Put downs have been around since humans first invented language. It's the easy way out of really dealing with an opinion or argument. Inspire automatic disparagment of your oponent by attaching some supposed negative characteristic to that individual and their opinions.
You find it in just about anything that involves differences of opinion or doubt.
This blog was inspired by my reflections on II Peter 3:3-4: "..there shall come in the last days scoffers (oh, those awful scoffers)...saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation" (KJV). (That was written some time between the 1st and 4th century AD.)
Yep, they sure do, and a multitude of blowhards still fling that biblical retort at anyone who dares to question their prognostications and theological certainties. In between the time when whoever appropriated Peter's name and wrote those words and now, a whole lot more "fathers" have fallen asleep (face it, they're DEAD), and guess what?
The world goes on pretty much the same!
I know. We now have computers and cellphones, drive cars and fly airplanes, etc. But, the world as a whole is pretty much the same damn place it always was -- a very dangerous place in which to live.
Barach Obama gave a very good speach today, in my opinion. Soon, his opponents were out trying to belittle it and put him down. They didn't like what he had to say or the way he said it, and I'm supposed to be surprised and/or offended? Not hardly. I toasted his speach with the first bottle of champagne we had. One more left for tonight so we can ring in the New Year. Don't worry. I have no reason to drive, and if I get a little "sloshed," who cares? From what I read about Jesus turning ordinary water into terrific wine, he wouldn't (if that actually happened).
GO, BARACK!
The opposition?
STUFF IT!
Monday, December 31, 2012
Friday, December 28, 2012
WHY DO I WRITE?
I like to figure things out and I've been at it for over 78 years now. It's taken me in a lot of false directions and involved plenty of mistaken concepts. I was so sure back there in my late teens and early twenties that I'd been specially chosen for a great mission. I'd been called into "the truth," and I was going to be instrumental in ushering in and setting up that great kingdom Jesus promised and Herbert Armstrong so graphically described.
That led to great disappointment and disillusionment about twenty-two years after it began. I catalog all that in my autobiography (http://www.hwarmstrong.com/believing-the-unbelievable.pdf).
Some lives are relatively placid most of the time. However, I've noticed that, even in those cases where it looks like everything has been an idylic "walk in the park," when you learn what has gone on behind the scenes, there've been a lot of thorns on those apparent roses with which some people's lives seem to be filled. They are just hidden from public view.
Soldiers aren't the only ones who suffer from PTSD. Just as with the military, the severity can vary, but we all are subject to some kind of post traumatic stress due to the happenstances of our lives. It can involve any myriad of things from a divorce to the sudden death of a beloved child or the tanking of a career. It provides for a lucrative career field for those in the field of psychiatry, and fortunate is the person who can take advantage of their skills. I never could. I had to stumble my way through to the relative peace and clarity I enjoy today.
Everyone has a story to tell and insights to share. The elderly often yearn to pass on what they have learned but have very little opportunity to do so as the younger people around them are too busy accumulating their own experiences and the tales they will one day wish they could tell. That's why I wrote my little book.
In a recent blog, I steered people to Johnny Cash's song "The Man in Black." I've spent some more time studying his life and his last flurry of work struck me. His wife told him, when she was near death, "Go to work." Johnny did. The last few weeks of his life were and unstoppable avalanch of artistic accomplishment.
I'm in a similar position. I know my time is growing short. I used to chafe at the fact that all these things I ruminated about went nowhere. I had to content myself with daydream fantasies of telling it like it is, but they were all bottled up inside.
My book was my first attempt to get my story and my accumulated "wisdom" out there. It cost a lot of money and basically went nowhere, so I put it online on one website where it just "sits" most of the time.
Then, blogging came along, and Facebook. It took awhile for me to realize what a great tool they could be. I know my audience is very limited, but at least I can get what I'm thinking and desperately yearning to say out there to anyone who will take the time to read. I can draw attention to other things I just stumble upon and which would go unnoticed by most people. It's liberating. So what, if somebody disagrees or gets angry? They can vent in a comment or get their own blog and Facebook page.
That's why we bloggers and Facebookers do it. It's therapy. It's fulfillment. It leads to the peace of being able to just "say it."
That led to great disappointment and disillusionment about twenty-two years after it began. I catalog all that in my autobiography (http://www.hwarmstrong.com/believing-the-unbelievable.pdf).
Some lives are relatively placid most of the time. However, I've noticed that, even in those cases where it looks like everything has been an idylic "walk in the park," when you learn what has gone on behind the scenes, there've been a lot of thorns on those apparent roses with which some people's lives seem to be filled. They are just hidden from public view.
