Thursday, July 10, 2014

MY GOOD LIFE

(From Facebook.)

OK. Another day to live and do. Like I just said, my life has gotten steadily better overall ever since I had the presence of mind to walk away from that miserable cult and do my own thinking, earn and spend my own money as I saw fit -- not as some avaricious asshole told me I had to spend it while he lived in more luxury than many kings and pretended to be god's gift to mankind.

I finally found what I could call my soul mate, and that alone makes my life splendid. Phyllis is everything a man like me could ask for, and I'm not referring to sex either as that is a very limited part of life that's pretty much a pleasant memory now. She's simply my perfect partner, and we are partners in every way. We have each other's backs all the time.

How I was so lucky to find her is something I wonder at. I just set out with determination when Joyce died of cancer, and in less than six months, it all happened. Of course, I didn't set out to find a "christian" woman. That would have been a disaster! I went into square dancing again, and she just happened to do the same at about the same time and for the same reason -- she wanted a partner to share her life with.

One tip I can give to any free thinking person is to seek a mate through secular, non-religious outlets. I'd run from any woman who was spouting so-called spiritual crap or going to church all the time. In fact, I dumped one woman back in the seventies when I took her out to dinner and she made a show of bowing her head to say grace. I still hadn't totally departed from religion, but I knew that here was someone totally incompatible with me.

That's it for this morning. Our free thinkers planning group meets here in Cottonwood at noon and I have to get ready.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

THE BLAME GAME

(From Facebook.)

We humans seem to be addicted to what I call "the blame game." While I was getting dressed for this day, my mind somehow took me back to an incident that happened years ago.

My son, Gene, and I were changing out a water pump on his truck. We were at the stage of bolting it on and Gene was tightening up the bolts. I was about to say, "I think that's tight enough" when I heard the dreaded pop of an overtorqued bolt. Gene was left holding the remains and turned to me and indignantly said, "Why didn't you stop me?"

My first instinct was anger at being blamed for his ignorant mistake, but then, the irony hit and I burst out laughing. After taking the pump back off, I noticed a little piece of the bolt protruding, got my needlenose pliers and carefully backed it out to where I could get my fingers on it and spin it out. There was a perfect substitute in my extensive bolt collection, so the problem was soon solved.

So it is with most human problems. Instead of calmly and cooperatively going about seeking a solution, people want to play the blame game and often, nothing gets done. I'll let you run with that. I have more important things to get on with.

REALLY, NOW?

Let's see now. Radical theists claim the human race has existed somewhere around six to ten thousand years. Of course, science knocks that bullshit into the proverbial cocked hat.

But, let's just go with that 6,000 years nonsense for a moment. Even if that were true, for Christianity to be true, we have to assume "god" didn't give a damn about all those humans who existed for about 4000 years before he got his lazy, indifferent ass around to arranging for that marvelous human sacrifice that finally brought salvation to lost humanity. According to the myth, he even got so mad at them along in the middle that he drowned all but eight of them and sent them to hell in one fell swoop.

I guess he finally got tired of sending everybody to hell and decided to finally offer a way out to a pitiful portion of all those millions who have perished in most of the world since about 33 AD.

What a miserable excuse of a god we unthinking hairless apes manage to conjure up in our pitiful imaginations. Terms like omnipotent and omniscient become laughably ludicrous when you take time to rationally think about it.

C'mon now, do you still seriously believe all that bullshit?

Friday, July 4, 2014

UNHAPPY FOURTH

It's the Fourth of July and I guess that should excite me, but it doesn't, really. I do get to officiate that wedding in a couple of hours, and that's a nice highlite for the day.

I'm trying to shake the depression and anger that has afflicted me all week. It's not easy to see your country being surrepticiously plunged into a dark age of religious and economic oppression. Don't kid yourselves. That's exactly what's in the cards. The Vatican now rules the USA through 5 fanatical Supreme Court appointees that were craftily wormed into office by fanatical religious plutocrats.

I'm thankful our founders are stone cold dead and can't know what has transpired. They would be horrified and apalled.

Benjamin Franklin, when asked what kind of government they had given America replied, "A republic, ma'am -- if you can keep it." We're not keeping it.

