Thinking Critically

CARL SAGAN ONCE SAID that in America, there is no shortage of intelligence, but only a lack of education, a failure to inculcate critical thinking skills. Let's teach people to pay attention, gain knowledge, organize it, prirtitize it, and arrive at sound conclusions to important questions by using the best method avery available: trial and error. Mistakes are goo, for they lead to truth. No need for divine intervention, or holy sctiptures, only for good, ole fashioned, solid, critical thought and analysis. My mother, when I told her that one day computers will drive cars, and no one will ever die on the highway again, said: "we already have too many people on the world." I left it at that. There's gotta be a better way, I left unsaid. Then too, try telling a conservative that there are more Mexicans heading south than north these days, realizing that its no better up here. America is being abandoned by its illegal immigrants, and there isn't a damned thing we can do about it, except to build a wall, and keep them in. But nobody in this country understands that. Carbon absorbs and retains heat. Try telling that to the republican party. So, because of our lack of willingness to embrace critical thinking, we end up, in the twenty first century, with belief system in which some big invisible sky being wrote a rule book, in it are ten things not to do, and we do them on penalty of eternal torment, from a deity who loves us. We end up with this sort of thing. A deep breath, and a bit of critical thinking, and we're back in business. By now, for instance, we should know, one way or the other, what ghosts, UFOs, and all that other stuff really are. All we need is some careful observation, and critical thought. By now shouldn't we be humbly admiring the four forces of nature, or the speed of light, rather than worshiping some psychotic, serial killing, mass murdering sky deity? Must we still torture someone to death to achieve salvation? Have we reached the point where we can stop tossing salt over our left shoulders, or begin walking under ladders? The training of the human mind, not the stifling of it, is what the doctor is ordering.

Being A Celebrity, For Whatever Reason

MOST AMERICANS roll their eyes at our bizarre celebrity culture, even while enabling it. Wasn't it Andy Warhol who gave us all fifteen minutes of fame? If you haven't had yours, be patient, your time will come. Millions of celebrities, closely observed by tens of millions of voyeurs. Our celebrities, it has been suggested, are our psychological replacements for a pantheon of forbidden gods. We erect statues to celebrities, and enshrine their names on walls and sidewalks. Our need is so great that we have created an entirely new class of celebrities, consisting of people who are famous...for being famous. Whatever happened to Paris Hilton? So, anyway, a disgusted and percipient college student decided to run his own little experiment. He would create a celebrity - out of himself. Normally a laid back down dressing T shirt kind of guy, he got dressed to the nines; fancy duds, sunglasses, big hair, the whole nine yards, and got together a few of his buds, to serve as body guards, hangers on, and paparazzi. What is a celebrity without hangers on and paparazzi? Out on the town, mid town Manhattan, they went, the entourage strutting through Times Square like they owned the place, flash bulbs a blazin'. He used his real name, and just acted...important. you already know what happens next. People started noticing. Teen aged girls starting joining the procession, giggling and screaming. "We love UUU!" Crowds gathered. Someone asked him whether he might be so and so. Yes, he said, I am indeed the very celebrity you named. Autograph signing ensued. Having proven his point, that anyone can be a celebrity merely by acting like one, he soon realized how much he was enjoying the attention, and he became reluctant to relinquish it. So, he didn't, He kept it up, for awhile, until it came time to rejoin the world of reality, and go back to class. He reported that upon his return to Earth as a normal person, he felt a tremendous let down. Hollow, diminished, unwhole. But at least, he understood the allure. Celebrities like being celebrities..to a point. People need attention and approval. Had he continued much longer, he would probably have discovered that a time comes when privacy is required, but unavailable. He would have discovered that celebrity is it own trap, and that one ends up frequently flipping the bird, and hiding. Had he stayed with it just a shade longer, he would have purged himself of his emotional hangover. It may become necessary for him to dress back up, gather together his underlings, go back out on the town, do it all over again, and complete the process.

My mother and Donald Trump

MY MOTHER, who, like Hillary Clinton's mother was born the day women got the right to vote, was non political. I don't think she ever knew the difference between a liberal and a conservative, nor cared. But she made one thing perfectly clear, to borrow a phrase from Richard Nixon; neither she nor her parents voted for Franklin Roosevelt. I don't think she knew why, for sure, but probably my grandfather told her tat FDR was a "socialist", and that socialism, whatever it was, was bad. Some people just don't think in polarizing political terms. Donald Trump doesn't. He doesn't seem to know the difference either, probably doesn't care, probably doesn't think in ideological terms. For Trump, the world is divided not between liberals and conservatives, but rather, between stupid people, and himself. For this reason, we who are leftward leaning ought not fret about the possibility that Trump will become president. At least he is isn't Ted Cruz. True conservatives smell something fishy; they realize that Trump is no conservative, and that he rarely makes any statements that provide any clues to his political ideology. True conservatives correctly fear that the Donald, In the white House, might be just as likely to promulgate a socialistic idea as a free market; whatever he thinks would enhance his prestige among the masses. Trump is one of those people who desperately needs to be loved and admired. Trump is a loose cannon, unpredictable. He was pro choice, then, pro life. At one point he favored, so he said, a single payer socialized health care system, although he didn't call is "socialism". My mother never used to word "socialism", but I think she had a vague sense of what it is, just as i think both she and Trump have a general idea of left and right, but simply choose not to think in those terms. Mother resented paying taxes to support women who had children out of wedlock. That's understandable; she endured an unpleasant marriage solely for the sake of raising her children in a two parent family. if my mother were still alive, i don't think she would be very happy with either candidate; she didn't think much of women in politics, although she favored gender equality, and Trump? Well, him she would doubtless regarded as a big mouth blow hard with very bad hair, without ever stopping to consider what she and Donald Trump have in common.

Conservatism, Fighting A Losing Battle

THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION has decided to move next year's all star game out of Charlotte, North Carolina. Other corporations, events, and money have made the same decision. Any idea why? Here's a few hints. The NBA is owned by billionaires whose profitable survival depends on public approval. Many of the BA's players are high income African-Americans from disadvantaged backgrounds, who have gained education in college, and are very aware of societal norms and trends. They lean liberal, embracing equality for minorities and alternative lifestyles, with legal protection for those groups. North Carolina, like all other states in the American south, is a conservative area in which most people don't like the gay and transgender lifestyle, and don't want former women who have recently become men to use the men's restrooms in public facilities. People in conservative parts of the country tend to think that laws protecting minorities constitute the unfair practice of establishing special protection for certain classes of citizens, and are thus discriminatory. More progressive people believe that these laws do not elevate minority groups to a special status, but merely elevate them to equal status, which they were previously denied. These things you already know. The rest of the country, however, is more progressive, and is trending towards acceptance of alternative lifestyles, and views laws in conservative states requiring people to use the restroom of the gender listed on their birth certificate, notwithstanding the fact that for transgenders, the birth certificate is no longer correct. The NBA, in short, believes that the progressive approach is the more lucrative, the best place to put its money. Conservatism conserves, preserves the status quo. Progressivism,the new name for liberalism, seeks progress through change. Only a moment's reflectin is necessary to understand which trend is inevitable, and which is fighting a losing battle.

Existing In the Real World, Or Not

THE REPUBLICANS NOTICED that there was no mention of radical Islamic terrorism at the Democratic national convention, as if it hasn't been mentioned enough already, with little if anything resulting from mere words. Terrorism is combated with deeds, not words. The American military is ferociously bombing the Islamic state, Obama is killing anyone suspected of terrorism with drones in Pakistan, and American intelligence is monitoring and disrupting terrorist activity all over the world - what could speech making on television contribute to that? Equally noticeable was what was never mentioned at the Republican national convention: pervasive poverty in America, and pervasive, institutional racism, to name just a couple. But why mention it? The standard republican line is that poverty is the result of lack of ambition and laziness, in other words, its their own damned fault. And racism? Well, racism no longer exists, until it magically comes into existence only when some trouble making bleeding heart liberal brings it up. Fifty years ago, conservatives for the most part were actively, unashamedly racist. Today, they are either too ashamed to show their racism, or too insensitive to acknowledge its existence. Lunch at my local senior center is pleasant. I have learned to be quiet and listen while I eat. It reduces the risk of choking, and keeps me out of trouble. I notice that nearly everyone at the table is a conservative Christian, that strange marriage of ostensibly incompatible ideologies. They talk about the Bible, but they never mention racism in modern America. Why bother? All that stuff happened a long time ago. For a short time during this presidential campaign many of them were enthusiastic supporter of presidential candidate Ben Carson. At long last, a conservative African-american! Now we can show 'em - we're not racist at all! Fifty years ago these people called Martin Luther King a trouble making you know what, a complainer who was ungrateful for his opportunity to live in peace and segregated poverty on his side of the railroad tracks. But progressive American culture pounded into them, decade after decade, the urgent need to create a society based on equality, and grudgingly, they acquiesced. Problem solved. Don't we have an African-american president? At least, half of an African-american president? Isn't that enough? Doesn't that prove that the problem is fixed, and that its time to shut up about it? Now, the very mention of racism in America is seen by my senior center friends as "divisive". It went away, stop talking about it. Add racism today, in the present, to the long list of things, along with evolution and global warming, that exist in the real world, but not in the world of senior citizen conservatism.

