Beware a noisy mob; it is rare that truth and beauty result from their riots.
I found the most violently hateful people were in the thick of mob actions, even back when it made sense to be disturbed about the draft and the war in VietNam. There were many angles for discontent. One undersung view was that the war was not being waged in any way directed at a conclusion such as "winning", and it cost a lot of lives just from that perspective. Never mind that the real objective was a little blurry, and that forcing people to go may be a little heavy handed.
But contrary to what we've since been told, a very large number of those who organized and waged demonstrations were not in any way full of peace and love. Just ask an innocent question. Try getting where you needed to go while they blocked your path shouting insults if your hair was too short or your attire did not fit the mold. I saw it.
That is how mobs work, and are worked. There can be legitimate stated objectives, which is great, but in any huge mob, there are those who want power and do not care who gets hurt. The noisier and more chaotic, the more you can bet less than pure ends will be served. The bulk of most big mobs could not even articulate their reasons for chanting in the streets. They do it because everyone else is and they have no faith in their own ability to think.
Dealing with a group is not like dealing one on one with an individual. A person in a group will do things he/she would not do normally. A group takes on a mind of its own, and can easily become a creature of no conscience. And there are usually those who want to scream in the megaphone and have the crowd repeat everything they say. That type of scene has always disgusted and saddened me almost as much as the drafting of young people to fight non-defensive wars.
People participate as much because of the feeling of power being with the crowd brings as because they are firmly against or for some policy, practice or condition. There are definitely times to rebel, but even then beware the angry mob.
The best rebellion is to make collecting the money to fund the evil doers very difficult. But that actually takes more guts than running with a pack breaking windows and setting fires.
Monday, January 31, 2011
The Genius of the Third World
I'm sill not sure what constitutes the basis of the numbering of worlds, 1st, 2nd, 3rd. But we all know what it means. 3rd world=better bring your own toilet paper, don't drink the water, and whatever you do do not get locked up. Not so different from our country any more. But different.
It used to be that standing in line for government red tape things like driver's license or title transfer, or trying to get on an airplane was indicative of 3rd world countries. Rights were questionable and use of authority seemed absolute and capricious. We are there.
The real genius of 3rd world regimes is how they manage to create a legal system which could be used to fry anyone for any reason, all under the gtuise of the greater good and making a better citizenry.
I think this story is a very good illustration of what the thinking typical of the 3rd world and, more and more, typical of our own citizens who see the state as God, lead to: Don't 'exhale' in Malawi
"The government of Malawi plan to punish persistent offenders 'who foul the air' in a bid to 'mould responsible and disciplined citizens.'"
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1351174/African-country-set-make-breaking-wind-crime.html#ixzz1CfAUmglP
Yes, it is true. They are pondering the necessity to outlaw breaking wind, cutting the cheese; no farting allowed. Since the US has steadily been taking cues from more troubled regions of the globe in creating new policies and laws, perhaps this is a glimpse at our own future.
It used to be that standing in line for government red tape things like driver's license or title transfer, or trying to get on an airplane was indicative of 3rd world countries. Rights were questionable and use of authority seemed absolute and capricious. We are there.
The real genius of 3rd world regimes is how they manage to create a legal system which could be used to fry anyone for any reason, all under the gtuise of the greater good and making a better citizenry.
I think this story is a very good illustration of what the thinking typical of the 3rd world and, more and more, typical of our own citizens who see the state as God, lead to: Don't 'exhale' in Malawi
"The government of Malawi plan to punish persistent offenders 'who foul the air' in a bid to 'mould responsible and disciplined citizens.'"
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1351174/African-country-set-make-breaking-wind-crime.html#ixzz1CfAUmglP
Yes, it is true. They are pondering the necessity to outlaw breaking wind, cutting the cheese; no farting allowed. Since the US has steadily been taking cues from more troubled regions of the globe in creating new policies and laws, perhaps this is a glimpse at our own future.
It All Just Appears
Held hostage by unnecessary difficulties. That is the way of it.
That is how it works in my own existence and in the larger picture.
I know I am not happy to think that Egyptian instability could raise the price of fuel. I'm particularly not happy because the dependence on foreign oil is a false market, created by evil-doers and useful idiots. There is no reason we should be dependent upon that, and no reason we should be a little stretched in the refinery department.
Not only that, but had there been a truly free world without the government-business partnership which manipulates competition and demand, there may be more reasonable alternatives already at hand.
The main thing is that when the writing has been on the wall for fifty years or more, how shocked can you be when things come to pass? And how stupid is it to then look to the same philosophy and people who created the problem to fix it?
On the personal level, there is little choice. You make your problem you fix it. But you do have to fix the problem with a different approach from that which created it.
That is how it works in my own existence and in the larger picture.
I know I am not happy to think that Egyptian instability could raise the price of fuel. I'm particularly not happy because the dependence on foreign oil is a false market, created by evil-doers and useful idiots. There is no reason we should be dependent upon that, and no reason we should be a little stretched in the refinery department.
Not only that, but had there been a truly free world without the government-business partnership which manipulates competition and demand, there may be more reasonable alternatives already at hand.
The main thing is that when the writing has been on the wall for fifty years or more, how shocked can you be when things come to pass? And how stupid is it to then look to the same philosophy and people who created the problem to fix it?
On the personal level, there is little choice. You make your problem you fix it. But you do have to fix the problem with a different approach from that which created it.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Unbelievable, but Possibly True
The Gods may or may not be crazy, however the can be no doubt that many people the world over are strangely insane. Nuts. I'm not sure which ones are and which aren't.
I will say that my country's insistence on policies I find bizarre may be finally proving to be the scam I think they are and have been for a long time. All the mid-east N. Africa Israeli involvement has been obviously something other than what is represented, and other than what the obvious opponents claimed.
So, now while pretending to back one faction it comes out we've been grooming dissidents. No telling how that tale unfolds. We'll never know the real deal.
What, the big threat to Egypt's guy is to do what?, or we'll cut off AID? WTF? Why the aid to begin with?
How about we stay out of it forever. If we continue to arm regions over there it will continue to be trouble. I disagree with those who refuse to see that we have made terrorists and their supporters richer and more dangerous over the years. I disagree with those who underplay the role of mosques and imams here and elsewhere in the plots and murderous activities too.
Basically quit kissing ass, quit throwing money at lunatic dictators or any country. And quit pretending we can set up a perfect government among people we don't even understand, especially when our own government has run so far amok.
Government is supposed to set a structure for people to pursue their own lives as they see fit, and to prevent them from interfering with the rights of others. Around the world they have tended to do just the opposite, and in the name of all that is holy. It obviously does not work well under the typical framework of government involving itself in all facets of life here or elsewhere. I'd think that is obvious. It is like one group of bullies taking charge under guise of protecting you from less powerful bullies rather than just shutting down the bully groups.
the end
I will say that my country's insistence on policies I find bizarre may be finally proving to be the scam I think they are and have been for a long time. All the mid-east N. Africa Israeli involvement has been obviously something other than what is represented, and other than what the obvious opponents claimed.
So, now while pretending to back one faction it comes out we've been grooming dissidents. No telling how that tale unfolds. We'll never know the real deal.
What, the big threat to Egypt's guy is to do what?, or we'll cut off AID? WTF? Why the aid to begin with?
How about we stay out of it forever. If we continue to arm regions over there it will continue to be trouble. I disagree with those who refuse to see that we have made terrorists and their supporters richer and more dangerous over the years. I disagree with those who underplay the role of mosques and imams here and elsewhere in the plots and murderous activities too.
Basically quit kissing ass, quit throwing money at lunatic dictators or any country. And quit pretending we can set up a perfect government among people we don't even understand, especially when our own government has run so far amok.
Government is supposed to set a structure for people to pursue their own lives as they see fit, and to prevent them from interfering with the rights of others. Around the world they have tended to do just the opposite, and in the name of all that is holy. It obviously does not work well under the typical framework of government involving itself in all facets of life here or elsewhere. I'd think that is obvious. It is like one group of bullies taking charge under guise of protecting you from less powerful bullies rather than just shutting down the bully groups.
the end
Sometimes I Wonder...
-if people really have reason to hate and/or love me, or do I just imagine that they imagine that they do
-if I will ever grow up, live a reasonable life, be happy and get over whatever might kill mood
-if self proclaimed leaders honestly believe people need or want them to run their lives
-if it has to be that damned complicated
-why I feel compelled and pulled toward directions which probably will still leave me odd man out
-if bears and other animals will figure out that they have more rights than people and that if they wanted they could take us all out. First send in waves of squirrels and other rodents, then raccoons, then coyotes, working their way up to cattle, lions, tigers, and bears. Good thing they have as little sense as they do manners
-what animals think of people who think they are one of the bear clan, or one with the wolves or dolphins, or think they are lawyers and spokespeople for the animal kingdom
-if animals think they are part of a kingdom
-if horses resent the advent of the automobile, or if they felt relief when their services became entertainment rather than necessity
-if cops don't feel just a little weird when they hide behind things so they can catch a speeder rather than place themselves in plain view so people will automatically behave better
-if dolphins consider the other dolphins that perform for humans to be sell outs giving their race a bad name
-what's next. It feels like something different is just around the corner
-if I will ever grow up, live a reasonable life, be happy and get over whatever might kill mood
-if self proclaimed leaders honestly believe people need or want them to run their lives
-if it has to be that damned complicated
-why I feel compelled and pulled toward directions which probably will still leave me odd man out
-if bears and other animals will figure out that they have more rights than people and that if they wanted they could take us all out. First send in waves of squirrels and other rodents, then raccoons, then coyotes, working their way up to cattle, lions, tigers, and bears. Good thing they have as little sense as they do manners
-what animals think of people who think they are one of the bear clan, or one with the wolves or dolphins, or think they are lawyers and spokespeople for the animal kingdom
-if animals think they are part of a kingdom
-if horses resent the advent of the automobile, or if they felt relief when their services became entertainment rather than necessity
-if cops don't feel just a little weird when they hide behind things so they can catch a speeder rather than place themselves in plain view so people will automatically behave better
-if dolphins consider the other dolphins that perform for humans to be sell outs giving their race a bad name
-what's next. It feels like something different is just around the corner
Friday, January 28, 2011
Benefits of Owning Nada in California
No need to go into the ever growing number of ever narrower hoops through which business owners must jump to stay in operation out here. They are leaving the state in record numbers. I suspect Tennessee, Texas and the South will benefit if they refrain from following the misguided left coast policies.
Here's the latest on power companies. It is a pure case of damned if you do and damned if you don't. Not sure how it ought to be done, but when companies can shift back and forth from rules of market and nature to rules of bureaucracy, monopoly and government mandate as it suits them, there is bound to be a peculiar dynamic.
OK. Due to the incessant brainwashing that "we must conserve energy. Energy use is bad and causes climate change here and on Venus and Mars, and Saturn", and the fact that the place is not growing (as far as new building and such goes), people conserved, put up solar panels and used less electric power.
In order to penalize peak hour usage they installed smart meters which automatically charge you more per unit if, according to some arbitrary measure (unknown to homeowners), you use power during a peak period of the day. It matters not if you use no power any other time. You pay whatever rate per unit the smart meter decides it wants to charge at that given time. It may be triple the base rate.
Now, they have already been charging on a graduated, and hard to decipher scale. This is based on volume of power used in a month. If you run almost nothing, you get the cheap per unit rate. Then it jumps up a notch if you use above that mark--an extremely unrealistically low mark. That means you pay the higher rate for all the power you used, Of course the smart meter might decide the little bit you used last tuesday evening ought to be billed at a higher rate.
OK, you say, so this is all good for the environment and people should conserve.
Aha! You haven't heard the rest of the story.
Because people used less power, which left the system with unused surplus of capacity, they want to raise the rates across the board. You see, they didn't get the revenue they would have received had people not conserved, gone to solar, etc. as they were encouraged and begged to do. Therefore they need a rate increase to fund the unneeded additional infrastructure that SDGE wants to build, and get paid to maintain. The stuff that goes through high risk fire districts, Indian burial grounds and down to Mexico.
But wait! There's more. Due to the uncommonly poor market the last couple of years the pension fund investments have lagged behind expectations, so they want to tack on a surcharge of 7% or so (depending which power company in Ca--they're all trying this) to pay the pensions so the company won't have to sweat it themselves. Hey, it's not our fault, they reason, it was a down market.
On one hand they want to reap the benefits of the profits which are indicative of a free market, on the other they want mandated rate boosts and construction projects requiring eminent domain land confiscation which are the stuff of government bureaucracy. Whether it makes sense to the state or region, or not.
OK, so they'll charge you an arm and a leg for using electricity, and take either your first born child or your left nut if you don't use much electricity. Arnold's utility commission rubber stamped the penalties for usage in the name of being green. And no doubt, unless Brown is more of a man than I think, they'll rubber stamp further penalties in the name of The Future of California.
They sometimes use that phrase, "The Future of California" when no statement of fact or reason could possibly support what they want to do.
I'm told that Brown's previous run as governor resulted in a freeze on highway construction, so there are too few roads to get anywhere fast in this state. It is kind of bizarre. I-5. That is about it north and south, for the most part in the way of big highways. The Fifteen runs a little way and it is mostly nuts as well. Overloaded.
I circumvented a lot of it (I-5) on my way down from Seattle, but believe me, it was because I was willing to spend extra hours on lonely roads going around in circles. It was worth it. "The Five" is populated by drivers who do not value their life or yours, and who have no idea what lane usage is about. It is an improvement over some Miami roads---at least very few drivers here think the shoulder is actually a passing lane. In Miami the shoulder often gets as backed up as the rest. Here they have their own special tricks.
It is a pain, that road. Pretty sure Brown thinks we'll all learn to like riding bikes and that somehow electric cars will go far enough and the power for them will right there at your smart wall socket. And of course everyone can pay 50 grand or so for a new car that goes 100 miles on a charge.
I'm hoping Brown will decide he has no one to please, will fire Ahnold's utility commission and go to work on some of this utility and union corruption. It could happen. He's recalled half the state paid cell phones and cars. I have to say, I do like that. They give elected representatives and all kinds of crazy people state cars.
A symbolic gesture but anything that begins to wet down the arrogance of government employees is needed at this point. The place is teetering on bankruptcy.
If you read this far, bravo for you. I'll get to the punch line.
The person being rewarded in all this is me. If I owned property, had a utility bill, or made enough money to be a business on the radar, I'd be screwed. As it is, I can leave whenever I want. I use as little power as I can because I pay a set rate per month to the landlord. Should that go up too much, I guess I'd have to run. I hope it won't happen. I do all I can to make their lives easier in regard to having a tenant--paint the porch, fix the leak, use water sparingly, etc.
With sunrise powerlink likely to come through here, property is very hard to sell, especially because the market is already not so good.
The people least punished are illegals, and the few like me---who have a unique, cheap living situation, no kids to care for, no business, no employees, no real estate, no debt. Lawyers do well here, but that's another story.
In general the sort of people who make a community stable and help it thrive are not treated well. The public employees and their unions think that is all just fine, but they are now crying the blues because the rest of the people can't support them in the manner to which they've become accustomed. They didn't mind making more than the average private sector employee, and getting a pension which few private taxpayers ever receive. They didn't mind making everyone else suffer. Now they are outraged. They work for the government therefore they are better than those who do not.
Businesses are fleeing. There aren't enough people to squeeze to pay for all the public employees and agencies. Or so it appears. City after city is far in debt. But, like the rest of the country, they act like it happened through no fault of their own. It's all due to "the economy" and because taxes aren't high enough.
