No need for bailouts or socialism

Bernie Sanders is out on the trail stumping to be elected for president -- again. Isn't he too old?

The POTUS is not a platform for promoting socialism or communism but a position of leadership for the man or woman that is elected. Instead, the people of the United States trade their morals and ethics for a chance to be the President of the United States (POTUS). We have seen and still experience the swamp that has grown up around politics and we have suffered for it. We have liars that will cheat and lie to become President: Obama and Trump are excellent examples of that. Add in the Clintons and that makes it worse. The Clintons are the epitome of the dunghill that is politics and has become politics. The forefathers knew what they were doing, but they did not count on the people that politics attracts and continues to attract. We are living in the midst of that dunghill and suffering from the swamp of politics that the dunghill attracts.

We have had and continue to have liars, cheats, Obamas, Trumps, and Clintons to show for it.

I'm not advising that we forego the presidency but that we grow in intelligence and stop the political gravy train that attracts the worst of mankind's politicians. The forefathers did not count on that aspect of the political swamp.

That is how we end up with the dregs of humanity and politicians and the Green Peace Corps that currently inhabits the political swamp that is the Washington, D. C. that we know, abhor, and detest today. How is that for wisdom that comes with age? The forefathers did not have the wisdom or the vision we deserve of a supreme leader.

It is like the absolute power and unlimited corruption that comes with any leader. It was the same for the world when women ruled the men and it is what we have now that the men have ruled the women now. Absolution power = absolute corruption.

We have done better overall with our Democratic government and the government our forefathers set up, but it all ends with absolute power and absolute corruption. Our shining city on the hill has been a light that leads to wisdom for the rest of the world.

Or at least our democratic government has been a guiding light for centuries, at least since 1776 when the U. S. Constitution was written and enacted. We will continue on until the foreseeable future --rip or at least until the Second Coming -- and we are nearly there. Can't you feel it? Don't you see it? The U. S. Constitution is a marvelous and brilliant document and it has been amended and lasted until now -- or at least until Barack Obama ripped it to shreds and Donald Trump continues to rip the constitution to shreds. It must be the end of days and Christ has not come back yet -- or ever will.

There will be no Second Coming and there will be no Paradise as envisioned in Mohammed's Islamic Quran.

Creation's Universal God is not going to come to see us. HE set up the religions -- or at least allowed religions to be set up just as our U. S. Constitution was set up and continues to be amended, expanded, an revised. That is what is ahead for us -- at least until the end of the world is reached and the wisdom of the truth Universe's God can be understood and realized.

We are not there yet. We will be soon.

It takes time for humanity to realize that they don't have to follow the dictates of previous religions or leaders and we aren't there yet.

We will get there and we won't blow ourselves up or destroy our planet. That will not happen. We are not meant for extermination the way we exterminate insects like roaches or control them as we do by modifying our seeds to kill insects and keep them from breeding. We will not -- and do not -- rely on genetically modified seeds to sustain us. The planet will serve our needs as long as we pay attention and do not modify Mother Nature to the point that we cannot or will not survive.

At least I do not think so.

All these religions (Islam, Christianity, Judaism, LDS, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.) are humanity's answers to continue to survive -- and they are wrong.

All religions are a stopgap to keep us from killing each other and survive until the end comes and we are rewarded with the POINT to all existence. We are close, but we are not there yet.

Humanity is focused on sin and avoiding sin or at least making reparations for having sinned. We do not get it yet, but we are closer to the POINT.

The point is what it has always been -- be good to others and love. That is the whole of the law and always has been. Buddhists are closer to the truth, but they are still not on track. I prefer the Minbari peoples' beliefs: We are the Universe figuring itself out. We learn a step at a time, but the essence of it all is Love One Another and Do Good to One Another. That is close to the Jewish beliefs and Christianity also has a piece of the TRUTH.

With all of these religions and all of the different types of religion, we still don't have IT yet.  We're getting there, but NOT YET.

WE still have a way to go yet.

Buddha was closer to the truth and Buddha himself had it figured out, but humanity doesn't learn and still has not got it yet.

