(From Facebook.)
What's on my mind tonight is outrage disgust and a profound sadness! Those lying, traitorous, dumbass tea party idiots have succeeded in shutting down the most powerful nation on earth!
I was able to forget it for a while during Dancing With The Stars. Now, it's back, front and center in my mind. Ignorant religious fanatics are doing to my country what no foreign enemy could ever do.
I'm just tired right now. Totally disgusted. Totally consumed with anger and outrage, and yes, outright hate. Can't help it, and I'm not going to lie about it or apologize for it. I hate the tea party, all it is, all it stands for and the disgusting denizens of ignorance that comprise it. And, don't give me any stupid religious platitudes.
I need a good night of sleep, but I'm not sure it's in the cards.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Sunday, September 29, 2013
IT'S A CRAZY WORLD!
We watched 60 Minutes a while ago and I found Kerry's statements encouraging about the situation in Syria and Iran. I have hopes that some international sanity is in the offing. Bomb this, rocket that sure as hell isn't working!
Then, there was the section on mental illness and its connection with all the mass shootings and mayhem. We basically have no sane way of dealing with the problem. We've substituted prisons for mental care facilities, which means no one gets put away for real treatment, just warehousing in a very negative situation after some crime has already been committed.
I'm convinced that my son, Michael, is one of those needing help. Neither we nor anyone else in the family have heard from him in seven years and I'm sure that is due to an underlying condition that needs attention and treatment. I can only hope that he is not so deranged that he will do something horrendous.
Then, there's that Bible which assures us that all of that fictional creation was oh so "good." Only to tell us that the creator who created such perfection was so pissed off at that perfect creation that he drowned 99.999999 (out to infinity) of it. Of course, it's all bullshit. There was no worldwide flood! I'm just making a point.
If we were created so perfect and that creator can't abide confusion, what's with all this mental aberration crap? Whence comes schitzophrenia? And, don't blame me for the posible problems in my offsping because I unknowingly married into a family where mental problems were common through my former mother-in-law. They weren't apparent or diagnosed anywhere at the time, or at the time my former father-in-law married her.
If that creator is so damn omniscient and concerned with us all, why do these things exist? That fact and the glaring proof of divine unconcern like the holocaust proves to me that there is no omnipotent, omni-loving or omni anything else power behind anything.
We're all in a great big crapshoot down here. One of the biggest crapshoots of all being the gene lottery. I lucked out on that lottery, but I wonder how much my children did, all because of my innocent, howbeit limited by theological limitations, choice of a mate. No wonder all those selfish, lying right-wing fuckwits are so religious. They think and act just like the imaginary god they erroneously believe in.
I suspect a good portion of them could use a little mental health help!
They're certainly acting like it!
Then, there was the section on mental illness and its connection with all the mass shootings and mayhem. We basically have no sane way of dealing with the problem. We've substituted prisons for mental care facilities, which means no one gets put away for real treatment, just warehousing in a very negative situation after some crime has already been committed.
I'm convinced that my son, Michael, is one of those needing help. Neither we nor anyone else in the family have heard from him in seven years and I'm sure that is due to an underlying condition that needs attention and treatment. I can only hope that he is not so deranged that he will do something horrendous.
Then, there's that Bible which assures us that all of that fictional creation was oh so "good." Only to tell us that the creator who created such perfection was so pissed off at that perfect creation that he drowned 99.999999 (out to infinity) of it. Of course, it's all bullshit. There was no worldwide flood! I'm just making a point.
If we were created so perfect and that creator can't abide confusion, what's with all this mental aberration crap? Whence comes schitzophrenia? And, don't blame me for the posible problems in my offsping because I unknowingly married into a family where mental problems were common through my former mother-in-law. They weren't apparent or diagnosed anywhere at the time, or at the time my former father-in-law married her.
If that creator is so damn omniscient and concerned with us all, why do these things exist? That fact and the glaring proof of divine unconcern like the holocaust proves to me that there is no omnipotent, omni-loving or omni anything else power behind anything.
We're all in a great big crapshoot down here. One of the biggest crapshoots of all being the gene lottery. I lucked out on that lottery, but I wonder how much my children did, all because of my innocent, howbeit limited by theological limitations, choice of a mate. No wonder all those selfish, lying right-wing fuckwits are so religious. They think and act just like the imaginary god they erroneously believe in.
I suspect a good portion of them could use a little mental health help!
They're certainly acting like it!
Friday, September 27, 2013
INSURANCE -- IT'S GREAT!
What the hell is wrong or bad about insurance?
I understand that we'd rather hoorah around on those bucks we spend for car insurance, home insurance and all the other types of insurance we have to pay for. I used to gripe about all those payments too -- until I got hit in the rear by a distracted driver, needed desperately to have something done about my sudden attack of strep throat, suddenly realized I was too damn old to keep on working like I had been, etc.
Without medicare, our social security checks and my wife's state retirement, we would be up that famous creek without even the hint of a paddle! Most of the time, it costs us $10 co-pay to go see the doctor.
I know. It's not pleasant to contemplate all that money going out every month for required insurance. I didn't like it when I had to adjust to paying for auto insurance. I was a careful driver. Still had accidents happen though and was mighty thankful to have it then.
Forward thinking people saw the need for social security, medicare, the need for universal auto insurance, etc. The regressive rethugs screamed about all of it.
Guess what? Everything adjusted and we're now thankful (if we have brains in our heads) to have those wise provisions.
