Bill the Butcher

    In The Beginning 26  And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. 27  And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; 28  For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. The observance of Easter is central to the Christian faith. To believe the unbelievable is the epitome of an elusive factor we call faith. For a man to die in a most brutal way, be buried, and remain for three days, entombed until rigor mortis has relaxed, all impulse has left the brain, and decay has begun and then reanimate and just walk away is unthinkable. In fact, it would be labeled as delusional by any team of psychologists at any mental hospital if a patient stood on that belief if referring to someone that they had known. And yet on Sunday billions will accept that very thing as pastors and priests raise t...

  I get so tired of hearing about messed up childhoods I could just puke. All these people with messed up lives blaming it on their messed up childhood. Nobody has a good childhood! The best you get is being one of the non-aborted. Your parents are so busy working two jobs to feed your hungry ass to powder puff said ass and other kids laugh at you I school. Get over it.  Life is a struggle. From your first breath till your last you struggle for each one. Even when you sleep you worry about the morning. Your wife seemed to be a good deal until you had to get that second job. Wait until “Second Job” grows up and blamed his bad childhood on you! Try as they might all the psychologists and sawbones still can’t figure out what makes us human. All the influences and ingredients that make us act the way we do. Even Jesus had problems with staff.  Throughout millennia men have wandered in deserts and sat on high mountains looking for “The Answer.” What was the question? When you ...

  With many thanks to The Good Old Days  Her sandals lay kicked off in the corner, and a half-empty bottle of Southern Comfort sat beside the mic stand. Midway through a cigarette, Janis Joplin crushed the filter into the studio carpet, stepped up barefoot, and stared into the silence. It was 1968, inside Columbia Records’ Los Angeles studio, and she was about to record “Piece of My Heart” (1967). The band waited. The tape rolled. No one breathed. Originally recorded by Erma Franklin in 1967, the song had been a restrained, soulful ballad. Janis did not want restraint. She wanted a storm. From the first note, her voice cracked like a whip, brimming with ache, rage, and refusal. Producer John Simon watched through the glass, stunned. This was not a cover. This was a gut-punch. Janis had heard the song months earlier in San Francisco. Living out of motels and crashing on couches, she had been bouncing between gigs, often showing up with no shoes, no plan, but always a voice that...

    A court reduced the bond for a Texas teen accused of fatally stabbing another teenager at a track meet  and said he would allow house arrest for the suspect. Karmelo Anthony, 17, is charged in the stabbing death of Austin Metcalf following a verbal dispute at a track meet in Frisco, Texas.   And the wall gets higher. We would like to believe that due to the Civil Rights Act everything changed and elevated black folk to Negro 2.0. We should all be color blind, everyone loved one another, and every child could grow up to be another Dr. Ben Carson or Barack Obama. And if you believe that have I got a bridge for you, and it’s on sale . EBT accepted. Yet again we have an incident that spills over into 1922 with all the pomp and ceremony of a lynching complete with burning cross. But I expected that. Oh, those people were all politically correct for the most part. It wasn’t them that were acting according to tribe, if I can say tribe. As the comments piled up on Facebo...

  I’ve turned a corner in my life. Things are coming together in my professional life that preclude all the personal garbage that can get in the way of productivity.    You will find that you must leave some things, and some people for that matter on the side of the road. Free ride is over. As you gain wisdom and age you realize that we all live in a personal bubble. Nobody is interested in your opinion. They are too busy trying to put their own opinion across. The loudest, most obnoxious opinion prevails. It’s not the right opinion. It’s just the loudest. That’s why government, religion and all the “ologies” fail. Theology, psychology, or pathology to name just a few. All of them develop dogmas, and the dogs guard the door lest an intruder gets in. Ologies are allergic to new ideas. What goes around comes around once, and never comes back.    When you come to a turn in life’s road there are no street signs. You either turn or you don’t. If you turn it can mean ...

  A man is driving down the road and breaks down near a monastery. He goes to the monastery, knocks on the door, and says, "My car broke down. Do you think I could stay the night?" The monks graciously accept him, feed him dinner, even fix his car. As the man tries to fall asleep, he hears a strange sound. The next morning, he asks the monks what the sound was, but they say, "We can't tell you. You're not a monk." The man is disappointed but thanks them anyway and goes about his merry way. Some years later, the same man breaks down in front of the same monastery. The monks accept him, feed him, even fix his car. That night, he hears the same strange noise that he had heard years earlier. The next morning, he asks what it is, but the monks reply, "We can't tell you. You're not a monk." The man says, "All right, all right. I'm dying to know. If the only way I can find out what that sound was is to become a monk, how do I become a mon...

    And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.   Whatever comes out at the trial of Karmelo Anthony will not satisfy either side and will not be “the truth!” When Karmelo took it upon himself to kill Austin Metcalf he forever etched himself into Texas history and there is no way to scratch him out! The basics are simple. There was a track meet. At track events tents are set up for the various groups to congregate. Now let’s look at the situation. A track meet. Run run run as fast as you can, get a blue ribbon be the prom queen’s man! This was not a boxing match. Not a football game. Not even arm wrestling. Just a bunch of kids being . . . kids ! Austin was, for some reason, hanging out at his proper tent. I don’t know. Maybe he was in charge of the Gatorade. I don’t even know if he was a contestant. Just there ! For one reason or another Karmelo shows up and insinuates ...