Halloween bedtime story: birth of Vampires

(Holiday History) Halloween bedtime story: birth of the Vampire

Writer Mark Twain rejected Christianity?

(Famous People's Religion) The Bible is pure fiction: Mark Twain's dark religion satire: Letters from the Earth points out many Judeo-Christian flaws, inconsistencies, and contradictions.

• American writer Mark Twain rejected Christianity?
• Mark Twain, religion, and God (naturalist view vs. theology): "Why does God not relieve suffering?"

Letters from the Earth

Letters from the Earth (Wikipedia)

This is one of the works by Mark Twain published after his passing. These essays were kept secret, having been written by Twain. They may have ruined his career. As it was, he was deep in debt and had lost his wife and one of his daughters.

It consists of a series of short stories, many of which deal with God and Christianity. Twain penned a series of letters from the point of view of a dejected bad angel on Earth.

The title story consists of letters written by the Archangel [Lucifer] Satan to Archangels Gabriel and Michael about his observations on the curious proceedings of earthly life and the nature of mankind's religions.

Letters from the Earth

By analyzing the idea of heaven and God that is widely accepted by those who believe in both, Twain is able to take the silliness that is present and study it with the common sense that is absent. It is not an attack but rather a careful dissection.

Other short stories in the book include a bedtime tale about a family of cats Twain wrote for his daughters and an essay explaining why an anaconda is morally superior to Man.

Twain's writings in Letters from the Earth find him at a quizzical and questioning state, and readers are all the better for it.

Jesus? Christianity built on lies and holes

(Sacred Logic) Ten documented historical facts that make Jesus of Nazareth impossible

(Sacred Logic) Six big holes in the Jesus story the Church tried to cover up

(Sacred Logic) Ten historical lies that created Christianity

Well then who wrote the Bible then?

(Sacred Logic) Investigating true history of the Gospels (Bart Ehrman)

'The Odyssey' with Matt Damon and Trump

(Mr. Newberger's AI Funnies) The Trojan Trump: deleted scene from Elon Musk's The Odyssey

Sarah Silverman, you had s*x with him. What's Matt Damon really like? Sing a song about it.*

(Universal Pictures) The Odyssey (official new trailer)

The Odyssey (2026 film)

The Odyssey is a 2026 epic action fantasy film written and directed by Christopher Nolan. Produced by Nolan and his wife Emma Thomas, it is an adaptation of Homer's ancient Greek epic poem Odyssey. Its ensemble cast includes Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, and Charlize Theron. In the film, Odysseus (Damon), the Greek king of Ithaca, undergoes a long and perilous journey home after the Trojan War and encounters mythical beings as he attempts to reunite with his wife Penelope (Hathaway). Nolan began writing the script in March 2024 and secured the project by October.

(ABC News) Stars of The Odyssey open up about the new Hollywood epic

*Sarah, what's the real Matt Damon like?

(Freddy Kreuger) Sarah Silverman sings "I'm F*cking Matt Damon" with Matt for Jimmy Kimmel

(CBC News) Nolan's Odyssey may be confusing but worth second viewing

(Remnants) How much of The Odyssey actually happened? All of it?

(PBS Newshour) Why the ancient story of 'The Odyssey' still resonates today

• Classicist Emily Wilson translation: Homer's The Odyssey (Audible Iliad & Odyssey, Book 2, Claire Danes)

(Literature and History Podcast) Nine myths about the Odyssey you might still believe

(The Daily Show) Christopher Nolan on The Odyssey with Jon Stewart

Fans slam Odyssey trailer with tidal wave of criticism (ComicBook.com)

What has cheater Damon done?

(RWV123) Disaster Movie (unrated) ending song: "I'm F'ing Matt Damon"

(Jimmy Kimmel Live) Jim's payback: "I'm F*@#*ng Ben Affleck"

(Unscripted Eye) Why every celebrity zero-filters Matt Damon on live TV

Fun and spirituality with the poet Rumi

(Daughter of Iran) Thinking is an Ego Trap: Thought will not solve our problems

(Shams of Tabrez) Life-Changing Rumi Poems (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Hearts)

Tomb Shrine of Rumi in Konya, Raulana Jelaledin Muhammad Rumi (wikipedia)

.

Rumi 'loves' disciple Chelebi

The History of Iran, formerly Persia, is rich and wondrous. Among the many strongest features of Cyrus the Great's powerful (Achaemenid) Empire is its enduring love of poetry. One need only to think of one of the world's greatest poets, Rumi (aka Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī).

