works hard and pays his rent on time and now has a nice live-in girlfriend.)

Mr X told me that his son had raped a woman when he was 24 and had spent the past 24 years in prison. The son was a nice-looking guy, clean-cut and sober-looking.

Mrs X said: "He was very young."

I said: "When I was that age I was married with a son. Twenty-four is not young. Who was the rape victim - an adult or a child?"

Son: "An adult...."

Mr X: "Well, two women...."

Me: "He raped two women?

Son: "Not at the same time."

Me: "Was there violence involved?"

Son: "I used a gun."

Mrs X: "But it wasn't loaded."

It went on like this for a while - like squeezing blood from a stone. I felt so sorry for the parents. They lived in Washington and had come down to Oregon just to take care of their son because he had to serve his probation in Oregon. They had another son in Washington who was willing to take the offender but they could not get permission for the rapist to leave Oregon. Mr X was a WWll vet and a real gentleman - just the kind of man I like. Mrs X was a bit of a cow, almost snapping at me as I questioned them. I forgave her because she was being the defensive mother.

I told the parents that they were welcome to stay for as long as they liked but the son could only stay for a month and had to get a job right away and find another place to live. I told the offender that I was very unhappy about the gun even if it was not loaded because that showed a vicious nature and I could not trust him. I told him that he should be ashamed of bumming off his parents and that I would be keeping a wary eye on him. I also told them that they would have to leave if any of my permanent tenants objected.

All this time I had misgivings but felt sorry for the parents. My misgivings were because of the impression that the son gave me. As I said - he was good-looking, well-dressed and well-groomed. He had very pale blue eyes. His eyes did not react to my gaze. I've seen this before and associate it with sociopathy. He was emotionally and psychologically unresponsive, cold and numb.

I also had to deal with a young couple who were two weeks behind in rent. I had told them the week before that they had to leave by Sunday but they were still there. The presence of the rapist made my problem with the young couple seem minor so I gave them until Wednesday to pay or I would tow them out.

On Tuesday morning, when I arrived at work, there were three cars parked in front of the office. It was the cops and probation officers. They were going to distribute fliers to all of the tenants. I had a lot of errands to run. I had brought the new kitten to work in a crate because it had to go to the vet for its shots and the driver's-side door-handle of the little car (that I use to run errands around town) was sticking and I had to take it to the dealer to be fixed. I also had to go to the bank and do some shopping. I forgot about the sex offender.

When I got back to the RV park that afternoon, I found that one of my much-valued senior couples were going to leave. They denied that it was because of the sex-offender and insisted that they were leaving because they had to go back to Florida and the coastal Oregon summer was too cool for them. (I later found out that they had told others that it was because of the presence of the rapist.) I finally found time to read one of the flyers that the cops had left and saw that the son also had a record of armed robbery prior to the rapes - a fact which Mr and Mrs X and son had neglected to mention.

On Wednesday, as soon as I arrived at work, my assistant manager told me that all the tenants were very upset that I had allowed a sex-offender into the park and two of them were threatening to leave. I told my assistant that those two tenants owed me money for rent and were bums anyway and I could care less if they left. Throughout the day, people kept coming to my office to complain. I told them that at least we knew who the offender was but we did not know if any of the other tenants were former murderers or robbers or drug-dealers because they were not required to register like sex offenders.

That night, just as I was about to drop off to sleep, a very clear thought came into my mind as is often the case. (As my mind let's go of all the petty details of the day, the more important things become clear. Also I often ignore my initial impressions because I know that I have some irrational prejudices but I usually end up regretting not listening to my hunches.) Lying there in the dark, I knew that I had made a mistake letting in the rapist. I also remembered that the young couple who owed rent still had not paid. My mind briefly flirted with worrying about that but it now seemed trifling in comparison because I suddenly knew without a doubt that the rapist was a ticking time-bomb.

Soon after I woke up on Thursday morning and was having a cup of tea and reading my email, the phone rang. It was my assistant manager in tears. A water-pipe had burst on one of the water-heaters in the laundry room. The first thing to do was to shut off the circuit-breaker to the laundry so that the heaters did not burn out. Second - turn off the water main which meant that the whole park would not have water. I jumped into the car without having breakfast and rushed down to the park which is thirteen miles from my ranch.

By noon Andy had replaced the pipe and everything was back to normal - except for the presence of the rapist. I was still not completely sure about what to do and my unease and tensions built up. Then people started coming into the office to tell us that the rapist was creepy, staring at the womens' tits in the laundry room.

I had to run some more errands after lunch. When I got back, Chuck was freaking out because three tenants had said that they were leaving because of the rapist. I decided to confront Mr and Mrs X's and their son. I went to their motorhome. That's when I saw that the rapist had shaved off his beard and looked completely different from his mug-shot in the flyers that the police had distributed. My blood ran cold.

I looked at the rapist and he stared back with his dead, pale blue eyes and smirked. My heart was beating fast as I told them to come to the office and get their money refunded and to leave immediately. Of course the parents were upset and of course I felt sorry for them but I told them that business is business and I could not afford to loose three of my best tenants. They had to go.

That night I went home and got very drunk. I had three stiff shots of Courvoisier and a long, very hot shower before dinner, then two glasses of merlot with a juicy steak, fresh corn on the cob and tomato salad for dinner and a gin and tonic on the verandah after dinner watching the sun set over the Pacific and the robins bobbing on the lawn in front of Robinwoods.

Then I watched a horror movie with Chuck and Andy. I never used to be able to watch horror movies when I lived alone but it's different watching with company. Chuck and Andy had been with me the whole time at the RV park and I could not have handled the trailer park travails without their help nor could I have watched the horror movie without them.

We took Friday off and worked on our current projects: pumping water from the creek; building a hen-house and fenced chicken-run; building a goat-shed and enclosing part of the back verandah to make a den.

PS The movie was "Boogeyman" - it's real scary - much scarier than anything in reality but I was still grateful for the company.

Did the Founding Fathers intend the USA to be a Christian nation?

The left "liberal" establishment of the past 60 years have maintained that most of the Founders were not Christians but Deists (I understand "Deist" to mean belief in God but disbelief in Scriptural revelation, the divinity of Christ or any sectarian theology.) The left has interpreted this to mean that the USA is therefore a comletely "non-Christian" nation. But the results of my research into this question show that the truth is a lot more complicated.

I have concluded that nearly all of the Founding Fathers were Christian or at least Deists who believed in the moral superiority of Christianity such as Franklin and Jefferson. Ethan Allen said he was not a Christian but he was not anti-Christian. Only Thomas Paine was a self-avowed anti-Christian Deist. Most were Christian traditionalists and many were clergymen.

