Saturday, 11 April, 1998 07:02
I had a very short night, went to bed at 02:30 and here I am... I got up at 06:00.
There is a dearth of reading material in our bathroom right now, and I picked up one of Karens' magazines, Ladies Home Journal, April 1998. On page 40, there is an article entitled, Are there really Angels?
One of the principles interviewed was Dr Laura Schlessinger, described as "the superstar radio psychotherapist". In the first paragraph, she pisses me off twice; the first thing that she says is that she was brought up without religion; she was brought up with moral principles, but they weren't based on anything, so they were negotiable.
"What a load of bullshit!" thinks I; first, she equates having no religion with having no moral principles. However, she was lucky enough to have some! Furthermore, they had to be based on something, like thousands of years of civilization... people living together in this world. But the fact that they "weren't based on anything", meaning religion, meant that they were negotiable, unlike those moral principles of religious people, which are not negotiable, and are therefore unassailable, since they come directly from god.
But wait! It gets better!
A few sentences later, she describes her return to her "heritage". She and her five-year-old son were watching TV, when they were showing some kind of holocaust film, and the Nazis were executing women and children. The son asks her what's happening, mom, and she says, "They're murdering Jews". Her son turns to her and says, "What are Jews?", and she tells him, " Our people". So this gives her the idea that it was time to claim her heritage.
"because, frankly, without religion, life has no meaning".
And I thought to myself, "That's exactly what the Nazis thought about the Jews, you stupid bitch!"
How can someone with a psychiatric degree not see the very foulness of her own lack of logic? How can anyone who is even literate not see it? Is it any wonder that I have a major problem with religious people and their way of thinking?
I find it really hard to believe that my life has no meaning, and is therefore worthless, while hers is wholly worthwhile. Hers, and everyone else who thinks like she does. Of course, this excludes everyone but a minority of Jews.
I must admit that I did not read further in the article. Therefore I will never know whether or not there are angels.
Like I give a shit.
I did have a quite satisfactory bowel movement, though.
The preceding was sent to: drlaura@ktsa.com
More from me later, after it happens...
Saturday, 11 April, 1998 18:27
Ahhh... nothing much has happened...
I spent about an hour on the net, reading up on Dr. Laura. The gist of it is that she's a PhD Psychologist with a radio show who is trying to make herself into a right-wing icon. She has just about as many people against her as for her, according to the sites that are out there. She gets herself in trouble a lot for saying stupid things, it seems to be one of her many talents.
But being the female Rush Limbaugh is probably making her rich... go figger.
After my early start this morning I petered out rather quickly. I got the swing back together after applying another coat of stain to it. Andy and Drew came over for a while, it was good to see them. We don't see nearly as much of Drew as we would like to, Karla has a big family and they seem to get the bulk of his time. He has acquired the unfortunate habit of calling everyone "butthead" but I'm sure that this will be beaten out of him. He's a cute little kid otherwise.
So... everyone left, and I took a nice long nap from noon until 17:45... that should do me well into the night.
When Karen got back, she had all of the grandkids over for an easter-egg coloring party. And doggone it, I slept clear through it! I do have the worst luck...
Karen is having everyone over tomorrow for the ritual spring celebration with the ham and all. The Harrisons ( Steve's folks) will be bring the ham. I am looking forward to getting a lot of computer work done, being the anti-social person that I am.
Sometimes, lately, I have enjoyed these family gatherings... but mostly I don't, for various reasons. One reason is that I think that I'm a little jealous... I would love to be surrounded by my family, but that is pretty well logistically impossible. Another reason is that I instinctively dislike crowds, even small ones. Another reason is that the booze will be freely flowing.
So anyway... right now, I'm going to take the trash out and get out the power washer and clean the front deck. Tomorrow I'm going to go get a bunch of stain and work on the back deck. I've decided to stain that beautiful redwood, maybe keep it from rotting for a few more years...
Have a happy weekend!