Electronic Nostalgia

I HAD MORE FUN watching TV fifty years ago than now. That's probably because I was a kid then, and television, truth be told, is, for the most part, more suited intellectually for children, once you eliminate the sex and violence. Of course, if you eliminate those two key ingredients, what have you left? Little. Oh, how I miss those halcyon days of small, black and white grainy three network television. I never minded walking across the room to change channels, and the smallness and fuzziness of the images was, somehow...evocative...mysterious...alluring. No doubt television is better today. Big beautiful high resolution flat screens, an endless variety of programming, remote control. So, what's my problem? Well, for one thing, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and William Shatner Star Trek are no longer prime time. Plus, the people reading the news are no longer Walter Cronkite, but rather, hot blonde babes in short skirts and low necklines. No complaints, but, well, I watch the news for the news, or rather, I used to, when I was a kid. I have the same problem with smart phones. Smart phones are absolutely wonderful, to be sure, but fifty years ago telephone calls were important, a source of excitement, and when that big black box in the corner rang, you had only one shot to find out what it was about, and if you didn't get to it on time you felt deflated, as of having missed something extremely important, and people would bolt from their chairs and race through the house to answer it in time. It was fun. Now, we screen calls, ho hum. Maybe that's my problem; the more I have the more I take it for granted, the less special it seems, on television, and on the phone. Fifty years ago, I watched enviously as Kirk and Spock flipped up their communicator lids, and spoke in real time with portable, pocket sized devices. Oh, how I wanted one of those, and the man who invented cell phones claimed he derived his inspiration from Kirk-Spock chat! Well, now I have one, and my attitude towards it is distinctly negative. Too expensive, too much unnecessary info, too many of my calls screened, and don't get me started on texting. After I ran into three or four trees and fell into a couple of artificial lakes, I decided that texting while walking was not for me, and is best left to millennials who still possess enough brain cells to simultaneously walk, chew gum, and text.. Maybe I'll have better luck texting while driving. I'll try to remember to issue a warning to the public before leaving home, and I promise to look at the road now and then...................................PLEASE SHARE THIS CREATIVE WRITING WEBSITE WITH YOUR FRIENDS!

Hunting Hillary, In Vain

I DON'T KNOW WHY I don't like Hillary Clinton, seeing as how I'm a good democrat, and all. Maybe she's too conservative. Maybe she seems too greedy, for money and power, and I sense that her claim to aspire to public service is a disguise for her personal ambitions. Maybe its just the sound of her voice, or the way she looks. People base their opinions on such things, whether we know it or admit it. The most likely reason I don't much care for Hillary is that I am an inveterate Bernie Sanders fan, and still a bit resentful and hurt, as we tend to be when our favorite horses don't win. That said, the one, indisputable truth about Hillary Clinton is that there isn't a single black mark to her name. No scandal, no indictments, no convictions. Nothing. Like it or not, admit it or not, my fellow American conservative republicans hate mongers, you don't have a damned thing on her. Its all smoke and mirrors, all your attacks. She made a hundred thousand dollars with a one hundred dollar investment twenty five years ago. Isn't that where the witch hunt began? Wasn't it called "Whitewater", or something?Isn't that the sort of good, solid, capitalistic activity that right wingers absolutely adore? Our conservative witch hunters had a problem with that; the Securities and Exchange Commission did not. She made big money giving speeches to Wall Street billionaires. Who wouldn't? Is that illegal? Vince Foster committed suicide. Hillary didn't have a damned thing to do with it, unless he did it because of something he felt, thought, or believed about her. There is no evidence for that, and even if there were, the choice was his, not hers. She testified for hours upon endless hours before a Congressional committee concerning her role as Secretary of States in attack on the American embassy in Benghazi. The witch hunters grilled her, mercilessly. She answered every question, and nothing more came of it, except bitterness on the part of Republicans that their witch hunt, once again, reached a dead end. The upshot? Nothing happened, because nothing was there, and still isn't. And finally, the piece de resistance, hot off the press: the investigation of Hillary by the FBI, concerning her alleged misuse of a personal email server for government business. Bad judgment, a bad idea, for Hillary to eschew proper government internet channels for her own convenience; heaven forbid that someone of her importance should carry not one, but two mobile devices in her doubtless very expensive purse. What arrogance. What foolishness on her part. But, and this is key: no criminal activity, no selling of top secrets, no evidence. And please bear in mind, oh witch hunters, no criminal activity whatsoever detected by the FBI. If you're guilty of anything, and the FBI investigates you, the FBI will find out about it. The FBI is willing to spend millions of dollars on a bubble gum wrapper, if it will provide valuable evidence. the FBI does not miss. One can scarcely imagine what proportions the witch hunt will reach if she is elected.they'll be trying to impeach her from day one, for wearing the wrong color pants suit at her inauguration, if nothing else. The witch hunt will continue. And I aint sayin' Hillary Clinton aint a witch. that's a matter of opinion.But unless the hunters become better hunters, or Hillary actually does something wrong, they'll keep coming home empty handed, angry, and determined go go hunting again tomorrow.

Embracing Tradition, A Bit Much

EVOLUTION BY NATURAL SELECTION, like it or not, is a fact of nature, not, as the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia asserted, "a guess, and a very poor one at that". Evolution is all around us, if we just pay attention; in hybrid corn, dog breeding, and under every microscope. There's even worse news. Human made climate change is real, and happening right in front of our eyes, if only we pay attention, as thousands of scientists always do, and are now. The good news is that God is far more subtle, more sophisticated, and much more reasonable than portrayed in any of the world's major religions, which, after all, are all hundreds of years old, quite primitive, barbaric, ignorant, quite behind the times. The book of Genesis provides two distinctly descriptions of the creation of the world, in the first chapter and, in the second chapter, both of which bear no remote resemblance to observable reality, both of which cannot possibly be correct, even if one of them is. If we must have religion let us evolve into the religion of Jefferson, Spinoza, or Einstein, a religion wherein God and nature are one, in which science explains the universe systematically, sanely. This is the fundamental with conservatism in America. The more conservative, the more traditional one's outlook, the more traditional the beliefs. Traditional beliefs, much to our regret, often do not hold up in the face of new knowledge. People who deny man made climate change are clinging to their traditional beliefs beliefs such as unlimited economic growth, on an emotional level. Those who refuse to accept evolution are far too emotionally attached to their traditional religious beliefs for their own good. Isn't the pursuit and acceptance of truth, ultimately, in the best interest of all intelligent beings? Is there any real benefit at all in 2016 for pretending that human beings did of evolve over billions of years along with all the other plants animals on this incredible planet? Or that we can somehow inject billions of tons of heat absorbing gases into our planet's atmosphere without changing it at all? Or, for that matter, that God atones for our sins by torturing a man to death, or that an economy works best when everything is left to chance, without any regulation or planning. Tradition ideas, over time, become outdated, and become ridiculous ideas. That is the inherent weakness in the conservative ideology.

Having More Parties

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY leaders apologized to Bernie Sanders for trying to sabotage his campaign, as they said "appearing to favor Hillary Clinton." How noble, How generous. Maybe they'll send a card. Amazing how easy it is to make amends to millions of people who feel a knife in their backs. "Appearing" to favor Hillary? Gimme a break. Not only did they "appear to favor Sec. Clinton", they spent hours dreaming up schemes to destroy Sen. Sanders, and hours more scheming ways of implementing their sabotage. Schemes such as spreading the word down south that Bernie is, oh, an atheist, or maybe planting crack in his suit pockets, or arresting him for jaywalking. Whatever works. Definitely, the Democratic National Committed was playing favorites, until caught in the act. Now, an apology will suffice. After this election, Sanders can be expected to leave the Democratic party as suddenly as he entered it last summer. This party, obviously doesn't welcome newcomers, although it pretends to. Maybe he should leave now, and run on his own ticket, a new Labor party. The millennials would probably follow him, and might even elect him. We have the potential for great drama. Suppose the Russians indeed hacked into the democrat's computers, and the FBI busts them. Then, suppose the Russians are linked to Donald Trump, ans the feds prove it. Then, suppose that Hillary is proven to have been involved with her party's leaders in their sabotaging of Sanders. What excitement that would provide! The door would be open for Bernie, and he could coast to The White House, in his Labor party, his horde of twenty somethings riding high with him. The republicans would be looking for another candidate, and maybe Bernie Sanders could run against Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio, if they would consent to reboot their careers. Ted Cruz? He could be the founder and first presidential candidate of the "conservative Christian coalition", devoted to conservative values, but without the flash and trash of the republicans under Trump. Our Two Party system simply doesn't seem to be working out very well. Why not try four?................................PLEASE SHARE THIS WEBSITE WITH YOUR FRIENDS. WE PROMOTE ORIGINAL THOUGHT...

