Evolved

I would like to think of myself as evolved.  According to psychologist Carl Rogers, a fully functioning person is one who is in touch with their deepest, innermost feelings and desires, one who works toward self-actualization, who is realistic, yet open to new experiences and capable of changing in response to those experiences.  I have a sense of ethics, a command of language, an understanding of logical fallacies, and a social perspective; the understanding that I am not an island but part of a larger humanity.  I have a sense of responsibility, discipline and compassion. 

Combine that with 65 years of social experience, 40 years of career experience, and 44 years of marriage, and I would think that would qualify me as capable of making a variety of value judgements about the world around me.

Maybe the things and people that drive me nuts do so simply by contrast.  

Maybe ignorance really is a kind of bliss.  I mean, if a person doesn't really understand what constitutes sexism, racism or sexual prejudice, they can't see anything wrong with committing same, and they can't properly identify it when they see it.  If a person stereotypes the unemployed and homeless as generally lazy, they have no problem with cutting social programs.  

If someone really doesn't understand the difference between intelligent oratory and word salad, they probably don't see much of a problem with people like Palin, Bachmann, O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity and other talking heads.  

About 30% of Americans think homosexuality is a lifestyle choice.
About 20% think Obama is a Muslim.
Anti-vaxxers believe vaccinations cause autism, in spite of evidence to the contrary. And so, pertussis - a disease vaccination made rare - has made a huge comeback.

And then, of course, there's the Dunning-Kruger effect.  As comedian John Cleese put it,"If you're very, very stupid, how can you possibly realize that you're stupid?"

Question:  If someone coming up the street is carrying an AR-15, how do you determine if he's a good guy or a bad guy?

Question:  What balloon-headed suit and tie signed off on launching a flying device with spinning blades inside a restaurant?

Maybe I'm just too evolved for my own good…for my own sanity.

It Makes You Wonder

There has been a considerable amount of research done, and an equal amount of articles written about the God gene; specifically that certain areas of the brain "light up" and show activity when one is engaged in spiritually-related thought.  And I've often wondered how it was for early man, before people came together as hunter-gatherers and farmers, and began to live together in communities. Back before the first shamans arose, back before priests and "organized religion."  Back when it was just Man, and the world around him. How did he express his sense of wonder about everything, before written language, before people began to "divide" themselves into various "denominations."

But that's not specifically what this blog entry is about.  I'm more fascinated with brain activity as it relates to individual interests and abilities, along with the mystery of genetics as they relate to the same interests and abilities.

As a student of music and literature, I have had countless experiences with individuals who display both strengths and weaknesses regarding writing and sound.  On one hand, there are people that demonstrate considerable comprehension with tone recognition, rhythm sequences, chordal structure and creativity with musical elements.  And of course, there are those who demonstrate just the opposite; they have little to no ability in discerning pitch or musical structure.  They may listen to music, but they don't understand it.

And the same holds true for language and literature.  I've known people who display an innate ability for writing, character development, and literary devices like irony, imagery, foreshadowing, etc., in spite of their level of language mastery (including grammar).  They may make technical errors, but they display a real penchant for writing, reporting, story telling, etc.

And combining these two areas - music and language - I've seen the same thing.  There are people with considerable musical ability who seem to lack the talent for song writing or creation, which includes the elements of meter and rhyme.  They can copy or emulate a song, but they lack the talent to actually create one.

Taking this train of thought, I've applied it to other areas of human interest.  This may not be specifically scientific, but I do believe there is validity and merit in my theory;  that people don't (or don't always) gravitate toward an interest because they like it, but in fact they gravitate towards it and like it because they possess a talent or skill in that area.  

I have had guitar students who have persevered and been religious about practice/rehearsal, but it was clear to me that they would probably not progress or develop past a certain level of competency.  They could play the instrument with some accuracy, but they would never rise to the level of writing/performing.  Again, they could play, but they seemed to lack the creative spark.

The concept of nature vs nurture usually comes up at this point in the conversation, and I totally agree with it; that the level to which a person advances with any ability is a combination of both natural ability and encouragement of that ability.

My point in all this is that if people can display what seem to be natural, elemental abilities - music, language, mathematics, sports, dance, painting - then it seems totally valid to me that some people's brains are more attuned to spiritual and existential thought, and other people's brains just don't have the same electrical circuits in that part of the brain.

There's no question that people express different levels of spirituality, or at least they express it in different ways, from simple quiet meditation to writing on the floor in an almost epileptic state.  I don't believe this is totally a matter of nurture and how they were brought-up.

It is my belief that just as people exhibit varying levels of ability and interest in activities - music, art, sports, hunting, fishing, child care, elder care, you name it - something in our brains is connected with or related to a sense of spirituality and existentialism. That particular circuit of the brain can be simple and uncomplicated or it can be more advanced. 

Now, clearly, anything can be taken to a level of absurdity and dementia.  As humans, we can become fixated and obsessed with most anything.  This is no secret or epiphany.  

I firmly believe that as the science of brain mapping advances, that most all areas of human ability and talent will be identified if not measured.

Word Abuse - Addiction

There are many words in the English language which are misused and abused.  One of my favorites is myriad, which seems to have really gained popularity with media talking heads.  This word is an adjective - like big, or green, or loud.  It does not require a preposition.  But this is an abuse of mechanics; not meaning.

