Back in the days of yore, back when conservatives were happy, and black people didn't have to worry about what to do with all that messy equality they are supposed to have now. Back in that day a black man could count only a few certain jobs. In the south he could still be a cotton picker and in the north he could be a janitor. He couldn't run a school but by God he could keep the floors clean, the toilets fixed, and the desks shiny. He could make sure the boiler kept the place warm in the winter too.
Today we have Barack Obama. Our nations first black President and its first national janitor. It is only fitting that an African American should follow all the white slobs who trashed this nation and the world. And it is only fitting that vast swaths of white folks bitch and whine at the custodian that he hasn't finished cleaning up the mess we made. "Boy you better mop the floor and make it shine, we had some fights today and the place is all bloody! Hey and we spilled some oil outside, you better clean that up too. And when your done there you better take care of all the other crap that we can't fix either. Hurry up now boy."
Yes America has just the right President for these troubled times.
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Nothing but culture war
Everywhere, all the time, 24/7 - 365. Why? Why do so many people want to be in an argument all the time? It seems like everyone wants to tell someone off. Or beg someone to knock the chip off their shoulder.
Perhaps we seek trouble since direct danger is so remote. We need to invent confrontation. In short we are bored. I use kids as my experimental evidence. Kids with nothing to do get cranky. They lash out at each over the stupidest little things. They invent conflict and drama. If they are busy then the conflict really goes down. Too much free time is not a good thing.
I am sure I would get an argument from people about an assertion of Americans having too much spare time. I would even argue with myself on that count. But to back this up I would assert that, though we are running here and there all the time, we are not running for a real purpose. If we stopped we would not get eaten, or starve, or get shot, or die of disease. Our tasks are several times removed tasks required to live.
You could with total accuracy argue that the poor, starving, embattled masses also seek conflict. But that conflict is real. Fighting over a bag of rice might mean life or death for your family. Fighting over whether or not a cartoon character is gay or not is clearly not a life and death issue.
There must be a middle ground between the Somalia's of the world and the Americas. I am not talking nations either. I am talking about ways of living. Keeping your self busy is good (idle hands etc)
Perhaps we seek trouble since direct danger is so remote. We need to invent confrontation. In short we are bored. I use kids as my experimental evidence. Kids with nothing to do get cranky. They lash out at each over the stupidest little things. They invent conflict and drama. If they are busy then the conflict really goes down. Too much free time is not a good thing.
I am sure I would get an argument from people about an assertion of Americans having too much spare time. I would even argue with myself on that count. But to back this up I would assert that, though we are running here and there all the time, we are not running for a real purpose. If we stopped we would not get eaten, or starve, or get shot, or die of disease. Our tasks are several times removed tasks required to live.
You could with total accuracy argue that the poor, starving, embattled masses also seek conflict. But that conflict is real. Fighting over a bag of rice might mean life or death for your family. Fighting over whether or not a cartoon character is gay or not is clearly not a life and death issue.
There must be a middle ground between the Somalia's of the world and the Americas. I am not talking nations either. I am talking about ways of living. Keeping your self busy is good (idle hands etc)
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Country Music is pathetic
Why is Country Music so pathetic? And who listens to this shit? I mean the beat is good. The instrumentation is good. But the lyrics are straight from satan's bunghole.
I think they know this music is total crap that is why all the lyrics try to just admit it. Then they try to wrap it up in God and the flag and try to sell it as something other than the shit it is.
Lest people think I am talking about all music termed "country" this is not so. I am specifically talking about pop-country. These songs write themselves. I have never written a country song but here goes:
I love my country and I love my truck
I pray to God, but my love life sucks
I love cold beer, and wide open spaces
I can't speak none 'bout them foreign places
So I'll sit right down and toss a cold one back
Be proud for no reason, and for not know'n jack
I'll tell tall tales that I like to tell
Then pray to God to get me out of this country music hell
I think they know this music is total crap that is why all the lyrics try to just admit it. Then they try to wrap it up in God and the flag and try to sell it as something other than the shit it is.