Winning With Juicing

ATHLETES THE WORLD OVER, at the highest levels of competition, are using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), hundreds of steroid varieties, chemical concoctions of which there are endless combinations. These substances build muscle, reduce fat, increase size, speed, and quickness. With modern chemistry, all things are possible, including the elimination of normal aging and bodily deterioration. We may soon live in a world of perfect bodies, everyone a great champion, everyone setting records. How boring would that be? Very boring, it would seem, because overwhelmingly people indicate a preference for outlawing steroids and punishing those who use them. Thus The world athletic powers that are are tying to regulate PEDs, without the faintest trace of success. It begins to seem as if we might be better off accepting the inevitable; a person's right to do with his or her own body as he or she wishes, free of government restraint. In Russia, you can swing neither a dead cat nor a sledgehammer without hitting a juiced athlete, because in Russia, to be an athlete is to be juicet, courtesy of the government, which hilariously claims to be trying to stop PED use, but is actually doing quite the opposite. The Tour De France? Fuggettaboutit. They're all juiced. modern chemistry stays just one step ahead of the law, detection wise, and always sill, regardless of the law. There is a market for steroids, a strong demand, and as we all know here in the United States of Avarice, all demands are supplied. Chemists like making money as much as the rest of us. According to Mike Shannon, long time radio announcer for the St. Louis Cardinals, every player in the major leagues uses PEDs, notwithstanding the rulers of baseball having long since instituted harsh aggressive detection methods and harsh penalties. Although American football players are getting bigger, faster, and stronger due partly to better diet and weightlifting machines, who can deny that there is something about the way they look, beginning in high school and continuing in college and professional football, that inspires one to wonder. And so, until we find a solution,, better detection and regulation or legalization and regulation, we will continue to watch our heroes as they thrill and entertain us with athletic feats maybe just a bit too good to be true, and probably are.

Stacking The Deck Against Bernie Sanders

IF YOU'RE A BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTER, you always had that strange feeling of going uphill, and never getting to the top. You somehow sensed, that no matter what you did, no matter how hard you worked, it just wasn't going to happen. As if some mysterious, invisible force was applying too much friction, as if there would always be something, or somebody, aligned to stop you. Maybe it was all that Hillary Clinton corporate money aimed against Bernie, or those six hundred and some at large delegates, unflinchingly committed to Hillary since the beginning of the industrial revolution, ready to stick with her unto death. Rush Limbaugh and Donald Trump both said all along that the Democratic party presidential contest was rigged from the start, that Bernie Sanders never had a chance. They both, as it turns out, were quite correct. Rush and Trump, both being correct at the same time. Go figure. Sometimes, the blind ole squirrel finds an acorn. Bernie himself has always accused the party cards of being stacked against him, and it turns out that his complaints were far more than sour grapes. Those democrats sure know how to get in trouble on their computers, sending emails without protection. Nothing ever vanishes from the internet, and anything can be found, if one looks hard enough. Maybe the Russians are doing the hacking, trying to elect Trump. Maybe its because Putin knows a soulmate when he sees one, and can't wait to lock horns with The Donald. And since Wikileaks are the kind of people who are willing to hide in a broom closet in some foreign country for years on end to avoid revealing sources or prosecution in America, fat chance we'll ever know how they got the emails, but there they are, and who got them seems less important than who wrote them in the first place. The leaders of the Democratic party wrote them, brainstorming ways to destroy the Sanders campaign, and grease the Hillary machine. Hell, those crooks, oops, I mean party leaders were even willing to proclaim Bernie Sanders an atheist across the former confederacy, just like they did to Thomas Jefferson in 1800, when they also accused Jefferson of being a "fornicator". The fact that Jefferson was both does nothing to mitigate the nefarious nature of American politics. But Bernie is no atheist - he's Jewish, isn't he? Well, whatever he is, and who the hell cares, his ideas are the best we have, he would have become the first president in the entire history of the United States of Avarice to give a rat's ass about our huge permanent underclass of working poor. Its just too damned bad, for America, that he never had a chance.......PLEASE SHARE THIS WEBSITE WITH A FRIEND!

Seeing the Crazies As Crazy

ACCORDING TO DONALD TRUMP, and his mob of angry white right wing American men, President Obama has utterly destroyed the United States, and the election of Hillary Clinton would destroy it even worse. When Obama bailed out Wall Street he sold out America, they claim. Obama is a Muslim. Obama was born in Africa. You may recall, it was none other than the wise and prudent Donald J. Trump who, within minutes of Obama's inauguration, began his bizarre campaign to have the new president removed from office for being a foreigner.The crazy fabrications never cease. Our conservative colleagues spew a never ending stream of insanity; they have the resources, and the time. The American economy is in complete shambles, all because of Obama. And yet, somehow, miraculously, as each state delegation called out its vote count at the Republican National Convention, each and every state bragged about its flourishing economy, its business friendly environment, its enormous prosperity. So how can it be that every state in the union is thriving and prospering economically, while the nation itself, according to these same republicans, is suffering economy decline and collapse? Can it be that the republican party is saving the economy of each and every state, state by state, even as Obama, a one men wrecking crew, brings down the whole nation? Doom and gloom. The country desperately requires salvation, and only Donald J. Trump can deliver it. He actually said this, on national TV, and his mob of angry sycophants bought it, hook, line, and anchor. Can we all at least begin to sense just how crazy these people (conservative republicans) are? An angry political party, mesmerized by a hate spewing charlatan promising deliverance, like Hitler.....................PLEASE SHARE THIS WEBSITE WITH YOUR FRIENDS. ITS PURPOSE IS TO PROMOTE THOUGHT @ EXPRESSION

Smiling At Everybody, Just To Be Safe

MORE THAN MOST WHITE PEOPLE, I can imagine what its like to be black, or rather, to be met with unfriendliness because of the way I look. Oh, I'm handsome enough. In fact, women seem to like me. But unless I happen to be smiling, I look angry, mean, as if in a bad mood. Most people who've never seen me respond to me by frowning or scowling, as if to mimic me, as if unconsciously assuming my facial expression. This has happened all my life, so, its real. The older I get, the more pronounced it becomes, as my face ages into a deeper unintentional but natural frown. People, sometimes even if they know the real, gregarious me quite well, take one look at me, and their face starts to reflect what they think they see in mine; anger. Fortunately, there's an easy remedy; all I have to do is smile, and the other person's mimicing scowl melts away, without him or her probably even knowing it happened, since it was never anything more than a shallow, reflexive reaction. So, my stern looking face is not so much a curse, as an opportunity. I never mention to anyone their reaction; people always deny doing it, as if people can see their own faces. Sometimes I take the plunge and directly explain to people that, no, I am not frowning, I'm not angry, and I hate neither the world nor them personally. It just looks that way. They act like they have no idea what I'm talking about. Admittedly, there are times when I feel that I shouldn't have to produce a phony, image altering smile every time I talk to a stranger, but really, all I'm doing by that attitude is avoiding an easy answer to my dilemma. Yes, everyone has a burden to bear because of the way we all look; different from one another. But in a culture where appearances count for so much, for too much, we notice much about others, and we imagine everything that could be wrong with ourselves. Unless somebody invents a cure for prejudice, the best we can do, for the moment, is to smile at everyone.

Starting To Explain Climate Change

JULY WILL BE the hottest month in human history, period. The hottest month in the last hundred years, since the beginning of the industrial revolution. The hottest month since the stone age. The hottest month since before the dinosaurs roamed the fruited plain. The rate of climate change, we are finding out, is amazingly faster than anyone had previously thought. Don't take our word for it; ask around. In particular, hang around any science building at Harvard, and stop folks coming and going. Every year, tens of thousands of climate scientists understand more about climate change, as they desperately try to disprove it, but can't. The people, millions of us, who understand not only the reality but also the basic process behind climate change and the psychology of those who deny it, have done, so far, a terrible job of explaining it to the ignorant, the uneducated, the American conservatives. The world's scientists, especially the young, pretty, charismatic ones, must get off their collective butts, get out among the teeming masses, and explain their butts off. Where's Carl Sagan when you need him! Some sharp Saganesque climate scientist in a debate, mixing it up mentally with some right wing American Christian conservative. Its almost too funny to think about. Somebody must step up, and gently nudge the conservatives towards climatic reality, then, in one fell swoop, drag them into the world of the sane, even if kicking and screaming. First, destroy their myths, such as: the world hasn't warmed in the last eighteen years, or that a single volcanic eruption pollutes the atmosphere more than all human activity, ever. How incredibly ironic, that the only requirement for understanding the reality of climate change is a tiny bit of basic, pre high school chemistry. High school chemistry teachers of the world, unite! And start explaining!

Let's Stop Killing Dogs and Cats For Convenience

EVERY COMMUNITY IN AMERICA is being encouraged by various groups, the Humane Society, P.E.T.A., and others, to adopt a "no kill" policy for stray and homeless dogs and cat, regardless of expense and inconvenience, in order to assuage our consciousness, to purge the sin of murder from our blood stained souls, and to avoid the wrath of a just God. Fairly good reasons, one would think. If nothing else, cate especially could be trapped, spayed or neutered, vaccinated, and returned to their former hunting grounds. Stray cats actually to do rather well, all things considered. Sometimes a cat becomes community property, a friend for everyone. The very existence of such beautiful creatures as dogs and cats seems to prove that the creator is kind and loving; We Americans like to think of ourselves as kind, compassionate, willing to do whatever necessary for the sake of life - but are we really? Do we really want, are we really willing to continue killing millions of dogs and cats because it is the easiest thing for us to do? Surely not. I have a friend from Shanghai, China who came to my small town, and became instantly bored. He was amazed at how many Americans seemed to be loners. He said to me: "you Americans are the loneliest people in the world. You care more about your dogs and cats than you do each other.' I smiled and told him: "you got that right." He told me that in China people are seldom alone, and that, rather than keeping dogs and cats as pets, they eat them. Well, maybe a society is healthier when people spend more time together; there is no doubt that we Americans tend to be an individualistic and independent lot. But I'll take the American approach to dogs and cats any day of the week.

How Can Hillary Possibly Lose To Trump?