Step by step, it's being demolished!

Thursday, July 3, 2014

THIS IS INSANITY!

I love our "monsoon!" This afternoon, we made a little trip down to the store. I was sitting inside the entry lobby where passersby enjoyed our ever-friendly pomeranians when there was suddenly a horrible racket from the metal roof over our heads. Stepping to the door, I saw a blizzard of marble-sized hail bouncing all over the asphalt and that was soon followed by brisk rain.

Thunder was rolling around outside a few minutes ago, so out on the patio goes me to sit for a moment in the twilight and just enjoy it all, including a few sprinkles. I suppose, if I were on some other planet in another part of the universe, I might be composed differently and enjoying quite different natural manifestations. I can only wonder and hope to maybe have some clarity on such before my short life is over.

As I was sitting there, my mind was as active as ever. I was thinking about how insane everything has suddenly turned. Corporations were always artificial constructs set up for economic and legal reasons to allow people to operate in the business world without endangering their own financial and legal futures.

Now, we're saddled with the insanity of them being regarded as individuals with the rights of individuals. That turns the whole damn universe upside down and has led to the recent ruling that forces real people to be subjugated to a corporation having the right to pass judgment on their personal lives and how they live them. It forces real people to suffer under the stupid religious concepts of those who sit in control of such artificial creations, bereft of any actual existence as a conscious being.

This is madness! This is oppression in its most insidious form. It's time to stand up and say, "ENOUGH!"

THIS ISN'T ROCKET SCIENCE!

It's really very simple. If people are paid a decent wage, everybody profits. Henry Ford was wise enough to know that when he insisted on paying his workers enough so that they could afford one of the cars they were manufacuring.

All this stinginess is really avarice and hate. It's also shortsighted.

When I have a decent amount of money in my pocket, I show my love to my loved ones by taking them out to dinner or buying them something they need or want. The people who provide those things prosper.

Austerity and religious-like stupid trumpeting of "trickle down" and "supply side" only decreases every thing and leads to misery for all but the few lucky and ruthless enough to claw and steal their way into obscene wealth. It also builds hatred toward those who have more than they can ever hope to spend or use.

What happened in Russia a century ago should give them pause for concern, if they had the intelligence to see beyond their avaricious noses. Some of them, Like Bill Gates, try to alleviate problems, but their efforts can only have a piecemeal effect. Fair pay and benefits for all have a universal effect and we proved that until about thirty years ago when the forces of avarice and greed obtained an overwhelming advantage and control through the efforts of Ronald Reagan and his shortsighted, hateful ilk.

I MISSED THE BOAT

(From Facebook, July 1.)

Today, I visited with a nice couple I'm going to join in marriage on Friday. He has a home here in Cottonwood and is marrying a lady from Australia who owns two pharmacies there. He also has business in Australia much of the year, so they'll be here sometimes and there the rest of the time. Corporatism and plutarchs don't control Australia. Hers, and other such businesses, are independent there, like I remember they once were here when I was a child.

I really envy that man. How I wish I could have known what I know now decades before that fucking hateful catholic Reagan wormed his way into the presidency and started my country on its now accelerating decline into plutocracy, religious tyranny and oligarchy. Oh, it was already in the works. He and his cohorts just put the final plan into operation.

This is no longer the greatest country on earth. It has become a disgusting crock of shit, and don't expect me to apologize for writing that. It will never be retracted, and anyone who objects can just go ahead and unfriend me. I will say, "good riddance."

Happy and fortunate are those few Americans who were wise enough during the Viet Nam era and after to get their asses out of the United States and move to Australia, Canada, Scandinavia, The Netherlands, etc. I was too dumb and unaware to see or grasp the opportunity, and now it's too late. The die is cast and I'm stuck here in maniacville.

Cursed be the name of Ronald Reagan. He started all this crap. The Bushes accelerated it, and the religitards who control congress, the courts, etc. locked it all in place. I really see no deliverance, no matter how hard the only sane president we've had since Clinton tries. They've locked it up and I see no deliverance in the cards.

Are you going to vote the bastards out, or are you going to go docilly to the slaughter along with all the other sheep?