Lest people think I am talking about all music termed "country" this is not so. I am specifically talking about pop-country. These songs write themselves. I have never written a country song but here goes:
I love my country and I love my truck
I pray to God, but my love life sucks
I love cold beer, and wide open spaces
I can't speak none 'bout them foreign places
So I'll sit right down and toss a cold one back
Be proud for no reason, and for not know'n jack
I'll tell tall tales that I like to tell
Then pray to God to get me out of this country music hell
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
The Shuttle and the USA
We launch our shuttles like subconscious twitches. We barely know they happen at all. Most of us don't know. We are such a monstrosity, an elephantine republic, where simple minded people mingle with the thinkers. Where some people can still laughably cling to the nobly savage idea of small government. "Small" has never been a word to be used in any way shape or form to describe any aspect of America.
We were waged war against England to gain our Independence. Then we waged war against our former alley France to attain our freedom on the seas. We told powers vastly more powerful they us to stay away from "our" hemisphere when a handful of cities in Europe contained more people than our whole nation.
Small has never been an American trait. While the great powers sat bickering in Europe we cut Panama in two, taking over the job started by Europeans. While Hitler struggled against Russia we waged global war on every continent. While the Germans tried in vane to destroy London, we obliterated metropolis after metropolis. Japan bombed a navel base so we destroyed their capital city along with dozens of others.
We damned hundreds of rivers. Built millions of miles of railroads, highways, electrical lines, gas pipelines, hundreds of thousands of oil wells, and an economy that made money in the trillions.
As Jim Lovell said. Going to the Moon was not a miracle. We just decided to go. When war was suicidal we opted to outspend our enemies. We spent Russia into the ground. And when a handful of terrorists attacked a couple buildings we brought misery to the middle east a thousand times over.
Yes I find the people who labor for "small" America to be laughable. Don't they know where they live? Don't they understand America? No obviously not.
We were waged war against England to gain our Independence. Then we waged war against our former alley France to attain our freedom on the seas. We told powers vastly more powerful they us to stay away from "our" hemisphere when a handful of cities in Europe contained more people than our whole nation.
Small has never been an American trait. While the great powers sat bickering in Europe we cut Panama in two, taking over the job started by Europeans. While Hitler struggled against Russia we waged global war on every continent. While the Germans tried in vane to destroy London, we obliterated metropolis after metropolis. Japan bombed a navel base so we destroyed their capital city along with dozens of others.
We damned hundreds of rivers. Built millions of miles of railroads, highways, electrical lines, gas pipelines, hundreds of thousands of oil wells, and an economy that made money in the trillions.
As Jim Lovell said. Going to the Moon was not a miracle. We just decided to go. When war was suicidal we opted to outspend our enemies. We spent Russia into the ground. And when a handful of terrorists attacked a couple buildings we brought misery to the middle east a thousand times over.
Yes I find the people who labor for "small" America to be laughable. Don't they know where they live? Don't they understand America? No obviously not.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Birthers and other lunatics
Birthers fall into the same category of people who see the world as a giant conspiracy against them. The truth is they are right. There is a huge conspiracy against them. The truth is conspiring to show their fantasy world to be false. Like 1 + 1 conspiring to equal 2. Or the Sun conspiring with Oxygen, and Nitrogen, molecules to make the sky seem blue when it is clear.
I would bet that the vast majority of these people probably also doubt climate change and evolution. They are also the type of people who would get 100 opinions, 99 opinions positing against them, but still cling to the 1 that confirms there nutty stances.
Thankfully fact cares not for the machinations of such terrifyingly stupid people. Truth is not in the eye of the beholder and suffers no fools. These fools, who are merely people who cant stand the idea of a black man as President, will continue to cling to their idiocy though Jesus Christ himself stand against them.
They are a sad and silly lot that are, like all their type, doomed to a waking death. I am really glad I am not one of them.
I would bet that the vast majority of these people probably also doubt climate change and evolution. They are also the type of people who would get 100 opinions, 99 opinions positing against them, but still cling to the 1 that confirms there nutty stances.
Thankfully fact cares not for the machinations of such terrifyingly stupid people. Truth is not in the eye of the beholder and suffers no fools. These fools, who are merely people who cant stand the idea of a black man as President, will continue to cling to their idiocy though Jesus Christ himself stand against them.
