Welcome to 2010! This year, for sure, the USA will get a chance at real change, by ejecting the apologists for Mr Hope-and-Change from Congress. And who knows, maybe a new Congress will restore civil liberties. Mr Hope-and-Change still has people locked up on a US Naval Base in Cuba without due process, despite promises to close Gitmo by now.)(My critique of the whole silly 2008 election cycle.)
Top 10 disasters of 2009 Obama administration
"There's nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-by
And the parting on the left
Are now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight"
"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss" -The Who,
"Won't get fooled again"
"Read my lips. No new taxes." - then Vice President George H W Bush, 1988.
"Anyone making under $250,000 a year will pay zero new taxes." - then Senator Barack Obama, 2008.
I supported:
I supported:
Transcript of CNN interview of Barr
Yeah, I know, voting for Badnarik or Barr is "wasting my precious vote". But if voting was so important in USA presidential elections, Al Gore would have been elected President in 2000! (Al Gore got over 500,000 more of those "precious votes" than George W Bush did.)(Bush did get the only 5 votes that really counted, on the US Supreme Court.)(Ann Landers ran a column 11-4-96 urging everyone to vote because one vote can change history, and cited nine times that this has happened. They are all urban legends, however, see snopes.com 'One Vote' Fallacies.)
I have only voted ONCE in a governmental election since 11/72 , when I wrote in Dr. John Hospers for President/Tonie Nathan for VP . (They each got one electoral vote from a renegade Nixon elector.) The only time since then was when a friend was running for Kalamazoo City Commission in '83. There being virtually zero chance that my vote will effect the outcome of an election, I see no point in wasting my time. (Your chance of winning the Lottery is better than your chance of having any effect on the outcome of a US national election.)
In 2004, Badnarik got almost 390,000 votes and came in fourth after Nader,
who got about 407,000 votes.
(Results
from the Washington Post).
In 2008, Barr got almost 500,000 votes and also came in fourth after Nader, who
got about 668,000 votes. ( results from
Wikipedia)
My analysis of the 2004 election: I can usually predict election winners: I
didn't think GWB had a prayer! I thought he would be a one-termer like his
father was. I STILL cant believe that Kerry actually lost! The accepted wisdom,
that we are in a war and didn't want to change drivers, runs counter to the
1968
experiance, when Lyndon Johnson faced serious opposition in his own party
primaries over the Vietnam War, and withdrew.
1. What actually happened in 1968: Sen. Eugene McCarthy was a strong 2nd place
in the New Hampshire primary, LBJ withdrew, Sen. Robert Kennedy defeated
McCarthy in the CA primary and was immediately assassinated, Vice President
Hubert Humphrey was nominated amid the violence outside of the Chicago
Democratic National Convention, Nixon defeated Humphrey in the
election.....popular vote was Nixon 43.4%, Humphrey 42.7%, George Wallace 13.5%
2. What-If: If Robert Kennedy had not been killed: RFK probably would
have been nominated and probably would have defeated Nixon: Humphrey was
damaged by the rising antiwar sentiment and was seen as LBJ's man. With RFK as
President, the Republican Party would have been spared the Watergate disaster,
the Democratic Party would have been spared the 1972 McGovern disaster, and RFK
would have gotten us out of Vietnam with some semblance of honor!
Also: from TurnOffYourTV.com: Bush won, and Kerry lost, because the Bush campaign KNEW how to use TV!
Yes, she doesn't want it, but I would have loved to have seen the Republican Party nominate Dr. Condoleezza Rice for President in 2008. (Rice's bio @ Wikipedia .) She would be the first authentic genius in the White House!
To skip all this trivia and go right to the OS/2 and Linux installation story, click here.
For a picture of the most wonderful woman I have EVER met, click
here.
Me in 1966
Me in 1997
at Warpstock 2000
(clean-cut respectable look was returning Aug of 1999, but I thought better of
it!)
Me in 2006(This picture appeared in the Las Vegas Sun 6/27/06, in
an article about Mensa. I suspect this is not the image Mensa wanted to
project. A lot of pics were taken of more "normal looking" members. I
hadn't cut my beard since the death of my housemate on 9/20/05. She would trim
it when necessary.)
I was also at
,
but didn't get a photo!
Caution: my former brother-in-law, a journalism professor (with a PhD), says this page is "self-indulgent exhibitionism, which the Internet seems to inspire from certain personality types." I countered with the argument that most human behavior is a form of self-indulgence. Even "selfless" people are mostly doing what they like doing. Note: if you want to read a "serious" page, I've got one about HIV=not AIDS, another about censorware, one advocating the legalization of prostitution, and one about women! Further down, on this page, is my pro-choice for the pregnant woman, but pro-life for the child position on abortion, and a long section on religion, plus a new section on the assassination of President John Kennedy, and my take on the Scott Peterson murder trial. (Please note: I have always respected my ex-brother-in-law. He has a high level of intelligence; the two of us disagree on political idealogy; I'm a libertarian, he's a socialist. He is one of the few males in the world I wish I could call "friend".)
A Rational Response to 9/11/01
Why We Fight | An Anti-Idiotarian Manifesto, by open source guru Eric S Raymond. This is by far the most rational response I have ever read to the overall problem of terrorism. This thinker, known as ESR in the Linux/hacker/open source communities has lots of really interesting stuff to say! His collection of online writings, Eric's Random Writings, makes more sense to me than 99% of the stuff on the Web. My personal favorites: The Myth of Man the Killer, argues that most violent death results not from man's innate depravity, but from man's obediance to government; Why I Am An Anarchist is especially relavent given the decline of civil liberty since 9/11, and it was written before 9/11, and before the coronation of King George II. My favorite Internet Columnist, Rick Bayan, has an interesting look at 9/11.
Serious questions about 9/11: Reopen 9/11!
Another hypothesis about 9/11: According to Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, God allowed 9/11 to happen, full story here. Falwell: "I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who try to secularize America...I point the thing in their face and say you helped this happen."
Another way to deal with Arab Islamic terrorism: John Ross's America, Islam, and Those Prison Photos, relates, in part, the Islamic abhorance of pork, and relates an apocryphal story about the suppression of Islamic terrorism in the Phillipines by executing Islamic terrorists with pork coated bullets. (They cant go to Heaven then, they think.) John Ross also has lots of interesting stuff to say (pre-2007 archives); in particular he has advice for men about understanding women, about getting married, and planning for divorce, plus comments about the superiority of patriarchy over matriarchy. (And he DOES have advice for women about understanding men, and about when to have kids if you want both kids and a career.)
www.dontmarry.com;
this is must reading for young men contemplating marriage! (Us older guys who
have spent a lot of years divorced/single have been screwed over by women*
often enough we dont need to be warned.) Ross+ is right; see above link to
"understanding women"; there are significant differences in the way
(most N. American) men think and the way (most N. American) women think. No,
its not genetic, its not "hard-wired" in the brain: IMHO, its
cultural (learned behavior.)(This
article argues that women are conditioned from an early age to think that
their role is housewife/mother, NOT engineers or scientists or business
executives.)
+I found out about dontmarry.com in Ross's
planning
for divorce page. Ross also mentioned nomarriage.com, which he didn't like very
much, but which I thought was hilarious. There is a lot of content at
nomarriage.com about having children, something I (thank goodness!) never did.
(Another good page about planning for divorce:
fireyourwife.com)
*Let me make it VERY CLEAR here that my ex-wife did NOT screw me over
financially in the divorce! (I was very lucky not to be married in a state like
CA where
all assets are "joint property", and very lucky my ex was not the
vengeful type, plus I was very lucky to be divorced well before my prime
earning years.)
(Unless you count the $1,000 I "loaned" her after she left me, but I
blame myself for that: obviously, a woman who doesn't keep her *solemn* wedding
vows (promises) probably isnt going to keep a promise to repay a
"loan" from her ex.)(She also "borrowed" $500 from my
parents: didn't pay them back, either. Doesn't divorce suck?)"We
can't just confess the sin of breaking a promise and think we can go our merry
way thinking that we no longer are accountable. As long as you are still able
to fulfill your word (even if it's uncomfortable and you don't want to) you
need to go to that person, repent of your sin and make amends by keeping your
promise. Can you really come into the presence of God knowing that you refuse
to keep your word? What kind of relationship can you have with the Lord if your
are able to keep your word and don't?"
I wish she hadn't divorced me, but that's another matter. My mistake was in
thinking that her (perceived at the time) honesty and decency was TYPICAL of
women I would meet in the future. I was wrong.
Policeware
Here's a fun new idea: mandatory hardware installed in your computer to report anything you do with it not approved by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America); doing anything that might violate a copyright lands you in prison for up to five years. Remove the hardware, same penalty.
Text of the proposed "Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act".
A very personal rant-skip this if you find disease and death depressing
Alzheimer's
Disease sucks! My mother had it, her only sister had it; their father had
it. My ex-mother-in law had it, my ex-sister-in-law had it. Two of the most
depressing things in my life were: seeing my aunt with it at my parents' 50th
anniversary party in 1996, and seeing my mother with it in 1999. Today's
(1-11-05) news brings word that a possible treatment/prevention MAY have been
found at a hospital in India. It seems that in India lots of Curry sauce is
eaten, and there is a low rate of Alzheimer's. UCLA researchers think that
curcumin, the yellow
pigment in curry spice, might be the "magic bullet"(also known as
Turmeric).
Story
here.
(Personal note: Every woman I knew who got Alzheimer's had spent years as a
SAHM, a Stay At Home Mom. I don't know for sure about the others, but my own
Mom continued to stay at home even after her youngest child was in school; she
was a college graduate and had been a teacher before getting married. She made
a (brief) return to teaching only when the family needed more money to send me
to college. I understand that mental inactivity is a risk factor for
Alzheimer's.)
SPAM
SPAM sucks! (Why SPAM sucks). I promise to never, EVER, buy anything as a result of receiving an Unsolicited Commercial E-mail (UCE, better known as SPAM.) I fully support WPOISON, an effort to hopelessly pollute spammer's mailing lists by fooling their email harvesting bots into adding fictitious email addresses. (Unfortunately, WPOISON went offline after a DDOS attack.) I have taken the Boulder Pledge.
Here's another suggestion to solving the SPAM problem: Shine a Light on Spammers.
A revealing quote from a SPAM I just got: "If email advertising won't sell your product then nothing will." The spammer offers to email "from 250,000 to 55 million people" (On Special: $499 for 250,000 to $3,499 for 10 million)!
Spammers try to sell anything, even SPAM blockers and invitations to set you
up to send your own SPAM. I've got to wonder: if they were actually selling a
valuable product, wouldn't they just use regular advertising to show off the
product's merits instead of resorting to unwelcome mass e-mailings to get a few
buyers who will buy anything?