So, it's time the idiots on the right shut the hell up with their lies and their doom and gloom pronouncements. The happiest nations on earth have already implemented something similar, and once we work the bugs out -- and there are bugs, mostly put there by that same ignorant crowd to try to sabotage the whole thing -- we'll all be ecstatically happy with the end result -- just as I'm ecstatically happy to get those checks every month that keep us housed and fed and leading an acceptable quality of life.
I understand that we'd rather hoorah around on those bucks we spend for car insurance, home insurance and all the other types of insurance we have to pay for. I used to gripe about all those payments too -- until I got hit in the rear by a distracted driver, needed desperately to have something done about my sudden attack of strep throat, suddenly realized I was too damn old to keep on working like I had been, etc.
Without medicare, our social security checks and my wife's state retirement, we would be up that famous creek without even the hint of a paddle! Most of the time, it costs us $10 co-pay to go see the doctor.
I know. It's not pleasant to contemplate all that money going out every month for required insurance. I didn't like it when I had to adjust to paying for auto insurance. I was a careful driver. Still had accidents happen though and was mighty thankful to have it then.
Forward thinking people saw the need for social security, medicare, the need for universal auto insurance, etc. The regressive rethugs screamed about all of it.
Guess what? Everything adjusted and we're now thankful (if we have brains in our heads) to have those wise provisions.
So, it's time the idiots on the right shut the hell up with their lies and their doom and gloom pronouncements. The happiest nations on earth have already implemented something similar, and once we work the bugs out -- and there are bugs, mostly put there by that same ignorant crowd to try to sabotage the whole thing -- we'll all be ecstatically happy with the end result -- just as I'm ecstatically happy to get those checks every month that keep us housed and fed and leading an acceptable quality of life.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
CLEAN UP TIME
I just cleaned a lot of stuff out of my favorites list on Internet Explorer. I had added so many things that struck me at the time but that I never visited again that the list was getting very unwieldly. So, off to the recycle bin and then delete for good. If I ever need those things again, a google search will probably bring them up again anyway.
Such house cleaning is needed once in awhile, in every aspect of life. I really need a wholesale house cleaning and reorganizing in my shop. Getting to it and staying on it is the problem. The storage room needs it. The office needs it. The patio needs it. Just thinking about it makes me tired. Sitting here doing this is a lot more fun.
Maybe writing about it will inspire me to actually do some of it. We'll just have to see.
In any case, I'm not going to worry about it. I'm at that stage of life where there isn't the same urgency that existed a few years back. We were commenting earlier that it's good to be retired and not have the daily rat race to contend with. We pretty much do just as we please every day, and I think we've earned that right. We had enough years of nose to the grindstone responsibilities to occupations and family. It's time we were cut a little slack. I know. Boehner and the tea party crowd begrudge us, but I don't think I have to state what they can go do to themselves.
That's my rumination for this evening. G'Night all.
Such house cleaning is needed once in awhile, in every aspect of life. I really need a wholesale house cleaning and reorganizing in my shop. Getting to it and staying on it is the problem. The storage room needs it. The office needs it. The patio needs it. Just thinking about it makes me tired. Sitting here doing this is a lot more fun.
Maybe writing about it will inspire me to actually do some of it. We'll just have to see.
In any case, I'm not going to worry about it. I'm at that stage of life where there isn't the same urgency that existed a few years back. We were commenting earlier that it's good to be retired and not have the daily rat race to contend with. We pretty much do just as we please every day, and I think we've earned that right. We had enough years of nose to the grindstone responsibilities to occupations and family. It's time we were cut a little slack. I know. Boehner and the tea party crowd begrudge us, but I don't think I have to state what they can go do to themselves.
That's my rumination for this evening. G'Night all.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
IS THERE HOPE?
(From Facebook.)
Like Dawkins (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/25/dawkins-humanity-has-a-50-percent-chance-of-surviving-until-the-next-century/), I'm not at all sure the human race, or at most, our advanced technological civilization, will survive past this century. There is some evidence, in Hindu writings and in scattered ancient ruins, that we may have approached these technological heights in the distant past, only to destroy it all and almost wipe ourselves out through nuclear war that it took millenia to recover from.
I know, those are mythological accounts no more reliable in many respects than the Bible is. But, sometimes there is a germ of truth behind the mythology, just as the destruction of Sodom and Gormorrah likely did occur from an asteroid impact. Then, the myth builders took over and distorted it beyond all recognition. I suspect the story of Lot is just like the story of the exodus -- a total concoction.
I know, I drive some of you biblical believers insane with statements like that. I'm a literalist, not a faithest these days. Been there, done that. It was a crock!
He made an interesting point I've also considered. That point being that we may not find any advanced civilizations in the rest of the universe due to the fact that they may destroy themselves about the time they reach a level comparable to ours. It only takes one among many fanatic minorities in a society to bring about civilization-destroying cataclysm. We have a multitude of those in both the political and the religious spheres. One of those fanatics just spent 21 hours shooting off his stupid mouth in our nation's capitol! His ignorant, hate-filled compatriots are holding the entire government hostage to their insane demands!
I'll still hope, but I seriously doubt, when I look at things coldly, that our chances are really 50-50. I think they're much more pessimistic than that.
Like Dawkins (http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/25/dawkins-humanity-has-a-50-percent-chance-of-surviving-until-the-next-century/), I'm not at all sure the human race, or at most, our advanced technological civilization, will survive past this century. There is some evidence, in Hindu writings and in scattered ancient ruins, that we may have approached these technological heights in the distant past, only to destroy it all and almost wipe ourselves out through nuclear war that it took millenia to recover from.
I know, those are mythological accounts no more reliable in many respects than the Bible is. But, sometimes there is a germ of truth behind the mythology, just as the destruction of Sodom and Gormorrah likely did occur from an asteroid impact. Then, the myth builders took over and distorted it beyond all recognition. I suspect the story of Lot is just like the story of the exodus -- a total concoction.