The United States has a handle on the Truth but politicians keep getting in the way of the POINT; that is what keeps hanging us up and keeping us from the realization that there is no GOD on this planet and that leaders keep getting in the way, snatching humanity from the realization that is is and has always been LOVE ONE ANOTHER and DO GOOD TO OTHERS. At least the Jews got it right and that is why the Muslims have not been able to exterminate them as Islam decided when Mohammed created Islam and said it was GOD's prophet. Mohammed wasn't GOD's prophet and he did not create a good religion when he dreamed up Allah, saving him from the ignominy of being just a moon god and elevating Allah to the God of the Universe. He failed the way all creators of religions fail --- HE WAS WRONG.

That is why Jimmy Swaggart and all the rest of the Christian leaders failed -- THEY WERE WRONG -- and being wrong tripped them up because they are still human and still make mistakes. At least they had part of it right -- we are under grace and grace will save us.

Mohammed's rule about beheading and torturing the apostates and homosexuals was wrong and all those people who died because of Mohammed's fixation on sin died and helped the Universe figure itself out that much sooner. Mohamed doesn't get points for that because people have evolved and moved on just as the Universe had already decided.

We think we have it all figured out. We think that God (our manmade gods) has the answer. We are wrong. We have always been wrong because we are humans trying to understand the Infinite, The Universe.

That is why I get what the Minbari believe -- we are the Universe trying to figure itself out. That is not only truth; that is also poetry and it is RIGHT.

If you don't get it yet, stick around and pay attention. You'll get it sooner than you think.

LOVE ONE ANOTHER. DO GOOD FOR AND TO EACH OTHER. THAT IS THE WHOLE OF THE LAW -- LOVE.

That is all. Disperse.

Already Known

Just when you think you know what people think of you, you don't.

I've always told people "...if you want to be seen as nice, be nice." I still believe that and I follow my own advice -- mostly. I don't worry about what people think of me because I'm nice (almost all the time). Saves me explanations and worrying about what people say and think about me. After all. I write about what I think and say ... just not worried about what people think. 

Then again, when I stop worrying about what people think, someone will pop up to remind me how I acted and what I did wrong. Oh, well, that's life.

Good thing I learned to listen without jumping in to explain myself and mend my fences.

Mostly.

Just when I think I've been polite and nice, I get slapped in the face with my own shortcomings. Oh, well, that's life. C'est la vie.

I wonder if that happens to you. Probably. Happens all the time.

It happened to me and I kept my mouth and my fingers silent. I listened.

That is the real problem -- staying silent and really listening. Same for reading -- I stay silent and read what has been put before me. Good plan.

I don't think people really listen and keep their mouths shut. Not only their mouths but their thoughts. If your thoughts are tumbling all over each other, you can't listen. Really listen ... and be nice.

I have worked hard to be pleasant so I don't have to explain myself.

Then again, sometimes I get waked up and struggle to remain polite, a fact that was the heart of the dressing down I endured when a friend tongue lashed me because I was ungracious and not as polite as I think I am (or was)  

I have news for you. You are not seen as nice as you think you are. Maybe you were awakened unceremoniously and thrown into the midst of a difficult situation. You don't have the same excuse, especially if you are out in the world in the middle of the day. You have no excuse. You are at that point who you always are -- an ungracious, rude, terse asshole. You have always appeared so to me, but I thought you probably watched your Ps and Qs among others. Guess not.

A new man came to fill the spot left by the maintenance man who left for a job with the state of Ohio, a better paycheck, and a future that he had gone to college (technical school) to obtain. We all wish him well, but I like this new maintenance man as well. The surprise for me was that he knew you and had had dealings with you. I didn't gloat and I did not do the Snoopy Happy Dance. Clint told me he knew you and that his opinion of you was exactly the same as mine. He could deal with you and knew you from his own dealings with you -- an uppity snob who looks down on everyone else.

That is my experience of you and I have sixty-two years of experience. He isn't adopted and he isn't trying to fit in. He is a man and has had to deal with you in various circumstances so he knows you very well and he is not impressed. Like me (or rather not like me) he has learned to keep his head down, maintain a neutral attitude so as not to startle you or awaken your negative attitudes or snobbishness and get away from the encounter intact and unharmed.