However they were all very aware that Christianity should play no official part in government except insofar as it was the inspiration for morality. Most of the Founders called themselves "Christian" in the same way that many of us non-sectarians do by which we mean that we are Christian by culture and believe it is the basis of our civilization. And most of the Founders did think of the USA as a Christian nation.

John Quincy Adams, may not have been a Founder but he was the son of a Founder, John Adams and he understood the Founders' intentions. He said,"The highest glory of the American Revolution was that it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."

George Washington told the Indians: "You do well to learn our arts and way of life, and above all, the religion of Jesus Christ." On May 2, 1778, he told his soldiers at Valley Forge, “To the distinguished character of patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.” But Washington also said, "The United States of America should have a foundation free from the influence of clergy."

Benjamin Franklin was a self-described Deist but, in his 1749 plan of education for public schools in Pennsylvania, he insisted that schools teach “the necessity of a public religion…and the excellency of the Christian religion above all others, ancient or modern.” He also proposed a biblical inscription for the seal of the United States, and chose a New Testament verse for the motto of the Philadelphia Hospital. He was one of the chief voices behind the establishment of a paid chaplain in Congress and, in 1787, when he helped found the college which bore his name, it was dedicated as “a nursery of religion and learning” built “on Christ, the Corner-Stone.”

Franklin explained to his European hosts while in France: "[B]ad examples to youth are more rare in America, which must be comfortable consideration to parents. To this may be truly added, that serious religion, under its various denominations, is not only tolerated, but respected and practiced. Atheism is unknown there; infidelity rare and secret; so that persons may live to a great age in that country, without having their piety shocked by meeting with either an atheist or an infidel."

Surprisingly Franklin was the one who introduced the motion to have prayer in Congress and a National Chaplain. He adressed the Congress thus: "Mr. President, The small progress we have made after four or five weeks close attendance and continual reasonings with each other - our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many noes as ayes - is, methinks, a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the human understanding.

"We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government, and examined the different forms of those republics which, having been formed with seeds of their own dissolution, now no longer exists And we have viewed modern states all round Europe, but find none of their constitutions suitable to our circumstances.

"In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights, to illuminate our understandings.

"In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. To that kind Providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth - that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?

"We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that 'except the Lord build the House they labour in vain those that build it.' I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded; and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war and conquest.

"I therefore beg leave to move - that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service."

But, in his Autobiography, Franklin wrote: "Scarcely was I arrived at fifteen years of age, when, after having doubted in turn of different tenets, according as I found them combated in the different books that I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself."

He added: "...Some books against Deism fell into my hands....It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quote to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations, in short, I soon became a thorough Deist."

In The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, he wrote: "If we look back into history for the character of present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practised it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England, blamed persecution in the Roman church, but practised it against the Puritans: these found it wrong in the Bishops, but fell into the same practice themselves both here and in New England."

James Madison, who trained for ministry with the Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon, wrote in his letter to Attorney General Bradford, that he regretted that public officials were not bold enough about their Christian faith in public and that they should be “fervent advocates in the cause of Christ.”

But, in Detached Memoranda, Madison wrote: "The establishment of the chaplainship to Congress is a palpable violation of equal rights, as well as of Constitutional principles: The tenets of the chaplains elected [by the majority] shut the door of worship against the members whose creeds and consciences forbid a participation in that of the majority. To say nothing of other sects, this is the case with that of Roman Catholics and Quakers who have always had members in one or both of the Legislative branches. Could a Catholic clergyman ever hope to be appointed a Chaplain? To say that his religious principles are obnoxious or that his sect is small, is to lift the evil at once and exhibit in its naked deformity the doctrine that religious truth is to be tested by numbers. or that the major sects have a right to govern the minor."

And Madison wrote, in a letter to Robert Walsh on March 2, 1819: "The Civil Government, though bereft of everything like an associated hierarchy, possesses the requisite stability and performs its functions with complete success, whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the Church from the State."

In a letter to Edward Livingston on July 10, 1822, Madison wrote: "I observe with particular pleasure the view you have taken of the immunity of Religion from civil jurisdiction, in every case where it does not trespass on private rights or the public peace. This has always been a favorite principle with me; and it was not with my approbation, that the deviation from it took place in Cong[ress], when they appointed Chaplains, to be paid from the Nat[ional] Treasury. It would have been a much better proof to their Constituents of their pious feeling if the members had contributed for the purpose, a pittance from their own pockets. As the precedent is not likely to be rescinded, the best that can now be done, may be to apply to the Const[itution] the maxim of the law, de minimis non curat."

Thomas Jefferson was also a self-described Deist and omitted all miraculous events of Jesus from his “Bible," but his own words explain that his intent for the book was that it be a primer for the Indians on the teachings of Christ (which is why he titled it The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth). He had the “red letter” portions of the New Testament published to introduce the Indians to Christian morality. As president of the United States, he signed a treaty with the Kaskaskia tribe wherein he provided — at government expense — Christian missionaries to the Indians.

Jefferson wrote to Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse in 1822: "Had the doctrines of Jesus been preached always as pure as they came from his lips, the whole civilized world would now have been Christian."

And, in a letter to Charles Thomson, he wrote: "I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus - very different from the Platonists, who call me infidel and themselves Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its Author never said nor saw. They have compounded from the heathen mysteries a system beyond the comprehension of man, of which the great Reformer of the vicious ethics and deism of the Jews, were He to return on earth, would not recognize one feature.

But, in a letter to his nephew, Peter Carr, on August 10, 1787, Jefferson wrote: "Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear."

And Jefferson wrote to Jeremiah Moore on August 14, 1800: "The clergy, by getting themselves established by law, & ingrafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man. They are still so in many countries & even in some of these United States. Even in 1783, we doubted the stability of our recent measures for reducing them to the footing of other useful callings. It now appears that our means were effectual."

In 1802 Jefferson wrote to Danbury Baptists: "Believing that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their Legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."

Jefferson wrote in a letter to Alexander von Humboldt, on December 6, 1813: "History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose."

And, in a letter to Horatio G. Spafford, on March 17, 1814, Jefferson wrote: "In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own"

On January 10, 1816, Jefferson wrote to Spafford: "You judge truly that I am not afraid of the priests. They have tried upon me all their various batteries, of pious whining, hypocritical canting, lying & slandering, without being able to give me one moment of pain. I have contemplated their order from the Magi of the East to the Saints of the West, and I have found no difference of character, but of more or less caution, in proportion to their information or ignorance of those on whom their interested duperies were to be plaid off. Their sway in New England is indeed formidable. No mind beyond mediocrity dares there to develope itself. If it does, they excite against it the public opinion which they command, & by little, but incessant and teasing persecutions, drive it from among them. Their present emigrations to the Western country are real flights from persecution, religious & political, but the abandonment of the country by those who wish to enjoy freedom of opinion leaves the despotism over the residue more intense, more oppressive. They are now looking to the flesh pots of the South and aiming at foothold there by their missionary teachers. They have lately come forward boldly with their plan to establish "a qualified religious instructor over every thousand souls in the US." And they seem to consider none as qualified but their own sect."

