Holy smoke

When the magazine “Cigar Aficionado” made its debut the publishers expected it to do moderately well.

They were not prepared for the explosion in subscribers and news-stand sales. Nor were the major cigar companies prepared for the unprecedented demand for the quality tobacco in good cigar. Your world class hotels all over the United States are now hosting special “Smoker Nights” with fine wines. food and the best cigars. (The Ritz-Carlton’s, for example as well as Four Season hotels). These smokers are for both men and women.

One of the more fascinating subjects in my studies in Anthropology was the history of tobacco. It has been associated with the sacred for thousands of years in almost all primal cultures, as well as the far more sophisticated ones. Tobacco was divine and had magical powers. Smoking was one of the few universal habits in the Americas, from Alaska to the Maya/Aztec/Toltec area of Meso-America. The arriving Spaniards found the Mayas with tobacco being used everywhere by all ages. It was not only used socially for pleasure and relaxation but, even more important, had profound religious and mythological implications. It influenced their entire life, folklore and art. Over 600 words in American aboriginal languages and dialects have been used to designate tobacco.
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The authentic woman

On this Mother’s Day Sunday there will be many absurd sermons preached about the “divine” calling of women, to the total exclusion of respect and consideration for those woman who find themselves without children.

With all the “divine calling” nonsense floating around, what can we say to those women who must remain childless? Shall we do them the gross injustice of claiming that the meaning of a woman’s life is to be found only in having and rearing children.?

What I am saying is this: the meaning and purpose of a woman’s life is not to be found in having children. Every female animal, of any species, can reach this goal if the meaning of female existence is to be found only in reproducing the species. There is a much more important and authentic purpose to our existence, whether male or female.
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Mothers day and the bible

Mother’s Day once again is fast approaching with the Sunday sermons filled with cliches, platitudes and banalities. So perhaps it is time to take a good, hard look at what the bible and the church have actually done to degrade women. The treatment of women in the bible is characterized by such indecency and utter contempt that it is total travesty to call this book the “word” of God.

Dr. Gerald Larue, Distinguished professor emeritus of biblical history and archaeology at the University of Southern California, wrote these words: “The Bible has been one of the most powerful social weapons in the arsenal of those who restrict and curtail the freedom of women. No matter what Bible you use, the message is the same: WOMEN ARE INFERIOR. Their inferiority is, moreover, ordained by God. How long are we going to let people who lived and died thousands of years ago dictate the way we live and think today?”

The bible is man-made, written BY men FOR men and promoting the ludicrous party line that they are taking orders from a male God.
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