Idiot spammers: I don't want a bigger penis (OMG, the volume of
"bigger penis spam" and "ED pills spam" has greatly
increased in 2008; there must be a LOT of insecure guys out there)(also greatly
increased is "camgirls spam"), I don't want generic Viagr@(Sildenafil
Citrate) or Cialis(Tadalafil) or Regalis(generic Cialis) or Levitra or
Vardenafil(generic Levitra) or IGF2 or Vildenafil XP or Virility Patch RX or
VPXL; Paracodin, HGH, Vicodin, Prozac, Valium, Meridia, Soma, Xanax,
Hydrocodone(generic Vicodin), Ambien, Paxil,
Vioxx, also weight loss stuff
Phentermine, Xenical, Hoodia, Anatrim, Acai, etc., etc., etc., I don't want to
find a hot woman who lives near me, I'm not interested in
"camgirls"[that includes "Julie", the megaspammer
"high school senior" with a "free" webcam (yeah, sure, but
read the fine print BEFORE you give "Julie" your credit card
info!)("Julie" will ask for your credit card info to prove you are
over 18, but if you dont cancel after your "free" time is up,
"Julie" starts charging you)] or "cheating housewives", I
don't want a PhD based on my "life experiance", I don't want to copy
DVD's, I dont want an illegal device to watch "pay per view" TV free,
I dont want "cheap softwares" (spelling provided by non English
speaking spammers!)(opps, sorry, spammers just seem illiterate because they
make up fake words that will get past word-based SPAM blockers), I dont want
the so-called "underground CD" or "banned CD", I dont want
a "genuine replica" or "True Reproductions" or
"Genuine Reproductions" or "premium replica" or "real
replications" or "Authentic Reproductions" or "Royal
Replica" or "Actual Replica" or "Veritable
Replications" or "Veritable Reproductions" or "famous
replicas" ROLEX ///atch, I dont want to buy "penny stocks"(penny
stocks are the new SPAM SCAM! The idea is for the scammer to buy a bunch
of nearly worthless stock at about 3 cents a share and send out a blizzard of
(SPAM) phony endorsements* of the nearly bankrupt company, hoping to increase
demand for the stock and raise its price, then dump the shares at 6 cents or
so, doubling the scammer's money. When the company files bankruptcy, all the
new "investors" lose everything they "invested". (The
scammers use junk email to convince people to buy junk stock. )
*sample quotes: "Watch the stock go crazy! Get on board NOW! Its going to
EXPLODE!"
"Stock is going to explode in next 5 days - Watch it SOAR"
"Current Price: $0.06
Will it Continue Higher?
Watch This One Thursday as We Know Many of You Like Momentum."
--------
They have an "unsubscribe" address, but of course it
(stox0012@yahoo.com) is fake, too. This whole scheme is only borderline legal,
it is a Pump and Dump
Scheme; to avoid legal problems/jail time they stay as anonymous as
possible. (SEC page on Pump
and Dump Schemes.)
--------
I dont want a new mortgage from some moron who tells me he has approved my
nonexistent application.* What I want is for your phony "unsubscribe"
links to actually work! (I never "subscribed" to receive all this
crap mail in the first place.)
*I can understand why spammers think they can sell CDs and medications, but are
there really people who are ignorant enough to get into a $300,000 mortgage
from a spammer?? Is there really
"one born every day",
as PT Barnum said regarding "suckers"?
--------------
USA Lenders Network
Box 40937
Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada, B4A 3Z2
-------------
The so-called "USA Lenders Network" is so phony they even use other
people's e-mail addresses as their "return address"; they used one of
MINE and I got their undeliverable SPAM returned to ME! (Watch Replica spammers
have done this, too.)
EVERY DAY I get new mortgage SPAM which says
"here are the deals we have TODAY (hurry, these offers will expire
TONIGHT)"
I also promise never to buy anything from a telemarketer, and support anti-SPAM legislation similar to that passed requiring telemarketers to pay to call you if you have asked not to be called.
!!! You can now add your phone number to the national telemarketing do-not-call list at www.donotcall.gov. (A similar do-not-spam list *should* be in the works!)(Here is a list of proposed but unpassed federal antispam laws). The organization hosting this site also offers a "National Opt-out Directory" for $9.95/year; they say they can get you off most spammer's mailing lists.
This image supplied
by the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial
Email (CAUCE).
Hurray! In 12/03 Congress passed, and the President signed, the CAN SPAM Act of 2003. It will result in the creation of a federal do-not-spam list, with monetary penalties for persistent spammers! The FTC is (slowly!) working on setting up a Do Not E-mail Registry. Unfortunately, the FTC reports here that such a registry would not be effective at this time; spammers would access the list and use it to send SPAM to!
Sigh! CAN-SPAM isn't working, as anyone with an emailbox can see; the volume of UCE has gone up since 12/03! CAUCE explains why.
The Direct Marketing Association has it's (suprisingly negative) attitude toward SPAM looked at here
SPAM FAQ from abuse.net
The Federal Trade Commission SPAM site.
The Federal Communications Commission telemarketing site.
An organization I support 99% of the time, the ACLU, argues here that honest UCE is constitutionally protected speech. CAUCE disagrees here, arguing that the right to speak freely does not compel an audience to listen. ISPs like AOL have the right to intercept SPAM before the sheer volume brings their mail servers down.
(On Oct 4, 2004, the US Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling that the do not call list does not violate telemarketer's free speech rights. First telemarketers, hopefully spammers, too!)
My award for worst spammer: the people who send out porn info with a note saying that it is a "friendly bonus" from (some random female name). The "unsubscribe" email address is one of at least ten 100% fake addresses @online.com.ua (Ukraine), a former part of the former USSR.
Frankly, the old-fashioned porn spammers are not nearly as persistent and obnoxious as the new mortgage spammers, who simply will not take "unsubscribe" for an answer!
Remember when it used to be fun to get email? Now 50% to 99% of your incoming email is from people with fake names at fake addresses trying to sell you stuff you don't want. And if you ever do business on the Web and fill out order info, there will be a pre-checked box: "Yes! I love getting advertising in my email! Send me ADVERTISING! Send me more, MORE, MORE, I'm still not satisfied! I LOVE advertising!"
Speaking generally, of course, I find most product advertising to be silly. At best, advertising can convince you to buy something ONCE. Obvious exception: ads for addictive substances/activities. Cigarette ads do not exist to convince people to start smoking, but are targeted at already existing addicts to get them to try a different brand.
SIGH! Even legitimate businesses, like Carnival Cruise Line and Christian
Book Distributers, are now using "e-mail marketing". But the bad
drives out the good. SPAM is used to sell worthless junk and is used for scams.
(I especially like the "I'm a pretty Russian girl.....I will come to
visit/date/marry you in the USA, but I need you to send me money first."
scam. Send enough of these, and a few suckers will bite! Its not a plausable
scam, because a single, unemployed, Russian girl whose entire family lives in
Russia, is not going to get a visa to enter the USA, period.*
*the only way she will get into the USA is if YOU go to Russia, marry her
there, and bring her back with you.
It's easy for your money to EXIT the USA, which is what the scam is all about!
I hear that a lot of these "girls" are actually men: your
"lover" may really be a
"hairy man named
Boris".) People like me heartlessly delete all "e-mail
marketing", before proceding to e-mail we WANT to read. Spam is so unread
that I doubt if even the "King of Spam",
Spamford Wallace,
can make money sending it.
Yes, I will admit it, I utterly loathe junk advertising. Junk snail
mail(addressed to "resident", "to our friends at") goes
directly into the trashcan unopened and unread. (Any snail mail that is
"URGENT! Send money NOW" is
future landfill.) Junk email is VERY easy to recognize and is deleted unopened
and unread. I did get one junk snail mail I did open. It was sent by
Saint
Matthew's Churches in Dallas, TX (mailing
address in Tulsa, OK), and was sent in accordance with instructions from
"God's Holy Spirit", which told them that "someone at this
address needs a blessing". They sent a (paper) "prayer
handkerchief". All I had to do was write my needs on the handkerchief,
send it back, and they would pray for my needs. Send money (a "biblical
seed offering"), too, of course.
Wow! Junk mail sent under instructions from God Himself!
Please note: Although
Saint
Matthew's Churches denies that they are a mail fraud or a mail scam
operation , there is a whole page about them:
Rip Off
Report: Saint Matthew's Churches aka Prayer By Letters rip off scam con artists
in the name of God Tulsa Oklahoma
Note: I personally do not think this is a mail fraud or mail scam: although
they cite examples of people whose prayers were answered, they do not promise
that yours will be answered.
5-17-08: Although I failed to return the prayer handkerchief and send money,
they didnt give up on me! They sent me a (paper) "Church prayer rug",
which I am supposed to kneel on to pray, and then return so they can send it to
"another dear friend of ours who also needs a blessing". And send a
"seed gift for God's work." They even sent a "business reply
mail" envelope so I wouldnt have to buy a stamp to send them money. Plus
they now have a website where I can read "testimonies of answered
prayers". How reassureing! I still dont think this really qualifies as a
mail fraud or mail scam: they are not really offering anything in return
for the money that they can deliver. (After all, its God who decides whether or
not to answer prayer, right?)
E-mail advertising, junk snail mail, and TV advertising all work the same business model: send the same message to lots and lots of people, and some microscopic percentage will respond. Even the most implausible spam scam will work on a tiny group of suckers. "I have a million dollars for you. Just send me the $250.00 handling fee, and I will send you the money."
The absolute worst TV advertising
Dress people up in a white lab coat, put them on a set that looks like a doctor's office, and have them give *medical advice*! Do NOT say, "This is a fake doctor reading a script; this fake doctor knows nothing about medicine."
The most effective TV advertising
There is a lawyer in Las Vegas named Ed Bernstein, who advertises heavily.
Although I don't listen to TV ads, I know that Ed is a personal injury lawyer,
I know his phone number and web site, I know I can call 24 x 7....all this I
know just from watching the screen while waiting for real programming to
resume. If I ever need a personal injury lawyer, I will probably call Ed!
"InjurED? Enough saiD, Call ED" !
I'm just guessing, but I'd bet that Ed's ad agency knows there are a lot of
people like me who hit MUTE as soon as commercials start.
Leasr effective ads on TV
Ads which rely exclusively on audio. People like me who object to noise pollution aren't listening!
Mosr unreal ads on TV
The home security system ads: a scary guy breaks down your door. The alarm goes off and scares the guy away. The phone rings. OF COURE you answer, right after being traumatized, the first thing you want to do is talk to a telemarketer!
My own favorite TV ads!
The singing free credit report dot com ads. These are the only ads I listen to. Especially good is "dream girl". I'm no marketing expert, but I'd bet that entertaing ads sell more stuff.
An imaginary TV ad
"Call 1-800-DOG-POOP and we'll send you a big pile of dog poop for only $19.95! Plus we will add, at no extra charge, a big pile of cat poop, a $9.95 value! BUT WAIT! Call right now and we'll double the offer! Twice as much dog poop, twice as much cat poop! That's a $59.80 value for only $19.95!"
Mr. Advertiser: Has it ever occured to you that how you advertise is
as important as what you advertise? How many sales are you losing,
sometimes permanently, when you choose to advertise with annoying SPAM or
pop-up ads? (pop-up ads suck, too. When I get a pop-up in my face, that
advertiser goes into the "never do business with"
category......classmates.com has the most annoying ads that pop-under; I will
NEVER again use classmates.com!)(for a marketer to think he can sell something
with a pop-up ad is roughly equivilant to thinking he could sell something by
spray painting an ad on my car.)
(update: now, in 2008, the Internet Movie Database, imdb.com, is plastering
their site with pop-up ads for classmates.com UGH! I am sick of
classmates.com: there must be another movie site on the net.)(imdb.com just
lost a user.)
Internet Movie Database SUCKS! Big time! Its nothing but a crappy
advertising farm. YUCK. Take those stupid ads for for that silly
classmates.com and do something productive with your lives.
IMDB popups can be eliminated by installing a browser with a popup blocker. I
just happened to install Netscape 7.2 on my laptop, and discovered that it has
a popup blocker, so now I can actually use the great content on IMDB!
(adware sucks, too. Lots of seemingly useful "free" software, like
ICQ and AIM has degenerated into being basically adware, with some actual
functionality to con the user into downloading it. I used to use ICQ a lot, but
those incessant flashing ads, no, thanks. AIM is better: at least the ads are
(mostly) static; I wonder if the marketing gurus who design these ads have
researched the "flashing ad" question deeper than "does it get
the viewer's attention?"...... and if it does, "is the viewer more or
less inclined to buy what is being advertised?")
