Potpourri

The few readers of this journal will, we are certain, agree on one thing: we seldom indulge in full-on rants. This entry will be the rare exception.

Recently, the Pope saw fit to quote from a 14th - century emperor’s text in regard to the religion of Islam and its prophet Muhammad, and the manner in which Islam may be spread. What the intentions of the Pope were are unclear and, in fact, irrelevant, save for the fact that easily inflamed adherents have once again raised a hue and cry at a perceived attack upon their beliefs.

We say this - God did not create us to go about killing each other in Her/His Name. God is not about death. If people are serious about their beliefs in God, they will eschew violence. If people are using their religion as a cover so as to attempt to dominate and dictate the beliefs of others, then they are not Godly. God meant for us to learn how to love, not how to hate.

The sixth commandment reads "Thou shalt not murder." The seventh through the tenth commandments can be distilled into the statement "Thou shalt respect one another." If believers violate these understandings, they worship a false god.

If religious leaders are incapable of controlling the behavior of their adherents either through teaching or example, they are unworthy of their leadership positions and should find a line of work more suited to them.

This has been a public service announcement brought to you by utter disgust with "organized" religion. We now return to our regularly scheduled lunacy.

We are looking forward to the movie sequel of the year -

Parrots of the Caribbean: Polly’s Cracker Box, once again starring Chipper as (who else?) Captain Jack Sparrow.

Capers, caprices and cavorting from our Police Beat:

Brighton

Police found beer, marijuana and two pipes at an Aug.30 party on Rensselaer Drive. The report stated that police would talk to the parents when they returned.

We would expect that to be a given. This incident will no doubt provide fodder for some lively family discussions.

East Rochester  (our favorite town - well, except for Penfield)

A man is accused of putting his arm around the neck of a female customer and then putting a knife to her throat inside China Chef restaurant, 452 W. Commercial St. The man, who reportedly threatened to kill the female customer, demanded money from the restaurant clerk. The clerk gave the suspect the tip jar from the counter and the male suspect left the store (sic). The suspect was later apprehended by the Rochester Police Department on other robbery and grand larceny charges.

Seems pretty drastic to us, threatening someone’s life in order to acquire a tip jar. This dude must have been severely down on his luck. (With his arrest, his luck has improved; 3 squares a day and no need to fend for himself - at least not on the outside.)

Someone started a fire inside a plastic garbage can at Eyer Park between 6 and 6:10 pm Sept. 1. A witness saw four young people near the garbage can in the park. Once the fire started, the witness saw the youngsters run off.

We believe that a fair inference regarding cause and effect may be drawn here. This incident may also be related to events described in this article.

Penfield

An ATV was stolen from the back yard of a home on Clove Drive on Sept. 4. Two bicycles were found in the driveway where the ATV would have had to be pushed to make an exit.

Two bikes for an ATV? Hardly seems like a fair trade.

Perinton

Security for the Monroe County Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) District 1 reported that between Sept. 1 and 5, someone entered the Foreman Center building on O’Connor Road, rummaged through drawers in three offices and left M&M candies scattered about. It was the second such incident at the building.

Has the legacy of Johnny Appleseed been reduced to this?!?

Here’s a curiosity from one of our local realtors - a page of twelve properties listed for sale. Eleven of the photos look like this -

 

The twelfth picture is different, and provides a slightly less illustrative graphic of the noted property -

We can only speculate what made this substitution necessary - did he run out of film or leave the cell phone back at the office? Couldn't he be bothered to get an actual photo of the house? Are the residents camera-shy? Or is the place such a dump that he daren't show the actual property? This appears to be a case of caveat emptor.

Lastly, we'd like to showcase another tag that Nikki has designed for us -

We love these things - never get tired of them. Thanks, Nikki.

Peace.