I swear to God that I'm an atheist

 

Now that I have your attention, I have to admit that I am NOT an atheist – but I am also not a regular church goer either.

It’s always dangerous to discuss politics and religion with other people, ESPECIALLY those whom you don’t know well.

Like most families, our friends and relatives run the gamut from people who pray the rosary every day to a few folks who are proud atheists.

In addition, most of the people I know are die hard Democrats, but we also have friends and relatives who voted for Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020.

Our Founding Fathers, having witnessed the religious wars on the European continent, took great pains to separate church from state – which is how it should be.

The biggest threat to our nation today does not come from Russia or China or North Korea.

It comes from within.

If you watched the assault on the capital on January 6, there should be little doubt that there are a lot of crazy people in this country – and some of the them are our elected officials.

There are folks who believe that America is a Christian nation.

It’s not, even though roughly 70% of the people in this country would identify as Christian.

For many years, I faithfully attended mass every Sunday, but have evolved to the point that I definitely agree with Barry Goldwater about religion.

This is what he said in 1964:

"Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them."

Raw Story just published an article about an individual who grew up in a religious commune that sounds suspiciously like the commune that Jim Jones led in Guyana. You can read the entire story at the link below, but here are some high points:

“My family lived on a Body Farm, a mostly off-grid outpost on the northern shore of Lake Superior, where I grew up singing, clapping, hollering and dancing in the Tabernacle aisles as shamelessly as King David. In our insular community, Holy Spirit-led practices like speaking in tongues, visions, prophecies, laying on hands and faith healing, altar calls, mass conversions, river baptisms and even demon deliverance were as commonplace as eating or sleeping or, for us children, playing with smooth stones in the frigid stream at the edge of the woods. Back then, if you had asked me if church scared me, I would have been confused by the question, and I would have said no. In retrospect, I was scared all the time.”

Only a couple of years ago, Franklin Graham, son of "America's Pastor," Billy Graham, declared any criticism of former president Donald Trump to be the work of demonic powers. The following year, one of the president's closest evangelical advisors, Paula White, publicly commanded "all satanic pregnancies to miscarry." Polling in recent decades indicates that around half of all Americans continue to believe that the Devil and demonic possession are very real, and though some recent numbers suggest that figure may be lower among Democrats, the percentage of Americans who believe in the Devil rose from 55 percent in 1990 to 70 percent in 2007 — as of 2018, even Catholic exorcisms appear to be on the rise. Around half of all Americans believe the Bible should influence U.S. laws, and 68 percent of white evangelical Protestants believe the Bible should take precedence over the will of the people. In other words, if you find yourself talking to an American Christian, chances are they have been reared in the fear of making a wrong move, of choosing the wrong side, and believe that doing so could have nightmarish results in this life and the next. Chances are that fear is so deeply ingrained that it no longer registers as fear. Fear is simply the lens through which they view the world.”

 https://www.rawstory.com/religious-beliefs-in-america/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=7380&recip_id=499418&list_id=1

The author of the article posted in the link above is Shawna Kay Rodenberg.

Shawna Kay Rodenberg is the author of "Kin: A Memoir," out now from Bloomsbury. She holds an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and her reviews and essays have appeared in Consequence, Salon, the Village Voice, and Elle. In 2016, Shawna was awarded the Jean Ritchie Fellowship, the largest monetary award given to an Appalachian writer, and in 2017 she was the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award. A registered nurse, community college English instructor, mother of five, and grandmother of two, she lives on a hobby goat farm in southern Indiana.

Two books that are worth reading are “Educated”, by Tara Westover and “Wrapped in the Flag” by Claire Connor.

Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her "head-for-the-hills bag". In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter, she salvaged in her father's junkyard.

Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara's older brothers became violent.

Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she'd traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

“Educated” is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one's life through new eyes and the will to change “

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35133922-educated

“Both of Claire Conner’s parents were deeply involved in the cult of far-right politics: they knew that Eisenhower was a secret Communist and they idolized Francisco Franco. Wrapped in the Flag is at once the heartbreaking and intermittently hilarious story of her coming of age and a first-hand history of the far right since the 1950s. Conner’s book is required reading for anyone who wants to understand the sources of the conspiratorial, hate-filled tropes of the right today—whether they emanate from the Tea Party, the gun movement, race realists, Sovereign Citizens, or, increasingly, from elected officials in the GOP.” Both of her parents were early members of the John Birch Society (which still exists today).

https://www.amazon.com/Wrapped-Flag-Learned-Growing-Americas/dp/0807033316

I’m never going to criticize someone’s religion (or lack thereof) – and I also will not tolerate any criticism of my beliefs (or lack thereof).