What I find more aggravating is when people abuse words for purposes of exaggeration.  They want to express their feelings about something, so they use the most powerful word they can find. Obviously, the word awesome has been done to death.

Today, I want to talk about addiction.  This word is most commonly used regarding the use of a habit-forming substance; something that is clearly harmful to the body and which will result in withdrawal symptoms when the person quits or reduces usage of said substance. Opiates and alcohol immediately come to mind as examples.

Unfortunately, this is not the scenario to which people refer when they talk/brag about their affection for things like:  chocolate, junk food, pastries, or sex, but they will insist that they are indeed addicted to them.  Rubbish.

Addiction - in the form of a craving, yen, or passion - is a normal human condition.  Anything that feels good, or that we like the taste of, we generally want more of.  Sorry for the grammar, there, but that's the way it is.  If it brings us any kind of pleasure, we want more.  But the point is that this passion or affection is not limited to just food or physical pleasure; it can include other common, popular leisure activities - lawn care, football, hunting, fishing…the list is endless.  But again, people will insist that they are indeed addicted to ________ whatever.

Actual addiction is - above all else - a rather pathetic or hopeless state of being; not just a matter of lack of will power.  What many people suffer from is simply a lack of (or refusal to exercise) moderation.  A little is good, so more is better.  Addiction occurs when your particular passion takes control of your life such that it affects the quality of your work, your job attendance, your duties and obligations to employer and family.  At that point, you're probably in need of some professional counseling or a big wake-up call.

For most of us, things like chocolate, junk food, sex, or even alcohol are not a big problem.  We put things in perspective.  Life is a series of ups and downs, of anticipation and satiation.  Steak usually tastes better if you don't eat every day. Hunger can be a good thing.

I think what people infer when they use the word addiction is that they are not to blame for their actions, for their excesses because….well…they're addicted.

Bollocks.  Moderation - a form of mental balance - requires effort, and that is the part some don't like.  Indulgence isn't a matter of effort (although energy is expended); it's just an abandonment of control.  

Having a passion for something (or somebody) does not mean that one jettisons all sense of control.  

I think we misuse the word addiction in the same sense as the word love.

What we really mean is, we just like it a lot.

Truth be told, at the end of the day, we're ALL addicted to something or other. The only thing that makes the difference is that most of us are in control of our addictions.  And the rest - they don't seem to know when enough is enough; that you can only get so high in the moment, that there should be moderation and periods of non-indulgence.  Most everything in Life is defined by contrasts; hot/cold, light/dark, up/down.  But for too many, a hundred is not enough and one is too many.  And that's true for everything, not just alcohol.

Some Thoughts This Holiday Season

The other day, I ran into this rather hateful person on another internet blogging platform.  She was an interesting person; seemingly well spoken, either a nurse or some other kind of professional in the health care system, very positive in her sexuality, but one of the more hateful atheists I've run across in a while.  It wasn't just enough to believe or not believe and just coexist; there had to be bashing and ridicule involved.  And that just rubbed me wrong.

I told her it's entirely possible for either an atheist or theist world to devolve into a screaming murder festival.  The religious leader sends his people into battle because he thinks his god commanded it.  And the Stalins and Maos of the world do the same because they see their people as nothing more than meaty fuel to be ground up to feed the machinery of the State.  But in both cases, the people are equally dead.

There are good (and bad) people on either side of the argument.  Atheists have people like Warren Buffet who donated over $40,000K to humanitarian causes. Bill Gates who donated over $27 billion to global health and education.  Believers have people like Mother Theresa, Albert Schweitzer, MLK, John D. Rockefellar.  All these people - for one reason or another - believed in generosity and philanthropy.  And then, atheists have people like Jeffrey Dahmer, Mao, Stalin, Ted Kaczynski.  Believers have shitstains like Fred Phelps, al-Zawahiri, the KKK, and New England witch hunters.

I told this woman that atheists experience SOME sense of morality.  When somebody hustles you out of $10 on ebay, you don't nod and say,"Interesting. This fellow lacks the genetic predisposition toward equitable dealing that generations of sexual selection in favor of social behavior has instilled in the rest of us."  Hell, no!  You're pissed. You think what that guy did was wrong.  You want justice. You think he should have acted differently.

I told her that even though there's no wrong molecule floating in the air and there's no justice element on the Periodic Table, you think a swindler should have acted some other way, according to some invisible ideal that everybody is aware of and knows about.

Life is not all a matter of cold, hard reason. We all have a little crazy in our worlds, and we all depend on some fantasy that floats outside the boundaries of cold reason.  What about that notion, free will?  To a neuroscientist, that's as real as the Tooth Fairy.  But if there's nothing beyond the physical, then your ability to choose your actions vanishes along with God, heaven and the angels.

Atheists hate wars, genocide, dictators, dishonest corporations and sexist male assholes.  They hate all that because they know that the ability to have empathy for other humans is the only thing that separates us from the cockroaches.  Don't even get me started on the GOP.

I was twelve years old when JFK was sworn into office.  At that fairly innocent and naive age, I thought that education, reason and brotherly love could solve all our nation's (let alone the world's) problems.  And two years later, I saw JFK assassinated, followed by his brother, Bobby.  Then, the loss of MLK.

