Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass The issue wasn't whether Saddam Hussein was either a compassionate ruler or a murderer, and never was. If human rights and compassionate behaviour were the criterion for continuation of regimes and governments across the globe then they would fall like shattered glass all around the world, friend and foe alike. The issue wasn't whether Saddam Hussein was a murderer or not. If that were the criterion for removal of those in power then new faces would abound. What the issue is, is who decides. Tyrants, murderers, thieves, thugs, religious zealots and other unimaginable misfits have wound up in position of leadership throughout history. As long as those oppressed chose to accept it, it was. While it is so that those enjoying freedom have a responsibility to prevent wholesale slaughter, it is a very thin line between liberation and occupation, and those suffering must take a part in change. A look at current situations around the world shows many dramas that beg intervention in the name of human suffering that dwarf anything that ever occured in Iraq. Being the Boss is misunderstood by those being bossed and politics is very definitely a dirty game. If you have the good fortune of being the richest and best then the responsibility of consideration of right and wrong always comes forth which can become diametrically opposed to the mechanics of being the Boss and playing politics. What makes it all come together and make positive change is when right and wrong clash in a definable way, as in World War 2 and the part we played in it. The enemy was recognizable, declared, and organized and their intent and behaviour was evident. Present day we have no organized armies to attack. Our conflict is one fueled by religious differences and historical hatreds and is the weapon of choice by those in power who are playing politics in a very deadly way. If the game plan had prevailed and those running it had won, then the perfect end would have happened, but it didn't, it hasn't, and it won't. We are left as observers. Choosing sides and supporting without knowing the facts, but still choosing sides and supporting, acting like we know the facts. Very dangerous.............

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass..... Christmas Day, 2006..... Do we need a God? My answer will probably surprise some close to me, because my answer is a resounding "YES"! I am an admitted agnostic leaning toward atheism, but I do believe anything you can cling to that gives you peace is your personal right and is to be respected and protected. So why am I the way I am and most everyone else the way they are? It is my opinion that whatever religion you were born into, that's what you will be in adulthood. So, if Hinduism had been the religion in America from the beginning, then Hindu's we would be today, and no matter which religion you put in first, that's how it remains. It hasn't always been that way. A thousand years ago you would have been whatever the King said you would be and died happy with his choice for you. Had it not been for Charlemagne, Christianity might not have flourished to its position today. We all look to those we admire in choosing what we will be and how we will think, and that's where I started getting off on the wrong foot with things. I was born into a devoutly Pentecostal family that according to conversation God was present at all times. But it was a house of hypocracy, brutality, dishonesty, and just downright not worth a damn for much of anything. After a rousing night at church you might very well be awakened by my Grandmother who would tell you God spoke to her and told her to do it just before she beat you to smithereens with what ever she could get her hands on. Yet this woman died believing in her heart she had lived a worthy life for God. Most of her children were worse than her. I started trying to get away from them at thirteen and got the job done at fourteen. Although in modern terms I had a childhood that would certainly qualify for a life of therapy, I never had such a thing. I've lived my life trusting in myself first and choosing very carefully who I would put on my most trusted list, and it isn't a very long one. I've always been a voracious reader and hungry to know how things worked, and if possible, why they worked, and religions were always at the top of my list. In my life I was afforded the opportunity to travel the planet, and in doing so I also had time to look in depth at facts of religious history, and in fact watch most of them in practice. There I opened such a Pandora's box of confusion and silliness that I could not in good faith join anybody's plan for connection to the Almighty. The facts of all religions only fed my problems. I finally came to the place that my position would be to treat all fairly and with respect, not cheating or lying to those I come in contact and not have any thing to do with what religions are, which is manmade. If there should be an Almighty who will judge me when I'm done, I will rely on that power to appreciate me for using the brain I was born with and waiting to explain myself at that time. Religions are steeped with narrow mindedness and when opposing viewpoints come face to face the debate winds up to be only a reaffirmation of faith and happiness of the one blessed and increduality that others can't see it that way. Unfortunately facts aren't nearly as important to them as they are to me, and it is impossible for me to live without factual clarity, and it takes much more for me than the average to sign on to anything. So How can I say God is important if I feel the way I do? Simple. I think we must have a moral compass of some kind as a nation, and I also think if so many find happiness in their connections, then by all means pursue it. But I could easily do without the by-products of religions, which are wars, misunderstandings, suspicions, mistrust, brutality, loss of human rights and denial of education. Merry Christmas, or whatever fits to All...................

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass.... This morning I was watching one of the morning news shows and they had the daily segment about finances. In my opinion American media doesn't speak to America, and this morning's segment steps forward as evidence of the gap between them and the real world Americans occupy. We all have to use what ever place we occupy as the benchmark for whatever subject is up for discussion, and in mine I think it I have a reasonable spot to draw opinion from. The segment today that struck me as out of touch had a financial expert telling us how to avoid paying taxes. All his suggestions had to do with investments, stock portfolios, and retirement accounts. Not many of his descriptions covered many folks I know. It is possible I live in a bowl and can't see out. But I live in hiking distance of a state capitol building and run a controlled community in which most of it's residents are known to me in a relatively personal way, so for my slice of life it's not hard to look around and see how things stack up in my world. The statement made by the expert this morning that got my attention was one about your 401K. He said that you could put up to $15,000 dollars in deferred tax free monies in and looked straight at the camera and said, 'If you haven't put the maximum amount in your 401K I urge you to do so immediately and take advantage of this opportunity'. In my world, a majority work in state government at a median salary of about $30,000 a year gross salary. The private and business sector is about the same. I wonder how Mr Smart Ass would have my world endure the tax deductions taken from their pay, make their household expenses, raise their family, and put $15,000 in a 401K to avoid paying more taxes? In my world it appears that the professional part of the population who could do such a thing is less than 10%, the other 90% had no need to watch that portion of the morning news show. Life is cyclical. Those in my world who strut their stuff only do so after a windfall of some sort or are digging a debt hole that will cave in on them in short while...... not many will make a $15,000 annual investment into their retirement account to take advantage of a tax savings. There isn't room in their budget.......... mine either........