Going forward, the best approach is this one:

Live and let live.

Can I have an “amen” brothers and sisters?

the world is going to seed

 

Since history often repeats itself, it’s important to study about what happened in the past. For that reason, I read History Channel’s “This Day in History” just about every day.

The other day, an article popped up that was definitely below everybody’s radar.

On June 15, 2006, on the remote island of Spitsbergen halfway between mainland Norway and the North Pole, the prime ministers of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland lay the ceremonial first stone of the Global Seed Vault. The vault, which now has the capacity to hold 2.25 billion seeds, is intended to “provide insurance against both incremental and catastrophic loss of crop diversity.”

Managed jointly by the Global Crop Diversity Trust (the Crop Trust), the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen), and the Norwegian government, the Seed Vault grew out of several different efforts to preserve specimens of the world’s plants. Its location, deep within a high mountain on an island covered by permafrost, is ideal for cold storage and will protect the seeds even in the event of a major rise in sea levels. The enormous vault, where seeds can be stored in such a way that they remain viable for decades or even centuries, opened in 2008.

According to the Crop Trust, the seed vault is meant to preserve crop diversity and contribute to the global struggle to end hunger. As rising temperatures and other aspects of climate change threaten the Earth’s plants, there is risk of not only losing species but also becoming overly reliant on those that remain, making humanity more vulnerable and increasing food insecurity. Scientists also strive to create newer, more resilient varieties of crops that already exist, and the seed bank functions as a reserve from which they can draw for experimental purposes. 

  https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/construction-on-global-seed-vault-begins-norway

If keeping seeds in a very cold environment seems like a good idea (it is), a few people feel that it would be a good idea for humans also, which led to cyrogenic freezing, which was first proposed in 1962. As the slide show at the link below shows, though, there are LOTS of issues attached to the practice.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/cryogenic-freezing-could-you-live-forever/ss-BB1dXQ4P#image=1

Cryogenic freezing is a type of freezing which requires extremely low temperatures, generally below -238 Fahrenheit (-150 Celsius). This process is part of a branch of the sciences known as cryogenics, which focuses on the production of very cold temperatures and the study of what happens to objects subjected to these temperatures. Research in this field ranges from basic studies on severe cold to applied research in which cryogenics is applied to various issues confronted by humans.

Cryogenic freezing is utilized to temper high-end metal products and certain other industrial products. The use of cryogenics appears to improve the strength and performance of such products, and it can be used for tasks which vary from creating extra-strong knives to making baseball bats. Cryogenics is also utilized in the lab environment to create cold temperature for various experiments, and cryogenic freezing is one method for producing specialized fuels like rocket fuel.

The food industry utilizes this method to flash freeze fresh foods so that their nutrients and texture will be largely preserved. Flash freezing can be seen in use everyone from fishing boats to plants which prepare TV dinners. In the medical profession, cryogenic freezing is used to preserve vaccines so that they will remain stable and viable for administration. Once frozen at such low temperatures, objects can remain frozen with the use of special refrigeration units, including mobile units with liquefied gases which permit cryogenically frozen objects to be shipped.

 (The Pfizer vaccine and BioNTech's vaccine is currently labeled as needing to be stored at minus 112 degrees to minus 76 degrees for up to six months.)

People sometimes confuse cryogenic freezing with cryonics, the field of preserving human bodies in freezing conditions with the goal of reviving them at some point in the future. Cryonics relies on the idea that advances in the sciences are constantly occurring, and that while it may not be currently possible to bring someone back from the dead, this could happen in the future, so people who want another chance at life may opt for cryonic preservation so that their bodies will be available for reanimation.

https://www.infobloom.com/what-is-cryogenic-freezing.htm#:~:text=Cryogenic%20freezing%20is%20a%20type%20of%20freezing%20which,what%20happens%20to%20objects%20subjected%20to%20these%20temperatures.

 More that 50 years ago, two guys in Iowa decided that if freezing plants seeds was a good idea, then freezing seeds of a different type also made sense.

In a country scandalized and outraged so easily, the sperm bank has been naturalized. To say one works at a sperm bank would cause no more of a commotion than to say one works at an investment bank, surely.

But it was not always so.

There had to be a first sperm bank, and those early bankers felt the excitement and fear of the new. The year was 1952. They were two doctors in Iowa. They had figured out how to freeze sperm, thaw it back to active life, and use it to help families to conceive.

 The year after they began, a nationwide poll found 28 percent of Americans approved of artificial insemination. That winter, three babies born from thawed sperm were born.