Zionist Israelis and American imperialists, who together are trying to establish a Western beachhead in the center of the Middle East and calling it "Greater Israel," may hate Iran, but we love it and Iranians, the original Aryans.

Rumi's darkest lesson: How we become our own worst enemy: Jewish king

The Buddha's mothers (sisters Queen Maya and Queen Prajapati), according to maverick Indian historian Dr. Ranajit Pal, were Aryan-Iranians from a region now known as Sistan-Baluchistan, south of Buddhist Afghanistan, in ancient Gandhara (Indo-Scythia of the Sakas/Shakyas), the original Kapilavastu, which was not in Nepal as we are told. (See Non-Jonesian Indology and Alexander).

(Shams of Tabrez) Rumi's secret of form and meaning (namarupa)

Mawlana ("Rumi") meeting Shams-i Tabrizi (Cāmiʿü’s-siyer of
Muhammed Tahir, Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Istanbul)

Whirling dervishes and Lala
visit Rumi's tomb in 1580

The Buddha's father, Scythian King or Tribal Chieftain Suddhodana, was a Central Asian from Kabul and Bamiyan, it would seem. But even if the historical Buddha and his biological parents bore no relation to the region, modern Iran is still a magnificent ancient society and a power to reckon with in the region.

It is a horror and a travesty that the CIA, NSA, NSC, Mossad, Israel, UK, TC, and USA meddle in it so much since at least the time of the Shah of Iran and U.S. puppet dictator gone rogue Saddam Hussein.

Mad at Iran, I quit the Olympic team

(AJ+) Why I quit Iran's Olympic team - but still love my country very much

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (BBC)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Primary Phase (1)

"Don't Panic"

This work of pure comedic genius began as a BBC Radio play by Douglas Adams (who was the first to think to combine science fiction and comedy), the audio of which is presented here: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It became so popular that it became a book then a sequel then a series then a trilogy with additional installments that made calling it a "trilogy" more and more misleading. It is perhaps the single funniest piece of work we have ever heard, a masterpiece.

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Audible Audio Edition): Douglas Adams, Stephen Fry, Random House Audio
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Primary Phase (dramatized) (Audible Audio Edition): Douglas Adams, Full Cast: Peter Jones, Susan Sheridan, Simon Jones, Geoffrey McGivern, Mark Wing-Davey, Stephen Moore, BBC Digital Audio

TEN (10) LIES that created 'Christianity'

(Sacred Logic) 10 historical lies that created Christianity!

• Gnosticism
• Jesus as Gnostic savior
• Hermeticism
• Catharism
• Ecclesia Gnostica
• Gnostic Church of France
• Gnosticism in modern times

Hidden Gnostic truths?

(MorgueOfficial) Gnostic Jesus' dangerous teachings on death: why they hid it

HOWL: JuBu Allen Ginsberg's 100th birthday

(RAT Subterranean News) Allen Ginsberg: Buddhism and Telling the Truth

Beat poet Allen Ginsberg's 100th birthday is being marked by celebrations around the world – an appreciation of his importance to poetry and how his influence on the medium continues.

• Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal: JewBu: Why are so many Jews Buddhist?
• Literary events around the world celebrate the poet Allen Ginsberg's 100th birthday (NPR)
• American Buddhist and Beat Poet Jack Kerouac
• Jack Kerouac's nonfiction book on Buddhism
• AUDIO: Buddhist-Catholic poet Jack Kerouac
• VIDEO: Dharma Bum Temple, San Diego, California

"Howl" by Allen Ginsberg summarized

JuBu Ginsberg's Sunflower Sutra (poem)

(extropyofdays) Allen Ginsberg's modernist poem "Sunflower Sutra"

Nazis invented meth as pharmaceutical Pervitin

"Howl," also known as "Howl for Carl Solomon," is a poem composed by drug-addled Allen Ginsberg (who had shot himself up with methamphetamine or what Hitler's doctor shot up the Fuhrer with under the German pharmaceutical name Pervitin, possibly linked to words like perky and perverted) in 1954–1955.

Poet activist Ginsberg with protestors, Miami

Gay Ginsberg began work on "Howl" in autumn of 1954. He performed it at the Six Gallery reading in San Francisco in Oct. 1955. Fellow poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti of City Lights Books was at the performance and published the work in the 1956 collection Howl and Other Poems.

Howl and Other Poems

Upon its release, Ferlinghetti and City Lights Bookstore Manager (Japanese Buddhist) Shigeyoshi Murao were charged with disseminating obscene literature. Both perverts were arrested.

