Accepting Crazy Behavior As Normal

MY NEW THEORY IS; we, the American people, live in a land of control freaks. In other words, we, the American people, tend to be control freaks. Who knows what the numbers are? Harvard, anyone? Five'll get you ten somebody, maybe Harvard, which does this kind of stuff all the time, has done the research, conducted the surveys. Granted, we all have the right to control ourselves, though it is interesting to note how often and how willingly we turn control of ourselves over to others. But in American we go way beyond self control; we take it all the way out as far as we can, controlling as much and as many as we can, it sometimes seems. When is the last time you drove along an American road at the speed limit or just a shade below, without some fine upstanding middle class normal successful intelligent American driving within three feet of your rear bumper? 1978? If that is not a sure indication of, the best indication of control freakishness, then what is? What on earth are we thinking when we do that? And let's fact it, just about all of us Americans follow too closely when operating a motorized vehicle. Its a national epidemic, like upspeak, or vocal fry. The average American is perfectly willing to position his or her rapidly moving large heavy powerful machine within inches of somebody else's machine, for....what....purpose? To influence, to exercise control over, the victim of the tailgate, the person we are potentially frightening to death or killing? Maybe it goes back to that fiercely independent, every man for himself spirit. The urge to conquer, and to control, and to resist any attempt by others to do the same to ourselves. And yet, it is interesting how readily we all seem to accept being followed too closely. As if we've gotten so used to it, we accept it as normal. Admittedly, there is no demonstrable causal connection between being a control freak and following too closely in one's car. But doesn't it somehow just seem as if there is a relationship to driving so aggressively, and tending to be controlling? As if, it all about me, and what I want, right now, at any risk or cost.

Maybe Not Enough, but Better late Than Never

IT MAY WELL BE that atomically bombing Japan was done in accordance with the teachings and wishes of Jesus Christ, was the right thing for America to do, because it saved tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of American lives, and was America's only real option. No need for Obama to apologize while in Hiroshima; just maybe its a bit late for that anyway. But wasn't the war already over by august, 1945, other than the potential for resistance from millions of Japanese housewives with handguns to an entirely needless American land invasion? The regular Japanese military was completely defeated by August, 1945, or close enough. NO need for further fighting. Just sit the U.S. Navy off the shore, and wait. Get the surrender, then rebuild. No need for no more bombs, by august, 1945. Did the Russian military tell the American military in the summer of 1945 that the Japanese were looking for a way to surrender? Is there a reference to that in Truman's diary? The bomb was dropped to impress and scare the Russians, and hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed. The hard, cold, horrible truth is, it could well be argued that the two bombs were a monumental war crime. To ignore a surrender offer, and to instead drop these atomic, indeed to ignore a surrender offer in order to allow their dropping??? Hello? So it could also be argued that not only should Obama have apologized, Truman should have apologized, then promptly impeached, removed from office, triad, convicted, and imprisoned before New Year's Day, 1946. It could be so argued. Other than all that, Obama said all the right things in Japan 'tother day. Amazing that no previous American president had bothered, until having already left office.

Cliven, Enlivening

THEM OLE BOYS OUT WEST is in a heap o' trouble. Cliven Bundy ("Cliven"?) sits in a jail cell, for several minor offenses, all having to do with defiance of the federal gummit. Funny how these right wing types espouse patriotism out their ears, then turn right around and consider the federal govt., which ultimately is the American people, to be some sort of enemy. These cattle ranching Mormons do not want to pay us for the use of our land upon which they graze their stock, and are willing to occupy our property with powerful weapons aimed at us to convey their lack of interest in the nations' welfare and respect for the very nation they claim to love.. If they don't wise up and learn how to get along with their fellow Americans, as represented by their government, more of them is likely to land in the clink, which might be a good opportunity for them to settle down a mite, and reconsider. The problem is, they are the sort of folks who still resent the Beatles for having long hair, and imagine that all the hippies from the nineteen sixties have now become environmentalists. Actually, most of the former hippies are now either dead, retired, or republicans. Even crazier, they believe that back in 1820 or so some dude in upstate New York dug golden tablets out of the ground, which revealed the "word of God". One would think that good, solid, hard working ranchers would have more sense than that, enough sense to understand that environmentalists are trying to preserve the very thing which makes their living possible, but don't bank on it. To paraphrase a rather well known quote, these right wing nut cases would be humorous, were they not in such deadly earnest. and another: nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of extreme right wing Mormons.

Questioning Christianity

FOR ALL OF YOU Jesus, guns, and money right wing Christians, permit me to recommend Bart Ehrman, chairperson of the religious studies department at the university of North Carolina. Ehrman knows more about the Bible, and the Christian religion, than anyone on the planet. A former evangelical christian, he is now a born again agnostic, leaning towards atheism. He claims that he became an agnostic due to his contemplation of human suffering, and the nature of any God who would permit so much of it. Permit me to question his reasoning, presumptuously. It seems to me far more likely that he lost his faith while earning his doctorate at the princeton theological seminary, but how would I know? At good academic institutions, nobody is forced to sign a document proclaiming their undying faith in Christianity, as they often are at low level bible schools, or their faith in the perfection of the Bible. This is because good schools understand that it is better to allow students to reach their own conclusions, and that they will do so in any event, no matter what they sign. Ehrman modestly points out that the Bible is full of contradictions and errors, and he proves it. He learned how to do this at Princeton, which approaches Christianity from the viewpoint of critical, scientific analysis, rather than from blind faith. Ehrman is often attacked, as you might suppose, by those to whom any criticism of their faith is unacceptable and nightmarish. The best criticism of Ehrman is that he does not agree with his critics, and that seems rather weak. As traditional religions all over the world decline in the face of oveerwheliming and obvious evidence that they are fabrications of the human mind, Ehrman will continue to suffer slings and arrows, but, as is the case now, none of them will reach their intended target.