I know, I drive some of you biblical believers insane with statements like that. I'm a literalist, not a faithest these days. Been there, done that. It was a crock!
He made an interesting point I've also considered. That point being that we may not find any advanced civilizations in the rest of the universe due to the fact that they may destroy themselves about the time they reach a level comparable to ours. It only takes one among many fanatic minorities in a society to bring about civilization-destroying cataclysm. We have a multitude of those in both the political and the religious spheres. One of those fanatics just spent 21 hours shooting off his stupid mouth in our nation's capitol! His ignorant, hate-filled compatriots are holding the entire government hostage to their insane demands!
I'll still hope, but I seriously doubt, when I look at things coldly, that our chances are really 50-50. I think they're much more pessimistic than that.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
THE SPURIOUS CONCEPT OF SIN
(From Facebook.)
The concept of sin just came up in a comment I just made on Dennis Deahl's page.
I seldom use the word "sin." I don't like it because it's a religious concoction intended to keep people feeling guilty, worthless and a whole lot of other psyche destroying things.
Have I made mistakes I regret? A whole bunch! So has every other normal member of the genus homo sapiens. It's part of the process of being alive and interacting with the world. If we're not self-righteous, we learn to take the mistakes of others in stride and apologize for our own when we realize we should. Then, we move on.
There is no need, and never has been a need, for some god-man to be sacrificed for anyone's being human. We didn't come from a specially created Adam to begin with, so the whole damn story is bogus from Genesis 1 on.
We recoil in horror at the Aztec's sacrificing helpless victims to their god's, yet thank the canaanite god, Yahweh (or however you want to spell the name) for sacrificing his mythical son for our sins by some formula that makes absolutely no sense when one gets into the details.
Our abrahamic religions all trace back to a mythological character we are told was ready to slit his own son's throat over some kind of illusion of being told to do so by a god who hasn't communicated that way since, except to individuals who often get sent to mental institutions -- BECAUSE THEY'RE CRAZY!
So, don't try to belittle me by calling me a sinner. I'm a fallible, growing human being who makes mistakes and doesn't always control his temper and act in the totally loving manner he wishes he could.
I'm part of the human club.
I assume you are too.
The concept of sin just came up in a comment I just made on Dennis Deahl's page.
I seldom use the word "sin." I don't like it because it's a religious concoction intended to keep people feeling guilty, worthless and a whole lot of other psyche destroying things.
Have I made mistakes I regret? A whole bunch! So has every other normal member of the genus homo sapiens. It's part of the process of being alive and interacting with the world. If we're not self-righteous, we learn to take the mistakes of others in stride and apologize for our own when we realize we should. Then, we move on.
There is no need, and never has been a need, for some god-man to be sacrificed for anyone's being human. We didn't come from a specially created Adam to begin with, so the whole damn story is bogus from Genesis 1 on.
We recoil in horror at the Aztec's sacrificing helpless victims to their god's, yet thank the canaanite god, Yahweh (or however you want to spell the name) for sacrificing his mythical son for our sins by some formula that makes absolutely no sense when one gets into the details.
Our abrahamic religions all trace back to a mythological character we are told was ready to slit his own son's throat over some kind of illusion of being told to do so by a god who hasn't communicated that way since, except to individuals who often get sent to mental institutions -- BECAUSE THEY'RE CRAZY!
So, don't try to belittle me by calling me a sinner. I'm a fallible, growing human being who makes mistakes and doesn't always control his temper and act in the totally loving manner he wishes he could.
I'm part of the human club.
I assume you are too.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
MEMORIES
(From Facebook.)
Another week starting. To all you who have to rush out to work in the morning for the miserable pittance you're being paid and the oppressive taxes and skyrocketing cost of living the rich power mongers have shoved off on you, my heartfelt condolences. Looking back, things were much fairer 40 and 50 years ago, but I'm not going to get into that. I've made where I stand abundantly clear already.
I'm just a bit tired this evening, but I didn't do an awful lot today. It's just that I don't have the energy I used to have. When I get up to go somewhere and it takes half the length of the house for my legs to start working halfway right and my back to straighten out, it really bothers me. I seriously wonder if I'll reach the 95 my dad reached. Sometimes, I wonder if I really want to when I remember his condition for several years toward the end.
I've tried lots of things, including testosterone shots, which my body now likes to convert to a female hormone. I see a gorgeous female these days and vaguely remember that there was something exciting about that once upon a time. Yep, the old age theme song really is "Memories." And do those snake oil pedaling conmen ever have the expensive concoctions to send you! It's online. It's in the mailbox -- everywhere! And, if you try to unsubscribe your email, they just sell it to dozens of other sleazy predators! I'm about to wear out the delete button!
I'm really not all that down. I'm actually chuckling over what I just wrote. It's fun to write. One of my greatest joys, and, like Mark Twain liked to say, you all just have to suffer -- or tune me out!
Another week starting. To all you who have to rush out to work in the morning for the miserable pittance you're being paid and the oppressive taxes and skyrocketing cost of living the rich power mongers have shoved off on you, my heartfelt condolences. Looking back, things were much fairer 40 and 50 years ago, but I'm not going to get into that. I've made where I stand abundantly clear already.
I'm just a bit tired this evening, but I didn't do an awful lot today. It's just that I don't have the energy I used to have. When I get up to go somewhere and it takes half the length of the house for my legs to start working halfway right and my back to straighten out, it really bothers me. I seriously wonder if I'll reach the 95 my dad reached. Sometimes, I wonder if I really want to when I remember his condition for several years toward the end.
