This article is a chapter from my recently published ebook with Amazon: “Titbits”

 

“From Toyboy To Playboy?”

More men than than most of us may assume fulfill either one of these categories. Some even fulfill both of them although the categories as such are ideological opposites: A ”toyboy” is supposed to be the sexual plaything of a powerful, elderly woman whereas the classic ”playboy” is a grown man consuming younger, attractive women as sex objects in a ”use them and leave them”-manner. That’s the reason why the general signal values of a ”toyboy” versus a ”playboy” stand for opposite dispositions and behaviors.

However, some individuals jump category over time like in the case of e.g. the Muslim prophet Muhammad. When he was in his early twenties he started out as the toyboy of the clever and very successful merchant Khadijah, who was in her forties and who had been widowed two or three times before she laid eyes on young Muhammad.

Over time he changed from toyboy to playboy when he turned into a sexual consumer of very young women like e.g. Aishah who became his third wife when she was just 6 years old.

It should be noted that just like the clever merchant Khadijah she too played an important part in the success of Muhammad’s teachings. This is a fact that has been overshadowed by the shock of the Western World at getting to know about the consummation of their marriage when she was just 9.

Without Khadijah there wouldn’t be any Islam today as she was instrumental in the very saving of and later propagation of Muhammad’s early teachings which are supposed to have been canalized by the angel Gabriel. As to the grown-up Aisha then she has been portrayed as a scholar, very well-versed in many important topics of the day as well as in the teachings of Islam. 

Cybele

However, long before there even was a Muhammad there were toyboys who stayed that way as nothing about them suggested that they turned into playboys. That said, one shouldn’t forget that toyboys might gain power over those they serve, as for instance one of the Mother Goddesses who were worshipped ages before Yahweh or Allah stepped onto the religious scenery. One of these numerous mother goddesses was Cybele who had a priesthood of eunuchs, i.e. her toyboys: Part of their serving her was self-castration.

Her beloved Attis, who seems to have fulfilled a double role as both her (abandoned) son and her shepherd lover also had castrated himself in order to serve her.

That means that to become a toyboy of an ancient mother goddess like e.g. Cybele you might have to cut off what might impregnate her. That wasn’t the case with ALL mother goddesses, but it was with her, and it sure is an interesting as well as quite thought-provoking historic fact ….

https://www.ajwa.london/product/khadijah-the-story-of-islams-first-lady/

  

https://wikiislam.net/wiki/Qur%27an,_Hadith_and_Scholars:Aisha

 

https://answering-islam.org/Responses/Menj/zaynab.htm

 

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/atd-herkimer-worldreligions/chapter/the-prophet-muhammad/

 

https://www.theoi.com/Phrygios/Kybele.html

 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Playboy

 

Wikipedia

The CLAIM of Holiness

 

The Bible is supposed to be the holiest of anything holy with Christians. However, there are some grave problems with a book that is a patchwork of scriptures, written several hundred years after the eyewitnesses were part of the events. Also, it's a problem that it doesn't contain all the scriptures, as some were deemed "wrong" or "non-acceptable". Others weren't found until later, but one may assume that since they haven't been included when that happened they have been deemed "wrong" too. Strange? No, not really as The Bible has been turned into a useful tool for those in power, and why risk the usefulness by changing the tool? 

People have loved the old myths and legends for centuries, and some even still believe in them, no matter how crazy they are: They are the glue that keeps the Christian faith alive to some people.

The main difference between The Bible and The Koran is the claim that where one is a patchwork, the other isn't: The notion of holiness moves several nooks upwards when one claims that this book is the exact dictation by Allah through the angel Gabriel, and not a patchwork of scripts by people who weren't even eyewitnesses to e.g. the Crucifixion. By being represented as a dictation all of it becomes "The words of God": That sure is a claim that beats heaps of Christian claims!!!

The Bible is sneaky when it comes to its use as a political tool, because it's built on old myths and legends that can't be verified. The Koran, on the other hand, is like a sledge hammer as it's proposed to be the indisputable truth. Muhammad didn't have any witnesses to his talks with Gabriel so everything depends on his name as a prophet: Do we believe him, or don't we believe him? Christians don't accept him as a true prophet, and atheists or agnostics don't believe either of these worldwide faith systems, but they recognize the political use that has been made of them.

 

Breed Into POWER?