So, at this holiday season, I still believe in the power of love and education, but no doubt the hateful shitstains of the world - atheist AND believer - will just fuck things up for the rest of us; the non-believers and believers (at any level) who aren't hateful bastards.  People who have no interest in converting anyone else.  People who just want to live their lives in peace.

Season's greetings and love to you all.

Dreams vs Reality

Libertarianism is an ideal, a dream, like Shangri-La; an imaginary society where there are little to no problems, most of which they assign to government and over-regulation.  

The hard truth about many of today's anti-tax, anti-government pundits is that their philosophy comes down to little more than myopic selfishness.  They want smaller government, not because there is any real threat of tyranny, but so they can do whatever they wish with their property or business, regardless of the consequences to their neighbors or the shared environment.

Nobody has yet found any way of putting together a decent city transportation network without some form of government management.  The same goes for several other aspects of urban infrastructure, like water and sewers.  The greatest single step forward in improving general health in history was the construction of underground sewers.  London before 1800 was a good example of how waste disposal was handled when government stayed out of it and it was left up to individuals.  It wasn't handled.

Vaccination is another area where government involvement yields greater benefits than the "market" does.  When immunization is a matter of who decided they can afford it, the disease remains a threat to every generation.  When vaccines are made fully available to all, the total long-term cost is much lower.

Can government become too large and costly?  Of course.  But government per se is not evil.  There are more than sufficient examples of countries where the citizens are fairly satisfied with their government operations; countries that provide single-payer health care regulated by the government; such as Canada, Norway, Sweden, Japan, the UK and several others.  Are those systems "perfect?"  Of course not, but in many ways, they're a damned site better than what we have in the US.  The ACA was a step in the right direction, but we can do better.

What about education?  Private schools for all?  What about students who require more attention, time and effort?  Little profit in that.  Do we not educate them and turn them loose in society with no skills?  Oh, home school everyone?  What if the parent can barely read or do math?  Who regulates?

One of the biggest problems with Libertarianism is that humans are just not wired for it.  Human decision making is often highly irrational and selfish or lacking in compassion/benevolence.  If everyone retreats to their acre and we have nothing in common besides the military and courts, we no longer have a country.  Even the founding fathers (who were Libertarian-leaning) realized there must be something that binds us together.

Left to his own designs and motives, Man often doesn't care about his fellow man or society as a whole.  If businesses were not required to provide certain safety training, regulation, and PPE (personal protective equipment), many would not do so.

The "market" has its ups and downs, so as a society, we've created things like unemployment compensation and SNAP.  A civilized society has some sort of structured "safety net."

And then, there's the issue of guns, AS IF we don't already have enough of them with too little regulation.  The US has 88 guns per 100 people and more gun deaths than any of the other 27 "developed" countries.

Despite Libertarian illusions, none of us are entirely self-reliant.  All of us are part of a community and benefit FROM that community, rich or poor.  There are certain things that individuals cannot do for themselves.

One way or another, if the problems of a city or a nation are neglected, those problems will spread and eventually end up on everyone's doorstep.  Believe in "freedom," but grasp this hard truth:  taxes are anarchy insurance, the fee we pay to guarantee we don't lose it all.

Why do so many of America's poor vote Republican?

Into the Google window, I typed,"Why do so many of America's poor vote Republican?"  What I found (and pasted) below may not totally answer that question, but it shines quite a bit of light on the problem.

Gary Yongue, writer for the UK Guardian says:
"The first thing to note is that most of them don't.  In 2008, 73% of those who earned less than $15,000…voted for Obama. But if someone's core conviction is that abortion is murder or gay marriage is wrong then their decision to vote for a candidate who is against abortion or gay marriage is not an act of delusion but conviction."

Raymond Freeman, for the VCReporter, wrote:
"America is a frightened country.  It has lost its confidence.  The white population will soon be a minority.  Republicans are experts at appealing to nostalgia for a simpler past.  Simple folks feel more comfortable voting for simple candidates, such as Palin.  They believed she 'understood' them and rejected attempts to point out her ignorance.  Religious arguments are easier to make.  America is the country of that old-time religion.  Almost half of the population believes the Bible is literally true.  They will vote for someone professing the same belief."

Jonathan Haidt, professor of Psychology at U. of Virginia, says:
"Conservative positions on gays, guns, god and immigration must be understood as means to achieve one kind of morally ordered society."

Roger Schank, psychologist, says:
"It is common to make the assumption that people are thinking when they vote and they are making reasoned choices.  I harbor no such illusion.  They are not reasoning, nor do they want to try.  They simply believe what they believe.  What do they believe?

1. They don't like blacks. It isn't that they are racists.  They will be polite if a black person appears.  They will say blacks hate America.  They sound more reasoned in their own minds if they say it that way.

2. They don't like "wussies."  Kerry? Gore? Dukakis? Not real men.  Bad people are trying to kill us.  We need to kill them first. Those guys wouldn't pull the trigger. (I'm not making this up. I wish I were.)

3. They worry about money.  Who wants to take their money away?  Liberals, of course.  They want to give it to the blacks.