HOW CAN HILLARY CLINTON possibly lose to Donald Trump? Only by doing something stupid and self destructing, you'd think. Among blacks, Hispanics, gays, and women, she's far, far ahead. If she can get even a handful of white men to vote for her, she should win easily. Plus, word has it that the Democrats have an arsenal of dirt ready to unload against Trump, who looks to be a very vulnerable target rich target of opportunity. Then too, according to the FBI, and every other investigation with which Hillary has been attacked, she's clean, non criminal. Even after all this time and effort and endless accusation mongering by our esteemed conservative community, there is absolutely nothing on her. Financially, politically, legally squeaky clean, if questionable. Hell, we're all "questionable." I almost wish they'd lock her up anyway, like they'd like to; I'm a Bernie Sanders supporter. Oh well. Hillary the liar? Hell yes! Aren't we all. You can't be human unless you're a liar. Hillary and Trump can and soon will swap whoppers all day long, but the old gal'd better bring her lunch; I reckon she'll come out second best. If Hillary had a brain in her head she would respond to her attack vultures straight on, instead of acting superior and ignoring them. She'd address her financial schemes straight up. Why? Because there isn't a damned thing illegal about them; she's smart, but she stays just barely on the legal side of crooked. If some Wall Street billionaires offered you a cool quick quarter mil to give a twenty minute speech, wouldn't you talk? I would... When did our conservative republican friends stop admiring capitalism? But then again, the republicans are a complete mess. Most of them don't like Trump, many of the most powerful and important repub politicians didn't even bother to show up at the G.O.P. convention, and will never support him. Trump's wife hilariously stole her speech from Michelle Obama, and conservative Christian icon and second place finisher Ted Cruz got booed off the stage for hating Trump. Outside, only an army of police officers prevented numerous groups of protesters from changing history. Trump is trying to get Sanders supporters on his side, while simultaneously kissing conservative ass. He'll have to choose one, or the other. The only way fundamentalist Christians can support Trump is by burying their heads ostrich style. Trump marries one trophy wife after another, has oft bragged about his non marital sexual exploits, and throughout his life has spent most Sunday mornings sleeping in a bit, having breakfast in bed, then heading out for a round of country club golf. Meanwhile Hillary has been in church. But since Trump wants to give less unto Caesar and less unto the poor than Hillary, he fits right in with modern American conservative Christian values, the actual values, not the purported ones.....-----......-----....PLEASE COME BACK, AND BRING A FRIEND!

Chasing Foxes at FOX NEWS

THE FOX NEWS CHANNEL, bastion of conservative virtue, calls itself "fair and balanced", and presents itself as a beacon of high moral standards, but in fact is none of the above.. If FOX decision makers cared about the truth, the network would call itself "conservative", and leave it at that. There may be nothing wrong with being conservative (or maybe there is); false advertising is another matter. What Fox offers is a steady, subtle addictive dose of pure, raw sex; gorgeous blonde babes in front of the camera, wearing sexy outfits, cameras focused on cleavage and legs, with the male anchorpersons endlessly making suggestive comments. America's conservative community really goes for it. A better descriptor for FOX NEWS would be: "misogynistic and chauvinistic". Therefore its not surprising that head honcho Roger Ailes finally got busted as a serial sexual harasser of women. The man who orchestrated the on air sex culture was just too rich and powerful, and surrounded by too many hot little babes under his employ, to resist. Conservatism is tradition. Male domination is tradition, one which FOX NEWS finds hard to give up. Morning host Steve Doocy was in the act, hilariously hypocritical of him since he ghost wrote and aggressively marketed on the air his book "Tales From the Dad Side", which contains nauseatingly charming stories about what a great father he is. The book mentions nothing about groping and making lewd, suggestive remarks to women at work. Maybe he'll get to that in his next book. Bill O'Reilly was a major player. O'Reilly, himself a conspicuous upholder of all that is virtuous, went after the wrong lady, someone other than his wife. The network spent millions of dollars satisfying a sexual harassment charge against him. A pervasive culture of crude barbaric behavior, at the very wellspring of conservative media. Now we can all enjoy the forthcoming spectacle of America's conservative fundamentalist Christian gang working to elect Donald Trump, a man who marries one hot trophy wife after another, and counting, while the good folks at FOX trumpet their own purity, and the virtues of American conservative thought in the era of the Donald, assuming, of course, that the men of FOX can keep their pants on long enough to to git 'er done.......-------------...........-----------........PLEASE SHARE THIS WEBSITE WITH YOUR FRIENDS. OUR PURPOSE IS TO PROVIDE ORIGINAL WRITING

Save the Wee Beasties: Germ Lives Matter!

THE TRILLIONS OF tiny organisms in which we all dwell inundated, all over our skin and all over our insides, are there for a very good reason, and one should neither shower too often, nor O.D. on antibiotics. Live and let live. Germ lives matter! They keep us alive. They've been with us all along, showing unflappable loyalty, aiding and abetting our every evolutionary upward thrust. they ensured our survival from fish, to rodent, to primate, and to whatever we could become later. You are never alone. However, some of our microscopic friends are missing, as if they've either been abducted by aliens, been raptured into heaven, or become extinct. some of these missing bus are among our oldest dearest, and most vital companions, and we may have exterminated them all, every last one, with antibiotic overuse. These mass germ extinctions are likely a contributing cause of our diabetes epidemic, and our obesity epidemic. If you don't believe this, ask any microbiologist, not a conservative radio talk show host or minister of the gospel. More human folly .How much more self destructive behavior can we take? Common sense says, there's gotta be a limit. For example, right now we need one trillion saplings in the ground, alive and growing, to replace the tress we've cut down and failed to replace. We also desperately need global nuclear disarmament, massive investment in solar energy, an enormous global reduction in military spending, redistribution of income to keep a couple of billion people from starving, and maybe a couple of other incidentals. But, as of right now, we are dong none of the above. right now, it looks like we'll just continue on our merry way, letting frogs, butterflies, honey bees, and irreplaceable germs vanish from the earth. Oh well. Who cares? Just keep in mind, however; if our millions of bodily companions disappear from our bodies and from the Earth, whether due to too much soap or too much electromagnetic radiation; if they vanish, we vanish. Germ lives matter...............PLEASE SHARE THIS SITE WITH A FRIEND, AND FEEL FREE TO SUBMIT CONTRIBUTIONS, AT rbbond1955@gmail.com

America's Poor, Adoring Donald Trump

WAY BACK IN 1972, when I was a wee lad of seventeen and the world was a whole lot simpler, presidential candidate George McGovern proposed something called a "guaranteed minimum income", for all Americans. He lost, of course. Incredibly, the republicans back then nearly pushed the idea through, and Nixon supported it, but the democrats, apparently brain dead, nickel and dimed it to death, and stopped it. Richard Nixon also favored government health care for all, but Watergate got in the way. Back in the day, there actually existed southern conservative democrats and liberal Northeastern republicans. Those days are gone. The wealthy elite squelched the guaranteed annual income idea then, and now it is resurfacing as something called "universal basic income", which either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump could, if they chose, roll out in a heartbeat. Once again, our wealthy elite corporate masters can be counted to squelch, unless the teeming masses, led by a few courageous powerful political leaders, overcome the wealthy elite. Bernie and Hillary might well push it into the democratic party platform next week. Everybody, including the wealthy would receive the payments, to be fair, and it would stimulate the economy immediately, creating more discretionary consumers, jolting demand for goods and services upward, creating new businesses in response to the new demand, and new jobs. Conservatives, be warned: Donald Trump is no conservative, he has no political ideology, no core values, other that pro-Trump. He already has the fame, the women, and the money, all he needs now is power, and the love of the teeming masses, both of which are easily within his impressive, ambitious, love craving grasp. If Trump gets elected, then starts advocating for the poor in a fit of popularity mongering, just you watch the republican conservative establishment wail and gnash. They hate "big government", meaning, they hate helping poor people, those wealthy conservatives, and their hatred of the poor. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone in America had enough to eat suddenly, courtesy President Donald Trump? Oh, how der Donald would adore that phenomenon.

Stealing From Michelle Obama, and Denying It

THE TRUMP CIRCUS NEVER SHUTS DOWN. Our beloved conservative republican gang meeting waxes amazingly amusing. Now Donald's lovely wife enters the act, caught with the rest of the Trump gang in yet another lie. Trump's trophy wife steals a speech from the most hated person among members of the fun house that is the American conservative community; Michelle Obama. Only her husband the president and Hillary Clinton are more despised by the hate mongering right wing. But those hated liberals know how to make a speech, so, the right wingers steal it, then deny it was stolen, even though it was taken word for word. Just a coincidence, claim the G.O.P. and the American conservative community. Hell, anybody could write and give the same speech, at any time, by blind chance. Even though the words were ninety nine percent identical, it was just a chance event. Then, Trump's speech writer, doubtless in a fit of either pure conservative virtue or sheer panic, spills the beans, and comes clean. Yes, she heard Michelle Obama's words, and, well, she liked and admired those words, and so, well, um, they just happened to make it into Melania's script by accident. Still, not quite a full and complete confession, but, what more could one expect from people who deny climate change, think that evolution is only a wild guess, and that America would be a safer place if only millions of good people would be good and gracious enough to arm themselves before leaving the house.