Maybe I'm smarter than I thought. I can only sympathize with the good stable people who built this place and who built the businesses here. I've done none of that so I do not have their problems. They get the whipping, while my main worry is the price of fuel.
Such a nice place, really. I guess people must collectively feel guilty or simply go insane in idyllic settings. There is no reason to make a place like this that difficult for human endeavor.
Maybe instead of the age of Aquarius, we are entering the age of misanthropy. An odd form of cannibalism really.
Here's the latest on power companies. It is a pure case of damned if you do and damned if you don't. Not sure how it ought to be done, but when companies can shift back and forth from rules of market and nature to rules of bureaucracy, monopoly and government mandate as it suits them, there is bound to be a peculiar dynamic.
OK. Due to the incessant brainwashing that "we must conserve energy. Energy use is bad and causes climate change here and on Venus and Mars, and Saturn", and the fact that the place is not growing (as far as new building and such goes), people conserved, put up solar panels and used less electric power.
In order to penalize peak hour usage they installed smart meters which automatically charge you more per unit if, according to some arbitrary measure (unknown to homeowners), you use power during a peak period of the day. It matters not if you use no power any other time. You pay whatever rate per unit the smart meter decides it wants to charge at that given time. It may be triple the base rate.
Now, they have already been charging on a graduated, and hard to decipher scale. This is based on volume of power used in a month. If you run almost nothing, you get the cheap per unit rate. Then it jumps up a notch if you use above that mark--an extremely unrealistically low mark. That means you pay the higher rate for all the power you used, Of course the smart meter might decide the little bit you used last tuesday evening ought to be billed at a higher rate.
OK, you say, so this is all good for the environment and people should conserve.
Aha! You haven't heard the rest of the story.
Because people used less power, which left the system with unused surplus of capacity, they want to raise the rates across the board. You see, they didn't get the revenue they would have received had people not conserved, gone to solar, etc. as they were encouraged and begged to do. Therefore they need a rate increase to fund the unneeded additional infrastructure that SDGE wants to build, and get paid to maintain. The stuff that goes through high risk fire districts, Indian burial grounds and down to Mexico.
But wait! There's more. Due to the uncommonly poor market the last couple of years the pension fund investments have lagged behind expectations, so they want to tack on a surcharge of 7% or so (depending which power company in Ca--they're all trying this) to pay the pensions so the company won't have to sweat it themselves. Hey, it's not our fault, they reason, it was a down market.
On one hand they want to reap the benefits of the profits which are indicative of a free market, on the other they want mandated rate boosts and construction projects requiring eminent domain land confiscation which are the stuff of government bureaucracy. Whether it makes sense to the state or region, or not.
OK, so they'll charge you an arm and a leg for using electricity, and take either your first born child or your left nut if you don't use much electricity. Arnold's utility commission rubber stamped the penalties for usage in the name of being green. And no doubt, unless Brown is more of a man than I think, they'll rubber stamp further penalties in the name of The Future of California.
They sometimes use that phrase, "The Future of California" when no statement of fact or reason could possibly support what they want to do.
I'm told that Brown's previous run as governor resulted in a freeze on highway construction, so there are too few roads to get anywhere fast in this state. It is kind of bizarre. I-5. That is about it north and south, for the most part in the way of big highways. The Fifteen runs a little way and it is mostly nuts as well. Overloaded.
I circumvented a lot of it (I-5) on my way down from Seattle, but believe me, it was because I was willing to spend extra hours on lonely roads going around in circles. It was worth it. "The Five" is populated by drivers who do not value their life or yours, and who have no idea what lane usage is about. It is an improvement over some Miami roads---at least very few drivers here think the shoulder is actually a passing lane. In Miami the shoulder often gets as backed up as the rest. Here they have their own special tricks.
It is a pain, that road. Pretty sure Brown thinks we'll all learn to like riding bikes and that somehow electric cars will go far enough and the power for them will right there at your smart wall socket. And of course everyone can pay 50 grand or so for a new car that goes 100 miles on a charge.
I'm hoping Brown will decide he has no one to please, will fire Ahnold's utility commission and go to work on some of this utility and union corruption. It could happen. He's recalled half the state paid cell phones and cars. I have to say, I do like that. They give elected representatives and all kinds of crazy people state cars.
A symbolic gesture but anything that begins to wet down the arrogance of government employees is needed at this point. The place is teetering on bankruptcy.
If you read this far, bravo for you. I'll get to the punch line.
The person being rewarded in all this is me. If I owned property, had a utility bill, or made enough money to be a business on the radar, I'd be screwed. As it is, I can leave whenever I want. I use as little power as I can because I pay a set rate per month to the landlord. Should that go up too much, I guess I'd have to run. I hope it won't happen. I do all I can to make their lives easier in regard to having a tenant--paint the porch, fix the leak, use water sparingly, etc.
With sunrise powerlink likely to come through here, property is very hard to sell, especially because the market is already not so good.
The people least punished are illegals, and the few like me---who have a unique, cheap living situation, no kids to care for, no business, no employees, no real estate, no debt. Lawyers do well here, but that's another story.
In general the sort of people who make a community stable and help it thrive are not treated well. The public employees and their unions think that is all just fine, but they are now crying the blues because the rest of the people can't support them in the manner to which they've become accustomed. They didn't mind making more than the average private sector employee, and getting a pension which few private taxpayers ever receive. They didn't mind making everyone else suffer. Now they are outraged. They work for the government therefore they are better than those who do not.
Businesses are fleeing. There aren't enough people to squeeze to pay for all the public employees and agencies. Or so it appears. City after city is far in debt. But, like the rest of the country, they act like it happened through no fault of their own. It's all due to "the economy" and because taxes aren't high enough.
Maybe I'm smarter than I thought. I can only sympathize with the good stable people who built this place and who built the businesses here. I've done none of that so I do not have their problems. They get the whipping, while my main worry is the price of fuel.
Such a nice place, really. I guess people must collectively feel guilty or simply go insane in idyllic settings. There is no reason to make a place like this that difficult for human endeavor.
Maybe instead of the age of Aquarius, we are entering the age of misanthropy. An odd form of cannibalism really.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Tales From The Tour
I forgot I even did this. This was made while staying at my friends' place in San Diego after leg one of the Tour. That was more than two years ago. About two and a half.
Tonight I was checking through some of the posted video I took when I decided to change my life, leave Memphis and end up wherever. It still hurts to see the old car. I really liked that vehicle--more than one should like a mere machine. It came to such an unfair and senseless demise.
Oh well, this one is good, but I will never ever again get a car with a light color interior. Give me another 100k and I'll worry about the next tour mobile.
They have skunks in Pt Loma. Considering it is about the coolest place in the USA, I guess they need something to keep out the riffraff.
This, however is a documentary about alien conspiracy.
This is one of the first times I've reviewed photos or video from the past and felt good. What a blessing or stroke of good fortune that I have been able to do this. The alternative that loomed was far, far darker.
Remembering how my friends helped me find the cottage and move in. If you knew, really, where I come from inside, you'd know this is a major step along the way. This was two years ago this past sept 15 or so.
I thought I'd just throw a few up here. I can't get into that account on youtube any more because they don't remember my email. It sucks but I can't remember the password and then they don't even send it to my right email to reset. That sucks big time.
There's that blue Subaru. It was one of those vehicles that somehow everything was just right on it. One in a million I guess, but it couldn't see things that I couldn't see. I guess we both could have been history. OK. If I keep going I'll get on an El Cajon Highway Patrol rant, and that will lead to rant about law enforcement in general, and it will go from there.
Tonight I was checking through some of the posted video I took when I decided to change my life, leave Memphis and end up wherever. It still hurts to see the old car. I really liked that vehicle--more than one should like a mere machine. It came to such an unfair and senseless demise.
Oh well, this one is good, but I will never ever again get a car with a light color interior. Give me another 100k and I'll worry about the next tour mobile.
They have skunks in Pt Loma. Considering it is about the coolest place in the USA, I guess they need something to keep out the riffraff.
This, however is a documentary about alien conspiracy.
This is one of the first times I've reviewed photos or video from the past and felt good. What a blessing or stroke of good fortune that I have been able to do this. The alternative that loomed was far, far darker.
Remembering how my friends helped me find the cottage and move in. If you knew, really, where I come from inside, you'd know this is a major step along the way. This was two years ago this past sept 15 or so.
I thought I'd just throw a few up here. I can't get into that account on youtube any more because they don't remember my email. It sucks but I can't remember the password and then they don't even send it to my right email to reset. That sucks big time.
There's that blue Subaru. It was one of those vehicles that somehow everything was just right on it. One in a million I guess, but it couldn't see things that I couldn't see. I guess we both could have been history. OK. If I keep going I'll get on an El Cajon Highway Patrol rant, and that will lead to rant about law enforcement in general, and it will go from there.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Brilliant Tax Idea
It could be the zeitgeist or maybe rampant schadenfreude is to blame, but I have noticed in my life that when you are married or heavily attached, the world shows you (and I'm speaking of males here because I am not sure if it holds as well for females), OK the world shows you 9 times more love than when you are alone and unaffiliated.
Therefore, I think married guys should be taxed at twice the rate. Just temporarily, of course, until we "win the future", or get out of debt, or whatever it is that trips your trigger. Everyone knows it is true. Get a girlfriend or wife and women throw themselves at you. Everyone is your friend.
Find yourself out in the cold and you're lucky if you catch a glimpse of any of those chicks as they run away like the wind. Doesn't seem fair does it? And we, of course, are all about fair. That's why we hate the rich. They should suffer too. Exactly.
So, I think it only fair to impose a heavy marriage tax, unless you can prove that your wife beats you and engages in abuse that you don't enjoy.
Guys who get caught having affairs but don't get kicked out and raked over the coals financially, (Bill Clinton for example), should have to pay a heavy penalty. They have been enjoying extra helpings while some get none at all. Unfair as all get out.
This kind of out-of-the-box thinking is what They've been asking for. To find such insights, sometimes you have to go to those who spend way too much time out of the box.
I'd explore the nuances of having skin in the game, but maybe this is enough for now. Great Idea, I think. It's for the greater good, a way to give back, what you can do for your country.
Therefore, I think married guys should be taxed at twice the rate. Just temporarily, of course, until we "win the future", or get out of debt, or whatever it is that trips your trigger. Everyone knows it is true. Get a girlfriend or wife and women throw themselves at you. Everyone is your friend.
Find yourself out in the cold and you're lucky if you catch a glimpse of any of those chicks as they run away like the wind. Doesn't seem fair does it? And we, of course, are all about fair. That's why we hate the rich. They should suffer too. Exactly.
So, I think it only fair to impose a heavy marriage tax, unless you can prove that your wife beats you and engages in abuse that you don't enjoy.
Guys who get caught having affairs but don't get kicked out and raked over the coals financially, (Bill Clinton for example), should have to pay a heavy penalty. They have been enjoying extra helpings while some get none at all. Unfair as all get out.
This kind of out-of-the-box thinking is what They've been asking for. To find such insights, sometimes you have to go to those who spend way too much time out of the box.
I'd explore the nuances of having skin in the game, but maybe this is enough for now. Great Idea, I think. It's for the greater good, a way to give back, what you can do for your country.
If Only I Could Tell The Truth
Certain subjects get little play in what I write here. Why I do write here is a mystery, other than I like to do it. I guess that is reason enough.
But I refrain from laying down many of the thoughts I find most interesting. Once again, I blame women for that. Only because I like them. It's one thing to hope for an anonymous contingent of females in your miniscule audience, but another when people know you.
It was only after I straightened out that I realized what kind of hassles women go through. I never fully recognized that many of them were unaware of their power over all things male prior to clearing my head for awhile. It was at that point that I found out that women do have feelings, even if they process them in very mysterious ways. So, I did the wise thing and hooked up with the exception to that rule. Psychosis and dimwittedness know no gender barriers. It is not the exclusive territory of males. That was a depressing discovery.
Eventually I figured out that I know nothing which is useable in respect to figuring out the issue. Can't rescue them and can't be rescued. That is probably all I need to know. It is sad because I could use rescuing most of the time. But it is just not a thing that can actually happen in any meaningful way.
This came abut because I happened to remember some very stupid things I did once upon a time. No one but me to blame. Unkind and misguided. I regret the things that caused someone pain more than any of the other types of mistakes. I've done my best to make good on those things in one way or another. I suspect the karma scale is swinging a little bit closer to balance or even to the good.
Crazy critters are making a racket pitter pattering around the outside of this cottage. Some or all of it is the raccoon. Better that than rats. That sucker just doesn't want to give up on the garbage can. I have to devise something that will punch him in the nose when he gets too rambunctious in attempting to open it. That bungee cord is strong and tight so the lid is not coming off.
Maybe I should dig a really deep hole beside the can and make a fake ground over it. Like trapping a lion or whatever they dig such pits to trap. I'll put tar or maybe a battery of mouse traps down there. Nothing to injure him too bad. Just something to ruin his day and encourage him to go next door and bother the horses and mules.
But I refrain from laying down many of the thoughts I find most interesting. Once again, I blame women for that. Only because I like them. It's one thing to hope for an anonymous contingent of females in your miniscule audience, but another when people know you.
It was only after I straightened out that I realized what kind of hassles women go through. I never fully recognized that many of them were unaware of their power over all things male prior to clearing my head for awhile. It was at that point that I found out that women do have feelings, even if they process them in very mysterious ways. So, I did the wise thing and hooked up with the exception to that rule. Psychosis and dimwittedness know no gender barriers. It is not the exclusive territory of males. That was a depressing discovery.
Eventually I figured out that I know nothing which is useable in respect to figuring out the issue. Can't rescue them and can't be rescued. That is probably all I need to know. It is sad because I could use rescuing most of the time. But it is just not a thing that can actually happen in any meaningful way.
This came abut because I happened to remember some very stupid things I did once upon a time. No one but me to blame. Unkind and misguided. I regret the things that caused someone pain more than any of the other types of mistakes. I've done my best to make good on those things in one way or another. I suspect the karma scale is swinging a little bit closer to balance or even to the good.
Crazy critters are making a racket pitter pattering around the outside of this cottage. Some or all of it is the raccoon. Better that than rats. That sucker just doesn't want to give up on the garbage can. I have to devise something that will punch him in the nose when he gets too rambunctious in attempting to open it. That bungee cord is strong and tight so the lid is not coming off.
Maybe I should dig a really deep hole beside the can and make a fake ground over it. Like trapping a lion or whatever they dig such pits to trap. I'll put tar or maybe a battery of mouse traps down there. Nothing to injure him too bad. Just something to ruin his day and encourage him to go next door and bother the horses and mules.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
OK. No Surprises in SOU spectacle
Far be it from me to actually translate the State of Union spectacle. Right. I will refrain just because. I managed to catch most of it on the radio. Certain language and assertions may have triggered red flags, but everyone else can hear it and think what they will.
What surprised me was that there were two broadcast rebuttals, neither of which did I hear. I stand by my view that it is a mistake to jump into rebuttal mode. It often does more harm to your case than not. And the actual case may have been worthy.
Sometimes I wonder if they pay people to pretend to be opponents. Savvy opponents wouldn't be that dumb, would they?
Anyway, from the bits I heard, it sounded like the rebuttal wasn't a rebuttal at all, but a critical assessment of administration performance. That is different than actually rebutting the speech itself.
To me it is telling that the alleged opposition doesn't touch certain issues. Those would be things which feed specific interests, which in turn feed campaigns.
