George Carlin on Obscenity and Indecency

"The whole problem with this idea of obscenity and indecency, and all of these things — bad language and whatever — it's all caused by one basic thing, and that is: religious superstition," Carlin told the AP in a 2004 interview. "There's an idea that the human body is somehow evil and bad and there are parts of it that are especially evil and bad, and we should be ashamed. Fear, guilt and shame are built into the attitude toward sex and the body. ... It's reflected in these prohibitions and these taboos that we have."

--The Associated Press. George Carlin's Obit, June 23, 2008

Absolute Power

There’s an old adage that says, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” While this may seem absolutely true, it’s absolutely false. There is only one who has ever known absolute power, and that is God. Yet He is the only one who has never abused His power. This is exactly what separates God from the rest of us. He really is different from who we are without Him. In fact we find that God does exactly the opposite of what we would expect with unlimited power.

(p.77)

Corruption is not an issue of power; it is an issue of passion. Power simply allows us to unleash our passions. What is hidden when we are powerless is exposed when we are empowered. With absolute power what you see is what you get. The power and authority that Jesus held did not change Him but allowed us to see Him in His purest form. The reason it appears that power corrupts is that power magnifies what is hidden within us. We can appear to have integrity when in fact all we are is powerless. It is not an act of integrity to treat someone well or justly when we are afraid of him or feel powerless to do otherwise. You cannot call someone “moral” simply because he is restrained from acting on his deepest desire. Otherwise Hannibal Lecter would be considered the ultimate expression of morality simply because he was strapped into a straitjacket. He’s not moral just because he can’t eat you. True morality in this case would be that he no longer wants to have you for dinner.

(p. 78 -79)


--From Uprising: A Revolution of the Soul by Erwin Raphael McManus

Thomas Edison: Being Always Right

A long career of being always right made it impossible for Thomas Edison to endure being wrong. Committed thoroughly to the use of direct electrical current, Edison unscrupulously fought the use of alternating current. He lobbied New York State into adopting a.c. for its newly devised electric chair (and a.c. is indeed more efficient in electrocution than direct current), and then he pointed with great horror to the electric chair as an example of the deadly nature of a.c.

(p.158)

from Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts, edited by Isaac Asimov