They are a sad and silly lot that are, like all their type, doomed to a waking death. I am really glad I am not one of them.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Obama speaks to Islam
Well done. I would have gone farther but that is okay. That is why I am not President. Finally a US President spoke honestly of our realtionship with the mideast. Thank you Mr. Obama for finally talking like a real person and not some spun moron who is fed the nonsensical BS of having to prop up stupid policies of the past. Thank you for taking responsibility for Mosedek. Thank you for upholding the greatest ideals that made America great. You are a tribute to the greatness of America and a stalwart supporter of her future greatness. Keep on keep'n on!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Getting a kick out of GOP attempts to find self
Do we need to appear to be more right-wing? Do we need to appear more moderate? Should we try to appeal to a broader section of America than white, rich, conservative, Christians?
This seems to be the ongoing debate in the GOP. What should really trouble the GOP is 2000 until now. They barely won the Presidency in 2000 and 2004, they lost the Congress in 2006, and got wasted in 2008. And they cannot tie their fall to GW Bush either. He was a symptom not a cause. He was the conservative canary in the coal mine of American politics.
The watchers of Fox or the readers of the American Spectator, or listeners of Limbaugh et al, reside in an eco chamber that tells them they are on the right path. Or that to represent America as it is would be too weak. So they continue to cling to a view that continues to become more misaligned with America.
The sad horrible truth is that it took the slaughter of 3000 people on 911 to elect their last President. I am sure that a host of them are wishing for more death and mayhem to recover their footing on the threshold of power. But one needs to really ask the question; why should you support a party that needs thousands of dead bodies to get elected?
This seems to be the ongoing debate in the GOP. What should really trouble the GOP is 2000 until now. They barely won the Presidency in 2000 and 2004, they lost the Congress in 2006, and got wasted in 2008. And they cannot tie their fall to GW Bush either. He was a symptom not a cause. He was the conservative canary in the coal mine of American politics.
The watchers of Fox or the readers of the American Spectator, or listeners of Limbaugh et al, reside in an eco chamber that tells them they are on the right path. Or that to represent America as it is would be too weak. So they continue to cling to a view that continues to become more misaligned with America.
The sad horrible truth is that it took the slaughter of 3000 people on 911 to elect their last President. I am sure that a host of them are wishing for more death and mayhem to recover their footing on the threshold of power. But one needs to really ask the question; why should you support a party that needs thousands of dead bodies to get elected?
Christians and torture? Should be against it. No question
I read in a recent survey by the Pew Center, that white evangelical Christians are more likely to think torture is okay. As a Christian myself I cannot see how anyone claiming to follow Christ can make that claim and then say that it is okay to torture somebody. Then again my Church tortured thousands and thousands in its day. These so called Christians are going to have a heavy bit of explaining to do when Jesus, who was tortured to death, will ask them to justify their stance. In my opinion satan is just as likely to cloak his evil in the mantel of Christianity, Islam, or any other faith. Blind faith and adherence to dogma is a sure way to hell.
Pew Center
Pew Center
Friday, April 17, 2009
Lets Mess With Texas!
By Maria M. Perotin, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Jun. 13--Texas' healthcare system ranks among the worst in the nation, in large part because so many Texans go without health insurance.
That's a key finding of a "scorecard" released today by researchers at a unit of The Commonwealth Fund who examined each state's performance on 32 separate measures focused on healthcare quality, cost and access to care.
Overall, Texas ranked No. 49 -- third from the bottom -- in the study that included all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
The bottom line: Healthcare varies widely across the country. Even the best-performing states have lots of room for improvement. And those that spend the biggest bucks don't necessarily get top-notch healthcare for their money.
"The scorecard indicates that where you live in the United States matters," said Cathy Schoen, a senior vice president at The Commonwealth Fund who co-authored the report. "The wide variation and gaps between leading and lagging states add up to substantial human and economic costs."
US Census Data 2007: Texas has the highest percentage of people with no health insurance ( 25%) . So the rest of America has to pick up Texas' tab.
So you do not want to be sick in Texas.
Jun. 13--Texas' healthcare system ranks among the worst in the nation, in large part because so many Texans go without health insurance.
That's a key finding of a "scorecard" released today by researchers at a unit of The Commonwealth Fund who examined each state's performance on 32 separate measures focused on healthcare quality, cost and access to care.
Overall, Texas ranked No. 49 -- third from the bottom -- in the study that included all 50 states and Washington, D.C.
The bottom line: Healthcare varies widely across the country. Even the best-performing states have lots of room for improvement. And those that spend the biggest bucks don't necessarily get top-notch healthcare for their money.
