Rich Cholodofsky, TRIBLIVE.COM, Nov. 17, 2012; FFRF.ORG; Wisdom Quarterly
Annie Laurie Gaylor (ffrf.org)
PENNSYLVANIA - Residents rallying to keep Ten Commandments tablets posted on school property in Connellsville and New Kensington are going up against the FREEDOM FROM RELIGION FOUNDATION (ffrf.org), a Wisconsin-based atheist group with a growing presence in the state.
In the past two years, the group has challenged discounts for churchgoers at restaurants and college basketball games, Nativity scenes at public buildings and state lawmakers' attempts to declare a Year of the Bible.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation does not pick its fights; it only responds to complaints from citizens, said its co-president, Annie Laurie Gaylor.
"I don't know what is going on in Pennsylvania to put out that kind of fundamentalism. It's something you would expect to see in the Deep South," she said. "Our ultimate goal is to defend the First Amendment. We're not picking on anybody." MORE
"The year the Easter holiday happened to fall on April 8th, the First Day of the Writing of The Book of the Law". As you can see from the photo, not only did the Hawk-Headed Mystical Lord peck out the eyes of Jesus as he hangs on the cross, flap his wings in the face of Mohammed and blind him, and tear out the flesh of the Indian and the Buddhist, Mongol and Din - he also kicked the Easter Bunny's ass. Bahlasti! Ompehda! I spit on your crapulous colored eggs!
On a more serious note, though, I want to thank everyone who attended and helped out with the Office of the Readings, which wrapped up yesterday. This is my working group's eighth year putting them on, and everything went very well. After all these years we're certainly getting the hang of it, and as usual re-reading all of the texts in sequence spurred a number of new realizations regarding their content and meaning. It's a good practice, and we look forward to putting it on for many years to come.
Happy Thelemic New Year to all, and to all a good night!
Source: about-world-religions.blogspot.com
Seems it is time for Gods doing rounds in movies and dramas!
Almost at the time Dasavatharam was released,
Kamal's Asthaana (erstwhile) story - dialogue writer, Crazy Mohan
also hit the stage with "Chocolate Krishna".
As usual I am the late-goer to view this too!
But what a world of difference between this Krishna and Dasavathara!
Really 'Crazy' is brilliant
and I could not help thinking that Kamal would have enormously benefited
if only he had pulled in Crazy to pen the dialogues for Dasavatharam.
Crazy has effortlessly brought out the
issues on God, our hypocrisies,
and our foolishness.
There is no preaching kind, not any dialogues to say this is this.
But he gave a kind of a message in nutshell in the end,
perhaps thinking that
what he wanted to convey should not be forgotten by the audience
in the laughter- 'mazhai'.
That message is,
"put all your burdens on God as though he is the vahana (vehicle) to carry the burden
and do your work within the rules of Satyam and dharma.
Believe God.
And believe yourself too."
Precisely this is the message of Krishna in Gita.
Krishna cautions us that since everything is handled by God,
do not remain in in-action.
Good action or bad action- one must not desist from action.
One must act.
In the process of making one act, by Himself acting from behind,
Crazy has pulled out some magic tricks on stage.
Yes, it seems he has taken some classes on magic.
The humour is in-laid and casual.
Particularly, the TV- interview scene is superb.
That tall actor (Mathru bhootham) deserves
all the credit for the success of that scene.
Many would have wanted to see the drama again
just to see that scene.
The one intriguing part is why that dialogue on Ram- sethu?
Maadhu asks Krishna (Crazy Mohan)
whether Rama built the bridge or not.
Krishna answers -ask Rama.
When Maadhu insists on a answer,
he says that he does not know.
This makes Maadhu say " nee kooda nazhuvara paaru"
- you too avoid answering this.
What does he convey here?
Who else have avoided answering this question?
Why this dialogue?Apart from this, the rest of the talks were simple, yet strong.
Krishna says that he is not Rama though both are avatars of the same God.
He demonstrates it in the ensuing scuffle between Mathru bhootham and Maadhu.
Finally all kudos to Crazy for handling an age-old subject (of god visiting the devotee)
in a hilarious manner -
but without making it look silly
yet conveying the message gently.
