Ice-T, and not the Long Island Kind.

There are times when you just Know you are getting old. Well, older at least. This morning I had one of those moments. I listened to Ice-T this morning and he actually made sense. He was being interviewed by an NPR reporter about his documentary movie about Rap. Mentioned in passing that Rap had probably saved him from a life, short life probably, of crime. Sounded familiar so I listened more. Angry speech, he said, is the result of freeing people to express themselves. I agree. Maybe not the only effect of freedom but certainly one of them. Rap is poetry produced by poets freed from the constraints of convention. I get that. Rap was and maybe still is angry, lashing out at the world the Rappers inhabit. I get that too.

I don't like to listen to the music (?) called Rap, but Ice-T sure made sense. Back to getting old. This guy started 20 years ago. Twenty!!! I remember hearing his early gangsta stuff and thinking something like "man, this is dangerous and angry stuff!" It was. And now he is making films, acting in a major TV series and being interviewed on NPR, not as a criminal but as a spokesperson for Rap. How fast those 20 years went.

Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZaRc8v8bwL43UCIvsEha5oDxJF3ttGMZMEmdL9FVplxQ7Dv0fi7gNJgEMU4P5XXfLkd0YXOrrIuwptbFaZdRdaGKLMQC53p5WQrOw6U1s5tAsWLWwzybVZjNVhQ5b6gxA5bNvcXduYiBS/s400/Ice+-+A+Memoir+Of+Gangster+Life+%2526+Redemption+From+South+Central+To+Hollywood.jpg

I Just Don’t Get It, or, Cherry Picking Christians

Before I start, let me say to the few who site “free will” as an answer to all the conundrums: Either you follow the Word of your Lord (your God) or you don’t.

So, to continue this puzzle I look to my Christian friends and ask about their teachings. I often hear “It says in the Bible” or “God said it” or “my preacher says that it the Lord said” and on and on. They maintain that abortion is an abomination because it says so in the Bible. Ditto with gay life style. Ditto with divorce. Ditto with what-ever-the-hell-you-want to support. They throw WWJD around like a soap commercial jingle. Too bad Jesus didn’t have the Bible (new) to guide him into hatred.

This brings me to Leviticus. Lots of good stuff here for everybody, and it is unquestionably the Bible. Take 21: 16 -20. What utter crap. Take 21:5 and then take a look at all the bible-quoting skin heads and so-called Christians like Rick Scott. Which brings me to Leviticus 18:22 where it specifically forbids the tattooing of the body.

Which brings me to this question: if you follow the Bible and want to stone gays to death, why do you have a tattoo? Because you CHERRY PICK THE BIBLE, that’s why. Or you really don’t know what the Bible actually says. And don’t go to the free will argument. I agree you have the free will to do what you want because there are no natural or sacred rules to follow. I do not agree that you can quote one section of a sacred text to support your ignorant opinions and then ignore others because you have “free will”. If you have the free will to get a tattoo, then any woman should have the free will to have an abortion and any couple should have the free will to get married.

Anything short of that reeks of hypocrisy in the name of Religion.
Image: http://i.qkme.me/BVJ.jpg

Love Wisconsin Cheese? Is that what stinks in Wisconsin?

So. The recall election is over in Wisconsin, and it is a Republican sweep, albeit a close one. To be sure, Republicans outspent Democrats by roughly 7 to 1. To “win” the Florida governors election Scott out spent Sink by more than 6 to 1.

These elections by themselves are troubling, but totally legal. You are allowed to buy your way into power in this country. More troubling is the portent for the future: the party with the most money to spend has the advantage. Which party is that? Why, the Republican Party of course. For the past several decades statistics show plainly that the rich are getting richer, very rich under Republican presidents (Bush tax cuts that gutted the economy but padded the rich with lots of extra income), and the poor keep getting poorer. The income gap continues to widen as the “One Percent” out paces the “Ninety-nine Percent”. Which means that one party will continue to have the “cash” capacity to buy elections.
So what happens is illustrated by Wisconsin and Florida: Out spend your opponent by huge factors and buy the election.  This bodes badly for future elections. Of course as a liberal I naturally think it will be bad. My conservative friends (yes, I do have a few) will think it good. Get rid of “Obamacare”, keep the “Bush tax cuts”, eliminate the EPA, the DOE, the ESA (endangered species act), the CAA (clean air act) etc. Get “Big Government” off our backs. Good idea. And while they are at it, they will kill what is left of the future for profits now. Then they will suffer with the rest of us. Oh well.
My solution? You know, don’t you? Good beer and wine, good friends and family and good travel. In other words, live for today because tomorrow probably won’t be worth living in.