It is all very nice to come up with complex analyses of what is going on. As is often the case, the real answer is quite simple.  Most people can't think very well.  We don't try to get the average child to think in this society, so why, as adults, would we expect that they actually would be thinking?  They think about how the Yankees are doing, and who will win some reality show contest, and what restaurant to eat at, but they are not equipped to think about politics and, in my mind, they are not equipped to vote.  Adult belief systems rest on childhood beliefs instilled by parents mostly and by assorted other authorities."

Quality vs Hyperbole

I wish I could explain to you in one paragraph how to tell the difference between a solid piece of media and something you can wipe yourself with, but it's not that easy.  As with any skill that can be measured and evaluated, the really good writers in America are in a 5-10% range, and then there are a lot of mediocre writers.  And at the far end of the scale are the really despicable, egregious impostors like Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck. 

If I had to divide everything into two groups, it would be writing that is clearly, honestly created to explain and inform, and other stuff that is intended only to arouse, and I don't mean that in a sexual sense.  Yes, there is writing that calls men to action that is legitimate in nature, but most of what we're seeing these days is tinfoil hat crap.

Here is a contrasting example.  First, Joshua Holland, senior digital producer for BillMoyers.com on "Cops, Gun Culture and Anti-Government Extremism."

Holland writes,"Because there are so many guns out there, police officers are trained to live in fear of the very people they are supposed to protect and serve.  Anytime a police officer pulls over a car, he or she must worry that the person inside that car will have a gun that could be turned on them.  The U.S. features a unique and toxic mix of gun culture and militant anti-governmentalism.  As a result, police officers aren't entirely wrong to believe that they're operating in a potential combat zone.  No other police force in a functional democracy has experienced something like the Bundy Ranch standoff in Nevada, where federal agents found themselves outgunned by heavily-armed militias…"

Then, you have the fear-mongering style of writing, like "The Rise of Robocop" from Huffington Post. "If you outfit police as soldiers their outlook changes.  They cease to see the people in their communities as those they have vowed to protect and serve…"

Or, an article at Salon.com that claims,"When a person wears clothing that carries some symbolic meaning, the clothing 'primes' people to act consistently with the way the person is dressed."

Or a Fox news feature, where an activist says,"Don't trust the police."

Or Glen Beck saying,"We are moving towards a society where the authoritarian with the uniform gets away with murder, gets away with anything they want to say."

And when you say or prints things like that, what you do is play right into the fear, the mistrust, right into the hands of people like the Bundy Ranch militias, who think they can take the law into their hands. 

C'mon, people.  Let's get real here for a second.  Today, you can see videos that use fear and mistrust to advertise weapons in the same way that we use sex to sell perfume or sports cars. 

I could go on with more clear examples of legitimate writing vs crap, but the point is, a truly intelligent, mature person understands what I’m talking about, and those who are given to more knee-jerk reaction, will deny it. 

Sorry if this sounds elitist:  you don’t have to have a college degree in literature to identify good writing from bad, but it sure helps.

Your homework assignment:  Google yellow journalism

The Truth is Out There

This is one of the best articles I've seen in a while.  I'll just give some of the best excerpts here. Link to the full article is at the bottom.

"We are all entitled to our own opinions and can believe what we want to believe.  But if we can't agree on what the nature of reality is, then we can't really have a conversation that goes anywhere.

So…why do people believe bullshit when they have all the information necessary to discover the truth sitting in front of them?"

The writer quotes Phil Plait from Discovery magazine -
"In a sense, the loudest proponents stick to their movement the way a racist sticks with their prejudices. You can tear down their specific claims about a particular group of people point by point, but in the end the racist simply hates people in that group.  It's not rational, or logical, or reasonable.  It just is."

The writer suggests that news has become infotainment and that contributes to a society where no one has to accept reality as it is if they don't want to.
- My political philosophy didn't really lose.  The election was rigged.
- My team didn't really lose.  The refs and league fucked us to get the win.

If no one can accept reality, there can't be any growth.  People are supposed to learn from their mistakes.  But in a world where existence is a multiple-choice option, there are no mistakes.  There's just a bunch of people screaming at each other about how the other side is wrong or part of the conspiracy."

Full article:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/08/1326196/-Information-and-conspiracy-in-the-age-of-the-internet?showAll=yes

The Worst of Both Genders

Just my opinion, folks.  We all have our own individual shit lists; the things we really find distasteful, egregious and beyond the pale.  But this is my version of the worst personalities of both genders; people who are just so out-of-touch with reality that they've let loose of the last blade of grass connecting them to planet Earth.

Men:  There is hardly a worse common male crime than rape. I don't think there's any disagreement on that, but I think that the whole underlying, contributing attitude is one of power and condescension that is best exemplified by men who think it's ok to act like assholes in the presence of women.

I'm talking about guys who think it's cute (at least, to their male buddies) to catcall, whistle or otherwise make inappropriate noises or comments at women.
Basically, what we're talking about is a total lack of class.

One has to consider the source (something my mom always said), but a few days ago, Fox News aired a piece about catcalls, where asshat Arthur Aidala told a panel of women that he thought it was acceptable and classy to just stand there and applaud when an attractive woman walked by, and these women on the set - attractive Fox airheads - all agreed and laughed about it!

Jessica Williams (The Daily Show) explains why Aidala is an asshole in this video:  http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/v7vq7r/masters-of-sexism---claps-and-catcalls   She explains that the sidewalk is not a runway.

