Overheard in Booth Three: St Augustine in 90 Minutes

and she said, "I found this new series, about philosophers - in 90 minutes. Really slim books you can read them on the bus on the way in to work, practically, and I had always wondered about this St. Augustine guy, I mean, he's someone you always hear about, every once in a while, in church or Sunday school, and so I picked up the one about St. Augustine, b'cz I'd always kinda wanted to know what that was all about, and it turns out that he's really just another one of those uptight Catholic guys who could never get it through his head about sex and couldn't get out from under the influence of his mom - lord haven't we had enough guys like that! - so this momma's boy has a great time in Carthage in college, has a mistress and a son, and tries to drag her back home to mom, who doesn't like that one bit and sends her off and marries him and eventually he winds up in North Africa fighting off the Vandals or whatever those guys were who were finally hacking their way through what was left of the Roman Empire,

but you know, the best thing about the book is it told about all the different heresies he had to deal with at the time, all these little offshoots of Christianity - somebody who thought they were the embodiment of the Holy Spirit, others that thought Jesus Christ was just a 'nice guy' but not much else, and it really kind of showed me that all this stuff that we're facing today about people not really believing in Jesus at all,

well, that's nothing new. I mean, if you look at it, nobody's really followed him, like, really, in like, well

never!

It's kind of comforting, and sad, all at the same time."

Overheard at Table Two

Henry David Payne: I thought it was prtty decent, seemed like your standard Arabian adventure tale, it had all the elements of those old Thousand and One Nights . . . you know, boy from the street, becoming a prince, a damsel in distress, some magic amulet . . .

Niall Carter: . . . you mean the knife?

HDP: Yes, of course I mean the knife.

NC: Because the knife was cool. With the button in the hilt, click, sands take you back in time, that was sweet!

Lucky Moran: The name of the movie: The Sands of Time. I must just be me, but I've never liked movies that have two titles. The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. I mean, which is it? The Prince of Persia or the Sands of Time?

NC: It's both. That way, when they come out with The Prince of Persia: The Scimitar of Gold, you know which one you're downloading off the 'net.

HDP: I really don't see why you would pan a movie for the title that it has - that's like judging a book by the cover.

LM: You have your critique and I have mine. I had a problem with the dual title, it just felt like it was too much. But Gemma Anderton made a nice aside.

HDP: Actually, that's the only problem I had with the movie . . . I mean, we have so many heroines who are proud and haughty but feisty and firey and eventually fall in love with the hero, that it all just seems so trite?

LM: Would you rather go back to the old movie days when all they do is swoon. "Oh! Oh! Save me, hero! Lest I die tied to this train track!"

HDP: Of course not. But it would just be nice if they weren't all stereotypes in a different way.

NC: You can't have that in movies. Maybe she couldn't play that if she did have a role like that.

HDP: Not true! I saw her in a Masterpiece Theatre presentation of Little Dorrit. She was fantastic in that. That was a wonderful show. That would be nice to see on the big screen.

LM: That would be. Imagine. Little Dorrit fighting her way out of the debtor's prison, scimitar in one hand and the dagger with the Sands of Time in the other.

NC: Nice!!

Verble (walking up to the table with refills all around): Except you're totally wrong. It's Gemma ARTERTON, not Anderton, and she didn't play in the BBC Little Dorrit - that was Claire Foy . . . but she did play the lead in Tess of the D'Urbervilles, which was in the same series of classics ran on BBC and Masterpiece Theatre during 2008.

LM: Well, that certainly makes a difference.

NC: Sure does. Imagine Tess with the Sands of Time dagger! I can see a lot of slicing and dicing there! All that pent-up rage. Ugh, just makes me shiver t'think of it!

"The Moon" by Carl Sandburg

The Moon
Carl Sandburg

The moon is a dish of light.

The moon looks dirty with smoke and cloud wisps,
then changed till it looks washed and wiped.

The moon is a big penny got lost in the sky
one windy night.

The baby moon sings low, sings soft.

The harvest moon grins, "Howdy."

The half moon says neither Yes or No.

The lonesome moon talks to the lonesome
child saying, "Me too, me too."

The silver moon seems cold, not shivering but
chilly.

The moon is a looking glass you see your face in
if you climb high enough.

The peeping moon jumps out from clouds and goes back.

The rising moon dares you to push it down.

The rising moon can't help laughing a little as
it says, "I don't why I do this over and over
always the same way."

The full moon says it is good to be full and he
would be sorry for the empty if he was empty himself.

The late setting moon says, "I forgot something
and I'll be back when I remember what it was.

Hard Truths

Here are some hard truths about Jesus Christ that you may not want to hear, but they must be said:

First, Jesus Christ loves every single living human being on the face of this planet. From the first human to the last, everybody alive at this moment, everybody in the past, everybody in the future. He loves them all. Equally.

Yes, that includes the person YOU hate the most. Yes, that includes Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, and yes, even Neal Boortz.

And yes, for you hard right wing conservatives, that even means girls who get abortions and gay people. Even liberals too.

Second hard truth, all you people who think you don't need Jesus, you do. He is the only way to Heaven, both here on earth and after you've shuffled off this mortal coil. But not to worry: the only reason why you can't bring yourself to believe in him is reason three - watch.