I've tried lots of things, including testosterone shots, which my body now likes to convert to a female hormone. I see a gorgeous female these days and vaguely remember that there was something exciting about that once upon a time. Yep, the old age theme song really is "Memories." And do those snake oil pedaling conmen ever have the expensive concoctions to send you! It's online. It's in the mailbox -- everywhere! And, if you try to unsubscribe your email, they just sell it to dozens of other sleazy predators! I'm about to wear out the delete button!
I'm really not all that down. I'm actually chuckling over what I just wrote. It's fun to write. One of my greatest joys, and, like Mark Twain liked to say, you all just have to suffer -- or tune me out!
Friday, September 20, 2013
NOT A GOOD DAY
Not a good day for me. Oh, it's not that my personal life is all that bad. Physically, I'm in pretty good shape and we had a good sale morning. What's got me down and boiling mad is constantly seeing that revolting face of son-of-a-bitch Boehner on television and hearing his stinking rotten lies.
I so despise that rotten bastard and that fucking bunch of tea party retards. They absolutely refuse to do anything to return my country to the great place it used to be where people could lead decent lives that didn't end in squalor and everything we built wasn't rapidly tumbling down so assholes like Romney can steal millions and hide it overseas while the disgusting pirate claims to be a "businessman."
Oh, and fork tongued Pope Francis showed his true colors today by kissing up to Caholic bullshiters on the subject of abortion. A crock of shit always will be a crock of shit and catholicism has never been anything else but. Just like the Worldwide splinters, protestantism has coninued the tradition of the original crock. Seeds of evil trees are still evil!
I hope I won't have another insomnia night.
I so despise that rotten bastard and that fucking bunch of tea party retards. They absolutely refuse to do anything to return my country to the great place it used to be where people could lead decent lives that didn't end in squalor and everything we built wasn't rapidly tumbling down so assholes like Romney can steal millions and hide it overseas while the disgusting pirate claims to be a "businessman."
Oh, and fork tongued Pope Francis showed his true colors today by kissing up to Caholic bullshiters on the subject of abortion. A crock of shit always will be a crock of shit and catholicism has never been anything else but. Just like the Worldwide splinters, protestantism has coninued the tradition of the original crock. Seeds of evil trees are still evil!
I hope I won't have another insomnia night.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
PROFICIENCY IS A PROCESS
(From Facebook.)
I was just reading Neile DeGrasse Tyson's statement about how you will be surprised at how good you become at something if you keep working on it. Of course, it helps if you have a basic talent in that particular thing.
I've always had a basic talent and urge toward writing, even as a kid, mocking up newspapers on scrap paper. When I started wrting in letter answering, I was extremely wordy and Dr. Zimmermann kept sending my drafts back loaded with red ink deletions and simplifications. Over time, I learned to get to the meat of things and now, other members of our free thought group turn to me when they want something boiled down and simplified. It's developed into a knack.
Life is like that. We improve as we do, if we pay attention and try. I learned techniques of cutting up vegetables by watching a chicano chef making salsa at a wedding. It's how children absorb things so fast. They observe. Then, they try to do it and observe some more. Soon, they're proficient. I still have some things in my handwriting that came from my first grade teacher.
Writing has now become a compulsion with me. I don't feel the day is complete if I haven't written something connected with the analytical thoughts that spring spontaneously from my mind. My poor audience is left with either hating or enjoying it. (I appreciate those "likes." That's applause to a writer.)
I was just reading Neile DeGrasse Tyson's statement about how you will be surprised at how good you become at something if you keep working on it. Of course, it helps if you have a basic talent in that particular thing.
I've always had a basic talent and urge toward writing, even as a kid, mocking up newspapers on scrap paper. When I started wrting in letter answering, I was extremely wordy and Dr. Zimmermann kept sending my drafts back loaded with red ink deletions and simplifications. Over time, I learned to get to the meat of things and now, other members of our free thought group turn to me when they want something boiled down and simplified. It's developed into a knack.
Life is like that. We improve as we do, if we pay attention and try. I learned techniques of cutting up vegetables by watching a chicano chef making salsa at a wedding. It's how children absorb things so fast. They observe. Then, they try to do it and observe some more. Soon, they're proficient. I still have some things in my handwriting that came from my first grade teacher.
Writing has now become a compulsion with me. I don't feel the day is complete if I haven't written something connected with the analytical thoughts that spring spontaneously from my mind. My poor audience is left with either hating or enjoying it. (I appreciate those "likes." That's applause to a writer.)
REMINISCENSES
Once in a while we like to treat ourselves to a bucket of original recipe KFC chicken. Phyllis asked me to go get our dinner this evening, and as I was driving back, there was that beautiful harvest moon rising.
It hit me.
This must be the first evening of the Feast of Tabernacles!
Sure enough, the calendar tells me tomorrow is Sukhot and it began this evening at sunset. It's a high holy day for Jews. Used to be for me when I, along with thousands of others, tried to out-jew the Jews and give the day a spurious christian meaning.
Full moons, especially harvest moons are exceptionally beautiful things here in the northern hemisphere. I wonder if there is a comparable thing six months later in the southern hemisphere.
I remember how glorious it was in those east Texas woods back there in the late fifties as I camped out with the Trull family and their friends. All nations noticed that inescapable time of the year, and like the Canaanites, set their harvest festivities for that particular time. It was no special revelation from any god, but I'm sure the priests of all religions managed to make it so.