Since I didn't hear the two counter point dissertations, I can't say for sure that no one questioned the idea that government controlling research isn't a recipe for corruption And it is not something that has been done on a grand scale forever, as stated in the speech. Only for a long, long time, usually with some veil of pretense to justify it. This speech stretched the reasoning to say it was because companies can't afford R and D. That's how you beat the competition. Why do you think real progress hasn't been made in certain key areas? If R&D is a federal duty, then only certain firms benefit, and only certain interests control it.
OK. That's as close as I get to that.
Fortunately I heard, but did not see. I cannot take watching those charlatans pose and posture. Bloated elitists who have the gall to discuss the obesity of the masses and pretend they give a damn about real lives of the less corrupt. Just accidentally bump into one of them as they exit their limo.
What a joke. Let's all sit together now that we aren't in the majority and can't march through DC with our gigantic gavel taunting those who oppose us. No hypocrisy there.
What surprised me was that there were two broadcast rebuttals, neither of which did I hear. I stand by my view that it is a mistake to jump into rebuttal mode. It often does more harm to your case than not. And the actual case may have been worthy.
Sometimes I wonder if they pay people to pretend to be opponents. Savvy opponents wouldn't be that dumb, would they?
Anyway, from the bits I heard, it sounded like the rebuttal wasn't a rebuttal at all, but a critical assessment of administration performance. That is different than actually rebutting the speech itself.
To me it is telling that the alleged opposition doesn't touch certain issues. Those would be things which feed specific interests, which in turn feed campaigns.
Since I didn't hear the two counter point dissertations, I can't say for sure that no one questioned the idea that government controlling research isn't a recipe for corruption And it is not something that has been done on a grand scale forever, as stated in the speech. Only for a long, long time, usually with some veil of pretense to justify it. This speech stretched the reasoning to say it was because companies can't afford R and D. That's how you beat the competition. Why do you think real progress hasn't been made in certain key areas? If R&D is a federal duty, then only certain firms benefit, and only certain interests control it.
OK. That's as close as I get to that.
Fortunately I heard, but did not see. I cannot take watching those charlatans pose and posture. Bloated elitists who have the gall to discuss the obesity of the masses and pretend they give a damn about real lives of the less corrupt. Just accidentally bump into one of them as they exit their limo.
What a joke. Let's all sit together now that we aren't in the majority and can't march through DC with our gigantic gavel taunting those who oppose us. No hypocrisy there.
Monday, January 24, 2011
State of the Union; the real deal
Because most Americans are believed, by elected officials, to live in some other country, or to have no clue what their lives are like should they happen to live in the USA, we have a tradition called "The State of the Union Address". It is a speech delivered by the president which usually begins, "My detestable subjects, madam/ and/ or Mr Speaker, disgusting members of Congress, Mom, Dad, those who own a piece of me..."
Of course I have taken the liberty of decoding the actual language used. They traditionally go on to say things like:
"I am doing one hell of a great job, and any hint of discourse to the contrary is the result of rumors spread by the criminally insane. Trust me, I'm a lawyer, or part of a large political dynasty.
Anything I've screwed up is actually the fault of either my predecessor or those who oppose me. They are all terrible people because the don't support me, and by definition, that means they are very bad.
Never fear because I, and my political allies, will save you. From yourselves if need be. We know best, trust us.
Anything that may seem problematic and created by our manipulation of markets, labor, resources, and school lunch is actually not a problem that is anyone's fault. It just dropped out of the sky.
Like the national debt. Just dropped out of the sky. Probably due to global warming.
But we will fix it We all have to do our part, which means you will suffer, a lot, while we enjoy good pensions, healthcare, the best personal jets in the world, and a few other perks that naturally are due us because we are better than you.
So, everything is dandy, and what isn't will be much better when you quit getting in the way. We may need a few more dollars so pony up cheerfully, like a true patriot."
That's pretty much how it goes, and how the address will go on Tuesday. It will be a self aggrandizing piece of propaganda, which is what those addresses have been for a long time, generally speaking.
Here's the real deal:
State of the Union:
We owe a lot of money.
We spend more than we take in.
Food and gas costs keep rising.
It is tough to get a decent or indecent job for a lot of people. Tons are unemployed.
Plenty of people do not really want jobs, or they want a jobs but only as a place to hang out, complain, and sleep--for pay. So the jobless, and vocal about it, are not 100% well meaning decent people. Many are. Just making sure we include at least 50% of the Memphis work force here. I know, it sounds like I was describing many government employees, but I am sticking to the unemployed.
Don't take this to mean there aren't plenty of people in dire straits who are smart. ambitious, competent and willing. There are. That is the state of things.
This is what is known as sacrifice. Why, will someday be revealed. For now, it is asserted by the ruling class that those who seek government assistance are the latter sort rather than the Memphis sort. But the truth is the opposite.
We manage to work deals with China which pretend to be free trade but which are really not. That helps keep you out of work.
We continue to fight wars which have unclear objectives, and even those who support them give varying justifications and versions of how the efforts are going.
We're making more laws as fast as we can and complicating the hell of them so it is likely that 90% of the country has violated some regulation without knowing it.
Most places in this country are very nice and would do fine without much outside advice, regulation or help.
You can't be left with thoughts like that or you might not be scared enough to put up with things that serve to keep the right people in charge, and in luxury.
If everyone could worry about science they in no way really understand, mind the business and birthing choices of others, get worked up about do or don't ask, do or don't tell in the military, even though we no longer have a specific definition of what the military is for, then we wouldn't worry about any of the stuff that is at the heart of why we find mobility more difficult, and why food costs us more than dope.
And we wouldn't wonder how we so quickly became accustomed to proving our innocence when crossing certain state lines, flying, or any number of other life activities.
Good night and good day to you all.
====
That about covers the highlights.
The very short version of The Real Deal State of the Union Speech, as delivered by sitting presidents (actually standing--behind a podium) is this:
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
You may have noticed, I am not Obama bashing or making comments about the tearful speaker of the House, or much else on the specific individual charlatan level. It is useless to do this, and none of them acts alone. I do find the hypocrisy of Letterman liberals to be getting a little out of hand, but I guess that is how it goes. I do not see a true opposition party. People get elected by people who think the insanity will be slowed and we end up with everyone wanting to hold hands, cry, be bi-partisan, etc.
Bi-partisan is a scam. If they were on the same page, why not just be one big happy official state party? In a way they already are. I'll settle for the pretense that they are inspired by differing philosophies. Crazy and crazier. Besides the less they get along, the less damage they can do. Viva gridlock!
It is a money making joke. And, apparently, a fun way of life.
Personally, I'd rather worship ancient Greek or Roman or Nordic gods than offer the obeisance these erroneously labeled public servants expect and demand.
Lots of people do not care or consider what the state of the union is. Some people think it is in good condition and some think it is bad shape. There are many who have a particular view of the condition but base the view on almost opposite philosophies.
I, for example, may think the place is becoming a tyrannical police state and is therefore going to heck in a hand basket. There are those who feel it is going to heck in a hand basket because it is not regulated enough. There you have it.
It only makes sense to get emotional over your own world. Try to do the right thing in relation to the larger world around you, recognizing that most of what goes on there is beyond your control. That's my theory. Every now and then I practice it.
So the state of the union address is just so much theater, and a waste of tax money.
==============
Almost forgot--they have rebuttal state of the union from whichever party doesn't hold the presidency. Of course this is all confined to republican or democrat, as if they encompass the only reasonable choices.
The rebuttal just makes that party look stupid and nitpicking. It cheers on their die hard advocates but pretty much galvanizes their opposition.
I'm not sure when the rebuttal routine started, but I don't think they always did it. Maybe they did and I am unaware of it.
It is as big a waste as the regular State of the Union propaganda circus.
All of this still reinforces the implication that these people are royalty and we are their subjects. Their will be much pomp and circumstance. t will be as if a king is issuing a royal decree.
I despise monarchy and all the vestiges of it that we have retained, including the playing of "Hail to the Chief". Hail this you arrogant bastards!
Maybe they should play "I'm a Loser" by the Beatles. Or Inagodadavida.
So, the rebuttal is another waste of time and money. Another bit of dumb propaganda. What is worse is that the times I sort of agree with any republican giving a rebuttal, they come off like complete goof balls. It is like getting the worst possible spokesman to sell a good idea. A bad delivery can kill it and republicans take the cake on bad delivery.
Democrats have to get credit for great delivery of really abusive and wrong ideas. But it sounds good. No one considers whose money is being used and whose life is being manipulated. Democrats lie admirably. Really, do you believe Obama and Hilary wake up every day and their first thought is "How can I make the lives of the American people better?" Both of them claimed that is what they do.
Personally, I wish they would all wake up and say "How can I get another 2000 unnecessary laws off the books today, and reign in the power of governmental and regulatory agencies?"
The Union is in a state of suspended reality.
Of course I have taken the liberty of decoding the actual language used. They traditionally go on to say things like:
"I am doing one hell of a great job, and any hint of discourse to the contrary is the result of rumors spread by the criminally insane. Trust me, I'm a lawyer, or part of a large political dynasty.
Anything I've screwed up is actually the fault of either my predecessor or those who oppose me. They are all terrible people because the don't support me, and by definition, that means they are very bad.
Never fear because I, and my political allies, will save you. From yourselves if need be. We know best, trust us.
Anything that may seem problematic and created by our manipulation of markets, labor, resources, and school lunch is actually not a problem that is anyone's fault. It just dropped out of the sky.
Like the national debt. Just dropped out of the sky. Probably due to global warming.
But we will fix it We all have to do our part, which means you will suffer, a lot, while we enjoy good pensions, healthcare, the best personal jets in the world, and a few other perks that naturally are due us because we are better than you.
So, everything is dandy, and what isn't will be much better when you quit getting in the way. We may need a few more dollars so pony up cheerfully, like a true patriot."
That's pretty much how it goes, and how the address will go on Tuesday. It will be a self aggrandizing piece of propaganda, which is what those addresses have been for a long time, generally speaking.
Here's the real deal:
State of the Union:
We owe a lot of money.
We spend more than we take in.
Food and gas costs keep rising.
It is tough to get a decent or indecent job for a lot of people. Tons are unemployed.
Plenty of people do not really want jobs, or they want a jobs but only as a place to hang out, complain, and sleep--for pay. So the jobless, and vocal about it, are not 100% well meaning decent people. Many are. Just making sure we include at least 50% of the Memphis work force here. I know, it sounds like I was describing many government employees, but I am sticking to the unemployed.
Don't take this to mean there aren't plenty of people in dire straits who are smart. ambitious, competent and willing. There are. That is the state of things.
This is what is known as sacrifice. Why, will someday be revealed. For now, it is asserted by the ruling class that those who seek government assistance are the latter sort rather than the Memphis sort. But the truth is the opposite.
We manage to work deals with China which pretend to be free trade but which are really not. That helps keep you out of work.
We continue to fight wars which have unclear objectives, and even those who support them give varying justifications and versions of how the efforts are going.
We're making more laws as fast as we can and complicating the hell of them so it is likely that 90% of the country has violated some regulation without knowing it.
Most places in this country are very nice and would do fine without much outside advice, regulation or help.
You can't be left with thoughts like that or you might not be scared enough to put up with things that serve to keep the right people in charge, and in luxury.
If everyone could worry about science they in no way really understand, mind the business and birthing choices of others, get worked up about do or don't ask, do or don't tell in the military, even though we no longer have a specific definition of what the military is for, then we wouldn't worry about any of the stuff that is at the heart of why we find mobility more difficult, and why food costs us more than dope.
And we wouldn't wonder how we so quickly became accustomed to proving our innocence when crossing certain state lines, flying, or any number of other life activities.
Good night and good day to you all.
====
That about covers the highlights.
The very short version of The Real Deal State of the Union Speech, as delivered by sitting presidents (actually standing--behind a podium) is this:
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
You may have noticed, I am not Obama bashing or making comments about the tearful speaker of the House, or much else on the specific individual charlatan level. It is useless to do this, and none of them acts alone. I do find the hypocrisy of Letterman liberals to be getting a little out of hand, but I guess that is how it goes. I do not see a true opposition party. People get elected by people who think the insanity will be slowed and we end up with everyone wanting to hold hands, cry, be bi-partisan, etc.
Bi-partisan is a scam. If they were on the same page, why not just be one big happy official state party? In a way they already are. I'll settle for the pretense that they are inspired by differing philosophies. Crazy and crazier. Besides the less they get along, the less damage they can do. Viva gridlock!
It is a money making joke. And, apparently, a fun way of life.
Personally, I'd rather worship ancient Greek or Roman or Nordic gods than offer the obeisance these erroneously labeled public servants expect and demand.
Lots of people do not care or consider what the state of the union is. Some people think it is in good condition and some think it is bad shape. There are many who have a particular view of the condition but base the view on almost opposite philosophies.
I, for example, may think the place is becoming a tyrannical police state and is therefore going to heck in a hand basket. There are those who feel it is going to heck in a hand basket because it is not regulated enough. There you have it.
It only makes sense to get emotional over your own world. Try to do the right thing in relation to the larger world around you, recognizing that most of what goes on there is beyond your control. That's my theory. Every now and then I practice it.
So the state of the union address is just so much theater, and a waste of tax money.
==============
Almost forgot--they have rebuttal state of the union from whichever party doesn't hold the presidency. Of course this is all confined to republican or democrat, as if they encompass the only reasonable choices.
The rebuttal just makes that party look stupid and nitpicking. It cheers on their die hard advocates but pretty much galvanizes their opposition.
I'm not sure when the rebuttal routine started, but I don't think they always did it. Maybe they did and I am unaware of it.
It is as big a waste as the regular State of the Union propaganda circus.
All of this still reinforces the implication that these people are royalty and we are their subjects. Their will be much pomp and circumstance. t will be as if a king is issuing a royal decree.
I despise monarchy and all the vestiges of it that we have retained, including the playing of "Hail to the Chief". Hail this you arrogant bastards!
Maybe they should play "I'm a Loser" by the Beatles. Or Inagodadavida.
So, the rebuttal is another waste of time and money. Another bit of dumb propaganda. What is worse is that the times I sort of agree with any republican giving a rebuttal, they come off like complete goof balls. It is like getting the worst possible spokesman to sell a good idea. A bad delivery can kill it and republicans take the cake on bad delivery.
Democrats have to get credit for great delivery of really abusive and wrong ideas. But it sounds good. No one considers whose money is being used and whose life is being manipulated. Democrats lie admirably. Really, do you believe Obama and Hilary wake up every day and their first thought is "How can I make the lives of the American people better?" Both of them claimed that is what they do.
Personally, I wish they would all wake up and say "How can I get another 2000 unnecessary laws off the books today, and reign in the power of governmental and regulatory agencies?"
The Union is in a state of suspended reality.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Movie Lessons part 1: Twilight series
There is much to be learned from these movies.
One thing that should be stressed above all else: do not let your daughter date a vampire or werewolf it at all possible.
The trouble it will save her and the entire town is huge.
This series shows what happens when a dad is a cop and just wants his girl to like him. She runs amok with the undead; becomes a slutty tease specializing in shapeshifters and blood suckers, then plays victim when life gets strange.
I won't explain how or why I came to watch these flicks, but I will say the main girl character is any conscientious father's nightmare; any boyfriend's nightmare. Irresponsible, fickle, too stupid to follow instructions, nuts.
I rarely suggest people move to Jacksonville, Florida, but this chick seems to have that option and should take it. It would be a big favor to the Northwest.
It is hard to believe the cop-dad hasn't sensed something odd about her boyfriend, who has the complexion of a mime in full mime face.