Longing, In Vain, For the Next Revolution

'WHAT WE NEED", I offered, "is a good ole fashioned revolution". I thought the notion would fly, because my audience of one, a guy about my age, hippie age, had long hair and an ear ring, a sure sign of progressivism. Surely he would agree that the time is now to get all the non wealthy out in the streets, and transfer some of that new wealth into the hands of the ninety nine percent. But I was wrong. He wasn't having any of it. "Never happen. Everyone's too full of corporate propaganda." "Sheep, indeed, we are", I rejoined, but he wasn't having that either. "Nah, just too much propaganda".... Instead of asking him what the difference was, I nodded solemnly, and mumbled something about never letting the dream die. By that I meant the dream of a European style socialist paradise, here on earth. We Americans have a long tradition of revolution, although by looking at us today you'd never know it. Unless, of course, you consider the advent of Donald Trump a sort of revolution, which I for one do not. To me a revolution is thousands of people out in the streets, screaming demands, like that time in Washington City when the World War One vets came to town demanding money, or the time the Irish got out in the streets of New York, expressing their lack of interest in military service during the War Between the States. Occupy Wall Street, in 2011, had all the right makings, but the support fizzled, probably because of a lack of any coherent agenda or list of demands, leadership, and proper media coverage. Also, next time, let's not make it mandatory that we all camp out on the streets, and just sit there, accumulating body odor, and giving the republicans something to laugh at. Let's make it so we can all go home at night, shower, shave, and starch our shirts, then get right back at it. We can take our laptops and smart phones with us. We are a nation of revolutionaries, or once were. Oh, for the good ole days, when injustices were redressed at the point of a hand held banner.

Preserving the Cartel

AMERICAN PROFESSIONAL SPORTS IS a monopoly, or at least , an oligarchy. A few billionaires in control of all of it, even though the professional baseball players labor union is perhaps the most powerful labor union in the world. Suppose you are an eighteen year old high school baseball player, with a promising future in the game. How do you find employment? By being drafted. You have no control over whom you will work for; you wait until draft day, and then you find out which teams you will play for, if you are fortunate enough to play. The same is true of other professional sports; the money is good, and if you are good enough, you make good money. but you have absolutely no control over whom you will play for. In just about every other part of the work world, a person has an opportunity to apply for jobs and negotiate compensation with any number of employers. The billionaires owners have complete control over the supply of their products and services. No matter how high the demand for sports entertainment rises, the owning oligarchy can decide to withhold further production, driving up the price of their product, as all good students of capitalism know. and this is exactly what they do. s a result, profits are high in professional sports, and the market is saturated with demand - but not with supply. This keeps the number of athletes down, and drives up their salaries, but owners are willing to accept that, because the profit margins are even higher. meanwhile, huge cities are left without top level sports entertainment, by deliberate calculation. And those that have it pay exorbitantly for it. One might think that anti-trust action would force professional sports to expand to the level of demand, but so far, its no goWe must all play by the rules of the great ownership cartel.

Reading Our Birth Certificates, Obama's Way

I WALKED UP to the new director at my local small town senior center, a nice looking sixty four year old lay I really should ask out, and instead asked: "If I happen, some fine day, to arrive at our senior center self identifying as a woman, which restroom should I use?" I was half serious, half wanting to crack her up. My timing was bad: she nearly choked on her lunch, barely won her struggle to get it going in the right direction, and I thought maybe it would have been better to ask her for a date, or to leave her alone entirely. But her answer, when it came, was unequivocal: use the men's room. I live in a state, you see, one of three or four so far, which has decided to defy the Edict of Obama, that we be allowed to choose our restroom, and it seems our local senior center is on board with the defiance of federal law. (I hope we don't all end up in the slammer, or another civil war. I hear Obama's reach is long...) So, even if I'm feelin' fem, I gotta use the men's room at the senior center. But what if I have gender reassignment surgery, in which my genitals are reversed and I acquire large breasts, and start wearing dresses? what then? Use the men's room? Read my birth certificate? If a surgeon removes a man's genitals, builds into him a vagina and breasts, is the person still a man? Really? What do the sex change surgeons say about this? What do the medical, biological, and anatomical experts have to say about it? Shouldn't we accept the findings of true experts, regardless of what we wish to believe? Laws like the one passed in North Carolina in which the true sex of everyone is on the birth certificate, and sex changes are invalid... might be, a bit...well...unrealistic? The Edict of Obama says that transgenders must use the restroom of their new sex, not their birth certificate sex. The rest of us are still to be constrained by birth certificate fact. American men must all ask: do we want Caitlyn Jenner and his/her ilk using the men's room, or the women's?

Organizing Our Popular Uprising

I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU - hell, I don't even know about me - but all this voting and poll taking in America is kinda fun. And let's all admit it; we love the back biting and bickering. "Lying Ted?" Crazy Bernie? You gotta love it! You folks in totalitarian countries have no idea how much furn you're missing. Just as the primary season is really starting to get interesting, its nearly time to quit, and that doesn't seem fair. Who knows? Maybe Bernie could catch Hillary, and somebody could overthrow Trump - if given just a little more time. Let's get Ted Cruz back in the race, and keep Bernie in it, and have a four person election in November! That would help satisfy most of us in America who are utterly dissatisfied with the two candidates our two party monopoly is giving us. Bring on the American Socialist Party and the American Conservative Christian party! People talk about being tired of all the bickering and poll taking, but, what's not to like about it? American drama in real life, not scripted, like, say, the Kardashians. American politics can be just as interesting and exciting as any reality TV show, if we just give it a chance. A poll a day keeps the doctor away. With smart phones and the internet, polling is easier than ever. Why not do it incessantly? Every day, a new election for president. NO matter who is in office, if the approval rating drops low and remains low, we could vote on whether we wish to switch to a parliamentary system, and stage no confidence votes, based on popular approval ratings. Like Bernie Sanders keeps saying, its time for a political revolution, a political revolution of the people, by the people, and for the people, and smart phones and the internet are the way to organize and manifest our uprising.