After our chicken dinner, Phyllis and I went outside and admired the beautiful evening. It's an idylic time of the year. Temperatures and weather are often the best they've been for a while and it's a great time to enjoy the largess of earth's bounty. We enjoyed, but there was no religious significance to it. And, we didn't have to listen to bombast from any pompous idiot shouting, "Why are we here?".
It hit me.
This must be the first evening of the Feast of Tabernacles!
Sure enough, the calendar tells me tomorrow is Sukhot and it began this evening at sunset. It's a high holy day for Jews. Used to be for me when I, along with thousands of others, tried to out-jew the Jews and give the day a spurious christian meaning.
Full moons, especially harvest moons are exceptionally beautiful things here in the northern hemisphere. I wonder if there is a comparable thing six months later in the southern hemisphere.
I remember how glorious it was in those east Texas woods back there in the late fifties as I camped out with the Trull family and their friends. All nations noticed that inescapable time of the year, and like the Canaanites, set their harvest festivities for that particular time. It was no special revelation from any god, but I'm sure the priests of all religions managed to make it so.
After our chicken dinner, Phyllis and I went outside and admired the beautiful evening. It's an idylic time of the year. Temperatures and weather are often the best they've been for a while and it's a great time to enjoy the largess of earth's bounty. We enjoyed, but there was no religious significance to it. And, we didn't have to listen to bombast from any pompous idiot shouting, "Why are we here?".
Monday, September 16, 2013
CULTLIKE ECONOMIC OPPRESSION
(From Facebook.)
I referred to this yesterday, but it's been on my mind constantly. I wanted to take you to it now, but then, I can't write anymore, so I'll wait to do the link at the end.
What I experienced as a cultic slave of the WCG was a hell of oppression and soul destroying tyranny by one man and his army of goose-stepping and equally evil and hypocritical sycophants. It took me a long time to fully recognize the true nature of what I was a part of. Getting out when I did allowed me to salvage the latter half of my life.
Herbert Armstrong was an evil despot. He set up a religious empire that totally took over the lives of those who succumbed to his deceptive message. He was an elitist, a totally ruthless religious mafia don. There are many following in the same mold today. They found mega churches!
Armstrong looked down on the average person and viewed them only as sheep for the shearing and chickens for the plucking. He bound heavy burdens on everyone, but as a scripture he and his ilk scoff at, he wouldn't lift a finger to ease the burden. Everything devolved upon him and only incidentally on those who kept his empire going. He would turn on them in a moment if he thought it was to his advantage to do so with absolutely no qualms, and often did. It has been truthfully stated that the path of his life was strewn with the wreckage of men who had served him well.
He hated labor unions. He lusted to be in the company of the wealthy and powerful and spent millions of his dupe's hard earned tithes and offerings to court them.
I endured over twenty years of this religious madness and got free of it. Now, I realize that I'm still in that system of slavery and deception.
Only, now it's not a religious organization that is oppressing me and my fellow humans. (That religious system still exists in hundreds of just as oppressive offshoots and splinters.)
Now, it's a political system with the same hateful and oppressive attitude and the same kind of reprehensible narcissists in control. Reagan, the elitist, started it with his "voodoo economics" and it has snowballed ever since into the madness of republican so-called conservatism and that hateful, ignorant tea party.
The average american is being enslaved and impoverished step by step while the rich and powerful disdainfully relegate them to serf status. I lived it before. That's why I see it so clearly now.
I could say much more, but this account will serve quite nicely:
http://hwarmstrong.com/wordpress/2013/09/12/blast-from-the-past-an-inside-report-on-gods-work/
I referred to this yesterday, but it's been on my mind constantly. I wanted to take you to it now, but then, I can't write anymore, so I'll wait to do the link at the end.
What I experienced as a cultic slave of the WCG was a hell of oppression and soul destroying tyranny by one man and his army of goose-stepping and equally evil and hypocritical sycophants. It took me a long time to fully recognize the true nature of what I was a part of. Getting out when I did allowed me to salvage the latter half of my life.
Herbert Armstrong was an evil despot. He set up a religious empire that totally took over the lives of those who succumbed to his deceptive message. He was an elitist, a totally ruthless religious mafia don. There are many following in the same mold today. They found mega churches!
Armstrong looked down on the average person and viewed them only as sheep for the shearing and chickens for the plucking. He bound heavy burdens on everyone, but as a scripture he and his ilk scoff at, he wouldn't lift a finger to ease the burden. Everything devolved upon him and only incidentally on those who kept his empire going. He would turn on them in a moment if he thought it was to his advantage to do so with absolutely no qualms, and often did. It has been truthfully stated that the path of his life was strewn with the wreckage of men who had served him well.
He hated labor unions. He lusted to be in the company of the wealthy and powerful and spent millions of his dupe's hard earned tithes and offerings to court them.
I endured over twenty years of this religious madness and got free of it. Now, I realize that I'm still in that system of slavery and deception.
Only, now it's not a religious organization that is oppressing me and my fellow humans. (That religious system still exists in hundreds of just as oppressive offshoots and splinters.)
Now, it's a political system with the same hateful and oppressive attitude and the same kind of reprehensible narcissists in control. Reagan, the elitist, started it with his "voodoo economics" and it has snowballed ever since into the madness of republican so-called conservatism and that hateful, ignorant tea party.
The average american is being enslaved and impoverished step by step while the rich and powerful disdainfully relegate them to serf status. I lived it before. That's why I see it so clearly now.
I could say much more, but this account will serve quite nicely:
http://hwarmstrong.com/wordpress/2013/09/12/blast-from-the-past-an-inside-report-on-gods-work/
HERE WE GO AGAIN!
Some way to start the day! Huffington Post is my home page and the first thing that greeted my eyes was a new masacre in Washington, D.C.
