Every once in awhile I check under the old WordPress dashboard to see what I’ve been doing. This here post is number 475, and falls a bit shy of the end of my fifth year of blogging. By the time I get to that particular anniversary (April 18), I hope to have received about 450,000 visits to the blog. I think that’s a lot, but in comparison to others, maybe not so much. Considering that about 425,000 are probably visits from Gideon, maybe I shouldn’t be so proud. 😉
I hate to do this. I really do. I’m a firm believer in free speech. The 1st Amendment is like my Bible. I really believe, that as bad as some speech is, to ban it is even worse. When we start banning speech because of its content, we’ve lost our way in what I feel is the inexorable progress of human civilization. Speech leads the way, so banning someone from my blog is banning their speech, and I really hate to do that…and…
…Oh, who am I kidding. No I don’t. At least not in this case.
I must give a plug to an organization I’ve joined here in Central Pennsylvania – Pennsylvania Nonbelievers. Last night I was invited to speak to them at their monthly meeting, and for a free meal, I agreed. Actually, I would have done it without the fine culinary compensation, as I found the meeting to be pleasantly enjoyable, and the members quite congenial, despite my initial trepidation brought on by irrational stage fright. I’m used to speaking in a courtroom, or arguing cases before a panel of judges, but addressing a crowd, albeit as cozy and intimate as this was, tucked into the back room of a local restaurant, was still a new experience. But in the end I’m glad they asked me, as I discovered that as long as I’m talking about something I’m qualified to talk about (in this case – me), the term “verbal diarrhea” actually has personal meaning. I needed the humbling experience. It’s good for my soul ego.
Browsing through the noise news today, I came upon this article, which reports that the highest Islamic body in Malaysia, the appropriately named National Fatwa Council, has officially banned yoga in that country, apparently because yoga originated from Hinduism, and, get this:
…many Muslims fail to understand that yoga’s ultimate aim is to be one with a god of a different religion…
WordPress has a nifty little feature I just discovered. It lists the top search terms that were used to find my site, not only by day, week, month, quarter and year, but for all time. For all time! Can you imagine?
SPANISH INQUISITOR 