(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!
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