The Death Penalty

VA Doctors Claim Immunity from Malpractice

Shop is responsible for damage from botched oil change - Car Talk

May I ask you a rather personal question?

Criticism

Criticism is welcome to me. Criticism is the honing stone upon which I am sharpened.

In reading the gospels we are reading something that somebody said to yet somebody else a very long time ago. As quoted in the bible, when Jesus spoke, logically and semantically, he was speaking to the person(s) standing immediately before him. But, if we take it personally, if we take it to heart, he is speaking directly to us (the readers), so that, when he said:

“…Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

(Matt. 5:48 KJV)

He was in fact speaking directly to us or, especially, to me – today.

In order to comprehend this, one must first accept certain premises:

1) One definition of father is as the originator, e.g., “George Washington was the father of our country.”

2) God is the Father/Creator of the whole universe, and you, as part of that creation, are thus, his child.

3) You accept Christ as your lord and you become subject to him, (i.e., as one knight accepts another as his overlord), his words become his will and thus a commandment directly to you.

Under these premises, when I read “ye” in the above quotation he is speaking directly to me.

On the other hand, whenever you read “ye” he is speaking directly to you.

Humanity seeks perfection but does it the hard way, pointing critical, accusing fingers at each other, instead of putting forth the effort of perfecting themselves. He did not say: “Make them perfect.” But, rather: “Be ye therefore perfect.”

I’ve given up on trying to make others perfect. It’s just not working. And this begs the question:

Is it even possible for someone to be perfect? And in what way?

I can’t straighten my crooked leg. There is no corrective measure for my lifelong amblyopia. Diet and exercise are hopeless against the ravages of old age. What can I perfect? What about me is perfectible?

Nothing, really, but I hit upon the idea that he meant logic and reason and the taming of the tongue – what pours forth from your mouth must be closely monitored; perfect in all cases. And what of the mind, purged of all sin, all hatred, and selfish motivation? Morally, as the Law is written, I stand condemned; and yet I still continue to strive for perfection. Why? Because God is my judge, and He being perfect, the closer I come to perfection the closer I come to Him. I gain assurance against that condemnation.

I invite you, as a friend, to criticize me:

criticize my spelling, my grammar, and my punctuation; but especially, my reasoning, that I make no error in the eyes of The Almighty.

In this life, on this plain of existence, perfection and it’s attendant assurance of God’s Love is the closest thing to happiness a man can find. So help me in my quest for my own perfection.

Your criticism is more than welcome here.

What’s the Buzz?

What’s the buzz
Tell me what’s a-happening

What’s the buzz
Tell me what’s a-happening

What’s the buzz
Tell me what’s a-happening

What’s the buzz
Tell me what’s a-happening

What’s the buzz
Tell me what’s a-happening

What’s the buzz
Tell me what’s a-happening

“What’s the Buzz?” – Jesus Christ Superstar

There’s nothing unusual about the daily dust-ups and squabbles among the local sparrows fighting and chasing each other over dominance, mates, nesting scraps and morsels of food, etc. so the only reason I’m writing about this is because it seemed so unusual an occurrence and surely, even at my age, it’s a first time for me.

Four sparrows zoomed past only a few feet from me, making a couple of passes before changing course and moving on. The lead sparrow, the one the others were chasing had a live cicada in its beak, and they wanted to steal it or at least have a piece of it. I knew it was still alive because it was buzzing furiously. It was the buzzing of the cicada that caught my attention and immediately brought to mind a song from Jesus Christ Superstar. I was not alone in this because an even larger flock of sparrows quickly got caught up in the excitement as well.

What’s the buzz
Tell me what’s a-happening

A motorized sparrow; Huh.

Jesus Christ Superstar is a 1970 rock opera with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice.

Nothing is Foolproof – Nothing

CAUTION: THIS IS NOT A FLOTATION DEVICE.

DO NOT LEAVE CHILD UNATTENDED WHILE IN USE.

USE ONLY UNDER COMPETENT SUPERVISION.

Even something so simple as a classic vinyl beach ball isn’t foolproof. We sometimes loose sight of the meaning of words. Foolproof is one such ticklish word. For ever so long I’ve searched for an example of something that’s absolutely foolproof and hit upon this classic children’s toy. Boy, was I wrong.

Nothing is foolproof – nothing

“Give him a beach ball and that dang fool will figure out a way to go and choke hisself wid it.”

Mayhap just to prove and reiterate the point that nothing is foolproof – absolutely nothing.

So, the next time you see some kids playing with one of these vinyl beach balls snatch it away from them and demand to know who’s supervising them; and secondly, if they are being supervised, is that supervision competent?

Movie Words

“We don’t use those movie words in front of other people.”

True stories are the best kinds of stories.

This all came about in a matter of seconds:

Arguably the first word most children learn how to say is “No”. It’s just a matter of frequency. All eyes and hands, they get into about everything, and mom and pop, if they want to preserve their knickknacks and sanity or just keep their kid from harming himself are exhaustingly compelled to repeatedly say “No”.

“No! Don’t touch that!” “No! Don’t do that!” “No! Don’t go there!“

A two-year-old learns about 5000 new words per year. So, in that time of life when a child struggles to formulate his own personal identity and independence from his parents he wields these newly discovered weapons with an alacrity and a willfulness bordering on full out rebellion.