 

I often see statements, or just comments, from Muslims living in Western countries, where they were not born, now claiming that they will take over in a few years time by excessive breeding. Not being able to see any advantages or gains to the human race - especially women - on this planet from Islam that's a nigthmarish thought. However, it seems to be true that the number of Muslims in Europe has been growing steadily for quite some time. For instance the time period of mid-2010 to mid-2016 saw a rise of 1% point, namely from 3.8% to 4.9%: A population of 19.5 million grew to 25.8 million.

Islam seems to be the the fastest-growing religion in Europe. According to the Pew Research Center, the European, Muslim population (excluding Turkey) was 30 million in 1990, and 44 million in 2010. How come? Well, as we are well aware Europe has experienced a record influx of asylum seekers from e.g. Syria. However, Muslims of today harbor a belief in the "breeding into power-myth" that may play a role: They are proud of having a higher fertility than other Europeans which they see as the key to gain power in various European countries. Having refugee status allow them, and their families, to stay in Europe, breeding and claiming respect of their religion. Recently some of them have been clamoring for Sharia - or even a Caliphate - in their new, European countries.

The countries that have had this massive immigration by Muslims find that the Islamic newcomers have a lot of very young people of the child bearing age. When people start living longer, they tend to have fewer children, and it doesn't seem unlikely that Islamic populations will start shrinking. Some say this may happen around 2050, but it goes without saying that if breeding has its political perspective and is seen as a way to gain power then that prophecy will not be fulfilled.  
Right now (namely 2022) the global birth rate is 2.4 births per woman with a Muslim birthrate of 2.9. 

Jerusalem 1938

As Islam isn't only a religion, but an obligation to spread the word - and the policy - worldwide I think more and more refugees from The Middle East will find that the welcoming doors of Europe will be closed to them. As they clamor for Caliphates and Sharia, the population of the countries they have swarmed is getting more and more vocal in their protests against more Muslim immigrants. Islamization in Europe may inevitably lead to uproar.

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-8-2017-006320_EN.html

 

 

RelatedWhy is the religion of Islam spreading rapidly throughout the world? 

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/03/us/report-sees-religions-growing-and-shifting-in-next-few-decades.html 

 

 

Wikipedia

 

Romanizing the Patriarchy

I haven't read this book, but the cover tells me it's a romance, which is a genre that doesn't count for much. Well, it's true that as literature it doesn't offer much, but as SOCIAL STUDIES it's a gold mine. Especially if one has some questions as to the fact that most women have been playing along in their own subjection for quite a long time. How come, and why haven't they waged war against the Patriarchy that demeans and robs them of so much?

Many years ago I got interested in this author, Barbara Cartland, not because of her standard as a writer, but because of her numerous books in the romance genre. It has been said that all of them are clones of each other: Read one, and you've read them all. I agree, up to a point, but as it is this very fact caught my attention, especially as this genre also was considered some kind of "narcotics" to young women who seemed to love them and others like them. That made me ask the question WHY???????

Well, my answer to my own question is: They are "Female Power Stories", confirming the readers in their beliefs in their own power WITHIN The Patriarchy they are born into. These beliefs are part of their upbringing, and they need them to fit into the patriarchal society. 

The point in this kind of books is that the main female character gains  power, status, money as well as a handsome husband by operating WITHIN THE PATRIARCHY. That's where the readers are, and they need confirmation in that being the best place for a woman: They don't want to see themselves as victims, but as conquerors and the novels do confirm them in the belief that women may win the gender war that has been going on since the start of The Patriarchy, 8-10,000 years back in time. 

They are well aware that men hold a muscular as well as social upperhand over women, but lo and behold, all of that may be put out of action by some penniless girl if only she is lovely enough to captivate him. In Cartland the poor, but somehow captivating girl, who isn't even a noble-woman, may become a Duchess if that extremely handsome Duke will notice her. Most often these noble heroes - the ultimate catches!!! - suffer from a heart that was broken by a sexy - i.e. "bad"!!! - woman, but that will be remedied by the lovely and virginal heroine. 

The Cartland novels and other romances are "teachings" in patriarchal womanhood as well as in its uses and advantages for women. In many ways it's like the silly American belief in the "Fortune" that will make them endure bad social conditions, exploitation, etc. in the hope that they shall win the LOTTO and thus be able to buy the gold toilet that's, to them, is the ultimate symbol of wealth and status.

 

I haven't read this book, but I take it that it's a romance about a beautiful, brave and alluring woman who enjoys the riches that her slaves have brought her and her family. She probably never thought of the injustice in making slaves of other people, and never for a second did she suspect that she herself was subjected to men. No, most likely she feels that she rules both slaves and men ....