"The scorecard indicates that where you live in the United States matters," said Cathy Schoen, a senior vice president at The Commonwealth Fund who co-authored the report. "The wide variation and gaps between leading and lagging states add up to substantial human and economic costs."
US Census Data 2007: Texas has the highest percentage of people with no health insurance ( 25%) . So the rest of America has to pick up Texas' tab.
So you do not want to be sick in Texas.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Red State Blues
Unwed mother / teen pregnancy rates
Bible belting "no sex ed" = more sex and more teen moms
Red Staters are the fat ones. Sorry.
Families living in povertry in 2006. The people most likely to benefit from Obama are the ones too stupid to vote for the guy.
Lastly let us look at more of the family values folks. The liberal hedonists in the Northeast are far less likely to be divorced than the pro-family south and central.
Anyway just a bit of reality to fill the void.
Monday, April 06, 2009
Red State is Right!
Right on the way to ruin. The American rightwing. Like all rightwing movements. Has at its core a moldering failure. The "its everyman for himself" anarchism that represents the heart of American conservative thought is a black fungus that, from time to time, protrudes from the outwardly healthy pretense that is conservative thought today.
Leadership, something that Obama understand well and that Bush never understood, is something beyond the mental capacity of most conservatives to understand. Again I would ask any conservative to back up what they say with examples of their ideology amounting to anything more than a bucket of warm spit captured after falling from the mouths of their radio blowhards.
This they will NEVER be able to do.
The conservatives in 1776 were all fleeing to Canada and Britain and away from the rebels that wished to throw off the yoke of kingship.
The conservatives in 1860 were all telling Lincoln to make peace with the southern landeowners and not mess with slavery
The conservatives in 1920 were still arguing that woman didn't have to worry about voting.
The conservatives i in 1940 were still arguing that Hitler would make a better business partner than England.
The conservatives in 1964 still thought that black americans didn't need to be treated equal.
So all the conservatives can stop shoveling their pigswill about how they have good ideas about future American greatess. Their track record has been one of failure and national retardation.
Leadership, something that Obama understand well and that Bush never understood, is something beyond the mental capacity of most conservatives to understand. Again I would ask any conservative to back up what they say with examples of their ideology amounting to anything more than a bucket of warm spit captured after falling from the mouths of their radio blowhards.
This they will NEVER be able to do.
The conservatives in 1776 were all fleeing to Canada and Britain and away from the rebels that wished to throw off the yoke of kingship.
The conservatives in 1860 were all telling Lincoln to make peace with the southern landeowners and not mess with slavery
The conservatives in 1920 were still arguing that woman didn't have to worry about voting.
The conservatives i in 1940 were still arguing that Hitler would make a better business partner than England.
The conservatives in 1964 still thought that black americans didn't need to be treated equal.
So all the conservatives can stop shoveling their pigswill about how they have good ideas about future American greatess. Their track record has been one of failure and national retardation.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Motor Mounts and socialists
Things are moving so fast that it is really hard to keep up. Being 43 I am coming to the conclusion that I will only be getting older and that eventually I will be unable to keep up and or care about most stuff.
But until then here goes...
Is Obama and the government going socialist???
Well if by "socialist" you mean actually trying to help people then I guess the answer is yes. I think for me and almost all of America that is just fine. Since the people who are using the term "socialist" are so whacked out to the right that they think ANY form of government is socialist.
This goes back to what I truly believe and that is that conservatives are not really what they say they are. They think they are conservative but they are really anarchists. Their "its every man for himself" attitude is the epitome of anarchism.
For my part I hardly consider Obama any kind of a socialist. He is not pushing a single payer health care system (something I want) nor is he really helping labor. But he is at least moving the nation in the right direction as far as regaining our power, influence, stature, authority, and future greatness.
The American "right" is very wrong. They are on the wrong side of history, and have been since the founding of the republic. They have done nothing but hold America back. The best that can be said of them is that they have held America back so that the progressive engine doesn't shake the country apart. They are the motor-mount that holds the engine to the frame of the American machine.
If you ask a motor-mount what the engine should do it would probably say that the engine should shut down since that would make the motor-mounts job a lot easier. However that would not allow the American machine to work.
But until then here goes...
Is Obama and the government going socialist???
Well if by "socialist" you mean actually trying to help people then I guess the answer is yes. I think for me and almost all of America that is just fine. Since the people who are using the term "socialist" are so whacked out to the right that they think ANY form of government is socialist.