Musings of a Dumb Ass

A few days ago I was chatting with an 86 year old woman that I enjoy talking about 'things' with. We've visited when occasions permitted for several years and I always enjoy myself with her and I'm always impressed at the clarity with which her brain works. On this particular visit we talked about religion and politics and sorry damned people or just what ever she wanted. Just out of the clear blue she told me her son blamed a lot of the illegal Mexicans in this country on abortion, and said to me, "How could he be that damned silly"? There is no description that would cover the expression on her face when I said, 'Well, I hate to tell you, but I'm in your son's corner on that one'. She simply went into a rage and never came out of it and was still puffed up when I left and told me I was spending too damn much time on them computers and they were fillin' me with silliness. My elderly lady friend just hasn't allowed her brain to wrap itself around the issue, and neither have so many of us. We lost our way confusing ourselves with side issues surrounding abortion. The womans right to choose whether or not the human being residing in her body will be allowed to live, giving the father no right of choice in the matter leaves a lot to be desired. When is a life a life is another crooked crutch that supports madness, leaving the presumption that if we can interrupt pregnancy before a particular point, then it was never a credible life to begin with thus not deserving of any description that contains the word 'life' and therefore deserves no thought, responsibility, nor guilt in the individuals' decision making the choice of the future of what, uninterrupted, will most surely become a person just like me...... or maybe you. So what could abortion possibly have to do with illegal aliens taking jobs in this country? Firstly, there are NO United States citizens standing in line for any of the jobs the Mexicans take, Nobody wants those jobs, almost to the last person, anyone in this country that doesn't have a job, doesn't want a job. There are those of us unemployed waiting for the next high paying job, but no matter how bad it gets never considers going to work in a chicken processing plant, then there are those of us who recieve a government entitlement/welfare check and consider it honorable to do so, Secondly, We don't have the absolute figures of what the cost in human life has been since the 60's, and that's not available because we have no absolute figures. But we can look at what we do know and surmise the rest with pretty good authority. In the 60's when the birth control pill came it was heralded as a great thing, and may be. But we have no way of knowing how many births would have occured had it not been there. We do know that Planned Parenthood and abortion on demand clinics are available to any female that desires to abort and those establishments number in the tens of thousands across our land. The law that allows that has become so all encompassing that an underage teenage girl is so protected in the use of such establishments that any discussion even with her parents is not required. There are idiots who stand ready and willing to hide her and provide support and transportation to the girl until the deed is done. Then she is left to deal with the emotional side of things her own way. There are very good researchers who believe there have been 75 million humans aborted since 1960. If these 75 million people had been allowed to live, there would be no jobs available to ANY alien. There would be 75 million more people paying into the social security fund that supports the old fossils that sanctioned such a behaviour as abortion. There would have been 75 million more to create wonderful things for us and our lives, vote, and have passion for life. Instead we are a vanishing breed with power slipping away along with the future. Even the most ignorant of the ignorant would understand if all the poodles in the world aborted their puppies at the same rate Americans have aborted their babies, there would most definitely be a shortage of poodles down the road..... But we aren't able to apply the same logic to our lives....... We deserve to loose what we will probably lose, which is ..... ourselves.

Musings of a Dumb Ass

Musings of a Dumb Ass .... I said I was done with this and even bid whomever was reading it goodbye and left to write comedy. Comedy is fun, as it should be, and I will continue doing it. But as one who passed the age of majority so long ago, and am now in the interesting place in life that a ten year plan is questionable, I find myself amazed at the roads we take, where it leads us, and how willingly we go. Given that, I still have something to say, and understanding there are very few interested in that, I will feel better with myself if I go ahead and put it down, so that I can go back and see how it stacked up whether anyone else does or not. Today I went to the store and left weak in the knees at the cost of a visit there. All things are up, and todays breath taker was a 39 ounce container of regular roast coffee at $9.33. It's not the price of a can of coffee that will affect my life so much, it's everything else that goes along with it. Some how without warning or explanation utilities have spiraled in cost as have gasoline and literally everything in our lives until there is no longer a level we can cling to that is familiar. All the while the authority in our lives continue to dumb us down and lie about virtually everything it controls, which is everything. I have been correct about just about everything that I've taken a position on from the Iraq war, to the economy, the welfare state we have made, and in all likelihood, I'm completely correct about the direction we're going and the destination we will reach. It's not that I'm so smart, it's that we're so damn dumb and gullible. That in itself is the saddest part of all. So how long will it continue? It will continue as long as inflation works to keep the government operating. How long will that be? I don't know. That's the one thing I've been completely wrong about. I thought it would collapse 10 years ago. That was before I realized 1+1 was completely negotiable and could be anything the powers that be, needed it to be. We have reached such welfare state that no one thinks about it at all, and the state just keeps on growing with all the dignity in the world. My, what an interesting day it will be when the economy collapses and the government will lie useless and unresponsive to its people as they always do when they bloat themselves out of existence. It's happened many times through out history and will do so again..... and it shall be the one closest to your heart that implodes. I feel better having said that, whether you do or not............