It's one thing if a woman chooses to be a waitress at Hooters or chooses to be an exotic dancer, but a woman walking by in a public place doesn't deserve to be treated like a stripper.

Class.  You either have it….or you don't. Rude & crude.  So many guys have no f*g clue.

Women:  Now, without question, there is nothing worse than a mother who neglects her children, but I think that a more common feminine issue is that of the spoiled bitch; the woman who thinks she's some kind of princess and that life is all about her.  Most of these kind of women are attractive; that's actually part of their problem.  Too often, they've just been told they're pretty girls and because of their beauty, they've been lavished with material things (usually clothing and related accessories).  But even if they weren't spoiled brats as children, they haven't totally matured as adults.  They're still materialistic people whose favorite hobby is shopping and tending to their appearance.  Consistent with their lack of maturity, they throw a tantrum when things don't go their way and make life hell for everyone else.  And, because friends and family around this person don't want to deal with the spoiled brat, they tend to avoid arguing with her, never giving her the reality check she so sorely needs.

So, unless the princess has a profound revelation - a severe, negative, life-changing event - or unless a professional counselor tells her that she's living in a selfish fantasy bubble, she goes through life primping, pouting and bitching. She's high maintenance and a total pain in the ass. 

And there you have it - my version of people who need to be smacked upside the head.

Dick & Jenni's Secrets for a Happy Marriage

Secret No. 1

"Your Cash Ain't Nothin' But Trash"

You may be wondering, what's the significance of the second photo ("Huck Finn" - Mickey Rooney, William Connolly, William Frawley)?

Well, I couldn't find just the photo I wanted, so you'll have to rent this 1939 movie starring these three men.  If you're familiar with the film, Connolly and Frawley - two classic film-flam artists - masquerade as two lost brothers of a rich man.  At one point, they are in bed together with a small money sack tied to their wrists, between them.  Obviously, the point is that neither of them could make off with the money without waking the other, because they didn't trust each other.

This scene perfectly exemplifies the situation with married couples who are just too focused on money.

You know, having a little extra change is nice.  You can buy better cuts of meat.  You can buy better wine and whiskey.  You can have cake and ice cream once in a while.  But the biggest problem with having disposable income is that there's too often disagreement on what to do with it.

When we got married, we hardly had a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of…but we were happy…because we had love.  And 44 years later, we're still happy…because we have love…and not a lot of money.  You see how that works?

I don't have a problem with money per se.  Get as much of it as you can, short of robbery or scamming.  But be careful with it, because what happens is, you can get infected with a case of I want this and he/she wants something else.  When all that really matters is that you have each other, and you love each other, which is the reason you got married in the first place. 

The minister that married us was a very likable, down-to-earth kind of guy and we'll never forget his counseling.  He had come to know us fairly well and said that two of the things that couples have the biggest problems with are (of course) sex and money.  He said that we shouldn't worry about the first; that he doubted we'd have any serious disagreements about sex, but that if we could manage to not argue about money, we'd be very happy together.

He was so right.

Joy and Angst

No, I'm not bi-polar, but I think that as you mature, you've absorbed so much over time - both good and bad - that your peaks become higher and your lows can get pretty low.

I mean, think about it…with practice we (should) become better at most anything, right?  Fill in the blank with whatever you like________(photography, cooking, angling, playing an instrument, making love).  Our perception in any particular area becomes more discerning.  We can more easily judge if something tastes better (or worse), if something sounds better (or worse) or if something makes sense or is just f*g ridiculous.

In other words, on one hand, we have opinion and on the other a more informed opinion.

All the things we've absorbed over the years (can) give us more points on the graph of Life and help us more clearly define pictures and issues.

They say with age comes wisdom.  Perhaps not all the time, but mostly, yes.  And of course, the way we think about things, the way we process Life's input can be distorted by a variety of prejudices.

But back to joy and angst.  Over 50 years of musical experience has given me the ability to find great joy and beauty in creating, performing, and recording sounds.  It's why artists are artists.  Creativity is a very pleasurable thing, but we also enjoy sharing it with others.  Like cooking.  And I try to spend as much time as I can in that state of mind, not just because it's fun and gratifying, but because it's also a counteragent to the dark side.

There's just so much dark out there; the stupidity, the selfishness, the greed, the hatred, the lack of empathy, the extremism.  At times, it almost seems as though the dark will steamroll or consume all that is good in the world.  It makes one wonder how - with all the love and wonderful things there are - that some people are apparently helpless or even intent upon their negative agendas.

As I've said many times, there may or may not be such a thing as ultimate evil, but there sure as hell are some evil MFs out there.

And with that said, I think I'll go play my guitar for a while...

Wingnuts and Self-control

(partly borrowed from an article at Crooks and Liars )

My thesaurus is wearing thin on adjectives to describe hate-filled pseudo-Christians like Bryan Fischer.

American Family Association spokesman Fischer is outraged that the U.S. is intervening in Iraq to stop ISIS.  Fischer believes that President Obama only intervened to stop the extermination of the Yazidis, who practice an ancient religion yet are considered by ISIS fighters and others to be "devil worshipers."

Wait.  Wha…?  WTF?