This goes back to what I truly believe and that is that conservatives are not really what they say they are. They think they are conservative but they are really anarchists. Their "its every man for himself" attitude is the epitome of anarchism.
For my part I hardly consider Obama any kind of a socialist. He is not pushing a single payer health care system (something I want) nor is he really helping labor. But he is at least moving the nation in the right direction as far as regaining our power, influence, stature, authority, and future greatness.
The American "right" is very wrong. They are on the wrong side of history, and have been since the founding of the republic. They have done nothing but hold America back. The best that can be said of them is that they have held America back so that the progressive engine doesn't shake the country apart. They are the motor-mount that holds the engine to the frame of the American machine.
If you ask a motor-mount what the engine should do it would probably say that the engine should shut down since that would make the motor-mounts job a lot easier. However that would not allow the American machine to work.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Conservatives are falling of the cliff, intellectually
In the past the greatest conservative voice was William F. Buckley. He was smart, very smart, funny, and on his game at all times. Now the "leaders" of American conservatism are Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber, and Limbaugh.
Now you have to be a butt-picking, hill-billy, high school drop out, who thinks God founded the United States of America, and are always worrying about turning gay, in order to be a conservative.
They remind me of the damned in Dante's Inferno. The GOP should adopt "Abandon Hope all ye who enter" as their tag line and their slide will be complete.
Now you have to be a butt-picking, hill-billy, high school drop out, who thinks God founded the United States of America, and are always worrying about turning gay, in order to be a conservative.
They remind me of the damned in Dante's Inferno. The GOP should adopt "Abandon Hope all ye who enter" as their tag line and their slide will be complete.
Friday, January 09, 2009
Isaerl and Gaza and Obama and everyone else
Every nation has a right to defend itself. No one would argue that, at least no one who lives on Earth amongst human beings. But the situation in Israel is not just one nation attacking another and then a response.
The Palestinians were forced off their land, attacked, and penned in. Their neighbors dislike them as much as the Israelis do. However their plight provides dictatorships accross the mid east to allow their oppressed publics to vent anger at an enemy that is not the king, or president for life.
Organizations of brutes that use strife as a means to grab power and control (Hamas et al) also use the Palestinian cause as fuel for their own purposes. I recently sent a message to my mom about the perfect analogy for the situation. It starts where Michael Bloomberg left off.
In short Bloomberg said that if someone was banging on your apartment door yelling at you saying they want to kill you, you would want the police to come and stop them. I fill out the whole story...
The people pounding on the door used to live in the very apartment currently occupied by the people calling the police. They came home one day and found all their stuff dumped in the hallway. They complained to the land lord. He agreed with them that they had been wronged. But the new occupents would not listen and continued to live there. Not only that but they also took the job of doorman. So now the hall-people have to asked the doorman's permission to leave the building to go to work. Because they got angry and pounded on the door the doorman will not let them leave.
Finally the mob shows up, and for some protection money, they mug the apartment dwellers. The cops are called and tell the hall people to settle down. They move into a new apartment only to find that the next day the other dwellers have now kicked them out of that apartment too. The mob is still around and loves to pray on the down and out. So they make promises to the hall-people and make more violence on the apartment occupents.
This goes on and on.
That is a better analogy to what is going on in Palestine. The victem of Israeli action in Gaza will be America as much as Hamas. America is seen, with justification, as the main supporter of Israel. We give 400 million a year in military aid alone. How much do we bother to toss Palestine?
Obama needs to strike a neutral position here. Hamas is the mob for sure. But Obama needs to reach over the heads of Hamas and Israel and talk to both peoples and link them with both sides common desire to live a peaceful life. Talking to the gun toting scumbags on either side will solve nothing.
The Palestinians were forced off their land, attacked, and penned in. Their neighbors dislike them as much as the Israelis do. However their plight provides dictatorships accross the mid east to allow their oppressed publics to vent anger at an enemy that is not the king, or president for life.
Organizations of brutes that use strife as a means to grab power and control (Hamas et al) also use the Palestinian cause as fuel for their own purposes. I recently sent a message to my mom about the perfect analogy for the situation. It starts where Michael Bloomberg left off.
In short Bloomberg said that if someone was banging on your apartment door yelling at you saying they want to kill you, you would want the police to come and stop them. I fill out the whole story...
