Stable Genius
“Throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. Crooked Hillary Clinton also played these cards very hard and, as everyone knows, went down in flames. I went from VERY successful businessman, to top T.V. Star to President of the United States (on my first try). I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius....and a very stable genius at that!”
— Donald Trump tweet January 6, 2018, in response to the book Fire and Fury in which he was called a horse’s ass.

The horse’s ass was behind a horse. The horse, of course, is the original stable genius, Mister Ed, the talking horse. Mister Ed would only talk to his owner, Wilbur (played by Alan Young). The Mister Ed show ran from 1961-66.

Mister Ed won a Golden Globe in 1963 for best comedy show. Trump’s Apprentice show was nominated for Emmies but never won, because, of course, that horse race is rigged:

“The Emmys were horrendous...the absolute worst show!” “The Emmys are all politics, that's why, despite nominations, The Apprentice never won--even though it should have many times over.”
— Trump tweets from September 24, 2012.

Mister Ed was much more modest. From his theme song: “People yakkity yak a streak and waste your time of day But Mister Ed will never speak unless he has something to say.”

Mister Ed’s real name was Bamboo Harvester. Ailing, he was put down in 1970 at 21. We’re still putting up with Trump at 20 (in horse’s ass years).

SO is it now OK to use the forum to try to boost sales on one's vanity publishing?

Did you click the link to my book site?
Try it and then judge how vain it is. This is called the empirical method.

Lighten up people. It's just a bit of whimsy.

Here's another bit of whimsy from my book Here's a contest for you. How many oxymorons are in the article.


God Only Knows
My town voted to allow holiday religious displays on public property, all comers allowed — the no establishment of religion thing.

The town put up the standard pagan “Holiday Tree” in front of the municipal building with no religious ceremony. A resident pushed to have it officially called a “Christmas tree,” but the town council declined.

A rabbi agreed. Instead of ecumenically christening it a Hanukkah bush, he asserted that it was a Christian symbol and put up a menorah, which he said was not a religious symbol but a universal symbol of freedom and light.

Then the Christians put up a nativity scene. The infidels trumped that with a 2 x 9 foot billboard with the three wise men, the nativity scene and Star of Bethlehem (6 pointed version) saying “You KNOW it’s a Myth. This Season Celebrate REASON!” The billboard was promptly desecrated in the dead of night, either by an ill wind or sacreligionists unknown.

You never see agnostic billboards. Vigorously asserting that it can’t be asserted comes off wimpy: It May or May not be a Myth!

God Only Knows sounds better.

From my book, Now and Then Again, The Way We Were and the Way We Are, Second Edition

Religion
Oy! Worse than politics.

I am a militant agnostic. It's unknown. It's unknowable*. What's for lunch?
How liberating! Now you don’t have to worry about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, if his holy book is holier than thine, have to do this, can’t eat that.... No one knows, so why spin your wheels?

Acceptance of divine mystery is, I have heard, the hallmark of spiritual maturity. I just cut out the middlebeing and get my mystery directly. Occam’s razor shaves God's beard.

Now that you don’t have to worry about what it's all about, you're a naive realist, like your dog: it is what it is.

The fundamental mystery is that there is anything at all. To be or not to be. Let me know when you figure that one out.

Amen.

* Unknowable is the militant part.