Silliest product advertised endlessly online and on AIM: Callwave: you
get to pay them so that calls received while you are online (with a dial up
connection) are forwarded to their 800 # answering machine; you also have to
pay the phone company for call forwarding when busy. BUT, nowdays almost
everyone has a cell phone, just set up call forwarding when busy to forward to
your cell phone. You will never miss a call, and you wont have to pay Callwave
for a useless "service"!
But beware! Although the only user of Callwave at my residence has been dead
for over three years; didnt really use it while alive, and cancelled it before
she died, the morons at Callwave STILL charge me for their totally useless
service. What a scam!
And the king of the junk snail mailers is:
Cox Communications! If you get Cox Cablevision, they will STUFF your mailbox
with ads for all the other services they offer. Save a tree, Cox! You are just
communicating with my garbage can. Instead of burdening the Postal Service with
all this junk, why not just deliver it directly to the county landfill?
(The silliest aspect: If you have Cox Cablevision, you already know about Cox's
other services, as they advertise them *endlessly* on your TV!)(Cox also has
the silliest ads on TV; a group of short spacemen and a living pile of cash;
the living cash pile hangs around to remind you how much money you are saving
with Cox phone service.)
My former wife has indicated that "the hippy look completely turns me
off". Although I am still *very* fond of her, and still think it would
be wonderful to get her back, I remember her as a person able to look
beyond physical appearance to see the real person inside. In addition, in the
25+ years that have passed, she has become "very conservative", and a
serious (Protestant) Christian, which suggests "incompatible!" I am a
believer in the concept, "love conquers all", and I always have been,
however naive that might sound. My own observation is that people more
radically different than myself and my ex-wife have found happiness together.
Having long hair is not so much a personal preference with me as it is a
function of my inability to find a suitable barber. Having a beard is a
personal preference because I absolutely abhor shaving every morning!
Questions for my ex-wife, the serious Christian:
Didn't the Jesus you believe in say that if you divorced your faithful
spouse and remarried, that you commit adultery?
Jesus said, " And if the wife shall put away her husband, and be married
to another, she committeth adultery" (Mark 10:12, KJV)
Jesus also said. "Whosoever putteth away his wife and marrieth another,
committeth adultery." (Luke 16:18, KJV)
Although the accounts of Mark and Luke are pretty definate about divorce and
remarriage being adultery, Matthew records one exception:
Jesus said, "But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife,
saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and
whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery." (Matt 5:32 , KJV)
Jesus also said, "And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife,
except if for her fornication. and shall marry another, commiteth adultery, and
whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. (Matt 19:9, KJV)
(This may not be an exception.....it is argued in
Marriage and
Divorce that adultery only allows the "innocent party" to
divorce the aldulterer/adulteress; the "innocent party" still
cannot remarry until the "guilty party" dies.)
Moses said, speaking for God, "Thou shalt not commit adultery."
(Exodus 20:24, KJV)(This is
The Sixth
Commandment.)
The Apostle Paul said, "And unto the married I command, yet not I,
but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband: But if she
depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and
let not the husband put away his wife. (1 Corinthians 7:10-11, KJV )
Paul also said: "Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband as
long as he lives. . . . Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she
lives with another man while her husband is alive" (Rom. 7:2-3, KJV).
"To refuse to take the Bible literally leaves every man with his own
interpretation. If the Bible does not mean what it says, who is to say what it
means?" -David W Cloud
Thomas Aquinas, the great (perhaps greatest) Christian philosopher, argued,
after divorce, they
(marriage partners) must remain unmarried(until their ex-spouse dies).
If I were a good Christian, I would much prefer the Roman Catholic (Catholic Encyclopedia:
Divorce (In Moral Theology);
Catholic Answers:
Divorce and Remarriage) position to the modern liberal Protestant [anything
goes, morality is not established by God, forget what Jesus (God in human form)
or Paul (inspired by God) said] position.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia has a long article about
adultery, which concludes with "Jesus tells us that divorce never received
divine sanction, and that it is, therefore, an evil. This lays upon adultery
the weight of divine abhorrence and displeasure."(ISBE, revised
©1979, G W Bromiley, ed., Volume 1, pg 59) See also ISBE online(original
1915 edition, J Orr, ed.):
Divorce
in the New Testament (In this article it says that Jesus's teachings on
adultery and divorce are "very simple" and are recorded at
Matt 19:3-12, see the
Geneva Study
Bible - Commentary on Matthew 19, or
John Darby's
Synopsis of Matthew 19.)
(This ISBE link is so good, and so important, that in case it goes bad,
"Divorce in the New Testament" can also be found
here.)
The (United Methodist) minister at our wedding said, "What God has joined
together, let no man put asunder." (He was quoting Jesus at
Matt 19:6 and
Mark 10:9.) We made a
number of promises to each other, including the operative one here, "for
better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love
and to cherish, till death do us part."
Apparently,
1. promises made in the presence of the God you believe in are for show, good
only until you want out.
2. The concept of love is highly conditional, it only lasts if your loved one
lives for you and meets your needs, or until someone else comes along who meets
your needs better.
3. Once your real Mr Right appears, then you hire a lawyer and get a judge to
undo what your God did. Did you make the same promises the next time you got
married?
The United Methodist Church, at its website,
specifically here, says,
"Where marriage partners, even after thoughtful consideration and counsel,
are estranged beyond reconciliation, we recognize divorce as
regrettable......". But we had no thoughtful consideration nor counsel,
nor were we estranged beyond reconciliation. (I didn't even know WHY she was
divorcing me until many years later, when a friend challenged the reason I had
been giving out for over 20 years; so I finally asked my ex; and then
was told the real reason. Obviously our pre-divorce communication was
negligible.)
The early Christians
did not agree with the modern United Methodists: "A husband may be an
adulterer or a sodomite, he may be stained with every crime and may have been
left by his wife because of his sins; yet he is still her husband, and, so long
as he lives, she may not marry another."
- Jerome, Letter LV,
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (Vol. 6, pg. 110).
"Just as a woman is an adulteress, even though she seems to be married
to a man, while a former husband yet lives, so also the man who seems to marry
her [and] who has been divorced does not marry her, but, according to the
declaration of our Savior, he commits adultery with her."
-Origen, Commentaries on
Matthew 14:24 [A.D. 248]).
Finally! Here is a sermon by a United Methodist Pastor that gets at what the Holy Bible is all about regarding divorce: "The Bible and Divorce".
What the Bible Says about Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage
But nobody has to take my word for it: Nave's Topical Bible is now public domain and online; here is everything the Bible has to say about Divorce.
Please note: Although I obviously think that divorce sucks, it is certainly in order for people needing to escape from an abusive spouse; according to Divorce and Christianity such a divorce is Biblically Correct.
And finally, here is a remarkably thoughtful, biblically sound analysis:Christian Divorce and Remarriage, by a Pentecostal Pastor.
Organized religion:
The above is SO TYPICAL of those who participate in organized religion. Many
people really believe in a God, and in the words printed in a Holy Book, but
conviently put aside their "beliefs" when their beliefs interfere
with their desires. (Or they manipulate their belief system to make divorce
seem acceptable: How do people justify
divorce today?) (I read somewhere: don't remember where*, or I would cite*
it, that the "fundamentalist"
Southern Baptist Convention has a higher divorce rate than the more liberal
United Methodist Church.) Organized religion is riddled with hypocrisy; I have
never been a willing participant. Sure, I went to church when my parents
required it, but upon leaving home for college I abandoned it. It was only when
it was not required that I read a lot about it.....the philosophy behind
religion is quite interesting!
*here's the cite: US
Divorce Rates, shows the highest divorce rates among conservative and
"born -again" Christians; the lowest divorce rates among Roman
Catholics, Lutherans, agnostics, and atheists!
I'm really curious!
Is it possible to be all of these:
A. A Christian who believes the Holy Bible is the
inspired,
inerrant,
Word of God.
B. A Christian who believes that one should live by the precepts of the Holy
Bible.
C. Married, then initiated a divorce of a non-adulterer, non-abusive spouse.
D. Remarried.
E. A non-hypocrite.
The concept of the "second hander"
He is what Ayn Rand calls a "second-hander:" He surrenders his capacity for judgment to other people, and therefore, he focuses not on what he thinks, but on what others think. A "second hander" is a person who regards other people's opinions as automatically more worthwhile than one's own. The classic "second hander" will define herself as ugly or fat or stupid because other people say (or think)so, and will usually lower their own self concept accordingly. I was married to one of these once; I hope she has seen the logical flaw by now! (The logical flaw: traits like "ugly" and "stupid" are hopelessly subjective, as are their opposites; the individual is better placed than others to evaluate these attributes. Other traits like "fat", especially, also "short", are NOT inherently negative: two of the most brilliant people I have ever known were objectively "fat", but Id much rather know them than a beautiful moron.)
I was first exposed to this concept in the novel The Fountainhead, by Ayn Rand. This concept explains a depressingly large amount of human irrationality.
Memorandum to my ex-wife 1.0:
Note: this is no longer current (1/08). There is a
*highly* revised
version 3.0; the URL of 2.0 is listed on my "Index to my web
writings" page.
On 9-26-04, I watched Sleepless
in Seattle. A few days prior I watched
When Harry Met Sally. Both of
these movies deal with the question of "the one"*, as in the
one right person. Prior to these movies, I had scoffed at the idea of "the
one". But now I am convinced that my ex was "the one" for
me. We met in college when your sorority and my fraternity held a "sex
forum". I noticed you the same way that the main characters notice each
other in "Sleepless". Even 25+ years of seperation have not
changed my view.
(I was not
"the
one" for you. I was not "Mr Right". I was "Mr. Right
Now": a temporary sperm donor that would enable you to fulfill your real
agenda......BAYBEES!(pweshus
widdle baybees!)(To your credit, as I say elsewhere on this page, at least
you didn't oops me.)(To be
100% honest here, I should add that she didnt
successfullyopps
me. She did admit once that she flushed ONE birth control
pill; luckily for me she didnt know she would have needed to flush many in a
row to trigger ovulation. It still wasn't a nice thing to do, although if she
had been a real deceptive spouse type she would have read up on human
reproduction before implementing her scheme. I'd guess the flush was done in an
angry moment.)
So why didn't you divorce me earlier, and marry some guy who would give you the
baybees you wanted? Oh yeah, you needed some guy with a reliable paycheck so
you could stay home with your hypothetical brood, and you didn't have spouse #2
lined up yet, right?
Hope to see you again someday, but I
Won't
Get Fooled Again (That's how I feel after 30 years of single/divorced
status, but sometimes I still feel like
this.)(how I felt on my
wedding day 6-28-68)(how I felt when you
dumped me in 6/76(and told me you wanted to move out on July 4 to celebrate
Independence Day!)(How I feel in
2007. In our generation, post WW2 Baby Boomers, wedding "vows" do
not mean what they meant to our parents.)
*Nora Ephron has "written
by" type credits for both movies, plus she directed "Sleepless".
The female lead in both movies is the same actress, but the characters are
quite different. Nora Ephron also wrote, and directed
You've Got Mail, which also
had the same female lead actress, and also dealt with "the one". I
saw this movie in 1/06, and loved it.
"It must have
been love, but it's over now,
It must have been good, but I lost it somehow."
You once said:
"I, (wife), take thee, John,
to be my wedded husband,
to have and to hold,
from this day forward,
for better, for worse,
for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
to love and to cherish,
till death do us part,
according to God's holy ordinance,
and thereto I pledge thee my faith."
"Or just realize that when your bride vows "'To love and to cherish 'til death do us part," she'll only honor the words until she decides not to. Don't be too surprised if that moment comes a lot sooner than you expected." -John Ross, in this article.