Presumably, these parents were huge movie fans. And also presumably, they were from the “no spanking” school of parenting. Hence their frustration at controlling their kid.

He apparently picked up a whole quiver of nifty new words watching movies with his folks; e.g., the “F” Word; the “B” Word; and what appeared to be his personal favorite, the “C” Word.

I didn’t hear every word that he said but I did hear his folks admonish him repeatedly to not use those “movie words”. But he continued to wander about as a child does, tossing those words about to the point were it became abundantly clear (to me at least) that he was deliberately doing so just to get a rise out of his parents.

He’s the baby, gotta love ‘im.

Fireflies and Lightning Bugs

They are neither on fire, nor are they flies. They bear no correlation to lightning and they are simply not bugs. They are bioluminescent beetles, a species of winged insect. Yet we persist, none the less, in calling them fireflies or lightning bugs. We are drowning in an alphabet soup of misnomers and misleading labels of all sorts. There is reality, and above that, a great glossary of names and descriptives that, for the most part, intellectually deceives and misleads.

Much of this linguistic stupidity is simply passed on from generation to generation and never questioned; and even if it were, we are creatures of habit, and it would take serious personal effort to purge our speech and thinking of all logical error.

It seems everywhere I look these days, I see absurdities.

Sometimes this lost world of words is deliberate; like referring to a used car as being “pre-owned”. What? Was it kept on blocks or in a garage for the past ten years?

Christopher Columbus had no GPS; and it’s doubtful he even had a magnetic compass. He thought he’d reached India and so called the indigenous people Indians. Wrongo, Chris; And yet we persist.

I am, linguistically speaking, a Native American; which means I was born in America; yet no indigenous tribe would embrace me as one of their own. Anyone born between Alaska and Patagonia is, linguistically speaking, also a Native American. If both your parents are Japanese and you’re born in America, you too, are a Native American.

Humanity evolves and language is a part of that evolution. As astronomy debunked astrology and as chemistry debunked alchemy so too must language be thoroughly debunked.

I would be an ardent racist if there was any logical or scientific basis for it; but I’ve found none because there is none. Racism (a belief) as a concept, a categorization or classification is only about 300 years old. The whole of human history played itself out on a tribal level. The Romans against the Gauls, The Israelites against the Philistines, The Spanish against the Dutch, just to name a few. Tribes and coalitions of tribes warring against each other. Take a hard look at Africa today and you will see inter-tribal warfare. Look at Asia, the Middle East, Central Europe, South America, Afghanistan (a place, not a nation) and you will see inter-tribal warfare. They are all the same color – but different tribes. The great Genghis Khan promulgated a coalition of disparate, antagonistic tribes into the mighty Mongol hordes. Tribes – not races. Racism is pseudo-science that waits to be debunked and purged from our language, yet it is still carved in stone; it is taught in schools and permeates the law of the land.

Do enough research, following the paper trail, and you just might discover precisely who it was that conceived of the notion of race. It may well have been T. B. Johnson and others of his ilk and era. These precursors, these pseudo-scientists, who believed in phrenology but knew nothing about genetics.

You would perceive me as white and classify me as such; yet there is no such thing as a white person. The Census Bureau of the United States and many other public and private entities still want to categorize me as a Caucasian, a thing I really bristle at. You classify and you categorize; you sort and you pigeon-hole me. You aggregate me, lumping me together with the great banking houses of Europe – of which, truly, I have no part.

Our language and laws are shot through with foolish linguistic and logical errors. But we are a proud people; we are proud of what we think we know; what we assume to know.

We are drowning in an alphabet soup of misnomers and misleading labels of all sorts.

You like to blame others, including myself, for your oppression.

But what have I to do with you?

Your greatest oppressor is your own ignorance.

People come to blows, even kill each other, in defense of their own ignorance.

The Fourth of July – 2017

These are photographs of the last two American flags in the neighborhood. It just so happens I raised them both. I raised ours just before dawn out of a sense of nostalgia and respect for my brother’s political naïveté and old habits. He woke up a few hours later and immediately inquired if I had done so. My elderly neighbor called a bit later and asked me to assemble and mount her flag as her son was unable to do so. Most of my neighbors are now Hispanic and, if they’d cared enough to raise any flag at all it would probably be a Mexican or Puerto Rican one. They do so love their fireworks however. This is probably the last time I’ll bother to display the flag.

Robin Without A Towel

I’m not in charge here. I suggested we install a towel rack on the bird bath but nooooo – my brother vetoed the idea.

The Hallmark Channel

So there I was, stuck in the waiting room. (I drove a neighbor to a doctor’s appointment.) They’re putting up televisions everywhere so it seems; much to my annoyance.

The Hallmark Channel was on – don’t know what program – a Talk Show of some sort. (No Remote) I wasn’t paying too much attention until I saw, written in bold text across the bottom of the screen:

THERE IS A PERFECT TIME TO SQUEEZE A PIMPLE.

This is the kind of thing dames talk about when guys are tuned elsewhere? No wonder they’re tuned elsewhere. Guys: try to stay focused, nod your head agreeably, never, ever interrupt, and try to stay out of trouble as best you can.