Jefferson's wrote in his Autobiography: "[A]n amendment was proposed by inserting 'Jesus Christ,' so that [the preamble] should read: 'A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;' the insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination."

Jefferson wrote to John Adams on May 5th, 1817: "I had believed that [Connecticut was] the last retreat of monkish darkness, bigotry, and abhorrence of those advances of the mind which had carried the other States a century ahead of them. ... I join you, therefore, in sincere congratulations that this den of the priesthood is at length broken up, and that a Protestant Popedom is no longer to disgrace the American history and character. If by religion we are to understand sectarian dogmas, in which no two of them agree, then your exclamation on that hypothesis is just, 'that this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.'"

In another letter to John Adams on April 11, 1823 Jefferson wrote: "One day the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in the United States will tear down the artificial scaffolding of Christianity. And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as His father, in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."

John Adams said that Christianity was, in fact, the basis for the system of government in America, as he wrote to Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813: "The general principles, on which the Fathers achieved independence, were the only Principles in which that beautiful Assembly of young Gentlemen could Unite....And what were these general Principles? I answer, the general Principles of Christianity, in which all these Sects were United: . . . Now I will avow, that I then believe, and now believe, that those general Principles of Christianity, are as eternal and immutable, as the Existence and Attributes of God; and that those Principles of Liberty, are as unalterable as human Nature and our terrestrial, mundane System."

Adams defended the Bible as the basis for government in a Christian nation: "Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited! Every member would be obliged in conscience, to temperance, frugality, and industry; to justice, kindness, and charity towards his fellow men; and to piety, love, and reverence toward Almighty God.... What a Eutopia, what a Paradise would this region be."

Ethan Allen wrote in Religion of the American Enlightenment: "Denominated a Deist, the reality of which I have never disputed, being conscious that I am no Christian."

Allen wrote in Reason: The Only Oracle of Man: "Though 'none by searching can find out God, or the Almighty to perfection,' yet I am persuaded, that if mankind would dare to exercise their reason as freely on those divine topics as they do in the common concerns of life, they would, in a great measure, rid themselves of their blindness and superstition, gain more exalted ideas of God and their obligations to him and one another, and be proportionally delighted and blessed with the views of his moral government, make better members of society, and acquire, manly powerful incentives to the practice of morality, which is the last and greatest perfection that human nature is capable of."

Alexander Hamilton began to work with Rev. James Bayard to form the Christian Constitutional Society to help spread throughout the world the two things which Mr. Hamilton said made America great: (1) Christianity, and (2) a Constitution formed under Christianity. Only his death two months later thwarted his plan of starting a missionary society to promote Christian government. Facing death in a duel with Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton met and prayed with the Rev. John M. Mason and Bishop Benjamin Moore. He reaffirmed his readiness to face God should he die, having declared to them “a lively faith in God’s mercy through Christ, with a thankful remembrance of the death of Christ.”

The following were signers of the Constitution:

Charles Pinckney and John Langdon were founders of the American Bible Society.

James McHenry was a founder of the Baltimore Bible Society.

Rufus King helped found a Bible society for Anglicans.

Abraham Baldwin—a chaplain in The Revolution and considered the youngest theologian in America

Roger Sherman, William Samuel Johnson, John Dickinson and Jacob Broom were theological writers.

James Wilson and William Patterson, who were placed on the Supreme Court by President George Washington, had prayer over juries in the U.S. Supreme Courtroom.

Thomas Paine was the most outspoken anti-religionist Deists. Here are some excerpts from his The Age of Reason (his famous tract attacking religion in general and evangelical Christianity in particular:) "My own mind is my own church. All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

"Whenever we read the obscene stories (of the Bible), the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the Word of God."

"...when I see throughout the greater part of this book (the Bible) scarcely anything but a history of the grossest vices and a collection of the most paltry and contemptible tales, I cannot dishonor my Creator by calling it by His name."

"(The Christian) despises the choicest gift of God to man, the Gift of Reason; and having endeavored to force upon himself the belief of a system against which reason revolts, he ungratefully calls if 'human reason' as if man could give reason to himself."

"Of all the systems of religion that ever were invented, there is no more derogatory to the Almighty, more unedifying to man, more repugnant to reason, and more contradictory in itself than this thing called Christianity."

Thomas Paine wrote, in Answers to Friends regarding The Age of Reason on May the 12th, 1797: "As I have now given you my reasons for believing that the Bible is not the Word of God, that it is a falsehood, I have a right to ask you your reasons for believing the contrary; but I know you can give me none, except that you were educated to believe the Bible; and as the Turks give the same reason for believing the Koran, it is evident that education makes all the difference, and that reason and truth have nothing to do in the case. You believe in the Bible from the accident of birth, and the Turks believe in the Koran from the same accident, and each calls the other infidel. But leaving the prejudice of education out of the case, the unprejudiced truth is, that all are infidels who believe falsely of God, whether they draw their creed from the Bible, or from the Koran, from the Old Testament, or from the New."

"It is often said in the Bible that God spake unto Moses, but how do you know that God spake unto Moses? Because, you will say, the Bible says so. The Koran says, that God spake unto Mahomet, do you believe that too? No. Why not? Because, you will say, you do not believe it; and so because you do, and because you don't is all the reason you can give for believing or disbelieving except that you will say that Mahomet was an impostor. And how do you know Moses was not an impostor?"

Yet, even Thomas Paine cannot be called an atheist, for in the same work wherein he so strongly attacked Christianity, Paine also declared: "I believe in one God . . . and I hope for happiness beyond this life."

In his discourse on The Study of God, Paine asserts that it is “the error of schools” to teach sciences without “reference to the Being who is author of them: for all the principles of science are of Divine origin.” He laments that “the evil that has resulted from…teaching [science without God] has been that of generating in the pupils a species of atheism.”

Not one of the Founding Fathers approved of Paine's Age of Reason. Even Benjamin Franklin denounced Paine's book. Before Paine published his Age of Reason, he sent a manuscript copy to Benjamin Franklin, seeking his thoughts.

Franklin replied: "I have read your manuscript with some attention. By the argument it contains against a particular Providence, though you allow a general Providence, you strike at the foundations of all religion. For without the belief of a Providence that takes cognizance of, guards, and guides, and may favor particular persons, there is no motive to worship a Deity, to fear his displeasure, or to pray for his protection. I will not enter into any discussion of your principles, though you seem to desire it. At present I shall only give you my opinion that . . . the consequence of printing this piece will be a great deal of odium drawn upon yourself, mischief to you, and no benefit to others. He that spits into the wind, spits in his own face. But were you to succeed, do you imagine any good would be done by it? . . . [T]hink how great a portion of mankind consists of weak and ignorant men and women and of inexperienced, inconsiderate youth of both sexes who have need of the motives of religion to restrain them from vice, to support their virtue . . . . I would advise you, therefore, not to attempt unchaining the tiger, but to burn this piece before it is seen by any other person . . . . If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be without it? I intend this letter itself as proof of my friendship."