Keeping Our Fun, and Concussions

FOR A LONG TIME NOW, American American-football football players have been getting bigger...and bigger. Its been happening for at least the past fifty years, gradually...and steadily. When I was a kid, in the sixties, college starting lines averaged about 240, and NFL lines weren't much, if any larger. Theories abound. People are getting bigger over the centuries, as nutrition and body building improve. Natural selection, some speculate; American women prefer large American men. So many imaginative theories! The real reasons are two in number; fast food, and weightlifting machines. Abundant, cheap, super tasty calorie laden fast food, and very fancy weight lifting machines, which anybody can use to bench press five hundred pounds, because the machine balances the load so perfectly, and the weight slide so smoothly and predictably up and down the axel. Using free weights I'm a light weight; put me on one of those easy to lift machines, and I bench press twice as much. Everybody does. Extra strength and size, with less effort. Most of the added weight is fat, frankly, if you'll notice. Indeed, much of it is muscle, but muscle invites fat, and the fast food answers the call. Steroids might play a minor part, but American football is, overall, very closely monitored. On the other hand, many if not most professional and college players probably use some for of Performance Enhancing Drug, just barely within the rules, just beyond the current reach of chemical detection. Bigger, stronger, faster players all. Then come the concussions, as violent collisions supply the huge free market demand. Among the many many fundamental problems with which America must soon come to terms, among the many white but reddening elephants in the room, is our national epidemic of concussions. Twenty three percent of Americans report having had a concussion. Slips, falls, barroom fights, whatever. Since that fact might help explain the noticeably high rate of American mental instability, we ought to consider ways of reducing it. Like, making our fun and games less cranially damaging. Just a thought. Don't freak out and fly into a panic, American football fanatics. Chances are, we'll keep right on putting up with large, brain damaged middle aged men. Its just too much fun and excitement to give up.

Conservative Judges Producing Liberal Results

JUST TODAY, A FEDERAL COURT ruled that the new voter I.D. law in Texas is unconstitutional, and presumably, the ruling will be appealed and taken to the Supreme Court, which will, in all probability, vote four to four to uphold. The fifth circuit court ruled that the law requiring every voter to present a picture I.D. creates an unwarranted impediment to voting, especially among the poor. The long fight ahead will determine whether all such laws in other states as well as Texas are constitutional; from the way things look now, they would all appear to be in great danger. Even now conservatives across the fruited plain can be heard wailing and gnashing. No wonder America's right wing is so bitterly angry. Its a liberal world. Obamacare, gay marriage, transgender rights, abortion rights, planned parenthood, and now voter rights, all liberal causes, have been securely upheld by the nation's highest court, a conservative court at that. It almost seems that conservative justices often rule in favor of liberal positions, because, well, liberal positions are correct positions. We need to make voting easier, not harder. For that matter, why not vote, as an option, online, on weekends, whatever makes it easier. conservatives, of course, want nothing more than to reduce the number of voters, to get rid of people likely to vote for liberals, people like blacks and Hispanics. If conservatives had their way, only the wealthy and white would cast ballots. But let's give the republican party some credit. Although the conservative mob in Cleveland is an angry lynch mob and little else, at least, at long last, you are beginning to see some people of color sprinkled throughout the crowd. Tokens, to be sure, made for TV, and few and far between; but hell, wasn't that long ago when any gathering of conservative republicans was as lily white as the driven snow.

Hillary, Stirring Up Racism

HILLARY SPEECHIFIES TO THE NAACP, and the conservatives screech that she is "pandering" to the black vote, which she probably is. Who wouldn't? Gotta get those minority votes. She reminds the black community that they have been mistreated for hundreds of years, which was hardly necessary, and reminds them that they still are, still are,all because of those rascawy wepubwecans, also unnecessary, but relevant, and that she intends to do something about it, but only if she is elected president. And for this to happen,she badly needs their votes.in For that, she is accused by the cons (in today's twitter-speak,liberals=libs, conservatives= "cons") of stirring up racism, of manufacturing it out of thin air, where it had never been seen before, and would otherwise not exist. If troublemakers like Hillary and President Obama would simply stop talking about it, racism would go away, since it only comes into existence when they will it. The fact that folks like Obama and Hillary and Sharpton and Black Lives Matter are mere messenger girls and girls, telling what already exists, not creating anything new, is lost on cons, as much else is. Ah, those halcyon days of the nineteen sixties, when, as usual, African-Americans were asking to be treated like five fifths of a human being, and the cons were calling him a troublemaker, rabble rouser, an uppity you know what. Now, the cons are trying to con us into believing that if we just leave well enough alone, everyone will be hired and educated and arrested equally, notwithstanding skin color. Like, I am soooo totally sure.

Guns and Anger at the G.O.P. Convention

THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION is beginning to emerge as an even greater hoot than anyone could possibly have imagined. Blame Obama for everything, then lift a few lines from an eight year old Michelle Obama speech, placing it in the official record of the convention, and the party platform. Republican core values, courtesy of Michelle Obama... Much of what President Obama says, which is merely common sense, Ronald Reagan could have said, and the conservatives would cheer wildly. One wonders whether the Trumpster might be a bit miffed by the family plagiarism; he probably should be, but won't be, even as the rest of us laugh and roll our eyes. Law and order. Color blind cops. Kill the radical Islamic terrorists. Make the desert glow. Put Hillary in prison, with or without a conviction. Hell, string her up! Conservative, jungle law. Who needs judges, juries, and proper jurisprudence? Certainly not the G.O. P. You keep hoping that they'll eventually get around to mentioning, at least in passing, racism, poverty, American wars of aggression, climate change, and energy policy, but don't bank on it. Most likely this gang of extreme right wingers will stick pretty close to the standard, maudlin, insipid topics, their standard bill of fare; put perps and protesters in prison, arm all good Americans, and if "Black Lives Matter" mobs with AK47s get a bit trigger happy this week in Cleveland, the good people, mostly conservatives, will be right there, equally well armed, ready to take care of everything.

Rigging The System, Donald Trump Style

THE SYSTEM ("SYSTEM" means "society") IS RIGGED. We know this because Donald Trump says so, and Donald Trump never lies, unless he happens to be speaking. He never specifies the exact manner in which the rigging manifests; the Trumpster never specifics about anything. He pours the concrete, and lets the framers do the rest. Bernie Sanders is more specific. In his berigment paradigm, the elite wealthy one percent have disproportionate political power, because they purchase it. The wealthy elite, mostly conservative, donate huge amounts of money to political candidates, usually republicans, and in return expect those candidates, when elected by virtue of huge amounts of money spent on advertising,, to work to implement a political agenda favorable to the donors. The agenda usually includes, among other items, less government regulation of the economy, lower income taxes on the wealthy, and lower corporate taxes. Also, less environmental regulation, reduction of spending on social programs for the poor, low capital gains taxes, privatization of social security among other programs, including privatized health insurance, all of which are are opposed by a majority of Americans. None of these proposals benefits anyone but the wealthy, and only the wealthy have sufficient financial resources to aggressively advocate for them. Thus the wealthy constitute a special interest, seeking, successfully, to rig the system for its own benefit. This, specifically, is the manner in which the system is rigged, although Donald Trump probably doesn't think so. Who knows what he thinks? He supports most of these proposals. that Trump vaguely vaguely condemns some vague, unspecified systemic rigging even while supporting the actual rigging seems ironic, but not surprising. don't expect him to ever acknowledge his hypocritical dishonesty; he's too busy watching thousands of Muslims celebrate the destruction of the world Trade Center, and refusing campaign contributions from political action committees, or perhaps accepting them only with the greatest reluctance, because as he says: candidates who accept such contributions are bought, owned, and controlled by their donors, in a system he says is rigged.

Openly Carrying Guns and Openly Causing Confusion In Dallas

THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO PACK HEAT; one is to hide one's firearm beneath one's clothing, such as in one's pocket, one's underwear, (better be careful) or up one's pants leg, or to carry it so that it is a openly visible, a testament unto all the world that one is a bad ass, or, as the National Rifle Association and American conservative community would have it. a "good person". Open carry, and conceal and carry, your choice. They do it one way in some states, and the other way in other states. That fact alone would seem to indicate that we haven't the faintest idea which is the better style, and if we don't know that, do we even know for sure whether carrying guns is a good idea at all? evidently, we're going to find out, because most states now permit one or the other carrying options' but only for "good people". the assumption that the world can be cleanly divided between good people and bad people, and that we can tell the difference with any degree of certitude, is yet another questionable conservative concept.The open carry movement faced a very public test in Dallas last week, and, by any reasonable standard, it failed. Concealed carry can be justified on the grounds of self defense. Open carry offers the additional "benefit' of making a statement: I have a gun. It has the drawback of eliminating for the bearer the element of surprise. Anyone contemplating perfidious action can count weapons, and make plans accordingly. Open carry seeks to normalize gun toting by making it visible and familiar. Black Lives Matter protesters in Dallas were openly carrying all sorts of powerful weapons, which, among the opponents of the movement might tend to force reconsideration of just who, other than good people, carry. Are they good people, or simply angry people with a gun? When the killer starting taking down cops, the cops were forced were forced to instantly discern just who was doing the firing, under chaotic conditions, and they had a lot of instant suspects from which to select, more than they might have wanted. determining that indeed none of the marchers was firing away was at least a momentary distraction and added work to all officers on the scene. the mayor of Dallas later said, insightfully: "in a shooting situation, open carry can be detrimental to the safety of individuals." he could have gone further. he could have openly stated that open carry is in general dangerous to public safety. Before his murderous rampage, the Dallas cop killer would have been, in fact was, regarded as one of the "good guys", a seven time decorated war hero and patriot. Even his parents had no advance warning; they knew he was a changed man after his military tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they hadn't the foggiest idea just how changed, how mentally ill how angry, how dangerous. The word is not neatly divided into good and bad people; good and bad reside in us all, and either can emerge at the most inconvenient moments. No civilian carrying a gun was of any help to the Dallas police force on that terrible night. The openly carrying good citizens provided nothing but added confusion and uncertainty. but don't hold your breath waiting for the National rifle Association or our conservative colleagues to accept this reality. Reality is not in their battle plan.

