Disapora

The Alhambra Decree (also known as the Edict of Expulsion) was an edict issued on March 31, 1492 by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain (Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon) ordering the expulsion of Jews from the Kingdoms of Castile and Aragon and its territories and possessions by July 31 of that year.

The edict was formally revoked on December 16,  1968, following the Second Vatican Council.

In 2014, the government of Spain passed a law allowing dual citizenship to Jewish descendants who apply, in order to "compensate for shameful events in the country’s past." Thus, Sephardic Jews who are descendants of those Jews expelled from Spain due to the Alhambra Decree can "become Spaniards without leaving home or giving up their present nationality."

And yes, those are the Isabella and Ferdinand of Christopher Columbus fame. 

As for my own family, you may be asking yourself, "With a name like Watson, you’re Jewish?" It had been Wasserman. My grandfather changed it to Watson not to hide his Jewishness but to avoid the jokes about the Wasserman test. 

So my roots are not Sephardic but Ashkenazic. The Sephardic Jews gave you Maimonides. We gave you Yiddish. Oh, and Albert Einstein. And about 25% of the American Nobel laureates.

You're welcome.

And they'll know you are Christians by your ...

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried. 
~ Gilbert K. Chesterton

And since I am not Christian, allow me to add quickly that the same could be said of most other religions and value systems.

My mother made me ...

There is an old joke:
"My mother made me a homosexual."
"If I bought her the pattern, would she make me one?"

Male assassin dance

I have no idea.

I know this guy ...

Click on image to enlarge for easier reading.

I have recently started reading Troy from the beginning. I had begun late in the series, and it is fun to go back and see what I missed. If you are not familiar with it ...

Set in a slightly fictional version of West Hollywood, CA., quite possibly the gayest little city in North America, "Troy" follows the everyday trials and tribulations of Troy, a "typical" young, urban, gay guy. The themes, however, are universal enough for anyone who's ever felt friendship, love, infatuation, lust, jealousy, or gone through a bitter and painful break-up at the hands of a psychotic ex can understand. The tone is, at times, rather sarcastic!

One of the longest running, regularly-published, gay comics, “Troy” ran from June 1998 until April 2012 in numerous LGBT publications throughout the U. S., United Kingdom, Canada, parts of South America and Australia, in the book “Growing Up Gay In America” by Jason Rich, and on LOGO's 365Gay.com, B.I.T.C.H. in South Africa, and Eshalem.com in Turkey. The strip has won two WeHo Awards, one in 2003, and one in 2006. In June of 2005, several “Troy” strips were selected to appear in QCC’s “WAR” themed Queer Arts Festival ‘05 at SomArts Gallery in San Francisco alongside works from 32 other artists from 9 different countries.

Remember where Jesus says marriage is between one man and one woman?

NFL legend Mike Ditka was giving a news conference one day after being fired as the coach of the Chicago Bears when he decided to quote the Bible.

“Scripture tells you that all things shall pass,” a choked-up Ditka said after leading his team to only five wins during the previous season.  “This, too, shall pass.”

Ditka fumbled his biblical citation, though. The phrase “This, too, shall pass” doesn’t appear in the Bible. Ditka was quoting a phantom scripture that sounds like it belongs in the Bible, but look closer and it’s not there.

Ditka’s biblical blunder is as common as preachers delivering long-winded public prayers. The Bible may be the most revered book in America, but it’s also one of the most misquoted. Politicians, motivational speakers, coaches - all types of people  - quote passages that actually have no place in the Bible, religious scholars say.

These phantom passages include:

“God helps those who help themselves.”
“Spare the rod, spoil the child.”

And there is this often-cited paraphrase: Satan tempted Eve to eat the forbidden apple in the Garden of Eden. 

None of those passages appear in the Bible, and one is actually anti-biblical, scholars say.

But people rarely challenge them because biblical ignorance is so pervasive that it even reaches groups of people who should know better, says Steve Bouma-Prediger, a religion professor at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.

“In my college religion classes, I sometimes quote 2 Hesitations 4:3 (‘There are no internal combustion engines in heaven’),” Bouma-Prediger says. “I wait to see if anyone realizes that there is no such book in the Bible and therefore no such verse. Only a few catch on.”

Few catch on because they don’t want to - people prefer knowing biblical passages that reinforce their pre-existing beliefs, a Bible professor says.

“Most people who profess a deep love of the Bible have never actually read the book,” says Rabbi Rami Shapiro, who once had to persuade a student in his Bible class at Middle Tennessee State University that the saying “this dog won’t hunt” doesn’t appear in the Book of Proverbs.

“They have memorized parts of texts that they can string together to prove the biblical basis for whatever it is they believe in,” he says, “but they ignore the vast majority of the text."

Now that's my kind of moon man!

Seriously

Texans never lie ... they just tell more truth than there is.

Damien's night to cook ...

Click on image to enlarge for easier reading.

If you are not familiar with ADAM & ANDY, check out this link.

"Set in the fictional New England town of Woodfield, Connecticut, "Adam & Andy" is the story of two committed thirty-something men struggling to maintain their humor, sanity, and a clean house. Read their amazing adventures and lose yourself in the minutiae of their daily lives! Marvel at their strength and resolve as they wage war on careless ineptitude and bad coffee! Blast off into incredible fits of jealousy over their impossibly broad shoulders and comprehensive wardrobes!" Amazon.com

Well, they used to be thirty-something, like many of us!

One assumes (hopes?) this is a joke

But then, one must remember the creationists/Intelligent (?) Design folks who claim that human beings and dinosaurs one lived together. Until we killed them all off, of course.

