Is Homosexuality Wrong But Slavery Okay?

It's interesting how the Bible is often quoted to justify what is right and wrong. Homosexuality, for example, is said to be 'wrong' because of what is written in Leviticus 18:22. To quote: "Thou shall not lay with mankind, as with womankind: it is an abomination."

The problem with quotes from the Bible is that, those who quote, usually cherry pick what fits their argument and conveniently overlook other aspects of what is also written.

The following is something that was sent to me which I hadn't seen this before - but maybe that's because I'm in England and the cutting is from the USA. Whatever - here we go:

"When US radio personality Laura Schlessinger said, to an Orthodox Jew, that homosexuality is an abomination, according to Leviticus 18:22, and couldn't be condoned in any circumstance she received this letter:

"Dear Laura,

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I've learnt a great deal from you and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, I remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination.

But I need some advice regarding some other laws. When I burn a bull on the alter as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odour for the Lord (Lev. 1:9) but my neighbours claim it's not so pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

I'd like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. What would a fair price be for her? 

I know I'm allowed no contact with a woman while she's in her period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev. 15:19-24) but how do I tell? I've tried asking but most women take offence.

Lev.25:44 says I may possess slaves, male and female, provided they're purchased from neighbouring nations. A friend claims this applies to Mexicans but not Canadians. Can you clarify?

A friend feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination (Lev. 11:10), it's a lesser abomination than homosexuality. Do you agree? I'm sure you can help.

Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging."

There are also so many other diverse laws in the Bible that we couldn't possibly follow, but religious teachers somehow forget these. They seem to often preach what suits.

Personally I believe we should all respect each other regardless of race, colour, sexual preference, religion, age and so on ... and live as one.

Further Reading:
The Failed Predictions Of The Jehovah Witness - 2
Was Jesus A Vegan
Hitler And Princess Diana Baptised As Mormons

Afghanistan The Ultimate Sacrifice

Christina Schmid from Cornwall is the widow of army bomb disposal expert Olaf Schmid who was killed on his final day in the field in Afghanistan. Her story shows the real awfulness of war.

Christina touched all Cornish and British hearts with her dignity and strength following Olaf's death. She now says that he 'knew' he wouldn't be returning alive from Afghanistan and gave her 'instructions' as to how she should conduct herself when his body was returned.

Olaf told her it was essential that she should retain her composure out of consideration for the rest if his bomb disposal team. He told her, "If they've seen me blown up, the last thing they need is to see even more pain and devastation."

Olaf was killed six months later, on his final day in Afghanistan, as he was trying to defuse his third bomb of the day.

Grieving desperately Christina somehow had the strength to meet the plane flying back his body and to be at the side of the road as his hearse was driven through the town of Wootton Bassett. As the car approached she and Olaf's mother stepped forward with flowers. She somehow managed a smile and started to clap. She said, "It was instinctive - the only way I could think of to say publicly 'I'm so proud of you.'" She believes that Olaf gave her strength that day to carry out his wishes.

Being in the army Olaf had seen terrible things like when he was serving in Kosovo in 1999. Thousands of Albanians were slaughtered. One of his duties had been to shovel scores of bodies from trucks, dripping with blood. After this he was unable to tolerate such things as a dripping tap, some sights and sounds never go away.

The couples dream of a house in Cornwall, where they would one day keep chickens, kept them both going through tough times, as when she had a miscarriage while he was far away in Afghanistan.

Christina tells of her feelings the day prior to Olaf being killed, "That night I had an overpowering premonition ... at one point I got up and emailed him: 'Don't go out on the ground tomorrow. Cut the last day - don't do it.' He never got the message."

The next morning she had a heavy feeling, unlike she had ever felt before. She describes it as being as 'powerful as thunder.'

That night she put her son to bed at 9.20pm. Shortly after two men in Army uniform were at the door. Her worst fears had come true.

Christina now says that her husband, "... still keeps me going - by sending messages through a medium."

The more I read about Afghanistan the more wrong the war seems. Equipment is poor, the men are doing more duties than they should and horrifically lives of young men are being lost (from lots of countries).

Here's what Christina says about when Olaf was preparing for Afghanistan:

"We'd had to buy everything, as the stuff issued by the (UK) Army was rubbish - like heavy protection suits that were too hot to wear and provided a target for the Taliban.  Olaf gave me a list of websites so I could order more and send it on to him."

Olaf told her, "Let everyone know what's going on out there. Let them know of the shortages and the corner they backed me into.  None of us mind doing our job, but we shouldn't be doing 25 other people's jobs too."

Christina actually collapsed weeping, at the very moment he died ... enough said.

Christina Schmid has written a book: Always By My Side: Losing the love of my life and the fight to honour his memory

Further Reading:
Is Afghanistan History Repeating Itself?

The Orion Bug Lets The Imagination Take Flight

On Monday I published a post Mysterious Links Of The Ancients To Orion And The Afterlife. This is about how the ancient stones of the Hurlers Circles and Thornborough's Three Henges appear to replicate the constellation of Orion's belt. Following this a couple of synchros followed.