Spoiling The Mood For Rape

TRANSGENDER RESTROOM USE is a privacy issue, not a civil rights issue, claim conservatives, because people have the right to privacy, which includes the right to use a public restroom without members of the opposite sex being there. In other words, conservatives do not consider transgender people to be really transgender, but rather, frauds. Whatever your birth certificate says your sex is, your sex is, even if you have undergone extensive surgery to change your sex, physically. Caitlyn Jenner the woman is really still Bruce Jenner the man, dressed up as a woman. How anyone can possibly believe such nonsense is utterly beyond the scope of sanity, but, hell, after all, they are conservatives. They also believe that allowing transgender women who are former men to use the female restroom will trigger an epidemic of male perverts dressing up as women and preying of females in public female restrooms. Is this crazy, or what? This is even crazier than believing that evolution is just a wild guess, or not believing in man made climate change, or believing that God wrote the Bible - every damned thing that right wingers tend to believe is absolutely crazy, but their beliefs about transgender people are the craziest of all. Get a clue, oh ye of the right wing: if a man wants to dress up as a woman in order to go in women's restrooms and harass and rape women, well, he can give it a whirl anywhere, anytime, no matter which restroom transgenders use. Right? How often does it really happen? Never. Look it up. Somehow, you just get the the feeling that most heterosexual men, who want to have sex with a woman, are not really interested in approaching a woman for sex while dressed up like a woman himself. Wouldn't it kinda spoil the mood?

Politicizing Intelligence

IN MY HONEST OPINION, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton are smarter than George Bush or George Bush Junior. Just my opinion, of course. I could be wrong. I just can't see any of the Bushes as a Rhodes scholar, like Clinton, or law professor, like Obama. According to my conservative friends, this opinion makes me "hilariously condescending", (a condescending way to modify "condescending" if ever there were one.) A liberal, who believes that two liberal ex presidents are smarter than two conservative ex presidents; how condescending is that? After all, they all have Ivy league degrees, so, mustn't we consider them all intellectually equal, in order avoid being condescending, in order to be fair, and politically correct? I could've sworn that conservatives did not like political correctness, and were not reluctant to accept individual differences and inequality of outcome? Yes, we all have different talents and abilities, and that's what makes the world go 'round. How many Americans out there think that Ronald Reagan was as intelligent as John F. Kennedy, or Bill Clinton? Or that the Bushes are as smart as Clinton and Obama? Is there any truth in the highly arguable notion that liberals are smarter than conservatives? Is it true that world class universities and university towns tend to be left wing? What percentage of students at Harvard is right wing, like, say, "lyin" Ted Cruz, and what is the percentage of lefties? The way to answer these questions is to do the research, and it is quite possible that somebody already has, and that the people in control of the means of information dissemination don't like the results, and therefore do not widely publish them. You would, of course, almost expect conservative researchers to conclude that the more right wing the person, the smarter the person, which seems dubious at best.

Peeking Through Branches, Or Boards

WHEN I BUILT MY HOUSE, as we Americans like to say, although actually we pay other people to build them for us, the entire yard was a wasteland, a construction site, unimproved. You would think that the builder could at least have cleared away a few of the bigger boulders, but, no. Nothing but rocks and crabgrass. I almost bailed on closing day, it was so Martian. But I endured, and within a few years had a nice green yard with bushes and trees on the whole perimeter, making a sort of natural privacy fence, which my friend noted."This is so much like you", he said, as if he thought it amusing that someone would plant their yard in such a way as to create privacy, to shut out the world, to make a little isolated habitat. Looking around, it seems to me that building privacy is an American style, not for just me, but fore most of us. privacy fences everywhere, all brown. Trees and big shrubs along the property lines, open space within. I like it. What I would never do is build, or have built, a real privacy fence. The way my trees and big bushes have grown, you can indeed see in and out of the yard, by peeking through branches, but for the most part, its a wall of green in the growing season, and less so during winter. But to me, it seems so much better looking than a brown wooden wall, and I am glad I took the time to let it grow. A hedgerow just seems better looking than a privacy fence, but, alas, it takes more time, much more time, to create one, and hence, we suspect, the current profusion of brown wooden boxes across the fruited plain. Those of us who don't like them probably don't have much to worry about. They seem to deteriorate and fall down rather rapidly, within a few years, if left un-maintained, which they all seem to be. We green freaks can take comfort in knowing that our hedgerows will probably endure long after the privacy fences have crumbled into the earth and vanished.

Having Faith In America's Ability to Choose Genders and Restrooms

I HEARD A RUMOR that when you join Facebook, and fill out their questionaire, you have a choice of fifty eight genders from which to choose. I heard this from one of those crazy right wing radio talkers, so, who knows. Of course, I could find out by joining Facebook, and....nah. I cannot do the social media thing. I can barely drag myself to my phone, or to the senior center...but, like any normal homo sapiens, curiosity impels. First, is this true about Facebook? Have we become so incredibly diverse, inclusive, and free spirited culturally that we now have fifty eight genders on Facebook? What about the real world? My real question is: other than male and female, what are the other fifty six genders called? And, indeed, what "are" they, scientifically speaking? Call my crazy, or stupid, or uneducated, or backward, but I only know of the usual, traditional two genders. Are we branching out now? I need to find out, so I won't feel and look stupid. Social media is a vast global network, a huge, socially influential subculture, and if social media has ordained fifty six new genders, well then, so be it, let us learn to love and respect them all. But first, one must find out exactly who and what they are, mustn't one? I have always self identified, as we like to say, as male, a man, largely because that's what society seemed to expect of me, partly because its what seemed and still seems anatomically appropiate, if you will, and partly because its always seemed to work for me. No complaints. And, I have always felt attraceted to a gender I and most folks call "female", perhaps for the same reasons. Now, suddenly, I don't have to limit myself to all that anymore. Suddenly, I have many more options, it seems. Who knows what exciting new genders I am suddenly capable of becoming! - if the rumor is true. I'll work all that out in due time. Meanwhile, it is to be hoped that one day we shall all decide where we want everyone to go to the bathroom. Otherwise we might be in for a huge and expensive national surge in national acrimony, new restroom construction, or public diaper wearing. Hell, if a billion Facebook members can decide what gender they are with fifty eight choices at their disposal, which must get very confusing, surely we the American people can decide the best place for everyone to go and relieve the self. I have faith in our ability to do so.