I remember my father who moved from Bismarck, North Dakota to Phoenix late in his life but still younger than I am now commenting on the violence he kept encountering on the local TV news. Such just didn't happen in the rural "sticks" he was used to. Of course, a whole lot more people live in the entire Washington, D.C. area than in the whole state of North Dakota and a whole lot more negative conditions and attitudes.
Phyllis just commented that she's glad we're in Cottonwood. It's a bit analagous to North Dakota. Yeah, there's shoplifting, drunk driving and an occasional violent domestic dispute, but murder is uncommon and I don't recall a single mass shooting since I've lived here. It's a common retirement destination, and we oldies are predominantly interested in keeping our health up as much as possilbe and the financial wolf away from the door. Never heard of a drive by shooting here.
Guess I'll get busy on something constructive and get this off my mind a bit.
I remember my father who moved from Bismarck, North Dakota to Phoenix late in his life but still younger than I am now commenting on the violence he kept encountering on the local TV news. Such just didn't happen in the rural "sticks" he was used to. Of course, a whole lot more people live in the entire Washington, D.C. area than in the whole state of North Dakota and a whole lot more negative conditions and attitudes.
Phyllis just commented that she's glad we're in Cottonwood. It's a bit analagous to North Dakota. Yeah, there's shoplifting, drunk driving and an occasional violent domestic dispute, but murder is uncommon and I don't recall a single mass shooting since I've lived here. It's a common retirement destination, and we oldies are predominantly interested in keeping our health up as much as possilbe and the financial wolf away from the door. Never heard of a drive by shooting here.
Guess I'll get busy on something constructive and get this off my mind a bit.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
JUST PLAIN TIRED OF IT ALL
Kinda weary. Not physicaly. Mentally and emotionaly.
I just spent most of an hour going from one Facebook post to another and deciding which to share and which to let slide. Not easy. It's sort of like trying to chip a statue of an elephant out of granite with miserably small hand tools. The task of telling it like it is gets overwhelming sometimes.
I just read the report of a former cult member published in the banned by HWA blog and was apalled at the things he recounted that were even worse than what I already knew, and I knew plenty! That's just a microcosm of what goes on in this world -- mainly in religion and politics.
Deception and outright lies are everywhere, and just like in the old WCG, the deluded masses are blind to what is going on and how they are being ruthlessly lied to and maliciously used. To be blunt about it, the deluded masses are getting fucked!
I'm just going to let it go for now and do something I rarely do -- pour myself a stiff drink, turn on the TV (if anything worth my time is on) and space out for awhile.
I just spent most of an hour going from one Facebook post to another and deciding which to share and which to let slide. Not easy. It's sort of like trying to chip a statue of an elephant out of granite with miserably small hand tools. The task of telling it like it is gets overwhelming sometimes.
I just read the report of a former cult member published in the banned by HWA blog and was apalled at the things he recounted that were even worse than what I already knew, and I knew plenty! That's just a microcosm of what goes on in this world -- mainly in religion and politics.
Deception and outright lies are everywhere, and just like in the old WCG, the deluded masses are blind to what is going on and how they are being ruthlessly lied to and maliciously used. To be blunt about it, the deluded masses are getting fucked!
I'm just going to let it go for now and do something I rarely do -- pour myself a stiff drink, turn on the TV (if anything worth my time is on) and space out for awhile.
Saturday, September 7, 2013
SAME OLD SAME OLD
(From Facebook.)
Time for what has become my daily "parting shot."
I get frustrated and discouraged sometimes when I see all the mindless ignorance that masquerades as truth and wisdom in this world and what an endless battle it is to combat it.
We went to the meeting of our freethought group today and one of the members, a retired lawyer, gave us a thought provoking rundown of the legal and governmental history of this country from colonial days until now. The struggles we're having now are just a continuation of the struggle that's been going on from day one when colonies were founded by one religious faith that persecuted, jailed, banished and even executed anyone who didn't tow the accepted line. Blue laws have pretty much disappeared today, but I remember them well from my days in New York in 1960-61. That's some progress, but it could turn the other way.
Constitutional isssues aren't always all that cut and dried and the rulings depend on what dominant state of mind infects those nine people who sit on the Supreme Court.
It's wearying. It's never ending. Yet, it gives me a purpose in life, and I do need purpose, as I assume my readers do.
So, expect more of the same old same old from me. I'm going to keep on hammering away at that seemingly indestructable rock I've been beating away on. Thomas Paine did. Ben Franklin, John Adams, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and many others then and since have done the same.
I'm in good company.
Time for what has become my daily "parting shot."
I get frustrated and discouraged sometimes when I see all the mindless ignorance that masquerades as truth and wisdom in this world and what an endless battle it is to combat it.
We went to the meeting of our freethought group today and one of the members, a retired lawyer, gave us a thought provoking rundown of the legal and governmental history of this country from colonial days until now. The struggles we're having now are just a continuation of the struggle that's been going on from day one when colonies were founded by one religious faith that persecuted, jailed, banished and even executed anyone who didn't tow the accepted line. Blue laws have pretty much disappeared today, but I remember them well from my days in New York in 1960-61. That's some progress, but it could turn the other way.
Constitutional isssues aren't always all that cut and dried and the rulings depend on what dominant state of mind infects those nine people who sit on the Supreme Court.
It's wearying. It's never ending. Yet, it gives me a purpose in life, and I do need purpose, as I assume my readers do.
So, expect more of the same old same old from me. I'm going to keep on hammering away at that seemingly indestructable rock I've been beating away on. Thomas Paine did. Ben Franklin, John Adams, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and many others then and since have done the same.