On Oct. 3, 1957, Judge Clayton W. Horn ruled that the poem was not obscene [1], and the heroic publishers were hailed as innovative geniuses and brave publishing mavericks for spotting Ginsberg's talent.

Highly controversial at first and for years excluded from the academic canon, "Howl" has gradually come to be regarded as a great work of 20th-century American literature [2].

Bob Dylan and Allen Ginsberg

(Swingin' Pig) Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg visit Jack Kerouac's grave (1975)

The poem is also closely associated with the group of writers known as the "Beats" or Beat Generation [2,3]. More

• "Sunflower Sutra" (The Poetry Foundation)

The "Sunflower Sutra"

1967 Mantra-Rock Dance Avalon
poster by poet Allen Ginsberg

This poem is an account of a sojourn (trip) with Jack Kerouac in a railroad yard, the discovery of a sunflower covered in dirt and soot from the railroad yard, and the subsequent revelation that this is a metaphor for all humanity: "We are not our skin of grime."

This relates to his vision, an auditory hallucination of poet William Blake reading "Ah, Sunflower": "Blake, my visions." (See also line in Howl: "Blake-light tragedies" and references in other poems).

• Author Emily Sigalow, American JewBu (Princeton U Press)

Manager Shig Murao

The theme of the poem is consistent with Ginsberg's revelation in his original vision of Blake: the revelation that all of humanity is interconnected. (See also the line in "Footnote to Howl": "The world is holy!").

The structure of this poem relates to "Howl" both in its use of the long line and its repetition of the "eyeball kick" (paratactical juxtapositions) at the end. Ginsberg says in relating his thought process after the experiments of "Howl":

"What about a poem with rhythmic buildup power equal to Howl without use of repetitive base to sustain it? The Sunflower Sutra...did that, it surprised me, one long who" [6]. More

Buddhist book giveaway (LA Festival of Books)

Third Thursdays LA

Celebrate the joy of reading at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, happening April 18–19 at the USC campus.

This FREE, weekend-long event brings together hundreds of authors, poets, storytellers, and book lovers for panels, signings, performances, and family-friendly activities across indoor and outdoor stages.

• Wisdom Quarterly joins in to distribute free Buddhist titles at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books 2026 (Book Row behind main stage)
• Vajra Lotsawas (Facebook) (FB)
• Instagram
• Penguin Random House Spring Book & Author Festival 2026 | Library Journal

Students mingle with booklovers

Find LAist.com at two booths, Booth 154 (marketing team) and Booth 723 (education team), connecting with the LA and OC community, giving away free books, and sharing plenty of LAist swag.

Whether one is catching a panel or just exploring the festival for reading material in the company of authors, stop by to say hello and be part of one of the country’s largest celebrations of storytelling. Free, open to the public, with no RSVP required. More

Proof: Language came before civilization

(Michael Button) Someone was writing long before civilization

The 5 most famous Chinese poems

(Skritter) The only Chinese poem [poet] we need to know

(Learn Chinese Now) The 5 Most Famous Chinese Poems of All Time (Explained in English)

Li Bai (Chinese 李白, Pinyin Lǐ Bái) (circa 701-762), who is also known by his courtesy name of Taibai (太白), was a Chinese poet acclaimed as one of the best and most important poets of the Tang dynasty, even the whole of Chinese poetry.

He and his friends such as Du Fu (712–770) were among the prominent figures in the flourishing of Chinese poetry of the Tang dynasty, often called the "Golden Age of Chinese Poetry." The expression "Three Wonders" denotes

1. Li Bai's poetry,
2. Pei Min's swordplay, and
3. Zhang Xu's calligraphy [1].

Around 1,000 poems attributed to Li are extant. His poems have been collected into the most important Tang dynasty collection, Heyue yingling ji [2], compiled in 753 by Yin Fan.

Thirty-four of Li Bai's poems are included in the anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems, which was first published in the 18th century [3].

Around the same time, translations of his poems began to appear in Europe. In Ezra Pound's famous work Cathay (1915), Li Bai's poems enjoy the lion's share (11 out of 19) [4]. Li Bai's poems became models for celebrating the pleasures of... More

• Skritter; Learn Chinese Now; CC Liu, Crystal Quintero, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Renee Good's ICE poem 'To Dissect...Pigs'

(DemocracyNow.org) "We had whistles. They had guns": Nationwide (ICE out for Good campaign) protests over ICE killings

(KTLA 5) Massive Los Angeles uprising: peaceful anti-ICE protest

On Learning to Dissect...Pigs

By Renée Nicole Macklin [Good] R.I.P.

