Month: March 2011
Posted on March 30, 2011
Who’s Your Spiritual Daddy?
I recently read an article that challenged its readers with a quiz. Taking violent verses out of the Koran and Bible, the challenge was to name the source for the verse. The object of course was to prove that all religions are inherently evil – at least I think that was the point.
I do agree that individual verses without context can be twisted to mean just about anything. If we are drawing a comparison strictly between Christianity and Islam, there is a much better comparison – look at the founder and the fruit. There is a major difference between the life of Christ and the life of the prophet. Islam was spread almost exclusively by violent attacks and has been at war with civilization for over 1400 years – wiping out Christians, Jews, Hindus and other faiths in their path. For a good chronology of the spread of Islam click here and here. Rape, murder and violence were established as acceptable behavior from the very beginning and have continued into the present day.
Updated on August 19, 2022
My Many Nicknames
I made a decision many years ago to only call people by the name they gave me – unless of course I gave them a nickname. This was the result of the many nicknames, some not so nice, I was given through the years. Here is a short list of some of them. It would take an entire book to reproduce them all.
Jolly Green Giant – At 10 lbs 1 oz, I was one of the biggest bundles of joy to ever hit Good Shepherd Medical Center at the time of my birth. The nurses gave me this name and told my parents that all I needed was a social security number and a pair of overalls and I could go right to work.
Posted on March 9, 2011
Melissa Mars
Foreign languages have also been a hobby of mine. I am not fluent in any particular one. Well, I guess I do OK with English. I studied German for three years in high school. I took French one semester in college, as well as a half year of French in 7th grade as part of an advanced studies course. I have also had to work with many translators and foreign coworkers (Finnish, Japanese etc) over the years, so picking up a few words here and there has been pretty common. But mastery has alluded me. But I still like to try and decipher the meanings of songs I like.
Having given that long introduction, its on to the meat of this post. I came across a video by a French artist, Melissa Mars, and really enjoyed it. So I began looking up some of her other work. Some of it was really good, and of course some not so great. But the more I investigated, the more I became a fan. I especially enjoyed her work on a rock opera based on the life of Mozart that is running in French-speaking countries.
If you think you might be interested in this, you can learn more about her and see many of her videos at Melissa Mars. I hope you enjoy.
Updated on January 30, 2022
Thou Shalt Not Wear Short Skirts
When Religion Goes Bad
I was doing some research for a writing project based on Psalm 22. This is the Psalm quoted by Jesus on the cross. In it, David, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, vividly reveals in precise detail some of the events surrounding the crucifixion of Christ. This is centuries before the actual event and hundreds of years before crucifixion was even widely practiced. It is an amazing Psalm, but I digress a bit.
I came across a sermon that was quite good. But then, a third of the way through, the preacher goes off on a tangent on girls wearing short skirts, revealing attire, makeup, dancing etc. I stopped at that point.