The people pounding on the door used to live in the very apartment currently occupied by the people calling the police. They came home one day and found all their stuff dumped in the hallway. They complained to the land lord. He agreed with them that they had been wronged. But the new occupents would not listen and continued to live there. Not only that but they also took the job of doorman. So now the hall-people have to asked the doorman's permission to leave the building to go to work. Because they got angry and pounded on the door the doorman will not let them leave.
Finally the mob shows up, and for some protection money, they mug the apartment dwellers. The cops are called and tell the hall people to settle down. They move into a new apartment only to find that the next day the other dwellers have now kicked them out of that apartment too. The mob is still around and loves to pray on the down and out. So they make promises to the hall-people and make more violence on the apartment occupents.
This goes on and on.
That is a better analogy to what is going on in Palestine. The victem of Israeli action in Gaza will be America as much as Hamas. America is seen, with justification, as the main supporter of Israel. We give 400 million a year in military aid alone. How much do we bother to toss Palestine?
Obama needs to strike a neutral position here. Hamas is the mob for sure. But Obama needs to reach over the heads of Hamas and Israel and talk to both peoples and link them with both sides common desire to live a peaceful life. Talking to the gun toting scumbags on either side will solve nothing.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Enforced liesure
It started snowing last Sunday. It continued for a day then got very cold. Last week was a week of nervous driving, listening to the radio, reading internet news about weather etc. Then Saturday came and the world stopped.
Portland, Oregon, is a city known for rain and weather that is, in both summer and winter, boring. It is never very hot and never very cold and when we get snow it is usually last for 24 hour, we build a snowman, miss a day of work then forget about snow til next year.
On Saturday, the Saturday befor Chirstmas no less, it began to snow. It did not stop, indeed it is snowing now, three days later. My car is buried in the stuff. The snow was accompanied by severe winds too. So nobody could even go out in it to build the afore mentioned snow man. Saturday I was able to make a run to the store and that was it.
I am here alone. I talk on the phone, read, browse the net, and stew. I find that I have begun to devolve into something less than me. I sit in my pajamas, hair askew, unshaven, and unconcerned about the dishes in the sink, or the unmaid bed. Listening to even my favorite NPR shows puts me to sleep in minutes.
It as if I am beginning to hibernate, shutdown, coccoon myself waiting for the thaw. I play Sims and note that my Sim person has more freedom in his electronic world than I do. He is bored so he gets into his sports car and goes to a nightclub to have drink and dance the night away. His god, me, is stuck behind a wall of white muck. I can kill him off if I want. My daughter is an expert tormentor of Sim souls. She will wait for a sim to enter a room then delete all the doors and watch the Sim stave to death. Kids are cruel. For my part I am happy with my Sim having a life. I feel sympathetic when his advances are rebuffed. Even if I had advances myself there is no one to rebuff them.
Later I am extatic to find an entire 6 pack of Heineken that had been packed away in the closet. In truth I was looking for my gaiters, and do not really like Heineken, but what the hell? No gaiters but at least a beer fest. But even this is a let down. Drinking alone is not good. It too is too easy to do when you have nothing better to do.
No gaiters but I have my Denali boots. So after tricking myself out like a Himalyan mountaineer, I trudge down the stairs into the white muck. The snow is not snowman snow. It is powder snow. Skiiers would kill for snow like this. I manage down the street. The wind is biting cold, my breathing is hard because of the effort of postholing. It takes me 20 minutes of post-holing in snow to walk a block to the store. When I get there is looks like the day-lodge at Timberline. Men and women in Goretex, X-country skies leaning up against the building, all you need is overpriced lift-tickets.
On my way back I overhear a lady talking to her freind saying "I just had to escape." We humans are a weird lot. We are stuck in a warm dwelling with food and water and power, and we feel we need to "escape" that by plunging into a frozen wasteland. Curious.
My brother is going to rescue me. He has a 4wheel drive rig that can make its way around so I will conclude this evening in the company of others. I almost expect a party!
Maybe this is how things were back in the day. People living in sod houses, trying not to starve and freeze, cut off from their neighbors by miles of snow and ice, and then one day they meet up and have a big party. We take for granted having people around. We are so used to not being isolated that when it happens we are at a loss as to know what to do, or at least what to expect that we will do.