I'm in good company.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
WE'RE JUST ONE BIG FAMILY
My step-grandson, Stephen Sachs, is currently touring London and much of Europe. He will be presenting his sister, Merritt, at her wedding in Greece. This will be the official wedding. I officiated an unrecorded ceremony for them in Sedona several weeks ago.
I envy Steve a bit. At the same time, I'm very happy that he can take a trip like this. I know it will be a highlight of his life and he's taking it at an age when he is still full of vibrant energy. He can't help but return home with a lot of memories and an expanded awareness.
Would I take such a trip if I could? In a heartbeat. I'd love to see all those countries from which my ancestors came; the British Isles, Germany, France and a lot more I know nothing about. Again, I'll say it -- we're all cousins somewhere along the line. Politics, religion and cultures divide us and hide the fact that we're really all one big family.
In Phoenix, I had black neighbors next door and across the street. We got along just fine, as we should. Their ancestors and mine were exactly the same people. There was a time when I bought that garbage that black people were the cursed sons of Ham. How dumb I was! All that biblically based bullshit is just that -- pure bullshit!
My Native American adopted step-son comes from the same source, just a different geographical route that swung through Asia and across the Bering Sea. We're all one species, and the fact that any one of us that is fertile can reproduce with any other fertile member of the opposite sex from anywhere in the world proves that. The fact that any of us with normal brain power can absorb the same educational and technological things also proves we're all the same.
So, no matter where I might travel, or wherever Steve travels, we're just getting acqainted with family we didn't know before.
I envy Steve a bit. At the same time, I'm very happy that he can take a trip like this. I know it will be a highlight of his life and he's taking it at an age when he is still full of vibrant energy. He can't help but return home with a lot of memories and an expanded awareness.
Would I take such a trip if I could? In a heartbeat. I'd love to see all those countries from which my ancestors came; the British Isles, Germany, France and a lot more I know nothing about. Again, I'll say it -- we're all cousins somewhere along the line. Politics, religion and cultures divide us and hide the fact that we're really all one big family.
In Phoenix, I had black neighbors next door and across the street. We got along just fine, as we should. Their ancestors and mine were exactly the same people. There was a time when I bought that garbage that black people were the cursed sons of Ham. How dumb I was! All that biblically based bullshit is just that -- pure bullshit!
My Native American adopted step-son comes from the same source, just a different geographical route that swung through Asia and across the Bering Sea. We're all one species, and the fact that any one of us that is fertile can reproduce with any other fertile member of the opposite sex from anywhere in the world proves that. The fact that any of us with normal brain power can absorb the same educational and technological things also proves we're all the same.
So, no matter where I might travel, or wherever Steve travels, we're just getting acqainted with family we didn't know before.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
REFLECTIONS
I did my walk. Glad to be back. A little under a mile total and I was glad to see it end. I had thought of going to the local convenience store, but that would have totaled over a mile and a half. No, thanks.
I remember when I was in college. Sometimes alone, sometimes with friends, I'd take off for downtown Pasadena and walk three or four miles in both directions. I/we went like the wind, but we were in our early twenties then. Calves didn't threaten to knot up in a cramp. We were just impatient to get there and wasted no time. Like George Burns sang, if I had to run now, I simply wouldn't go (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh6saG57kPE&feature=related.)
I also would like to do it again, but the game doesn't work that way. At one time, I half-way believed in reincarnation, but I'm pretty sure that's another myth based on fear and hopefulness. I'm expecting everything to go black one of these days and what's left of me to be recycled back into the universe. That re-whatever is about all we can depend on.
See More
George Burns - Old Bones
www.youtube.com
George Burns - Old Bones
I remember when I was in college. Sometimes alone, sometimes with friends, I'd take off for downtown Pasadena and walk three or four miles in both directions. I/we went like the wind, but we were in our early twenties then. Calves didn't threaten to knot up in a cramp. We were just impatient to get there and wasted no time. Like George Burns sang, if I had to run now, I simply wouldn't go (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mh6saG57kPE&feature=related.)
I also would like to do it again, but the game doesn't work that way. At one time, I half-way believed in reincarnation, but I'm pretty sure that's another myth based on fear and hopefulness. I'm expecting everything to go black one of these days and what's left of me to be recycled back into the universe. That re-whatever is about all we can depend on.
See More
George Burns - Old Bones
www.youtube.com
George Burns - Old Bones
HUMP DAY
What's called "hump day" is here again.
Life is full of humps. I think the "hump year" of our lives is around age forty. It's all downhill on the other side of the hump from then. Not too noticeable at first, but the energy and passions of youth start to slowly subside and it becomes a runaway train sometime in the sixties. By the time the late seventies arrive, it seems like every day is a new wakeup call.
I've decided I have to force myself out for a walk around the community or somewhere just about every day. Sitting most of the time is taking a toll that I notice now in my walking, especially the leg weakness when I try to climb stairs. I avoid them, if I can. How successful exercise will be remains to be seen. The energy producing hormones are getting less and less. Everything is running down and remedies are few. It's frustrating.
Nothing deterred me when I was in my prime. Now, I have to think every month whether I want to run my ad for carpet work in the local ad paper one more time. Soon, I'll drop it and just have to adjust to that extra money not coming in occasionally.
Why am I writing this? It's just a "heads up" to those who are younger. Make wise use of what you still have while you can. I feel I did to a great extent, living life to the full. Sure, I'd change some things if I had it to do over, but for the most part, no regrets. Don't waste those hours and days aimlessly. Life is dead serious and there is no "do over."