And that's the crux of the matter: Women have their own, more or less hidden, ideologies that run parallel with the male ones that constitute the "general" ideologies of a Patriarchy. These alternate ways of reading certain situations or social settings tie them down, but many of them don't see it that way. 

 

Burried Alive

Reggie and Carol Sumner

To commit a murder may take more than most of us can endure. However, some murderers are even too cowardly to COMMIT MURDER: They ARE killers, but they - sort of - don't kill. How is that possible? Well, being cowards they put the victim in a position that inevitably will kill him or her which I suppose may give the murderer the false impression that in reality they "didn't do anything".  

One of these murderous cowards is Tiffany Ann Cole (Born 1981) who has been found guilty in the kidnapping and murder of Reggie and Carol Sumner in July 2005. They died by being buried alive in a robbery to steal all their money. Tiffany Cole and her three male accomplices had dug their grave before kidnapping the couple which makes it clear that they knew what they were doing as it was planned. Cole was sentenced to death, but in 2023 her sentence was changed into a life sentence (which I for one find very strange).

This case is cruel and has some gruesome details that seem unparallelled, that is until one reads about the murder of the 9 years old Jessica Lunsford.

To lose one's life at nine years old is unfair, especially when it only happens to give a sentenced sex offender a sexual pleasure that wasn't given, but stolen. Jessica disappeared from her room in the middle of the night and there were no traces to follow. Everybody in her community went looking for her and it's a sad fact that she might have been found when the police came to the house where her abductor, John Couey, hid her in his cabin. At that time she was still alive, but she dared not make herself heard so the police went away without finding her.

When she was found it was in a grave, and it was obvious that she had been buried alive with a toy. Before that this disgusting pig had raped her several times which, frankly, is unbearable to think of even now, twenty years later.

The cowardice of Couey made him cruel and he murdered the child in a way he himself may have seen as less cruel, but which in reality was much worse than e.g. shooting her.

 

https://people.com/jessica-lunsford-murder-people-magazine-investigates-boogeyman-8734299 

 

https://eu.jacksonville.com/story/news/crime/2023/08/23/verdict-spares-tiffany-cole-death-in-jacksonville-buried-alive-case/70663608007/ 

 

https://www.cvsa1.com/solved-cases/jessica-lunsford-murder-case/ 

 

Wikipedia

Graves of Prostitutes

 

One might think that Death brings equality to people, no matter whom and what they were before they died, but no, that's not the case. For instance, Tudor England deemed it so very sinful to be a prostitute that the women who had made a living in that profession were excluded from "decent folks": No bone-mixing after death with those who may have been their customers in life!

In Crossbones they had their allotted spots with e.g. paupers and other "non-decent" citizens, and there they lay until 1853 when the churchyard was closed. Later on it was kind of "resurrected" as a memorial place for thoughts and regrets of people who had turned wiser. It has been estimated that it held at least 15,000 graves when it was closed.    

"It's all the women's fault ...." 

Crossbones is only one churchyard for prostitutes, paupers, etc. In some countries prostitutes have made their own graveyards and they themselves tend to them as the "decent" people don't want to have anything to do with them. 

 

https://agraveinterest.blogspot.com/2012/03/closer-look-at-prostitutes-in-cemetery.html 

 

https://crossbones.org.uk/ 

 

https://livinglondonhistory.com/crossbones-the-fascinating-story-of-the-sex-workers-graveyard-on-the-southbank/ 

 

Wikidata: By Matt Brown - https://www.flickr.com/photos/londonmatt/15131959769/, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69515739

 

 

Eternal Life of An AI-ghost

 

Jennifer Ann Crecente (1987-2006) was a lovely, young girl and high school pupil who met several problems when dating, including being murdered by ex-boyfriend Justin Crabbe. After her death e.g. a memorial grant was created in her name as well as legislation was passed in Texas in order to prevent teen dating violence. Actually an impressive legacy of a girl who tragically lost her life to a brute killing by a former boyfriend.

When the murderer was jailed and Jennifer's friends and family had had time to grieve one should imagine that that would be the end of the tragic case, but no, it wasn't: Without the consent of the family Jennifer was sort of resurrected as an AI-generated robot. October 2024 the father of Jennifer had a Google alert that the name and character of his murdered daughter had appeared online as if she had still been alive. There was a profile, a chatbot, etc., but there was no Jennifer as she was as dead as before.  

This "new, artificial Jennifer" whom one might chat with was created on Character.ai and they were forced to close it down. However, the shock of something like that will linger on which makes it obvious that this is a public area that needs to be restricted by laws as soon as possible.