This guy's problem - other than the fact that he's let go of the last blade of grass that connected him with planet Earth - is that he just can't resist opening his mouth to announce his latest insane conspiracy theory.

Let's look at this from a different perspective.  You're a guy out in public somewhere, maybe picking up a few items at Walmart, and you're standing in line at the checkout.  In front of you is this rather attractive woman in her 30s, wearing a short summer skirt.  She bends over her shopping cart to retrieve something, and you get a momentary glimpse of her taste in undergarments.

Now, in your mind, you might be thinking,"Ooo, baby!  Nice knickers," but you don't SAY it out loud, obviously because you don't want other shoppers to think that you're a total perv with no self-control.  That, and there's the chance that the babe might smack you upside the head with a box of laundry detergent.*

But guys like Fischer…hey…whatever pops into their tiny little heads…it's gotta come out the mouth.  Same with Palin, Bachmann, Nugent and other assorted wingnuts.

You see, wingnuttery comes in all sizes, shapes and colors, and they all share the inability to keep their tinfoil hat nonsense to themselves.  They just can't pass up a live microphone…

*Didn't wanna seem sexist with the laundry detergent, but you'd better hope she wasn't in the Automotive Dept. because she works on her own Jeep.  Then, you might risk getting hit with a breaker bar or a large channel-lock.

Blowing Up the Lies about Poverty

Republicans - especially guys like Paul Ryan - are totally full of crap regarding poverty, the poor and homeless in America.  Please allow me to blow-up some of the more common disinformation:

• Poor people are lazy:  over half of all SNAP recipients are working adults. More than 80% of recipients worked during the year prior or after receiving SNAP. That figure is 90% for families with children.
• Single moms are to blame: only 9% of low-income, urban moms have been single throughout their child's first five years.  35% were married to the child's father.
• Minimum wage jobs are for teens:  almost 88% of those affected by increasing the minimum wage are age 20 or older.  Almost 36% are married and 28% are parents.
• Go back to school and get a better job:  In 2012, just over a million people held a bachelor's degree, worked full time, and made less than $25,000 a year.
• The homeless want to be homeless:  1 in 45 children experience homelessness each year.  That's over 1.6 million kids.  Among families who are homeless with children, the majority cited loss of a job as the cause, followed by the lack of affordable housing, and low paying jobs.
• The poor are ripping us off:  fraud in the SNAP program is one penny on the dollar.  Fact.  And, the average food stamp benefit in WI and MN is only $116/mo.  That's not even $4/day!  Who the f*k would choose to try to live on that??

A "cheap" one bedroom apartment in Minneapolis starts at about $550.

An average Walmart employee makes $8.81/hr.  You do the cost of living math.

I realize that a lot of voters have the short-term memory of a gerbil.  That's probably why they continue to vote for lying SOBs like Ryan and his ilk.

Next time you hear someone whining about "the poor and unemployed," remember some of the facts listed above.

It's the Moderation, Stupid (my response to atheists on religion)

It is estimated that 65% of women and 80% of men have sexual fantasies.  According to U. of Vermont psychologist Harold Leitenberg, Ph.D. and South Carolina's Kris Henning, Ph. D., data shows that where sexual fantasy is concerned, frequent fantasizers are having more than their share of fun in bed. They have sex more often and engage in a wider variety of erotic activities than infrequent fantasizers.  Peter Doskoch of Psychology Today says,"the association between fantasies and healthy sex life is so strong, in fact, that it's now considered pathological not to have sexual fantasies."  "…unusual and deviant fantasies give little reason for concern in healthy individuals.  Rape fantasies, for instance, are far more common than rapes themselves.  Only 22 percent of child molesters say they had sexual fantasies about kids before their first molestation."

Estimates vary, but according to ABC, the adult industry generates $10 billion a year in sales.  But if sexually explicit material had any potential for creating sex offenders, there would be a helluva lot more of them than there are.  Sex offenders account for only 1.4% (.014) of the population (747,408 registered offenders vs 53,078,525 males between the ages of 15 and 54).

Leitenberg and Henning say,"…fantasies are a concern only when they become compulsive or exclusive, or for individuals in whom the barrier between thought and behavior has been broken."

Now, if you want to consider religious belief in an afterlife as fantasy, Daniel Kruger, an evolutionary psychologist at the U. of Michigan, said,"Fairy story or not, a belief in heaven does seem to come with some benefits.  Humans didn't evolve in an environment where an understanding of black holes or the origin of the universe would be helpful.  What really matters to us is what happens at the human scale, relationships to other people, things we experience in a lifetime."  On a personal level, Kruger says the idea of an afterlife offers some hope in a world where, historically,"life has been pretty harsh."

Nathan Heflick - U. of South Florida - says,"The more people believe, the less death anxiety they tend to have."

Dr. Martin Luther King is a respected social activist, but his courage came through faith.  Jim Wallis, another respected Christian who works for social change, also finds courage in faith.  Wallis talks about the immigration problem, saying,"We need faith in a God who is larger than we can imagine, the God who cries as we humans build border walls to separate ourselves from our brothers and sisters on the other side, the God of justice who isn't persuaded by the political timetables of Washington, D.C."