Eliminating Racism in America: Where To Start

AN INTERESTING CONTROLLED EXPERIMENT reveals the degree of racism in America, among conservatives. Racism, of course, is inherent in humans. Everything matters: skin color, height, weight, hair color, and so forth, and so on. Taller people make more money, about a thousand dollars per year per inch. Men get paid more than women. Pretty people do better, get more respect. In married couples, the ratio of the distance between the eyes and the nose is almost always the same. Symmetry matters in the formation of sexual attraction among animals, human and otherwise. Racism is the belief that humans can be neatly categorized by skin pigment into a few small categories, which in fact can only be done inaccurately. In reality, every person has a unique skin color. To prove this, hold your forearm against anyone else's forearm; you'll never find an exact match. All people have a different skin color, if only slightly. Now for our experiment. Two groups of people, white adults, were selected at random from the general American population. Age, gender; entirely randomly selected. Each person in each group was asked to do two things; first, state whether he or she identified as a liberal or conservative, on a scale of one to ten. Then, each group was shown a picture of president Obama. Both pictures were altered by Photoshop. One group was given a picture in which Obama's skin was made several shades lighter than it actually is, and the other group was given a picture in which the President's face was made to look several shades darker than it actually is. Both groups were then asked to rate Obama, again on a scale of one to ten. In both groups, the liberals gave the President a thumbs up, as might be expected, pretty much equally, without any differences between the groups the dark and light skinned photos. Among the conservatives, the president was found utterly lacking in merit, not surprisingly, but the group looking at the darker skinned Obama was much, much harsher in their assessment. The experiment was repeated, several times, and the same results eventuated, without exception or much deviation. The more conservative the participant, and the darker the President, the stronger the negative rating. The only possible explanation is that the more conservative the participant, the more likely that person was to negatively rate the President base on race. It would appear that we do indeed have much work to do in America, and that the need for the work is especially strong among extreme conservatives. At least we now know where to start.

Saving America With Immigration

XENOPHOBIA IS AN INHERENT HUMAN TRAIT, to which there is little resistance. People everywhere are tempted, often irresistibly, to exclude "others" from their society. The more xenophobic a society, the less likely it is to endure, because new blood stimulates culture. To inculcate a "we against the world" attitude is to invite the world to emerge victorious in a competitive world. Xenophobic societies throughout history have tended to refer to themselves as "the people", as if to imply, "we the only people". In ancient Egypt, pre-European America, or NAZI Germany, xenophobic attitudes stifled cultural evolution and encouraged cultural decay. Without cultural infusion, growth and cultural adjustment tend to stagnate, and with it, society. The glory of the Roman empire is that it grew by incorporating foreign lands, thoughts, and people into its domain, exploited their resources, and adopted their culture. First the Greek gods became the Roman gods, Greek literature and culture in general became Roman, and most profoundly, the Christian religion, which emerged in the near East as one of many primitive fertility cults, flourished within, and nurtured the Roman empire, as it spread across the Mediterranean, all because of the roman willingness to adopt to changing circumstances, and the emperor Constantine's desire to preserve his personal power. In the United States, we repeatedly remind ourselves that we are a nation of immigrants, while suffering from periodic bouts of xenophobia, as we are now doing. In the United States, further immigration is essential for our national survival. The birth rate has dropped to less than two children per couple, and without immigration into America, America will become a land of diminishing population, a diminishing population of elderly people, without enough young folk to do the work required to grow the economy. Immigrants tend to be young, healthy, ambitious, and hard working. Europe and Japan have the same problem. In Europe, immigration is even now breathing new life into the continent, but in Japan, xenophobia is reducing the Japanese population, turning the country into an old folks home, and shrinking the economy. Japan must choose to either admit non-orientals, or inevitably perish. We in America are confronted with the same choice.

Smiling For Free

IN RUSSIA, people smile at friends and family, but never at strangers. To smile at a stranger indicates insecurity, ill intent, derision, or who knows what else, maybe something that might be far, far worse. Like native Americans, Russians avoid eye contact, especially with, you guessed it, strangers. In America, we make eye contact during conversation, except at Hooter's, and the failure to look someone in the eye can be considered rude. Now that you know all that, good luck in both Russia and America. Americans are famous, apparently, for smiling a lot, and are considered friendly, if a bit arrogant, self absorbed, rude, and Philistinic. Can't win 'em all. It seems to me that Americans do indeed smile often, on one condition. An American will smile at you if you smile first. Heaven forbid that an American should smile the first smile; that is tantamount to giving away something valuable for free, without knowing whether it will be repaid. In the absence of a first smile, American men, especially working class members, move their heads up and down about a quarter inch, and freeze their mouths into a straight line, a scant acknowledgment, a sure sign of strength. American women tend to avoid eye contact with men they don't know, and tend to either not smile at all or to do so superficially, formally. Since about one out of four American women has been sexually assaulted, no wonder. I smile a lot, as I get older. This is important to my social life. We have three basic choices concerning what to do with our faces. We can smile, we can frown, or we can do nothing, relaxing all our facial muscles. Positive, negative, indifferent. My face is so constructed that when I do nothing, I look mean, and appear to be scowling menacingly, and people who don't know me tend to assume that I am mean, angry, or both. Their response is always the same: they mirror my facial expression, tit for tat. he's mean, so, by damn, I'm gonna be mean right back. They turn their would have been smiles into mean, angry looks, or looks which convey puzzlement, as if to say; "what on earth is this guy so damned mad about.!" My neutral face is indeed not an indication of my state of mind, but who can tell? So, if I want a smile, I had damned well better throw one out first. This leads me to convey an endless succession of insincere smiles, smiles that take the place of ostensible meanness, and it inspire me to ask: "why must I incessantly hand out insincere smiles to avoid being reprimanded with a scowl? Well, I mustn't. All I need do is to make damned sure that when I smile to avoid a scowl, that I really, truly mean it.

The Difficulty Of Saying: "I Don't Know"

THE SIMPLE, UNDENIABLE TRUTH IS: we don't know much, about anything. Our science is primitive, though we arrogantly think it much advanced, our world religions are primitive and barbaric, and offer no coherent cosmic paradigm, and most of us have no idea how a radio works, and none of us knows how the universe was built, or the nature of the impact of our activities on our environment. Einstein said it best: "we don't know one millionth of one percent of anything." And yet, in America, everybody, miraculously, knows everything. In america, the most neglected words are: "I...don't...know..." They sit high upon the self in the back of the closet, lonely, covered with dust. The FBI, the most thorough and competent investigatory agency in the world, conducts a needle in a haystack examination of Hillary Clinton, and finds nothing worthy of prosecution. And yet, she just has to be guilty..of something. We just know it. Because we hate Hillary, we know with absolute certainty that Hillary is, in some way or another, a criminal, and the FBI must be incompetent, corrupt, owned and controlled by Bill and Hillary Clinton, or worse. Barack Hussein Obama could not possibly have been born in Hawaii, and is therefore not an American, and he must be a votary of the Islamic faith. We just know it. Furthermore, Obama has utterly destroyed America. There is no doubt about it. The country no longer exists. The wreckage is everywhere, if only you look, long and hard. What little remains, if anything, will surely be consumed by Hillary, if she is elected. Donald Trump saw thousands of people in New Jersey cheering as the World Trade Center came a tumblin' down, and that's that. Too bad "lyin' Ted Cruz couldn't have been there to witness the outrageous behavior, and express Trumpian sanctimonious outrage, as tens of thousands of Islamic traitors showed their true colors. Imagine that. Donald Trump calling another human being a "liar". There is no field of human endeavor which inspires absolute knowledge in America as much as those two taboo topics: religion, and politics. The Bible, with its flat Earth paradigm, is the absolute truth, notwithstanding the thousands of demonstrable errors which any professor of Bible studies can list. Jesus was crucified the day before Passover, asserts one gospel. It was the day after, asserts another. Jesus ran the money changers out of the temple at the very beginning of his ministry, says one gospel. The messianic temper tantrum took place three years later, at the very end of his ministry, claims another. They cannot both be right, but they both absolutely must be correct, because, well, the Bible says so. America is a Christian nation, and that's that! Never mind that congress unanimously passed a law in 1797 declaring that the United States is no more a "Christian nation" than it is an "Islamic nation." President Adams signed the legislation into law, and, yes, it has never been repealed. But try telling that to an American Christian. Or try telling an American that "maybe we just don't know". good luck with that.