The one cool thing about Bella, the crazy chick, is her truck. She has a cool older model truck. I don't even remember the make now because I was so busy yelling at her throughout the movie, or two.
So, if your daughter is nuts and hangs out with a guy whose face is white like mime paint, take action. If she hangs with the wolf people only, consider yourself lucky.
One thing that should be stressed above all else: do not let your daughter date a vampire or werewolf it at all possible.
The trouble it will save her and the entire town is huge.
This series shows what happens when a dad is a cop and just wants his girl to like him. She runs amok with the undead; becomes a slutty tease specializing in shapeshifters and blood suckers, then plays victim when life gets strange.
I won't explain how or why I came to watch these flicks, but I will say the main girl character is any conscientious father's nightmare; any boyfriend's nightmare. Irresponsible, fickle, too stupid to follow instructions, nuts.
I rarely suggest people move to Jacksonville, Florida, but this chick seems to have that option and should take it. It would be a big favor to the Northwest.
It is hard to believe the cop-dad hasn't sensed something odd about her boyfriend, who has the complexion of a mime in full mime face.
The one cool thing about Bella, the crazy chick, is her truck. She has a cool older model truck. I don't even remember the make now because I was so busy yelling at her throughout the movie, or two.
So, if your daughter is nuts and hangs out with a guy whose face is white like mime paint, take action. If she hangs with the wolf people only, consider yourself lucky.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Perhaps It Is The Zeitgeist To Blame
It is extremely easy to generate controversy without really saying anything. Take the two posts down issue; first it complains about usage of German and other borrowed words in English, then it justifies their use, while still chiding those who do it pretentiously.
In the middle there is a claim that the writer is better than everyone who practices such word usage. That is clearly a little pretense intended to let the reader know something.
Even so, more than one person seemed offended and even came back with thinly veiled attack.
He complained about foreign words inserted in literature and conversation, therefore he is an ignoramus who resents "big" words. The original complaint was somewhat mitigated, however we conclude he must now not like "big" words, like jumbo, or large, or grandisimo.
I'm not claiming not to be a dullard of sorts. Big words are a requirement if I am to carry on a conversation with my brother or his sons. I like them, so I suffer through.
My guess is that there is just a glimmer of the fighter in me, maybe the redneck. That results in expressing a desire to slap or punch rather than endure the pseudo intellectual, assumed superiority which is increasingly cultivated among some segments of our ever angrier populace.
It's the zeitgeist
Sometimes I'd be just as happy to punch someone as argue, even though they might punch me back harder. I take my chances.
However, I ought to add that I haven't punched anyone in decades. Not since high school--I don't think. There are periods of time which are too much of a blur and almost anything might have happened.
If schadenfreude rhymed with orange I would like it better. Since it does not refer to a fun sex act, as the sound of it indicates it should, I simply don't like it. Sue me.
In the public arena you could stir up a lot, if you had the platform, by saying something like "I'm gunning for his senate seat in the next election".
Or say something nice, or not, about Obama, or Rush Limbaugh. It wouldn't take much to get either side going. And it can be done without ever addressing an issue of any importance.
In the middle there is a claim that the writer is better than everyone who practices such word usage. That is clearly a little pretense intended to let the reader know something.
Even so, more than one person seemed offended and even came back with thinly veiled attack.
He complained about foreign words inserted in literature and conversation, therefore he is an ignoramus who resents "big" words. The original complaint was somewhat mitigated, however we conclude he must now not like "big" words, like jumbo, or large, or grandisimo.
I'm not claiming not to be a dullard of sorts. Big words are a requirement if I am to carry on a conversation with my brother or his sons. I like them, so I suffer through.
My guess is that there is just a glimmer of the fighter in me, maybe the redneck. That results in expressing a desire to slap or punch rather than endure the pseudo intellectual, assumed superiority which is increasingly cultivated among some segments of our ever angrier populace.
It's the zeitgeist
Sometimes I'd be just as happy to punch someone as argue, even though they might punch me back harder. I take my chances.
However, I ought to add that I haven't punched anyone in decades. Not since high school--I don't think. There are periods of time which are too much of a blur and almost anything might have happened.
If schadenfreude rhymed with orange I would like it better. Since it does not refer to a fun sex act, as the sound of it indicates it should, I simply don't like it. Sue me.
In the public arena you could stir up a lot, if you had the platform, by saying something like "I'm gunning for his senate seat in the next election".
Or say something nice, or not, about Obama, or Rush Limbaugh. It wouldn't take much to get either side going. And it can be done without ever addressing an issue of any importance.
Fun and Games With The People Behind the Curtain
me (in response to talk about supplying credit card digits to ipower, inc) :
That card has not been in use or my possession for two years or more. I never agreed to automatic renewal.
reply from ipower:
Hello,
Thank you for your reply.
I checked your account and noticed that it is past due. Hence, your account will not be renewed automatically.
I guess we've made progress, again. That's similar to what the guy on the phone said, and then I started receiving past due email notices. They can't send mail because I moved from the address they have for me.
I guess they concluded that without a credit card that works they can't just charge money at will. If that card were still operable, they might have charged money without mentioning it. Maybe they wouldn't have mentioned that they doubled or tripled their rate, either.
Oh well, far crazier things have happened. Every day.
That card has not been in use or my possession for two years or more. I never agreed to automatic renewal.
reply from ipower:
Hello,
Thank you for your reply.
I checked your account and noticed that it is past due. Hence, your account will not be renewed automatically.
I guess we've made progress, again. That's similar to what the guy on the phone said, and then I started receiving past due email notices. They can't send mail because I moved from the address they have for me.
I guess they concluded that without a credit card that works they can't just charge money at will. If that card were still operable, they might have charged money without mentioning it. Maybe they wouldn't have mentioned that they doubled or tripled their rate, either.
Oh well, far crazier things have happened. Every day.
Friday, January 21, 2011
A Couple of Words That Make Me Want To Slap People
There are more than just these, however, I get irked when people use:
--schadenfreude
--zeitgeist
I'm not too keen on the use of obscure latin in the middle of a sentence, or french inserted in an English paragraph. Usually I get over it.
But only outwardly, truth be known.
It is designed to show intelligence and higher learning, I'm sure. Not the attempt to elevate one's self through pretentious elitism. No, that is only how I view it.
That's because I know I am better than those people.
I guess there are times when a little bit of foreign contamination adds a little zip and gives what is being expressed a little more character. It can enhance the communication of a thought, I suppose. But it does so only very rarely, and almost never when the words schadenfreude or zeitgeist are bandied about. I stand firm on that. Sorry, I just don't like their use in english. That's all I have to say about that.
--schadenfreude
--zeitgeist
I'm not too keen on the use of obscure latin in the middle of a sentence, or french inserted in an English paragraph. Usually I get over it.
But only outwardly, truth be known.
It is designed to show intelligence and higher learning, I'm sure. Not the attempt to elevate one's self through pretentious elitism. No, that is only how I view it.
That's because I know I am better than those people.
I guess there are times when a little bit of foreign contamination adds a little zip and gives what is being expressed a little more character. It can enhance the communication of a thought, I suppose. But it does so only very rarely, and almost never when the words schadenfreude or zeitgeist are bandied about. I stand firm on that. Sorry, I just don't like their use in english. That's all I have to say about that.
Being From Narnia Is No Excuse
So, I have a running email battle with a web hosting outfit called ipower, or ipowerweb, not totally sure. They are kind of funny because you can send an email suggesting that they are criminals who eat babies and mate with their housepets, and they will come back with a message like, "Thank you for your interest in ipower. Your account is past due. We must confirm your identity to stop the automatic renewal of this account. Either we need the card used to open it, or we need you send us a copy of photo ID"
I wish I had kept those joke Elvis driver's licenses I had in Memphis. They sell them everywhere.
This account was done when I moved from Memphis. I never signed up for a revolving renewal program. The main thing saving me is whatever card I used is not longer functioning. Fortunately it was gone by the time I arrived out here, although I found out then how tough it is to kill a paid up credit card. I felt like a mouse in one of those sticky traps--the more I tried to shake them the more they wanted to stick to me.
I think it must be the same outsourced customer care people doing the ipower stuff as did the credit card. I'd be on the phone with the CC people, explaining, no, I don't want it, don't use it, I cut it to shreds. I had mailed them things to that affect as well.
Alice or Sally would then empathize, "Yes yes, I know what you mean. So. Mr. Ballistic, since you are such a good and valued customer, we are offering for a limited time and very good life life insurance program. It will cost you nothing for the first thirty days. Can I sign you up?"
No no no. Then I would try to go through the whole thing again, explaining that I am not a good customer. I am not a customer. I guess the easy thing would have been to get the insurance and die in 29 days. Good luck collecting that, my hapless heirs.
So this powerweb bunch has been sending me emails telling me I owe 250.58, or something close, and that it is past due. I did pay the site up a couple of years, and left it for the band to use and abuse. But 250 would have paid for about 8 years of it I think.
Anyway, then I either forgot my password or just couldn't get in. The site would say it was sending the link, etc to my email but doesn't do it.
I think G1 was supposed to be able to get in but couldn't. No telling. I have no idea what he did or did not do.
Seems he thought it had been hacked by the one who wanted him to suffer for eternity, along with anyone else who got in the way, and so he abandoned it. He couldn't get in and neither could I. It has been so long, I don't remember every detail. I was on the road when he was messing with it.
I believe it was somehow hacked by the angel of death who would do anything to create havoc. I know she managed to screw up his emails so most likely she got in from that. Maybe she runs the customer service call center.
I believe we made it clear to that outfit long ago that he was now the administrator. Whatever happened, asking me two or three years later for photo ID and two hundred fifty dollars is pushing it. Like they will get anything. Maybe I should refer them to my Nigerian friends.
No matter what I say in the emails, it doesn't matter. You know why? Indira doesn't know enough English to get my drift.
I can tell her to do impossibly athletic, sick, and strange sexual acts with her goat, and she will answer, "Yes, we wish to help you resolve this but you have not sent picture ID"
Lady I just told you to do the steamrolling Hoover, flipback orb swallow on your goat! Have you no shame!!
"Yes, Mr Ballistic, I understand, however our policy requires either the credit card or identification to stop the automatic renewal of the account, or for us to give you the password."
How about you do the triple topple ganger swisher slide with me instead of your goat? I want you to whinny like a horse, yelp like a bad dog being corrected with rolled up newspaper, scream like a scalded cat, call me your hot rod daddy, beg for mercy? Pretend I am the priest and you have much to confess, and penance will be harsh. Take turns tied to the ceiling fan?
"Yes, Mr Ballistic, we can only change the account if you send a copy of government photo ID, or the credit card."
What are you wearing? I'm wearing a potato skin and two corn husks, nice eh? How about I send you a photo of this, you obnoxious automaton ??
"Yes, Mr Ballistic, I think any photo ID will do, as long as it contains all your basic information, and address."
OH yea sure baby, it has a tattoo that says "Tallahassee is the capital of Florida" in #96 font. How's that?
"Is the any thing else I can help you with today, Mr Ballistic?"
No, do what you can with Florida. That's about all I can ask at this point in our relationship.
The people from ipower pretend to be from nowhere on earth as we know it. They have no first language and choose to learn only the words which promote their ends and only comprehend words in that context.
This is a common side effect of life on the web, and customer service which is removed from human contact. There are banks which may be located just down the street, but whose customer service center is located in a small town in India, run by people who knew the slum dog millionaire personally.
You have an issue and you can't get it solved in the branch bank, you have to go somewhere else, and still not get it solved. Credit union seem much better in that regard.
As usual, I trace the actual outsourcing thing not so much to greedy corporations per se, but to government and greedier unions in concert with crooked business (not real capitalists). But those things get complicated. The simple version is that if neither union nor corporation could be in bed with government enough to use agencies as weapons against others, much of this would be different.
I wish I had kept those joke Elvis driver's licenses I had in Memphis. They sell them everywhere.
This account was done when I moved from Memphis. I never signed up for a revolving renewal program. The main thing saving me is whatever card I used is not longer functioning. Fortunately it was gone by the time I arrived out here, although I found out then how tough it is to kill a paid up credit card. I felt like a mouse in one of those sticky traps--the more I tried to shake them the more they wanted to stick to me.
I think it must be the same outsourced customer care people doing the ipower stuff as did the credit card. I'd be on the phone with the CC people, explaining, no, I don't want it, don't use it, I cut it to shreds. I had mailed them things to that affect as well.
Alice or Sally would then empathize, "Yes yes, I know what you mean. So. Mr. Ballistic, since you are such a good and valued customer, we are offering for a limited time and very good life life insurance program. It will cost you nothing for the first thirty days. Can I sign you up?"
No no no. Then I would try to go through the whole thing again, explaining that I am not a good customer. I am not a customer. I guess the easy thing would have been to get the insurance and die in 29 days. Good luck collecting that, my hapless heirs.
So this powerweb bunch has been sending me emails telling me I owe 250.58, or something close, and that it is past due. I did pay the site up a couple of years, and left it for the band to use and abuse. But 250 would have paid for about 8 years of it I think.
Anyway, then I either forgot my password or just couldn't get in. The site would say it was sending the link, etc to my email but doesn't do it.
I think G1 was supposed to be able to get in but couldn't. No telling. I have no idea what he did or did not do.
Seems he thought it had been hacked by the one who wanted him to suffer for eternity, along with anyone else who got in the way, and so he abandoned it. He couldn't get in and neither could I. It has been so long, I don't remember every detail. I was on the road when he was messing with it.
I believe it was somehow hacked by the angel of death who would do anything to create havoc. I know she managed to screw up his emails so most likely she got in from that. Maybe she runs the customer service call center.
I believe we made it clear to that outfit long ago that he was now the administrator. Whatever happened, asking me two or three years later for photo ID and two hundred fifty dollars is pushing it. Like they will get anything. Maybe I should refer them to my Nigerian friends.
No matter what I say in the emails, it doesn't matter. You know why? Indira doesn't know enough English to get my drift.
I can tell her to do impossibly athletic, sick, and strange sexual acts with her goat, and she will answer, "Yes, we wish to help you resolve this but you have not sent picture ID"
Lady I just told you to do the steamrolling Hoover, flipback orb swallow on your goat! Have you no shame!!
"Yes, Mr Ballistic, I understand, however our policy requires either the credit card or identification to stop the automatic renewal of the account, or for us to give you the password."
How about you do the triple topple ganger swisher slide with me instead of your goat? I want you to whinny like a horse, yelp like a bad dog being corrected with rolled up newspaper, scream like a scalded cat, call me your hot rod daddy, beg for mercy? Pretend I am the priest and you have much to confess, and penance will be harsh. Take turns tied to the ceiling fan?
"Yes, Mr Ballistic, we can only change the account if you send a copy of government photo ID, or the credit card."
What are you wearing? I'm wearing a potato skin and two corn husks, nice eh? How about I send you a photo of this, you obnoxious automaton ??
"Yes, Mr Ballistic, I think any photo ID will do, as long as it contains all your basic information, and address."
OH yea sure baby, it has a tattoo that says "Tallahassee is the capital of Florida" in #96 font. How's that?
"Is the any thing else I can help you with today, Mr Ballistic?"
No, do what you can with Florida. That's about all I can ask at this point in our relationship.
The people from ipower pretend to be from nowhere on earth as we know it. They have no first language and choose to learn only the words which promote their ends and only comprehend words in that context.
This is a common side effect of life on the web, and customer service which is removed from human contact. There are banks which may be located just down the street, but whose customer service center is located in a small town in India, run by people who knew the slum dog millionaire personally.