Third hard truth - Christianity can only be destroyed by ill-tempered, smug, hyer-pious, self-centered, hypocritical, insensitive Christians. It can not be destroyed by outside forces, not Islam, not the Devil, not athiesm, not secularism. None of that is strong enough. But get enough people who claim to follow Jesus and make them so stuck up and bigoted that they drive everybody away from Christ, well, that'll make sure eventually NOBODY hears the message of love.

There are many more hard truths, but I don't think any of us can handle any more for tonight.

Perhaps in a few days, when I've got my strength back, I'll be tough enough to dish out some more HARD TRUTHS.

(maybe just one more: Jesus did say that in the end, when all is said and done, there's going to be a WHOLE LOT of people who go up to Him saying, "Jesus Jesus let me into Heaven, I talked about you all the time!" and He'll say, "Get yourself away from me. I never met you before in my Life!" . . . and maybe, just maybe, He's talking about Christians. Think about it!)

At the Counter

John Steppenwolf, Henry Allen Payne, and Lucky Moran all sitting at the counter, asking the Barista about Verble's outburst the other day.

"Is he gonna be all right?" asks Lucky Moran.

"Oh yeah, he's just fine," says the Barista. "As soon as his wife got here and dragged him to the back and shoved a couple of Valiums down his gullet, he went out like a light. I think he's still sleeping it off."

"Hate to see him when he wakes up," says John Steppenwolf.

"Why's that?" asks Henry Allen Payne.

"Because he'll probably turn on the news and hear about that Republican Senator from Texas - who apologised to BP for their inconvenience - called it a $20 Billion Shakedown."

"Yeah, but he was forced to apologize," says Lucky.

"And he retracted it," says the Barista.

Steppenwolf says, "But the point is: he said it. And all the little followers believe it. You know what Verble will say: the American people are being told to believe by Fox News that BP is actually the good guy. And that to make them pay will be a bad thing."

Lucky adds, "I read today an article that posited that the spill might actually be good for the environment."

"How do they say that?" says Henry.

"Something about slowing or preventing hurricanes this summer. Hurricanes get their source from warm ocean water, and apparently there's been this theory that putting a film of vegetable oil over the surface of the water to try to prevent hurricanes from sucking it up. They think this'll be a natural test."

"Wow," says Henry. "Bet that Republican Senator from Texas will probably want to pin a medal on BP and give 'em back their 20 bil if there ain't no hurricanes this season!"

Steppenwolf says, "Sounds about what they're likely to do. And they're so good at it, America will blindly agree."

"I know," says Lucky, "I'm still in shock that they've convinced Americans that it's actually better for your health NOT to have dependable health care coverage. What a country!"

"It is, indeed!" agrees Steppenwolf, drinking deeply of his morning coffee.

Faith Hope and Charity

Verble storms into the cafe, and before anybody can ask him what's wrong, he angrily declares, "I built this Cafe to be a good place to show the love of Jesus Christ, but I swear to all of you if Glenn Beck ever walks into MY cafe,

he gets charged DOUBLE PRICE!



How DARE he ! How DARE HE! who does he think he is? Stealing the images of the Founding Fathers, and STEALING THE WORDS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

and twisting them in his own sick little mind for his own sick little game? Faith, Hope, Charity! That's the clarion call of the Bible - everything that Jesus taught us in a nutshell, and he's misusing it to promote an agenda of destruction and hate.

And you Yanks are BUYING IT! how utterly misled and myopic can you BE?!

Don't you understand that Glenn Beck has nothing to contribute to America but a rant of bile and hate and filth? He knows nothing of the words and the slogan that he's espousing - and MAKING MONEY FROM!!!!

He has openly admitted that he does what he does to make money, and yet he sells T-shirts with the images of Washington and Franklin, and the words FAITH HOPE CHARITY.

What Glenn SickBeck obviously does not understand is that the Founding Fathers would have had him horsewhipped for being an idiot, and also that the only time Jesus was ever visibly angry, to the point of hurling tables against the walls, was when people dared to MAKE MONEY from His Father's house!

Faith, means faith in God, something beyond ourselves that we can never truly know.
Hope, means the belief that better things are ahead,
But the greatest of these is Charity - which means a love that is so strong that you will give it away without any care of ever getting anything back. Charity is a complete giving of SELF, wanting no payment in return, wanting nothing than for somebody else to have something.

What does Glenn Beck know of that kind of Charity? what to the Republicans know about that kind of charity? what do the Conservatives know about that kind of charity? what does the Religious Right know about that kind of charity? and for that matter, what do Americans know about that kind of Charity?

Glenn Beck - stop making money off of God. Stop making money off of the founding fathers. Stop making money off of lying to Americans.

and to all Americans.



WAKE THE HELL UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Overheard at Table Four

I just read on my news alert today, this blurb, it said:



A student makes a rude gesture at a group of Hell's Angels motorcycle group, hurling a puppy at them and escaping on a stolen bulldozer.



It was one of those times when I just couldn't bring myself to read the whole article, because I just knew that the story would ruin the mental image!