Lister Hill, Schools of Thought Control, and Other Things

[Wildeblood]

In America, I am beginning to realize that if you want a 'good' job after graduation you have to play by certain rules. One of those rules is to be a member of some sort of church. My sister, who has worked for such organizations as Lockheed Martin, and has no spirituality whatsoever, joined a church when she went to school at Denver University, which I always thought was odd. I didn't realize that that was part of the rules to the game. So, is there anything like this going on internationally?

Here in Australia (and I suspect in the rest of the English-speaking world) it's just the opposite. Thanks to the influence of Richard Dawkins, to be accepted among the pseudo-intelligentsia everyone must loudly declare their allegiance to radical Atheism. Derogating Christianity - but strangely not Islam or Judaism - at every opportunity is de rigueur.

[Ranthe]

There has never been a separation of church and state.

No - nor in England (unfortunately)!

That's one of the nice things about being in Oz.. 'tis not a problem we suffer from here.. nor is that "job requirement" you mentioned earlier. Independent thought is still permitted and encouraged, as well.

It's pretty much the same thing over the ditch in EnZed - heck, our previous Prime Minister was pretty agnostic if not an atheist!

[Diziet Sma]

Thanks to the influence of Richard Dawkins, to be accepted among the pseudo-intelligentsia everyone must loudly declare their allegiance to radical Atheism.

Why on earth would anyone want to be accepted amongst the pseudo-intelligentsia? Or even the regular intelligentsia, for that matter? In my experience, they tend to be far too up themselves for their own good.. to say nothing of how they regard those they consider 'inferior' to themselves. The majority of the 'intelligentsia' ought to have been drowned at birth.

Fortunately, CommRLock, unless one actually wishes to move in such rarefied circles, one will encounter very little of what Wildeblood describes..

[CommRLock78]

Fortunately, CommRLock, unless one actually wishes to move in such rarefied circles, one will encounter very little of what Wildeblood describes..

That is good - no religion should be bashed - only the people that have manipulated them for wrong-doing and self-serving interests. They all contain truth. I would infinitely rather hang out with the 'common folk' myself .

Edit - I've always told my wife I'd love to hang out with Onslow (Keeping up Appearances) and drink some beer

[CommRLock78]

This is only my opinion, but I would like to personally condemn the upcoming Referandum on the 18th. How can we create a REAL United Kingdom without a key element?

[CommRLock78]

Let me rephrase:
"If you would like to learn the measure of a man, the afternoon is the time of day to watch him. We are all half an inch taller in the morning than at night; it is fairly easy to take a large view of things when the mind is rested and the nerves are calm. But the day is a steady drain of small annoyances, and the difference in the size of men becomes hourly more apparent. The little man loses his temper; the big man take a firmer hold of his actions."

From Bruce Barton's book, "The Man Nobody Knows"

[CommRLock78]

Sorry about the rant. This just seems like a good place to dump some thoughts.

Anyway, does anyone here find it disturbing that an Archbishop is blessing evidence from a crime scene? (Of course, this is a rhetorical question ).
http://www.abqjournal.com/428467/news/s ... el-sheehan

[Smivs]

This caught my eye and while not strictly relevent to this thread it did make me chuckle. Not just the comedic aspect of the diametrically opposed 'churches' involved, but the fact that even they are subject to petty bureauocracy!

[CommRLock78]

This caught my eye and while not strictly relevent to this thread it did make me chuckle. Not just the comedic aspect of the diametrically opposed 'churches' involved, but the fact that even they are subject to petty bureauocracy!

I feel like it is relevant. Thank you for sharing it. It's kind of an interesting article, really. Makes me wonder if 'the show' really will be a "perversion of the Catholic liturgy" . That would be divine justice IMHO .

[Wildeblood]

Makes me wonder if 'the show' really will be a "perversion of the Catholic liturgy" . That would be divine justice IMHO .

You bear a grudge against the catholic church, why exactly?

[CommRLock78]

I considered myself Catholic for most of my life - at least until I was about 24. I personally think it was the Councils of Nicea that are the start of the problem with the Catholic Church - adding all sorts of made up rules.

[CommRLock78]

This is a great article:
http://scgnews.com/the-geopolitics-of-world-war-iii

[CommRLock78]

I am not done with this, but I thought I'd post it and see what you all thought. I plan on releasing the memoire when it's finished, but I figured I'd let you all preview it.

A Short but Meaningful Memoire of a Scholar, Soldier, and Lover
by Robert Bryant Lock


The Prologue
------------
From when I was born in 1978 until 1989, the immediate family all went on pilgramige to Chicago land to visit extended family at least once a year. It was always at least a couple weeks in the summer, if not an additional week or so some other time of the year. At first, just about everyone lived there from the extended family: all the cousins, uncles and aunts, and most importantly, grandparents, except for my dad's parents, who had moved down to Arkansas just a couple of years before I was born (they were tired of the winters after a big snow had damaged their roof).

My mom's mom, Luana, was widowed, already twice by the time I was born (incidentally, we were born on the same day, May 27th, at almost the exact same time of day, about 17:00). She lived in a house on Park Ridge, near O'Hare airport. I don't remember how she knew her, but she was good friends with a lady named Jane Jay. Well Jane passed away (I don't know what year, but I assume the early '70s), and when I was 3 years old, my grandmother married Jane's husband, James. She moved out of the house in Park Ridge and moved in with James at his house in Riverside.