I thought no more about Orion but the same day we had visitors, one of them being a small girl called Imogen. She had with her a new toy: a Hexbug or sometimes called an X Bug, or so I'm told. I'd never seen these before but straight away I noticed that on it's back it had the Orion constellation! Quite a coincidence I thought, so I took the photo above of her bug.

These Hexbugs, according to Amazon, are 'robotic creatures that behave like real bugs. Each Nano Series features different colors and graphics' - so there could have been many things on the back of Imogen's bug.

After our visitor's had left I was in my office and for some reason opened a book I have on Egypt. I read about how the Great Pyramid has shafts aligned with stars including Orion. It went on to say:

"Orion was possibly intended as the destination of the king's ba or spirit when he ascended to take his place among the circumpolar stars."

The stars that make up Orion's belt are between 800 and 1400 light years away and are known in Spain and Brazil as 'The Three Marys' and in several other countries as 'The Three Kings'. So there is a somewhat religious feel to the names.

It's interesting that Orion is often associated with Sirius. For example I read:

"The simplest way to find Sirius in the winter sky is to extend an imaginary line eastward along Orion's belt and to extrapolate it to the next group of stars. The brightest star that you approach using this crude but effective method is Sirius."

The Dogon people of West Africa claim that they have knowledge which came from the Nommos who visited earth from the Sirius star system - see my post Knowledge Learned From The Fish-like Aliens.

I realise I'm going off on a bit of a tangent, okay several, but maybe, just maybe, there is much more to the Hurlers and the Thornborough Henges than them simply being calenders, as many would have us believe. If we join up some of the dots who knows what picture we could come up with - visitors from far off planets, UFOs, secret knowledge and ... well, all sorts of things if we want to let our imaginations take flight.

The Queen's Coincidence Of Names Conspiracy

Is it simply a coincidence that Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother's name before marriage was Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes Lyon and that the family cook at the time was called Marguerite Rodiere? Is it also a coincidence that King Edward VIII's nickname for her was Cookie?

For clarification Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother (August 4, 1900 to March 30, 2002) was the mother of the current British Queen Elizabeth II. She was the wife of King George VI and therefore had the title of Queen from 1936 to her husband's death in 1952.

Now going back to the name Marguerite, shared by Elizabeth and the family cook, there is a suggestion that perhaps the cook was actually her mother and not Cecilia her father's wife. Her father was Claude Bowes-Lyon, Lord Glamis (later to become the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne in the Peerage of Scotland).

Cecilia is always shown as Elizabeth's mother but doubts are now being raised as she had already had eight children. Her health had deteriorated for further pregnancies. As well as physically she was devastated mentally by the death of her eldest child in 1893 and had a mental breakdown.

If Elizabeth was indeed the cook's daughter it would explain that nickname of Cookie.

There is also a question as to where Elizabeth the Queen Mother was born. For example Wikipedia states:

"The location of her (Elizabeth's) birth remains uncertain, but reputedly she was born either in her parents' Westminster home at Belgrave Mansions, Grosvenor Gardens, or in a horse-drawn ambulance on the way to a hospital. Other possible locations include Forbes House in Ham, London, the home of her maternal grandmother, Mrs Scott. Her birth was registered at Hitchin, Hertfordshire, near the Strathmores' English country house, St Paul's Walden Bury, which was also given as her birthplace in the census the following year."

Without DNA testing there is, of course, no way of knowing if Elizabeth the Queen Mother was in reality the daughter of the French cook Marguerite Rodiere.

However, according to the grapevine, Edward VIII is said to have seen documents which showed that Elizabeth was born on the 3rd of August and not the 4th of August, as per the official records. The documents were also said to have shown that she was born to a Marguerite Rodiere.

Further Reading:
Famous Coincidences: King Umberto I
The Hampton Court Ghost Caught On CCTV

Medieval Cornish Huer's Hut Without The Hue And Cry

It was my wife's birthday last week (28th March) so we went to Newquay on Cornwall's north coast for the day and for a nice meal. The rest of the family were working, so we saw them in the evening.

It was a glorious day for late March with blue sky and lots of sunshine. More like summer than early Spring.

Midday we had our meal at a pub and restaurant called the Fort Inn, which has some of the best views in Newquay. The photos above and below were taken from their restaurant.

The top picture is looking to the right at some of Newquay's excellent beaches and the one below shows the view looking left to a small quay with it's fishing boats - the tide was out.

After the meal we went for a walk to a headland and away from the town as I wanted to find something to put on this blog. In all honesty the town itself doesn't do the beaches, cliffs and views justice.

I remembered the Huer's Hut (pic below) and thought it might be of interest to 67 Not Out readers as it dates back to at least the 14th century.

Before becoming the Huer's Hut it was most likely a hermitage. The hermit would have had the job of lighting beacons to guide shipping.

It was after this that it became to be used by a huer (from the saying hue and cry).