On the other hand,this sad story is true:

Republican Calls Climate Change A Hoax Because Earth And Mars Have 'Exactly' Same Temperature

In a condemnatory speech last week against the Obama administration’s new Environmental Protection Agency carbon emission regulations, Kentucky state Sen. Brandon Smith (R) claimed that man-made climate change is scientifically implausible because Mars and Earth share “exactly” the same temperature.
Smith, the owner of a mining company called Mohawk Energy, argued that despite the fact that the red planet doesn’t have any coal mines, Mars and Earth share a temperature. Therefore, Smith reasoned, coal companies on Earth should be exempt from emission regulations.
During a Natural Resources and Environment Committee meeting Thursday, Smith, the Senate majority whip, said:

As you [Energy & Environment Cabinet official] sit there in your chair with your data, we sit up here in ours with our data and our constituents and stuff behind us. I won’t get into the debate about climate change but I’ll simply point out that I think in academia we all agree that the temperature on Mars is exactly as it is here. Nobody will dispute that. Yet there are no coal mines on Mars. There’s no factories on Mars that I’m aware of.

According to NASA, the average temperature on Earth is 57 degrees Fahrenheit -- 138 degrees above Mars' average of -81 degrees.

Drama!

I saw this on someone's blog and laughed out loud. Lately there has been way too much drama in the Watson and Malachy families. Not with Damien and me, but in the extended clans -- much ado about nothing much.

I did a search and found out that apparently this is a translation of a Polish saying: Nie mój cyrk, nie moje małpy . . . literally, "not my circus, not my monkey;" figuratively, "not my problem."

Now where do I get the t-shirt?

It's time to try ...

Dear Catholic bishops:

 The Daily Republican -(Illinois) – May 7, 1873

 Because, you know, we don't like their anti-Protestant beliefs. And we're a fine, upstanding Christian saloon.

For this July Fourth, go All-American!

Herne the Hunter

  There is an old tale goes that Herne the Hunter,
Sometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest,
Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight,
Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns;
And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle,
And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain
In a most hideous and dreadful manner.
You have heard of such a spirit, and well you know
The superstitious idle-headed eld
Receiv'd, and did deliver to our age,
This tale of Herne the Hunter for a truth.    The Merry Wives of Windsor Act 4 Scene 4
  William Shakespeare 

The play dates to 1597 and the above reference is to what must have been a well known local legend. No earlier reference to Herne is known to exist, but many versions appeared later variously embellished. 

The most detailed (not necessarily the most authentic) was in W Harrison Ainsworth's novel Windsor Castle, written in 1843, which went roughly as follows...

In the reign of King Richard II (1377-1399) there worked in the King's estate of Windsor Forest a particularly competent young keeper called Herne. Human nature being what it is, the other less competent keepers resented him somewhat. One day whilst out hunting the King was thrown from his horse and was about to be gored by a stag when Herne stabbed it in the throat, getting fatally gored himself. As he lay dying a mysterious stranger appeared calling himself Philip Urswick and offered to cure him, and the king agreed. Philip also secretly agreed with the other keepers that he would see to it that Herne lost all of his skill if they would agree to his next request.

Philip then cut off the stag's antlers and skull and tied them to the dying man's head, prescribing plenty of rest. The king rewarded him with silver and gold, and mysterious Phil returned home to Bagshot Heath.

Sure enough Herne recovered his health, although the antlers became permanent, but he also lost all of his marvellous skill. So the king sacked him. Bloody typical. Poor Herne rode off demented into Home park, and was last seen by a pedlar later that same day hanging from an oak tree, but by the time he returned with the other keepers the body had mysteriously vanished. That night Herne's Oak was struck by lightning.

Now a curse seemed to fall upon the other keepers, rendering them even more incompetent than before. They consulted Urswick who told them to go to Herne's Oak at midnight, and when they did so Herne's ghost, complete with antlers, appeared to them, and ordered them to return the next night with horses and hounds, ready for the hunt.

The next night the keepers returned as ordered, but when Herne reappeared he promptly rode off through the forest, forcing the keepers to follow in pursuit. After a wild ride they suddenly stopped to find Urswick before them, and they owed him a favour. He commanded the (still living) keepers to ride with Herne's Wild Hunt forever.

And so they did, meeting every night at Herne's Oak before riding forth with the horned ghost, causing no end of trouble every night, killing deer, vandalising park benches, and generally being unpleasant. Finally the king had had enough, and went with them to confront the shade of his ex-employee. When challenged Herne said that he rode for vengeance, and promised to haunt no more during the king's reign on condition that he hung the other keepers from the very oak where he died. Needless to say, Dicky wasted little time on that executive decision, and they were all hanged the following day.

And so after King Richard II's abdication in 1399 Herne and his Wild Hunt rode forth down all the centuries, even down to our own, collecting the souls of the dead.

After "The Merry Wives of Windsor" became a smash hit Herne's Oak became a local tourist attraction, until in 1796 it was chopped down due to an administrative error. Its remains were turned into souvenirs (see right). Herne, however, continued to haunt the park as ever, and there were even stories of how, on a dark and stormy night, the ghost of the actual tree itself could be seen, haunting the spot where it was felled.

Other oaks were planted on various nearby sites, all suspected to be the original, and in 1906 King Edward VII planted the current one. Unfortunately it is difficult to visit because it is now inside the royal enclosure in The Home Park, just North of Frogmore.

I mention this because I chose an image of Herne the Hunter as my avatar for this blog. I like the fact that he appears in a Tarot deck as the Hanged Man, too, because that is a card that means a lot to me.