"THE SHOW IS ABOUT TO BEGIN!"

 

Yep, you guessed it! Robert is banging on about faith, god and Jesus again:

"If AI decided God exists there would really be little point in it telling us. It would even be anti God because what would that knowledge do for it without a soul or any hope of an afterlife! Could AI interact with God? The same applies to many things that maybe it decides not to share. How would we know if it is not telling us everything. I think we could finish up getting very paranoid and pulling the plug for reasons that possibly aren't valid concerns."

          - Rob of Walk me with Jesus 

"But what if we don’t really need a proof? What if we only need pointers that suggest a belief in the supernatural makes more sense than a rejection of the supernatural? What if you can’t prove Jesus really said the things the New Testament claims He said, but the archaeological, historical, and manuscript evidence points far more in the direction of acceptance than dismissal?"

          - Rob of Walk me with Jesus 

"What if we only need pointers that suggest a belief in the supernatural" he says not recognising the fact that the very people that he's talking about - Christians - must be pretty bloody dim in the first place to believe in all that Catholic-type nonsense. They need some pretty strong pointers not unlike the 1950s movie advertisements of the 'Believe It Or Not' variety.

I can envision large banners outside churches challenging people to believe the unbelievable like:

14 YEAR OLD VIRGIN PREGNANT!

PEOPLE EATING FLESH AND DRINKING BLOOD IN CHURCH!

DEAD MAN WALKING!

MAN FLIES UP INTO THE HEAVENS!

MAN HAULS HIS MOTHER UP INTO THE SKY!

SPIRIT BIRD IMPREGNATES TEENAGER!

That should pull them in. 

AND NOW BACK TO THE 'REAL' WORLD

 I'm back so we can get on with some more important posts that have nothing to do with infinity proving to be limited and jams turning out to be sour. I saw that readers were being subjected to absolute diatribe on the other blogs so ... hold onto your hats folks and listen to this:

Trump dismissed safety warnings about artificial intelligence as a "hoax" comparing fears of an AI takeover to climate change skepticism and the Russia investigations. 
He posted on social media that worries about AI destroying humanity or taking over the world are entirely fabricated and that the only necessary safeguard for the technology is a "strong and smart (High IQ!) president"!

Trump championed data centers and AI development, calling it a massive economic engine bigger than the internet or oil so I guess it's no surprise to learn that he, his family and close friends have invested heavily in this making hundreds of millions of dollars in the process.

I've warned of the dangers of uncontrolled AI on previous posts 'too many to mention'. Maybe I should create a weekly loop warning "DON'T TRUST AI"

THE LONE RANGER

The Lone Ranger has popped up on the blogs over the last couple of days.

Interestingly enough I've made mention of The Lone Ranger* in earlier posts:

(ST)RANGE WARS

 INTERVIEW #31

No doubt you read those but it's always nice to have a refresher.

I remember watching The Lone Ranger on TV in the 1960s but never really liked the series or the character finding him and it to be a bit twee and sanctimonious. No doubt Robert was a great follower. Richard who's going to Hell was probably practising to be a sinner back then by watching the risque 1963 Maupassant series.

I 'published' the rules that The Lone Ranger went by, as a comment on Richard's recent post but won't repeat them here because they are like Robert's Ten Commandments, The Catechism or Mary of Agreda's pontificating.
Here are a couple of relevant ones though:

• The Lone Ranger was never seen without his mask or some sort of disguise. This is like The Curmudgeon's other Curmudgeon characters, Richard's weird alter egos or Robert's frequent manifestations.
• He always used perfect grammar and precise speech devoid of slang and colloquialisms. This trait is more appropriate to Richard with me coming a close second but Robert sadly never made the starting line.
• Adversaries were rarely other than American, to avoid criticism from minority groups, with some exceptions. He sometimes battled foreign agents, though their nation of origin was generally not named. This is applicable to my blogs which, when denigrating mentioning other nationalities America features the strongest as generally they are laughable over there with the worst leader in history.

 Hi-Yo (Not Hey-Ho) Silver, Away! **

* Hopalong Cassidy was also mentioned because Richard Of Richard's Bass Bag a well known well, known anyway, confused old Cassidy with Tagalog. 

** I thought that The Lone Ranger "always used perfect grammar and precise speech"?

IN TRUMP WE TRUST

 

No doubt Robert will be switching his allegiance from Jesus to Trump following this.

What has Jesus done of note recently compared to what Trump is doing for us?

DO YOU REMEMBER THIS? ...

... from The Godfather.