Unlike me, he is not related to you as I am and he does not have to deal with you with any frequency. He just wants to get out of the way and not awaken the snobbish dragon. I don't care. I am who and what I have always been and I don't worry about arousing the snobbish dragon. Clint has to get away intact and unscathed. I don't care. I have been disowned and you have never worried much about how I see you. You know I see you as you are. So does Clint. He sees you as you are and have always been. After all, you don't want to sleep with him and don't worry about how he sees you. You don't. You never have and never will worry.

C'est la vie.

I am no longer friends with my tongue lashing one-time friend. She has severed our relationship when I called her in the hospital to see how she is -- or was. I have made and lost friends over the years and she is another one, born of ruminating and polishing the worry stone that she had cast at me while I listened with my full attention.

Yes, I actually did listen -- really listen -- and I paid heed. Does not make a difference. She had been polishing that worry stone for a very long time. Nothing I did or said could or would have any effect.  I have to let it go, just like I let go the empty promise of being taken to Stow, Ohio. It happens, especially when empty promises take effect in the snobbish dragon. I don't worry about how it will turn out because what I worried about has happened and will not come again or be rectified. That time is past (has already passed by) and nothing will change because you will not change. You will be as you have always been and will always be; nothing will change because you cannot or will not change. I have been kicked out and nothing will be the same because the authors of this particular issue are long dead.

C'est la vie.

That is all. Disperse.

We are all Prejudiced

Photo by Stephen Melkithesian

I often think while I'm playing a mindless game and I realized that prejudice isn't about black or white, it is about the face we see in the mirror. We think that people that are different from us is the problem. That's wrong. The problem begins and ends with us. We are the problem. Prejudice and racism begin with the mirror, begins with us.

The face that looks back at us from the mirror makes it okay pretend for others like us to make mistakes as long as they are willing to say it out loud. I think that is why my father's hidden prejudice was so devastating to me because I grew up thinking he was not prejudiced and he was a fair man. After all, he accepted all people as they came and judged them on what they presented to us. That is why I was behind my Uncle Bob's open prejudice. He spoke up and told you to your face he was a racist. But that was not the problem, nor was it a problem that my father was racist. The problem was that he hid in plain sight, that he spoke the words of moderation and equality; he was actually a racist like my grandfather and every other Archie Bunker type racist I realized that I had been prejudiced all along.

I said the words. I espoused equality. I opened my arms and what I thought was my heart when I was as prejudiced as my Uncle Bob who said the words and would admit no black people into his home (like Mom) or into his heart. I realize that I am as closeted as my dad and every other racist person who pretends not to be racist. We are all in the closet and we say the words and we make the motions, but we are not free of the taint of prejudice. We are all racist in our heart of hearts, just like I am racist in my heart of hearts. Racism goes bone deep. Always has and always will be.

We will make allowances for those who are not like us, those who do not realize that racism is as endemic as the color of our blood, tissue, and ... ultimately sin color... because we haven't faced up to the facts.

Maybe racism began as a survival instinct. By that reasoning, that is why Islam and Mohammed have reached so far into the heart of this planet, this world. Islam is as closeted, and hence Mohammed, as a homosexual pretending to be straight. Of course, Mohammed was a twisted dwarf who fashioned his god to look as twisted and deformed as he was. That is a twisted and deformed way of thinking ... and believing.  We are all twisted and deformed when looking out of the eyes of Mohammed as he looks from the mirror of his soul and sees himself (or at least as he sees himself) to be. No wonder Islam forbids the believer to deviate from Mohammed's words as written down in the holy book, the Quran. That is why believers must say the words exactly as he inscribed them without deviation. How else could Islam have crawled from the depths of his deformed and twisted mind in the Middle Ages (1400+ years ago) into the modern world in the 21st century? Mohammed's twisted and deformed thoughts are squirming and deforming out modern minds because Mohammed decreed (as a commandment from the universe's GOD, Allah) it.

In Allah's words of course.

The problem lies with the mirror, the image that we see and that we believe is right above all others -- our own reflected image.

Photo by Stephen Melkithesian

We are not dealing with a rational mind -- especially in the case of Mohammed. We are dealing with the twisted and deformed utterings of an epileptic who had seizures and wrote his twisted and deformed thoughts into the Quran. The Quran is a holy book given to use through the medium of a twisted and deformed dwarf whose mother died when he was six and from out of the covering shadow of his mother's untimely death when he was tossed into the world grieving, twisted, and deformed. He was intelligent enough to figure out that a moon god in the pantheon where he had his brilliant epiphany that a forgotten moon god was the Ruler of the Universe, a GOD for all that he saw and codified in his holy book and thus GOD's utterances as he wrote them down while patterning his religion after the only religion in the world -- Judaism.

