Rocco Maiolo's Ramblings and Musings

Who knew  Anna Sewell's Black Beauty had so much to say about religion? There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham […] I have heard the commandments read a great many times, and I never noticed that any of them said, 'Thou shalt be rich.' And there are a good many curious things said in the New Testament about rich men that I think would make me feel rather queer if I was one of them." (35.43) "Real religion is the best and truest thing in the world and the only thing that can make a man really happy, or make the world any better." (36.24) "[…] I don't see that your religious people are any better than the rest."  "If they are not better... it is because they are not religious. You might as well say that our country's laws are not good because some people break them." (36.24)

Misanthropy  I heard the word "misanthropy" while watching Jessica Jones of all places. It rang a bell. My wife asked what it meant. I said (trying to sound impressive and fairly sure I'd get it wrong), "Well, "mis-" is a prefix that means wrong, bad, miss, askew and "thrope" is in the word an throp ology which has something to do with humans, so... dislike of humans?" Not a bad guess :) Miriam and Webster (two of my favourite people) define it as "a hatred or distrust of humankind." I recalled a play from my years of studying literature. Not sure I'd ever read it, I looked it up: The Misanthrope , a seventeenth century French satirical play. And then, I thought, hmm, misanthrope... Facebook/misanthrope: Damn -- that's half of my Facebook feed! After nearly two years of Donald Trump, what I've found even more disturbing that Donald Trump is the hate and venom that people are showing toward one another over ideo