A watched pot never boils.

Of course it does. Apply sufficient heat and the liquid will come to a boil. Watching has nothing to do with it. Old adages try to express something important. In the above case, patience. But, in the above case, the lesson is taught using an inaccuracy, a lie.

The Constitution of the United States needs to be re-written in text message abbreviations and emoticons. It may be the only way the younger generation will have the patience to read it, and the ability to comprehend it

Boston. A burp in the day. America yawned and turned back to a 2-hour episode of THE VOICE. We rarely examine our meddling in the affairs of others to be a problem, and we rarely think that other nations can't see the hypocrisy that underlines much of our public discourse.

Justin Bieber, still young, wrote a comment in the guest book at the Anne Frank museum, saying that if she were alive, she might also be a Bielieber.  He's getting criticism for that comment. Really? Is that all our people can think of to be critical of? Not war? Not hunger? Not a congress gone amok? Not corporate creed? Not bigotry? Not discrimination?

I am anxious to see what the black robes do with gay marriage rights. Will Clarence Thomas uphold traditional marriage? His people had to jump a broom to be married, and still that marriage could be destroyed if the Massa sold one of them to some other slave ower. In Thomas's lifetime, it wasn't legal for a black and white couple to get married. That was "traditional" marriage reality for Thomas and his present wife.

Critics on the right and the left now say that Sam Brownback's tax plan is the worse one in the nation. Finally, Brownback got his wish. We are #1 on the loser's list.

Good Friday, April 14, 1865. That was Abraham Lincoln's last full day. The day ended badly. Lincoln was shot while attending a performance of Our American Cosin, at Ford's Theater, in Washingto, D. C. He would be dead by 7:22 in the morning, April 15th.

The Un-Civil War was winding down. Lee surreneder his forces to General Grant at Appomattox Court House, on April 9th. Joseph E. Johnson was still fighting in the Carolinas. He would surrended to Grant on April 16, 1965, and the war would be over.

Almost 150 years later, Americans are still trying to prove we havew the biggest dicks.

Herewith a classic double entendre. It's the last sentence that can be read in either of two ways

I didn't write this, but I sure as hell wish I had.

"Having legalized gay marriage and marijuana on the same day, the state of Washington appears to be adhereing to biblical principle - where it reads in Leviticus that if two men lie together they may be stoned."

Spring at my house, April 10, 2013

 

"All the kind people have a dream: Margaret on the guillotine."  Morrissey

Letters from The Wichita Eagle, April 10, 2013

Logical policy

Politicians swear on the Bible. The Bible clearly teaches that life begins at conception, as is found in Luke 1 and 2 (God becomes man and dwells among us) among many other passages. It seems logical, therefore, for politicians to affirm that life begins at conception.

JEROME SPEXARTH

Pastor

St. Patrick Catholic Church

Wichita

 (JRM Comment: I would expect noting less from a pastor of a Catholic church, or any other Christian Church.

The issue is when does life begin. We don’t have that answer in the bible, not really. Do we know when Jesus was conceived? Hell! We don’t even know when he was born - the month, date or year. The gospel writers don’t even let us know what day he died.

Even if you believe in a sky daddy, how did that entity seduce, rape and impregnate the innocent, teenaged girl? Did he marry her? Answering that question will tell us if Jesus was legitimate or illegitimate. If Mary and Sky Daddy were wed, what was she doing being Betrothed to Joseph, and if she later married Joseph, was she committing adultery and bigamy?

Did Jesus have a belly button? Did he need one? Adam didn’t. Eve didn’t. I guess I’m not in god’s image, because god’s imaged folk didn’t have an umbilicus, and I do.

Government has no business inside anyone’s womb!

*****

Ethical quandary

The Legislature recently passed a bill stating that life begins at fertilization. Thus, a zygote is technically a protected entity.

I find this definition of life biologically and – most important – philosophically suspect. The problem is that those who are certain where life begins are unclear as to where life ends. Put simply: What is to become of the fetus that is not born and does not miscarry, yet refuses to go away?

Take the existence of parasitic twins – clumps of biological refuse with separate DNA. Indeed, these share many of the same characteristics of an undeveloped fetus: separate genetic structure, separate biological system and inextricably dependent on its host. People who rail against abortion will have no qualms about having a mass of alien tissue or clumps of foreign teeth or hair removed.