REAL Jennifer 

Wu, Daniel (October 15, 2024). "His daughter was murdered. Then she reappeared as an AI chatbot". The Washington Post.

https://www.digit.in/news/general/ai-raises-dead-2006-murder-victim-recreated-as-chatbot-without-familys-consent.html

 

https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/cltr/ai-daughter.html 

 

Wikipedia

When Muhammad's Daughter-In-Law, Zaynab bint Jahsh, became his wife

When people in The Western countries talk of Muhammad's wife they most often think of Aisha, the 6 years old girl, he married, "consummating their marriage" when she was nine. However, he had 13 wives, and No. 7 is kind of special. Her name was Zaynab bint Jahsh and she was not only his cousin, but also his daughter-in-law as well as his wife. 

HOW is that even possible??? Well, Zaynab was the daughter of the sister of Muhammad's father and thus his first cousin. She was born in 590 and died in 640/641 as one of the widows of Muhammad who had died in 632, her third husband. Little is known about the first one who seems to have died in 622, but No. 2, Zayd Ibn Harithah, started out as the slave that had been a gift from Muhammad's first wife, Khadijah. Muhammad never had a biological son which may be the reason why he adopted this slave and made him his son. Maybe he married him off to his cousin, Zaynab, to boost his status in society, but the legend is that all of a sudden Muhammad was beset by the beauty and sex appeal of his cousin + daughter-in-law, Zaynab, and poor Zayd ended up in a very, very hot spot which he tried to get out of by divorcing his wife. Not that it saved his life because it didn't: He was sent off on a military mission that (was meant to???) end with his death. 

What also died was the Muslim adoption system as all of a sudden it was not seen as acceptable.

As to Zaynab she was a skilled tanner by profession and went on in her trade, both before and after the death of Muhammad. However, she also seems to have been a great humanitarian as she was reputed to have given away all her profits to the poor of Medina and always having a heart for those in need.

 

https://neareasternstudies.cornell.edu/node/9478 

 

Wikipedia

 

Napoleon and The USE of Religion

 

People practicing  religion - Christian or whatever - get pleasure in associating with a special community, that welcomes them as "one of us". They look at history and cultural trends and feel a bond that enriches their life. However, that doesn't mean that they are religious in the Biblical sense that they've read, understood and agree with EVERYTHING in The Bible. To them religion isn't a question of teachings, but of traditions and a church that makes it possible for people to "be together" in the "safety" of an assumed equality. 

Most of them may not even understand the meaning of what Naploen said although it's common knowledge to those who don't have any affiliation with a church-community. Religion is a means of power because it upholds the system as it is in a very smart manner: Those who are repressed do the repression themselves as they don't fight it in the hope of getting their reward after death. Matthew 20:16: "So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen."

A very, very ingenuous system even though the Matthew-quote may not have been read the way it was said. Those who need consolation for awful lives will take the first part of it at face-value: My oppressors or even tormentors are being punished after death (Hail, that lovely HELL!!!!!!) while I  shall "sit by the side of Jesus" in glory and supreme happiness.  

 

Hitler and other Nazi scumbags visiting the grave of Napoleon in 1940

Napoleon became the Emperor of France, but in reality he was more like a dictator who gained power because no one stopped him.

Yes, even Napoleon was defeated, just like most of those "strong men" of our time.

Just like most of them he too ended up beaten and robbed of the power he had gained which, of course, was seen as an instance of "God's Will" by those religious people he had mocked.

Religion is what the sense of "Shame" is to moral, but non-religions people: It's the teacher within as well as the inherited and built-in guardsman that keeps us from behaving "badly" ....

 

The Woman Who Lived a Life in Disguises

 

Sarah Emma Edmonds (1841-1898) was born in Canada to a mother who seems to have doted upon her and a father who may have resented her for not being a boy. When she was 15 years old her abusive father tried to marry her off, so she decided to run away to hide from her family. She went to USA all by herself and then she turned into Franklin Thompson, at first pretending to be a bible salesman and then a bookseller from Michigan.

However, Sarah Emma was a strong supporter of the Union, so she made use of her male "pseudonym", Franklin, and joined the army, at first as a nurse, but later on as a spy.

In order to infiltrate the Confederate camp she once more changed her identity and became Cuff, a black man, by using silver nitrate to blacken her skin. People from the camp soon picked her up for work, but what they didn't know was that "Cuff" was all ears and spying eyes. In a few days she found out a lot about the Army, it's decoys and plans. When she escaped and returned to those she supported she had a lot of useful information, thus proving her worth as a spy. All in all she took part in eleven spy missions, some in new disguises, and at the end of the war (1865) she published a popular fictional account of her exploits as a spy.