If at first Iowa seems like a surprising place for the technique to get its start, consider this: humans are animals, too, and Iowa was a hotbed of animal research, particularly in the realm of dairy cows, which farmers had been artificially inseminating since the 1930s.

The bull-semen market was already large—and by the early '50s, up to three-quarters of breeders were using sperm from champion bulls. There was a big incentive for researchers to experiment with ways of spreading champion sperm around as widely and for as long as possible. Plus, with bulls, the stakes were lower.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/04/how-the-first-sperm-bank-began/361288/

Virtually every state in the union has at least on sperm bank, and some states have more than one, all of which can be found at the link below:

 

https://www.ivfauthority.com/sperm-banks/usa/arizona/

Just as there is controversy about cryogenics, there is also at least some controversy regarding sperm banks.

A landmark case that considers the civil liability of commercial sperm banks for fraud and negligence has reached the Georgia Supreme Court. GSU law professors Yaniv Heled and Timothy Lytton, and Emory Law professor Liza Vertinsky mobilized 38 leading tort law, family law, and health law scholars from around the country to co-sign an amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs’ claims. The case, Norman v. Xytex, concerns whether a commercial sperm bank is subject to any form of liability for marketing and selling sperm with readily knowable undisclosed genetic abnormalities which cause genetic abnormalities in a fetus.

 

In the Norman case, the sperm bank, Xytex is accused of misrepresenting the qualities of sperm from a donor whose identity was not disclosed to recipients. Xytex claimed its donor had a clean medical history and multiple academic degrees. Use of the donor’s sperm resulted in 36 live births over a period of 15 years. During this time, Xytex allegedly knew or should have known that the donor did not have an academic degree, had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and narcissistic personality disorder, was hospitalized multiple times for psychotic episodes, and had a felony conviction for burglary.

 

Although multiple lawsuits have been brought against Xytex, so far, the Georgia courts have dismissed all forms of potential liability, insisting that any claim against a sperm bank for injury to the parents of a child amounts to wrongful birth, a theory of recovery rejected by the Georgia Supreme Court in their 1990 decision in Atlanta Obstetrics & Gynecology Group v. Abelson.

 https://news.gsu.edu/2020/07/03/gsu-law-professors-author-amicus-brief-in-georgia-supreme-court-sperm-bank-case/#:~:text=In%20the%20Norman%20case%2C%20the%20sperm%20bank%2C%20Xytex,live%20births%20over%20a%20period%20of%2015%20years.

All this discussion of science tends to get a little boring at times – which is why people watch sports

https://www.cbssports.com/college-basketball/news/ncaa-championship-2021-score-baylor-routs-gonzaga-as-bears-win-first-national-title-end-zags-perfect-season/live/

The NCAA championship was held in March, and was won by Baylor, who was the number one SEED in the tournament.

Have a good day.

 

 

war of the worlds

 

 

In 1938 (at the age  of 23) , Orson Welles’ radio anthology series The Mercury Theatre on the Air gave Welles the platform to find international fame as the director and narrator of a radio adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel The War of the Worlds, which caused some listeners to believe that an invasion by extraterrestrial beings was in fact occurring. Although reports of panic were mostly false and overstated, they rocketed Welles to notoriety.

His first film was Citizen Kane (1941), which is consistently ranked as one of the greatest films ever made, and which he co-wrote, produced, directed and starred in as Charles Foster Kane. Welles also released twelve other features.

If you’ve got an hour to spare, you can still listen to the original radio broadcast by clicking on the link below:

Orson Welles: War of the Worlds Radio Broadcast - October 30, 1938 - Bing video

 According to the radio broadcast, the Martians made their landing in a small town in New Jersey called Grovers Mill – and it is being invaded AGAIN today. This time, the Martians are nowhere in sight (unless you count the monument erected in Van Nest Park that commemorates the original radio broadcast.)

https://nypost.com/2021/05/25/cicadas-invade-nj-town-where-war-of-the-worlds-was-set/

This time around, the invaders are small noisy critters with red eyes – and they are called cicadas. The creepy crawlies typically spend 13 or 17 years underground, where they spend their time eating tree roots, digging tunnels and take tabs on what’s happening above on Earth. When they finally do emerge, they only survive about a month, but the females leave behind hundreds of eggs — setting the scene for another invasion in the years to come.

 IF you live in an area that does not have any, this is what they sound like:

 Sounds of the 17 Year Cicada - Bing video

 This time of the year, they seem to be everywhere – and they have created havoc in numerous ways.