Now, before I go on, I should mention that my 'home' was not very nurturing, to say the absolute least. I didn't go hungry - at least not like some of these poor children around the world, but the house was not very good place for any kids, really, especially not me. In fact, returning to Albuquerque from Chicago was always a bit surreal: "Well, I'm back to that odd place where the house is", I would think to myself.

Jump to the years between 1994 and 2000, and keep in mind the setting at my 'home'. 1994 was the first summer of high school, and marked the beginning of when I got to go visit my grandma and step grandpa on my own in the summer. They would fly me out and I would stay there for a couple weeks. Let me say that staying there was brilliance! If I wanted to read all day, I could damn-well read all day. If I wanted to draw, whatever. I could do all this without any fear of being harassed or told to stop what I was doing. There was never any yelling or fights. It was safe and quiet.

It was also enriching. Every time I visited between 1994 and 2000 my grandma and I would spend a day downtown at the Art Institute. It is an amazing place if you haven't been. Really, a day is not enough time for the whole museum, it is really only enough time for whatever special showing was happening. One year there was Horace Peppin, another year it was Monet. Looking back on it now I realize just how much this place was my home, not just a house.


The Preparation
---------------
Recall that we stopped going on family trips to Chicago land after 1989. 1990 marked the first year of spending those couple weeks in various places around the US. That year we went to Virginia to see some historic sites, and then off to Washington DC. Of course, I was in middle school and impressionable, and I felt very patriotic, but in a genuine sense. I knew the Constitution, I knew of Dr. King and the struggle for Civil Rights, and I liked the idea of the US Constitution as applied to every human being (of course I believed that at that young age). I was also getting to like the idea of fighting a Revolution for freedom from tyranny.

Interestingly, the next year, 1991, and the Gulf Wars are in full swing. My dad would try and tell me it was justified, but I never felt like it was. Thankfully, I had a descent 'social studies' teacher, and a really sweet Lebonese girl in the same class to boot, and they tought me otherwise about a thing or two. Rhonda especially told me about her home, and culture. Of course, I listened to what she had to say, since she was cute and had seen things with her own two eyes.

I was not taught very much about our heritage growing up. "We are Scottish, English, and Irish", they would say, not that I knew what that really meant. 1993 and high school is where the nudging began. There were several people who started suggesting to me that I look into Scotland and, particularly, Ireland. Now these suggestions came in many forms besides just speech, I was given books and music as well. I even started doing Irish set and céilí dancing.

In about 1998, I joined the A.O.H. About the same time I started the Pádraig Pearse chapter of the Irish Freedom Committee. I actually laughed at myself inside in those days thinking "Okay, this is rich, what the feck is a Yank going to do in Albuquerque?" There were two of us that were actually active, writing letters, and keeping ourselves informed.

At this time, I started a two year program in electronics at the local community college. The plan was to do that program and move back east to New York, where I felt I could learn more about 'the struggle'. I didn't never finished the program. One of the last classes I took at the community college was a very basic physics course. We briefly talked about the physics of music.


Sweet Music
-----------
I had always wanted to play piano and compose. THAT was NOT an option in my parents eyes (although all my siblings played some sort of instrument). Nevertheless, taking that physics course made me realize something important: that I could damn well play piano and compose if I wanted to. So I started studying music - in normal fashion, rather intensely. Anything I could get my hands on I would read. I had a lot to catch up on about music at 21 years old! Eventually I did get a descent digit piano, and started composing. Nothing really big at first, but still interesting music all the same. So for many years I would work, and do music on the side.


The Big Job
-----------

About the same time, in late 2000, I started working construction in the tile mason trade. And that's what I did for employment most of my adult life (six years). I started as a finisher, and ended working for myself, with my own tools, truck and helper. I loved the work, but hated many aspects of the business, even before I was working for myself.

Construction is feast or famine kind of work, and when the going is good, it is really nice to have the work, but when things slow down, you can lose your nerve (although the down time was a good opportunity to study or compose). In the summer of 2001, my boss, 'Drake', and I went out to California for work. He had connections in the Bay area since he had worked there for about a decade and a half before moving out to Albuquerque. I would work for the guy for several years and we are still in touch to this day, but we had had a couple of falling outs during our time working together. The California trip wound up ending with a fall out. I worked for another guy for a few months doing remodel tile work, but he was pretty hard to work with (he didn't trust anyone - period). I wound up working for Drake again in about August.

Then one morning my mom called my hysterically. She said the country had been attacked by terrorists. I am sure you know what day that was. It was the morning of the 11th September, 2001. Recall the Gulf war previously. Now this time it is my mom. Needless to say, I always suspected foul play in that disaster, and looking back on it, her calling me was supposed to again give a guise of legitimacy to these beliefs.

I was involved in a few protests during the Iraq war, but my most important weapon has always been words. Anyway, it went on like this for years. I would work when the work was there, study and practice when it wasn't. The bottom line is after six years of doing tile I realized I was really going nowhere.
-------------------
Up next: The Swindle and the Lost Jewel.

[Diziet Sma]

Fascinating, and well written.. I look forward to more.

[CommRLock78]

Fascinating, and well written.. I look forward to more.

Thanks buddy! That means a lot. It is hard to write 36 years in a very concise to-the-point fashion. It's also weird writing about yourself... .