John Adams said: "The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue equity and humanity, let the Blackguard [scoundrel, rogue] Paine say what he will."

Elias Boudinot, President of Congress, even published The Age of Revelation, a full-length rebuttal to Paine's work. In a letter to his daughter, Susan, Boudinot described his motivations for writing that rebuttal: "I confess that I was much mortified to find the whole force of this vain man's genius and art pointed at the youth of America. . . . This awful consequence created some alarm in my mind lest at any future day, you, my beloved child, might take up this plausible address of infidelity; and for want of an answer at hand to his subtle insinuations might suffer even a doubt of the truth, as it is in Jesus, to penetrate your mind. . . . I therefore determined . . . to put my thoughts on the subject of this pamphlet on paper for your edification and information, when I shall be no more. I chose to confine myself to the leading and essential facts of the Gospel which are contradicted or attempted to be turned into ridicule by this writer. I have endeavored to detect his falsehoods and misrepresentations and to show his extreme ignorance of the Divine Scriptures which he makes the subject of his animadversions -- not knowing that 'they are the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth [Romans 1:16].'"

Patrick Henry also wrote a refutation of Paine's work which he described as "the puny efforts of Paine." However, after reading Bishop Richard Watson's Apology for the Bible written against Paine, Henry deemed that work sufficient and decided not to publish his reply.

When William Paterson, signer of the Constitution and a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, learned that some Americans seemed to agree with Paine's work, he exclaimed: "Infatuated Americans, why renounce your country, your religion, and your God? Oh shame, where is thy blush? Is this the way to continue independent, and to render the 4th of July immortal in memory and song?"

John Jay, co-author of the Federalist Papers and the original Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, was comforted by the fact that Christianity would prevail despite Paine's attack: "I have long been of the opinion that the evidence of the truth of Christianity requires only to be carefully examined to produce conviction in candid minds, and I think they who undertake that task will derived advantages. . . . As to The Age of Reason, it never appeared to me to have been written from a disinterested love of truth or of mankind."

Benjamin Rush, signer of the Declaration of Independence, wrote to his friend and signer of the Constitution, John Dickenson, that Paine's Age of Reason was "absurd and impious."

Charles Carroll, a signer of the Declaration, described Paine's work as "blasphemous writings against the Christian religion."

John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration and mentor to many other Founders, said that Paine was "ignorant of human nature as well as an enemy to the Christian faith."

But, I will let President John Adams, have the last word for me: "Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.....The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence."

Amen!

Armchair generals

I really don't understand how any civilian can sit in the comfort of his own air-conditioned home and criticise the way the war in Iraq is being handled. I especially detest those who call themselves conservative and then blow the most minute failures out of proportion just to show how clever they are. Saying that you support the war but not the Commander-in-Chief is a bit like saying that you support our troops but not the war. It's dishonest and cheap.

Sure there have been terrible mistakes made in this tragic war but it also happens to be a different kind of war, one that we've never fought before. We're trying to keep civilian casualties and the infrastructure damage to the minimum (unlike Hiroshima and Nagasaki) while fighting suicide bombers and terrorists who look just like civilians.This war will probably go on for quite a while and we'll learn how to wage it.

Meantime, I have zero tolerance for the Fifth Columnists in this country. I can no longer be bothered to argue with them on any topic since all other topics except the war seem like re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. The left's whiny demands for new and special "rights" just seem pathologically narcissistic and infantile.

We cannot allow the left to derail this war like they did with Vietnam.

Sunday sermon and some pictures

My religion can be summed up in four words: In God we trust.

So what is this God that I trust in?

Luther said:

The First Commandment is that you must not have other gods. That is, I must be your only God.

Question: What does this saying mean? How should we understand it? What does it mean to have a god? What is God?

Answer: To have a god means this: You expect to receive all good things from it and turn to it in every time of trouble. Yes, to have a god means to trust and to believe in Him with your whole heart. I have often said that only the trust and faith of the heart can make God or an idol. If your faith and trust are true you have the true God, too. On the other hand, where trust is false, is evil, there you will not have the true God either. Faith and God live together. I tell you, whatever you set your heart on and rely on is really your god.

I trust in a God of goodness. I see the evidence of God's goodness, beauty love and joy in His creation and I have complete faith in that goodness.

I do not like religious or theological explanations and "scriptures." I am convinced that the infinite God cannot be comprehended with the finite mind. I really do not mind not knowing. I'm sure that I will be shown whatever I am meant to see. Meanwhile I count as my greatest blessing simply getting a glimpse of God when least expected.

Blake said in "Auguries of Innocence:"

To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

Jesus said in the "Sermon on the Mount:"

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

(The Sermon on the Mount is the greatest piece of "scripture" in existence.)

God is best spoken of and praised in music, art and poetry.

Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote:

God's Grandeur

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil,
It gathers to a greatness like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck His rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And bears man’s smudge, and shares man’s smell; the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights from the black west went,
Oh, morning at the brown brink eastwards springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast, and with, ah, bright wings.

I have complete faith in the goodness of my Creator but I don't pray for miracles or expect them. I believe that God helps those who help themselves.

Usually I take a break from blogging on Sunday and publish a couple of pics instead.

Top: the Pacific Ocean from the hill behind Robinswood.

Bottom: dandelions in the lawn just before mowing.

Another American Dream - The King

Okay, this is another late eulogy - well, only 28 years and one day late.

Elvis Aaron Presley was born in a two-room house in East Tupelo, Mississippi on January 8, 1935 and died in his mansion, Graceland, Memphis on August 16, 1977.


In 1957 I was ten years old and first heard an Elvis song, "Hound Dog." I immediately did not like him although I was impressed when he went into the Army in 1958. By the time he released his first gospel album in 1960, "His Hand in Mine," I was already in Catholic Marist Brothers' boarding-school and would eventually to join the Marist Brothers.

For the next 20 years I heard no more of Elvis (and pretty much forgot that he existed) so I did not know how beautiful his voice was. Fortunately I also missed all of his awful movies although I do remember my sister (who was a devoted Elvis fan) telling me about a movie, "G.I. Blues," that he made with the South African actress, Juliet Prowse.

Here's a still from that movie.

When I finally did hear his singing after so many years I understood immediately why he was called "The King." He had a very pleasant baritone and knew how to use it.

Last night I heard him singing "Don't pull your love out on me baby." At first I had no idea that it was Elvis as I had never heard the song before. Andy and I were driving back from the neighbors' farm (after doing the milking, feeding and bedding down of all their animals) when the song was played on the car radio.


