14 Tuesday Aug 2018
Posted in Brain Droppings, Dingleberries, Environment, Middle Way, Open mind, Quantum, Revolution, Tax the Church, Tech
THIS!!!
This is why we have science and technology, and math, and shit that makes your cell phone work. The earth isn’t 5,000 years old, you navel-gazing, closed-minded, backward-assed, lost in the wilderness of Bible knowledge, fundamentalist motherfuckers.
The International Space Station’s 3-D printer completed the first phase of a NASA technology demonstration by printing a ratchet wrench.
— Read on www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/3Dratchet_wrench
23 Saturday Jun 2018
Posted in Change, Dingleberries, Ego, Emotional Intelligence, Environment, Fear, Hate, Human, Indivisible, Islam, Love, Male superiority, Middle Way, Open mind, Politics, Race, Revolution, Sameness, Trump-Hole, Women
So, news reports have said that members of the Trump administration have been denied service in, and chased out of, businesses they thought they had the right to frequent as a normal customer. It’s completely unfair.
And I hear they’re also having trouble finding dates, or keeping them when they do. People are just walking out in the middle of dates when they find out someone works for the administration. It’s just rude.
No one likes to be judged by others. Especially not before they even get a chance to know you. And something personal, like where you work or what you believe in, shouldn’t affect what restaurant you’re allowed to eat in… Right?
18 Sunday Mar 2018
Posted in Brain Droppings, Clowns, Conspiracies, Dingleberries, Environment, Guns, Hate, Indivisible, Mental Health, Middle Way, Open mind, Patriotism, Politics, Spirituality, Terrorism, Trump-Hole
It is a practically universally accepted fact that the Russians have been trying to interfere with democratic elections all over the world, including in the United States, where they appear to have been successful.
It is also a near universally accepted fact that human activities are contributing to rapid climate change, and endangering the planet and the human race, and that this activity is directly linked to the burning of fossil fuels.
So, do you suppose that it’s by accident that the only notable exceptions in each of these cases is a group of politically linked, right-wing individuals, who have built a news echo chamber so efficient that even facts are unable penetrate it?
30 Saturday Sep 2017
Posted in Conspiracies, Dingleberries, Environment, First Amendment, Hate, Human, Male superiority, Middle Way, Patriotism, Politics, Race, Sameness, Terrorism, Trump-Hole
I tried to start an entry describing what I learned as a Boy Scout about respect for the American Flag. It was going to mention the flag worshippers out there who put the flag sticking up from the bed of pickup truck and drive around until it’s in tatters. Or better yet, how they constantly wear some form of the flag on their hat, or shirt. I was even going to mention the other people that put their confederate flag right next to the stars and stripes, usually on the wrong side… anyway, I never finished that post, I got distracted. Besides, it’s not like pointing out someone’s ignorance will make them reflect on their contradictory ways.
My distraction was about the (not-so) emergency response to Irma in Puerto Rico, and the fact that the President of the United States is ignoring the suffering of millions of U.S. citizens. But then Donald Trump began to bash the mayor of San Juan for criticizing him for doing nothing as the second level of destruction hits the island. Things like cholera, and the problems that come out of simply ignoring and not treating people for things that are so completely treatable… there is no excuse. Especially if you are more worried about upsetting the shareholders of shipping companies, than you are of human lives. And so neither of these topics got their own post.
You see there was this whole “drain the swamp” thing that was begging to be brought up as Tom Price came under fire for chartering private flights on the taxpayer’s dollar. But then he said he would pay the people back for his seat on these flights. He chartered the whole thing, but he was only going to pay us back for the seat he sat in. I was going to point out that the $50,000 he planned on giving back, was a fraction of the estimated $1M it actually cost for all of the charters. But then he resigned/was fired. And so, I began to comb through the stories of corruption and excess, that is coming out of this administration lately, but I got overwhelmed again.
You see, there’s some weird thing happening in Cuba with sonic attacks on U.S diplomats, and people are getting very sick. No one knows why, and what little is left of our State Department, isn’t saying anything. But even if they did, it wouldn’t stop the renewed fears that are reminiscent of the Cold War. You see, North Korea isn’t going to back down. Threatening nuclear war is all they have. But our president seems to think he can bluff them like some cement contractor from New Jersey. And that would be bad enough, but Trump will do anything to not lose face. That includes using “fire and fury like the world has never seen”, on a country that is about as much a match to us militarily, as I am to a 6 year old kid in arm wrestling.
I didn’t write about any of that either because the CEO of Equifax just retired after overseeing a massive data breach that has affected just about every American. Apparently this buttmunch was allowed to gracefully walk away with a $90M golden parachute. Even though, I guarantee you he’s the kind of guy who would fire his immigrant Guatemalan gardener for trimming the hydrangeas too unevenly.
So, as you can see I was going to write about all of these things, as well as a dozen more. But, I got overwhelmed. So, like Opus, I just need a dandelion break.