"Its life's illusions I recall,
I really don't know life,
at all." -from "Both Sides Now".
Followup: This year, 2006, it will be 30 years since you ditched me
for Mr. Wonderful. You say it would not be "appropriate" for me to
buy you a birthday present. See here, Mrs. Wonderful:
1. I havent the slightest interest in causing problems between you and Mr.
Wonderful. (I agree with this: "When a man steals your wife there is no
better revenge than to let him keep her." -Sacha Guitry) I have stated
explicitely that if you divorce Mr. Wonderful, I will have nothing to do with
you.
2. Its been 30 years since I have even seen you. Would Mr. Wonderful feel
threatened if a long ago former spouse who lives a very long way away buys you
a $10 book about Christian Apologetics?
3. Tonight, 1/28/06, I saw The
Shop Around the Corner, which You've Got Mail was a remake of. I
really am a hopeless romantic: I really believed all that beautiful stuff in
our wedding vows, and yes, I really do still love you even after 30
years.
4. I'm a fan of "Somewhere in Time", both the
movie, and the
song
by Michael Crawford in EFX(Note: you can hear the melody from the song in
the movie). A hopeless romantic, I even belong to
INSITE, the
International Network of Somewhere in Time Enthusiasts. The INSITE site refers
to this movie as "The Most Romantic Love Story Ever Filmed".
5. I really like "love movies": I especially like two I have
recently(early 2006) been made aware of:
The Lake House, and
The Love Letter, both of which
have lovers seperated by Time, like in "Somewhere in Time".
I find "The Lake House" very compelling; definately my favorite.
"The Love Letter" is based on this
short
story by Jack Finney, which includes the movie's most touching line,
"I never forgot".
Note: of these three movies mentioned, only one has a (truely) happy ending.
(Ok well, that is one out of three. Of myself, my siblings, my ex-wife, and my
ex-wife's siblings, only one person out of six remained married to his/her
original spouse. Neither my nor my ex-wife's parents were ever divorced; maybe
its a generational thing. Divorce is a (terribly) sad ending. I will not be
getting divorced again.)(Divorce sucks so badly I would only recommend it to
someone needing to escape from a true "abusive spouse" situation.)
Note: this page's title, heading, and general concept were all swiped from AppleKay's Movie Cafe; she also made this graphic
in support of my
favorite (now extinct) online service (see below).
I was a 52 year old(now 61) student at UNLV, majoring in computer science. (The y2k
problem example: lots of computers only used two digits for year, and programed
in '19' as the first two digits. Even as recent a system as Windows95 had to be
patched
to make it work correctly on Jan. 1, 2000.)(Although the MS patch works to fix
Win95, I used Norton 2000 on my computer before 1-1-2000, which somehow
adjusted my BIOS so that I can reinstall Win95 or any other non-y2k compliant
software without patching! Using Norton Utilities, especially the "Rescue
Disk" part, has saved me more than once from Windoze unreliability. I had
also bought an "AMS scan ISA BIOS/CMOS Millennium Board", which would
have been as good, but as of 11/2003 I haven't even had to install it.)(I will,
there are still a few hardcoded y2k errors in old software that a hardware
solution might solve.)(Another plug for Norton: I have become an
"expert" at reinstalling Windows, something nobody should have to
become an expert at! My current Windows installation has lasted a LONG time for
Windows; I attribute this to Norton SystemWorks WinDoctor, part of which fixes
errors in the Windows registry.)
At UNLV, I failed to master C++ twice and thought it best to move on. I plan to
enroll in the Liberty University School
of LifeLong Learning, and finish a degree I have already started in Biblical
History.
Way back in 1970 I got a BBA in (ugh!) accounting at
Western Michigan University.
An
interesting article about the validity of the double entry system used by
accountants today. (I thought of switching majors, but my then-wife
protested, "I thought we had it all planned!"**)(No hard feelings
there! See bottom of this page; I still
love her and would
take her back in a heartbeat if she were not remarried.,
Divorce sucks; I would never
be the cause of one.) I worked for WMU for
24 years,
during which time my boss, now the VP for Business and Finance, computerized
the accounting department and exposed me to computers, which I found infinitely
preferable to accounting.
**So why do we all go to college, anyway?
Going to college was the default for my generation: post WW2 Baby Boomers.
We (males) went to college so we could get married and have a good job to
support the ensuing kids and the (all to frequently) non working wife. Females
went to college to meet marriagable men. Luckily, there are exceptions: the
most highly placed woman that I know in my field is an Assoc. VP for Business
and Finance, but of course she still had a baybee on her way up the ladder. My
ex-wife has a Bachelors in Speech Pathology and Audiology, a Masters in
Education, and was invited to enter the Doctoral program in Education, but is
working as an *Accountant* after taking the Intro to Accounting class so that
she would know what I was doing while she was teaching! She never did any
actual teaching when I knew her beyond student teaching. (I've always thought
she had a higher IQ than I do; I was good at taking tests like the SAT, she was
good at getting good grades.)(What an underuse of such a fine mind; she could
easily have completed a Doctorate, without massive student loan debt, as I had
graduated and was working at a good paying job: She could have been a college
professor, if working as a Speech Therapist or a public school teacher wasn't
as interesting as she thought it would be.)
(All she wanted in life was baybees and famblee, but I had zero interest in the
former and thought two people was enough for the latter.)
I copied this quote from the comments on
this page:
"for as education moves its focus toward job preparation and away from the
arts, history, culture, philosophy and other areas that promote critical
thinking, society will be generating human robots, not thinkers."
- "Gail" March 25th, 2007 11:40 am
NOTE: The above link is about the difference between Sunni Muslims and
Shia(Shiite) Muslims, who are currently (2007) keeping the USA tied down in
Iraq as referees to their civil war. Its well worth reading if you want to know
why they are killing each other.
If I had it to do over, I would have majored in Philosophy (1st choice, but not
sure how to support myself as one), or History (2nd choice, also not sure how
to support myself; I do not have the temperment to be a teacher), or Chemistry,
or Computer Science.
(Background: In High School I needed a filler class once, and for some reason
took Bookkeeping, which I found to be very easy. When I got to college
and had to declare a Major, I went for Accounting, which was indeed easy,
although Accounting majors do have to take courses like Economics, which are
not easy, and business courses like Marketing, which are dull.
Also in High School, I took Chemistry, and was utterly fascinated by the
PERIODIC CHART OF THE
ELEMENTS. I still am. (Here is a better
"Periodic Chart" ......all the elements are clickable, revealing
lots of info about the element.) My "Big Brother" in my college
fraternity was a Chemistry Major; I should have talked to him some more instead
of going the easy route. In the late 60s, when I was in college, Computer
Science was still Mainframe Computers and languages like Fortran....the
IBM PC was
still more than a decade away. I did take Intro to Computers and wrote Fortran
programs, but I didnt think I wanted to spend my working life doing that.
Although I live in Las Vegas, I regard gambling at a casino to be
highly irrational and don't. (The house is in business to make a profit;
ie. the house is NOT gambling: in order for there to be a few big winners whose
pictures are displayed at the casinos, there have to be a lot of losers.) I
know personally a few people who are compulsive gamblers, who say
"gambling is FUN", which I suppose it is if you think that losing
money is fun. I even used to
live with one; help
for them is available through
Gamblers
Anonymous in Southern Nevada; some compulsive gamblers deny the possibility
of treatment, see:Treatment. Those in
Treatment-Denial can find a National Council on Problem Gambling certified
counselor in their area by going
here. If you are
unsure as to whether you are a compulsive gambler, try reading GA's
20 questions!
If you are a compulsive gambler, here is GA's
12 step recovery
program. I personally am an advocate of reason, and find it very
frustrating that compulsive gamblers cannot be convinced to stop gambling
through logic. It is necessary to accept that compulsive gamblers are not
rational about gambling: they must come to accept that they are sick and seek
help or healing on their own.
Note: It is a LOT easier to understand irrational behavior that results from a
physical addiction like nicotene or heroin. Psychological addictions (gambling,
overeating, etc) are
incredibly frustrating; especially when the addict is highly intelligent and
knows he/she needs professional help.
(It does say at the bottom of this
page that sugar and flour are addictive, which would explain some
compulsive overeaters, however
this page explains
overeating as psychological addiction.)
(It says in CONSCIOUS
CONTACT: BRAIN, MIND AND ADDICTION, that compulsive gambling has a
neurobiological explanation.)
More help? See the Nevada Council on
Problem Gambling.
If you are a California resident making an every-weekend trip to Las Vegas or
Reno to gamble, and think you might have a problem*, see the
California Council on Problem
Gambling.
*(If you drive to Las Vegas and spend your whole time in the casino and dont
even get a room at the hotel, you DO have a problem.)
Anyone with a problem should at least read
The Four Phases of
Compulsive Gambling!
For those living with a compulsive gambler, there is
Gam-anon: Living with a
compulsive gambler. (My personal advice: don't live with a compulsive
gambler unless you have an infinite supply of money AND patience.)
Casinos in Las Vegas send out promotional material and freebies to past
gamblers, some of whom are addicted and ruining their lives. This is like
whisky manufacturers sending out free samples to alcoholics.
1-800-Bets-Off. A major problem gambling site with free help for problem gamblers.
Reading through the above links, one finds that there are
two distinct types of
compulsive gamblers :
1. Action compulsive
gamblers typically play "skill" games like craps and blackjack.
They see themselves as smarter than average and tend to have a
"system" to beat the casino's odds.Day
Tradersare action gamblers who play at the world's largest casino, the New
York Stock Exchange. They have a "system", and do
"research", so they aren't really gambling. (Yeah, right; any
compulsive gambler with a system will say they are not gambling....their system
makes it a "sure thing".)
2. Escape compulsive
gamblers typically play "luck" games like slot machines and video
poker. They accept that they will lose, but play for the
hypnotic,
almost narcotic effect of repetitious actions on their machines. It says in
Gambling addiction
Q&A"Q. Is there one type of gambling that is more addictive than
others? A. Video poker and slot machines have been referred to as the
"crack cocaine of gambling."
It says in this Problem Gambling FAQ that mental health professionals prefer the term "pathological gambling" to "compulsive gambling". I agree. I have seen firsthand how the uncontrollable urge to gamble can lead to criminal activity. I agree with one pathological gambler I know that "Its a sickness!"
Although the link between pathological gambling and criminal behavior cannot be established as strict cause and effect, it says in this bibliography that "approximately two-thirds of non-incarcerated.......pathological gamblers admit engaging in illegal behavior to finance their gambling activitites...."
Dictionary
definition of "pathological":
1. Of or relating to pathology.
2. Relating to or caused by disease.
3. Of, relating to, or manifesting behavior that is habitual, maladaptive, and
compulsive: a pathological liar.
Diagnostic Criteria for Pathological Gambling(from DSM-IV; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - 4th edition).
Definition of "pathological gambling", from
Problem
Gambling Terms:
Pathological gambling: A chronic inability to resist the impulse to gamble. The
term is usually limited to cases where the gambling causes serious damage to a
person's social, vocational, or financial life. Often referred to as compulsive
gambling and less frequently as disordered gambling, it is considered by most
to be an impulse control disorder. It is not synonymous with problem gambling.
Pathological gambling is one of a set of Impulse Control Disorders, and is in the same class as kleptomania, pyromania, and tricotillomania(hair-pulling); all of which are characterized by self-defeating/self-destructive behavior.
My earlier statement, that gambling is highly irrational, was not directed
at pathological gamblers, who are irrational by definition. Rather, its
ordinary, otherwise rational people who believe that their inevitable losses
will be recovered with a "big win", which just isnt going to happen.
