A lesser man...

Teri Schiavo passed away today. At the same time, Jerry Falwell is on a ventilator and the Pope is being fed through a tube.

Take a moment to think about that. If Michael Schiavo, Judge Grier and a member of the Supreme Court were struck down with serious illnesses religious whack jobs would be jumping for joy and singing hymns. "See! God is punishing these evil men! He is punishing these evil men for disobeying his will".

But none of those people are sick. Instead, the Pope, Jerry Falwell and Teri Schiavo are (or were). A lesser man, a more bitter man, might point and scream "See! God is punishing these people! He is punishing these evil people for disobeying his will!". A lesser man would poke his finger repetitively into the chests of those sign waving, bible quoting, slack-jawed fundies and say "I guess we know who God wants dead now, don't we? You were wrong. There was no miracle. Your wailing and hate-speak did nothing.!!"

But the whole flipping the situation on its head thing doesn't really work here. Although not a Catholic, I generally respect the Pope and much of the work he has done over the years. And Teri was not being punished by God here, she's been released from years of suffering. And Jerry Falwell, well... He's a bloated warthog and I don't feel his passing will really big that big a loss except to those on his payroll.

Maybe the message here is a simple one. Maybe God is speaking to us but like a bad game of 'telephone', the message has gotten horribly garbled. Maybe he's simply reminding us that well all die. That's it. It is inevitable. It's how the system works. No prayers, no medical procedure and no amount of money can change it. We all go sometime. Will these people learn from this farce? Not likely. They'll just keep waving their signs and babbling on about morals and Gods will, which to me is pretty arrogant.

Anyone who says "I think I speak for GOD, when I say that..." is someone who is looking to cause trouble. Stay away from people like this. If God has something really important to say, he can damn well speak for himself using a freakin' pillar of divine fire.

Enjoy your weekend people. Go do something with you wife or husband. Turn off the TV. Go out in the yard and start cleaning out the dead leaves in the garden, there's new flowers just starting to peek out. The cycle starts again, just like its supposed to.

And now for something completely different

Here's alink to an Amazon.com page. Amazon has a neat system where people can list how to do things. Of course, to do these 'things' they're gonna need some 'stuff', which Amazon of course provides. So without further ado:

So you'd like to...kill a dude

I am glad that Amazon.com cares enough to help me inflict my squirrly wrath upon my enemies.

North Carolina

Its a haul, but its no trip to florida. We arrive in good order. Our
space is decent. Setup was trouble-free. This makes me nervous.

The event is held in a fairground that is massive enought to hold the
renfair, a dog show, and some kind of NASCAR event. After setup we
locate food and go see 'million dollar baby' which is oddly timely
considering the Schiavo case in florida. Good film, though I don't know
if it was oscar material.

The weather is threatening and sunday is Easter. We're not holding our
breath about sales. If they're good, they're good. Our competition is
here, carrying some of the corsets we carry. I will delight in crushing
him if at all possible. The guy is a rude jackass. Its too bad punching
people in the hooha is frowned upon in this day and age.

Be prepared

Yesterday was a great sales day. Despite gray skies and cool temps we
did great. We had dinner with the folks from Griffin Works Leather and swapped stories of deadbeat customers and ideas to help our businesses grow. It was suposed to rain last night, and Rossana wasn't feeling good so we
took lodging at a motel. We watched the weather channel as the ominous
green blotch that was an ugly storm moved towards us. No rains
showed themselves.

Today damned gray again, and despite the further threat of rain and
Easter holliday there are poeple here. Its slow, but I don't mind.

BTW the photo is the back of a cheap cd player I bought. I found this
notice when I went to put in the batteries, which is a process I am
fairly familiar with. Why is this sign here? Who gets paid to put this
piece of paper in every player? I wonder about these things...