When Mohammed didn't get the seal of approval from the GOD OF THE JEWS, he decided to cover his backside by declaring that all believers in the GOD OF THE JEWS (Jews) had to be destroyed, annihilated, wiped out of existence because they had the effrontery to deny HIM (Mohammed) the stamp of approval he should have had because he was Allah's anointed prophet. How dare they? They must die. They could not be allowed to taint his holy visions with their ignorance and refusal to grant him the seal of approval he so desperately wanted -- and needed. How dare they?!

Much like Hans Christian Anderson's tale of the foul mirror that the demons carried up to place in front of God's throne to show him the foul warped mirror image dreamed up by Satan in his noxious dreams before they broke the mirror, the shattered foul mirror Satan devised broke into a billion pieces and warped that lodged in Kay's eyes and heart sending him into the Snow Queen's clutches to while away the endless hours in the freezing cold of her ice palace attempting to place the ice shards into the word eternity. Eternity is what Mohammed has damned the ardent followers of his warped and twisted religion, just like Mohammed damned his followers to fashion out of ice shards the word eternity. 

Eternity is what the Muslims will serve as they follow their prophet, Mohammed, into hell.

I would have followed Mohammed's warped followers into hell as well if I had not realized that racism begins and ends with the mirror -- a normal mirror not warped by the nefarious design of Satan. I am warped by my own imagination and my own closeted beliefs and feelings, not the warped design of my own fashioning. I am a racist.

There. I said it -- or at least wrote it for all to see and realize that I have finally admitted the truth, the truth that was denied by my father's own hidden truth -- he was a racist -- just as I am a racist.

Uncle Bob said it out loud. Dad refused to admit it out loud -- even to his own children -- he was a racist just as I am a racist. I am imperfect. I have always been imperfect and I am still imperfect -- at least to this point where I put it out into the world that I am a racist. 

I realize now that the only reason I tolerated my Uncle Bob's racism (just as I accepted Archie Bunker's racism because it was delivered in the form of comedy) is because Uncle Bob, like me, was white. He looked like the image I saw reflected in the mirror of my soul. That image accepts all things, even the warped and deformed, because he looked like me: he was white.

That is why I accept all things, because they look like me or are white.

That is also why I accepted the warped and deformed utterances of my mother because she was white. 

I fought her tooth and nail even though she was white because she was a racist. I accepted Dad's perfidy because he never said a thing. He said all the right things. He did all the right things. He was kind and generous and accepted all people; he couldn't be a racist.

Well, that is wrong. He was a racist just as I am a racist -- or was until I realized from where I was coming. All things are acceptable as long as the mirror reflects what you see as being just like you. That means the same is true, not only of me, but for all people. The mirror image you see makes everything acceptable.
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If you are black, you will accept all things because you see black in your mirror. That makes all things acceptable as far as you are concerned. Everything else is all right for you because it is black -- or red -- or yellow -- or purple with green polka dots -- because the image you see in the mirror is the same as the one looking back at you.

I apologize to all the wrong-headed people I criticized before I realized that I was a racist, too. I was wrong. I hope I am putting that wrongness right at last.

I was wrong.

I realize that now.

I apologize to all people (red, yellow, black, and white) for seeing you as wrong. I was wrong.

We all are wrong ... just not as wrong as a twisted and deformed dwarf like Mohammed. 

That is why I reject Allah and God and all forms of gods and why I am an atheist. I realize that we are all wrong because we cannot see or comprehend the reality of the universal being at the heart of all things. We can see and imagine a being at the center of all things, but we cannot really comprehend such a being because we are finite beings and, though we have a creative and vast imagination, we are not THE UNIVERSE'S GOD.

We are finite. We are human. We are wrong.

We are OH SO WRONG.

Here's hoping that we will finally realize that fact and not push our warped and deformed religious utterances on others.