In Michigan, the State Lottery had a slogan, "Somebody's going to win, why
not you?" But the odds of winning the Lottery are similar to the odds of
getting a "big win" in Las Vegas; although someone will win, the
probability approachs zero that it will be you.
I just laugh at the TV casino ads here in Las Vegas, which show happy gamblers
celebrating as they win. Even after living in LV for 14 years, I have *never*
known a happy gambler who has had a "big win". I have known unhappy
gamblers who have lost lots of money, and one unhappy compulsive gambler
resigned to a lifetime of losing. Gambling is fun, all right, if you own the
casino, and never give the suckers an even break.
Hope for pathological gamblers(medications)!
*BEST* site I have ever seen about compulsive gambling! (Signs, Symptoms, and Treatment)
I am an unreconstructed '60s hippie* and unmarried.
*(To set the record straight: I was a selective participant: very anti
war in Vietnam, but I did not support the drug use and communal living aspects;
I am glad I missed the 1968 Chicago Police Riot and the Back to the Land
movement.)
(My favorite slogan from the late 60s: "Like Father, Like Son, Like
Hell". Like a lot of kids who grew up in the 50s, I had no use for
parental expectations or for *conformity*, YUCK.)(My father actually went into
HIS father's business!)
(A lot of kids who grew up in the 50s were rebellious: Dad was a full time wage
slave, Mom was a full time SAHM (Stay At Home Mom), the family lived in a
suburb where the houses all
look just the same, kids were expected to do what the parents had done, and
to do as they were told. YUCK.)(My own Mom was not even a full time SAHM, she
had a "cleaning lady" come in once a week to do the hard physical
labor.)
-
I am, luckily, childfree. I did get
married when I was just 20, which means I decided to in my teens, when the
hormones were raging and I was young enough to believe that "til death do
us part" worked the same for us as it did for our parents, both sets of
which did indeed stay married until death parted them, even though both sets
ended in the "for worse" stage with Alzheimer's Disease. I was
divorced after only 8 years. My favorite marriage quote: "If variety is
the spice of life, marriage is the big can of leftover Spam." -public
domain, this quote was included on an actual Spam e-mail I got; the spammers
put in lots of trivial sentences to fool antispam programs.
If you were alive in the '60s, you may remember an antidraft song called
"Alice's Restaurant". You may even remember that there was a long
version that got infrequent air play on student run radio stations at big
universities. I loved it! Somebody has posted the entire
long version of
Alice's Restaurant!
You may also remember my favorite antiwar song, Country Joe McDonald's
I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-to-Die
Rag!
New version of these lyrics for Iraq:
Joe McDonald says on his site that the lyrics can be adjusted for new wars. The
following version appeared on the Libertarian_Only Yahoo list:
Well come on all you big strong men.
I hear the man needs your help again.
Got himself in a terrible jam,
Way down in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So put down your books and pick up a gun,
we're gonna' have a whole lotta fun.
.
Well it's 1,2,3, what are we fighting for,
Don't ask me I don't give a damn.
Next stop gonna' be Iran,
Well it's 5,6,7, open up the Pearly Gates.
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopie we're all gonna die.
.
Now come on city boy don't be slow,
Why this wars a go-go-go.
There's plenty of money to be made,
Supplying the army with the tools of the trade.
Just hope and pray if they drop the bomb,
They are gonna drop it on the Taliban.
.
Well it's 1,2,3, what are we fighting for,
Don't ask me I don't give a damn.
Next stop gonna' be Iran,
Well it's 5,6,7, open up the Pearly Gates.
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopie we're all gonna die.
.
Now come on Generals, lets move fast,
Your big chance is here at last.
Now you can go and spy on us all,
'cause we're all guilty in the 'eye' of your law.
You know that peace can only be won
when we blow them all to kingdom come.
.
Well it's 1,2,3, what are we fighting for,
Don't ask me I don't give a damn.
Next stop gonna' be Iran,
Well it's 5,6,7, open up the Pearly Gates.
Well there ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopie we're all gonna die.
.
Now come on all you mothers throughout the land.
Send your sons out to the rich oil land.
Come on Fathers don't hesitate,
Send your Daughter before it's too late.
Be the first one on the block,
to have your girl come home in a box.
.
Well it's 1,2,3, what are we fighting for,
Don't ask me I don't give a damn.
Next stop is Afghanistan,
Well it's 5,6,7, open up the Pearly Gates.
Well it ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopie we're all gonna die.
.
Well it's 1,2,3, what are we fighting for,
Don't ask me I don't give a damn.
Next stop gonna' be Iran,
Well it's 5,6,7, open up the Pearly Gates.
Well it ain't no time to wonder why,
Whoopie we're all gonna die.
(Country Joe has posted a bunch of different versions of
lyrics for Iraq on his
site.)
A Moment that changed my outlook on life:
When I was in about sixth grade, the Jewish girl my age two houses down told me about her grandparents' death in the Holocaust. My family moved to another city a few years later. At the time I lived on Manhattan in Oak Park, Michigan; I was then too young to really comprehend the enormity of the evil I had been told about......I do now. If I should ever see that woman, I would have the emotional release I was too young for.
Another moment:
Sometime after 1976 I saw the TV movie Escape from Sobibor, about a mass escape from a Nazi extermination camp, a true story.
Yet Another moment:
On 2-22-04, I saw Chasing Freedom,
about an Afghan woman fleeing from the Taliban regime seeking asylum in the
USA. The Taliban attitude toward
women is a LOT like the Nazi attitude toward Jews: that they are subhuman
(in German it was "Untermenschen") .
(A detailed list of atrocities against
women under the Taliban .)
Yet Another moment:
Some years ago I read about the 1914 (WW1) Christmas Truce. On 12-18-07, I finally read the above link carefully. War was not always so brutal....."The Christmas Truce has often been characterized as the last "twitch" of the nineteenth century: the last moment when, in war, two sides would meet each other in proper and mutual respect." WW2 put an end to that.
Political philosophy:
Libertarian
Like many libertarians my age, I was originally a Republican who turned to the
Right after the 1964 nomination of
Barry Goldwater for
President. Further reading revealed that conservatives tend to root their
system in a belief in God, which led me, at least, toward the libertarian view.
In 1968 I read Atlas Shrugged, and found out that Jerome Tuccille was
right in his book It usually begins with Ayn Rand! I am now a Life
Member of the Libertarian Party.
Platform of the Libertarian
Party.......like most Libertarians, I don't agree with 100% of this
document. The only "litmus test" amongst Libertarians is the
"nonagression principle"; that is, we agree that the
initiation of the use of force is always unacceptable.
Yes, I know, the LP is not likely to take over the government. In 1968, at a
mock convention at WMU, a speaker for either the SWP or the SLP said, "Its
better to vote for something you want, and not get it, than to vote for
something you don't want, and get it."
My favorite libertarian quotes: "Even though we've all stood in line at
the DMV, hope springs eternal that some government programs actually work as
intended."
"It is indeed probable that more harm and misery have been caused by men
determined to use coercion to stamp out a moral evil than by men intent on
doing evil." -- Fredrich von Hayek, Nobel Laureate in Economics, from
"The Constitution of Liberty"
- both from http://www.downsizedc.com(DownsizeDC).
The Planetary Bill of Rights project
Actual text of the proposed Planetary Bill of Rights(which I support).
Most libertarians want to shrink the government. The trial lawyers are one of society's best allies against government over-regulation. Read John Ross's The Virtues of an Aggressive Plaintiff's Bar: "bad" people or corporations face lawsuits if they are "bad", this does more to promote "good" behavior than an army of government regulators.
For all you folks who (were) afraid that Mrs Clinton will be the next
President, remember that when she was First Lady, her HillaryCare plan went
nowhere even though her party controlled Congress. After two years of Mrs
Clinton, the voters ejected the Democrats from control. That was how Newt
Gingrich got to be Speaker of the House, and eventually made possible the
impeachment
trial of her husband.
(I dont get it. Mrs Clinton has been hanging around Washington, DC since 1992;
hence her claim to "experiance". But if we need "change",
it stands to reason that the more DC experiance a person has, the more likely
that person caused the conditions that need changing. Mrs Clinton is
part of the problem, not part of the solution.)
[Dont get me wrong. I think that the election of Mrs Clinton would be bad
for the USA. I know at least one person who would leave the country, or would
want to, if Mrs Clinton becomes President. I would want to, also, but where to
go? The most civilized countries in the world are former UK colonies (civilized
with the exception of Singapore, where caning (beating with a stick) is still
an acceptable form of criminal punishment.) that have followed the Mother
Country into socialism.]
[Sure, several EU countries are civilized, but I dont want to take the time to
become fluent in French or German or Italian or Spanish just to get away from
Big Sister.]
[Dont get me wrong, part 2: I dont think the current President is a bargain,
either. He's just not bad enough to leave the country over.]
[Dont get me wrong, part 3: If Obama is the Democrat nominee and wins, I could
live with that. Sen Obama is an honest politician, which would be a
welcome change after 16 years of Clinton* and Bush. If Obama gets more votes
and delegates, but is not the Democrat nominee because Mrs Clinton gets the
votes of the "Super Delegates", how is that different from the 2000
election, where the man who got the most votes lost. Consider how different the
USA would be if Al Gore had been elected: no wars in the Middle East, all the
soldiers killed in those wars would still be alive, the US Treasury would be
somewhat more solvent.]
*It is not widely known that:
"On Clinton's last full day as president, Jan. 19, 2001, he agreed to a
five-year (law) license suspension. The agreement came on the condition that
Whitewater prosecutors would not pursue criminal charges against him after he
lied under oath about his relationship with White House intern Monica
Lewinsky." -seen
here
"She (HRC) would be a horrible President" -former Bill Clinton
insider Dick Morris, 1-08-08
Note: On Wed, 2-20-08, after Mrs Clinton's 11th straight defeat, I predicted
that Sen Obama would get the Democrat nomination and would go on to defeat Sen
McCain in the November election. (It will be nice to have two honest
politicians as the major party candidates.) I personally will support the
Libertarian Party nominee, to be selected at their
convention in May(And the nominee
is: Former US Congressman Bob Barr-Barr's Wikipedia entry.
BUMMER! I thought Obama was on his way to
the White House until all those quotes from his Pastor in Chicago came out! I
dont disagree with everything that Rev Jeremiah Wright said: in particular I
agree that what the USA did to the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in
1945(120,000 killed in the
blasts, more later from radiation sickness) was worse than what was done to
the USA on 9/11/01, however a lot of what Rev Wright said could doom Obama in
the November election. I think Obama still has a good chance to get the
Democrat nomination;(6-3-08: and he did!) I don't know if he will be
swift-boated successfully or not. (In his case, a new word might be coined:
"Rev Wrighted".)
Note: Does anyone seriously believe that if her name was still Hillary Rodham,
she would be in the US Senate, and running for President? She would never have
become Senator Clinton if she hadnt become Mrs Clinton first. I used to think
Mrs Clinton was smart, until she made up that ridiculous story about being
under sniper fire in Bosnia. She may have a high IQ, but if she had common
sense she would not make up stories about public events where photographers
were present. (The story is almost unbelievably ridiculous. Her Secret Service
escort would never have allowed the First Lady to enter an area where she was
going to be shot at.)
Note #2: I seriously thought it would be Rudy vs Hillary in November. I never
thought that a guy clever enough to be (twice) elected Mayor of the largest
city in the world would choose such an inept primary strategy. I certainly
didnt think that a woman with access to Bill Clinton's political connections
would be defeated by a virtually unknown 1st term Senator, who has even less
administrative experiance than Mrs Clinton(who has none: yes, she had to make
*important* decisions about what color stationary to order for the First Lady's
Office.)
