Read part 1 here: Excuse me, but I do have a memorial in Jerusalem! (Part 1)
As we continue our study in appetite, let’s start the day off with a bit of good news, shall we? Madalyn Murray O’Hair[1] has renounced her claim on atheism![2] Hallelujah! She has also coined this excellent proverb: The rich woman who convinces her bodyguard that God doesn’t exist has already lost her head.
The story you are about to read is true. The names have not been changed, though here or there an information lapse may be supplied, or fact fancied-up to gratify the author’s sense of irony and poetic justice.
As we progress together, the thoughtful reader will keep his eyes open for combustible circumstances and opportunities for voracious appetites along the way.
Here are 28 interesting facts about O’Hair, chronologically sequenced, except as necessary for breaking events into upper and lower categories of Glories/Successes, and . . . Not So Much. Per each incident, the list supplies approximate year or eras beyond the comma.
Glories/Successes:
- Live birth, 1919
- High school graduation, 1936
- Served in the US Army in WWII, WWII era
- Gave birth to boys, pre-‘60s
- Had Bible reading expelled from public schools, early ‘60s
- Similar with school prayer, early ‘60s
- Won court cases including at the US Supreme Court, motherhood and beyond
- Fled to Hawaii after assaulting five Baltimore police officers, 1963
- Adopted the daughter of her irresponsible son, date/era difficult to locate
- Founded a large and prosperous corporation
- Had religious talk in space astronomically and judicially[3] suspended
- Gave employment to an ex-con who was down on his luck
- Amassed wealth, thereby overcoming an impoverished past
- Provided nest omelets for her retirement, secretly for years
- Convinced her criminally inclined chauffer/bodyguard[4] that God doesn’t exist, latter years
- Posthumously “enjoyed” having Wikipedia[5] publish an article void of negativity, posthumously
Not So Much:
- Baptized Presbyterian, aprox. 1923. (But, then again, she was 4!)
- Nearly universally unpopular for maltreating fellow man and family alike (lifetime).
- Failed at two marriages,
- Multiple adulteries with multiple men; all children extra marital, now and again
- Attempted to defect to the Soviet Union (who didn’t want her), 1959
- Abused donors and employees alike, inception of corporation
- Appeared on The Phil Donahue Show, including as his first guest, 1967
- Ran her corporation into giant debt, while she/her heirs . . .
- Embezzled funds to secret foreign bank accounts and (apparently) pockets , long-term
- Committed tax evasion, and attempted to hide assets from the IRS, corporation years
- Exposed her family to very grave danger, especially latter years
- Horded and thought to siphon off/abscond with corporation’s treasury, up until 1995
Wait a minute! Someone read me aloud numbers 15 and 28 again!
Are you seeing a problem—a lapse of judgment at the critical juncture? Would you if told the criminally minded chauffer/bodyguard was also the bookkeeper?
I heard a story once of a biker who struck his light-anywhere wooden match impressively against his leather leggings before positioning that newly lit match to see down into his Harley’s petro tank.
Read me numbers 15 and 28 again!
“Recipe for disaster” comes to mind. So does some obscure quote about vultures gathering to where a body or carcass has presented. Combustibility index: Elevated. Appetite arousal conditions: Off the charts!
I’m also thinking of Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Copper Beeches, where a man kept a hungry dog,[6] forgetting at one critical moment that he himself was essentially meat. Was.
This Washington Post writer seems to have less interest in running interference for Madalyn Murray O’Hair than Wikipedia: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/features/ atheists 081699.htm. You will find a little more honesty here. (Hint: No one who spent time around O’Hair can be found to say she had a sweet side. Just the opposite. But that is not the impression you will get from Wikipedia. Probably an oversight.)
Surely the rich woman who convinces her chauffer/bodyguard that God doesn’t exist has already lost her head. (This Waters did to obscure O’Hairless’s identity, should her deeply buried remains ever be sniffed out.) Appetite. Combustibility. Tinder. Ignition. Kaboom!
I guess we could even speculate a moment about what would happen if the Federal government ever mandated or bribed a county to overlook criminal behavior by youth, or especially minority youth.
But of course that is purely hypothetical, as that could never happen in apple pie America. Shame on me for even thinking that a sheriff and his deputies, police chiefs, a school superintendent, and schools’ entire administrations and faculties might conspire to do something so enormous. And now, back to reality.
In some sense, we seem to have gotten far afield of where Part I had deposited us, but when we parted, we were discussing how Nehemiah had hurt Satan’s feelings by telling him, “You have no portion, right or memorial in Jerusalem,” and what that hungry wolf did with that input. How “destiny” at that moment determined that a man in a cave was to hear a demon’s voice telling him he was the Chosen One. That he was to marry a whole bunch of women (or rather, pre-teen girls), have lots of sex, kill anyone who didn’t go along with the scheme, and that all this somehow corresponded to Jesus Christ’s—somewhat lesser important—mission on Earth.
But above all else—despite disinterested scholars being able to demonstrate that Muhammad never got within a thousand miles—he must absolutely insist he had visited Jerusalem. Significantly.
If Satan enjoys his career, I would think crafting this ingenious religion must delight him on so many fronts. But the main thrust was parlaying this new frenzy—for it is all the rage—into acquiring one or more monuments in Jerusalem. If he could establish a foothold there, he could assert himself as a force to be reckoned with, with no one telling him he was not a party to negotiations on every level.
Appetite seeks out its little entryways.
I am ambivalent as to whether a Part III for this series is indicated. Those who gain a sense for and intuition about the strong, dogged appetite[7] of those they share the world with, be they animal, man or devil, view a strange world invisible to others. Place your continuity test leads against what CNN and their ilk present to/withhold from you and you may boost longevity and be victim to fewer schemes.
Adios,
Martin D. Carlson
[1]
I have been given to understand that good hearted Texan women use the expression, “Bless her heart!” to express piteous compassion for someone who’s brain isn’t in perfect harmony with reality and logic. As often as you read MMO’s name within, please feel free to mentally insert directly thereafter, “Bless her heart!”
[2]
Well, to be fair, every atheist who has died has renounced atheism. But surely that only amplifies the good news!
[3]
Judicially, not judiciously . . . well, you understand.
[4]
Various news reports from that era, described David Roland Waters employment as O’Hair’s bodyguard, chauffer, editor and office manager.
[5]
I probably won’t use a bibliography. I “trusted” Wikipedia for much of my research on MMO. Oops! I will tell one or two little omissions Wikipedia seems to have accidentally . . . ummmh, left out (or do I mean in?). 1) The “organization” O’Hair founded was a corporation, from which MMO became wealthy; 2) The IRS was looking for the O’Hairs for large scale tax evasion. The Wikipedia article downplays that little morsel to . . . oh, yeah, zero mention. The matter seems to be scrubbed clean for Wikipedia’s “Being Nice to the Un-Nice” collection, reserved for the, well, the un-nice. (Hint: You won’t find Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger’s friendship or meetings with Adolph Hitler in her Wikipedia article. I guess those little morsels weren’t significant enough to report.)
[6]
In saying “a man kept a hungry dog,” I actually mean that a (mean) man kept a dog hungry…. But then he did feed it, in a manner of speaking.
[7]
Luke 16 has some conversations between “consumers” and their appetites. I especially cite vv. 3-4, and v. 10. “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg—I know what I’ll do . . . (Schemes develop from appetites.) Jesus acknowledges that appetite gets the better of some men: “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So….” A consequence is thus assigned.
Tale Told 
2 Comments