This points up a larger ethical quandary: Much bandwidth, ink and television hours have been devoted to homilies about the sacred status of the brainless zygote and the mindless embryo. Who will speak up for the autosite, the fetus in fetu or even the vestigial limb?

Until this problem is addressed, I find the “life at conception” position impossible to take seriously.

RYAN JACKSON

Wichita

(JRM Comment: T’aint the only problems. I wish this were a national law. I’d sue for nine months back social security payments. And, I’d invent a device that would determine the precise instant sperm and eggs have a match-up. And another device to determine how many of those match-ups are aborted by the sky fairy, himself.)

*****

Answered prayer?

Are Muslim prayers answered any more often than Christian prayers?

ROGER PEACH

Wichita

(JRM Comment: Prayers can never answered by a non-existent sky daddy, no matter by what name you call him. What we perceive as answered prayer is the same thing we experience when we buy a lottery ticket and win three bucks. It let’s us know that lottery tickets can and do win. This is called intermittent reinforcement; sometimes we win so we keep on trying. Prayer works the same way. Sometimes what we pray for comes to pass. But that is just random chance, not evidence of a sky daddy. But, dumb as most people are, we claim the unanswered prayers are sky daddy deciding against us for his own sovereign reasons. Few stop to consider that prayers aren’t answered because there is no one to answer them.)

I changed my banner. BTW, that was sent to the Wichita Eagle as an opinion. It was published in today's paper.

Another opiner wrote: "There is no evidence that people are born homosexual. No genectic cause has ever been found. Why would god create homosexuality and then condemn i? Atheists want us to believe god created sin."

(JRM Comment: There is a great deal wrong with this opinion, the most glaring mistake is thinking their is a god. Atheists would be happy if you'd put your invisible friend behind you, forget all superstitions, and join us that the grownup's table.)

Yet another gem: "For all you evolution nonbelievers: Take a trip to Washington, D.C., and look at all the politicians "evolving" on gay marraige. It would make Charles Darwin proud."

This morning, my friend Larry and I saw in the paper that Darlene Gillespie was having a birthday, her 72nd. Darlene was always Larry's favorite. My favorite was Annette Funicello. She and I were both born on October 22, 1942.

Annette died today. She'd suffered from MS since 1987.

The Mouseketeers were a wonderful part of my life in the 1950's. I'm just a little weepy tonight.

Britain's Ronnie Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, is dead. She had an agenda, and against many odds, she was able to achieve so much of her vision. I just never admired her vision.  I did admire her courage and determination.

I'm old. I expect to forget small things. There are things that routinely go missing from my coffee table - nail clippers, a pen or pencil, a small screwdriver which I had used to fix some loose screw or other.

*****

I shrug at missing things, consider that I put them back in their proper place, and simply have forgotten doing so.

This morning, while checking emails, I caught Miss Dolly Dalrymple playing with a toy and trying to push the toy under the chest that resides in the hallway.

Holy revelation, Batman! The toy turned out to be my toothbrush. The little imp had been on the sink in the bathroom, She spotted the toothbrush and decided it would make a great toy.

I took command of the situation, rescued my toothbrush, then looked under the chest. There I found a pen, a pencil, a screwdriver and a myriad of other small objects.

*****

Yesterday, I bought a new lawnmower. Too lazy to take it to the garage, I put it in the living room. I wanted to examine the mower, determine where the oil reservoir and gas lank were located, etc. It was dark outside. I didn't want to get the mower in the garage in the dark. It would be fine inside over-night.

The cats - ever territorial - were curious about this new object in their play area. They don't like flash bulbs, so I had to take pictures without a flash.

Above: A fuzzy Miss Pumpkin and a fuzzy Miss Dolly

Above: Miss Dolly. Look up mischief in the dictionary ...

Wichita State lost to Louisville in what looked like a pre-determined outcome, but probably wasn't.

At&T wrote a bill which is bound to become law. In the interest of smaller government, I suggest corporations write all bills, and each state - and the federal government, eliminate congress and simply appoint a single person in each state, and in Washington, to rubber stamp each bill. This would make government more efficient.

The average Joe (and Jane) doesn't seem to care over-much about those natty little inconveniences, such as voting. As an examle:

Sedgwick County, Kansas.

Registered voters 274,302

Final vote tally 16,968, in the April 2, 2013 General Election.

That is 6.1858827%.

It’s more impressive when rounded up to 6.19%