You have an issue and you can't get it solved in the branch bank, you have to go somewhere else, and still not get it solved. Credit union seem much better in that regard.
As usual, I trace the actual outsourcing thing not so much to greedy corporations per se, but to government and greedier unions in concert with crooked business (not real capitalists). But those things get complicated. The simple version is that if neither union nor corporation could be in bed with government enough to use agencies as weapons against others, much of this would be different.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
If You Had Any Money Where Would You Put It?
It seems that one should be able to invest with very little, then reinvest and eventually have something other than a headache. I actually have no idea where, if I came into a few dollars, which could happen, I'd invest it.
Buy Asian? Or some other solvent continent or country. What the hell; does that mean?
Maybe I'll invest in ski masks and tools and just rob banks as needed. No I won't. Do not come to my door to arrest me. It was drama.
Even so, I feel like I should know this stuff but I find books and such on the subject so boring I fall asleep immediately. They aren't that bad to some people. I just can't get with it. Not like I don't get math or any of that. I do.
So let's say someone was going to use 1 or 2K and see what happened. You could carry the precious mettals it would buy in your top pocket and have room for your phone.
But who wants to carry that around?
I think it is time to be rich, and to do that one should have a clue where to put things. And don't be telling me to put anything in any obvious and cliche'd location.
No off color quips or I'll have you arrested.
I'm the preverbial sucker. I know those who know could start with nothing and in a year be OK. But I could start with something and end up with nothing. That is not right.
Buy Asian? Or some other solvent continent or country. What the hell; does that mean?
Maybe I'll invest in ski masks and tools and just rob banks as needed. No I won't. Do not come to my door to arrest me. It was drama.
Even so, I feel like I should know this stuff but I find books and such on the subject so boring I fall asleep immediately. They aren't that bad to some people. I just can't get with it. Not like I don't get math or any of that. I do.
So let's say someone was going to use 1 or 2K and see what happened. You could carry the precious mettals it would buy in your top pocket and have room for your phone.
But who wants to carry that around?
I think it is time to be rich, and to do that one should have a clue where to put things. And don't be telling me to put anything in any obvious and cliche'd location.
No off color quips or I'll have you arrested.
I'm the preverbial sucker. I know those who know could start with nothing and in a year be OK. But I could start with something and end up with nothing. That is not right.
Interesting Thoughts from Ike
I just happened upon this comment from the same guy who gave us the term, in a warning, "military-industrial complex".
His warning was sound.
In the same speech he went on to offer another warning (below in italics). It is eery, considering how absolutely accurate it was. Who would have guessed what foresight Eisenhower possessed? It is not often discussed. I don't say "never discussed" because I don't know that. I never hear this part discussed:
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
That's what I've been talking about, from time to time. Maybe I am stuck in 1960. Or maybe I just paid attention.
Aside from that, I have finally figured out what I want in the short term. It is the most difficult thing for me to define what I want in my life, other than adoring friends and else. I have three or four practical goals. Short term, of course, to match my attention span and because long term is impossible for me to consider.
So, that is a good thing. Much of it involves the sort of thing many people would not think is any more than normal day to day life. I am not many people. What is easy for me may not be easy to most, and what is easy to them is way hard for me. That is the way it is.
The important thing is to accomplish something. A big victory to me may mean nothing outside of my own mind. That is enough.
It will enable me to be a better friend, and a little bit happier. The rest of the stuff will just be cool.
His warning was sound.
In the same speech he went on to offer another warning (below in italics). It is eery, considering how absolutely accurate it was. Who would have guessed what foresight Eisenhower possessed? It is not often discussed. I don't say "never discussed" because I don't know that. I never hear this part discussed:
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present – and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
That's what I've been talking about, from time to time. Maybe I am stuck in 1960. Or maybe I just paid attention.
Aside from that, I have finally figured out what I want in the short term. It is the most difficult thing for me to define what I want in my life, other than adoring friends and else. I have three or four practical goals. Short term, of course, to match my attention span and because long term is impossible for me to consider.
So, that is a good thing. Much of it involves the sort of thing many people would not think is any more than normal day to day life. I am not many people. What is easy for me may not be easy to most, and what is easy to them is way hard for me. That is the way it is.
The important thing is to accomplish something. A big victory to me may mean nothing outside of my own mind. That is enough.
It will enable me to be a better friend, and a little bit happier. The rest of the stuff will just be cool.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Ask Not What I Can Do For You, Ask What You Can Do For Me
That's a version of how I interpret the Kennedy line that gets all the airplay. It drives me nuts when a line like that is not examined. News people and others simply gasped in awe, and repeated the words as if they were a prayer just then set in stone and handed to them by God himself/herself/itself. In the case of the people to whom I refer I would guess God is pictured in human form wearing old clothes from a couple thousand years ago. And it would be a he, and He'd speak in Olde English. (Isn't that a furniture polish?)
Anyway, that line about ask not, I take for code--ask what you can do for your government.
Not in the same league with "Give me liberty or give me death!" For one thing the JFK line is telling you what to do. The Patrick Henry line is speaking for himself. Huge difference.
It's more of the same tripe that has been around for eons to get the meek to stay in the herd, under the control of the few, the proud, the sociopathic elite.
I know, this may sound nuts and like wild ranting, but it is actually true.
They've got people thinking that "service" only includes government work, and work you do for non-profits (even if they pay you) and things you do for organized community projects--like draw big apple people to promote healthy eating.
The idea is that you owe the collective in all things. It is working. Maybe not on me. I believe true charity and acts of kindness, for its own sake, are only pure if I do not have a big audience, government approval, or draw attention to myself in the process.
Oh man. I caught a little TV news here and there. When you are away from it for awhile, the constant tone of fear and helplessness stands out. That is coupled with the implied idea that everything that happens which is not pleasant makes you a victim, and that government can fix it, or "make them pay". They being the people who made that sidewalk where you fell off your skateboard, etc.
I'm surprised the entire country isn't in much worse shape than it is in, considering the nature and volume of entertainment consumed by all ages.
Seriously, friggin porn is probably in the healthier 50% of what people watch (video games included). And that is kind of bizarre, really. But, once again, I think it is true.
OK. I'm freaking myself out. I can't pretend what is true is not, though, so too bad.
I just became a little overloaded with issues which fall in the Big Pretense file.
Anyway, that line about ask not, I take for code--ask what you can do for your government.
Not in the same league with "Give me liberty or give me death!" For one thing the JFK line is telling you what to do. The Patrick Henry line is speaking for himself. Huge difference.
It's more of the same tripe that has been around for eons to get the meek to stay in the herd, under the control of the few, the proud, the sociopathic elite.
I know, this may sound nuts and like wild ranting, but it is actually true.
They've got people thinking that "service" only includes government work, and work you do for non-profits (even if they pay you) and things you do for organized community projects--like draw big apple people to promote healthy eating.
The idea is that you owe the collective in all things. It is working. Maybe not on me. I believe true charity and acts of kindness, for its own sake, are only pure if I do not have a big audience, government approval, or draw attention to myself in the process.
Oh man. I caught a little TV news here and there. When you are away from it for awhile, the constant tone of fear and helplessness stands out. That is coupled with the implied idea that everything that happens which is not pleasant makes you a victim, and that government can fix it, or "make them pay". They being the people who made that sidewalk where you fell off your skateboard, etc.
I'm surprised the entire country isn't in much worse shape than it is in, considering the nature and volume of entertainment consumed by all ages.
Seriously, friggin porn is probably in the healthier 50% of what people watch (video games included). And that is kind of bizarre, really. But, once again, I think it is true.
OK. I'm freaking myself out. I can't pretend what is true is not, though, so too bad.
I just became a little overloaded with issues which fall in the Big Pretense file.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Movie Review
SALT
Salt is a movie, allegedly. It should be an acronym for Sucks A Lot, Truly
This is a movie about a cougar who is involved with the CIA, the ex Soviet Union, a spider man, and she runs around beating and being beaten for over an hour, and the movie has neither middle nor ending. It is no more plausible in plot than casting Angelina as a 25 year old is credible.
Maybe she is allowed to be 30 in this. No, I think you are supposed to think she's twenty something. Her husband is a twenty something, I think. The guy who played Wally on the Beaver was probably older than this guy when he was still playing a high school kid.
If you like theater of the absurd, this is for you. It almost could have been good, but to do that, everything would have had to have been done differently.
Rename it Revenge of the Cougar, and make other changes from there.
It's like watching the middle twenty minutes of a thirty minute temper tantrum. If you've seen the trailer, you've seen the movie.
You'd expect better from the big names.
Yea, I buy it when Angelina drops thirty feet onto a semi traveling 70 mph and when she hangs on to the side of another truck by her finger tips. I wouldn't have bought these stunts even when she was the age she is playing here. They are just over the top stupid stunts. And I'm one who can suspend skepticism easy to buy any story. I do it in my own life all the time.
Really really bad for the money they put into it.
Salt is a movie, allegedly. It should be an acronym for Sucks A Lot, Truly
This is a movie about a cougar who is involved with the CIA, the ex Soviet Union, a spider man, and she runs around beating and being beaten for over an hour, and the movie has neither middle nor ending. It is no more plausible in plot than casting Angelina as a 25 year old is credible.
Maybe she is allowed to be 30 in this. No, I think you are supposed to think she's twenty something. Her husband is a twenty something, I think. The guy who played Wally on the Beaver was probably older than this guy when he was still playing a high school kid.
If you like theater of the absurd, this is for you. It almost could have been good, but to do that, everything would have had to have been done differently.
Rename it Revenge of the Cougar, and make other changes from there.
It's like watching the middle twenty minutes of a thirty minute temper tantrum. If you've seen the trailer, you've seen the movie.
You'd expect better from the big names.
Yea, I buy it when Angelina drops thirty feet onto a semi traveling 70 mph and when she hangs on to the side of another truck by her finger tips. I wouldn't have bought these stunts even when she was the age she is playing here. They are just over the top stupid stunts. And I'm one who can suspend skepticism easy to buy any story. I do it in my own life all the time.
Really really bad for the money they put into it.
Friday, January 14, 2011
Perhaps It Takes One To Know One
I've noticed in the last few years the increasingly common use of the word idiot in matters of politics and philosophy. Frankly, I do not consider most of my philosophical opposites to be anything akin to idiots. Most are possessed of good minds and, often, even good hearts.
The rift between our views generally stems from differing basic premises. That is generally in the realm of how we view authority, and the individual.
I remember during the last election getting update emails from candidate Lutz campaign people in which they called the opponent an idiot, among other things. This took the place of expanding upon why his views, or statement in question, demonstrated reason that he shouldn't be elected, and why I should vote for the grandstander, Lutz. His first name eludes me at the moment.
I do not consider Lutz an idiot at all. I do not agree with his policies or view of government function.
I've seen the same trend in all sorts of discourse on the internet, and even heard it when out and about and someone makes a comment regarding people with whom they disagree. In some cases there may be nothng else to say, but, in most cases, there is real room for discussion. Why is a person's view wrong?
Often, I hear people claim that the tea party people are idiots. Why is this so? And are all of them the same? I've heard well spoken people claim that this movement only includes a push for limited government, cutting spending, and not raising taxes to reduce the deficit and debt. Allegedly, according to those people, they support reducing the power and size of government.
Now, many of the tea people may espouse other causes, but if the actual tea party line is as stated above, I do not find that idiotic. Or even distasteful.
Maybe it is when people dress in garb from the 1770's and such at rallies, the message is lost in the peculiarity of the messenger. I suppose it is like those who think God and Jesus spoke in old English, so when they get involved in matters holy, they might begin a statement with "And so the Lord sayeth unto them...", as if it is holier to use archaic language which wasn't even the tongue of the times in question.
Then again, maybe the dress up bit is a sort of tribute to admired people of the past. I'm not big on Halloween, so masquerade opportunities are rarely seized by me.
Whatever the case, someone can dress up like a she-wolf in a tutu, and if he espouses a view that governmental power ought to be limited to bare essentials and individual rights be as broad as civilly possible, then I have to agree. He's not pushing his sense of fashion on me so what do I care. It is the substance of the argument and belief system that is in question, and I might agree with it.
There are those who feel it is government's job to ensure the benevolence of all of us by deciding who should get what help and how income ought to be spent and distributed. I personally think all the middle men that entails causes as many or more problems than it solves, and I see it as a form of theft. However, I don't think those of that mind are idiots. They just think that people, left to their own devices, would leave their less fortunate countrymen bleeding by the side of the road. And they assume that the citizenry wouldn't fight when they should, so they manage ways to get them to fight wars which they otherwise might not. There is a high degree of deception involved, and the larger the body of authority, and broader its scope, the more prevalent the false information and pretense.
As far as people bleeding in the ditch, my view is that they are most likely in that condition due to the abuses of powers that be. Probably got beat up by El Cajon Highway patrol for having a Southern accent.
It could be I find that trend unpleasant because I, myself, am more idiotic than I would like, and fear the times when anyone might notice. On the other hand, it may be that it is a defense mechanism; if you can't articulate your position, or why the other person's position is no good, and you feel the need to please a certain social group, then just calling the assumed enemy idiots may be your only out. It leaves you appearing to view yourself as superior, and with any luck, others will buy it.
There are many people in high places who aren't all that smart. But they aren't idiots. Just people of barely average brain power, and fluid values, who are good at whoring.
It does amuse me a bit that people actually started throwing around talk of IQ, in recent political battles, without having a clue what someone's actual numbers were. And in some cases tossing out challenges like, "I'll put my IQ up against his any day". That sure proves a lot.
High IQ neither ensures your goodness nor your ability to deal with civilization. If I'm not mistaken, Ted Bundy, and probably many other psychos, had a high IQ.
Anyway, labeling people "idiots" doesn't serve to convince me they are wrong, stupid, or anything else, without a little more evidence. Even idiots can sometimes be right, and even geniuses can be wrong and evil. Come to think of it, if a very rich idiot offered me a high paying job doing next to nothing, I'd be his or her biggest fan.
Most of the problems come down to two basic views: 1.live and let live, 2.I live as I like and you must live as I like
The rift between our views generally stems from differing basic premises. That is generally in the realm of how we view authority, and the individual.
I remember during the last election getting update emails from candidate Lutz campaign people in which they called the opponent an idiot, among other things. This took the place of expanding upon why his views, or statement in question, demonstrated reason that he shouldn't be elected, and why I should vote for the grandstander, Lutz. His first name eludes me at the moment.
I do not consider Lutz an idiot at all. I do not agree with his policies or view of government function.
I've seen the same trend in all sorts of discourse on the internet, and even heard it when out and about and someone makes a comment regarding people with whom they disagree. In some cases there may be nothng else to say, but, in most cases, there is real room for discussion. Why is a person's view wrong?
Often, I hear people claim that the tea party people are idiots. Why is this so? And are all of them the same? I've heard well spoken people claim that this movement only includes a push for limited government, cutting spending, and not raising taxes to reduce the deficit and debt. Allegedly, according to those people, they support reducing the power and size of government.
Now, many of the tea people may espouse other causes, but if the actual tea party line is as stated above, I do not find that idiotic. Or even distasteful.
Maybe it is when people dress in garb from the 1770's and such at rallies, the message is lost in the peculiarity of the messenger. I suppose it is like those who think God and Jesus spoke in old English, so when they get involved in matters holy, they might begin a statement with "And so the Lord sayeth unto them...", as if it is holier to use archaic language which wasn't even the tongue of the times in question.