Appreciating Our Socialistic "Goodies"

WHEN I ARGUE with conservatives, which is constantly, I like to bring up Denmark. The most democratic-socialistic country in the world, with the highest standard of living and happiness. When I bring up Denmark, the cons never try the "socialism doesn't work" crap. They never try to remind me that socialism has never worked anywhere its been tried, and that its failed everywhere its been tried. How could they? If they tried, I'd have to mention Denmark again, and then mention American socialism, which is everywhere, and works like a charm. But the cons always fight back, somehow. Its hilarious: Denmark's people have no real freedom. Socialism may work there, but it'll never work here. And the latest, and maybe the best, from a friend of mine: "the Danish navy has five thousand members. America has that many on one carrier. America defends the whole world, on our dime, and our allies don't pay a cent. We can't afford all their Danish socialist goodies." And yes, he used the word "Danish socialist goodies." Now that we've agreed that socialist goodies are desirable but currently unaffordable, and we know why, and we've agreed how we could afford it - let's do it! Let's remove all American military personnel from anywhere outside the borders of the United States, defend only America, drastically cut defense spending, stop defending these ungrateful moochers like Denamrk, and let them fend for themselves. If they can do it, and keep their "goodies", more power to them. If they get swallowed up by some Russian or Chinese horde, its not our American problem. And let's Americans spend our money on goodies, like health care, infrastructure, and education, for people - ourselves - who'll truly appreciate them.

Settling For Featureless Politically Correct Faces

I LISTEN TO A LOT OF baseball and basketball on the radio, and I love to listen along, and visualize the action, using what resources I can muster from within. Any information provided by the announcers helps, and it might even be said that the quality of a radio sports announcer can influence how well the listener visualizes the action. Good announcers tell me a lot; what the weather is like at the ballpark, how big the crowd is, but one thing I never know, I never know whether the players are African-american or what they look like, other than height and weight. Their faces, for me, and I assume for all other listeners, are a colorless blank. This, of course, is an unfortunate result of political correctness, the sort of result conservatives complain about when they assert that American society has gone off the deep end with political correct behavioral tyranny. If a radio announcer were ever to tell me: "he's a rookie, with a good left handed bat, good speed, and he's a young black man", said announcer would get fired. Is that really fair? Getting fired, for announcing a ball game, and providing relevant information? Ah, you say such information is "irrelevant", that a person's skin color matters not. But not so fast. Please remember, what the listener is trying to do is form a mental picture of the game, using info from the radio broadcast. Its the most traditional activity, and among the most wonderful, of the radio medium. The realm of the individual imagination. Nothing better. The color of the player's uniforms is relevant. So is the size of the crowd, and the weather, and even what the stadium looks like. If there is a large group of service people in a section of the crowd in uniform, that's relevant, its part of the event being described. All visual imagery conveyed verbally is helpful, and, after all, its what radio is all about. Unfortunately, as long as we live in a hyper political correct environment, we'll just have the let the faces of all the athletes remain a blank, colorless, featureless nothingness within the fabric of their bright uniforms and space-time.

Rejoicing Over New Planets

THIS TIME, THEY'VE HIT THE MOTHER LOAD, or the first of many, we hope. Twelve hundred new planets discovered, all at the same time, a world record. The total now stands at several thousand, the first having been discovered in the mid nineties, and who knows where it will go from here? It is now estimated, using what we already know, that most likely every star in the heavens has planets orbiting it, and that there are billions of planets orbiting the other billions of stars, and that there must in all likelihood be millions of worlds the right size and right temperature to support advanced life. We are now beginning to believe that life on planets outside the solar system is a virtual certainty, maybe even an enormous, inconceivable abundance of various forms of life, which the more imaginative among us have already believed for millennia. The important point is proof. The planets have been proven, but the life has not been, and don't let the alternative cosmic paradigm people mislead you; the day they can show us all an Andromedon is the day we accept the existence of their alternative cosmic paradigm. But its time to get excited, very excited, excited about something other than, say, which restroom to use, and whether Donald Trump is going to say or do anything crazy today. This mass planetary discovery is enough, important enough, to bring all of humankind together in a glorious pursuit of space exploration progress. Give us something better to do, keep us off the streets, as it were. If only our mainstream, sensationalistic news media would give us more coverage of the excitement of scientific discovery, and just a bit less gratuitous, seductive, shallow sex and violence, we could all have something tangible over which to rejoice. Something to really get us excited, inspired, and to uplift our thinking to a higher level.

