I’m tempted to use that as a story title. Maybe someday. Meantime, here’s an image.
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DISTAL MUSE – OBSERVATIONS, OPINIONS, EPHEMERA, & VIEWS
I’m tempted to use that as a story title. Maybe someday. Meantime, here’s an image.
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We put up this platform in the backyard for Coffey to use, and use it she does. She supervises the yard work, lounges regally at times and surveys her kingdom. Or is that queendom? Anyway, I thought I’d post this.
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Once upon a time…
I had pretensions long ago to be an Artist. I still dabble. I stumbled over a sketchbook the other day. These are some of my abstracts. Click on the thumbnails for a larger view.
Neuronapathy, Winners, and Tongue of Empire.…
There was a time in this country that an open admission of atheism could get a person severely hurt in any given community. Ostracism, mainly, which over time can be very damaging. But like so many other “out of the mainstream” life choices, this too is no longer the case.
According to this article in the New York Times, “No Religion” has more than doubled on surveys in the past ten to twenty years. Now, that does not mean all these folks are atheists or agnostics. It means, quite specifically, that they align themselves with no organized religion.
Some folks might wonder at the difference. …
I’m a bit vain, I admit it. I like looking…well, it’s hard to pin down. I have never considered myself “good looking” by any popular standards. I have my own and I have frankly never lived up to them quite. But I have a care for my appearance, which drives me to the gym and to trim my beard and to dress well when I can.
It’s a struggle against entropy. It won’t destroy me to lose it, but to do my best without killing myself is important. I’m not vain enough to do liposuction. If my hair falls out, I’ll shave my head rather than wear a “laurel wreath.” …
By now I think everyone on the blogosphere has heard the story of Susan Boyle.  It is an amazing moment and I hope she goes on to do more, because this woman has the fire and the talent.
You can tell, when you watch the video, that everyone in the audience and the judges thought this was a joke. Here’s this dowdy, middle-aged woman with no looks and from a small town and with no creds who claims to want to be great and is going to sing a sentimental song from a musical and, well, shame on them and shame on us, she looked like she was going to croak like a frog. …
The previous image has one false note in it. I did a bit more work on it this morning and came up with this version. Can you spot the difference?…
And now for a romantic interlude in the otherwise dangerous realm of Afghan social morays vis-a-vis the Taliban. A young couple whose families disapproved of their union ran off to get married. Married, mind. Not live together outside wedlock or anything so dramatic, but married. The result? They were shot outside their mosque after a tribunal of mullahs condemned them. Here is the story.
It is difficult seeing this to remember that this sort of thing is really not consistent with mainstream Islam. But, just as with certain splinter groups of so-called christian sects, the Qu’ran is continually used to justify the persecution of women.…