Then again, maybe the dress up bit is a sort of tribute to admired people of the past. I'm not big on Halloween, so masquerade opportunities are rarely seized by me.
Whatever the case, someone can dress up like a she-wolf in a tutu, and if he espouses a view that governmental power ought to be limited to bare essentials and individual rights be as broad as civilly possible, then I have to agree. He's not pushing his sense of fashion on me so what do I care. It is the substance of the argument and belief system that is in question, and I might agree with it.
There are those who feel it is government's job to ensure the benevolence of all of us by deciding who should get what help and how income ought to be spent and distributed. I personally think all the middle men that entails causes as many or more problems than it solves, and I see it as a form of theft. However, I don't think those of that mind are idiots. They just think that people, left to their own devices, would leave their less fortunate countrymen bleeding by the side of the road. And they assume that the citizenry wouldn't fight when they should, so they manage ways to get them to fight wars which they otherwise might not. There is a high degree of deception involved, and the larger the body of authority, and broader its scope, the more prevalent the false information and pretense.
As far as people bleeding in the ditch, my view is that they are most likely in that condition due to the abuses of powers that be. Probably got beat up by El Cajon Highway patrol for having a Southern accent.
It could be I find that trend unpleasant because I, myself, am more idiotic than I would like, and fear the times when anyone might notice. On the other hand, it may be that it is a defense mechanism; if you can't articulate your position, or why the other person's position is no good, and you feel the need to please a certain social group, then just calling the assumed enemy idiots may be your only out. It leaves you appearing to view yourself as superior, and with any luck, others will buy it.
There are many people in high places who aren't all that smart. But they aren't idiots. Just people of barely average brain power, and fluid values, who are good at whoring.
It does amuse me a bit that people actually started throwing around talk of IQ, in recent political battles, without having a clue what someone's actual numbers were. And in some cases tossing out challenges like, "I'll put my IQ up against his any day". That sure proves a lot.
High IQ neither ensures your goodness nor your ability to deal with civilization. If I'm not mistaken, Ted Bundy, and probably many other psychos, had a high IQ.
Anyway, labeling people "idiots" doesn't serve to convince me they are wrong, stupid, or anything else, without a little more evidence. Even idiots can sometimes be right, and even geniuses can be wrong and evil. Come to think of it, if a very rich idiot offered me a high paying job doing next to nothing, I'd be his or her biggest fan.
Most of the problems come down to two basic views: 1.live and let live, 2.I live as I like and you must live as I like
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Thought of a New Word, or so
There are some areas of the country--certainly some communities in CA--which have rules (or groups pushing for them) regulating when and if one can use his/her/its fireplace.
I was thinking a good word for a fireplace activist would be PYRANT
Maybe the current trend toward taking literally what your intellectual adversaries mean figuratively, and using it against them in public and political discourse, would be called LINGUISTICUFFS
---and I suppose a person who engaged in such activity would be a LINGUGILIST(from pugilist, etc)
I have no idea why I thought of those things.
Now I'm wondering if the Fred Phelps crew could most politely be called FAGNOSTICS. Polite is not easy to muster when dealing people who pretend to speak for God so they can cause misery and difficulty for others. It is a radical case of people who place themselves in the judgement seat, unasked and uninvited, so they can avoid ever having to engage in any serious introspection. Sick pups. Basically aberrant humans. If only they'd go on a kool aid binge... (can I say that? or will this land me in hot water?)
Guess we'll stick to "useful imbeciles". How so many people can be nuts at once and in the same family could most likely be due to inbreeding, and cross breeding of the inbred.
Big question is: Who funds them? I'd bet it is someone who wants to silence legitimate dissent. They'll keep pushing with their atrocious abuse of free speech until measures are taken. And those things rarely stay confined to the context of the original target.
If there are enough like-minded people around to bankroll that outfit, Yikes!
I mean, if I was into racial strife and wanted to fire up people to feel threatened enough to run toward kkk and the like, I'd do all I could to promote the New Black Panthers, especially ones like the guy who hates every iota of a cracker. And vice versa.
The westmoron group is planning to hit the area to protest a high school play in Coronado. WTF?
The Navy SEALS train in the area. Old Fred and his daughter/wife/cousin/sister and the rest of the family tree best be careful.
And they wonder how anything like the Spanish Inquisition ever gained momentum---people like that are out there, and even get shown on TV.
I was thinking a good word for a fireplace activist would be PYRANT
Maybe the current trend toward taking literally what your intellectual adversaries mean figuratively, and using it against them in public and political discourse, would be called LINGUISTICUFFS
---and I suppose a person who engaged in such activity would be a LINGUGILIST(from pugilist, etc)
I have no idea why I thought of those things.
Now I'm wondering if the Fred Phelps crew could most politely be called FAGNOSTICS. Polite is not easy to muster when dealing people who pretend to speak for God so they can cause misery and difficulty for others. It is a radical case of people who place themselves in the judgement seat, unasked and uninvited, so they can avoid ever having to engage in any serious introspection. Sick pups. Basically aberrant humans. If only they'd go on a kool aid binge... (can I say that? or will this land me in hot water?)
Guess we'll stick to "useful imbeciles". How so many people can be nuts at once and in the same family could most likely be due to inbreeding, and cross breeding of the inbred.
Big question is: Who funds them? I'd bet it is someone who wants to silence legitimate dissent. They'll keep pushing with their atrocious abuse of free speech until measures are taken. And those things rarely stay confined to the context of the original target.
If there are enough like-minded people around to bankroll that outfit, Yikes!
I mean, if I was into racial strife and wanted to fire up people to feel threatened enough to run toward kkk and the like, I'd do all I could to promote the New Black Panthers, especially ones like the guy who hates every iota of a cracker. And vice versa.
The westmoron group is planning to hit the area to protest a high school play in Coronado. WTF?
The Navy SEALS train in the area. Old Fred and his daughter/wife/cousin/sister and the rest of the family tree best be careful.
And they wonder how anything like the Spanish Inquisition ever gained momentum---people like that are out there, and even get shown on TV.
Digging Alpine
It must work along the lines of the old adage that possession is nine tenths of the law. Even though the SDGE issue is still in the courts they are proceeding as if it is all settled. This s regarding the powerlink project which involves a gerrymandered path through east Sand Diego county to link Mexican power to California.
It's painted with the sacred word, "green", because they claimed that it would link a solar project and wind energy from the desert. The solar thing is dead; the company went belly up, and their design and concept was seriously flawed from the start. In this case the logical use of solar would be at the point of usage--on buildings and houses, not a hundred miles away transported through wires on towers. The wind is not very effective since it only works for a narrow band of wind conditions. Besides, they are in the courts because the Indian tribes are not pleased with proposed construction through burial grounds.
The Mexican connection is well documented--not propaganda put out by the disgruntled. The company that owns SDGE also has holdings down there in the form of power plant projects on the border. Got to be a better way, but rather than seriously think about it people assume that government and sanctioned monopoly, using eminent domain, is the only choice.
Anyway, they are already digging up Alpine Blvd., causing traffic delays and impeding access to businesses. It is a sad sight, but these things happen when people are fed misinformation and don't know what hit them until it is too late. I consider it another of Arnold's legacies to California. He turned out to be a wannabe despot, who appears to think benevolent dictatorship is a desirable thing. Listening to him it became clear that he has no more concept of what a constitutional republic designed to protect individual freedom means than do the ladies on the View.
I'm glad I do not have a shop or small business anchored in Alpine or any number of areas out here. Next thing will be when they start construction on Ballistic mountain. Goodbye cell signal, such as it is. And pity the homeowners. I do not think it will help property values; even SDGE admits they do not know the consequence to the water supply, and claim the fire hazard is "unmitigable".
So, here we go. I guess I have to realize I can't live in this spot forever. For one thing I only rent. For another The construction is not likely to be without consequence, noise-wise, and concerning traffic up and down the hill.
Maybe the court proceedings will not take forever and it will be stopped before too late. Chances look slim, considering that they are already tearing up roads and annexing private property. All for the greater good, allegedly.
Oh well. What can you do? These things make it tough to come in from the fringe when your starting point is like mine. Vagabond for life, I guess.
But I still have today with no need to pack up, so I'll just work to change what needs it in my own life. That covers a lot. And it is not at all easy. If I do not change a number of things, the consequences could be grave. A normal person would find the things I need to do a piece of cake. For that reason I often regret being not so normal.
The most bizarre fact of all is that they have never actually established a need for this, considering there is actually a surplus of electricity is this area and demand is not growing.
Care should be taken before supporting the tyranny that shrouds itself in a green cloak, or pretends to be a savior of the earth itself. Behind the claims there is often no substance supporting the facade, and a lot of people get hurt.
It's painted with the sacred word, "green", because they claimed that it would link a solar project and wind energy from the desert. The solar thing is dead; the company went belly up, and their design and concept was seriously flawed from the start. In this case the logical use of solar would be at the point of usage--on buildings and houses, not a hundred miles away transported through wires on towers. The wind is not very effective since it only works for a narrow band of wind conditions. Besides, they are in the courts because the Indian tribes are not pleased with proposed construction through burial grounds.
The Mexican connection is well documented--not propaganda put out by the disgruntled. The company that owns SDGE also has holdings down there in the form of power plant projects on the border. Got to be a better way, but rather than seriously think about it people assume that government and sanctioned monopoly, using eminent domain, is the only choice.
Anyway, they are already digging up Alpine Blvd., causing traffic delays and impeding access to businesses. It is a sad sight, but these things happen when people are fed misinformation and don't know what hit them until it is too late. I consider it another of Arnold's legacies to California. He turned out to be a wannabe despot, who appears to think benevolent dictatorship is a desirable thing. Listening to him it became clear that he has no more concept of what a constitutional republic designed to protect individual freedom means than do the ladies on the View.
I'm glad I do not have a shop or small business anchored in Alpine or any number of areas out here. Next thing will be when they start construction on Ballistic mountain. Goodbye cell signal, such as it is. And pity the homeowners. I do not think it will help property values; even SDGE admits they do not know the consequence to the water supply, and claim the fire hazard is "unmitigable".
So, here we go. I guess I have to realize I can't live in this spot forever. For one thing I only rent. For another The construction is not likely to be without consequence, noise-wise, and concerning traffic up and down the hill.
Maybe the court proceedings will not take forever and it will be stopped before too late. Chances look slim, considering that they are already tearing up roads and annexing private property. All for the greater good, allegedly.
Oh well. What can you do? These things make it tough to come in from the fringe when your starting point is like mine. Vagabond for life, I guess.
But I still have today with no need to pack up, so I'll just work to change what needs it in my own life. That covers a lot. And it is not at all easy. If I do not change a number of things, the consequences could be grave. A normal person would find the things I need to do a piece of cake. For that reason I often regret being not so normal.
The most bizarre fact of all is that they have never actually established a need for this, considering there is actually a surplus of electricity is this area and demand is not growing.
Care should be taken before supporting the tyranny that shrouds itself in a green cloak, or pretends to be a savior of the earth itself. Behind the claims there is often no substance supporting the facade, and a lot of people get hurt.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Imagining Jury Duty; California style
I'm looking forward to this excursion into the world of jurisprudence (or imprudence)
It's fairly certain it will be just like the picture above.
The eye patch is so I can get better parking and everyone will think I'm a badass.
***[no, I do not really use or possess any medical weed. Not ruling it out though]
The Demonization of Metaphor and Figure of Speech: dumb em down
***[or: fun with italics]****
In predictable authoritarian, and self proclaimed victim form, there are people in actual positions of power who now want to curb speech in order to make everyone safe. The truth is, they want to curb everyone's speech who doesn't fall in step with their designs.
If it gets to the point that you cannot speak of targeted, putting something in the cross-hairs, and can't use the word eliminate, defeat, squash, or who knows what, it is going to be tough to say anything. It gets to the point where use of the language becomes damned near impossible. Using allegory, illustration, all that kind of thing, is a way of expressing a thought in more robust form.
It is part of the dumbing down process. If someone says, "Hey that is one killer guitar player!!", do you think it will induce the deranged to commit murder?
There's one guy who wants it to be illegal to say or print anything that could be taken as violent symbols against public officials. If that is not pure elitism at its finest... It is kind of funny when these scum ask for special treatment. Elite paranoia, we call that in the trade.
Enough of that, I have my own scattered life to contend with. On the edge, ready to lock and load-or hoping to- to tackle and vanquish the demons that hold me in a grip of exhaustion, and inaction. OK. Does that sentence tend to make you want to go buy weapons and discharge them irresponsibly?
She was like a deer caught in the headlights---oops, don't do this at home--do not run over people.
Sadly, despite my sorry life and problems I ought to be attacking, the spirit and point of free speech is very much threatened. It is being eroded in increments--for our own good. But people like it that way. The charm of going along with things is that you can pretend to be intelligent and stable, even though deep down you know you are rather dimwitted.
**** all of the above italicized words and phrases should not be viewed by children or those who may be influenced to do odd things. All those words and phrases are possible candidates for future consideration as hate speech or incitement not to go along and support you local sheriff, overlord, lawmaker, politician, cop, or other tax paid twit who knows what's best for you, and is dead set on enforcing such things whether you ike it or not****
++++as a friend of the court, I must say all the above was purely hypothetical and in no way indicates how I feel. I would never use the word "killer" in the same phrase as "guitar player". And have no idea what cross-hairs are. I think it is some kind of hair dresser slang.
So, if any of this may fall in forbidden speech territory, now or in the future, I am just letting people know what not to say, think, or draw.
In predictable authoritarian, and self proclaimed victim form, there are people in actual positions of power who now want to curb speech in order to make everyone safe. The truth is, they want to curb everyone's speech who doesn't fall in step with their designs.
If it gets to the point that you cannot speak of targeted, putting something in the cross-hairs, and can't use the word eliminate, defeat, squash, or who knows what, it is going to be tough to say anything. It gets to the point where use of the language becomes damned near impossible. Using allegory, illustration, all that kind of thing, is a way of expressing a thought in more robust form.
It is part of the dumbing down process. If someone says, "Hey that is one killer guitar player!!", do you think it will induce the deranged to commit murder?
There's one guy who wants it to be illegal to say or print anything that could be taken as violent symbols against public officials. If that is not pure elitism at its finest... It is kind of funny when these scum ask for special treatment. Elite paranoia, we call that in the trade.
Enough of that, I have my own scattered life to contend with. On the edge, ready to lock and load-or hoping to- to tackle and vanquish the demons that hold me in a grip of exhaustion, and inaction. OK. Does that sentence tend to make you want to go buy weapons and discharge them irresponsibly?
She was like a deer caught in the headlights---oops, don't do this at home--do not run over people.
Sadly, despite my sorry life and problems I ought to be attacking, the spirit and point of free speech is very much threatened. It is being eroded in increments--for our own good. But people like it that way. The charm of going along with things is that you can pretend to be intelligent and stable, even though deep down you know you are rather dimwitted.
**** all of the above italicized words and phrases should not be viewed by children or those who may be influenced to do odd things. All those words and phrases are possible candidates for future consideration as hate speech or incitement not to go along and support you local sheriff, overlord, lawmaker, politician, cop, or other tax paid twit who knows what's best for you, and is dead set on enforcing such things whether you ike it or not****
++++as a friend of the court, I must say all the above was purely hypothetical and in no way indicates how I feel. I would never use the word "killer" in the same phrase as "guitar player". And have no idea what cross-hairs are. I think it is some kind of hair dresser slang.
So, if any of this may fall in forbidden speech territory, now or in the future, I am just letting people know what not to say, think, or draw.
Friend of the Court
May it please the court, I have jury duty.
