Random Thoughts

There's got to be a better way to start each day than getting out of bed!

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If you've had one love and two good friends you've grown old with, you've had all the jewels in the universe. ~ Janet Alba

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Television gives us an excellent reason to read a book.

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I am qualified to criticise television because I have two eyes and a brain - which is one eye and a brain more than television has. ~ source unknown.

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Television is chewing gum for the eyes. ~ Frank Lloyd Wright

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The great thing about television is that if something important happens anywhere in the world, day or night, you can always change the channel. ~ From "Taxi"

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Don't you wish there were a knob on the TV to turn up the intelligence? There's one marked 'Brightness,' but it doesn't work. ~ Gallagher

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One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

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Television has raised writing to a new low. ~ Samuel Goldwyn

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One of the strange dichotomies of modern thinking is that we apply moral laws to one area of life that we do not permit in another. Thus, we ban cigarette smoking because it is harmful to health but advance the cause of marijuana. We advocate strongly on green issues, on the grounds that we are only stewards of the earth and may not plunder the heritage we must pass on to our children; yet refuse to be stewards of the virtues, literature and classic understandings of the past, thereby denying our children an equally fundamental heritage.

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When you cut down a tree, you destroy the branch
Marriage was once considered the foundational unit of society. Because of the benefits that it provided society, it was protected. Because it was a society "good", it was preferred above other relationship arrangements. Out of marriage has sprung a variety of other arrangements, such as de facto relationships and solo parenting. These other arrangements were once considered immoral or looked down upon, then they became accepted, and now they are being celebrated as equal to, or in some cases even superior to, marriage (eg, in songs, movies and on TV). The law has lagged behind popular culture. But law is now being changed to make all relationships equal in law (including same-sex). The aim is to give all relationships the same benefits as marriage. But this is a pathway to destruction of all those relationships. It is equivalent to cutting down a tree in order to preserve the branch. This is because we draw our understanding of the meaning of relationships from our understanding of marriage. Marriage provides the base definition from which all other relationships draw their comparison. Without marriage, there is nothing to compare. Another analogy: it is like going to a pond to look at your reflection, and finding the pond has dried up.

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I wish to propose an update on Descartes: God thinks, therefore I am.

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(c) Copyright John McNeil, all rights reserved. Apart from the purposes of fair review, this work may not be reproduced in whole or in part in any form, physical or electronic, without the express permission in writing of the author. He may be contacted at jandhmcneil<a>paradise.net.nz