Maybe I'll sweep the steps? Or perhaps take a nap until my brother comes.
Portland, Oregon, is a city known for rain and weather that is, in both summer and winter, boring. It is never very hot and never very cold and when we get snow it is usually last for 24 hour, we build a snowman, miss a day of work then forget about snow til next year.
On Saturday, the Saturday befor Chirstmas no less, it began to snow. It did not stop, indeed it is snowing now, three days later. My car is buried in the stuff. The snow was accompanied by severe winds too. So nobody could even go out in it to build the afore mentioned snow man. Saturday I was able to make a run to the store and that was it.
I am here alone. I talk on the phone, read, browse the net, and stew. I find that I have begun to devolve into something less than me. I sit in my pajamas, hair askew, unshaven, and unconcerned about the dishes in the sink, or the unmaid bed. Listening to even my favorite NPR shows puts me to sleep in minutes.
It as if I am beginning to hibernate, shutdown, coccoon myself waiting for the thaw. I play Sims and note that my Sim person has more freedom in his electronic world than I do. He is bored so he gets into his sports car and goes to a nightclub to have drink and dance the night away. His god, me, is stuck behind a wall of white muck. I can kill him off if I want. My daughter is an expert tormentor of Sim souls. She will wait for a sim to enter a room then delete all the doors and watch the Sim stave to death. Kids are cruel. For my part I am happy with my Sim having a life. I feel sympathetic when his advances are rebuffed. Even if I had advances myself there is no one to rebuff them.
Later I am extatic to find an entire 6 pack of Heineken that had been packed away in the closet. In truth I was looking for my gaiters, and do not really like Heineken, but what the hell? No gaiters but at least a beer fest. But even this is a let down. Drinking alone is not good. It too is too easy to do when you have nothing better to do.
No gaiters but I have my Denali boots. So after tricking myself out like a Himalyan mountaineer, I trudge down the stairs into the white muck. The snow is not snowman snow. It is powder snow. Skiiers would kill for snow like this. I manage down the street. The wind is biting cold, my breathing is hard because of the effort of postholing. It takes me 20 minutes of post-holing in snow to walk a block to the store. When I get there is looks like the day-lodge at Timberline. Men and women in Goretex, X-country skies leaning up against the building, all you need is overpriced lift-tickets.
On my way back I overhear a lady talking to her freind saying "I just had to escape." We humans are a weird lot. We are stuck in a warm dwelling with food and water and power, and we feel we need to "escape" that by plunging into a frozen wasteland. Curious.
My brother is going to rescue me. He has a 4wheel drive rig that can make its way around so I will conclude this evening in the company of others. I almost expect a party!
Maybe this is how things were back in the day. People living in sod houses, trying not to starve and freeze, cut off from their neighbors by miles of snow and ice, and then one day they meet up and have a big party. We take for granted having people around. We are so used to not being isolated that when it happens we are at a loss as to know what to do, or at least what to expect that we will do.
Maybe I'll sweep the steps? Or perhaps take a nap until my brother comes.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Friday, December 05, 2008
The Plaque in Olympia
Some atheist group put up a plaque saying that, in their opinion, God does not exist. Then somebody stole it and tossed it in a ditch, then somebody found it and put it back. Blah blah blah. As a Christian what do I care if someone wants to say that God does not exist? Gods existence or non existence is in no way predicated on what any human being chooses to believe. The people who get cranky over other people expressing their beliefs, either pro or con, should really consider why they get so cranky. If you have faith it should not bother you in the least that some atheist puts up a plaque espousing his views. No soul is going to be saved, or God served by some little pink human stealing private property and then attempting to destroy the property.
I guess the problem was that the plaque was in the state house next to a nativity scene. Why in the world the State has a nativity scene in its governments house is beyond me. Again as a Christian I find the state in anyway meddling with faith to be troubling. At any rate God is not served by such earthly entities. God, being omnipotent needs no human being to acknowledge Him, fight for him, or do anything else for him. We are called to serve each other not God. We need God, God does not need us.
I guess the problem was that the plaque was in the state house next to a nativity scene. Why in the world the State has a nativity scene in its governments house is beyond me. Again as a Christian I find the state in anyway meddling with faith to be troubling. At any rate God is not served by such earthly entities. God, being omnipotent needs no human being to acknowledge Him, fight for him, or do anything else for him. We are called to serve each other not God. We need God, God does not need us.