Maybe I'll be picked for a case involving El Cajon Highway patrol who have done some mischief and abuse upon innocent citizens. Of course, being fair minded and impartial, I would put aside my personal feelings and go strictly by law, being sure to acquit on a technicality even though they are guiltier than charged.
The big drawback is that they don't let you address the court yourself.
It would be interesting if I got picked at all, and then if it involved a case concerning some law I don't even think should be on the books. That's when all the wise slogans come in to play--"It's the law!" "No one is above the law" etc.
Chances are, if they get to the point of interviewing me at all, they will quickly send me home.
"So, Mr Ballistic, would you put aside your own feelings and common sense and convict even if the law is stupid, and an ass?"
"No."
"Go home you rebel!"
The courthouse I go to is in El Cajon. Nothing to do about that. I guess it is easier than going all the way to the coast, although I'd almost rather go there.
You can go in up to two weeks prior to the actual day listed on the summons. I think I will go early and get it over with. The biggest drawback is that I can't stand the vibe and atmosphere of anything having to do with the crime and punishment system. It seems so arbitrary and unyielding, and capricious. I have almost no faith in the system at this point. The concept and how it is supposed to work, I understand, but it hasn't worked that way for a very long time. Riffraff slides by while people who mind their own business and don't work for government are at greatest risk of harassment. Or so it seems.
People on their own turf, in a building they can lock down, who carry guns and disarm you at the door, are hard for me to trust. I suppose I am inordinately predisposed to some sort of phobia toward the type of authority you find in the garden variety courthouse. I'll need to be sure not to answer questions in a way that puts me on Homeland security's list of people who don't go along. Distrust and dislike of government are considered signs of mental illness, or they are trying to establish that view. Now, whether the distrust and paranoia are well founded is irrelevant. You do what you are told and you better like it, young man. And I don't mean perhaps.
So, I will try to behave. They may actually have accidentally rounded up some real criminals by mistake.
Maybe I'll be picked for a case involving El Cajon Highway patrol who have done some mischief and abuse upon innocent citizens. Of course, being fair minded and impartial, I would put aside my personal feelings and go strictly by law, being sure to acquit on a technicality even though they are guiltier than charged.
The big drawback is that they don't let you address the court yourself.
It would be interesting if I got picked at all, and then if it involved a case concerning some law I don't even think should be on the books. That's when all the wise slogans come in to play--"It's the law!" "No one is above the law" etc.
Chances are, if they get to the point of interviewing me at all, they will quickly send me home.
"So, Mr Ballistic, would you put aside your own feelings and common sense and convict even if the law is stupid, and an ass?"
"No."
"Go home you rebel!"
The courthouse I go to is in El Cajon. Nothing to do about that. I guess it is easier than going all the way to the coast, although I'd almost rather go there.
You can go in up to two weeks prior to the actual day listed on the summons. I think I will go early and get it over with. The biggest drawback is that I can't stand the vibe and atmosphere of anything having to do with the crime and punishment system. It seems so arbitrary and unyielding, and capricious. I have almost no faith in the system at this point. The concept and how it is supposed to work, I understand, but it hasn't worked that way for a very long time. Riffraff slides by while people who mind their own business and don't work for government are at greatest risk of harassment. Or so it seems.
People on their own turf, in a building they can lock down, who carry guns and disarm you at the door, are hard for me to trust. I suppose I am inordinately predisposed to some sort of phobia toward the type of authority you find in the garden variety courthouse. I'll need to be sure not to answer questions in a way that puts me on Homeland security's list of people who don't go along. Distrust and dislike of government are considered signs of mental illness, or they are trying to establish that view. Now, whether the distrust and paranoia are well founded is irrelevant. You do what you are told and you better like it, young man. And I don't mean perhaps.
So, I will try to behave. They may actually have accidentally rounded up some real criminals by mistake.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
The BIG PRETENSE Continues some more
The complete break from reality I am hearing as a response to the killings in Tucson is as frightening as the fact that there are complete lunatics running loose. It may be uncool to disagree when Palin or Tea Party people are up for scorn and ridicule, but I tend to think the truth is less uncool.
Sarah Palin is not the culprit here. The insane talk I've heard re talk radio and anything not left wing is so far out of the park that those people would never convince me of anything. Did they ever listen to Air America? There was serious hate expressed over the air, and many suggestions of ways to kill Bush, Cheney, and others. Also many odd sexual references which would have presumably not been fun for the victim. I do not think they were actually inciting assassination, but it was far closer than any of the talk radio being blamed for this murder spree.
The absurd thing is that the guy has not been shown to be a talk radio listener, Sarah Palin fan, or a tea party person. He has been shown to apparently read the Communist Manifesto, Hitler's Mein Kampf, the New Republic magazine.
I find it odd that when a guy, convincingly in league with the islamic jihadists movement, slaughters people on a military base, the same people who spouted their theories about the Tcson guy--painting him to be thick with their political enemies---still have yet to call the islamic lunatic what he is. There was all the caution not to rush to any conclusions, and on and on. Really, it is nuts.
The judge who was assassinated was a relatively conservative judge. A Bush appointee, I believe (which in no way guarantees not being as crazy as one appointed by Obama, or Stalin, himself.), however it does take wind out of sails of those who are painting this thing as a vast right wing conspiracy.
But, divisiveness works. If you ain't one of us, you're one of THEM! And people buy it. I'm not one of either. I'm much closer to those people on the Homeland security list who distrust government, despise an all encompassing authority, and who think if you have to have a government it ought to be held to strict boundaries--which is why they have a constitution--than I am to those who have been pontificating about causes for this murder and suggesting dumbass rules to further their names and power.
People like that obnoxious Joy Behar--really, women like that are such a turn off--think it is a joke and somehow stupid to complain if the ruling authority violates its boundaries. That is now the chic thing to say--oh what's with this constitution loving going on?
Idiots. No point explaining it. (There are people who use the word, but they don't read it or understand it either. And I think it gives government too much power--but nothing close to the power it has taken anyway)
So, we'll do like they did when other figures were shot and blame everything and everyone except the shooter. They've gone from "we all bear the blame. Ours is a sick society", to "It's because we got fried in the last election. It is the ugly talk of the election that did this. And talk radio". Gimme a friggin break.
I listen to both sides of the spectrum and catch radio frequently. There are things I think are off or incorrect, but I never have heard any of the usual suspects even begin to promote violence, or even intimidation by shouting and all that. I can't say the same for the Al Franken crowd. I had a hell of a time listening when he was on with, I can't think of that guy's name--they had a guy that was so angry and full of hate he couldn't issue a simple declarative statement of fact and back it up. It was sad. Really, that guy makes Hannity seem not at all annoying. And I find Hannity a bit annoying. I find all talk show people annoying who butt in when a caller is trying to say something. Half the time they jump to conclusions and don't get what is being said.
Even so, that won't spark the unstable to kill judges and democrats. It is more likely to spark people of that sort to assault the radio hosts.
OK. I spent too long. The problem is, that due to the Big Pretense, they are implying that speech and who can use it, and how, should be more closely monitored--controlled. And of course the complete morons of the world assume that making more gun laws will change everything.
All the while we still ignore the fact that everyone knows exactly which neighborhoods they can enter if they want to get shot, raped, tortured, beat, and/or robbed. And we'll pretend it is not a racial matter. Whatever the reasons for it, obviously it has been handled in some way that made it worse. Probably because people pretended right was wrong and up was down.
You cannot fix anything by pretending something other than the problem is the problem. Academia types have become addicted to the big pretense. I heard some twits on NPR talking in that reasoned affected academic tone about the ins and outs of all the causes of the Tuscon event. Like they have a clue.
I have a clue. The biggest problem which underlies everything is the goddam Big PRETENSE.
Sarah Palin is not the culprit here. The insane talk I've heard re talk radio and anything not left wing is so far out of the park that those people would never convince me of anything. Did they ever listen to Air America? There was serious hate expressed over the air, and many suggestions of ways to kill Bush, Cheney, and others. Also many odd sexual references which would have presumably not been fun for the victim. I do not think they were actually inciting assassination, but it was far closer than any of the talk radio being blamed for this murder spree.
The absurd thing is that the guy has not been shown to be a talk radio listener, Sarah Palin fan, or a tea party person. He has been shown to apparently read the Communist Manifesto, Hitler's Mein Kampf, the New Republic magazine.
I find it odd that when a guy, convincingly in league with the islamic jihadists movement, slaughters people on a military base, the same people who spouted their theories about the Tcson guy--painting him to be thick with their political enemies---still have yet to call the islamic lunatic what he is. There was all the caution not to rush to any conclusions, and on and on. Really, it is nuts.
The judge who was assassinated was a relatively conservative judge. A Bush appointee, I believe (which in no way guarantees not being as crazy as one appointed by Obama, or Stalin, himself.), however it does take wind out of sails of those who are painting this thing as a vast right wing conspiracy.
But, divisiveness works. If you ain't one of us, you're one of THEM! And people buy it. I'm not one of either. I'm much closer to those people on the Homeland security list who distrust government, despise an all encompassing authority, and who think if you have to have a government it ought to be held to strict boundaries--which is why they have a constitution--than I am to those who have been pontificating about causes for this murder and suggesting dumbass rules to further their names and power.
People like that obnoxious Joy Behar--really, women like that are such a turn off--think it is a joke and somehow stupid to complain if the ruling authority violates its boundaries. That is now the chic thing to say--oh what's with this constitution loving going on?
Idiots. No point explaining it. (There are people who use the word, but they don't read it or understand it either. And I think it gives government too much power--but nothing close to the power it has taken anyway)
So, we'll do like they did when other figures were shot and blame everything and everyone except the shooter. They've gone from "we all bear the blame. Ours is a sick society", to "It's because we got fried in the last election. It is the ugly talk of the election that did this. And talk radio". Gimme a friggin break.
I listen to both sides of the spectrum and catch radio frequently. There are things I think are off or incorrect, but I never have heard any of the usual suspects even begin to promote violence, or even intimidation by shouting and all that. I can't say the same for the Al Franken crowd. I had a hell of a time listening when he was on with, I can't think of that guy's name--they had a guy that was so angry and full of hate he couldn't issue a simple declarative statement of fact and back it up. It was sad. Really, that guy makes Hannity seem not at all annoying. And I find Hannity a bit annoying. I find all talk show people annoying who butt in when a caller is trying to say something. Half the time they jump to conclusions and don't get what is being said.
Even so, that won't spark the unstable to kill judges and democrats. It is more likely to spark people of that sort to assault the radio hosts.
OK. I spent too long. The problem is, that due to the Big Pretense, they are implying that speech and who can use it, and how, should be more closely monitored--controlled. And of course the complete morons of the world assume that making more gun laws will change everything.
All the while we still ignore the fact that everyone knows exactly which neighborhoods they can enter if they want to get shot, raped, tortured, beat, and/or robbed. And we'll pretend it is not a racial matter. Whatever the reasons for it, obviously it has been handled in some way that made it worse. Probably because people pretended right was wrong and up was down.
You cannot fix anything by pretending something other than the problem is the problem. Academia types have become addicted to the big pretense. I heard some twits on NPR talking in that reasoned affected academic tone about the ins and outs of all the causes of the Tuscon event. Like they have a clue.
I have a clue. The biggest problem which underlies everything is the goddam Big PRETENSE.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Break on Through to the Other Side
It felt like fourth and ten, and I had to go for it. Do or die.
That sounds very lame, dramatic, and a little cliche. Sorry. I'm a fan of going for it on fourth down. I like it when that happens. This is why I don't gamble in the context of betting or in casinos. I tend to jump without a parachute, so to speak. From high places.
This all has little to do with the barrier I'm talking about, even if it was beginning to seem like it. My barrier was that I was stuck on page 99 of my story, and I was thinking it sucks and that it was going to end up boring, slow, and ill conceived. Truthfully, I was thinking that is what you would think, and what anyone who has seen most of what I have up until now thinks.
Then I decided I get nowhere when I concern myself with what you think. No offense. It is just that I know myself well enough to know I care about what you think of any creative endeavor of mine, and it can make or break me if I am not real careful. Past experience tells me to just follow my instincts, and not let it bother me until the project is done. And even then to trust my own judgement.
There have been plenty of examples of this syndrome in my life, and almost without fail, if I yielded to doubts of friends or imagined negative response, it turned out I was wrong to give up on whatever it was. Imagining the rejection and disapproval before a thing is done, excluding the opportunity to fail fair and square, is stupid. OK, call me stupid.
A commitment to finish this thing was made early on. I'm not good at commitment or resolution. I have a friend back in NC who is solid like that. When JT resolves to do something, it is done. Doesn't matter how much hardship is involved. Matters out of his control may baffle him, but if he said he'd move the Empire state building to LA, brick by brick, by hand, using only a hammer, a trowel, and a wheelbarrow, he'd do it or die in the process. I hope he'll never see the need to do that.
Anyway, I was stuck at page 99. Finally I started making notes on a notepad trying to resolve a situation in the story. I forgot all about what anyone else may think. It has been a long time since I've written much with pen and paper, in my own script.
It still has to be typed now, and added to the ever growing file, and some things expanded from outline form, but I am way past page 100, and it feels like it is gaining some momentum. Blind faith. That's the foundation. I plow on because I have faith it will work out. Maybe not exactly how I think it will, but close enough, and possibly better. Possibly worse. The big deal here is to finish what I started.
The 100 page mark is a big deal. In my mind it is the crucial barrier to break. After that you're riding with the wind. Once it is finished, then I will edit the entire thing. And then I'll see what others have to say. Maybe during the editing process I'll allow limited, selective input--which I'll probably fight, ignore, and eventually heed. Then, we'll see.
The real story is baking in the back of my mind and I want to write it when this one is done. It's likely to have a lot more violence in it, but not because the topic is violent.
In short, the 100 page barrier has been shattered.
That sounds very lame, dramatic, and a little cliche. Sorry. I'm a fan of going for it on fourth down. I like it when that happens. This is why I don't gamble in the context of betting or in casinos. I tend to jump without a parachute, so to speak. From high places.
This all has little to do with the barrier I'm talking about, even if it was beginning to seem like it. My barrier was that I was stuck on page 99 of my story, and I was thinking it sucks and that it was going to end up boring, slow, and ill conceived. Truthfully, I was thinking that is what you would think, and what anyone who has seen most of what I have up until now thinks.
Then I decided I get nowhere when I concern myself with what you think. No offense. It is just that I know myself well enough to know I care about what you think of any creative endeavor of mine, and it can make or break me if I am not real careful. Past experience tells me to just follow my instincts, and not let it bother me until the project is done. And even then to trust my own judgement.
There have been plenty of examples of this syndrome in my life, and almost without fail, if I yielded to doubts of friends or imagined negative response, it turned out I was wrong to give up on whatever it was. Imagining the rejection and disapproval before a thing is done, excluding the opportunity to fail fair and square, is stupid. OK, call me stupid.
A commitment to finish this thing was made early on. I'm not good at commitment or resolution. I have a friend back in NC who is solid like that. When JT resolves to do something, it is done. Doesn't matter how much hardship is involved. Matters out of his control may baffle him, but if he said he'd move the Empire state building to LA, brick by brick, by hand, using only a hammer, a trowel, and a wheelbarrow, he'd do it or die in the process. I hope he'll never see the need to do that.
Anyway, I was stuck at page 99. Finally I started making notes on a notepad trying to resolve a situation in the story. I forgot all about what anyone else may think. It has been a long time since I've written much with pen and paper, in my own script.
