In ancient times, in most civilizations, many gods of both genders were created by humans to try to explain the inexplicable.  Some of them had flaws much like the humans who invented them. In Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Nordic countries, etc, gods were plentiful and they all had their areas of responsibility.

The Abrahamic religions, by contrast,  pushed the scary idea of one all-powerful, punitive, male god  and creator who was perfect. It seems that with both theology and conceit, man’s soaring imagination and wishful thinking knows no limits.

The ancient Egyptians believed that when you died, you went to the Hall of the Dead. There Anubis weighed your heart against the feather of Ma’at. Ma’at, the goddess of justice, sat on top of the scales to make sure that the weighing was carried out properly. Anubis is shown steadying the scales to make the weighing fair. If your heart was lighter than the feather if meant that you had lived an exemplary life and had done good things. Your reward was that you lived for ever! Who in their right mind would want to? Can you imagine what your coffee would taste like after having had it each morning for two million years? Boring!

Continue reading →

I hope that this post won’t upset you, I really do, but you need to face the truth about this world and its values. You are worth nothing but your car is!

Now I know you’ll demand that I provide proof of this unfortunate state of affairs and I will. First of all, your car has value. You’ll realize that when you go to insure it (but not when it comes to an insurance payout should you damage it). Then try and get a valuation on yourself. No one will value you because you have no value! There are six and a half billion others almost exactly like you and they’re worth nothing either!

Next, look at your car. In the main, it has better accommodation than many of the world’s people. It gets serviced regularly whereas many of the world’s people get no servicing at all from doctors, dentists, etc. Your car, especially if it’s a prestige one, get washed each week, dried off lovingly, vacuumed, polished, whereas many of the world’s people have no clean water to drink let alone wash in.

Continue reading →

Friends, this breaking news item will knock your socks off! According to Professor Shlomo Reinbergerman of Tel Aviv University, the biblical account of the geographical position of the State of Israel is in doubt.

Yes, new scrolls found in the desert near the West Bank suggest that Israel is not where it currently is. No, Professor Shlo says it is a regrettable error but the actual position of the Israel of biblical times is either in Texas or in  Spain (where the rain falls mainly on the plain). He said it happened during the great flood when the Ark apparently drifted off course following a change in the following winds.

Apparently the Israelis are in turmoil having spent sixty years settling in Palestine where they have caused a great deal of unpleasantness to the inhabitants who, without compensation, were rudely thrown off their land where they’d been living for many centuries. This unpleasantness is described by the locals as the Nacbah or Catastrophe.

Continue reading →

Friends, since last November the world has watched in horror the grinding process that is euphemistically called ‘The American Presidential Election’. Yes, for months the hot topic on our television sets has been the battle between the forces of darkness and the forces of…well, darkness.

We have watched nasty debates, endless speeches, reports by billions of ‘experts’, seen graphs and figures that are difficult to figure, heard about delegates and super-delegates ad nauseum (does anyone know the difference?), watched countless exit polls, etc. Quite frankly, we who live in the real world  (the one that isn’t manufactured by Hollywood) are bored out of our cotton-pickin’ minds.

The personalities of the three major contenders have been analysed, over-analysed, under-analysed. Their dress sense has been reviewed, their teeth-cleaning examined, their smile-rate has been tabulated, their niceness rated, their nastiness established, their morality scrutinised, and their suitability to be President has been gone over with a fine tooth-comb. The result? Where is Donald Duck, for Christ’s Sake? Why isn’t he here when you need him?

Continue reading →

The photograph shows some lions killing a buffalo. Killing is a common occurrence among meat-eating animals known as carnivores. You’ll agree, it is not a pretty sight. Of course, most humans are carnivores.

After the kill is made the lions will gorge themselves on the still-warm, twitching carcase. The vultures and hyenas will follow and clean up any scraps. If you stop to think about it, right across the world: on land, under the oceans, in the air, as you read this there are billions of creatures killing others for food.