27 Wednesday Sep 2017
Posted in Buddhism, Compassion, Ego, Environment, Human, Meditation, Mental Health, Middle Way, Open mind, Sameness, Spirituality
“I like walking around cities better than in the countryside. I’m happy the trees are there, I just don’t need to see them, that’s all. I’m serious. I much prefer cities. Let’s face it, it’s actually better that we leave the trees alone; let them get along with doing their job without human interference. Cities, though: they’re full of people, and they’re the ones who need us. But we feel the opposite. As soon as we see all those people crowding the streets, filling the buildings, driving the cars, we feel aversion for them. We want to run away into the trees! It should be the other way around – at least, that’s how bodhisattvas would feel. The more people the better! Grist for their mill.”
– Venerable Robina Courtin
22 Friday Sep 2017
Posted in Environment, Human, Meditation, Mental Health, Middle Way, Open mind, Sameness, Spirituality
Sitting on my couch with the evening sun in my eyes, when I’m trying to read something, and have a migraine brewing… is a problem that not everyone in this world is lucky enough to enjoy.
16 Saturday Sep 2017
Posted in Change, Conspiracies, Environment, Human, Male superiority, Middle Way, Patriotism, Politics
So here’s my latest idea: The newest conservative push is to somehow “earmark” their taxes so they don’t have to pay for contraception or abortions. I say we allow the same exceptions for defense spending. I would no longer like to pay for the tools used to kill people in any fashion. Instead, I would like it to be used to pay for healthcare. I am not looking for “free” healthcare, instead I would prefer that my taxes to be earmarked as well.
However, if this is too objectionable, I would be willing to compromise: No earmarks. Instead, we just increase the tax base overall by removing any loopholes normally reserved for religious exceptions.
A society is really just a bunch of people cooperating, and compromising. When we lose that, we regress to a state of myopic, self-interested factions. Kind of like Afghan warlords, only with access to a Starbucks.
29 Wednesday Mar 2017
Posted in Environment, Indivisible, Islam, Middle Way, Patriotism, Politics, Sameness, Terrorism, Trump-Hole
If you’re losing your shit about the executive order that Trump signed to dismantle the environmental protections that are currently in place, don’t be. It was presented by the administration as if he destroyed things with the stroke of a pen, but all he did was “order it done”, and here’s why that’s different (and good for those who oppose him).
What Trump signed is just another executive order. The fact is that, all he is ordering is the dismantling of many pieces of well crafted legislation. There is a very good chance that as long as people continue to battle this the same way they did his “Muslim Ban”, then he will have just as much luck as he did with that mess… which is to say NONE (or at the most, very little).
Each piece of this will be fought out on legal grounds, based on their merits and not on Trump’s wishes. It could take as long as a year for this to go through the whole process, during which most of (possibly all of) the standing legislation will be upheld… if people continue to fight!
Now if the time to start fighting, do not give up.
02 Thursday Feb 2017
Posted in Dingleberries, Environment, Indivisible, Middle Way, Politics, Trump-Hole
The Nashua River, just downstream from the Mohawk Tannery
I grew up in southern New Hampshire, in a town called Nashua. The town got its name from the river that runs through it. The river runs from northern Massachusetts, thru to the Merrimack River, and ultimately the ocean. Back in the 19th century the town was one a handful of mill cities along the Merrimack River, such as Manchester, NH and Lowell, MA.
Nashua was also the home to the Mohawk Tannery. For those who don’t know what a tannery is, let’s just say that that’s where animal hides are processed into leather. To borrow a description from Wikipedia “Historically, this process was considered a noxious or odoriferous trade and relegated to the outskirts of town, amongst the poor.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.
When I was younger, I played on a football team, and we practiced a few miles downwind from the tannery. When the wind was just right the smell would be so bad that the players would get stopped in their tracks while running laps as they tried to catch their breath in between retching. It brought more than a few kids to their knees, vomiting in the bushes. Having grown up in New Hampshire I can tell you I would take the smell of a pig farm, chicken coops, or even a paper mill, over a tannery. If you don’t know what any of those things smell like, just go hang out behind your local Denny’s dumpster on a hot summer day. It’s not the same, but you’ll get my point.
Back in the mid 20th century, when the tannery was running full tilt, and when there was little to no environmental regulations to speak of, there was an interesting game the workers at the local mills would play. When they came into work each morning they would punch in, and then grab a colored chip off the wall, and make their wager. Betting on what, you ask?
Well, what they were betting on was what color the river was going to turn that day when the tannery dumped its colorful toxic waste of chemicals and dyes. The picture at the top of this post is of the Nashua River on one such day. Yes, really.
We are actually at a point in our history when a large portion of our population has no idea that only 50 years ago this kind of thing was so common that seeing a clean river running through an industrial town was nothing more than a fairy tale.
I could go on about the Trump Administration and its reckless dismantling of regulations, or the need for the EPA and The Clean Water Act. I could tell you about how the Mohawk Tannery was one of the first Super Fund sites in the United States it was so bad. I could even try to pull on your heart strings by talking about kids swimming in raw sewerage, or dead wildlife. But I’m not going to do any of those things. Instead, I’m going to end this post right here, and ask you to stop and just look at this picture of the Nashua River for a little while.