I was so turned on by the driving rhythm that I sat in the car after we arrived home and listened until it was over. I asked Andy who it was and he told me it was Elvis.

PS Juliet Prowse was actually born in Bombay, India to South African parents.

When she was still a child her parents moved to London where she studied to be a dancer but, by the time Juliet was 14, she was deemed too tall (nearly six feet) to enter the world of ballet. She signed as a chorus dancer with the London Palladium and then pursued a career as a dancer in European nightclubs.

While dancing in Paris, she was spotted by Hollywood choreographer Hermes Pan and signed to a role in the movie "Can-Can" in 1960 with Frank Sinatra.

While rehearsing for the movie, Soviet Premier Khrushchev was invited to watch the then unknown Prowse and others rehearsing their steps. The next day, he denounced the dance as immoral and it was Prowse's photo that accompanied the news across newspapers worldwide. An instant celebrity, Juliet shot to stardom with her acting and dancing and the tabloids filled with her romance with star Frank Sinatra to whom she was engaged in 1962. (Supposedly her affair with Elvis was broken up by Frank, who confronted the King in a Vegas dressing room -- Frank and his two bodyguards somehow compelled Elvis to stop seeing her.)

In 1965 she made her only South African movie, "Dingaka," directed by Jamie Uys (who made the two "The Gods must be Crazy" movies.)

After her movie career faded, she did TV shows and was a ballroom dancing hostess for many years.

She died of pancreatic cancer in Los Angeles, California, in 1996.

Milking instead of blogging

I wrote yesterday's post on Sunday so I had something to publish because on Monday we started taking care of our neighbors' farm while they are away for a week. This means driving over there every morning and evening to do milking and feeding etc. The reward is fresh goat's milk and a dozen fresh laid eggs everyday. There is more milk than we can drink so I am going to try to make some cheese.

Sunday pictures

If you like pictures more than words just look at each Sunday's post because I post pics on Sunday but no words (although I'm thinking of doing a Sunday Sermon.)

Top pic - Robin's Wood

Bottom pic - South African Disa orchids - now in full bloom

You don't miss the water till well runs dry

Not much of a post today as there are other priorities.

The down side of rural living is having to rely on well-water. Fine if your well is good but our well only pumps 20 gals an hour. We have a 2,500 gal storage tank but the only way that's of any use is if it's full. Well, it ran dry. I went to shave in the morning, turned on the faucet - no water. The tank was empty. That meant either that the electric pump had broken or that the well had run dry. Mind you, we have been profligate with water - lots of thirsty new fruit trees.

We hauled up the pump - not easy because the well is 300 feet deep. There was no water in the well - just sludge. We bought a new pump and replaced the old one hoping that the well would refill. Even if the well is not completely dry it will take some time before water can be drawn from it.

Meantime we have to drive 13 miles down to the RV park and fill up a 400 gal tank with water and drive back 13 miles and then pump it into the storage tank. That will give us enough water for cooking and washing dishes and brushing teeth but we are having to drive to the RV park to shower and do laundry.

We've done three water-hauling trips so far and a couple more before the weekend. Thank God for the new F150 4-wheel-drive truck but it's not much fun driving with one and a half tons of water sloshing around in the back. It jerks the truck backwards and forwards and I almost got sea-sick.

The good news is that a tenant of mine in the RV park, who is a pro fisherman, just gave me three dozen fresh oysters and that's what we're having for dinner tonight with some fresh sourdough bread, home-made coleslaw and a California chardonnay. Yum!

An American Dream: Maria Callas

Well this eulogy is 25 years and 11 months late.


















Last night I watched the movie "Callas Forever" directed by Franco Zeffirelli. It's a fictionalized account of the last days of opera singer Maria Callas played by Fanny Ardant.
Zeffirelli had directed Callas in several operas at La Scala and remained her friend till her death. I have read that Callas was plump and unattractive with a dark moustache until she met Zeffirelli. He put Callas on a diet and dressed her in a wardrobe of Chanel creations to create the beautiful woman who became known as "La Divina."

Callas was born Maria Anna Sofia Cecilia Kalogeropoulos on Dec. 2, 1923, in New York City. In 1937 she returned to Greece with her mother. She died in Paris on Sept. 16, 1977.

She was romantically involved for many years with the Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis, and their love affair received much publicity. She was introduced to him in 1957, after a performance in Donizetti's Anna Bolena, at a party given in her honor by Elsa Maxwell. In November 1959 she moved in with Onassis. According to one of her biographers, Nicholas Gage, the couple had a child, a boy, who died hours after he was born on March 30, 1960. The relationship ended nine years later, when Onassis left Callas for Jacqueline Kennedy, widow of assassinated US president John F. Kennedy. Callas never really recovered from this.

Maybe I should call myself a born again Callasian. I'm only a born again redneck politically and I'm definitely not a born again Christian religiously. But, spiritually, I'm a Callasian.

(Yes, I worship Callas as an avatar of the Creator such as Epicurus, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Beethoven, Jefferson, Einstein and a host of other manifestations of the Divine who were all flawed in some way but were nevertheless reminders that God "created man in His own image.")

Listening to a recording of Callas singing touches the part of me that I associate with my deepest longings to know God and be in heaven with my Creator. It gives glimpses of "the peace that surpasseth understanding." Not even the Sermon on the Mount; not "Hamlet;" not "David;" not "The Ninth Symphony" can evoke in me the awe and adoration of beauty that Callas can. But then I believe that the highest form of art is music and the greatest form of music is the human voice.

Puccini wrote "Madama Butterfly" in one night and he said that that God wrote it through him. To hear Callas singing the aria, "Un bel di," from "Butterfly" is to hear God singing in heaven. Why? Because Puccini was right: God did write "Butterfly;" because Callas understood that and she sang "Butterfly" (and all her other roles) not only with her body and voice but with her heart and soul.

Her voice was an incredible musical instrument but, like all physical phenomena, it was slightly flawed. She could pitch her highest notes through her large nose like no other soprano ever could but, if she failed to pitch it perfectly as she sometimes did, this same nasality could sound less like the trumpet of an archangel and more like the bellow of a walrus. What was perfect about her was her love and respect for her own gift and even her flaws were endearing because she was so honest, sincere and authentic.

There are 767,000 websites about Maria Callas.

An American Nightmare: William Burroughs

Okay, I'm eight years and one week late with my obituary. Burroughs died on August 2nd 1997.
