Changing Our signs and T Shirts: Black Lives Matter Too

VERILY, BLACK LIVES MATTER. But, wait. All lives matter. We must not assign special importance to any particular group. Never mind that the expression "black lives matter" neither says nor implies anything about the relative importance of non black lives. For example, in a parallel usage, when we say that "children are important", we do not imply that the lives of adults are not important. We are merely choosing to focus, for the moment, on the lives of children. When we assert that the weather is beautiful in the spring, we are not saying that it is not beautiful in the fall. People understand this principle, though they pretend, for the sake of political purposes, not to, regarding black lives mattering. This complaint is raised, falsely, by either liberals or conservatives, one or the other. Which? What is missing is a verbal solution to appease those who feel that other lives are being demeaned by virtue of the fact that black lives matter. That solution consists in a single three letter word, the word "too". Let's try it thusly: "black lives matter too." A single word, problem solved. All lives matter, including black ones. Words mean things, proclaims a certain radio talk show host. Indeed they do. If we use them carefully, we can change the word, while stymying the machinations of those who understand that the expression "black lives matter" says nothing about other lives, but who pretend not to, for political purposes. Words mean things, and their meaning, and their use, can change the world. Now it is time to edit and amend our liberal "black lives matter" signs and T shirts.

Proud To Be a Chimpanzee

JARED DIAMOND, an anthropologist at UCLA, in his seminal monograph "The Third Chimpanzee", demonstrates clearly that we humans are not only closely related to our primate cousins, but in actuality are a subspecies of the same species. Yes, alas, it is true; like it or not, we humans are sophisticated chimpanzees, one of three varieties; regular, pygmy, and human. Within the same species, the differences are of degree, not kind, and the differences are minor. Humans are in fact more closely related, genetically, to chimps than chimps are to gorillas or monkeys. For devout Christians, this revelation doubtless triggers reflexive anger, outrage, and denial, except perhaps among those who possess a sound education in the biological sciences. Everyone knows that a one hundred pound chimp can lift and toss a two hundred pound person across the room. A fight between two adults is a fearsome spectacle, but after tempers have cooled, the combatants renew their friendship by hugging and kissing. Avoiding formation of antagonistic relationships is a key ingredient in the maintenance of healthy communities. If two chimps are given a snack, the one who receives the smaller portion often shares, or refuses to eat her snack until the other has been fully compensated. (We humans could do well to imitate this behavior). Young healthy members of the community bring water, orally, to elderly infirm members. Again, a trait worthy of human emulation. Jared Diamond does not go so far as to postulate that our primate cousins display altruism and morality; he confines his analysis to more demonstrable physical and cognitive manifestations. Other scientists,however, do exactly that. They speculate that not only are differences among various intelligent species a matter of degree rather than of kind, but that all animals, especially primates, possess an innate sense of morality which derives from the structure of the brain, rather than God or philosophy. It would appear that human morality is less a mystery, less a feature of 'enlightenment", than yet another discernible, measurable, survival imperative. Lest we despair, let us bear in mind that it is a great honor to be counted among the many magnificent and miraculous species of animals which inhabit the world.

Counting Results

THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION BY NATURAL SELECTION, according to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, is a guess, and not a very good one at that. An alarming comment from someone with a presumably good education, and presumably including at least one biology class. It could be argued that anyone whose knowledge of science is so lacking is not qualified to sit on the Supreme Court, certainly not qualified to participate in the adjudication of any law suit pertaining to science, including women's reproductive rights. Scalia's source of scientific information, one might guess, was the Bible, a document of dubious scientific value, since scripture seems unaware of photosynthesis, the nature of electromagnetism, or that the stars are anything more than glass trinkets hanging from a material dome. Evolution, quite simply, is proven scientific fact. For over a hundred and fifty years science has been trying to disprove it, as it does all its theories, without success. Science has long since surrendered to the reality of evolution; challenging evolution was already ludicrous by 1925, when Clarence Darrow made a mockery of "christian science" in front of the entire world, but was denied acceptance and instead given disdain and hatred. We live in an age characterized by the widespread rejection of science. Many of us fear science, not without good reason. Its intimidating, the way we are surrounded by machines whose operation we do not understand. Science education in America is not presently producing acceptable results. Unlike religion, the benefits of science are tangible, verifiable, the results are before our very eyes. Whatever benefits religion has bestowed upon the world could have been bestowed more effectively without the dogma, the ignorance, and the divisiveness.which religion is true, partly or entirely? There are hundreds from which to select, and since they often contradict each other, all of them cannot be true. There is, however, a single, comprehensive, beautifully persuasive body of factual scientific knowledge, explaining for us the true nature of the world, upon which everyone can agree, because everyone can reproduce, for themselves, the results. And, after all, it is results that count.

Exhausting All Possibilities For Eliminating Gun Violence in America

IN THE UNDECLARED WAR between African-Americans and police, the descendants of slaves came from a two zip deficit this week, to win, five two. One black man killed by a cop in Minnesota, and another in Louisiana. The lesson we learn is that we must not have a broken tail light, while driving while black. In Dallas, the aim was to kill white people, preferably cops, according to one of the apprehended suspects, and they got five of them. A little honesty never harmed anybody, and contributes much to the establishment of motive in court. Those annoying smart phones. You can't even commit a hate crime anymore, without some do gooder video recording and posting it to Facebook. It keeps us entertained, as nothing but violence can do in the United States of Aggression. The motive for cops killing African-american men seems to be fear. There was once a lady who was investigating alleged police brutality against blacks in Los Angeles, and she was approached by a white cop, secretly, who wanted to know: "what can I do to stop being afraid of black men"? Perhaps she told him to "suck up, and act like a man." White people are afraid of black people, studies reveal, and the American judicial system locks up as many black men as the law will allow. As John Grisham said in his novel "Rogue Lawyer", "have we lost our minds"? White dude gets a warning, black dude gets a ticket. White dude gets probation, black dude gets time. Over, and over, and over,all over the United States of Amnesia. To quote the late great Casey Stengel: "you could look it up." Meanwhile, Congress does not allow the government to study gun related violence, because if it did, we might find out something that would annoy our National Rifle Association political campaign benefactors. So let's just pretend that racism, like climate change, is a liberal hoax, since, after all, slavery was criminalized, what, hundreds of years ago? Then, divide the American people into two categories: good people, and bad people. Arm all the good people, problem solved. In 2015 thirty six thousand five hundred Americans died by gunfire, most of the shooters having emerged miraculously from among the ranks of the good people. In gun free England, nobody died by gun violence last year, or maybe one or two, and during the entire year English cops fired their weapons a grand total of six times. As Winston Churchill said: "the Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing, after exhausting all other possibilities."

Denying Reailty, No matter What

EVER SINCE THE FIRST BUSH ADMINISTRATION, the Department of Defense has been warning us that man made climate change poses a national security risk to the United States. The Pentagon's Top military brass, like any high school chemistry teacher or anyone else with a modicum of common sense, acknowledges the reality of man made global warming. American conservatives alone do not. The military has a plan to deal with the problem, and Obama supports it, but the Republicans in Congress do not, because it costs money, money which could be better spent on weapons or tax breaks for the wealthy than repairing the damage already done to the environment. similarly, the Exxon corporation has been aware of and studying climate change for decades, according to recently revealed internal memos. Their corporate plan has been to profit as much as possible before humanity is forced go give up fossil fuels, and, in the meantime, to keep as quiet about the situation as possible. thus we have even more confirmation of our real circumstances from two of the most respected institutions among conservative circles: the military, and the fossil fuel industry. Then too, the Pope keeps warning us against the peril of ignoring what we have done and continue to do to Earth's environment. And yet, the deniers keep denying, even as temperatures keep climbing to record levels. If the Pope, the Pentagon, and the corporate community can't wake these people up, who can. For the moment, nobody.

Redistributing food, If Nothing Else

THE PRICE OF FOOD IN AMERICA is so low that hardly anyone can make a living farming, so the government is forced to subsidize agriculture, and has for decades. American farmers, family and corporate, grow so much food that the country has twice as much as it needs, can't seem to figure out what to do with the surplus, and ends up throwing most of it away. Food producers are often paid to not grow crops. Meanwhile, most Americans are overweight, and yet, almost one out of every four American children do not always get enough to eat. As clever people like to say: "what's wrong with this picture?." For one thing, the entire economic system is out of balance, badly. One percent of the population has twenty, thirty, or forty percent of the wealth, whichever statistic you choose to believe, they all point in the same direction. The invisible hand of the free market seems to have rather strange ideas about who deserves what. Entertainers and athletes, according to free market theory, have earned the right to abundant surpluses of food by virtue of their enormous contributions to the market, consisting in an ability to entertain consumers. The core values of the American free market place entertainment above education, food, clothing, and shelter, in order of importance. We have a obese nation on the one invisible hand, and we have widespread poverty and hunger on the other invisible free market hand of fate. We might not be able to talk the body politic into redistributing wealth, of creating greater equality economically or politically, but if we are quite lucky, we might be able to provide enough proof of the children of hard working Americans going hungry to inspire a little more redistribution of food. Maybe, but don't count on it.