Rendering Unto Caesar

WE WANT "LIMITED GOVERNMENT", by which we presumably mean "government which is not unlimited, or infinite". We may have less to worry about than we think. there's only so much room for government, or anything else, in this man's universe. But since we all seem to want a strong military to defend us, and to sometimes attack others, and since we all seem to want an extensive, well maintained system of interstate highways, and social security, and this...and that...the bad news is that government, while it may never reach infinite proportions, is, in our modern world, necessarily rather large. Taxes seem even more certain than death. Why not grin and bear them? Consider the possibility of regarding the payment of taxes as a patriotic contribution, rather than an onerous, punitive burden. Taxes are gonna be higher, rather than lower, and sooner, rather than later, so...why not learn to enjoy it? Reducing taxes on the wealthy, the "producers" a their admirers call them, does not stimulate the economy, it stimulates the bottom line of the wealthy. For economic stimulation, focus on demand, not supply, because without demand, supply does no good. Tax cuts for the lower middle class, and redistribution of tax revenue from rich to poor creates: new spenders, new consumers, new demand, begging for supply, stimulating the economy for all. As Thomas Jefferson said: "enormous inequality produces so much misery to the bulk of mankind that legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property. One means of silently lessening the inequality of property would be to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in a geometrical progression as they rise." As Jefferson understood, tax revenue goes around, and comes around. think of the glorious benefits which come back to all of us through payment of taxes! As you cruise down your local interstate highway, rejoice in our socialistic infrastructure, glad that no private business can extract further payment from you for the privilege of using our marvelous public facilities.and, while you're at it, if you happen to be a Christian; render unto Caesar!

Choosing One's Restroom, Legally

JUST SO I DON'T MISUNDERSTAND - Today, President Obama, or more properly his spokespeople, shall, and probably already have sent forth a communication to every public school district in America, reminding them that it is a bad idea to break federal laws, and that federal law requires that children be allowed to use whichever restroom he or she chooses, according to whichever gender he or she thinks she is. Scarcely had the edict-warning been handed out when Obama's legion of Christian conservative Obama-haters were out in full force, defiantly declaring their intention of ignoring the president-Dept. of Justice, sneering at the thought of losing several billion dollars of federal money. Hundreds of thousands of American adults have apparently changed their gender through surgical procedures which most of us probably don't even want to think about. So it perhaps shouldn't seem surprising that there are children in our midst who haven't yet gone that far, but might like to, because they do not believe that they are the gender listed on their birth certificate. How many, is anyone's guess. To my knowledge, comprehensive surveys have not been made. It seems highly unlikely that anyone would make it up, just to get attention. Mustn't we assume that all these gender switching people are for real? Can you even imagine the torment they must go through internally? Then comes to hard part; the external torment. Wouldn't it be helpful if the federal government sent out warnings to us all, regularly, reminding us that it is a bad idea to break the law? Nothing could straighten me up more. Does President Obama have reason to think that, beginning now, public schools might start refusing to allow kids to use the restroom of their choice? How has it ever come to this?

Looking For the Right Candidate

SHOW ME A CANDIDATE who is out of touch with average Americans, whose policy proposals conflict with human nature, and I'll show you a potentially great American president. This is distinctly contrary to accepted wisdom, which holds that being out of touch with the American people and human nature disqualifies presidential candidates. Accepted wisdom is, surprisingly, often wrong. A good candidate would be someone who has traditionally been in touch with mainstream American culture, but has of late lost touch with it, through sheer disgust. Sheer disgust inspires an urge to reform. Someone who tried tweeting, and Facebook, but gave up on both, as being frivolous and silly, and who went through something similar with the Kardashians. Similarly, let's exclude religious fanatics from consideration, and those who deny global warming, evolution, and socialism. The American people need and deserve a president who understands that although climate change occurs constantly and naturally, and although carbon dioxide is not a pollutant, those two facts do not in any way address the question of human impact on the ecosystem through carbon dioxide manufacture and release. Would it be possible to elect someone who does not piously claim to be the most patriotic person in America, and that the United States of America is the greatest nation not only in the world, but in the universe? Human nature, if nothing else, is complicated, in that it seems that humans are capable of just about any kind of behavior. Some human nature we definitely want to encourage - but not all. Verily, free market capitalism conforms to human nature, which tends to be self serving, but humans are also communal, social, and cooperative, and just because we use a little pre planning in our economy and don't always rely entirely on the free market doesn't mean that we're straying from human nature. The use of reason to moderate and shape our natural behavioral inclinations is indispensable for our continued survival.

Asking Seniors To Change

BACK OVER AT THE SENIOR CENTER, never a dull moment. Helen, eighty five, well dressed, wealthy, and proud, repeatedly emphasizes how greatly she values learning, and knowledge. More power to her. But just try telling her that America's founders were not a bunch of devout Christians, or that the very senior center in which she has so much friendship and enjoyment, is a perfect example of socialism, at its best, working well, for everyone, and she will go off like a rocket, talking over you, proclaiming the nonsense of all that you say. Try telling her that most American high school students have sex, or that there are nearly a million transgender Americans running around, and she might stroke out, so, we'll be careful not to mentions those annoying facts. Helen does not like having her sacred assumptions challenged, her Christian conservatism called into question. This weird contradictory marriage of Christian devotion and political conservatism is especially prevalent at the senior center, where'd you'd think the folks'd be old enough to know better, but apparently aren't. Maybe they just need more time. If you embrace one tradition, like Christianity, why not embrace another great tradition, like American military and economic imperialism, racism, and cut throat capitalism? Our best example is Ted Cruz, who wears his Christian faith on his sleeve, proudly, and proudly proclaims his desire to make the sands of the Islamic State glow with the heat of American bombs. A true conservative Christian, that Senator Cruz. If I could just get all the good folks at my local southern small town senior center to renounce conservatism, proclaim their love of socialism, Bernie Sanders, and rendering unto Caesar - or would they be better suited to Ayn Rand capitalism, of the atheist sort? Why is it that in America, the more devout the Christian, the more politically conservative? Maybe I ought to try to ask Helen.