William Burroughs' book, "The Naked Lunch," had a very disturbing effect on my life when I first read it at the age of 18. Later, when I re-read it as an adult, I found it disappointing. If you've read it, you can imagine how it would effect a teenager. It is basically a very juvenile book, replete with sophomoric frat house scatological humor. But, Burroughs also had a gift of capturing the strangest, most surreal, drug-induced (he was a heroine addict for many years) and indescribable images and putting them into ordinary everyday language. He is a truly American writer. No European could ever think or write like he did:

"You know how old people lose all shame about eating, and it makes you puke to watch them? Old junkies are the same about junk. They gibber and squeal about the sight of it. The spit hangs off their skin, and their stomach rumbles and all their guts grind in peristalsis while they cook up, dissolving the body's decent skin, you expect any moment a great blob of protoplasm will flop right out and surround the junk. Really disgust you to see it." (from "The Naked Lunch")

Burroughs was born in St. Louis, Mo. His mother, Laura Lee, was a direct descendant of Robert E. Lee. His grandfather was the inventor of the Burroughs adding machine. The Burroughs Corporation ultimately merged with the Sperry Corporation to create Unisys but, by the time of Burroughs's birth, his father had already sold his stock in the company.

"As a boy," Burroughs later wrote, "I was much plagued by nightmares. I remember a nurse telling me that opium gives you sweet dreams, and I resolved that I would smoke opium when I grew up."

In the early 1940s he lived in New York City and worked for an advertising agency. When the war began, Burroughs joined the army. He was trained as a glider pilot, but was discharged as unfit for service in 1942 and then took a series of odd jobs. While working in the shipyards of New York, he became addicted to heroin.

In the mid-1940s Burroughs befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, with whom he would be linked as key figures in the Beat Movement.

He was named in Kerouac's novel, "On the Road," as "Old Bull Lee," whom Kerouac described thus: "He was an exterminator in Chicago, a bartender in New York, a summons-server in Newark. In Paris he sat at café tables, watching the sullen French faces go by. In Athens he looked up from his ouzo at what he called the ugliest people in the world. In Istanbul he threaded his way through crowds of opium addicts and rug-sellers, looking for the facts. In English hotels he read Spengler and the Marquis de Sade."

To avoid arrest for growing marijuana in Texas, Burroughs moved to Mexico City in 1949 with his wife, Joan Vollmer. In September 1951 he killed his wife accidentally in front of a group of drunken friends. Vollmer placed a glass on top of her head, and Burroughs shot at it with his gun. He missed and Vollmer fell dead. He later said: "Im forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan's death..."

In 1959 Burroughs published "The Naked Lunch." It was subtitled: "Let them see what they eat." It featured such characters as Dr Benway, a mad scientist dedicated to Automatic Obedience Processing, and the Lobotomy Kid, who manufactures the Complete All-American male, a blob of jelly.

Excerpt from "The Naked Lunch:"

Benway (said:) "Why not one all-purpose blob? Did I ever tell you about the man who taught his asshole to talk? His whole abdomen would move up and down you dig farting out the words. It was unlike anything I ever heard.

"This ass talk had a sort of gut frequency. It hit you right down there like you gotta go. You know when the old colon gives you the elbow and it feels sorta cold inside, and you know all you have to do is turn loose? Well this talking hit you right down there, a bubbly, thick stagnant sound, a sound you could smell.

"This man worked for a carnival you dig, and to start with it was like a novelty ventriloquist act. Real funny, too, at first. He had a number he called 'The Better 'Ole' that was a scream, I tell you. I forget most of it but it was clever. Like, 'Oh I say, are you still down there, old thing?'

"'Nah! I had to go relieve myself.'

"After a while the ass started talking on its own. He would go in without anything prepared and his ass would ad-lib and toss the gags back at him every time.

"Then it developed sort of teeth-like little raspy in-curving hooks and started eating. He thought this was cute at first and built an act around it, but the asshole would eat its way through his pants and start talking on the street, shouting out it wanted equal rights. It would get drunk, too, and have crying jags nobody loved it and it wanted to be kissed same as any other mouth. Finally it talked all the time day and night, you could hear him for blocks screaming at it to shut up, and beating it with his fist, and sticking candles up it, but nothing did any good and the asshole said to him: 'It's you who will shut up in the end. Not me. Because we don't need you around here any more. I can talk and eat and shit.'

"After that he began waking up in the morning with a transparent jelly like a tadpole's tail all over his mouth. This jelly was what the scientists call un-D.T., Undifferentiated Tissue, which can grow into any kind of flesh on the human body. He would tear it off his mouth and the pieces would stick to his hands like burning gasoline jelly and grow there, grow anywhere on him a glob of it fell. So finally his mouth sealed over, and the whole head would have amputated spontane- ous -- (did you know there is a condition occurs in parts of Africa and only among Negroes where the little toe amputates spontaneously?) -- except for the eyes you dig. That's one thing the asshole couldn't do was see. It needed the eyes. But nerve connections were blocked and infiltrated and atrophied so the brain couldn't give orders any more. It was trapped in the skull, sealed off. For a while you could see the silent, helpless suffering of the brain behind the eyes, then finally the brain must have died, because the eyes went out, and there was no more feeling in them than a crab's eye on the end of a stalk...."

Sunday pictures

Sunday pictures: top - pink and white watsonias (another South Africa lily related to gladiolus;) bottom - watsonias and scotch broom (which has naturalized along the Pacific coast and is now regarded as a weed. But has a beautiful perfume and attracts lots of butterflies and bees so I'm reluctant to destroy them until I have better behaved replacements.)

War, capital punishment, abortion, "gay rights" and race-based quotas

There are five major topics on which the left and right disagree in the USA: war, capital punishment, abortion, socalled "gay rights" and race-based quotas.

The left (unlike during the Spanish Civil War) is (since Viet Nam and the hippie drug dystopia) now uniformly pacifistic. Very few on the left can bring themselves to realize that there are people in this world who are not peace and love hippies but pathological killers who must be destroyed.

I used to disagree with capital punishment (and still think it needs to be used sparingly) but there really are some criminals who are sub-human (and will probably kill an innocent guard in prison) who need to be put out of their misery like mad dogs.

As for abortion: Just look at the reasons for abortion:

KNOWN BEFORE HAVING SEX

Woman is concerned about how having a baby could change her life (16%)

Woman can't afford baby now (21%)

Woman has problems with relationship or wants to avoid single parenthood (12%)

Woman is unready for responsibility (21%)

Woman doesn't want others to know she has had sex or is pregnant (1%)

Woman is not mature enough, or is too young to have a child (11%)

Woman has all the children she wanted, or has all grown-up children (8%)

NOT KNOWN BEFORE HAVING SEX

Husband or partner wants woman to have an abortion (1%)

Fetus has possible health problem (3%)

Woman has health problem (3%)

Woman's parents want her to have abortion (less than 1%)

Woman was victim of rape or incest (1%)

21% have abortions because they cannot afford to have a baby.This is sick and should not be taking place in a civilized society. Responsible contraception is a lot cheaper than having a baby and abstinence is even cheaper than the Pill or condoms.