 

 

In 1867 she married. At that time she had achieved full recognition and, as the only woman, was grafted a military pension from the Civil War. When she died in 1898 she was buried with honors at Washington Cemetery in Texas.

 

Wikipedia

Skinned Alive

 

OK, animals may eat their prey alive, and we shudder at the thought, but then THEY DON'T KNOW BETTER and Ethics are not part of their being, not even as a pretence. For that kind of ideas we have to go to our own breed: Only humans KNOW that certain actions are against all written and unwritten laws of decency. Actually, that may be the very reason they do the unthinkable as e.g. skinning people alive: It's so cruel that some people like e.g. the Assyrian warriors who are skinning a couple of prisoners in this ancient rendering of the "event" would choose it as their way of execution.

Skinning seems so awful, so unthinkable that it's logical that a man like murderer Ed Gein and his obsession with women's skin stand out. However, his victims were dead which takes the extra cruelty of the torture out of it. Some were not even murdered by him, as he became a sort of grave robber who harvested parts of dead and buried women. Still, it seems exceedingly cruel and demeaning.

As to a modern day equivalent of the Assyrian cruelty there is one instance which stands out: The live skinning of the Polish university student Katarzyna Zowada (1975–1998). She went missing on November 12, 1998, but January 6, 1999, it was known what had happened to her as her empty skin was found. It had got caught in the propeller of a tug boat.

The investigation proved that she had been skinned alive, and that her skin had been turned into a suit that had been worn by the murderer for some time. Many experts - also from FBI - came to Poland to try to solve the case, but it took 19 years to make an arrest. Before that there had been a suspect who had been seen in a mask made of his murdered father's facial skin. He was charged with murdering his father, and many thought that he had also killed Katarzyna, but there was no evidence. Anyway, he was sentenced to jail, but the Katarzyna-case went cold until 2012.

 

Nineteen years after the murder (and torture) of Katarzyna, the by then 52-year old Robert Janczewski was arrested. He knew her and had a history of harrassing women and he also had had a job in a dissecting lab where he dealt with human corpses. 

What made him do what he did? Your guess is as good as mine, as he didn't tell WHY .... I for one would also like to know WHY The Court of Appeal found him NOT guilty on 31st October 2024 thus turning this gruesome case into something VERY confusing. (I suppose it's easier for Poles to find more about the case than for anyone outside of Poland ....)

^{https://allthatsinteresting.com/flaying} 

 

^{https://www.krakow.sa.gov.pl/komunikat-dotyczacy-wyroku-sadu-apelacyjnego-w-krakowie-z-dnia-31-pazdziernika-2024-r-wydanego-w-sprawie-roberta-j-sygn-akt-ii-aka-39223,new,mg,281.html,1181} 

 

^Wikipedia

 

 

 

Warring A Dead Body

I find it very strange that some people use the word "body" or "it" about someone who died. To me it's obvious that each individual keeps his/her identity even though they are dead. As it is I'm not blind to the possibility that this way of dehumanizing someone by changing the way they are described is a way of protecting oneself from the knowledge of one's own mortality. However, some, like e.g. Shayanna Sims, who took it upon herself to "teach the corpse of her husband's ex-girlfriend a lesson", clearly didn't see death as a safe haven for the deceased: The dead woman wasn't protected against her desires for revenge even in her casket at the funeral home. 

The beautiful Tabatha Lynch (to the right) had died of natural causes in 2015 at the age of 38, and Shayanna Sims hated her for (presumably) having an affair with her (ex-)husband, Montie Smith. They had been lovers in their teens before Montie Smith, even met her and he denied the allegations of the affair. Still, Shayanna Sims, went on a revenge spree, slashing the corpse, cutting her hair off, removing body parts and stealing her jewelry after cheating her way into her home. Dead or alive, she was "the enemy"!

