Stupidity is evil

About 20 years ago I was talking with a guy at UT while we were waiting for the professor to arrive. We were discussing religion, relationships and dating and somehow the subject shifted to arranged marriages. I don’t believe in arranged marriages. That is not part of my background or culture. It may have been back in Africa before the great abductions, but I ain’t there and I don’t care. I think parents have more than their share of influence over their kids’ choices, esp. when the kids become adults. Picking out your future spouse is overkill in my book. So anyway I told him I didn’t agree with the idea of arranged marriage. He went into this pseudohomily about the 10 Commandments and “Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother” and started telling me about Biblical Conservatism and strict interpretations of the bible. At one time I considered myself a conservative christian, but as the cliche says, this guy took the cake.

Some stuff in the Bible falls under “What the hell are you talking about?” Sorry. Don’t wish to offend. But it just does. I got the no stealing thing. I think I have a good take on the adultery thing, though I have had disagreements with overzealous pastors over that (she wasn’t married). Most of the 10 I understand. Who decides what is honor and what is dishonor as far as parents are concerned? How does wanting to find one’s own way in the world do dishonor to one’s parents? When I was a little kid I hurt my grandmother’s feelings once when I said I wanted to move out and buy my own house. That’s disappointment, not dishonor. If the writer of the 10 Commandments meant to say that parents are never to suffer disappointment in life from their kids’ choices, well I don’t agree and we’re gonna have to part company on that one.

Stealing your parents’ things and selling it to buy drugs is a dishonorable act. Becoming a chef instead of whatever the parent and grandparent had for a career may disappoint them but it is not dishonoring them. Disappointment, just like skinned knees, is part of life. Suck it up. Get over it. Move on. Or in the immortal words of Shannon Clark, “I beg your pardon. I never promised you a rose garden.” There is still too much familial burdening and imposed expectations in the world. Life is to freaking short for that crap.

Stupidity is evil because when people say, “well that’s the way we’ve always done it” then either try to make you feel guilty or worse try to drag God into the discussion of the supposed guilt, they’re being stupid. And it’s evil. When someone tells you “have faith” instead of “I don’t know” in answer to your question, they’re being stupid. And it’s evil. Hand-me-down living, the rationing of information and suppression of questioning are evil. I don’t care that we’ve always done it a certain way. If you don’t know I’m going to find out and if I have to ask why, I will.

Good comeback

A man boarded a plane with 6 kids. After they got settled in their seats a woman sitting across the aisle from him leaned over to him and asked, “Are all of those kids yours?”

He replied, “No. I work for a condom company. These are customer complaints.”

13 to 12 Shift

As a part of my study of natural time I am reading a book on ancient calendars. So far I see that there was a switch from a 13month to a 12month calculation. I am trying to figure out why that is since it happened both in the west and east.

An eye on “Ops”

The military and the alphabet agencies are known for using the abbreviation “Ops.” On paper it is used to abbreviate “Operations” and on one level that’s what it is referring to. A couple of weeks ago I was engaged in one of several motor functions at work and as my mind was running about like ferrets, I made a rather bizarre connection, which is pretty normal for me. Whenever and wherever you hear someone say “Ops” or you see it in print, substitute “Eye.” It shifts the perspective in some interesting directions.

Learn to think of abbreviations as symbols. Our subconscious reads them in many different ways from our conscious mind. We need to learn to see things the way our subconscious sees them.

The American Economy and Destructive Relationships

Once, someone described their relationship to me:

He tortures you some.
Then he gives a little.
Then he tortures you some more.

That’s pretty much the American economy. It’s the asshole. We’re its bitch. The periods of fattening are followed by lean years without a clear distinction. So towards the end of what is euphemistically referred to as a “prosperous business cycle,” people keep charging and spending and not paying it all back and then find themselves in a recession with less means to get by because there was no saving going on other than whatever retirement program they have set up through work.

It is a destructive relationship, because both parties are to blame. Business, Commerce, Advertising, Marketing…the corporate world is corrupt and the people complement that corruption with impulsive spending and not saving.