"The people need wholesome fear; they want to fear something. They want someone to frighten them and make them shudderingly submissive." - Ernst Röhm, leader of the Nazi SA Brownshirts. I think Röhm was onto something. Most people want Something bigger than themselves to determine their life and free them from the responsibility of thinking. It can be God or the Church, it can be the Party or State, it can be a Leader ("Führer" in German, "Duce" in Italian), it can be the Family. Sartre called this "bad faith".
Human freedom did not have a good 1900's. With the rise of fascism,
communism, and religious intolerence in most of the world, I really am,
"Proud to be an
American, where at least I know I'm free"
However, I am not a "patriot".
I do not believe in "my country, right or wrong".
I do not say things like "America, love it or leave it".
There is a big difference between loving my country and loving my government.
The 20th century also featured war and its associated
genocide,
starting with the Armenian
Genocide(Turkey, 1915).
The single most important event of the 20th century:6-28-14:
The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. This event touched off WW1. The botched conclusion of
WW1 led to the rise of Hitler, WW2, the Holocaust, and the development and use
of the Atomic Bomb. The botched
Partitioning
of the (defeated) Ottoman Empire(which had controlled much of the Middle
East), led to the mess in the Middle East which continues to this day. Events
during WW1 led to the overthrow of the Tsar in Russia, the Bolshivic
Revolution, the rise of the Soviet Union, and the Cold War. The Cold War, but
for a lot of luck, could have led to the END of civilization. "A new large
scale war will end with the destruction of human culture and
civilization...." -Albert Speer, former
German Minister of Armaments and War Production, at the Nuremburg Trial of
Major War Criminals in 1946.
The Atomic Bomb, in the hands of people who think their God wants them to kill
believers in other Gods, could still bring about the end of civilization.
I also support the legalization of the use of marijuana; most conservatives don't. One exception is Wm F Buckley, Jr., who sailed his yacht outside the twelve mile limit, tried it, and endorsed legalization in his magazine National Review.
And for those who got here from my
HIV-AIDS page
and might be wondering, I'm HIV negative. And for those who think that anyone
who writes about HIV must be in one of the AIDS risk groups, I'm not. What I am
is someone who believed then Surgeon General Koop when he said that everyone is
at risk for HIV, and therefore at risk for AIDS. He was wrong. (Actually, HIV
is a very difficult virus to catch; the only sure ways are to engage in
unprotected receptive anal intercourse with an HIV+ man, and sharing needles
among IV drug users, where at least one of the sharers is HIV+.)(More to the
point, there is no solid scientific evidence that HIV causes AIDS.)(John Ross
does think that HIV causes AIDS, but argues that
its
almost impossible to catch HIV (unless, of course, you are an IV drug user
sharing needles or engage in really risky sexual behavior.)
NOTE: I am not an "HIV
denialist". I don't have HIV, I don't know anyone who did or does have
HIV, I don't know anyone who has or had AIDS, I don't even know (AFAIK) any gay
men or IV Drug users or hemophiliacs or pre-early '80s blood transfusion
recipients or Africans. I have no personal reason to want HIV to not cause
AIDS. I'm not a homophobe who wants gay men to get AIDS. Nor do I want anyone
else to get AIDS.
PLUS: If I am an "HIV denialist", then so are Dr. Robert Gallo and
Dr. Luc Montagnier, the co-discoverers of HIV. Both Gallo and Montagnier have
(seperately) concluded that HIV, by itself, is not sufficient to cause AIDS.
Co-facters must be present. (Gallo favors HTLV-1 or
HHV-6 , Montagnier favors
mycoplasma .)
"If there is evidence that HIV causes AIDS, there should be scientific
documents which either singly or collectively demonstrate that fact, at least
with a high probability. There is no such document."
Kary Mullis, Biochemist, 1993 Nobel Prize for Chemistry
(This quote was shamelessly copied and pasted from
http://www.virusmyth.com/aids/index.htm.)
Rehab center to AVOID:
In 1/2001, I took a little fall down the stairs. Not serious enough for hospitalization, I was stuck in IHS of Las Vegas, a big disappointment. I had expected something similar to the rehab center in Vicksburg, Michigan , which took excellent care of a really serious problem, a broken hip.
Things I love:
Brilliant* women, computers, cats, books, philosophy, history
*very important note: getting a high score on an IQ test is not the same thing
as being brilliant. Its a great first step, but a personality afflicted with
compulsive irrational behavior*, and/or unable to deal with abstract concepts,
and/or unable to control
her temper does NOT qualify as "brilliant".
*I classify drug addiction
as a "compulsive irrational behavior". Addicts in withdrawl are
certainly NOT "brilliant"; "pathetically irrational" would
be descriptive. BTW, nicotene is an addictive drug. I have seen cigarette
junkies run out of their drug of choice and go into withdrawl: if they really
were highly intelligent, they would admit (at least to themselves) that self
destruction is not rational behavior.
·<There are, of course, lots of other self destructive addictions which
remove a woman from the "brilliant" catagory.
Compulsive
overeaters with the resulting heart straining obesity I have met. (Jean
Nidetch, the founder of Weight Watchers, said that overeaters should begin
by accepting, "I'm fat because I eat too much.") I have only heard
about anorexic
(compulsive undereaters) and
bulimic (binging and
purging) women.
·<There are, of course, lots of irrational thought patterns that remove
a woman from the "brilliant" catagory (for me, anyway). Since I am a
libertarian both philosophically and psychologically, control freaks are
anathema to me. (I have disliked Authority Figures for as long as I can
remember.)
The type of woman I like the most is I,R,I (Intelligent, Rational, and
Independent)(That's independent both psychologically and
financially)(One type of woman I especially don't like is the philosophically
libertarian/psychologically fascist control freak hypocrite.)
My ex-wife never or very rarely wore makeup, and I always accepted this as
"normal". I don't see the purpose of makeup. (I especially don't see
the purpose of lipstick. Who wants to kiss a woman wearing lipstick? Maybe that
is why they wear it!!)(Personally, I find few feminine habits grosser
than wearing red lipstick.)(Ladies, weading red lipstick makes you look
older, which you might want if you are 12!) This quote was posted by
TBill to the Childfree Ms Yahoo group:
***Ladies, leave your eyebrows alone. Here's how much men care about your
eyebrows: do you have two of them? Okay, we're done.***
NOTE: I do not have, never have had, any interest in A. Women 20 years younger
than me. B. Women with large fake breasts, or even large real breasts. C. Women
who think beauty or sexuality are a substitute for intelligence. D. Women who
have kids or want kids, or have grandkids. I can't stand kids!(Plus I
like being free, and am not willing to trade my freedom for the dubious
"pleasures" of fatherhood or step-fatherhood.)
"Dear Abby" said:
Intelligent people talk about ideas
Average people talk about things
Small people talk about other people
Those in the second two catagories do NOT qualify as "brilliant".
My favorite place in the world (so far)
Rondeau Provincial Park,
in Ontario, Canada. Both of my parent's families had summertime vacation
cottages there, and I spent part of my honeymoon there. If I ever get married
again, I hope it will be at Rondeau.
I also loved a beautiful little city near Rondeau named
Ridgetown!
If I can get everything in order, I would love to live there during the summer,
and return to Las Vegas for the winter. (Plus I think it would be fun to drive
to and from.....there is a lot of the USA you will never see if you just fly
over it!) Unfortunately, the Ontario government has decided to terminate the
Rondeau leases in 2017, and bulldoze the cottages. BUMMER!
Cost of the War in Iraq(Hint: its over 404 Billion Dollars on 3/3/07.)
lies.com(the Iraq war, the missing WMD's, etc.)
Warmonger explains Iraq War to Peacenik
SEYMOUR HERSH on torture in Iraq and earlier, in Vietnam
"but also there is nothing as stupid as a 20 or 22-year-old kid with a weapon in a war zone." -Seymour Hersh
"Naturally, the common people don't want war, but after all it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to do the bidding of the leaders. This is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country."- Reichmarshall Hermann Göring, Nuremberg, 1945.(snopes.com verification of this quote)(this quote was originally recorded by Dr Gustave Gilbert in his book Nuremberg Diary.)
13 MYTHS ABOUT THE CASE FOR WAR IN IRAQ
Iraq civilian body count (How many Iraqi civilians have died so that they could be free of the oppressive Saddam Hussain regime?)
""I like to remind people that if we leave Iraq before the job is done, the enemy will follow us here. And if our job is to protect this country, it's important we get it right in Iraq." -George W. Bush, speaking to the National Governor's Association 3/07. (Remember, how if we withdrew from Vietnam, the Domino Effect would result in Communism spreading to Australia and the Phillippines?)
Rough timetable:
Ron Paul delivers
"35
QUESTIONS THAT WON'T BE ASKED ABOUT IRAQ" address: 9-10-02
US
Congress authorizes invasion of Iraq: 10-10-02(House), 10-11-02(Senate)
USA invades Iraq: 3-2-03
Saddam Hussein
removed from power: 4-9-03
"End of major
combat operations"(aka "Mission Accomplished") announcement:
5-1-03
Cindy
Sheehan arrested by Capitol Police for wearing a t-shirt with writing,
"2,245 Dead. How many more?" to the State of the Union address:
1-31-06
Saddam Hussein executed: 12-30-06
War continues with no end in sight: 2007
"..this war is lost" - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, 4-19-07
The 2007 movie Redacted is
released, a fictionalized account of an actual occurance in Iraq. Bill O'Reilly
is outraged. I wasn't so surprised: I remember the 1968
MyLai
Massacre, where US servicemen killed 500 unarmed Vietnamese. I realize that
most of the soldiers fighting in Iraq were not even alive in 1968, but their
superiors were: the phrase "Support Our Troops" is should not be
unconditional.
(The two men usually associated with MyLai,
Lieutenant
Calley and
Captain
Medina, did not kill those 500 Vietnamese all by themselves.)
"My first act as President would be to order the immediate withdrawal of every single U.S. troop and all U.S. government personnel from Iraq." -Christine Smith, Libertarian Candidate for President, 2008.
"The America I
was born into. . . .no longer exists". I came across this blog entry
after searching for the phrase "Facing a dying nation", which
appeared in the song
The
Flesh Failures (Let the Sunshine In) at the climax of the movie version of
"Hair", as George Berger is marching into a plane to be flown to
Vietnam, where he is KIA. (This a very dramatic climax. After the plane flys
away, the scene cuts immediately to Arlington National Cemetary and a tombstone
marked GEORGE BERGER and VIETNAM.)(In the play "Hair", it is Claude
who is killed.
(Synopsis
of the play). In the movie, Berger has taken Claudes' place in Boot Camp,
Claude returns to camp after visiting his girlfriend just as the order is given
to march to the plane.
And yes, the America I was born into no longer exists. I was born in 1948, when
the USA held the moral high ground after defeating the Nazis.
In the same year I was born, the UN General Assembly adopted, "without
dissent", The Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, which states, in part, "Article 5 No one
shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment."
Now, we have secret prisons, suspension of
Habeus
Corpus,
extraordinary
rendition, indefinate imprisonment without trial at Guantánamo Bay,
where we apparently treat some of the "detainees" in a manner that
would make a Gestapo agent proud. (Its not torture, its "Enhanced
interrogation".) (Does anyone believe that
Khalid Sheikh
Mohammed actually did all the things he confessed to doing?) (More:
True
Confessions? The Amazing Tale of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed)
Outsourcing
Torture, from the New Yorker, tells the story of US agents using
"rendition"
to put suspected terrorists in countries where they could be interrogated by
torture, and notes that torture is known as an unreliable way of obtaining
factual information.
"Torture is a crime against civilization. Torturers are perverts. People
who fail to condemn torture are unfit for public office." -George Phillies, candidate for the 2008
Libertarian Party nomination for President
(Phillies on
torture.)
