With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
The only way to find the limits of the possible is by going past them into the impossible.
June 04, 2009 - 12:45 p.m.
Last night I went to The Drunken Smartass Olympics with Larry and Diana. For the first time ever we finished out of the money. We were near top and Tony who runs it said that most weeks it would have been enough to win but we didn't. Are any of you interested in joining us in the future? Teams can have as many as 5 people on them.
This was my first time there since I moved. It is easier for me to get to now as it is just 3 blocks from the F train. It is amazing how many places are within three blocks from an F train stop. Too bad the place I go to the most often, school, isn't.
I didn't take Ambien before I went to sleep and I didn't sleep through the night. As is often the case that was the fault of my digestive system. I did take Imodium but it didn't last through the night. This morning that proved extra troublesome as when I was trying to get back to sleep I found myself in a depressing line of thought on lost friendships and disturbing patterns in my life. I discovered that something I thought didn't bother me anymore still does.
I'm tempted to write about one of my favorite subjects, religion. The thing is I can't. I can't find a way of putting what I want to say that won't be misinterpreted. Of course that does imply one criticism of religion, it makes people too touchy.
On the non-religious front I found one response particularly disturbing. This is from the NY Times.
But others in the region faulted it. The President, some noted, did not offer any new initiatives, did not lay out a time line for progress towards a Middle East settlement and asked his audience to accept an view which gave equal weight to Israeli and Palestinian concerns.
How can people not see that you can't deal with other people if you feel that your concerns are inherently more important than those of others?
I took political action today about something that has nothing to do with this. If you live in New York State and are reading this there's a good chance you got an email from me today. The New York State Assembly has already passed AB 7732, legalizing gay marriage. The fight is now in the Senate to pass S.4401 - The Marriage Equality Act. The majority, 55%, of New Yorkers support gay marriage but thanks to gerrymandering the vote in the senate will be close. My senator, Malcolm Smith, is the Majority Leader. He said that he supports the bill but will not bring it up for a vote unless he knows it has enough votes to pass. I wrote urging him to bring it up for a vote. In the long run it will pass. Young people overwhelmingly support gay marriage so voting against it will be a political liability. They won't have to pay that price if they aren't force to take a stand by voting. If you live in New York you can go to http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/ny_senate_marriagefax/?r=3741&id=4359-1948590-_OgEqxx and have your letter faxed to your state senator.
This is close enough that direct action can make a difference.
I am not totally comfortable with writing about this to so many friends. With perhaps a few exceptions, everyone I wrote supports gay marriage I'm afraid they might still find it intrusive of me. I try and balance my activism with being a good friend. I write a lot more letters to politicians than calls to action to my friends.
My goal tomorrow is to write something personal and quirky. I have 24 hours to think of something.
If I Only Had The Nerve - June 09, 2009
My New Hood - June 08, 2009
Old Father's Tales - June 07, 2009
Duck Dodgers in the 20th and a Half Century - June 06, 2009
The Hovendile Edda - June 05, 2009
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile June 04, 2009