Soldiers aren't the only ones who suffer from PTSD. Just as with the military, the severity can vary, but we all are subject to some kind of post traumatic stress due to the happenstances of our lives. It can involve any myriad of things from a divorce to the sudden death of a beloved child or the tanking of a career. It provides for a lucrative career field for those in the field of psychiatry, and fortunate is the person who can take advantage of their skills. I never could. I had to stumble my way through to the relative peace and clarity I enjoy today.
Everyone has a story to tell and insights to share. The elderly often yearn to pass on what they have learned but have very little opportunity to do so as the younger people around them are too busy accumulating their own experiences and the tales they will one day wish they could tell. That's why I wrote my little book.
In a recent blog, I steered people to Johnny Cash's song "The Man in Black." I've spent some more time studying his life and his last flurry of work struck me. His wife told him, when she was near death, "Go to work." Johnny did. The last few weeks of his life were and unstoppable avalanch of artistic accomplishment.
I'm in a similar position. I know my time is growing short. I used to chafe at the fact that all these things I ruminated about went nowhere. I had to content myself with daydream fantasies of telling it like it is, but they were all bottled up inside.
My book was my first attempt to get my story and my accumulated "wisdom" out there. It cost a lot of money and basically went nowhere, so I put it online on one website where it just "sits" most of the time.
Then, blogging came along, and Facebook. It took awhile for me to realize what a great tool they could be. I know my audience is very limited, but at least I can get what I'm thinking and desperately yearning to say out there to anyone who will take the time to read. I can draw attention to other things I just stumble upon and which would go unnoticed by most people. It's liberating. So what, if somebody disagrees or gets angry? They can vent in a comment or get their own blog and Facebook page.
That's why we bloggers and Facebookers do it. It's therapy. It's fulfillment. It leads to the peace of being able to just "say it."
Saturday, December 22, 2012
WORSE THAN THE WILD WEST
Most of us spent our youths fantasizing about the wild west which was a constant theme on the "silver screen," radio and early TV. Much of it was overblown. There was a subculture, especially after the Civil War, centered around crime and banditry and gunslinging, but it was always a minority in the population. Women and children and the sanctity of the home were generally respected. In fact, my grandparents who homesteaded in North Dakota shortly after the turn of the century never locked their doors, and neither did my parents until about the nineteen fifties or sixties. Society was changing even then and not for the best.
Even the gunslingers who dueled with each other were generally a problem only in isolated areas like mining towns and Dodge City and they tended to wipe each other out and disappear as soon as the civilizing process through the introduction of women folk, education and churches began taking effect. I'm pretty sure that most areas of Deadwood and Tombstone were a lot safer for the average child and adult than some areas of Chicago and new York are today, with so many irresponsible individuals owning or stealing guns and spraying bullets with abandon.
Our ancestors sought for the calming effects of civilization and consciously set out to find and apply them. They wanted safe neighborhoods where wearing guns would become obsolete. Tombstone even had a statute against citizens wearing guns in town, and enforcing that law against some lawless elements was one factor that led to the famous shootout at the O K Corral. That "wild west" attitude is quite a contrast with the current attitude exhibited by Wayne LaPierre.
He actually said, "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."
He went on to blame everything from video games and TV shows to a violent culture for the problems we face and called for armed guards in all schools. He conveniently neglected to suggest ways to pay for such armed protection. Even if such "protectors" were volunteers, the administration of such a program by school districts, local, state and national government would be astronomical. I'm sure he doesn't want taxes increased on his corporation or his overpaid self to take care of it. Probably, he would take the common GOP and tea party approach of cutting more desperately needed safety nets away from desperately needy citizens while he expected the resulting increase in desperation to lead to "law and order."
I don't blame him for not taking questions after such a display of stupidity and ignorance.
It is impossible to have a civilized society under our present system of letting everyone, regardless of need or qualifications, to be armed to the teeth with military style weaponry and to walk around with impunity any place they choose to do so. As I pointed out recently: http://theageofreason--21stcentury.blogspot.com/2012/12/sums-it-up-perfectly.html and: http://theageofreason--21stcentury.blogspot.com/2012/12/time-to-wise-up_14.html, the idea of becoming the member of an etremist militia and "saving America" is pure nonsense and it is an attitude that gave us one civil war a century and a half ago. Do we really want to precipitate another such paroxism of bloodletting?
As for me, I don't want to see schools transformed into a scene approximating a prison or concentration camp. I don't want teachers having to strap on holsters filled with loaded guns every morning. I don't want to walk down the streets of Cottonwood, or anywhere else, and wonder if some deranged individual is going to send either an aimed or ricochet bullet my way or the way of some unsuspecting child merrily skipping rope or tagging along on a shopping trip.