More Pirate Tales of Old
Francois L'Olonnais was another successful pirate from the 17th century. He was a Frenchman with a particular hatred of the Spanish. Here is an account of a typical incident of the fun loving Buccaneer:
After the pirate had attacked Porto Cabello he was ambushed by Spanish troops. After escaping the fight L'Olonnais wanted to plot a way of escape. He had taken several Spanish prisoners. He drew his cutlass, and with it cut open the breast of one of those poor Spaniards, and pulling out his heart with his sacrilegious hands, began to bite and gnaw it with his teeth, like a ravenous wolf, saying to the rest, "I will serve you all alike, if you show me not another way."
Irony knowing no bounds, L'Olonnais, after a long career being a violent, murdering, torturing, maniac, was set upon by natives in Central America and eaten.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Piracy off Somalia! A new threat? Not really...
I get a kick out of all the sudden clamor over piracy off Somalia. Those waters have been dangerous for a very long time. As an example here is the story of the greatest act of piracy in history. Note that the money values were in current English pounds of the later 17th century and do not reflect today. These numbers would be vastly larger. Somali pirates of today are actually quite gentile compared to the raiders of the past.
The nature of Piracy is to attack a ship, seize it, plunder what it holds, then sink it, sell it, or use it for future profit. Piracy has been going on for as long as humans have traveled the seas. Julius Caesar spent time as a captive of pirates. The story to be told takes place in the Golden Age of Piracy.
"In August 1695, the English Pirate Henry Every, or "Long Ben" and his ship the Fancy reached the Mandab Strait (where the Somali pirates operate now), where he teamed up with four other pirate ships, including Thomas Tew's sloop Amity. Although a 25-ship Mughal convoy bound for India eluded the pirate fleet during the night, the following day they encountered the greatest ship in the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb's fleet, the Ganj-I-Sawai, and its escort Fateh Muhammed, both passing the straits en route to Surat. After a protracted battle they took both ships.
The victorious pirates then subjected their captives to several days of horror, raping and murdering prisoners at will, and using torture to force them to reveal the location of the ships' treasure. Some of the Muslim women committed suicide to avoid violation or humiliation. Those women who did not kill themselves or die from the pirates' brutality were taken aboard the Fancy. The other survivors were left aboard their ships, which the pirates set free.
The loot from the Ganj-I-Sawai totalled between £325,000 and £600,000, including 500,000 gold and silver pieces. Every and the surviving pirate captains set sail for Réunion, where they shared out £1,000 and some gemstones to every man in the crew."
So how did things end for Henry Every? Well he was one of the few pirates to escape the noose. He went to Ireland and was never seen again. What ended the Golden Age of Piracy was the rise of national navies. Pirates were mercinaries who were contracted by governments to fight for them. Once the contract was up they just kept on fighting. After all what else can you do? Become a farmer? Starve? Governments created the pirates of old, just like we do today. Where did all those Somali pirates learn to fight? In the Somali wars. Who supplied them? Who helped train them?
To stop the Somali pirates of today we probably need to kill a lot of them. Thousands of happless pirates were hanged. Almost all the famous pirates of old met a bad end.
Black Beard: head cut off after being shot
Bart Roberts: Shot in face with grapeshot
Captain Kid: Hanged
Calico Jack Rackham: Hanged
Stede Bonnet: Hanged
Sir Henry Morgan: died broke, and drunk (prophetic since Henry Morgans is a famous Rum)
Sir Francis Drake: died of dysentery
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Who does Zawhiri fear most?
I would say that Zawahiri and Bin Laden fear Obama more than God. They feared Bush more than God too. They talk tough, but live in hiding. Who are they hiding from and why? They are hiding because they do not want to die. They are hiding from that which they fear. They fear the US. So when the two of them weigh their faith in God and their fear of the US, the scale tips toward fear of the US. Obama does not live in hiding. Neither did Bush. America is confident while her enemies live in holes, sitting next to rusty guns used as props, making pronouncements. America knows that Zawahiri and Bin Laden, and their followers hate it.
So again why do they hide? They do not want to die? If they are confident in their service to God then why should the fear? Maybe they fear the US and God. They fear the US for its ability to kill them and they fear God in His ability to lay vengeance upon them for killing in His name.
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