Resisting Change In North Carolina

IF NOTHING ELSE, surely we can all agree that change, in some form, is inevitable, if only because we all grow old and die. Change happens. Political ideology, ultimately, may consist of nothing more important than determining the rate of future change. The more conservative you are, the more slowly you want change to occur, the more reluctantly you relent to change and the inevitable evolution of tradition. A radical liberal wants major change, right now. Granted, there was a time when men were men and women were women, and it was as simple as that. But all that seems to be changing. There are, it is estimated, roughly seven hundred thousand trans gender Americans among us. That number may seem shocking to some. To others, it might be disgusting, repulsive. Whatever the case, let's agree on this; its really happening, here in the real world. Seven hundred thousand is a lot of people, it would seem. Are these transgender folks just gay, and want to be straight? Or is the urge for gender change something much deeper, something incredibly more than that? Has this urge always been with us, but suppressed, like homosexuality? Probably. There must have been a lot of secretly very frustrated folks back in the day. Frustrated, fearful, angry. House Bill Two in North Carolina is nothing more or less than conservatism, fighting for tradition, and against change, in a desperate last gasp effort, which is, quite obviously, doomed to failure. Tradition always gives way to change, no matter ow rapidly or slowly. All these hundreds of thousands of transgender people aren't just making all this stuff up, just to be ornery - obviously. They know which restroom they want to use, for damned sure, and guess what? it aint the one on their birth certificate. Throw in the Federal Department of Justice, Big "O", and the teeming masses of screeching American liberals, and there appears to be a not inconsiderable array of forces directed against extreme North Carolina conservatism. With regard to accepting and treating at least seven hundred thousand somewhat non traditional Americans in the way they want to be treated, and not the way we have traditionally treated them, change is inevitable, change is coming, its just a matter of time, so let's get on with it, post haste, no matter how long it takes.

Deciding Where To Send Transgender People To Use the Restroom

BRUNCE JENNER won the decathlon in the 1976 Olympics, which to those of us of a certain age seems like yesterday. Queen Elizabeth I, who then must've been about fifty, comes floating across the pond to Montreal in a hugely lavish royal yacht, taking her sweet time. She finally arrived, and the games went on. Then Jenner went on to victory, to the cover of the Wheaties box, a career in film, the Kardashian connection, and, last but not least, the transgender thing, which, tragically, might be what he/she is ultimately remembered for. Anyone with a flat screen television, which includes almost all Americans, knows exactly what Caitlyn nee Bruce Jenner looks like these days, and we'll all have to agree, she looks like a woman. And not only that, but if you ask her, she'll tell you - she's a woman now. The scientific community would likely agree. Amazing to think that, according to Caitlyn herself, she spent nearly all her life knowing deep inside that her true gender was female, regardless of the very athletic male body she was trapped inside. Even while winning all that glory, as a man, in the Olympics - she knew. It took her a long time to "come out", understandably, during which her life must have included a great deal of frustration. Pretty brave person. And now, in North Carolina, Caitlyn must use the men's public restroom, Caitlyn and all other transgender women who used to be men. Caitlyn, or anybody else who thinks about it a little bit, can easily unnderstand that she very much feels the need to use the women's room, very definitely understands that its the right thing to do, but try telling that to our Christian conservative friends. If only those conservative Christians would give it some thought, they'd realize that they, too, really want Caitlyn using the little girl's room, not the little boy's. She'll leave the girls alone, promise. With the men, who knows? Don't worry, men are not going to start showing up in droves demanding to use the ladies restroom, just the one's who are now women. And maybe many women don't want a tansgender female in their restroom; but rest assured that men want her in their johns even less. And, like the rest of us, she's gotta go somewhere, right?

Defending Civil rights Against Christian, Conservative Rebellion

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, aka the Obama Justice Dept., versus the great former confederate state of North Carolina. New sate law says all, including the transgender among us, must use restroom corresponding to the gender on one's birth certificate, feds say civil rights law protects transgender sex and restroom change. My money's on the feds. The real question is: are transgender people really transgender, or have they changed gender in in name only? Who should decide? Lawyers, judges, and legislators, or scientists, biologists, or zoologists? My money's on the the scientific experts, not the conservative politicians. My best guess is that pretty much all the scientists, except perhaps those at faith based institutions of "learning" would vote Caitlyn Jenner a real woman, and would have solid scientific, biological arguments to back it up. And yes, the law should reflect scientific reality. If the good conservative Christian people of North Carolina would stop, take a deep breath, and think about it for a minute or two , which at this point seems highly unlikely, they would realize that they really don't want Caitlyn and her ilk using the men's room, because Caitlyn is attracted to men, not to women, she considers herself a woman, and, last but not least, looks like a woman nowadays. Birth certificates notwithstanding, people change, and, as we all like to say, it is what it is. Alas, instead of taking a deep breath and doing a bit of thinking, our good North Carolina Christian conservatives appear primed to dig in, double down, and take on Obama and the sinful, liberal hordes, and defy the justice department, and, if all else fails, perhaps even leave the union...again. Those among us who are reasonable, and who believe in civil rights, can just sit back, smile, and listen to the right wingers go off like the rockets red glare on the tyrannical, overreaching federal government, until at long last their voices quieten and drown in an overwhelming tide of humiliation, liberalism, and federal civil rights law, properly enforced in court, and in public restrooms.