I just heard a good line on abortion in an old "The Practice" rerun.

I'm not good at remembering TV actors but the DA says (I paraphrase) to the defense attorney:

"Well, if she wanted to retain control over her own body she should have thought about that before letting another human being grow inside her."

Defense: "You are beginning to sound like a Republican."

I think many on the left (eventhough I know quite a few who dislike abortion) are pro-abortion simply because Christians are against it. Most leftists, who have no real stake in legalized abortion, cling frantically to Roe v Wade because they believe that it has re-interpreted the Constitution to provide for "privacy" rights which are not really "private."

That is: they want to "normalize" idiosyncratic behaviors and practices which are not inconsequential and which do have an effect on society as a whole and which therefore fall under the jurisdiction of cultural mores. (I'm thinking of sexual promiscuity and other deviations from the norm such as drug use.) The Marxist/John Lennonists think Roe v Wade protects their "private" idiosyncracies.

Now to "gay rights:" As a libertarian I don't really mind if some in this brave new libertine world (such as "gays" and hetero "swingers") think that they have special rights or not and push for them. It's their business (as long as their behavior does not affect me through taxes, social manipulation or cultural degradation.)

I trust our society enough to know that we will allow new lifestyles when we are thoroughly familiar with them and are sure there are no nasty surprises or unforeseen consequences; when we have tested whether they are harmful or not.

In fact "straight" libertinism has been allowed by society for a long time probably because it was not seen as much as a threat as homosexuality. Hetero promiscuity was "normalized" when divorce became acceptable. (This was a hypocritical and dishonest societal choice and sadly divorce does have nasty consequences and it has degraded our culture and destroyed many a family.) Legalized abortion was the ultimate "acceptance" of hetero libertinism.

Let me make it clear that I do not like either the "gay" or "straight" libertine lifestyles and I am tempted to lump them under the one label: "gay." This is because I lived in San Francisco for 25 years and saw that "gays" are no worse than socalled "straight" libertines. The reason that I don't lump them together is because society has accepted "straight" libertinism and in fact exalts it in Hollywood and on TV in disgusting "dating" reality shows and the generally revolting behavior of movie stars.

So let's dismiss hetero libertine behavior (since it is "allowable") and talk about "gays."

Should society accept "gays?" Yes, of course. They've been around since the beginning of the human race and most are not anti-social. Should "gays" have special "rights" and protections? Maybe, if they want it. But, for me, the whole "gay rights" game is a dishonest agenda.

It is a dishonest agenda because it is disguising itself as a "civil rights" issue and attempting to obtain special rights not granted to other "out of the mainstream" minorities such as potheads and sexual minorities such as polygamists.

It is dishonest because it is taking advantage of American society's compassion and tolerance. It is manipulating our "liberal guilt." Before AIDS the "gay rights" movement was fairly honest, quite libertarian and invoked "individual rights" as it's driving force. Since AIDS arrived, the "gay movement" has been hijacked by communists and has adopted a "group rights" agenda.

It is dishonest because it likens "gays" to blacks. Obviously blacks cannot change the color of their skin. Being "gay" is mostly a matter of behavior. While it seems fairly certain that homosexual attraction is innate, unalterable and uncontrollable, the public manifestation of that attraction can be controlled.

While society should be practical and accept that homos are part of the human mix, there is no need for society to adapt to homosexual promiscuity and exhibitionism. "Gay" hubris (celebrated as "gay pride") has given us AIDS. AIDS (which was first transmitted through buggery) has now affected inocent victims through blood-tranfusions. That is not an inconsequential phenomenon.

The "gay rights" movement is dishonest because it has adopted the language and ideas of the left. In the 1930's the Communist Party of the USA decided to stop using the word "socialism" and to use instead the word "liberalism." They knew that Americans distrusted and disliked the idea of "group" or "class" rights and believed in individual rights.

The left in America has been dishonest ever since then and the "gay" agenda, being a leftist agenda, is now also dishonest.

So is the modern black agenda. The "civil rights" laws of the sixties made race discrimination illegal in the USA. That's all that is needed. The obsession with race among socalled black leaders is obscene. It's another shake-down, another bit of blackmail preying on liberal guilt.

More about religion :

Maybe it's more about philosophy (the love of wisdom) than religion. Well, it sure sums up my take on human existence.

Epicurianism

(I wish I could remember where I found this summary so that I could cite its author but unfortunately I have lost the link to the website. If this is your writing, please let me know so that I can acknowledge your authorship.)

Epicurus (341-270) advocated an intelligent, sober, mild, temperate approach to the pursuit of happiness. His philosophy differed from the Cyrenaics in this respect: he believed that we should seek pleasure over a lifetime, with forethought not with Cyrenaic impulsiveness; that we should plan for our happiness and not give into instant gratification. Epicurus had four maxims.

(1) God is not to be feared.

(2) Death cannot be felt.

(3) The Good can be won.

(4) All that we dread can be borne and conquered.

Don't fear God.
Don't worry about death.
Don't fear pain.
Live simply.
Pursue pleasure wisely.
Make friends and be a good friend.
Be honest in your business and private life.
Avoid fame and political ambition

THE PRINCIPAL DOCTRINES OF EPICURUS

1: If God is perfect, He is always at peace and cannot become angry or upset at anyone or anything because only an imperfect being can be disturbed in these ways. Likewise, if God is perfect, He doesn’t need or want anything from anyone since if He did need or want anything, He would not be God but an unhappy and imperfect being.

2: Death is nothing to us; once the body and brain decompose into dust and ashes, there is no feeling or thought, and what has no feeling or thought is nothing to us.

3: This is the height of pleasure: to be free of all pain and discomfort in both the body and the mind. When this pleasure is present, all pain, of both body and mind, is absent.

4: Illnesses which cause excruciating pain last only a short time and then you are free. Illnesses which cause mild pain may last long but it is possible to live in such a way that the pleasures of life far outweigh the discomforts. Either way, pain is nothing to fear.

5: It is impossible to be happy without also being wise, honorable and honest, and it is impossible to be wise, honorable and honest without also being happy. Happiness is so dependent upon the practice of wisdom, honor and honesty that being negligent in just one of these will lead to nothing but trouble and sorrow in life.

6: Absolutely anything which will keep you from being harmed by people is good and right.

7: Some men and women want to be famous and well-known because they think that this will make their lives safe and secure. If fame brings safety and security, it is good and right to want to be famous; but if a famous life brings more trouble than an obscure life, it is foolish to want what is actually bad for us.

8: There is no such thing as a pleasure that is bad in and of itself. What is bad are the unpleasant consequences that can result if you do not use your head when deciding on which pleasures to pursue and which to avoid.

9: If every pleasure lasted and affected the entire body and not just one or two parts, there would be no difference between one pleasure or another; they would all be equally desirable.