It is a non-stop activity, killing, and the scale of it is massive. Usually it’s the larger creatures who prey on the smaller but, in the case of animals that hunt in packs,  much larger prey can be brought down. Lions can kill elephants! Sharks can kill whales! Even ants can overcome much larger insects. And humans, with their superior weapons, can kill anything that moves and in large numbers. Sadly, that includes their own kind (although not usually for food).

Continue reading →

     "By Their Works Ye Shall Know Them."

This breathtakingly beautiful photograph of rice fields in China seems to contrast strongly with the vista seen from the residences of most people in the Western world. They, poor souls, in the main live in polluted concrete, glass and plastic jungles. Mostly, they look at a sprawl of houses and street lights.

In these noise-filled ghettos there are some homes on individual lots (‘Little Boxes…made out of Tickytacky…’) but, because of overpopulation (which gives rise to suburban sprawl which, in turn, makes commuting difficult) and the high cost of land and building, the trend is moving more towards town houses and high rise apartments.

The result is that more and more people are jammed into a smaller and smaller space which brings with it crime and stress and the need for police, etc. They move from their home to work in small air-conditioned offices where the sound of birds and the wind in the trees or the scent of flowers or the warmth of the sun never penetrates.

Continue reading →

I was watching CNN this morning and, following yet another item about the Austrian father who imprisoned his daughter for 24 years and had seven children with her another item revealed that, elsewhere, three babies had been discovered in a basement freezer among the pizzas.

It appeared that the mother had the children one by one in her bath then…well, because my hearing is not so good I didn’t get to hear all the details…but knowing all the details about what humans do to each other is not such a good thing.

Then there followed more details about American missiles killing more Iraqi civilians, then a segment on the continuing pretense that America is being an honest broker in the M.E., then food riots in Somalia, then Wall Street had gone down, then another suicide bomber had struck…  I turned the television off, filled with revulsion.

Continue reading →

Folks, I was floored this morning when I read this report on Al Jazeera. It fair took the wind out of my sails.

It seems that Abbas and his illegal government (Hamas was democratically elected, remember) is putting together a security force that will work with the IDF to keep the peace in the West Bank city of Jenin, the one where an infamous IDF massacre took place. The AFP photograph shows them setting up their new quarters. Nablus already has such a force it appears.

Now, I’m used to irony happening in this part of the world but surely this must be the greatest piece of irony that has occurred during the long struggle of the Palestinians to free themselves from their brutal forty-year occupation. Yasser Arafat  must be writhing in his grave at this further sell-out to the Israelis.

So all you freedom fighters in the West Bank, be warned. Abbas and his new militia will arrest you if you are seen fighting for your country and your freedom so you’d better take up knitting!

Continue reading →

In Australia, as elsewhere in the world, there is a strong push by some in the gay community to be married (using the full heterosexual meaning of the word) and either to have children via IVF or be able to adopt children. I find it a confusing issue!

The current government has already signaled that same-sex couples living together will shortly be able to register their union and this makes things like super, wills, hospital visits, etc, easier. This is a good thing. But the question I would ask is: why do gay couples want to go further and completely emulate heterosexual couples?

Continue reading →

While Americans dither around trying to elect a new President to replace the World’s Dumbest, Most Dangerous Leader, the answer to their country’s dire political mess lives to the south, in Venezuela!

Yes, folks, Hugo, the darling of the South,  is the answer that America is looking for. He will clean up their entrenched political corruption and wealth-based elitism in double-quick time.

To be fair, he won’t be able to be a full-time Commander in Chief because he has his own country to run and his own people to look after. But even as a part-time CinC, he will work miracles in the detestable snake pit that America has become under the Repuglicans and the Demoncrats and their endless parade of mentally and/or morally-challenged Presidents.

First thing he’ll probably do is to nationalize the media. Murdoch and his ilk will be sent to Guantanamo Bay for some urgent re-education. They will be introduced to the word ‘truth’. Fox News will see some retrenchments among their crops of so-called ‘experts’ and shockjocks. Larry King will be retired before he passes away in the middle of a show and so will John McCain.

Continue reading →