Please, let's see some sanity!
P.S: P. Z. Meyers has a good statement about this nonsense as well: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/12/21/the-nra-has-spoken/
And, check out Lawrence O'Donnell: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/22/lawrence-odonnell-nra-lapierre_n_2349965.html
Even the gunslingers who dueled with each other were generally a problem only in isolated areas like mining towns and Dodge City and they tended to wipe each other out and disappear as soon as the civilizing process through the introduction of women folk, education and churches began taking effect. I'm pretty sure that most areas of Deadwood and Tombstone were a lot safer for the average child and adult than some areas of Chicago and new York are today, with so many irresponsible individuals owning or stealing guns and spraying bullets with abandon.
Our ancestors sought for the calming effects of civilization and consciously set out to find and apply them. They wanted safe neighborhoods where wearing guns would become obsolete. Tombstone even had a statute against citizens wearing guns in town, and enforcing that law against some lawless elements was one factor that led to the famous shootout at the O K Corral. That "wild west" attitude is quite a contrast with the current attitude exhibited by Wayne LaPierre.
He actually said, "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."
He went on to blame everything from video games and TV shows to a violent culture for the problems we face and called for armed guards in all schools. He conveniently neglected to suggest ways to pay for such armed protection. Even if such "protectors" were volunteers, the administration of such a program by school districts, local, state and national government would be astronomical. I'm sure he doesn't want taxes increased on his corporation or his overpaid self to take care of it. Probably, he would take the common GOP and tea party approach of cutting more desperately needed safety nets away from desperately needy citizens while he expected the resulting increase in desperation to lead to "law and order."
I don't blame him for not taking questions after such a display of stupidity and ignorance.
It is impossible to have a civilized society under our present system of letting everyone, regardless of need or qualifications, to be armed to the teeth with military style weaponry and to walk around with impunity any place they choose to do so. As I pointed out recently: http://theageofreason--21stcentury.blogspot.com/2012/12/sums-it-up-perfectly.html and: http://theageofreason--21stcentury.blogspot.com/2012/12/time-to-wise-up_14.html, the idea of becoming the member of an etremist militia and "saving America" is pure nonsense and it is an attitude that gave us one civil war a century and a half ago. Do we really want to precipitate another such paroxism of bloodletting?
As for me, I don't want to see schools transformed into a scene approximating a prison or concentration camp. I don't want teachers having to strap on holsters filled with loaded guns every morning. I don't want to walk down the streets of Cottonwood, or anywhere else, and wonder if some deranged individual is going to send either an aimed or ricochet bullet my way or the way of some unsuspecting child merrily skipping rope or tagging along on a shopping trip.
Please, let's see some sanity!
P.S: P. Z. Meyers has a good statement about this nonsense as well: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/12/21/the-nra-has-spoken/
And, check out Lawrence O'Donnell: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/22/lawrence-odonnell-nra-lapierre_n_2349965.html
Thursday, December 20, 2012
TRUE CHARITABLENESS NOT FAITH BASED
Most people assume that charity would cease if it weren't for churches and their faith based efforts. I don't denigrate any true charitable efforts put forth by any group, but religious efforts are often only cover for proselytization (there's a "hook" in it) or skewed to only help those with which the organization shares a bond.
This article sums up the true picture very well:
This article sums up the true picture very well:
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
SUMS IT UP PERFECTLY
David Letterman made a very true statement filled with insight:
"I've never seen a deer worth 30 rounds of ammo and an automatic rifle."
His statement reminded me of a comment my wife's father made to his then son-in-law who was admiring his father-in-law's semi-automatic service pistol and expressed a desire to have one. The wise old police officer said that such a gun was for killing people and he didn't need a gun like that.
That's the real crux of the matter.
People who want assault rifles usually have a "Rambo complex." They often feel that the government is their oppressor and enemy because it doesn't rubber stamp their particular attitudes, assurances and prejudices. They assume there is a plot for the government to take over and destroy all their "freedoms." They want to be prepared to resist and "take back my country."
Sound familiar? It's been a common refrain ever since a black skinned man won the presidency. It rears its ugly head every time someone points out the insanity of the religious right's attempts to legislate their religion into every aspect of the common citizen's life. By gawd. they're going to be "christian soldiers" or a "Phineas priest." They consider it their "faith assignment" to be judge, jury and executioner, and that assault rifle is very effective in carrying out that supposed divine ordination.