I would suggest that one of the most common problems in the thinking process of Americans is the concept of "moderation."  Regarding money, most people want to earn enough to live on, provide for their family, and perhaps a little more.  At least, enough to where their basic needs are being met and they're not worried about making the next rent, mortgage or car payment.  But, in larger amounts, wealth can do weird shit to your head.  One need look no further than people like Bernie Madoff, Michael Jackson, or the Koch brothers.

We're fortunate to live in a time when medical science provides vaccines for lyme disease and Hepatitis B, and when we can use human skin cells to create embryonic stem cells.  But use of anti-depressants has increased almost 400% in the last 20 years.  Antibiotics are life-savers, but the CDC estimates that 20-50% of the doses prescribed are unnecessary.  Consequently, there are now some serious infectious diseases that have become immune to antibiotics.

Alcohol sales in 2011 was $162 billion.  Most people have the self-control to deal with alcohol use, but approx. 17 million have an alcohol use disorder.  10% of U.S. children live with a parent with an alcohol problem.

Although Democrats have been polled as decreasingly religious, between 1987 and the late 1990's, they polled equally with Republicans.  But the focal point of that spirituality differs greatly.  Democrats are more focused on social justice - the poor, the homeless, and the rights of women, minorities and gays - whereas Republicans are more focused on authority, control and punishment.

Politically, the problem with religion is that some people take things to the extreme - Jones, Applewhite, Koresh, Phelps - while most people just relate to religion as a guideline for daily living and their relationship with fellow human beings.  Democrats are generally more concerned with people having enough to eat, while Republicans are more concerned with who they can refuse to serve at their place of business.

So, it's not so much a problem of what you believe, but how extremely it affects your logic, your common sense, and your attitude toward other people. And obviously, politicians - especially Republicans - have tried to co-opt religion in an attempt to gain voters.

Things like sex, money, alcohol, pharmaceuticals, and religion are not a problem for most people.  It's when you lose sight of moderation that things begin to get twisted.  It's when you attempt to use them for an extremely prejudicial personal agenda that shit gets weird.

Millennials Offer Political Hope

A survey just recently released reveals the political attitudes of 2,000 young adults between the ages of 18-29. What is significant about the results is that they echo many progressive ideas that the GOP has been consistently resisting.

74% said that government has a responsibility to guarantee every citizen a place to sleep and enough to eat.

69% said it's government's responsibility to guarantee everyone access to health care.

68% said everyone should make a living wage.

54% want government to guarantee everyone a college education.

62% describe themselves as socially liberal and only 27% as conservative.

67% favor legalizing same-sex marriage.

61% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases.


Observing the ongoing GOP obstructionist policy and activity, it boggles the mind as to what the hell they're thinking when it comes to "winning" anything.  The current social tide is against them and it well appears that the next generation feels the same way.

Republicans must certainly have access to the same demographic information.  If they're just trying to woo old white men they're committing political suicide.

Free Your Mind

Life is not just a matter of a blue or a red pill.  It's not an either-or proposition.  There are more than 8 crayons to color with.  It's not a matter of gay or straight.  It's not a matter of belief or disbelief.

As a lifelong musician, I remember back in the day when we had so few commercially-defined genres.  Our musical thinking and appreciation operated in terms of the categories they gave us.  We really didn't think much outside the box.  And then, rock music hit us like a freight train.  Now, here we are 60 years later and just LOOK at this list:  Rock Genres

I think that's amazing.  I certainly don't listen to all of them or even appreciate all of them, but you can't deny their existence.  It's called creativity; at least on the part of the artists, if not the recording companies.

How did John Lennon put it?  "You tell me it's the institution.  Well you know, you'd better free your mind, instead."

We need to apply that kind of thinking, that kind of variety to the rest of our lives, in the broadest sense.  Not just in what we do, what we consume, but in how we think.  It's how we relate to the world we see, and the worlds we cannot see.  The world we can touch and the ones we can't.  The concepts and constructs we understand, and the ones we can't get our heads around.

Everything doesn't necessarily respond equally well to a microscope or a measuring instrument.  Unless you're a painter, it's not necessary to analyze the colors of a sunset.  Just enjoy it.  Take it in.  You can study a musicians timing, phrasing and attack, but I don't think that necessarily helps you appreciate the music as a whole.  Science and math are tools, but sometimes you don't need tools.  When you read a book, are you consciously studying the author's mechanics or character development?  I doubt it.  You're just letting it all happen; letting it draw you into the story.

As humans, we often have a need to compartmentalize.  There are times when that's necessary.  And times when it isn't.

Free your mind.

Wasting Time

You might consider this a topic worthy of conversation, and you may not.  It's a very relative and individual thing.  Wasting time, that is.

OK, let's begin with a few basic things.  A lot of people work full time. Many people work overtime, and still others may work a lot of overtime.  And they may be in a relationship.  They may be married with children.  In any case, they have a truckload of responsibilities - to their employer, to their spouse, to their children and friends.  They have tasks to attend to once they're home from working.  A lot of people will claim that they really don't have a lot of free time, and that may be a perfectly legitimate statement.

Let me pause at that point and state the obvious; we are all, for the most part, in charge and in control of our own lives.  Most of us make the conscious decision(s) about how much stuff we want on our plate, our agenda, our to do list.  Some folks enjoy being busy all the time, in fact, they're not happy if they're not busy.  The motives for their activity level aren't really important, it's just that they feel happiest when they feel they're being productive.  As long as they're getting something done, they feel good about themselves.

