Off The Internet — The Atheist And The Bear

 Courtesy of Micky Rair

An atheist was walking through the woods.

‘What majestic trees’!

‘What powerful rivers’!

‘What beautiful animals’!

He said to himself.

As he was walking alongside the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes

behind him.

He turned to look. He saw a 7-foot grizzly bear charge towards him..

He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder & saw

that the bear was closing in on him.

He looked over his shoulder again, & the bear was even closer.

He tripped & fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw

t hat the bear was right on top of him, reaching for him with his left paw

& raising his right paw to strike him.

At that instant the Atheist cried out, ‘Oh my God!’

Time Stopped.

The bear froze.

The forest was silent.

As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky.

‘You deny my existence for all these years, teach others I don’t exist and

even credit creation to cosmic accident.

‘Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you

as a believer’?

The atheist looked directly into the light, ‘It would be hypocritical of

me to suddenly ask you to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps you

could make the BEAR a Christian’?

The light went out. The sounds of the forest resumed. And the bear dropped

his right paw, brought both paws together, bowed his head & spoke:

“Lord bless this food, which I am about to receive from thy bounty through

Christ our Lord, Amen”

Prison Pop In Pa Surpasses Harrisburg

The Commonwealth Foundation has created a chart showing the amount Pennsylvania’s prison population and correctional spending has grown since 1980 rising from under $200 million to over $1.6 billion in spending and from under 10,000 to over 50,000 in population.

The rates are well above inflation and the state’s population growth.
According to the Department of Corrections the inmate population — which does not include county prisons — is over 51,000.
If the prison system was a city it would make it the state’s 9th largest ahead of Harrisburg.
One should note that there are townships such as Upper Darby (81,821) and Lower Merion (59,420) that have larger populations that several of the cities on that list.