Life is full of humps. I think the "hump year" of our lives is around age forty. It's all downhill on the other side of the hump from then. Not too noticeable at first, but the energy and passions of youth start to slowly subside and it becomes a runaway train sometime in the sixties. By the time the late seventies arrive, it seems like every day is a new wakeup call.
I've decided I have to force myself out for a walk around the community or somewhere just about every day. Sitting most of the time is taking a toll that I notice now in my walking, especially the leg weakness when I try to climb stairs. I avoid them, if I can. How successful exercise will be remains to be seen. The energy producing hormones are getting less and less. Everything is running down and remedies are few. It's frustrating.
Nothing deterred me when I was in my prime. Now, I have to think every month whether I want to run my ad for carpet work in the local ad paper one more time. Soon, I'll drop it and just have to adjust to that extra money not coming in occasionally.
Why am I writing this? It's just a "heads up" to those who are younger. Make wise use of what you still have while you can. I feel I did to a great extent, living life to the full. Sure, I'd change some things if I had it to do over, but for the most part, no regrets. Don't waste those hours and days aimlessly. Life is dead serious and there is no "do over."
Monday, September 2, 2013
LABOR DAY IS THE GREATEST
Labor Day! I think it's the greatest of our holidays.
Those who labor make the world go round. Nothing gets done without labor of some sort, and the laborer is worthy of respect -- including an adequate wage that provides for basic needs and keeps the whole economic apparatus working smoothly.
When a laborer can't earn enough to eventually own or make use of the product or service he or she is producing and provide a decent future for themselves and their families, that laborer is nothing but a serf or slave being used for the benefit of the privileged -- to be cast on the dung heap when their usefulness is over.
Our society is rapidly turning into a carbon copy of czarist Russia and the slave-minded society of the old south. That cannot go on without disaster. People can only be misused and disrespected for so long before there is a society destroying explosion. Religion tries to keep the cap on -- again, often for their own benefit. As Napoleon said, religion keeps the masses from murdering their overlords. That can only go on for a limited time. History proves that fact.
So, on this Labor Day, I rededicate myself to keep shouting the facts through whatever medium is open to me. It's the only thing I can do as long as I am around to do it. It gets discouraging, but we can't give up and surrender to the forces of greed and oppression.
That battle should have ended long ago. Sadly, it has not!
Those who labor make the world go round. Nothing gets done without labor of some sort, and the laborer is worthy of respect -- including an adequate wage that provides for basic needs and keeps the whole economic apparatus working smoothly.
When a laborer can't earn enough to eventually own or make use of the product or service he or she is producing and provide a decent future for themselves and their families, that laborer is nothing but a serf or slave being used for the benefit of the privileged -- to be cast on the dung heap when their usefulness is over.
Our society is rapidly turning into a carbon copy of czarist Russia and the slave-minded society of the old south. That cannot go on without disaster. People can only be misused and disrespected for so long before there is a society destroying explosion. Religion tries to keep the cap on -- again, often for their own benefit. As Napoleon said, religion keeps the masses from murdering their overlords. That can only go on for a limited time. History proves that fact.
So, on this Labor Day, I rededicate myself to keep shouting the facts through whatever medium is open to me. It's the only thing I can do as long as I am around to do it. It gets discouraging, but we can't give up and surrender to the forces of greed and oppression.
That battle should have ended long ago. Sadly, it has not!
Sunday, September 1, 2013
THAT'S WONDERFUL!
60 Minutes was especially inspiring tonight and raised my spirits considerably.
The first revelation was about Khan Academy, a free online educational undertaking that Bill Gates (one of the greatest humanitarians extant) is helping bankroll. It's main focus right now is helping with mathematical education, but they will be branching out -- and it is and will be worldwide!
Finally, an educational undertaking neither national or state governments nor local school boards with their damnable fundamentalist idiot controlers can dictate to. I so hope that creationist bullshit gets trounced into the sewer in which it belongs (a one-finger salute to my former friends, Ed Lain and Robert Gentet, and all the creationist crap they've championed and published)! Take that, Texan and other bible belt idiots! Up yours, governor Perry, along with all your stupid, ignorant lackeys.
Through the internet, true education can come to any child -- or adult -- free! Praise technology! Praise science! Praise human ingenuity and caring!
It also covered the orginator of tweeting and his revolutionary introduction of business by credit and debit cards over cell phones. That's another marvelous step forward and I've used it at yard sales. I don't yet tweet, but I may get into it later.
I haven't checked to see if this great broadcast is available online, but I do know you can log onto the Khan Academy. Millions are!
That's wonderful!
The first revelation was about Khan Academy, a free online educational undertaking that Bill Gates (one of the greatest humanitarians extant) is helping bankroll. It's main focus right now is helping with mathematical education, but they will be branching out -- and it is and will be worldwide!
Finally, an educational undertaking neither national or state governments nor local school boards with their damnable fundamentalist idiot controlers can dictate to. I so hope that creationist bullshit gets trounced into the sewer in which it belongs (a one-finger salute to my former friends, Ed Lain and Robert Gentet, and all the creationist crap they've championed and published)! Take that, Texan and other bible belt idiots! Up yours, governor Perry, along with all your stupid, ignorant lackeys.
Through the internet, true education can come to any child -- or adult -- free! Praise technology! Praise science! Praise human ingenuity and caring!
It also covered the orginator of tweeting and his revolutionary introduction of business by credit and debit cards over cell phones. That's another marvelous step forward and I've used it at yard sales. I don't yet tweet, but I may get into it later.
I haven't checked to see if this great broadcast is available online, but I do know you can log onto the Khan Academy. Millions are!
That's wonderful!
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