The huer was a lookout for when shoals of pilchards were expected in the local sea. A call on his horn raised the hue and cry informing the townsfolk that the fish had been sighted. Then, by a series of hand signals, he would guide the fishing boats to where the pilchards were seen. They could then surround the shoal with their nets and hopefully get a good haul.

The building itself, or hut as it's called, has a typical Cornish medieval chimney and a narrow set of stairs leading to the roof for use by lookouts or huers.

There are two windows and an early fireplace which can be seen in the photo above.

The Fort Inn where we had our meal with excellent views

After our walk we sat overlooking Newquay's Pentire surfing beach and enjoyed a cup of tea ...

In the evening we saw the rest of the family and had birthday cake made by our special daughter-in-law. A good day and, as the saying goes: The sun shines on the righteous! That would no doubt be Karin, more than me.

For more 67 Not Out Cornwall post click here

Mysterious Links Of The Ancients To Orion And The Afterlife

In my recent post The Mystery Of The Three Hurlers Stone Circles I mentioned that there is a theory that the three circles mirror the belt of the constellation of Orion.

By coincidence I have just come across details of the three Henges at Thornborough, which is something I haven't seen for myself. The photo above is from Geograph.org.uk and is © Tony Newbould.

It is also claimed that Thornborough Henge, Yorkshire, has also been deliberately laid out to mirror Orion’s Belt. See how the middle circle is slightly off centre as is Orion's Belt.

From what I have researched the circles of Hornborugh Henge were constructed around 3000 BC so this would make them older than the Hurlers on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall.

Dr Harding an expert on this sort of thing is quoted as saying, "Thornborough was a sacred landscape, a place of religious worship, and we should try to interpret these astronomical orientations within that context.

This astronomical association was emphasised by the banks of the Henges being coated in brilliant white gypsum. Neolithic people surely felt they were at the centre of the very cosmos as they worshipped the heavens above."

It has also been theorised that the Egyptian pyramids have an alignment with Orion. In the Great Pyramid there are two shafts running from the burial chamber. These are aligned with various stars including the constellation of Orion - which was personified by the Egyptians as the god Sah.

Going back to Hornborough Henge this was an important ritual centre, going back as far as 4000 BC, for the Neolithic residents before the Henges were constructed.

So did different ancient groups of people pick on Orion purely as a calender or is there something much deeper associated with the alignments?  For example, the Egyptians associated the god Osiris with Orion.

Osiris is/was god of the dead and the Afterlife - and also of rebirth and fertility. Is this a possible connection?

And just to throw in one more thing, this time about the Hurlers, these just happen to be on what it known as St. Michael's Ley Line.

I have no real answers as yet! But I feel there is something that the experts are missing. Perhaps a Time Machine would help!

Further Reading: The Mystery Of The Three Hurlers Stone Circles

The Dinosaur Cookbook

The Dinosaur Cookbook

Customer: I don't know why she wants it. but my wife asked for a copy of the Dinosaur Cookbook.
Bookseller: The Dinah Shore Cookbook?
Customer: That must be it; I wondered what she was up to.

Jen Campbell, who works in a bookshop in North London, collected some of the funny and weird things requested by customers. She had so many she turned them into a book called Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops.

Here are a few more examples:

Do you have any pop-up books on sex education?

Do you have this children's book I've heard about? It's supposed to be very good. It's called Lionel Richie And The Wardrobe.

Customer: Hi, have you seen my wife in here?
Bookseller: Erm, I have lots of wives in here, what does yours look like?
Customer: She's let herself go a bit, is short and her roots are showing.

I read a book in the Sixties. I don't remember the author, or the title. But it was green, and it made me laugh. Do you know which one I mean?

Customer: Do you have a copy of Jane Eyre?
Bookseller: Actually I just sold it this morning, sorry.
Customer: Oh, have you read it?
Bookseller: Yes, it's one of my favourite books.
Customer: Oh, great (he sits down). Could you tell me all about it? I have to write an essay on it.

Customer: Have you read every single book here?
Bookseller: No, I can't say I have.
Customer: Well you're not very good at your job are you?

Customer: Where do you keep your maps?
Bookseller: Over here, what kind of map are you looking for? A country. the UK, Europe, a world map?
Customer: I want a map of the sun.

Where do you keep Hamlet? You know 'to be or not to be?' Is it in philosophy?

Do you have a book which lists the weather forecast for the rest of the year?

Do you have any books in this shade of green, to match the wrapping paper I bought?

So ... this Kindle. Are the books on that hardback or paperback?

Customer: Do you have any medical textbooks?
Bookseller: Sorry, no. They go out of date so quickly we don't stock them, but I can order one in for you.
Customer: I'm not worried about it being in date.
Bookseller: Does your university not request you have a specific edition?
Customer: Oh, I'm not a medical student. I just want to learn how to do stitches.
Bookseller: ... Right.
Customer: Do you have a book on sewing instead?

Do you sell reading books? You know, books you can read?

And so the weird requests go on and on!