I recently saw a documentary on how China deals with Muslims and Mohammed's followers -- they indoctrinate the Muslims and teach them  (brainwash them). I deplore using such methods on people, but hasn't Mohammed been indoctrinating his followers with their five times daily prayers? Where Mohammed succeeded with his CYA methods, warped and wrong-headed as they were and are, they and he has succeeded. He has demonized the Jews. He has brainwashed children and millions of believers in Allah. He has warped and deformed the mentality of the populace for over fourteen hundred years. He has obliterated and annihilated common sense and thinking/evolving for yourselves. He has set the course for Satan in his warped and deformed imagination for all eternity. He has placed the planet on course for destruction.

And he (or at least Allah in Mohammed's diseased imagination) has set our feet on the wide road into HELL for eternity (where we will remain for all time).

We will have no chance to free ourselves from ultimate destruction and will end up in Paradise or hell unless we examine our hearts and turn away from the abyss.

And yet we cannot because Allah declares it so (as Mohammed has writ).

That is all. Disperse.

We are Wrong!

Sitting here without a car, the only thing I can think about is finding a way to get around. It's the same problem my father had when we lived in Panama and Mom had the car. He bought and rode a bicycle. I know. I tried to ride his bike when it was home and I had two problems: my legs were too short and there was a high bar (man's bicycle) I had to get over to work the pedals. I learned how to do it, but it hurt every time I had to stop quickly. I was impaled by the bar between my legs catching me between the legs. I suffered the pain and got on with riding the bike.

I am sitting here without my license because of an 18-year old warrant on my Ohio drivers' license that I cannot get removed until I can get myself up to Stow, Ohio to talk to a judge and have it removed. You are up to date on that part of the equation. I have decided to go a different way -- I will get a bike and propel myself around with a bicycle. No impediments to riding a bike now because my legs are much longer and I don't have to put up with that bar catching me between the legs. I can get the pedals easily and I will because I am willing to trade my Teeter inversion table (paid for) for a brand new bicycle. No Peloton for me. I just want a bicycle and I will have one. If I can't trade for it, I will save up my pennies and get one for myself or trade my labor for a bike at the local bicycle shop here in Urbana. I will HAVE my bike. You watch me. I don't mind the rain and I don't mind the sun. I WILL get around. Watch me.

By trade of volunteer services of trade of my brand new, paid for Teeter inversion table, I will get around and I will get a job -- one way or the other.

Riding a bike will also make me fitter and healthier, so a bike is also a carbon-neutral form of transportation. More people should be riding bicycles and not buying twenty plus thousand cars that pollute the air and get you there faster. If you don't mind the rain or the sun and like the wind blowing in your face, get a bike. No one, not even the GREEN POLICE will stop you and you will be more athletic, fitter, and better able to pedal out of their way.

I don't know why we tend to think of life as an exercise powered by car. Probably it is the first thing we think about as soon as we are able to get a drivers license. No problem there, but I am tired of thinking in the box. I'd rather think out of the box and get a bike. I will be farther ahead in the scheme of things and better off athletically and personally. No one is going to worry about me if I am pedaling a bike. I can get a slicker when it gets wet and I might even dodge the raindrops with a bike.

As I think about it now, I didn't think of Dad as being ahead of the game. He had to leave the car for Mom and I have no car to leave since I left it in Colorado when I sold it to the next door neighbor and still haven't been paid. Oh, well, that's no problem for me. I will NOT give him the title. It's cheaper than taking him to court -- and a lot easier since I will not travel back to Colorado to take him to court. No problem.

I think about things like getting a bike. Dad had the answer but it is not one I had to think about before I was dumped here in Urbana. I think about all the things my dad managed when he was out of options. That is what I think about now. The other options.

I have spoken about my dad living a closeted life because he was a homosexual, not a problem in today's society with everyone covering their backsides about prejudice. I'm sure that Dad would not have worried in today's society, except that he was pretending to be straight in a straight world. My siblings are turning their heads because they cannot accept that our father was homosexual and pretending to be straight. I'd say he was bisexual since he had no trouble dealing with Mom, but he was still closeted and pretending to be straight because that was expected of him. I thought of him as my father and didn't give it a second thought when I learned he was other.