Working Together to Defeat Christian and Islamic Terrorism

RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISM appears to be on the rise, as the Islamic State gets devoured one household at a time by the Iraqi military and American special forces trainers, and its strategy begins to shift to pure terrorism in global earnest. If you can't stand straight up and fight the enemy toe to toe, try something else. Ask George Washington. Chances are Obama is following the advice of his military advisers, and the strategy seems to be working in Iraq. Root 'em out, slowly, steadily, certainly. Now the trick is to find a way to deal with Islamic State terrorism. One strategy is to try to unite the entire civilized world against it, including the one point five billion Muslims, which is why Obama and his ilk think its a good idea to refrain from using the term "Islamic terrorism". Consider, for example, radical Christian terrorism. Never heard of it? Oh, yes you have. There was once a time when radical christian terrorism spread across the fruited plain of freedom's land like a plague of locusts, in particular, the period right after the Civil War. for a hundred years African-American Americans were murdered by the tens of thousands by radical Christian terrorists. In the late twentieth century and early twenty first, thank the lord, radical Christian terrorism seems to be declining, but is still very much with us. You've heard of the Ku Klux Klan, you've heard of David Koresh and the Branch Davidians, and, lest we not forget, you've heard of the inimitable "The Arm, the Sword, and the Covenant of the Lord" group, which, if memory serves, had as it primary goal the killing of all Jews, atheists, Muslims, African-Americans, and lord only knows who else. Dylann Roof, who about a year ago blew away nine black people in a church in these United states, is a great example of radical Christian terrorism. There are many more. We don't call radical Christian terrorism radical Christian terrorism - why not? The reason is obvious, and it applies equally to so called radical Islamic terrorism. Christians, by and large, overwhelmingly, reject violence perpetrated in the name of the Prince of Peace, just at Muslims overwhelmingly reject violence. It is more important than ever, at this very moment, to unite the American people and the Islamic faith against terrorism, because the terrorists are striking in predominantly Islamic countries like turkey and Iraq, as well as the mostly christian United states. Surely billions of people working together can defeat a few thousand.

Bill and Hillary, Spotless

IT IS VERY, VERY UNLIKELY that either Bill or Hillary Clinton has broken the law, ever. No jaywalking, spit balling, nothing. That's how perfect they are. Just think about it. Bill was born wanting to be president. You'll remember that picture of him shaking hands with JFK. If ever there were a high school president wannabe, it was he. bill kept his nose clean, and joined all the right clubs, starting young. Hillary, much the same. When Hillary was Sec. O' State, under Barack Hussein, she knew two things, if nothing else. One: she was only gonna work for BHO for one term, because her second term would instead be spent running for president. And Two: she was going to be president, after Obama, come hell or high water. Can we at least agree on that? Do you suppose Hillary has ever figured out that the vast right wing conspiratorial republican hordes would be scrutinizing her every move, and coming after her, all the time, with everything have? Yeah, she figured that out, about twenty years ago. The independent server thing she mistakenly assumed would pass unnoticed. Hell, Condie Rice and Colin Powell both did the same thing, with no questions asked. Hillary felt untouchable. Wrong! Similarly, by receiving blow jobs in the oval office, William Jefferson Clinton wasn't exactly exercising good judgment; he too probably assumed that he would be given a pass, like his hero, JFK, until long after he was dead and gone, and it no longer mattered. Wrong! But just as the U.S. Senate refused to remove Bill from office, the FBI refuses to indict Hillary, because after laborious, meticulous research, it becomes obvious, every time; these cats are careful to stay just on the right side of the law. In order to get what they want, they do what they have to, and even though they allow arrogance to get in the way of good judgment, they are careful never to cross the line.

Dealing With the FBI, Hillary Style, Not My Style

HILLARY WALKS, and America's right wing pitches a tizzy. The right wing radio shows are aghast and horrified, as you might expect. Much wailing, whining, and gnashing. Maybe Donald Trump should go barging into the FBI office and demand results, now! I'd love to see him try that. Hell, he might have better results than I did, but, then again, maybe not. I can see Trump really getting under the skin of the FBI, while yelling at them. One time several years ago I went barging into an FBI office, because I wanted to ask about their investigation of a friend of mine who was being investigated on suspicion of being a serial killer, a suspicion from which he was eventually cleared, as all his friends knew perfectly well all along he would be. A few moments after approaching the gate keeper, a young man, very well dressed and serious, I thought I might not make it back out. I meekly and courteously (I thought) introduced myself, and mentioned my friend's name, a prominent businessman whom all the locals knew to be an absolutely great guy, but was being tormented and harassed by the Fibbies, month after, month, endlessly. To the point where, on a sweltering summer, I finally lost it, and went barging in to the local FBI office, unannounced. Any word on how the investigation of my friend is going, sir, and when it might, um, wrap up? The young man behind the bullet proof glass window gave me a stern, ominous stare, and made it perfectly clear that there was nothing he could do to help me, but he wished me well, and he hoped that I ended up having a good day in any event. I can take a hint, and when I made it to the street, I felt relief. Hillary paid her visit a couple of days ago, to FBI headquarters, and stayed three hours. Oh, to have been a fly on the wall! I'll bet she wasn't nearly as scared or intimidated by her visit as I. Who knows how much money changed hands! Millions? Billions? The Clintons have bought their way out of this, or made some other criminal arrangement It just has to be!. The Director of the FBI as much as said her behavior while Secretary of State was horrible and reprehensible, but she didn't intend for it to be, so she didn't commit any crimes. The taint of her personal email server will forever linger about her, like her husband's bad judgment at the airport. Those damned Clintons. And just think, throughout her entire presidency, if there is one, the right wingers will keep digging, and complaining, and accusing, just like they have for the past eight years under Obama, and everything will seem, somehow, just like normal.

Finding Out About Columbus

A TWELVE YEAR OLD kid called Rush Limbaugh, and suggested that El Rushbo write a book about Christopher Columbus, because the teachers and kids at school were saying terrible things about the discoverer of America, and Rush could set things straight. Rush agreed; it would be a good idea, to put a stop to all this liberal anti-American nonsense. Welcome to the world of modern, revisionist history in the public schools, wherein the American dream is no longer taught without mention of the American nightmare. Rush and the twelve year old radio call in caller, who spoke like a very intelligent person, should both grab a copy of Christopher's journal, and read the first paragraph about what happened after they hit the beach on Hispaniola. It says it right there: these native people are extremely friendly, peaceful, strong, and healthy. They are going to make great servants! Then the Columbus party killed three million of them, but got their gold, so it was worth it. The priest who also kept a journal was utterly appalled at the extent of the brutality and bloodshed. Somehow you get the sense that Rush Limbaugh never has, and never will read the journal of Christopher Columbus, handed down to us from that fateful, adventurous, bloody summer and fall of 1492. Its very revealing, and tells us exactly what Columbus did, only Columbus does not think of himself as a mass murderer. Rush Limbaugh may be beyond education, but the twelve year old kid isn't. It may be that all of his teachers and classmates will overwhelm the nice boy with peer pressure, and prevail upon him to understand, however reluctantly, that the dream and the nightmare coexist. And, hell, maybe he'll even find out about the Trail of Tears, and all that.

Planning Crimes In Broad Daylight

SO...UM...Bill Clinton secretly arranges a secret meeting with the U.S. Attorney General to occur on the tarmac of a huge busy big city airport, and the two nefarious liberals then meet at the airport and plot a plan to enable Hillary Clinton to escape justice. They are busted by several hundred isolated individuals with smart phones and twitter accounts. Either that, or....ex-POTUS Clinton and the A.G. happen to run into each other, and talk grand kids and golf. Your pick. Were I they, I'd tend to pick a more secret location, like ,say, some broom closet in the middle of Montana, to engage in criminal conspiracy, but, hey, that's just me. On the other hand, you know how all these big shots, political leaders, billionaires, movie stars, athletes and such tend to get around. They're bound to bump heads from time to time. If you wanna see some celebs, just hang for a while is some, any, big city airport. A friend sent me an email expressing shock and outrage at Bill Clinton's bravado, arrogance, sense of entitlement, balls, and temerity for engaging in criminal activity in broad daylight in front of the whole world, dismissing utterly the other theory, the one about happenstance, coincidental meetings. Spoken like a true conservative. When you hate somebody so much that it blinds you to any interest in objectivity, no matter what the hated party does, its wrong, its evil. If Obama were ordained by a pillar of fire with angels circling high overhead as the second coming of Christ, you could count on the American Republican party to proclaim the whole affair the work of the devil. so now, the Attorney should resign, and Bill Clinton should be investigated. My lord, what if they were discussing how to use a foot wedge or or how be out of town when grand children are having a party.

Doing What You Can To Prove Your Point

DIG, IF YOU WILL, A PICTURE, of you, as a left wing liberal. A Bernie Sanders, Karl Marx, Fidel Castro socialist. Hold your nose if you have to. You can go back to being a true conservative in just a moment... What you want to do, in your imaginary status as a left wing loon, is justify your radical point of view any way you can. You want some authority figure, somebody with real clout, to back you up. You'll try anything, including the Bible. You, the staunch advocate of confiscatory punitive tax and spend big government liberal redistribution of wealth, you the fan of punishing the wealthy by taxing the hell out of them, punishing the producers, as the Christian conservatives often say, you the commie, thumbing through the Bible, looking.....Suddenly you see where Jesus said "render unto Caesar", and your pulse quickens. You read further that Jesus says: "sell whatsoever thou hast, and give unto the poor". Then you see the thing about a wealthy man trying to go through the eye of the needle and get into heaven, and, last but not least, "what benefits the man who gaineth the entire world and loses his soul in so doing?" As far as your concerned, that clinches it. And you'll have to admit, if you're looking for some authority figure to come along and offer support for your radical left wing politics and economics, you could do worse than Jesus, and, no matter how hard you might try to link Jesus's words with TEA Party Christianity, and no matter how hard to might wish to totally separate Jesus from the far left, you just can't entirely, somehow... Now, back in the real world with you as a right wing free market second amendment fundamentalist Christian - you have to admit - that indeed "render unto Caesar" does not exactly sound like TEA party politics. Right?