In response to
(e:jim,39535)
First of all I would like to say I totally support people's freedom to believe whatever they want as long as they don't get tax breaks on it and I don't have to pay for any part of it.
I hope this doesn't offend anyone but as an athiest, gay, polygamist my sheer existence is probably offense enough for most people, although, honestly - I think I pull it off with grace, pun intended.
I believe that religion does bring happiness, kindness, joy, compassion and union to many people. It standardizes and codifies the way that humans should act with one another.
It is not the only thing that can bring these emotions. Any group with a common belief system can share these feelings without a spiritual context. People having these emotions in a religious context often believe it is the spiritual aspect that causes it.
The thing about religion is that it also causes so many problems. People fight wars over religions and kill people in the name of jesus and other magicians. I know all you good christians can't believe it, but it is true. Other people kill other people for not believing in Jesus - not only that - they kill them for not believing in him, in prescribed way.
I am not the kind of athiest that screams about it. I am definitely not interested in converting other people to it, but that doesn't seem to stop so any people for trying to get me interested in their spiritual beliefs which offends the hell out of me.
That is why in fact I am an athiest, because I don't care about religion or the absense of it. I would rather describe myself as someone who never considers spiritual aspect of religion or the absense of it very much. If I never had to hear the word spiritual or religion one more time, I would not be athiest. I would be in perfect harmony, lol.
I read the bible, and I am over it - like I am over Alice and Wonderland and The Hardy Boys - learned some valuable lessons but the magic part is pretty hokey to me.
Okay, check this out - I am going to go get a random bible quote from the internet
and see why I don't need the book. Here it is
Galatians 5:22-23
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
Seems reasonable, guess what - I could think of it myself. I pity the people that can't think of this but I know they exist. I guess I can consider myself luckily for having the education to even consider these things. Maybe in previous times, it was necessary to have these ideas given to you.
Then I roll the die again to find:
"Romans 12:13
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality."
Here we are back in magic land and there lies my problem with the book. Showing hospitality is a fine goal, contributing to the needs of the saints is questionable and sketchy. I mean who defines the needs of the saints.
Okay one more time this is too fun
Thessalonians 5:15
See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.
This one is great but once again, I could totally think of it myself. At least it is a noble goal.
And again.
Samuel 2:2
"There is none holy like the LORD; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God."
While this is freaky and dangerous. It is the basis of war.
I feel that I have the capibility to understand human interactions without guidance from people in an ancient world or divine intervention. In fact, I think it is a unfortunate that the book mixes these two messages together - the message of treating people kindly and that you need to believe in the power of the mighty magic wizard, his halfling son and their sidekick ghost. It seems like the message could be much more powerful divorced from the book. Why can't human interaction and social etiquette be secular? I mean why not distill the bible down into a smaller book of ways to live your life without the spiritual bullshit.
I have seen so many people fall down the slippery slope of having their life suck because they were a bad person, then turning to church, the people they meet are nice and kind and then - bang they are in magic land and keep asking me to come visit it - when I wasn't having any problems in the first place.
CONCLUSION
I just had a brilliant realization while writing this. aybe I will change the world. I am going to create a new religion based on the Paul Visco interpretation of the bible. See, you think I am joking but what I plan to do is take the magic out of the bible. Same great book, less agic. That way the next time someone tries to tell me the magic book is really about a moral code about how to treat other people, I can say - no that book is full of magic sdtories, what you need is the Visco Bible.
First of all great pictures Paul. Your pictures are a good reflection of the parade. Secondly I can't see the scratches but if I had that long coat I would have to dye all my hair black that would be so tottal kick ass. Or maybe I would just look like a school shooter, not sure. The one thing that is interesting about the video of the guy yelling is that he is drowned out by the people at the parade yelling, yeah you can hear him but you can't make out what he is saying. I don't know if that is how it really sounded or not. I think you did a good job of getting pictures of (e:peeps) that includes me also who is in that last picture with the blue shirt and long hair.
YAYAYYAYA mike and lib!!!!!!!!!
the uhaul joke is supposed to be preceded with the following joke
What do lesbians bring on the first date?
a tooth brush
and it is to be followed by the following joke
What do gay men bring on the second date?
what second date?
hehe and i second (e:jenks)'s disclaimer...
excellant pics paul, and i like your new user pic too!
I watched the wedding video in the last jrnl a few times -- what you don't see is almost as frightening as what is there.
ewww why am i so bad looking in that last picture. Sickenwings did look disgusting...like it makes me ever question getting a chicken wing there again!
"This was hilarious to me. The gay marriage float was almost totally lesbians. What does that say? Guys just don't want to settle down no matter what their sexual preference."
HAHAHAHAHAHA. Brilliant analysis Paul.
re:lesbians and marriage
Disclaimer: please no one get up in arms and be offended by this. It's just a (stupid) joke. And a lesbian friend told it to me, so that makes it ok for me to tell. Right? Because I have lesbian friends? Or is it like the N-word and I just can't say it no matter what? ;)
Q: What do lesbians bring on the second date?
A: The U-haul.
oops, I misread that above caption. My apologies to you, dear Paul, but not to the gentleman wearing the coat.
Paul, let us pause for a moment to think about ArtVoice and the Best of Buffalo. Boy, sure did sting to not win when clearly this is the best site in town. That woman in the wool hat, is none other than Tyler, the bitchenest, raddest gal I know. Think it was hot that day? That is because she was near by, the girl is smokin. Coincidentally I introduced her to this site and she is checking it out, reading some of the journals.
Besides, that wool hat couldn't be nearly as hot as a giant black, beadazzled over coat from hot topic, could it?