Ray's X-Blog

Visual mash-up by Ray X. "If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life's exciting variety, not something to fear." - Gene Roddenberry Back in the 1960s a producer had to push to have any diversity in a TV program.  In creating the original Star Trek TV series Gene Roddenberry wanted to show a crew of many different cultures working in harmony. For some the concept of multinationalism was impossible to accept.  But Roddenberry persisted: his starship team included characters like Communications Officer Uhura who was of African descent.  She was an important crew member, not someone cast in a lowly support role. One way this tolerance of other cultures was expressed was through the IDIC concept: Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.  One shouldn't automatically fear "the other."

Obviously I haven't been writing/blogging that often so maybe I should get caught up on a few items. I haven't been devoting/wasting as much time as before listening to the Liberty Net ( www.3950.net ).  Part of the reason is that it's the same old same old with them, ultra-right-wing ham radio operators flogging the same dead pale horse. One item of note is how the LibNetters describe the unjustified willingness by liberals to overlook any flaws or hypocrisy with President Barack Obama.  They described the condition as "negrophilia."  Huh?  Is that in the DMS (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)? And then there's an incident from some time ago when a regular participant, Stan, was really wound up, talking on and on.  Instead of politely interrupting and telling him to wrap it up, the other LibNetters moved to a different frequency, leaving the loquacious commenter all alone.   Later Stan would realize he was talking to the

"Hey, this ain't good for the womenfolk.  Anyone got a fig leaf?" "Well, that'll have to do.  If my wife wasn't such a stick in the mud..." There was some excitement over dere in Cardiff, NY back in October of 1869.  During a well diggin' on Stub Newell's spread the boys found a giant petrified man in the ground!  Even some of those science folks said so, so dere. Or so the story went.  Actually it was a hoax, the carved statue placed into the ground a year before to make its discovery appear more authentic, the giant and the soil settling into place. A great overview to the hoax is provided by the non-fiction book, The Giant and How He Humbugged America by Jim Murphy (Scholastic Press).  Don't be turned off that this book is classified as "juvenile literature" for readers ten years and older: adults will also find it a ripping good read.  Sometimes non-fiction books for young readers can be just as informative

I know from experience that having word verification/CAPTCHA turned off for comments here at Blogger means the spammers start showing up. At the same time it can be a pain when you have to squint your eyes and brain to make out distorted letters and numbers that you have to correctly type in to get your comment accepted. So besides leaving your observations here at the blog, you can now use my dedicated email address for comments: ray.x.comment@gmail.com I appreciate feedback and maybe this will help to increase the number of comments.