Michael Corleone taking Apollonia out on a 'date' and the couple followed by the chaperoning family.

 

Robert posted a photo of him out on a date in The Philippines. I was struck by the similarity.

WELL, WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT?

 In the comments on Richard's latest post, Robert said:

"Have you been to confession? There were plenty going after Mass this morning. No one would have noticed you if you sat next to the lady with the restless child."

I replied with:

"Is The Lady With The Restless Child another of those paintings or statues of The Virgin Mary?

Later on I wondered if there ever had been something like that and, blow me down found this:

The painting is 'La Vierge au lys', also known as 'The Madonna of the Lilies' - an 1899 oil painting by the French artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau. 

Its main claim to fame is this according to Google search:

"The classic spoof painting commonly referred to as "Our Lady of the Restless Child" is actually a real, unedited 1899 oil painting titled La Vierge au lys (The Virgin of the Lilies) by the French academic artist William-Adolphe Bouguereau.
While intended as a serious, beautiful piece of religious art, the painting went viral on social media as a meme because of the baby's funny, hyperactive expression and aggressive stance.

Why the Painting Became a Meme
The "Restless" Energy: While Mary looks completely serene and at peace, the infant Jesus is squirming out of her arms with his arms flung wide and a wild look in his eyes.
The Relatable Parenting Humor: Parents widely share the painting to jokingly describe the struggle of trying to hold a hyperactive, wriggling toddler who is determined to escape.
The Contrast: The ultimate humor comes from the dramatic contrast between traditional, solemn religious imagery and the universal chaos of everyday parenting"

I always knew that Robert's posts and comments were strange but now it seems that they are stranger than fiction.

A QUICKIE SATURDAY MORNING POST

 I took my foot for a test run this morning - actually a walk - as It was feeling less sore.

I did about 6 kms but then decided to get a bus back home so as not to aggravate it.

In Cuba Street I felt like an ice cream but Duck Island was closed and the other one I went to didn't sell ice cream at all. Note: a bit of advice here. Peaches 'n' Cream is NOT an ice cream shop (maybe an "I scream" shop). The readers should not make my mistake and go there although Richard would be OK as he's going to Hell anyway but Robert would have to spend the rest of his mortal life in Confession.

WHEN YOU'RE (NOT YOUR) THAT GUY

I like this apart from its (not it's) obvious Americanism. It reminds me of someone ...

People who fix other people's grammar are often called pedants, nitpickers, or grammar Nazis.

It's (not its) annoying because:

• It misses the point.
• It interrupts the flow of the 'conversation'.
• It can be arrogant and bullying. 

If a message is understood then criticising a simple typo shows you care more about showing off than actually listening and the interruption can be construed as being rude.

What's funny though is that the grammar Nazi often misspells a word or messes up their own punctuation in the very same comment that they publish.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING INTERESTING*

 * "Thank you for your post.
 Now, with the next post, you just need to work on making it interesting."

- RICHARD OF RICHARD'S BASS BAG

Well, be careful of what you ask for.

I guess most of you will be familiar with the Moving House and similar TV series.

I've watched a few programmes and found the huge trucks and the developing technology interesting.

We had a closehand view of it last night when two huge trucks moved two large classroom buildings from the school across the road from our house. They had to manoeuvre them out the school gate, beneath trees to make a tight right hand turn onto our narrow street with cars parked either side. As far as I could see no damage was done and they get away alright. The exercise took about 40 minutes.

Now that was interesting.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE *

 * Not that trite platitude that Americans have been using for the last 10 years relating to US servicemen and which, unbelievably is being used in New Zealand by fools who do everything by rote even platitudes. It's up there with "Have a nice day" and "Missing you already". Robert's silly Catholic "I love you" is just as bad.

Now Richard will probably accuse me of being an old moaner and wanting to pick fights with everyone like Mike at the tennis club, inconsiderate drivers, pedestrians, cyclists, telecom industry personnel, bank employees, tradesmen, supermarket cashiers, other supermarket shoppers, people who use their phones at the cinema and many others including bus drivers who I mentioned in this recent post here: NO THANKS

Talking of bus drivers, this morning, as it was raining and because my foot is still sore I decided to take a bus to Willis Street. I walked down to Thorndon Quay, crossed the road to the bus stop and luckily saw a bus coming along. I and a woman at the bus stop waved at the driver to signal that we wanted him to stop but he just sailed past without making any effort to pull into the official stop. It was in service, displayed a number 3 destination and had passenger onboard. Bastard!

I'll be thinking twice about thanking the bus drivers as I exit the buses in future.

Sheesh!