When I was a student at WMU in the late '60s, there was a house at the
bottom of the hill that East Campus is on. In a window, on the back of a window
shade, the occupants had inscribed, "Is there intelligent life on Earth?
Get out of Vietnam Now!" Its time for one that ends "Get out of
Iraq now!"
(Note: I like the idea of one of the LP Presidential candidates (sorry, dont
remember which one), that the Iraq government should hold a vote of Iraq
citizens on the question, "Do you want the USA to continue to occupy
Iraq?". If the vote is No, we can leave!)
Harry Browne's essay: Was George Bush Right?(Argues that after 100,000 dead Iraqis, we are not any safer from terrorism, nor are we or any country in the Middle East any freer; in fact, the USA is less free.)
I have two serious questions: If it was a crime under International Law for Germany to invade Poland in 1939 (waging an aggressive war), why is it not a crime for the USA to invade Iraq, a country that posed no threat to the USA? And if the rationale for the invasion was Iraq's supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction, shouldn't the USA apologize to Iraq and withdraw our troops?
Guantánamo Bay
In 10/01, well before the Iraq war, the USA
invaded a
sovereign country, Afghanistan, supposedly to find the person/people behind
9/11. We didnt find Osama bin Laden, but we did scoop up hundreds of Taliban
and al-Qaeda sympathizers, designated them "unlawful combatants", and
shipped them off to the US Naval Base at Quantánamo Bay, Cuba, where
most of them rot to this day. The US government says they are not POWs entitled
to the protection of the Geneva
Convention. (Human
Rights Watch disagrees.) These people are essentially stateless and
rightless. They have not been charged with any crime under US, International,
or Afghan law, yet they are imprisoned indefinately..(if they are suspected of
being terrorists, they will be tried before a
"military
tribunal"). I *think* the ACLU is trying to get them access to US
courts; good luck! (in 6/04, the US Supreme Court did rule that
detainees
and "enemy combatants" held by the United States are entitled to
challenge their detention in court.)(Unfortunately, the outgoing Congress
reversed the Supreme Court, with the
Military
Commissions Act of 2006 claiming that the detainees are dangerous
terrorists and the courts should not interfere with the President's authority
as Commander-in-Chief. More on this story
here.)
Thankfully, there as been introduced in both houses of Congress the
Restoring
the Constitution Act of 2007, which would undo a lot of the damage done to
civil liberties since 9-11-01.
(Amensty
International on Guantánamo Bay)US: Mark Five
Years of Guantánamo by Closing It
(Why not close Guantánamo? Could it be that the former prisoners, after
being deported back to their home countries, might tell how they were treated?)
Statement
of the ACLU on the military tribunals.
Badnarik on civil liberties and the rights of the detainees.
An Island I loved:
There is an island, near to and part of Honduras, called
Roatan. I visited there in Oct. 2000.
This island has it all: unspoiled beauty and civilization. If it were
practical, I would move there tomorrow!
SIGH! Since Roatan is not practical, I am considering a move to Hawaii.
Things I like:
These computer languages-Fortran,
EasyTrieve,
C++; the Internet; IRC;
Ayn Rand's
philosophy and
writings, esp.
Atlas
Shrugged(semi-official
site)(Please note: I am not a "true believer" Rand devotee: see
former Rand insider Murry Rothbard's
The Sociology of
the Ayn Rand Cult); Richard Adam's novel
Watership Down; the
1973 movie Breezy; the
1995 movie The American
President(yes, I really like movies with unlikely partners); the 1972 movie
The Man; the 1987 TV Movie
Escape From Sobibor; the 1980
movie Somewhere in Time(and
Michael Crawford's rendition of the song
Somewhere
in Time in the Las Vegas extravaganza EFX; practically anything by The
Who, including, among others,
Won't
Get Fooled Again,
The
Kids Are Alright, and especially
Pinball
Wizard,(and even more especially, its rendition by Elton John in the
movie version of the rock opera Tommy)(All the lyrics from Tommy
are here); Richie Sambora's
Ballad of Youth
(Ballad of Youth is a great song for the newly divorced: "Cause when
tomorrow comes, its all just yesterday's news "), the Cure's
Charlotte
Sometimes, Bonnie Tyler's
Total Eclipse of
the Heart, Bad Company's
Bad Company, the
Bangles' version of
Hazy Shade
of Winter, Paul Simon's
My
Little Town(reminds me of my ex-wife's hometown), the Association's
Don't
Blame it on me(reminds me of my ex-wife!),[(and another reminder of my ex,
Gale Garnett's We'll Sing in the
Sunshine(the ending we both remember: "We sang in the sunshine, We
laughed every day, We sang in the sunshine, then you went away.")],
Barbara Lewis's
Hello,
Stranger(reminds me of my ex, who I last saw in 1976, SO long ago, but it
still feels like yesterday), Bob Dylan's version of
Don't think twice,
its all right(reminds me of most of the women I have met post-divorce,
especially the line "you just kinda wasted my precious time"),
Roxette's
Listen
To Your Heart, Led Zepplin's
Stairway to Heaven,
Genesis's Land of
Confusion, the video of which is my all time favorite, another fantastic
Genesis song/video
Jesus He
Knows Me, the Las Vegas show
EFX(closed
12-30-02; the EFX Theatre has since been dismantled. How sad.)(EFX opened
3-23-95 in conjunction with the opening of the
MGM Grand Hotel and Casino.)(I must
admit, I really liked the original version of
EFX,
starring Michael Crawford(who starred in 610 consecutive performances,
until 8-11-96); the original cast soundtrack is still available from
CD Universe, or from
CDnow); fans of EFX can find the lyrics to
the songs in Michael Crawford's "EFX"
here.)(yes,
I did see subsequent EFX stars David Cassidy(NOTE: EFX, starring David Cassidy,
with a cast of 70, was said,
here,
to be the world's largest stage production) and Tommy Tune(twice!), plus I saw
Cassidy's brother, Patrick, guest starring, but I missed the final star Rick
Springfield after breaking my leg); the Shaft series of movies starring Richard
Roundtree; (as a younger person I was a fan on the Disney series
Zorro, and I see a similarity
between Shaft and Zorro; both are anti-establishment individuals who fight
injustice!)(Zorro was created in 1919 by Johnston McCulley, Shaft was created
c. 1970 by Ernest Tidyman.)(my personal philosophy towards violence: it a LOT
easier to shoot someone, like Shaft does, than to commit a very personal act
like running someone through with a sword, like Zorro does sometimes); the
miniseries
V, and its conclusion
V, The Final Battle, which are a
parallel to the Nazi novement in Germany(Note: this was the intention of the
creator of V, Kenneth Johnson,
who wrote and directed the first miniseries, but Johnson disliked the script
for the second miniseries, and was not involved with it; Johnson is currently
working on a third miniseries V:
The Second Generation, which will
ignore the events of
the second miniseries and the events of the short lived follow-up TV
series.); a truely remarkable "Like", the Sci-fi horror movie
Event Horizon, which is very
bloody but still intellectually challenging flic: the term "Event
Horizon" is used as the name of a spaceship in this movie, but it is a
scientific term, see
here;
discussing the things I love or like.
A movie everyone should see once:
Idiocracy: Shows the eventual effect of smart people delaying/avoiding altogether having children, while less intelligent people breed like rabbits. (This is sometimes called Dysgenics.)
A movie I haven't seen, but wish I had:
Twist of Fate: A member of the SS participates in the failed attempt to kill Hitler, then disguises himself as a Jew to escape punishment, lands in a concentration camp, and ends up fighting for Israel. This movie was based on the novel Pursuit, by Robert L. Fish, which is still available through Amazon.com's network of used booksellers, and I got the book. Thanks, Amazon.com!
My favorite song of all time:
It used to be Pinball Wizard. Then it was EFX. In 2000, I got
the video to an old movie I like, R.P.M., and its opening song,
Melanie's Stop! I
don't want to hear it anymore, has reached the (probably temporary)**
position of my favorite song! Unfortunately, it was released as a RECORD, you
know, those black things you play on a "record player", but has never
been released on a CD. (The album wasn't. I am told that the song was released
on Melanie compilation CDs, which may be out of production by now.) I wonder
how much pre-CD music is now lost forever, except at MP3 sites? Even the lyrics
to old songs are hard to find, especially since the US music industry was
successful in effectively squashing www.lyrics.ch, "The International Lyrics
Server". Luckily, there is another huge lyrics archive still running:
Gunther Anderson's Lyric
Pages!
2nd favorite: Superstar.....hauntingly
beautiful; unfortunately singer Karen Carpenter died after struggling with
anorexia.
3rd favorite:
The
Entertainer, by Billy Joel. (Extra verse that BJ
used in live shows.)
4th favorite:They Don't Know
(about us), Kirsty MacColl's love song. Its not the explicit lyrics of this
song, its the brilliant arrangement and the singer's style.
5th favorite: Suite: Judy Blue
Eyes, by Stephen Stills. Another song where its not the explicit lyrics,
but the brilliant arrangement and the singer's style!
6th favorite: Edge of
Seventeen aka "Just like the white winged dove", by Stevie Nicks.
Yet another song where its not the explicit lyrics, but........
**yes, it was temporary. The song
White Rabbit,
written by Grace Slick and performed by
Jefferson Airplane with Grace
Slick doing the singing, was played during and at the end of the movie
The Game, is my new favorite !
I remember this song from the late 60's, but I only came to appreciate it in
2007.
Note: "The Game" is a very "Nowhere Man" ish movie,
except that the protagonist of "The Game" knows who They are, and has
been to the office of Them (of course, when he goes back to the office, it
isn't there anymore, and nobody remembers it ever being there.)(There is a lot
of breaking glass in "The Game", too.)
The greatest entertainer living (In My Humble Opinion):
Tom
Lehrer, no question. Best known for his album, "That Was the Year That
Was", he was an academic first, an entertainer second; and yes, he is
still alive, born 1928. All of his lyrics are
here, just scroll down
to "Tom Lehrer" once you get there. I must admit, I owe my love of
Lehrer's songs to my parents, who owned a "record player", and had
bought this album. I especially liked the songs, "National Brotherhood
Week", "Vatican Rag", and "So long, Mom"
And the best group effort:
Rush, best known for their album
Hemispheres. Rush
was influenced by novelist/philosopher Ayn Rand ( her influence is notable in
their song Limelight), and
produced hard rock music with philosophical lyrics. I am forever indebted to
former co-worker Marianne Petty, who introduced me to the music of Rush.
Paris Hilton:
Other than her biological relatives and paparazzi who make money taking
pictures of her, who cares about the antics of the Heirhead? She is as
interesting as the never ending saga of Anna Nichole Smith.
Update: I did watch
Larry
King's interview with Paris after she got out of jail. .. When actually
asked a question and thinking about the answer, she does not seem so much of an
airhead after all. I wonder if her airhead personna is just an act for the
public?
(After seeing the video she made about the 2008 presidential election, I am
convinced that the airhead personna is indeed an act. Paris Hilton reminds me
of Hillary Clinton: smart, but not exactly overendowed with common sense.)
And who cares about Octomom? She may be interesting as a study in
compulsive irrationality: how many women with six kids she can't support would
want more?
My favorite movie:
It used to be Breezy, the
first movie I ever bought on VHS tape. Then I saw
The Long Kiss Goodnight. It has
a strong female lead and a fascinating story about an ex-CIA agent (with
amnesia) turned conventional Mom whose past comes back to get her.
And THEN I saw The Odessa
File! This movie begins on 11-22-63, as a German man driving home pulls his
car over to the side of the to listen to the news about the assassination of
John F. Kennedy. What he sees then will bring him into contact with the
ODESSA, the organization of
former members of the SS. I had read the novel this movie is based on, but had
forgotten the very big surprise ending. Best movie I have ever seen.