10: If the things which bring pleasure to licentious men and women freed them from troubled minds, that is, if such a life freed them from the fear of God, the fear of death and the fear of pain, and if those things further taught them how to rationally manage their desires, we would find no wrong with these men and women; they would have reached the height of pleasure and would be free of all bodily and mental pain, which is the beginning and the end of all evil.

11: If our peace of mind were not disturbed by superstitious ideas about comets, falling stars and other types of astronomical phenomenon, or by the thought of death (which is really nothing to us), and also by our lack of understanding of the limits of pain and how to rationally manage our desires, we wouldn’t have any need to acquire a thoroughly scientific understanding of nature.

12: An individual cannot be free from the most disturbing fears about the universe as long as he lacks a thoroughly scientific understanding of nature and instead believes in legends, parables and myths. So without a thoroughly scientific understanding of nature, one cannot reach the height of pleasure.

13: There is no point in working hard to achieve physical safety and security from those who can harm you if your peace of mind can be easily attacked and destroyed by fears and anxieties that result from an unscientific understanding of why nature works as it does in the sky, in the earth, or anywhere else in the universe.

14: While some safety and security from others might possibly be obtained if you were to amass great wealth and power, safety, security and tranquility would more certainly be yours if you simply lived a quiet and simple life withdrawn from the world.

15: Understand that true wealth is having what you really need for a happy life and you will find out how easy it is to be completely satisfied; mistakenly believe that wealth consists in possessing all that one could possibly imagine and dream up and there will never be an end to your toil and sweat.

16: By continuously managing the most important matters of life according to the dictates of reason, the wise man or woman constructs a lifelong defense against misfortunes and troubles and seldom suffers from them.

17: The honest individual has more peace of mind than anyone; it’s the dishonest man or woman who always has some reason to worry and feel anxious.

18: As soon as the height of physical pleasure has been reached by the satisfaction of bodily craving, there is no greater pleasure beyond that to be enjoyed; one has reached a plateau that cannot be surmounted. At that point, one can vary the type of pleasure; one cannot increase the intensity. Mental pleasure also has a natural limit which cannot be surpassed and it is this: the peace of mind that results from the rational understanding and pursuit of pleasure and a thoroughly scientific understanding of those things which used to fill the mind with fear and trembling.

19: An immortal life would not provide an opportunity for any more pleasure than this mortal life does. A rational understanding of happiness makes clear the fact that the height of pleasure is attainable here and now, in this life, and it cannot be surpassed, even if one could live forever.

20: If there were no natural limit to pleasure, it would take an eternity to satisfy the infinite number of desires and wants that one could imagine and dream up. The mind, however, is able to discover the natural limit and height of pleasure; it is also capable of freeing us from all fears of any life after death so that we do not need, want nor fear eternity. Therefore, even if the time has come for us to depart from life, we can approach our final rest with the absolute confidence that we have enjoyed all of the pleasure that it was possible to enjoy.

21: The individual who learns what the natural limits of pleasure are knows how very little is actually required to satisfy his or her needs and have a happy life and how easy it is to obtain it. Therefore, it is unnecessary to spend one’s life struggling and slaving away.

22: In all decision making, the criterion should be the ultimate goal of life which we have set before us and the no nonsense facts of what we actually know and experience (rather than what others wildly imagine): if you stray from this rule, you will be overwhelmed with doubt and confusion.

23: If you deny or dismiss all of the no nonsense facts of what we actually know and experience, there will be nothing left to serve as a criterion for judging anything, even those views which you state must be false.

24: Absolute confidence in determining what is true and what is delusional is only possible if you learn to clearly distinguish between those ideas which are based upon the no nonsense facts of what we actually know and experience and those ideas which have their origin in the imagination and nothing more. In other words, if you give the same authority to the imagination and your inner feelings that you give to the no nonsense facts of what we actually know and experience, you will never be completely sure about anything, as there will no longer be any criterion left to remove your doubt and confusion.

25: If you do not keep the ultimate goal clearly in mind whenever you must decide whether to pursue or avoid a particular pleasure or pain, but decide according to some less well thought out criterion, your behavior will not be consistent with your principles.

Politics, sex and religion

You're not supposed to discuss these topics in polite company but they're pretty much the most discussed topics in the blogosphere.
Politics:

Well, as you can see, that's what I talk about mostly. So, I don't need to explain what I think about it.

Sex:

You can talk about it all you want nowadays but it was still a very taboo subject when I was growing up. All I can say about it is that there is no such thing as "safe" sex. All sex has serious consequences. Sex is dangerous not only physically (diseases) but psychically, emotionally and spiritually. All sexual relationships are fraught with danger except those consumated in love, respect, loyalty and total commitment. So, obviously I do not condone casual sex, extra-marital sex or any kind of irresponsible or promiscuous sex. I especially detest that most horrendous of irresponsible sexual consequences - abortion.

To me, sex is completely meaningless (as well as degrading and inhuman) without an intellectual, spiritual and philosophical connection. Shakespeare said it a whole lot better than me:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixèd mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his heighth be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom:

If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Religion:

I haven't talked about religion much yet. Here's a first attempt.

Of course, we have to suffer - from sickness and death and the many other unpleasant consequences of being a human being who is subject to the laws of nature. But that does not mean that we can't also enjoy life to the fullest and exercise our third "unalienable right" - the right to the pursuit of happiness.

To me, the American Revolution, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights are the logical outcome of reformed Christianity and the most perfect manifestation of enlightened Christianity as it has evolved through the ages.

When it comes to religion I am an old-fashioned Jeffersonian. What I mean is that I agree with Jefferson, who wrote in a letter to William Canby: "Of all the systems of morality, ancient or modern, which have come under my observation, none appear to me so pure as that of Jesus."

But he also wrote: "Among the sayings and discourses imputed to Jesus by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and others again of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being."

(This is not a hagiography of Jefferson. I know he had warts - one of the worst of which was his approval of the French Revolution. But he was a fascinating man.)

That does not mean that I don't believe that Jesus died for the sins of mankind. I do believe that those who know about and understand his life and his death are saved from a hell of fear and superstition and are lifted by their faith, hope and love into a heaven of kindness, mercy and forgiveness.

I guess my real religion is Americanism and I see reformed Christianity simply as the most important civilizing and moralizing influence. It led to the ideas of freedom, private property and individual sovereignty brought to perfection by John Locke and Adam Smith during the Enlightenment and which finally came to fruition in Franklin, Paine, Jefferson, Washington, Madison and the American Revolution.

Well, there's more to my "religion" than that but it is almost impossible to describe something that is not perceived with the mind but springs from a deep inner unspoken joy and gratitude for life. And, if I can't explain it to myself, why would I want to read other peoples' explanations? That's why I don't give much credence to socalled "holy scriptures."