Image: http://grist.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/walker.jpg?w=300&h=300

Rough Ride Ahead.

The world’s oceans cover 140 million square miles and have remained stable for most of human history. But in the last 30 years, man’s impact on the seas has taken a heavy toll: global fish supplies are declining thanks to new technologies and overfishing. Climate change has led to a rise in ocean temperatures and the loss of 75 percent of large sea animals. Plastics and agricultural fertilizers are polluting our oceans and killing marine life.

Thus started another program on the crisis of the Earth. Those of us in the conservation field are getting pretty tired of having to answer the same question over and over again: What is the cause of the multiple disasters we find occurring every day around the world? Low fish stocks, fires, floods, droughts etc. The answer is always the same: People. To be more specific: Too Damn Many People. Estimates are that currently we are using one and a half planets worth of resources to keep the current population sustained. Not growing, just sustained. But the population is growing, and the demand for goods and services is not just sustaining, but is also growing. The obvious conclusion it that too many people are competing for too few resources.  And it will get worse: the population is still growing.
A woman caller to a talk show commented that she thought the guest was implying that the earth would be better off without people. The conservationist sidestepped slightly. I don’t. The world would be far better off without people. It was before we got here. I know. Some of you will think in Biblical terms here and invoke “dominion over the earth” or “God made man” or some other rationalization for keeping us around. Face it folks: even if we were given the earth for our own domain, we have systematically been destroying it. Don’t believe it? Energy extraction is a good place to look. Mountain topping for coal removal resulting in the destruction of the mountain, the adjoining watershed and all the things in it, the atmosphere and our health. Mineral extraction. Fishing. Unsustainable farming using fossil water. Over intensive farming of animals such as shrimp, pigs, chickens, and over intensive farming of plants like corn and soybeans. The list is long and sad.
We are the problem, my friends, and the only way we can solve the problem is to stop reproducing and let the population go down. Way down. Won’t happen though. Too many people who just love their children and grandchildren instead of opting to adopt the surplus of orphans. Too many people period. Live through the next 100 years or so and things might just get better. But, that will take a disastrous century of thinning. The tipping point has been passed, so hang on to your hats and buckle your belt. It will be a rough ride.

Image: http://llco.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/slum.jpg

Love, Actually

I was writing to a friend this morning and had occasion use the following: “Sometimes in nature you end up with a bluebird of happiness, and sometimes you end up with a killer flesh eating bacteria. Both good in their own niche.”

Now as I think back on this idea I am reminded of all the controversies that rage over Evolution. Change Over Time. Nothing terribly difficult to understand at the basic level. A process that goes ahead without benefit of plan, just relying on the latent survivability of each individual.

This is exactly what I believe is at work in relationships. Two people meet and the evolution of each separately and both together begins. Often without a plan, and entirely dependent on the latent survivability of each. Each of us brings strengths and weaknesses into the mix, and then they compete for survival. Sometimes the best “traits” make it, and sometimes the “worst”. We usually don’t openly compete for ascendance, sometimes but not usually. We just do our individual and collective best to reach the goal of mutual love, understanding and longevity of relationship. In the “doing” the traits each of us bring to the table work and wiggle for a place, and the end result, which I think never really ends until death do you part, hopefully is a wonderful blend of the best of both. Hopefully.

The friend I was writing to this morning and her partner has achieved a level of blend that is sustainable and good. The only continuous caution I would add is this: evolution moves ahead in time without a plan, and in relationships one needs to be mindful of the changes that are always occurring and evolve with them. Otherwise, boom, no relationship.

Image: http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02133/swansHeart_2133563i.jpg

A Little Fun Today

Theft
Saturday 05 May 2012, 6:45 p.m.
Owner of a local business reported that an  individual had asked to see a $70 necklace from display case. The patron grabbed the necklace and attempted to flee the store. The Darwin Award nominee was unable to operate the front door which he pushed when it required that he pull. The clodpoll returned the necklace and apologized. The business owner declined to pursue charges.

And so goes entry after entry on the Unalaska Police blotter, published weekly in the KUCB community news letter. A wonderfully inventive Sargent named Jennifer Shockley manages the blotter for the department. Jennifer uses her ability with words and a pretty interesting sense of humor to report the daily calls her department answers. I check it every week, and always find something to laugh about. The third link takes you to the NPR article that led me to the blotter.

Image: http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2012/04/07/unalaska.jpg?t=1333803740&s=2

http://kucb.org/community/blotter/?page=1

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/07/150148340/small-towns-police-blotter-is-a-riot

Sex Workers? Oldest Profession

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What Did I Just DO!!??