Police Pig I (creator.nightcafe.studio)

i want back my rocking chairs,

solipsist sunsets,

& coastal jungle sounds that are tercets from cicadas and pentameter from the hairy legs of cockroaches.

 

i’ve donated bibles to thrift stores

(mashed them in plastic trash bags with an acidic himalayan salt lamp—

the post-baptism bibles, the ones plucked from street corners from the meaty hands of zealots, the dumbed-down, easy-to-read, parasitic kind):

 

remember more the slick rubber smell of high gloss biology textbook pictures; they burned the hairs inside my nostrils,

& salt & ink that rubbed off on my palms.

(Pod Save America) Shocking new video of ICE police state abuses in Minneapolis goes viral

under clippings of the moon at two forty five AM I study&repeat

               ribosome

               endoplasmic—

               lactic acid

               stamen

 

at the IHOP on the corner of powers and stetson hills—

 

i repeated & scribbled until it picked its way & stagnated somewhere i can’t point to anymore, maybe my gut—

maybe there in-between my pancreas & large intestine is the piddly brook of my soul.

 

it’s the ruler by which i reduce all things now; hard-edged & splintering from knowledge that used to sit, a cloth against fevered forehead.

can i let them both be? this fickle faith and this college science that heckles from the back of the classroom

AOC opines on Trump and JD Vance's killer ICE agent who killed Good

 

               now i can’t believe—

               that the bible and qur’an and bhagavad gita are sliding long hairs behind my ear like mom used to & exhaling from their mouths “make room for wonder”—

all my understanding dribbles down the chin onto the chest & is summarized as:

life is merely

to ovum and sperm

and where those two meet

and how often and how well

and what dies there.

• 2020 Academy of American Poets Prize | Academy of American Poets

Some donuts with that, Fat@$$? Starbucks employee draws on cup and gets fired (MSN)

• Literary Hub » Renee Nicole Good, murdered by ICE, was a prize-winning poet. Here’s that poem
• We are not "pigs": Disabled woman pulled from car for blocking agents in Minneapolis
• PIG!? Starbucks apologizes for 'PIG' cup given to Kiefer officer
• Starbucks Corporation apologizes for 'pig' cup given to deputy (MSN)
• Starbucks employee serves LA sheriff's deputy coffee with hand-drawn pig on cup
• Three little pigs dressed as police officers in a city alley with brick buildings in the background | Adobe Stock
• Pig [Trump official?] wearing fashion costume, disguised as a police officer in urban cityscape
• ICE Out for Good concludes Day One with overwhelming peaceful actions | American Civil Liberties Union
• Who is killer ICE Agent Jonathan Ross? Amy Goodman reveals the truth about this misogynist murderer on Democracy Now! today

(Late Night with Seth Meyers) Noem flails on CNN over ICE shooting; protester schools Fox News; Trump's oil meeting: A Closer Look

Kimmel on Trump's response to Minneapolis: send more ICE agents, get Nobel Peace Prize

(Jimmy Kimmel Live)

Standup comedy: Minnesota not so nice (Sammy Obeid)

(Sammy Obeid) Minnesota not so nice | stand up comedy

Renee Nicole Good Is Murdered

By Cornelius Eady (1954–)

The killer is the one who chooses to kill.

Up rides the super cops,

The cancellation squad.

A dormant virus, melted from

The ice pack,

And the conversation

Is end-stopped when

The shell cracks her

Car window, does its

Dumb duty,

Brings silence

To a poet’s mind.

The President says:

You’re a terror bot

If you don’t comply.

Homeland security

Puts on a ten gallon

Texas size hat,

Says see what f*cking

With the bull gets you.

There is a picture of her

Just before it tips rancid,

Just before she’s dragged

Into how they see her.

I wish I could read the words

As they blaze their last, unsuspected

Race through her skull.

A language poem that ends on

The word

Impossible.

• Renee Nicole Good Is Murdered by Cornelius Eady (Poems | Academy of American Poets)

ICE on Good: "F*cking b*tch"

Israel/USA foment protests in Iran as pretext for attack by Bibi lackey Trump

Man drives through anti-Iran crowd

Mythic, literary origins of Christianity?

(MythVision TV) The shocking moment a Christian scholar realized "Jesus" was mythic (audio corrected)

• Phenomenology (philosophy)
• World religions