Productivity - per se - is a good thing. Managing our time is often essential, no matter what that time is used for.  We all get the same 24 hours in a day.

But…now…when we're at a point where we think we've accomplished enough in one day, when we say to ourselves,"OK…enough of that for a while…I'm going to take a break, that's where things get interesting.  That break might be a coffee break, a smoke break, a nap, reading a book, taking a short walk, or any of a million things.  What they all have in common, however, is that all of these activities are usually something other than work/labor.  They are a change of pace for both our minds and bodies, and in that sense, it really doesn't matter what they are.  We merely choose to do something else, something other than necessary tasks.  Usually - but not always - breaks are not what one would call productive.  They're not meant to be.  That is not their purpose.

So, with that in mind, whereby to we come up with the phrase wasting time?

Let me suggest what I would consider a waste of time:  trying to accomplish a task (any task) with the wrong tool.  Let's say you had to dig a trench in the back yard for an electrical or a garden project.  If the trench were of any length and depth, a trenching machine might be the best tool of choice as opposed to a military surplus folding shovel.  But maybe you can't afford to rent a trenching machine and don't know how to use one.  Then, perhaps you simply have to do the best you can with what you have.

Perhaps a better example might be clearing some land of a few small trees.  A chainsaw would be the tool of choice, as opposed to an axe.  It's simply more efficient, saving both time and labor.

But when it comes to non-labor tasks or activities, who is to say when (and if) time is wasted?

Unless one is guilty of shirking some work or responsibility and engaging in some recreational activity, instead, how can anyone make a judgement about another's choice of entertainment?

If you've got some time to kill, or basically just use any way you damn well please, who's to say what's wasted?

A couple of activities that seem to get criticized most are video games and internet activity.  I've logged countless hours on both activities and have no reservations or guilt about any of it.  Would it be somehow better if I just sat on the back porch and whittled on a stick with a pocket knife?  As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter if you're playing Candy Crush on Facebook, or you're down by the creek, dropping pebbles into the water.

It's simply a matter of choice and someone else's negative opinion of your activity doesn't mean squat.

As far as waste is concerned, we all waste a variety of things; food, water, fuel, materials, resources but we don't put any guilt on ourselves for that.

Your waking, breathing hours are yours to use, abuse or waste any way you choose.  As long as you're doing your job and being responsible, you don't have to take any crap from anyone as to how you use any non-labor time.

Just Another Boring Love Story (sort of)

Last night, we were sitting by the fire, roasting breadsticks and chunks of marinated tenderloin, sipping Southern Comfort and generally celebrating having been together a total of 46 years.  We first met each other at a beach party; a group of my wife's fellow graduating classmates. And the rest, as they say, is history.

We talked about a lot of things last night, but mostly it all centered around why some relationships succeed and about half of them fail.  Miserably.  One of the things my wife stressed was compromise; how so often people are just too selfish, too self-centered, too inflexible.  And she's absolutely correct on that, but I said that I found it incredible that people who initially came together in a state of passion, who actually modified their behavior in order to impress the other person, somehow, down the line, seemed to forget why they got together in the first place.  And it just amazes me.  I mean, how does one go from being crazy about the other person, from being on their best behavior on dates, from doing everything they can to please the other person…to a state of it's all about me, or that classic statement when a couple is arguing about some individual activity,"Oh, I don't care what you do."  Or the classic female statement,"Fine."  You know what I mean.

People age.  People change.  Somewhat.  But beneath it all, most of us still have the same basic personalities we've always had.  Most of us don't undergo complete transformations.  At the core, we're still the same.  We may have matured.  Some of our tastes may have become more refined, but as regards myself and my wife, she's still the same fun-loving, sexy, intelligent, logical girl I met 46 yrs. ago.  In fact, I think she's become more fun, more sexy, etc.

One of the other ideas I put forth was:  consider people like a TV or a computer monitor;  many of them simply don't have the screen resolution when it comes to reasoning, logic, decision making.  They don't see things in fine detail.  They don't see them clearly. They don't see all the colors.  They can't make finer distinctions.  This idea seems to explain a lot when you look at their political, philosophical and spiritual beliefs.  They just have too few crayons in their box.  They like their world in a fairly simple, categorized, cubist, labeled state.

Now, I happen to believe in Henry David Thoreau's statement:  "Our life is frittered away by detail.  An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest.  Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!  I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand…"   Too many of us think we need several irons in the fire at any time.  We multi-task, or think we do.  We complain to others how busy we are.  Well, I can understand that perhaps our lives have become somewhat more complex within my lifetime, but I also believe that ultimately, we are in control of most of it.  Our lives don't have to be a balls-to-the-wall rat race from the time we get out of bed until the time we get back in it.

In terms of our thinking process, detail is necessary.  Good input and information are necessary, but we don't have to allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by it all.

And I think that's part of the general problem of Life and subsequently relationships, politics, etc.; that in addition to ego and selfishness, people want simplicity where they should have detail, and they overwhelm themselves with detail where they need to simplify.

These days, people are concerned about optimizing their computer system - deleting junk, backing-up files, running virus protection, having the latest apps - and their own personal computer - their brain - is a system in chaos.