Paying Teachers Enough

PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS in Detroit all called in sick one day recently, arousing suspicions that there had been a big party somewhere, a bug going around, or a stike-hint. Working conditions and pay, as always. Maybe we don't need to keep sending money down some public education black hole, as conservatives suggest, but at least we could keep the buildings standing, with electricity, and water that runs in the right places, with the proper chemical composition. With regard to salaries; why don't we just pay teachers, and everyone else for that matter, something reasonabl with respect to today's cost of middle class living, and leave it at that. Eternally trying to "pay people what they're worth" creates a whole set of problems we just can't seem to solve, free marketarily. How much is a good teacher really worth? Not much, in public or private schools, where the free market rears its ugly head, and Americans get to demomstrate their preference for entertainment, firsthand. How much is a stay at home mother worth? You hate for teachers to fail to show up for work en masse because it hurts the kids, hurts everyone's future, and makes a mockery out of cherished institutions such as labor unions, public schools, and economics. surely it doesn't have to come to that. Rather than a strike, a good old fashioned public relations campaign might arouse the general public to the need for money to maintain educational infrastructure, and public infrastructure of all kinds, water, electricity, roads and bridges, you name it. Let's just admit that we can never pay teachers or mothers enough, and stop trying to. Instead, let's pay them reasonably, sensibly. Many American professions could use a good dose of sensible salary structure. Due to highly advanced, computerized, 'sabermetrics", you can't even tell how much a baseplayer is worth these days, although you can come closer than ever. Are they worth thirty million a year? Not to most people.

Ranting Right Wingers, Ignoring Facts

YOU CAN LISTEN to hard core conservatives complain about Obama, and if you're not careful, start to see some sense in about half of it. However, you always come to your senses, with a little thinking. it could be argued that Obama is among our greatest presidents, that he saved the country by bailing out corporate capitalism in America, and with his recession mitigating stimulus package. But that's another issue entirely. Our conservative comrads, and their incredible claims, concern us here. Ninety four million adults out of work, they claim. Double the national debt. Giving the bomb to Iran, and a hundred and fifty bil to boot. Government take over of health care! Socialism! Obama supporting gay marriage, abortion, and racism. Weak foreign policy, helping Islamic terrorists, abandoning Israel. The littany gets pretty wild. Conservatism, run amok. Quick Fact check: most of the ninety four million jobless Americans don't want a job. Iran will never get a nuclear bomb, thanks to Obama. Obamacare works like a charm, as do all other forms of American socialism, for millions. Any argument, even the craziest, can seem solid at first, if key facts are conveniently ignored. The people who hate Obama now hated him the day he was elected, if not before. They hated him the day he was born, and they pretend he wasn't born in America, or wasn't born at all. Lest we forget, its Donald Trump himself who makes a big fuss out of President Obama's alleged birth outside America, perhaps on another planet. For sheer crazy creativity, you can't beat Obama bashers. We'll miss them. The key to their staying power is a complete, smug ignoring of facts. Obama the Moslem. Obama the friend of Islamic terrorists, whom he refuses to capture, or even identify or slander. The crazy accusations keep on a comin', all from the Christian right wing, but it shouldn't be surprising. To simultaneously be a Christian and a conservative requires a sort of schizophrenia, or at the very least, extreme compartmentalization and denial of facts bordering on the psychotic. But as long as the masses of sane Americas don't take them seriously, we should be safe from them. Please bear in mind, these radical conservative Christian types are the ones who claim that global warming is a liberal hoax, presumably with tens of thousands of intellectuals, scientists, and assorted liberals meeting in secret, promoting phone man made climate change to gain political power. Troubled, potentially dangerous folks, these radical right wingers, for whom we hope for the best, in terms of getting the help they so badly need. Two of my right wing buddies from the class of seventy three were talking about Michelle Obama being a transgender, having adopted her two daughters. You cannot make this stuff up. Psychotic hatred. That's how low they go, and how crazy it gets. Beware.

Touting the Trump Revolution, and the Love of the Masses

DONALD TRUMP teh candidate still reminds me of Hitler the candidate, I still like him, and those two facts still frighten me. Nothing has changed. One would think that those two facts would frighten any sane soul. A super charismatic candidate, promising to give our greatness back to us, all big talk and bombast. Vintage Hitler....Does the Donald want to make America "great" again...or "white" again?....As we speak, Hillary versus Trump, I could vote for Donald, since I'm a Sanders man. Hillary is a person of prodigious talents, but utterly corrupt; she shines and stinks like dead mackerel by moon light, as the quote goes. Trump, meanwhile, is all over the map, hard to predict, which I like. The G.O.P. establishment and right wing looks for consistently conservative - everything - but won't get it with Trump. Consistency, the Donald doesn't do. One can even see the Donald doing health care, socialist style. Unless Bernie can get Hillary to shape up (move left and stop the shadiness), I vote Trump. He's malleable, in a strange sort of way. Liable to do anything, which also makes him deadly dangerous, like Hitler. Hitler could have been a great leader, but for a few wrong decisions. Trump's craziness has the potential to lead America over the edge. Some crazy, show off war, creeping environmental neglect for profit, am extreme economic policy or two could all do the trick. Trump'll have to deep six the Islamic exclusion stuff, and the Mexican wall as well. Some intelligent comments wouldn't hurt, nor would a few coherent policy statements. Other than that, Der Trumpmeister's good to go. What I like about Trump is his love of making deals, his understanding that deals must be made, and that negotiation and compromise are good things. We seem to have forgotten all that among our more right wing "my way or the highway" fanatics. But can you, or anyone else, even remotely imagine what a President trump might do behind our backs? Can we say "serious citizen oversight"? the economists tell us that the ex patriot jobs aren't coming back, and they argue that case well. But if anybody can walk into a board meeting of a huge American corporation, and "persuade" the hot shots to bring their jobs abroad back to America post haste, with or without bottom line corporate sacrifice; it would be President Donald J. Trump, no? You can almost envision President Trump announcing his intention of dropping in on the next board meeting at Apple Computer, and persuasively encouraging said big shots to "git 'er done....or else"... What a riot! Donald J. Trump would love nothing more than being idolized by tens of millions of Americans as their personal economic savior, and to do that, he is ready, willing, and able to borrow from the play book of Bernie Sanders, or anyone else. Trump already has money and fame. He lacks power and popularity, which the presidency could bring, if he appeals to the masses, the poor working and financially underwater masses, who greatly outnumber the rich, the rich, who, after all, have no hold on Trump. The rich have nothing Trump wants, but the poor do. They have love.