It still has to be typed now, and added to the ever growing file, and some things expanded from outline form, but I am way past page 100, and it feels like it is gaining some momentum. Blind faith. That's the foundation. I plow on because I have faith it will work out. Maybe not exactly how I think it will, but close enough, and possibly better. Possibly worse. The big deal here is to finish what I started.
The 100 page mark is a big deal. In my mind it is the crucial barrier to break. After that you're riding with the wind. Once it is finished, then I will edit the entire thing. And then I'll see what others have to say. Maybe during the editing process I'll allow limited, selective input--which I'll probably fight, ignore, and eventually heed. Then, we'll see.
The real story is baking in the back of my mind and I want to write it when this one is done. It's likely to have a lot more violence in it, but not because the topic is violent.
In short, the 100 page barrier has been shattered.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Those Without a Clue Find Blind Faith Useful
It helps to have a few obligations here and there in the realm of work and else--bills excluded. I do not find the same usefulness in obligations of that nature that some do. That's because I live with my head in the clouds, or so I was told once or twice. No argument.
That brings me to a pressing question: What the heck is synthetic oil made of if it isn't oil? I got a good deal so I put it in the car this time. Still determined to do the oil changes myself. After much worry and anxiety, I did the plugs last oil change. They aren't super easy to get to and I was worried about opening a can of worms, especially after reading some forum posts regarding changing plugs in a car like mine. Just like most math teachers, they made it seem more complicated than it is.
Finally, I decided I was being a wimp and underselling myself to think that I couldn't find a way to install plugs, not lose the socket down the deep abyss, and not cross thread the things even though they are 20 feet down in a hole. It was not much more trouble than changing oil.
See, that was an example of blind faith. I knew no one who had done it on this type car, and had no step by step guide. Experience and logic told me which wires went to the spark plugs, so, as is so often the case, I just followed the electricity. In hindsight I should have done it while the engine was running, then sued because no clearly legible placards in my language of choice were posted telling me not to change spark plugs while the engine is running. Where's John Edwards when you need him? Oh, I guess his late wife wondered the same thing.
Gives NC a bad name. Too bad. Tar Heels are the salt of the earth. Really.
In my defense, I will say I had to remove a thing or two; some of the stuff they have on late model cars whose purpose is either well disguised, unknown, or non existent. I love these new plugs whose electrodes don't look like the old type, and which don't require gapping. Made of plutonium or uranium or something. DO NOT EAT.
Once again, blind faith. How could I be sure these funny looking things would work at all? Ponder that while you eat my dust. A bit of Subris there. If you missed it, that's the condition of subaru smugness. Actually, I don't fit the Subaru mold any more than I fit the vegetarian stereotype. For that I am grateful, I think.
Stuck at page 100. Need to work out a few things and remove from mind any considerations of what anyone else will think, then I will plow on and finish this thing. Then I can write the other things that have come to mind. I better make notes about them before I forget. Or fall into another cycle of the blues. Yoyo man. That is what I tauntingly call myself these days. Then I resent myself for that and plot ways to beat myself up if I say it again.
That brings me to a pressing question: What the heck is synthetic oil made of if it isn't oil? I got a good deal so I put it in the car this time. Still determined to do the oil changes myself. After much worry and anxiety, I did the plugs last oil change. They aren't super easy to get to and I was worried about opening a can of worms, especially after reading some forum posts regarding changing plugs in a car like mine. Just like most math teachers, they made it seem more complicated than it is.
Finally, I decided I was being a wimp and underselling myself to think that I couldn't find a way to install plugs, not lose the socket down the deep abyss, and not cross thread the things even though they are 20 feet down in a hole. It was not much more trouble than changing oil.
See, that was an example of blind faith. I knew no one who had done it on this type car, and had no step by step guide. Experience and logic told me which wires went to the spark plugs, so, as is so often the case, I just followed the electricity. In hindsight I should have done it while the engine was running, then sued because no clearly legible placards in my language of choice were posted telling me not to change spark plugs while the engine is running. Where's John Edwards when you need him? Oh, I guess his late wife wondered the same thing.
Gives NC a bad name. Too bad. Tar Heels are the salt of the earth. Really.
In my defense, I will say I had to remove a thing or two; some of the stuff they have on late model cars whose purpose is either well disguised, unknown, or non existent. I love these new plugs whose electrodes don't look like the old type, and which don't require gapping. Made of plutonium or uranium or something. DO NOT EAT.
Once again, blind faith. How could I be sure these funny looking things would work at all? Ponder that while you eat my dust. A bit of Subris there. If you missed it, that's the condition of subaru smugness. Actually, I don't fit the Subaru mold any more than I fit the vegetarian stereotype. For that I am grateful, I think.
Stuck at page 100. Need to work out a few things and remove from mind any considerations of what anyone else will think, then I will plow on and finish this thing. Then I can write the other things that have come to mind. I better make notes about them before I forget. Or fall into another cycle of the blues. Yoyo man. That is what I tauntingly call myself these days. Then I resent myself for that and plot ways to beat myself up if I say it again.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Rain and Rain
More rain in Southern California. There was some slight chance of snow at my altitude but it doesn't look like that will happen. Unlike other places I've lived, when it rains here it seems more difficult to ignore it.
It would be nice to once again be in the state of mind I enjoyed for a short period of time several years ago. For what seems like a brief moment I accepted what I am and what I am not and didn't feel apologetic about it. I was less inhibited when it came to being happily strange and what I think was creatively funny. Had to be there to get it.
Lately, the humor is nowhere to be found. It's easier to look at information which does me no good and which I can't change. Always plenty of food for thought and opinion. But I have lost interest in bothering with it. Conspiracies abound, I think. But that is considered mental illness now, suspecting that things are not as they seem in the big picture. If you don't trust your dedicated officials and self proclaimed leaders, you could find yourself on the wrong side of homeland security.
Not me. I believe it is all there for my own good and that various agencies and the Ad Council know best. I've seen the light.
Sometimes I wish I was still married, but I do recall certain things that lead me to believe it is possible that I may not have been in the right place with the right person. Even if I had been clear headed and sober, which I wasn't. That was a generation ago so it bears no relevance now.
Restless is what is going on now. Painfully restless with no thought of why or what I think is the cure. It will come to me. It always comes down to don't give up.
It would be nice to once again be in the state of mind I enjoyed for a short period of time several years ago. For what seems like a brief moment I accepted what I am and what I am not and didn't feel apologetic about it. I was less inhibited when it came to being happily strange and what I think was creatively funny. Had to be there to get it.
Lately, the humor is nowhere to be found. It's easier to look at information which does me no good and which I can't change. Always plenty of food for thought and opinion. But I have lost interest in bothering with it. Conspiracies abound, I think. But that is considered mental illness now, suspecting that things are not as they seem in the big picture. If you don't trust your dedicated officials and self proclaimed leaders, you could find yourself on the wrong side of homeland security.
Not me. I believe it is all there for my own good and that various agencies and the Ad Council know best. I've seen the light.
Sometimes I wish I was still married, but I do recall certain things that lead me to believe it is possible that I may not have been in the right place with the right person. Even if I had been clear headed and sober, which I wasn't. That was a generation ago so it bears no relevance now.
Restless is what is going on now. Painfully restless with no thought of why or what I think is the cure. It will come to me. It always comes down to don't give up.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Three Amigos
For some reason, on New Year's Eve, I thought of my three best friends from high school. By all appearances I had many friends at that time, but in reality I only had a very few close friends, and even then I wouldn't say we were all that close. It is all relative.
The thing that struck me was that all three died before reaching the age of 35, and all three in alcohol or drug related circumstances. One died while we were still in high school. He was a person who had taught me a lot and done much to help me out of a shell I was in. He was drunk, and the guy whose car he was sitting on was drunk. That guy had just had a tiff with his girlfriend, hopped in the car and took off. He rounded a corner half a block away and Eddie flew off the trunk and landed on his head on the sidewalk. The driver didn't even know he was there most likely. A week in a coma, and he was gone.
Many people thought Eddie was a nut. He was very bright and sometimes misunderstood, and sometimes he was a nut. We got along and I was glad that he and I always seemed to have an understanding that is not that common. It made it easier to take the loss because I had no regrets in the course of the friendship.
His cousin, David, and I remained good friends, and David proved to be as loyal a friend as I had. He wrecked a car at about age 30, while driving drunk, and that was it. I was long out of Miami by then but tried to find him on my return when I was 35. I did regret losing touch over the years. He was a solid person with a big heart. He drank like I did, at least.
Then there was Marq. Yea, with a Q. Anyway, he was another really bright guy who did not fit the mold, but of all of us he seemed to have the best life skills, and seemed the most likely to be heading up a corporation or otherwise finding success. But Marq liked to live fast and on the edge. He was one to push the envelope. He was maybe 33 when he overdosed on drugs. I'm not sure if it was heroin but I think so. I found out about him when I returned to Miami as well. Keeping contact with him may or may not have been a good idea. It seemed we tended to lead each other closer to the edge.
I think it is just the way of the draw that one of them is not here remembering me instead of how it is. There were many times when it should have or could have been me, long before the last two lives ended. But I seemed to have a guardian angel or very good luck. I could feel it, and on more than one occasion I was stunned at how I'd survived some mishap that seemed sure to be my last.
All of us were riding a roller coaster from the time we were fifteen, and it kept going faster with more sudden turns and dips. I guess I managed to get off before the car I was in completely derailed and crashed. Since then it has still been a roller coaster ride. Maybe I didn't really get off but managed to cut the power to it and it has just been coasting to a stop. Must have been hauling ass for the inertia to have carried so far for so long. It still almost flew off the track a time or two, but nothing like it was during those twenty years of chaos.
I guess when I decided to change the course of things I thought maybe they'd have already straightened out their lives. It was weird to discover they hadn't lasted long enough for us to have that conversation.
This is not meant to be a sad and morbid thing, though it may sound that way. Things are what they are. I remembered them with a feeling that they'd be cheering me on saying "Don't give up". Silly as that sounds, that is how it felt. As much as the current battle has everything to do with not giving up, I appreciated it.
The thing that struck me was that all three died before reaching the age of 35, and all three in alcohol or drug related circumstances. One died while we were still in high school. He was a person who had taught me a lot and done much to help me out of a shell I was in. He was drunk, and the guy whose car he was sitting on was drunk. That guy had just had a tiff with his girlfriend, hopped in the car and took off. He rounded a corner half a block away and Eddie flew off the trunk and landed on his head on the sidewalk. The driver didn't even know he was there most likely. A week in a coma, and he was gone.
Many people thought Eddie was a nut. He was very bright and sometimes misunderstood, and sometimes he was a nut. We got along and I was glad that he and I always seemed to have an understanding that is not that common. It made it easier to take the loss because I had no regrets in the course of the friendship.
His cousin, David, and I remained good friends, and David proved to be as loyal a friend as I had. He wrecked a car at about age 30, while driving drunk, and that was it. I was long out of Miami by then but tried to find him on my return when I was 35. I did regret losing touch over the years. He was a solid person with a big heart. He drank like I did, at least.
Then there was Marq. Yea, with a Q. Anyway, he was another really bright guy who did not fit the mold, but of all of us he seemed to have the best life skills, and seemed the most likely to be heading up a corporation or otherwise finding success. But Marq liked to live fast and on the edge. He was one to push the envelope. He was maybe 33 when he overdosed on drugs. I'm not sure if it was heroin but I think so. I found out about him when I returned to Miami as well. Keeping contact with him may or may not have been a good idea. It seemed we tended to lead each other closer to the edge.
I think it is just the way of the draw that one of them is not here remembering me instead of how it is. There were many times when it should have or could have been me, long before the last two lives ended. But I seemed to have a guardian angel or very good luck. I could feel it, and on more than one occasion I was stunned at how I'd survived some mishap that seemed sure to be my last.
All of us were riding a roller coaster from the time we were fifteen, and it kept going faster with more sudden turns and dips. I guess I managed to get off before the car I was in completely derailed and crashed. Since then it has still been a roller coaster ride. Maybe I didn't really get off but managed to cut the power to it and it has just been coasting to a stop. Must have been hauling ass for the inertia to have carried so far for so long. It still almost flew off the track a time or two, but nothing like it was during those twenty years of chaos.
I guess when I decided to change the course of things I thought maybe they'd have already straightened out their lives. It was weird to discover they hadn't lasted long enough for us to have that conversation.
This is not meant to be a sad and morbid thing, though it may sound that way. Things are what they are. I remembered them with a feeling that they'd be cheering me on saying "Don't give up". Silly as that sounds, that is how it felt. As much as the current battle has everything to do with not giving up, I appreciated it.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Car Show
A friend said, hey let's go to the car show. Didn't cost me anything, so, OK. I don't really care much about things I am not driving, and couldn't buy if I wanted to.
He's in a related business having to do with replacing and repairing wrecked rides. I thought he'd be into it, what my car people pals in NC called a "car queer". Turns out no.
What was interesting were the people. Old folks on Buicks, everyone on most cars, except the BMW people who were pawing the Beemers--they tend to be more easily identifiable. Very serious and posh sorts.
I thought it would be good to go so technology wouldn't take me by surprise. In reality, there is nothing all that new. Cars I thought were 100% electric have high horse power gas engines to make them practical. Practical if you ignore the purchase price.
Education is always good.
The best part was a wheelchair with half tracks and the low riders we saw lining the street at Chicano park just before entering the freeway on the way home.
They had four or five Packards lined up, then old pontiacs Chevy, etc. All in great shape and all sitting about an inch off the road because the shocks weren't pumped up. Must have been fifty cars or so. A regular weekend event, apparently.
I am suspect of any racist park name but that is how it is. Makes me think they probably hate every iota of a cracker, but maybe the low rider crowd is too busy making their cars shine and jump. I have to get down there again some weekend and see if they kill me or if I have fun.
Who knew jumping low riders were still on the scene? Not I.
And that is pretty much all you need to know about cars in 2011. Oh, and the price of Subarus is about the same as 2008. Also a new word I learned, "Subris", the condition that makes Subaru drivers think they can drive better than everyone else in the rain.
In my case, it is true- rain or shine.
He's in a related business having to do with replacing and repairing wrecked rides. I thought he'd be into it, what my car people pals in NC called a "car queer". Turns out no.
What was interesting were the people. Old folks on Buicks, everyone on most cars, except the BMW people who were pawing the Beemers--they tend to be more easily identifiable. Very serious and posh sorts.
I thought it would be good to go so technology wouldn't take me by surprise. In reality, there is nothing all that new. Cars I thought were 100% electric have high horse power gas engines to make them practical. Practical if you ignore the purchase price.
Education is always good.
The best part was a wheelchair with half tracks and the low riders we saw lining the street at Chicano park just before entering the freeway on the way home.
They had four or five Packards lined up, then old pontiacs Chevy, etc. All in great shape and all sitting about an inch off the road because the shocks weren't pumped up. Must have been fifty cars or so. A regular weekend event, apparently.
I am suspect of any racist park name but that is how it is. Makes me think they probably hate every iota of a cracker, but maybe the low rider crowd is too busy making their cars shine and jump. I have to get down there again some weekend and see if they kill me or if I have fun.
Who knew jumping low riders were still on the scene? Not I.
And that is pretty much all you need to know about cars in 2011. Oh, and the price of Subarus is about the same as 2008. Also a new word I learned, "Subris", the condition that makes Subaru drivers think they can drive better than everyone else in the rain.
In my case, it is true- rain or shine.
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About Me
- John0 Juanderlust
- Ballistic Mountain, CA, United States
- Like spring on a summer's day