When ordinary people become psycologically inflamed by faith-inspired ideology and conspiracy theories, it's very easy for psychoses to take over. It happened with the inquisition. It happened in Nazi Germany. It's happening in Africa where witches are being hunted, denounced and executed right now by Sarah Palin's deluded friends.
We never should have allowed the ban on assault weapons to expire. It's made millions for arms manufacturers, but it has turned our nation into a very dangerous place where the most minor mental crisis some individual might have can suddenly morph into the most horrible of tragedies. He or she doesn't even need to own the weapons themselves. They can simply appropriate the weapons others have lying around.
When my wife's adopted Yavapai Apache son was paroled from prison, we knew his alcoholism could flare at any time, and when he is drinking he is completely out of his head. We were very concerned about the guns I had in the house and never used. Our solution was to sell them to people who had a legitimate use for such firearms. Spending time at shooting ranges, plinking away with expensive ammo at targets doesn't appeal to me, and I certainly wasn't going to spend a fortune at my age stumbling around in the mountains after a deer or elk I couldn't deal with after I bagged it. So, we have not a single gun in the house. If any cowardly "phineas priest" hates my writings enough, I'm an easy target. I won't be shooting back.
It certainly doesn't take 30 rounds of high-power ammo to bring down a deer. A deer hit with that kind of firepower would be rendered inedible. Little children and dedicated teachers hit like that are just DEAD!
"I've never seen a deer worth 30 rounds of ammo and an automatic rifle."
His statement reminded me of a comment my wife's father made to his then son-in-law who was admiring his father-in-law's semi-automatic service pistol and expressed a desire to have one. The wise old police officer said that such a gun was for killing people and he didn't need a gun like that.
That's the real crux of the matter.
People who want assault rifles usually have a "Rambo complex." They often feel that the government is their oppressor and enemy because it doesn't rubber stamp their particular attitudes, assurances and prejudices. They assume there is a plot for the government to take over and destroy all their "freedoms." They want to be prepared to resist and "take back my country."
Sound familiar? It's been a common refrain ever since a black skinned man won the presidency. It rears its ugly head every time someone points out the insanity of the religious right's attempts to legislate their religion into every aspect of the common citizen's life. By gawd. they're going to be "christian soldiers" or a "Phineas priest." They consider it their "faith assignment" to be judge, jury and executioner, and that assault rifle is very effective in carrying out that supposed divine ordination.
When ordinary people become psycologically inflamed by faith-inspired ideology and conspiracy theories, it's very easy for psychoses to take over. It happened with the inquisition. It happened in Nazi Germany. It's happening in Africa where witches are being hunted, denounced and executed right now by Sarah Palin's deluded friends.
We never should have allowed the ban on assault weapons to expire. It's made millions for arms manufacturers, but it has turned our nation into a very dangerous place where the most minor mental crisis some individual might have can suddenly morph into the most horrible of tragedies. He or she doesn't even need to own the weapons themselves. They can simply appropriate the weapons others have lying around.
When my wife's adopted Yavapai Apache son was paroled from prison, we knew his alcoholism could flare at any time, and when he is drinking he is completely out of his head. We were very concerned about the guns I had in the house and never used. Our solution was to sell them to people who had a legitimate use for such firearms. Spending time at shooting ranges, plinking away with expensive ammo at targets doesn't appeal to me, and I certainly wasn't going to spend a fortune at my age stumbling around in the mountains after a deer or elk I couldn't deal with after I bagged it. So, we have not a single gun in the house. If any cowardly "phineas priest" hates my writings enough, I'm an easy target. I won't be shooting back.
It certainly doesn't take 30 rounds of high-power ammo to bring down a deer. A deer hit with that kind of firepower would be rendered inedible. Little children and dedicated teachers hit like that are just DEAD!
Saturday, December 15, 2012
GREAT SONG WITH GREAT MESSAGE
I happened on a TV accounting of Johnny Cash's life this afternoon. One song really registered with me. For some reason, I don't recall ever hearing it before. I guess it wasn't all that popular. Wonder why?
I just had to go to YouTube and look it up. Here's the link so you can listen to it also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXRmJyIyJbM.
I just had to go to YouTube and look it up. Here's the link so you can listen to it also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXRmJyIyJbM.
GREAT SUMMATION
Greta Christina is one of the best analysts I've ever encountered. Couple that with being a fantastically good writer, and you have a dynamite combination. She has single-handedly summed up what is wrong with the Republican party and how they have backed themselves into a corner they can't easily extricate themselves from.
Read her excellent analysis here: http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/12/14/republicans-and-fundies-reaping-what-they-sowed/
Read her excellent analysis here: http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/12/14/republicans-and-fundies-reaping-what-they-sowed/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
