Wednesday, April 04, 2012
A cartoon president
America wants a persident who is a cartoon character, no real life person could satisfy america's jaded psychotic delusion of what a leader should be
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Friday, March 30, 2012
Mermaids
I am here, the mermaid whose dark hair
streams black, the merman in his armored body
We circle silently about the wreck
we dive into the hold. ...
We are, I am, you are
by cowardice or courage
the one who find our way
back to the scene
carrying a knife, a camera
a book of myths
in which
our names do not appear. Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
streams black, the merman in his armored body
We circle silently about the wreck
we dive into the hold. ...
We are, I am, you are
by cowardice or courage
the one who find our way
back to the scene
carrying a knife, a camera
a book of myths
in which
our names do not appear. Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
David Letterman for PRESIDENT - seriously!
I just finished watching David Letterman, celebrating his 30th anniversary of his night time talk show, and I ask you in ALL seriousness.... what does David Letterman LACK to make a perfect president.... he is SUCCESSFUL, he thinks on his feet, he make a profit, he has a sense of humor and can take a joke.... who CARES what he thinks about God and religion and whether the world was created in six days, that is all such RUBBISH when it comes to leading a nation. You know IF the constitution were amended to allow Schwarzenegger to be president, he would not be the worst president in the world, and believe me they ALL have a problem with their sexuality because they are MALES... but since the constitution DOES forbid a foreign born person from being president and since the Pope of Rome is a foreign born person, then each and every devout Catholic politician who feels threatened by excommunication IS being controlled by Rome, and that should concern everyone, even devout Roman Catholics. People, this is not why the founding father left Europe with its kings and church states and Holy Roman Emperors. They came to America and staged a Revolution to found a SECULAR government whose authority derives from those governed, a government OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people.
Friday, March 09, 2012
The Hollow Within
A musical stringed instrument is hollow inside of necessity so that it may fill a theater with its sound. The louder it is outside the more hollow it is inside. Public statements are designed for their rhetorical effect on crowds and lasting impressions upon historians but such statements arise from shallowness rather than depth just as the roar of the ocean arises from waves crashing upon the shallows of the beach while the ocean depths remain silent. Those who seek power, fame, influence do not seek sanctity but notoriety. True religion is what remains silent and unspoken inside and may be discerned only through outward actions or abstinence. The more we doubt what is inside the more loudly we try to convince those outside.
Thursday, March 08, 2012
Pleased with Kindle Fire
I am pleased with Kindle Fire. I am almost through reading "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jarred Diamond. I can LOCK the screen rotation and read in bed in the dark with the backlit screen without the screen jumping from portrait to landscape. Erik Grettir Jacobs taught me the trick to turn off Wi-Fi and conserve energy. You only need Wi-Fi to browse the bookstore or download. Samples of books are free and generous in length. I searched on LIBERALS and notice that there is only one pro liberal book for every liberal-bashing title. I am looking over Paul Krugman "The Conscience of a Liberal" and Eric Alterman "Why We're Liberals" . I would like to read "The Party - the Secret World of China's Communist Rulers" by Richard McGregor . I downloads some samples of Hannah Arendt "Essays in Understanding" and "Responsibility and Judgment" . There are a number of free books, classics, prior to 1930's and in public domain.
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
Is consensus of agreement a reliable touchstone for truth?
The human species' genetic, inborn tendency to discord (perpetual lack of unilateral agreement) is a survival mechanism for the species. I well might have been that our species would evolve in such a way that everyone would see things the same way and agree on all matters. But then we would all make the same choices and have the same preferences and we would not spread out to inhabit all ecological niches; mountain tops, islands, rain forests, deserts. 5,000 years of recorded history demonstrate that humanity has not reached unanimous agreement on any non-trivial matter (apart from certain things in mathematics and science) . Let us say there are 6 billion people on Earth at this moment. If you spent 5 seconds greeting each one, it would take you 950 years to finish your introduction. And yet, we attempt to refute each other and convince each other one at a time and we believe that through this activity we possibly come closer to the truth. We assume that sense is common (common sense) and that we more so that any other possess common sense.