A man in Cincinnati had some cicadas fly in his open car window when he was driving. Although he was able to get them out of his car quickly, the distraction caused him to lost control of his car, sending it into a utility pole, and totaling the car.

A plane carrying dozens of journalists preparing to take off from Washington, D.C., to cover President Biden's first trip abroad was delayed for several hours Tuesday evening.

A swarm of cicadas was evidently looking to hitch a ride to Europe with the press corps.

A horde of Brood X cicadas had filled the plane's engines, causing mechanical issues that delayed takeoff. Eventually, White House aides had to find another plane for reporters to make it overseas, according to The Associated Press.

                 

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/09/1004648785/a-cicada-infested-engine-is-to-blame-for-bidens-press-corps-travel-delays

Cicadas are no supernatural poltergeists, but at this week’s Memorial Tournament they are unnatural visitors all the same. I have watched enough wildlife documentaries to know that bugs swallowing up birdies goes against normal animal behavior.

Yet set foot on the grounds of Muirfield Village Golf Club over the next seven days, or listen on TV, and that is exactly what will happen. Once the Brood X bugs get their game on, the buzz of mating call victory will drown out the sound of birdies. And eagles. (On the plus side, the whiny mutterings of players cursing bogeys also will be harder to hear).

How loud will it get when the red-eyed wonder — no, not John Daly, who is not among the 120 competitors scheduled to tee it up on Thursday — begins to shimmy and shake? A male cicada’s pick-up line can reach 96 decibels.

For perspective, a normal conversation is about 60 decibels, a commercial jet landing is about 80 and a lawnmower reaches 90, which explains why cicadas will sometimes follow your Toro like children trailing a motorized Pied Piper. For these pent-up bugs — no sex for 17 years! — a noisy power mower is quite the aural aphrodisiac.

 https://golfweek.usatoday.com/2021/05/31/pga-tour-cicadas-memorial-tournament-columbus/

Golf, or course, is not the only sport being invaded by cicadas.

These days, folks in the District, Maryland and Virginia aren’t living in a storm corridor so much as a swarm corridor. There are so many cicadas around, they are showing up on weather maps.

 Given that NFL minicamps have been taking place in the area, the big, noisy bugs also have made their presence felt with the Baltimore Ravens and Washington Football Team.

 In fact, at the Ravens practice facility nestled among the trees in Owings Mills, Md., the cicadas have been doing a good job approximating the volume of a stadium full of fans. That’s not hyperbole: NFL crowds have been estimated to average between 80 to 90 decibels, numbers frequently reached — and often exceeded — by thick throngs of cicadas.

 Of the almost 200 cicada species in North America, most emerge annually, but the vast majority assaulting the ears of Baltimore players are part of a periodical group called Brood X that pours forth from the ground every 17 years.

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/06/11/cicadas-ravens-wft-practices/

The invasion will soon be over, giving us another 17 years of peace. Their arrival, however, has given entirely new meaning to an old phrase:

DON’T BUG ME!

 

my friend the witch doctor

 

For thousands of years, mankind has endured numerous challenges from Mother Nature. In addition to violent storms and raging floodwaters, there are two challenges that have been distressingly common and difficult to control.

Both locusts and droughts have vexed people – and they continue to the present day.

Locusts proved problematic for the ancient Egyptians, and they’re still active in that part of the world today.

Locusts also invaded my home state of Minnesota in the 1870’s, and the plague lasted for 5 long years. Finally, the governor decided that a less conventional method of fighting them needed to be used, so he declared a day of prayer in April of 1877. Initially, the cure did not work, but shortly after that, the residents of Cold Spring erected a chapel honoring the Blessed Virgin, Officially, it was known as the Assumption Chapel, but it is also known as the Grasshopper Chapel. Not long after the first mass was held in the chapel, the grasshoppers disappeared – never to return.

  https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.2uqKAKXJo5GKEVrGSboaKAHaEN?w=321&h=183&c=7&o=5&pid=1.7

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2017/10/mary-and-grasshoppers.html

 To combat droughts, Native Americans in the United States (especially in the Southwest) have engaged in rain dances to encourage nature to provide a little moisture for their crops.

Rainmaking dances are not limited to North America, since they are also used in Africa, China, and Europe.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainmaking_(ritual)

 Cloud seeding was first used in the late 1800’s.

Cloud seeding is a type of weather modification that aims to change the amount or type of precipitation that falls from clouds by dispersing substances into the air that serve as cloud condensation or ice nuclei, which alter the microphysical processes within the cloud. Its effectiveness is debated; some studies have suggested that it is "difficult to show clearly that cloud seeding has a very large effect".^[The usual objective is to increase precipitation (rain or snow), either for its own sake or to prevent precipitation from occurring in days afterward

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_seeding

 Since the hottest 10 years on record have occurred since 2005, drought is very prevalent in the Southwest – and Arizona is not the worst state.

