The Fine Print

It's Wednesday.  Does anybody still refer to it as Hump Day?  Did anybody in their right mind ever think Hump Day would turn out to be a trendy colloquialism and nothing more.  I went to visit my sister yesterday and my niece, who lives at home, was working... at home.  She works for Blue Cross (I think, not Highmark, I know that).  While we were sitting out on the patio talking, I could hear her inside chattering on the phone.  She knows how cruel insurance companies are being to people who get Covid 19.

Evidently there's a large group of Republicans who are flipping for Biden.  This is funny since they are the ones who had no problem with him in 2016.  It was just as obvious 4 years ago as it is today that he's nothing more than a dinglberry from Hell.  Now they're going to have to deal with being call treasonous by that Cracker Jack Crazy Mike Huckabee.  Of course, now everybody realizes he's nothing more than a dingleberry hanging on the ass of the Idiot Jerk in the White House.

And a lot of Cracker Jack Crazies got all giddy yesterday when the Supreme Court said religious schools could be funded by state programs.  Freedom of religion, you know?  They don't understand Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world.  Hinduism is right on its heels.  And Cracker Jack Crazies?  They're just not making the required number of babies to stay in the lead.  Since the Supreme Court used the "freedom of religion" escape clause, Muslim schools and Hindi schools are also included.  However, like most Conservatives, the Cracker Jack Crazies never read the fine print.

The new tank arrived yesterday, as did the pump.  I'm going to order the new heater shortly.  It's going to be an inline heater... one less thing dangling off the back of the tank.  This is what the new tank looks like unpacked.

It wasn't until I sent this picture to my PC that I realized you can see my reflection.  Good thing I was wearing something decent when I snapped it. 

Religion

Today's my day off.  So what if it's Sunday, I've got a full day planned: mowing the lawn before it rains, cleaning and dusting (I've already cleaned the bathroom), picking up 18 pavers (I'm having 3 tons of pea gravel delivered on Wednesday), and a trip to the movies this evening.
Anyway, since to day's Sunday, I thought I say a couple things about Religion.  Last year the Pew Institute came out with their report on world religions.  A lot of Christians were not happy because Islam is over taking Christianity by leaps and bounds.  This is how things go.  Three thousand years ago if you'd told your average Roman citizen their gods would be usurped by a monotheistic religion they'd have called you stupid.  Twelve hundred years earlier, had you said the same thing to an Egyptian, they would have thought the same.  Three thousand years ago, had you said the same thing to a Hindu he would have laughed because they're still around, in fact there are about 1.2 billion of them.  They are the world's 3rd largest religion.  Interesting.

I suspect that two thousand years from now another religion will be taking over the planet, one which is more philosophical and doesn't rely on an end of times.  I always thought that was a mistake, you know?  Revelations?  The more centuries that pass without an apocalypse the weaker the religion grows.  I'm not going to be around in two millennia, but I'll be honest, I'd be interested to see how the advent of space travel and longer life spans effect faith.

Out There

This morning while I was scanning through the Internet I came across this photo of our Universe.  This is, albeit a small section, still it does make one wonder.  For centuries, when mankind looked up, he thought he was seeing only stars and nothing more.  The idea that all of this was out there was totally inconceivable.  The Earth was flat and was the center of the universe and everything revolved around us.  We were chosen.  Religious debate did not even take into consideration we might actually be a very, very small part of something greater.  Had they known this, one can only wonder what Christianity, and Islam, and Buddhism would have looked liked today.  You'll notice I don't include Hinduism because there are certain sections in their Holy Books where there seems to be some sort of awareness.  I don't know if it's Shiva or Vishnu, but one of them claims to be the Destroyer of Worlds.  Many of us find it almost amusing to think of Galileo being jailed for blasphemy for daring to suggest we were not the center.  Of course he recanted and was later proven correct and still nothing changed.

It's filled with galaxies

Even today, with new planets being discovered almost weekly orbiting distant suns, the subject of our being infinitesimally small is never brought up by the devoted.  Their main concern, as always, seems to be to proselytize.  They can't question.  They need to rely on blind faith.  I know people who are extremely religious and if you mention "the Goldilocks Zone" they look at you incomprehensibly, and then they smile because in their minds they've decided that you're a little out there.  They can't concern themselves with the idea that there we are a small planet on the outskirts of the Milky Way Galaxy.  The fact that with all those millions of stars circled by millions of planets means there is the good possibility of life out there might get you a smirk.  As a result, I suspect someday, maybe sooner then later, something is going to happen and they're going to find themselves blind sighted.  They may find themselves horrifically challenged simply because they never took the time to think there might be something else  out there. 

India Censors disenting voices

I read this morning in the New York Times that Penguin Books of India had caved to censorship.  Evidently an 84 year old Hindu Conservative, Dina Nath Batra, had filed a lawsuit against Penguin charging a book they had published in 2011 attacked Hinduism with its vulgarity, among other things. I only know a little bit about Hinduism and have never read the book so I don't know if it's an attack on the religion or not.  I do suspect, however, that in his 84 year old brain Batra's little, grey cells are as pleased as little pigs in shit at their ability to control what the country can read.  If you take a look at those countries who do censor and those who do not you'll see there is quite a difference.  Those that do tend to be either communistic or run by dictators, those that don't tend to be democracies.  I suspect that if Batra had his way he would take India down the road towards dictatorship.  A comment of his in the Chicago Tribune went something like this "we believe in freedom of speech to a certain extent."  That's not a good sign.  I searched through Google images for a picture of Mr. Batra in which he didn't look like a prick.  Couldn't find one.  Nope.  In every single one his visage defined dourness.

A prick by any other name would still be a prick

Here is where it turns into old fool stupidity.  The legal decision was scanned and posted on the Internet so anybody who is even slightly curious now knows that Penguin has 6 months to stop selling the book in India.  So, if you have any interest in reading it's hateful, vulgarities in their fullness you have until July to buy it legally, at that point it needs to be off of the shelves.  Hey, Mr. Batra, have you any idea how long it takes to scan a book into a computer?  I hope he understands that banned books tend to become popular.  People want to read the nasty stuff.  And, once it is no longer available for purchase, copies will get passed around.  It's a good thing Mr. Batra doesn't have any real political clout, other wise we might see police squads bursting into homes searching for illegal volumes. Censorship always fails. The only way to truly enforce censorship is militarily and I don't think the Indian government would want to go that far.  Of course, I don't think it would bother Mr. Batra one bit as long as they were following his beliefs.