Ethics and Atheists
If you profess yourself as Atheist and then fall prey to some temptation and commit some injustice or harm then at least you are LESS hypocritical than someone who professes themselves as a devout member of some divinely revealed religion and then you fall prey to the same temptation and human weakness. Each person is born with a unique personality and physiology. Some people by nature dislike tobaccor, alcohol and drug intoxication and are drawn to exercise and healthy diet. Some people have a very low libido and do not become sexually active until late in life. Other people are born with tremendous appetites, .... all this has little to do with some ideology or professed faith. Think of all the Muslims who drink, yet Hitler was a vegetarian tea-toteler. Someone remarks: that was the best argument I've heard for eating meat and boozing it up! I reply:
People who lack a broad foundation of education, lack a fluency in several language, lack a familiarity with several religions, cultures, historical periods, and are not trained in critical and methodical thinking may easily be convinced by their simplistic views and conclusions.
We have all heard the term "karma" although not all of us understand the widespread implications of karma.
I want to give two illustrations of how karma, the cause and effect of our actions and choices, contain in themselves rewards and punishments apart from the issue of whether or not there is some Deity.
We remember the recent, tragic demise of Christopher Hitchens. For years he URGED young people to smoke, drink, over-indulge, since this life is ALL THERE IS. In his last days, he changed his mind and apologized for those remarks. I think if he had it to do all over again he would have led a healthier life, NOT that doing so would escape our mortality and death, but he would have been active intellectually perhaps into his 80s or 90s.
My second example comes from a lecture I attended, given by a medical social worker to an audience of hundreds of men and women of all ages from teen to elderly and all on hemodialysis. She made the analogy of our daily life as a little molecule in a container filled with fast moving molecules. When the little molecule ventures OUT from the corner of his/her medical regimen then he/she is strut by those other molecules frequently. BUT if the sickly molecule stays in the protective corner of their medications, diet, dialysis then they suffer much less. So, you see, a Christian alcoholic (to take a random example), a Protestant one, anyway, might say "Well, yes, I am an alcoholic BUT I am a FORGIVEN alcoholic and I am guaranteed the eternal security of my salvation." An Atheist alcoholic might reason that there is no future life and no dread judgment seat of Christ BUT the suffering of alcoholism is very real and forgiveness is meaningless UNLESS once speaks of forgiving oneself and loving oneself enough to "do the right thing" - and we know what the right thing is EVEN if we believe in no God. Now the Protestant alcoholic finds consolation in the though of forgiveness and salvation, but other denominations look carefully at Paul's words that drunkards will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Sunday, March 04, 2012
An Owl in a Ruined House
I don't see Romney as a terrible person. He is a successful entrepreneur. A nation is much like a huge corporation and needs a practical entrepreneur to keep it successful. What it does not need is someone who makes their wealth as a lobbyist or on books and lecture tours and show-business. One ultra conservative keeps me on ther FB list for the sake of diversity and they once explained to me my privileged position. When I mentioned that I would vote for Romney on principle they became incensed and said "Aha, then you do NOT support the policies of Obama." I explained that I see no hope for America in particular or the world in general and I am not gung-ho about any particular ideology or grand plan for a new world order. I see humanity as dystopia. I do not want some fruitcake like Rush, or Palin, or Bachmann, or even sanctimonious Santorum. Religious convictions are like sexual desires; everyone experiences them but we should keep them to ourselves. America itself is an evil. The concept of a sovereign nation goes against the interests of humanity. I remember a novel, "Bloodroot", and a scene in an abandoned church where a beautiful owl is trapped in the church and it frantically bashes itself against the ceiling not seeing that there are means of escape. The protagonist watches, helpless, as the owl destroys itself. Humanity is that owl in the abandoned church.