Well, with the best of intentions, I had a quick look at some of my older essays. Then more, then more, and before I knew it I was back to 2009. An hour and a half reading stuff I wrote years ago. And you know what? Some of it is really interesting. The funny thing though, is that I couldn’t figure out where some of them came from. I mean what the motivation was for writing them or even where the idea came from. Some of them seemed like someone else must have written them. But I did.
I had an urge to bring some forward.  To say “SEE!! I TOLD YOU SO!!” or to share a thought again, or a story like the tortoise and the owl. I left them where they were. I figure if someone wants to know what I wrote 3 years ago, they are there. Some very interesting, some timed out by history, some very personal and some, well, just there.
I was struck by a few that found good news in the morass of crap in the world. I am looking for some good news now, and I gotta tell you, there ain’t much around. One bit of good news though: there is plenty of good IPA available in the Tallahassee market. Some bottles, some draft and one micro brewed. Life will always be worth living as long as there hope for good beer. That might make a good epitaph.

Image: http://assets0.pulsdcdn.com/system/images/10989/original/statue-liberty-beer.jpg?1311631328

“God” set us up - - Again.

Remember the commandment that forbids coveting your neighbor’s ass or wife or other stuff? Sounds good, right? Who wants his ass anyway? Well, ummm, never mind. Here is the problem: it seems that the human brain is hard wired to covet. This has to do with the parietal lobe and the premotor cortex and the ventral striatum and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex regions of the brain. You remember these from biology right?
The bottom line is this: when you see a behavior or object that someone has, your brain evaluates its worth, and because of the way the parts are connected, your evaluation is nearly always that whatever it is is valuable because someone else has it, and that increases the desire for you to have it too. Covet it in other words. Hard wired. No choice.
Of course you can always just say “no” and move on, but that is very difficult with a hard wired brain. Try saying “no” to hunger for very long. And how many times have you changed your mind about what to order in a restaurant when someone else orders first? You were going to have the fish, someone orders the prime rib and you think “prime rib. That sounds good” and you order it instead of the fish. (The solution to that particular problem is to order first.) Your brain just mirrors what it perceives, evaluates the information and creates the desire.
So don’t worry about the tenth commandment. Or put another way, “covet away pal, covet away.”  The reason you should not worry? God loves you unconditionally. Un-con-dition-ally. Oh, wait a minute. This is the same god that in the second commandment says “I do not leave unpunished the sins of those who hate me, but I punish the children for the sins of their parents to the third and fourth generations.”  So a fourth generation child will be punished for something that a great great great grandparent did. Now THAT’S LOVING!!!!

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/340905/title/Thou_can%E2%80%99t_not_covet

Image: http://www.the-goldenrule.name/Lust_files/image013.jpg

Part of My Story

Was talking to a friend the other day and had a real epiphany about my mother. Really. For many years I have on occasion talked about her in sometimes not glowing terms. She was a troubled woman from about 1950 on. I always assumed that the relationship she had with my father was the reason for her alternating depressions and bouts of protectiveness. And she was a lapsed Catholic and never recovered from that. And she was sexually abused by her sister’s husband when she was 10 to about 13. All reasons for her being the way she was.
Now I think there is a new element in the mix that could explain the timing. I was sexually abused by a cousin when I was 5 or 6 or 7, and she insisted that only she and I would ever know. So she never, as far as I know, told my father, his sister or anyone else. It would make sense if she felt guilty for not protecting me from the cousin. Her behavior viewed from this angle fits.
My behavior as a10 year old and up was rebellious and I wonder if she felt responsible somehow. And possibly every time I got myself in trouble she felt somehow that she had let me down and blamed herself. Then got depressed. This would make me an unwitting cause of her suffering.

She died youngish, 67, of what amounts self-abuse. She was a heavy smoker and user of many prescription drugs for depression, asthma and digestive issues and pain, all except smoking started around 1950.  Who really can know what was going on in her mind after years of electroconvulsive therapy, “happy pills” etc.? The answer is “no one”. I think, though, that the guilt she must have felt was a part of who she was, and how she was. Looking back from my perspective now I say to her “Ma, you did the very best you could with what you had. You did nothing wrong. The only thing you are guilty of is loving me. If you need to be forgiven then I forgive you. But please, forgive yourself. You were the best Ma you could have been. That is enough for me.”

And strangely (or not) I have lit candles for her in most Catholic churches and Cathedrals I have visited in Europe. I am not a believer, but somehow it felt right to do that simple act. Probably my behavior and hers are tied in some intricate knot of emotion, love, guilt and survival.

Anyway, that’s part of my story.

Image: http://somethingburning.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/telephone_shhh.gif