These gasoline hikes have been a much needed two-by-four upside the head for most of us. We have needed to awaken from the financial hypnotic stupor we’ve been walking around in most of our lives.

On Geritol Man and the MILF

If McCain and Palin were Pres. and VP right now I’d go to the Supreme Court and have them both legally declared dead and swear in Nancy Pelosi as POTUS. At least she isn’t caught up in this media shit cyclone of foolishness with millions of horny guys saying how they’d like to F Gov. Palin and all these issues surrounding her. I’m concerned about what’s going to happen Jan. 21 when Bush and Cheney exit the White House. I want the dollar to stabilize and the mortgage industry to get their heads out of their asses and stop raping the homeowners and the price of everything to quit going up so GD fast. The rest of this stuff is making us look like a nation tripping on crack and LSD and throwing a giant wobbly, as my Aussie friends would say.

In the immortal words of the Late George Carlin, “…It’s all bullshit, folks. It’s all bullshit. And it’s bad for ya.”

Limbo

There is this nutty situation that has developed at work. We’re supposed to have a meeting at our discretion. For the past two weeks we have been in situations where we have the time but not the people and other situations where we have the people but not the time.

Amazon finally cuts the crap

I just got a shipment of books in a plain padded envelope with a label glued on it instead of a box with the books shrink-wrapped to a piece of cardboard with air baggies filling up the rest of the space. I did not recognize the package. So if the packaging is costing them less maybe they can lower the threshold for free shipping.

How Privatization is Fascism

When officials start talking about privatizing programs that were invented by the government they are making a fascist move. This isn’t like the movies where the world is run by a single company with one logo and one face telling you strychnine is food. Whatever investment company they try to sell Social Security to, whether it is one or a group, that will be the fascist dictator of your retirement. Whatever national healthcare we end up with, whatever major owner and administer of hospitals (Columbia, Seton, etc) that gets the contract, that will be the fascist dictator of your healthcare.

If they turned everything over in one package we’d notice. Instead of that it’s done piecemeal. One dysfunctional-by-design entity gets taken over by a corporation at a time and along the way there will be talk about stock markets and investments being helped by privatization. They get our buy-in, one sell-out at a time until the whole thing is gone.

Time for a reset

Okay. Everyone who has, is or is trying to form an opinion on this taffy-pull of pregnancy rumors, it’s time to put the macro-focusing, tunnel vision binoculars down. Take three steps back. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Hold it. Exhale. Open your eyes again and try to see what’s really going on. We’re still between the conventions and already we’ve got lies, rumors of lies and “indiscretions” along with spin control and forecasts about what all of this means to this shaky trans-generational campaign being waged by McCain, Inc. So instead of focusing on what’s going to be said at the Republican Convention in Minnesota this week, we’re spending an inordinate amount of time playing a game of “Who’s yer momma?” Is anyone paying attention to the fact that we’re using a baby as fuel in this debate? Whenever there is a death and some politician tries to get a few miles or kilometers out of it, someone calls them to the carpet and asks is there any respect for the dead? Well is there any respect for the infant?

Nobody knew who the hell Sarah Palin was three weeks ago. I’m sorry but I don’t follow state governors or their politics much. McCain is trying to be seen as some sort of rebel or maverick doing something unconventional and unexpected by picking this little known person who has some leadership experience at the state level. Some may see it for what it is intended. It’s a false uniqueness. It’s the left-brain trying to fake a right-brain action…little more than the same political BS.

I don’t know how exactly the voters are going to react by November. Americans tend to have short memories. I don’t think this move is going to work for the Republicans. Younger women who see Hillary as something like their own mothers aren’t going to see the same thing in Palin and vice-versa. As far as the teen pregnancy, I’m missing the part where I’m supposed to care. It’s yet another set of teenagers who would have done better to keep their knickers up. Why I should care anymore about this than I did about Jamie-Lynn?

Can we get the convention started? Or do we have to wait until October when the brunt of the hurricane season is behind us?