Tucson, Arizona gets 12 inches of rain, on average, per year. The US average is 38 inches of rain per year.

Tucson averages 0 inches of snow per year. The US average is 28 inches of snow per year.

On average, there are 286 sunny days per year in Tucson. The US average is 205 sunny days.

Tucson gets some kind of precipitation, on average, 52 days per year. Precipitation is rain, snow, sleet, or hail that falls to the ground. In order for precipitation to be counted you have to get at least .01 inches on the ground to measure.

At present, Utah is the most drought-stricken state in the nation. Upward of 62 percent of the state is engulfed in “exceptional drought,” the most severe category. The federal government’s U.S. Drought Monitor reports that irrigation water allotments are being cut and that fire restrictions are being tightened. Last year, Utah and Colorado experienced significant wildfire activity.

 

Last year was Utah’s driest on record, with the statewide average of 7.23 inches of precipitation being nearly an inch below the 1956 record.

Amid a devastating drought, Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox (R) declared this Saturday and Sunday a “weekend of prayer,” inviting residents of the Beehive State to join in “collective and collaborative” prayer for rainfall. In a video posted to social media on Thursday, the governor pleaded for “divine intervention,” noting that current rainfall “is not enough.”

The response on social media was largely negative. One user suggested the governor “propose real solutions to real problems,” while others pointed to connections to climate change.

“Thoughts and prayers” have not done a lot in reducing gun violence, so it’s unlikely that asking for divine intervention will do much to solve Utah’s water shortage.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/06/04/utah-governor-rain-prayer-drought/

The 7 states in the Colorado River watershed area have been trying to equitably divide the water from the Colorado River since 1922, and have used a variety of techniques to make that happen. The city of Tucson was one of the first cities in the nation to used reclaimed water for irrigation, starting in 1984. A few people have advocated for building a pipeline to transport water from the Mississippi River to Arizona, but it will likely take decades for that plan comes to fruition.

https://tohell-andback.blogspot.com/2021/05/water-water-everywhere-but-not-drop-to.html

In 1958, a young man named David Seville released a song title, “My Friend the Witch Doctor” which you can listen to at the link below.

 WITCH DOCTOR (David Seville) 1958 original version - YouTube

 The song was released on April 1, 1958, and quickly became a number one hit, and it rescued Liberty Records from near bankruptcy. The song tells the story of a man in love with a woman who initially does not return his affections. Longing for her companionship, the man goes to see a witch doctor for advice. The wise Witch Doctor replies, "oo ee oo aa aa, ting, tang, walla walla bing bang" (a phrase which is repeated three times as the chorus of the song). In the middle of the song, the man tells the woman he loves about his asking the Witch Doctor for advice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_Doctor_(song)

A witch doctor (also spelled witch-doctor) was originally a type of healer who treated ailments believed to be caused by witchcraft. The term is now more commonly used to refer to healers, particularly in regions which use traditional healing rather than contemporary medicine.

Surprisingly, with doctors are more common than you might think. In some parts of the world, they are called shaman.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_doctor

 BBC News reported, on March 12, 2015, that, "More than 200 witchdoctors and traditional healers have been arrested in Tanzania in a crackdown on the murder of albino people. The killings have been driven by the belief – advanced by some witchdoctors – that the body parts have properties that confer wealth and good luck. According to the Red Cross, witchdoctors are prepared to pay $75,000 (£57,000) for a complete set of albino body parts. Nearly 80 albino Tanzanians have been killed since 2000, the UN says. The latest victims include a one-year-old albino boy, killed in north-western Tanzania. The government banned witchdoctors in January as part of its efforts to prevent further attacks and kidnappings targeting people with albinis

You aren’t going to find witch doctors in the phone book, but you DID, the witch doctor MIGHT me able to bring a little rain your way.

 

 

However, if you’d discovered that truth is sometimes stranger that fiction, consider the two pictures shows below:

The first picture is one of a typical witch doctor.

 The second picture is of Jake Agneli (also known as Jacob Chansley) who was at the capital on January 6. He is a self-described QAnon shaman. He is currently being held in jail in Washington, D.C., and is likely facing a lengthy prison sentence – which means he is NOT guy you’d want to go to squeeze some rain from the clouds.

 

You’ll just have to find ANOTHER witch doctor to make that happen.