2nd favorite: Pretty Woman,
another "unlikely partners who fall in love" movie.
I must admit that the original Shaft, starring Richard
Roundtree, is my co-favorite movie.
The movie I have actually watched the most over the years is
Point Break, about a group of
surfers who rob banks (as "the ex-presidents") to finance the endless
summer, and the FBI agents trying to stop them.
New favorite(2008): I greatly enjoy the 2001 remake of
Ocean's Eleven. Its not that
I am a fan of crime, but these criminals are brilliant. Its a "brilliant
criminals vs. arrogant, ruthless, and extremely rich casino owner"
movie.
Lamest movie of all time
Micki + Maude: not only does the male lead marry two women (secretly), he gets them both pregnant at the same time, they have the same OB-GYN, they deliver at the same time and have adjoining rooms in the same hospital. A monument to human stupidity!
Most pronatalist-mythological movie so far
Baby Boom, features what I
call Pronatalist Myth
#1: If you have a baby, you will LOVE everything about the experiance. I knew I
would HATE the experiance, primarily the loss of personal freedom, which I
think is the real reason I am divorced today. My ex was a passionate
Mommiewannabe, I had no interest: I was history. My foolish ex had gotten her
tubes tied when she was still interested in being married to me, then proceeded
to replace me with a guy 20 yrs older than her, so she couldn't even adopt.
(Today's (9-4-07) CompuServe news reports that to today's incoming college
freshman anyone born before 1989 is OLD! Then what is someone born before the
1929 Stock Market Crash?)(Hey, you could ask HIM if his parents told him about
President
FDR going on TV in 1929 to explain the crash! )(Gees, you would think a guy
who has been in the US Senate for over 30 years (Joe Biden) would know that
Herbert Hoover was
President in 1929.)
In this movie the lead female is a successful businesswoman who
"inherited" a baby when a relative died leaving the baby to her care.
Her first impulse, to put the baby up for adoption, fails when she hears the
baby cry as she walks away. No sacrifice is too much for the sake of the baby:
Stepmom loses her job, and her boyfriend, so she packs up and moves to Vermont,
where she meets Mr Right, who of course loves the child, and they live happily
ever after.
Scariest Horror Movie ever
Yours, Mine, and Ours: A widower with 10 children marries a widow with 8 children, and they have another(Ours). Based loosely on a real couple! (Frank and Helen Beardsley)
A movie I thought would suck, but was great
Legally Blonde: I just
happened to watch this on TV, thinking it would be a "dumb blonde makes a
fool of herself" movie, but she turns out to be a brilliant person; even
she wasn't impressed by her high LSAT scores and her admission to
Harvard Law School. The (stated) moral of the story is "first impressions
are not always correct." This movie includes (at the start, where she
really does behave like a blonde airhead, and at the end, when she graduates
from Harvard) the song
Perfect Day.
In the movie, the protagonist ("Elle Woods") has graduated from
(undergraduate)college in California and attends Law School.
The movie was (loosely) based on the novel Legally Blonde, by
Amanda
Brown. There is now a series of prequel novels, by
Natalie Standiford, which start
when the protagonist was a sophomore at Beverly Hills High School.
Although the publisher of these prequel books is "Hyperion Paperbacks for
Children", these are NOT children's books, if "children" means
"pre-teens". (I think there is a good chance that Amanda and Natalie
are two pen names for the same person. Their writing styles are quite similar.
"Natalie" claims to be 85
years old and plays in a rock band (!), so "Natalie" is
definately a fake name, or at least a real name with hopelessly fake info.)
At least two (unsuccessful) attempts have been made to produce a TV series, but
the play Legally
Blonde is set to open on Broadway 4-29-07.
Funniest movie I have ever seen
Liar Liar, starring Jim Carrey, not to be confused with "Liar, Liar".
Wild in the Streets (1968)
The movie Wild in the Streets, and its theme song The Shape of Things to Come, have been on my mind since the late 60s. The plot is explained at this popup laden Geocities site and at this excellant site. This is a story of power corrupting, with the newly powerful turning into what they had crusaded against: fascists, and not just the relatively benign Mussolini type of fascism, but the more malignent and brutal Hitler style. I dont think its an accident that the guards at the camps (where the "older people" are incarcerated) wear all black, just like the German SS "blackshirts", although it is true that the SS wore grey field uniforms while actually on (dusty) duty. Their black uniforms were for more "dressy" occasions.
The movie/book that made me think
Fatherland, based on the
novel Fatherland,
by Robert Harris. WHAT IF: Germany does not commit to "total war"
against the USA after Pearl Harbor. The USA uses the atomic bomb to defeat
Japan, Germany uses its superior conventional forces to defeat the French and
British. The ensuing "cold war" is between the USA and Germany, after
the Normandy landings are defeated, and Germany has had time to also develop
the atomic bomb.
The Soviet Union retreats from Stalingrad; the Soviet government relocates east
to the other side of the Ural Mountains and never overruns the death camps in
Poland; so the Germans suppress all knowledge of the Holocaust; including
arranging accidents that kill all the participants at the
Wannsee
Conference, where the "Final Solution" was formalized. In the
1960s a German homicide investigator uncovers the truth, and has it revealed to
the US President.*
*The Rehabilitation of the reputation of SS member Arthur Nebe
SS Brigadeführer Arthur Nebe was the head of the Kriminalpolizei (Criminal Police; non-political crimes) both in real life and in the above movie. During the war he served for a time as head of Einsatzgruppe B in the Soviet Union, and as such is commonly regarded as being a war criminal. He also took part in the famous unsuccessful attempt to kill Hitler on July 20, 1944. Nebe eluded the Gestapo until Jan 16, 1945, after which he was turned over to the People's Court, which convicted him. He was hung by the Nazis on Apr 3, 1945. See: Arthur Nebe - War Criminal or Infiltrator?
My favorite book of any kind
Primary Philosophy, by Michael Scriven, copyright 1966. This was my textbook when I took Introduction to Philosophy in the late '60s. Scriven was my first exposure to a systematic examination of the arguments for and against the existence of God. A work of genius, now a lifelong companion.
The book that had the most influence on me
The Baby Trap, by Ellen Peck, copyright 1971. This book shaped a lot of my childfree thinking. The back cover states: "STOP Before you even think of having a baby, you must read this book. It could keep you from making the biggest mistake of your life!" Peck was a founder of the National Organization for Non-Parents, which I was long a member of. Peck later co-edited "Pronatalism: The Myth of Mom and Apple Pie", another fine book.
My favorite novel
The Fifth Horseman, by Larry Collins & Dominique Lapierre, copyright 1980, has terrorists in New York City armed with an atomic bomb, long before Osama bin Laden brought down the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, killing almost 3,000 people. (But then, they weren't really people, right? They were not Islamic Arabs. Kind of like the Nazi view that Jews were sub-human.)
There have been at least three other novels titled, "The Fifth
Horseman"; the one by Richard Sherbaniuk, in 2001, is closest to the theme
of the one above, his plot has the fifth horseman being biological; Genetically
Modified Organisms that are turned into weapons of mass destruction.
The others are by Jose Antonio, concerning the Mexican Revolution, and Gregg
Gonzalaz, an extension of the "Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow"
legend. Another: "The Fifth Horseman is Riding" subtitled "A
celebration of the American countryside and a documentary of what we are doing
to destroy it" by Larry Van Goethem. (I would LOVE to live in the
countryside!)
Best book on AIDS I have ever read
Wrongful Death: The AIDS Trial, by Stephen Thomas (Author's promo page). This is a fictional account of a class action lawsuit brought against: 1. Dr. Robert Gallo, the man who announced in 1984 that he had found the cause of AIDS, a retrovirus he called HTLV-3 (now HIV); 2. the drug company that made and sold AZT(GlaxoSmithKline, formerly Burroughs Wellcome); 3. the Food and Drug Administration, which approved AZT for use as an AIDS treatment.)
2nd Best book on AIDS I have ever read
Are you positive?, also by Stephen Thomas(Author's promo page). This is a fictional account of the prosecution of an HIV+ man for murder; having unprotected sex with a woman who later died from AIDS, showing how unreliable the "HIV tests" are and how damaging the antiretrovirals prescribed to treat AIDS are.
Most compelling novel I have read
The Body, by Richard Ben Sapir....by "compelling", I mean, I couldn't put it down. I HAD to find out what would happen next.
Most intriging book I have read
Unintended Consequences, by John Ross
(publisher's
introduction)(author's
Unintended Consequences FAQ) I bought this book in 2004 after reading a
review of it in the Feb/Mar 1996 issue of Freedom Network News, an
ISIL newsletter, for no better reason than
knowing that the plot touched on the 1943
Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising(Jan 18-21, Apr 19-May 16) . The book turned out to be over
800 pages long! The author is a brilliant writer; the novel sucked me right in.
It is about the "gun culture", and I dont even LIKE guns. But on a
deeper level, its about the suppression of the gun culture, and consequently
the suppression of freedom. (Minor quibble: Ross states in his UC FAQ regarding
resistance fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: "it is generally
believed that all of them were killed." However, the Wiesenthal Center
page about the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (the immediately preceding link) says
that "several dozen fighters were saved by escaping through the
sewers". Perhaps the highest level escapee was
Marek Edelman, 2nd in
command of the ZOB (Jewish Fighting Organization). (A
longish bio of
Edelman, who was still alive in 2006.) Edelman was, by design, not at the
ZOB HQ bunker at 18 Mila St. when it was overrun by the Waffen-SS. Edelman
escaped from the ghetto and lived to fight in the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
There exists on the Web,
right
here, if it is authentic, what would be a history of the Warsaw Ghetto from
its inception to its destruction, by Marek Edelman, described as "one of
the leaders of the Jewish Uprising".
Confession: I used to read books a LOT! From 4/2000 until 3/2004 I
was hooked on the Web* and didn't read ANY. Unintended Consequences was
so good, and so interesting, I started reading books again! I just (5/05)
finished I'm Okay you're a brat, by
Susan Jeffers, PhD, perhaps one of
the best books I have ever read. Jeffers argues that there are so many
variables in a child's life that it doesn't follow from "Child A is a bad
person", therefore the parent(s) of Child A were bad parent(s). You can
substitute "good" for "bad" in the previous sentence;
parents cannot take credit for good children, and need not take the blame (as
they do) for bad children. There are many determining factors in a child's life
over which parents have no control whatsoever.
*Confession, part 2: I can't blame the Web entirely. I was married to a
woman who (consistently!) turned on the TV as soon as she came home; it was
usually on. I was informed that I would not be married much longer during
The Jacksons! After she was
gone I did watch TV some, but the set broke and MONTHS passed before I bothered
to replace it, with a cheap Black and White portable; I didn't think I was
missing anything.... it was then I started to realize that TV was not an
inherently integral part of life. But it took living with a woman whose taste
in TV was "usually on to almost anti-intellectual (mindless)
programming" to turn me against TV, except for special events: the last TV
I remember watching was the 2004 Libertarian National Convention on C-Span.
(Yes, I have been watching Fox News to get info about the 2008 Presidential
election. I used to watch CNN, until they dumped Paula Zahn.)(CNN=Commercials
'N News; FNC=Fox Neverending Commercials. TV avertising is so lame; I expext to
see, "CONGRATULATIONS! Your TV set has been randomly selected in the
Microsoft/Apple/IBM lottery as a $1,000,000 WINNER! Call us at 1-800-BIG-SCAM
to claim your prize. Just tell us your bank account number and we will transfer
the money into your account immediately!!!
End of Part 1; go to Part 2
Part 1 rev 2-08-10