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/woman-corpse-face-slash-america-17348604

https://www.newson6.com/story/63fd7b1b012b78736f5c4a0a/woman-back-in-jail-after-being-released-due-to-supreme-court-ruling

https://www.newson6.com/story/618c17266926630c3715cffe/tulsa-woman-convicted-of-desecrating-a-corpse-has-conviction-overturned-by-scotus-tribal-ruling

https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/legally-weird/what-are-the-penalties-for-desecrating-the-dead/

 

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article146492954.html 

 

https://www.pressreader.com/uk/chat/20180913/281599536384013

 

 

The Woman Who Stopped Speaking

Adele Hugo (1830-1915) was the daughter of a very famous author who gave life to literary characters that are loved even today, Victor Hugo (1802-1885). He was very versatile as he wrote in several genres, but today he is best known for his novels, "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" and "Les Miserables": 

One of his daughters, Adele, met a weird - and sad - fate when she decided to turn her back on the world, so to speak. Her father was famous for his special gift of communication through his works, but she stopped communicating altogether after experiencing an unhappy love affair.

In 1850 she was found in a miserable condition in New York and as she didn't seem to understand questions about her identity, her health, and so on she was hospitalized for amnesia. However, somehow it was found out that she was a daughter of Victor Hugo who had been seduced and then abandoned by the English soldier Albert Pinson. Alone in a foreign country with nothing to sustain herself with she, very understandably, was in shock. Also she, as a woman, felt humiliated which may be the reason why she decided never to communicate again after returning to France: She most likely didn't want to discuss what had happened, not even with her father. For 65 years she kept silent, never looking for another love.

 

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-english-lieutenants-frenchwoman-the-tragic-story-of-adele-hugo/ 

 

Wikipedia

 

 

Money And Fate

Now and then a treasure of age-old coins and jewels is found in the ground, both here in Denmark or somewhere else. Some of these treasures are very rich and the one who buried them in the ground must have set real store by them. Unfortunately, he or she didn't get the chance to retrieve it or to tell about it to someone he or she trusted which means that it will end up in a museum, not even as the first one of its kind, but as one out of several. 

I wonder what happened to the owners of the treasure. Did they perish, e.g. succumb to sickness or get killed in a war? The most likely scenario is full of some kind of violence, either by nature or by humans, something that disrupted the lives of these owners who buried the treasure in order to keep it safe. Anyway, what happened was that the owners buried the treasure in the belief that they would be saved from the catastropies that threatened them, but sadly enough they were mistaken.

 

 

The whole family may have lost their social status once and for all by not knowing where this treasure was hidden. Someone who had lived a life in leisure at the top of society may have ended at the bottom. Perhaps the master became a servant/slave and the mistress became a servant, slave or even prostitute. Oh yes, that happened many times in history as these upheavals dug deep into the social layers, century by century. The rich got poor and thus the master became the slave. We ourselves may be the children of someone who experienced something like this themselves and we may also be the parents of someone who is about to experience the same now or in the future.

 

A friend of one of my late friends was the great-great-grandson of a man who was out of a very wealthy family, but he himself lost most of his money and nobody seemed inclined to help him out because he was such a squandering guy that he seemed quite hopeless. As it is, it turned out that he had his special nest egg, i.e. a lottery ticket which he was sure would come out with a large sum. He set all his hopes to this lottery ticket and when he was disappointed in these hopes he shot himself. That's not only sad, it's stupid, even more sad and stupid than burying one's riches in the ground without telling someone about it. 

Whom Should A Christian Chose To Support?

A beautiful picture of someone who - HOPEFULLY!!!! - is going to become a beautiful human when born

Recently I found one of my older notes from Facebook and it set my brain aflame: Someone - i.e. Pastor Dave Barnhart of the Saint Junia United Methodist Church in Birmingham, Alabama - presumably made a very wise utterance about the obligations of Christians in 2018. In these days of American misogyny when women are left to die of gynaecological causes following new insane rules his words offer a new angle to the subject of Christianity that really is needed:

"“The unborn” are a convenient group of people to advocate for. They never make demands of you; they are morally uncomplicated, unlike the incarcerated, addicted, or the chronically poor; they don’t resent your condescension or complain that you are not politically correct; unlike widows, they don’t ask you to question patriarchy; unlike orphans, they don’t need money, education, or childcare; unlike aliens, they don’t bring all that racial, cultural, and religious baggage that you dislike; they allow you to feel good about yourself without any work at creating or maintaining relationships; and when they are born, you can forget about them, because they cease to be unborn. It’s almost as if, by being born, they have died to you. You can love the unborn and advocate for them without substantially challenging your own wealth, power, or privilege, without re-imagining social structures, apologizing, or making reparations to anyone. They are, in short, the perfect people to love if you want to claim you love Jesus but actually dislike people who breathe."

Well put, and as we know, The Bible tells Christians to offer help to "the poor", "the widows", "the orphans", and "the sick" who are people who have been born and live among us .... 

 

Yup, that we should ....