Ferri Tales

In Arthur Clarke's science fiction novel "Childhood's End", benevolent aliens from forty light-years away visit Earth, end all wars, help form a world government, and essentially create a utopia. When asked why they were helping mankind, their reply was, "Your race has shown a notable incapacity for dealing with the problems of its own rather small planet." On the real Earth, we can expect no help from non-Earth entities or from mythological super beings. We are on our own and had better shed this "notable incapacity" to deal with our problems. Earth really doesn't care if humans go extinct. The planet will do just fine without us. As with any problems, a solution first requires the realization that problems exist. And yes, we have a multitude of them. The top problems, from a quick internet search include: species extinction, war, nuclear proliferation, malnutrition and hunger, clean water, health care, population growth, peak oil consumpt...

HOLY SEX -  In the movie Cannonball Run (1981), Dean Martin played a race car driver disguised as a Catholic priest. His primary competitor, played by Burt Reynolds, drove a supercharged ambulance with Farrah Fawcett playing a fake transport patient. Martin stopped the ambulance with the pretense that he always stops ambulances to bless patients. However, during the blessing his partner would stealthily poke a hole in one of the tires. When Martin opened the side door of the ambulance and saw Fawcett lying invitingly on a gurney, he said, "Oh, I gotta bless her." I think this is what happened in Wyalusing recently when on May 17 ( Review , May 25, 2013) the local police charged a couple in the back seat of a car with open lewdness, the female mostly naked, the male a Roman Catholic priest. I'm sure there was some sort of blessing happening, and the police were just not familiar with Roman Catholic procedures. Bishop Bambera of Scranton expressed anger at this ...