Being Politically Correct, and Hating It, American Style

THE TERM "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS" is the gift that keeps on giving, and just doesn't seem to want to go away, here in the great American fun house, where nothing is as it seems. And, ironically, unless historical understanding fails, the concept of "political correctness" wasn't even invented by Americans. Didn't it come from Dystopian novels from the 1930s, and from descriptions of life in totalitarian countries, like Hitler's Germany? Brave New World, Nineteen eighty Four, Huxley, Orwell, great novels about future, horrible government tyranny and the complete loss of personal freedom, the idea being that all self expression must meet with BIG BROTHER'S approval, must not offend Der Fuhrer, must be politically correct, to ensure the survival of the self expressor. We're talking serious stuff, here. Big Brother has a TV screen in your house, and gives you orders through it. Defy Hitler, and die. That sort of stuff. One...must...be...politically....correct....Heil Hitler! Hail Big Brother!...... Then, we come to our modern American version of political correctness....So greatly do we Americans value our freedom to be rude, because we are so very good at being rude, and so often are we reminded by meddlesome, politically correct liberal, big government fascist do gooders that we must always be courteous, or "politically correct", that we the American people, or many of us, have come to hatefully resent any and all peer pressure to be courteous. We demand the right to be rude. Any social more' which demands respectful treatment of everyone, constitutes tyranny of some sort. What a laugh. For real tyranny, see Hitler. Our American political correctness is nothing other than social peer pressure to be courteous, to act decently and to treat people with respect, to use the term "African-American" instead of the "N word". American political correctness means calling a lady a "lady", instead of a "broad". Or refraining from using terms like "spic", "spade", or "queer". Gee, what horrible tyranny!American political correctness is mere courtesy, not tyranny, for which nobody goes to jail for opposing, at least, not yet. We Americans get tired of required courtesy, and miss our freedom to be disrespectful. Understandable, in a sad sort of way. What's funny is the crazy fanaticism with which paranoid Americans treat socially mandatory, expected courtesy, as if it were real tyranny.

Trying To Communicate, Somehow

WHEN IN ROME..or, Paris, or, for that matter, America, do as the natives do. Thomas Jefferson, while in Paris, loved the culture, but never felt at home, and longed for his native Virginia, which he grew to appreciate all the more by being away from it. So, he stayed at his hotel a lot, while Paris bustled all around him. Benjamin Franklin, meanwhile, just threw caution to the wind, threw himself into Parisian life, got out a lot, and let all the flirtatious French ladies sit on his lap. He didn't worry about whether he fit in, or how well he spoke French - and had a lot more fun than Jefferson. Cultural immersion, that's the answer. Embrace it, wherever, whenever you happen to be. There comes a time, for instance, in America, a time to to get a smart phone. Surrender to American culture, embrace it. Watch the Kardashians, vote Trump, and, by all means, get a smart phone. (hint:that doesn't mean you have to use it all the time, you can just look at it every few minutes, and that oughta do the trick of fitting in) Mobile internet, texting, everything, including the kitchen sink. If you go trac phone, you can buy a smart phone for twenty dollars, then pay about seven dollars a month, for very limited minutes, which can accumulate through the months via roll over. Just don't use it, not at all at first, then increasingly less sparingly, as the months roll by, and the minutes accumulate. Before you know it, you're back in the gabbing business, with hundreds of accumulated minutes, and low expense. Nobody ever calls me on the phone, ever. When I try to call someone, like one of my long time high school friends, nobody ever answers, so I leave a voice message. Nobody ever calls back. So, why have a regular phone, at regular price? Voice to voice communication seems to be dying out, being replaced with texting. It must have something to do with ease of expression, devoid of amenities and long waiting periods, and a fundamental fear of close, genuine, human contact. We Americans stay away from each other a lot, because, as my good friend from Shanghai said: "you Americans care more about your dogs and cats than you do each other." Nobody ever said it better. (Sometimes its amazing how these foreigners can see right through us.) People often say to me: "I tried to text you", without bothering to find out whether I "do" text messaging. I tell them: "just keep on trying." But, with a smart phone, I can just let 'em text, and if I choose, ignore it.

Improving Upon Jefferson, and America

ALTHOUGH THOMAS JEFFERSON would probably not be considered an "atheist" today, in his own day,he widely was, because he rejected most Christian doctrine. And although Jefferson was not accused of being a 'socialist" in his day, he would be today, because today, he would be one. While he was in Europe, and saw crushing poverty and economic inequality, he formed radical ideas about the need for an activist state to redistribute wealth. "Enormous inequality", he said, produced "so much misery to the bulk of mankind", that "legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property". One "means of silently lessening the inequality of property", he told James Madison, would be "to exempt from all taxation below a certain point, , and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise." Such inequality, he further suggested, made it "clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural rights." Jefferson was therefore not only an advocate of progression taxation, but also,like his secular hero Jesus, a strong believer in redistributing wealth. Over the years, more and more people, including prominent historians, have seen Jefferson as a hypocrite. Maybe we ought to see him as a complicated person, and about as hypocritical as the rest of us, and leave it at that. "One need only travel abroad to appreciate what one ha at home", said Goethe, another religious skeptic and inventor of his own religion. Goethe also sayeth: "when I realized that everyone invents his own religion, I decided to invent mine." Jefferson realized these truths about the same time Goethe did, Jefferson in France, Goethe in Germany. They never met, but truly should have. the ensuing conversation would have been intellectually spectacular. Jefferson understood how flawed his beloved America was in his day, what with slavery, and all. but he believed in its ultimate potential for improvement, redemption, and even perfection, as a a more enlightened version of European culture, with liberty and justice, including inequality in all its manifestations, for all. today we still have a long way to go, but at least we're still working on it.