Maybe it was because he was always adapting to his environment just as he adapted to his environment when he pretended to be straight. Gays were not accepted in the military though he had friends who were homosexual like John Kane who had been banished to Panama by his cosmetics mother who also paid him to stay hidden. The world had not yet gotten the word that Liberace and heartthrob Rock Hudson were homosexuals or that much of Hollywood's elite were also homosexuals. It doesn't even turn heads now. We don't talk about the women who were also pretending to be straight though they were homosexual (lesbian). All are equal and all are out of the closet now and it is past time that my father is out of the closet as well. It doesn't turn heads and I am sure Uncle Bob would have been prejudiced about dad being a homosexual, although I am sure Uncle Bob and all the people that noticed that dad ran funny and was a bit effeminate. They don't have anything to say now because they are all dead and only I am alive to remember. It didn't matter to me and it still doesn't matter. After all, Dad had a bicycle and he rode the bike whenever he didn't get the car.  I don't have a car and I'm tired of having to call and get the bus or a ride when I don't have a car either.

I will hop on my bike and get where I need to go.

There are solutions if you are willing to look and think outside the box and I won't have to worry about drinking and pedaling or about insurance because I don't have a car. A bike is a better alternative and no one, not even the up in arms Green Police can get up in arms if they can't catch me since I will be riding a bike.

With all the hoopla about the energy crisis, no one is even thinking about alternative methods of dealing with the energy crisis. How about thorium, a cleaner burning, safer, and very accessible and very plentiful fuel source. It is lying about, doesn't have to be mined, and already has the power plants built to receive and use thorium. In that case, China and India are already ahead of us and getting farther away. China has been using and building nuclear reactors for decades, using our own plans and information, and so is India ahead in this matter. Maybe that will get the US off their elitist behinds and get them working on building more reactors. If catching up to China is the brass ring, let's get it done and get moving. Maybe the Green Police will stop talking about their draconian methods of saving the planet and get behind the thorium nuclear reactor. We don't have to build our plants near the ocean the way that Japan did where they are tsunamis ready to smash into the island nation of Japan and take their nuclear reactor offline. Our nuclear reactors are built in Tennessee along the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). FDR must've known something since it was his plan that put people back to work building the reactors along the TVA in the first place.

Scientists backed away from nuclear power, not because it wasn't safe (It was always safe) but because their grants and government-funded work was cut off. We don't have to worry about that now because our world is in peril. We need nuclear power NOW. Thorium is the best bet and doesn't cause the same problems since we don't have Jane Fonda and Hollywood screaming at us about the China Syndrome in our ears. We can still watch Fonda in The China Syndrome on the TV and on DVDs. We can reminisce but we do not have to chain ourselves to the past. We have a closer and more possible future ahead of us. The China Syndrome will be getting behind in the cleaner and safer nuclear race, the same thing that the US and JFK used to get the United States ahead of Russia in the space race and get us to the moon first. Once again, we will have to follow China to the finish line by renewing our race to the finish by getting the thorium nuclear plants started and start pumping out cleaner and safer and far more affordable energy to the public. No hydrogen stations and no more coal mines or oil drilling and fracking with its myriad downsides. All we need to do is use what we have and what is already mined and ready to pick up and use thorium. That is all we need. We do not have to adopt the draconian measures that Democrats and the Green Police are ready to stuff down our collective throats. All we need to do is pick up where we left off, join the clean and affordable and eminently available thorium nuclear reactor waiting for us to get smart and get out of our own way plans. I am afraid we will all have to give up eating meat and that does not mean eating the pink slime that we grow in the labs either. All we need to do is gradually go vegetarian and get on with it. We will be healthier and cleaner and pick up where we left off to follow the faster and more expensive older reactors. When the thorium goes critical all we need to do is let it run out of the reactor and everything stops. No Fukushima. No Three Mile Island. No Chernobyl. Just clean energy without waste and we can breathe easier and cleaner.

Once again, we have the demon to follow -- China. We can add India and call it a three-way split or we can call it done. We can keep our solar energy, our wind farms, and our hydroelectric, but thorium is the way to go. Let's follow the leader and jump the queue. That is how we got ahead of the Russians to get to the moon first. Why don't we jump the queue again and get to the future ahead of coal-burning China and the innovative Indians. We will be first in the future.

We will get there however we need to get there, but we WILL get there.

That is all. Disperse.