Hal - Deliberately Basic

Roll up your sleeves, speak in mindless platitudes, and connect with the people. Tell the truth and get your ass whupped. What happened to truth and honor in this country? Take Senator Obama for example. Obama commented on the bitterness of working-class people in a speech at an expensive San Francisco fund-raiser. “They cling to guns,” said Obama, “or religion, or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment, or anti-trade sentiment, as a way to explain their frustrations.” Christ, nearly any working stiff is bitter, and has been for years.

I don’t usually write about politics, but this is enough to make me want to vote. And for Obama at that. Someone finally speaks a truth, and gets nailed to the cross for it. Clinton and others have called for an apology from Obama. For what?

The claim is he is elitist, that he has talked down to the working class. This is double-speak for denying that we have a class system in this country. Class in the US has always been here, and is ever widening. The liberal, cliché spewing, well-heeled, Ivy-league educated politico has never been “in touch.” At least we know where the stick-up-the-ass, war-mongering conservative stands. He will send our sons and daughters to war and make a fortune from the bodies of the working class.

If you are not pissed off, you should be. As long as the lobbyist paid heros in Washington can maintain the flag-waving, and tension among the ethnic and working classes, nothing much will change for the better. The first words of truth have emerged, and maybe there is some hope for those who do the work. But I am cynical, and I believe that what CNN, FOX and MSNBC tells the people to believe is what they will believe.

I am always amazed at people who think they know me, when in fact they either don’t know anything about me, very little about me, or simply don’t care. Those who I consider friends assume I hold the same religious, political and moral values as they do. The three most sensitive issues in our public lives are taken for granted by those who make assumptions about our character.

So far, much to my amazement, I have received little political spam for the upcoming presidential election. In years past I have filtered email from certain people I know into the trash, (the mail, not the people) knowing nearly everything I get will be anti-somebody. If these people think, and I wonder if they have ever heard of fact-checking or critical thinking, what do they think of me?

Much has been written about passing on junk email of any sort. Lack of discretion, ignorance and plain bad manners has run rampant, passing time-worn, fabricated shit around and around the Internet. PTPS, Pal-to-pal spam, is fast becoming the latest addiction.

Last year I posted an article about addiction and oil. Note to self: Consider a political spam addiction post. But do it soon, they are dropping like flies in the primaries.

I love to get jokes, links to funny videos, or in most cases pictures. I love to laugh. I love to start the day with a laugh, and if I think something is funny, I may pass it to a select few who I think will enjoy it as much as I have. What I hate to see is, someone open their address book and pass on a message to their 5000 plus contacts, that has been passed on by 1234 others before them. These I don’t bother trying to see what the hell the message is, after being mucked up with greater-than signs.

Some observations I have made about political email missives and those who propagate political propaganda:

• They are usually ultra-right wing conservatives. It is rare for me to get a message from the more liberal side of the political spectrum. I find this remarkable, not because liberals have nothing to say, but because they are not in my face with whatever their agenda might be.

• There is a plethora of anti-Clinton messages. I think these must be written by men who are scared of women. I always tend to think they have a deep-rooted psychological problem with their mother and their penis.

• The messages often are reactionary, supposedly from a celebrities. Robin Williams and Red Skelton are frequent players for this made-up gluck.

• They attempt to play on the emotions of recipients. Bill Clinton got a blow-job, so it stands to reason he is evil. For Christ-sake, he defiled the Whitehouse. Somehow, I cannot compare a blow-job to dividing the country, making most of the world hate us, or ruining the economy.

• These messages, if nothing else, are self-serving and almost never have a grain of truth to them. It is apparent to me they are written by some terrified right-wing puritanical putz, with his dick in one hand and keyboard in the other.

Thank God for spam filters.

Being Male is Dangerous to Your Health And Well Being

The fact that You can go online and locate registered sex offenders living near you, is fast becoming meaningless. We tend to think of sex offenders as scruffy middle-aged men who molest little boys and girls. Well folks, that has not been the case for some time, and the recent incident of 7th grade boys in Oregon is proof enough for me. And all those red dots you see living near you are probably not sex offenders in the sense of molestation.

From ABC News: Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison, both 13, were arrested in February after they were caught in the halls of Patton Middle School, in McMinnville, Ore., slapping girls on the rear end. My God, these are just kids screwing around. Should they be punished? I think so, but making them register as sex offenders, ruining their young lives is beyond credible thinking.

There is case after case where a man made an error in judgment, took a whiz in a parking lot, and is registered as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Should men who do something like this be punished? Of course, with a fine for being an obnoxious SOB, but why are we ruining lives, lumping all offenses into one category? Sex offender.

We shudder at the thought of whipping a child in school, yet the system will do more harm than any paddle could ever cause. I for one have refused to be alone with any child for years. All it would take is some accusation that I acted inappropriately, even if there was no veracity to it, and I’m off to the slammer. No thanks, its not worth the risk.

My fervent hope is, that whoever brought these charges, the maniacal mind that conceived this idea, will someday be on the receiving end of a similar situation. To be male, and a citizen of the US today is to be in jeopardy. What will the next headline be? Something like this:

Newborn Boy Charged With Sexual Misconduct

God save us from the do-gooders.

God made yeast, as well as dough, and he loves fermentation just as dearly as he loves vegetation. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

I live on the edge. To qualify that, I literally live on the edge, the edge of my neighborhood. Behind my house the bucolic countryside, with only an occasional farmhouse, is a pleasure to behold. The rolling knolls and flat farmland change with the seasons, yet is perpetually delightful. The country roads beg to be walked, and I do.

Walking these roads is not only a joy, but good exercise, and healing to mind, body and spirit.  Though the countryside is grand, along the way, it is not unusual to see a variety of wildlife, deer a personal favorite. Hawks, large and majestic, glide across the sky, effortlessly looking for mice in the fields. I have seen both gray and red fox, wild geese in the fall, and too many other creatures to name.

A herd of cattle grazing in a pasture, stop to look at me, and in the spring, show off their babies. The calves, cute enough to make me almost not eat veal, hide behind their mothers and curiously peek out. By August they will be the equivalent of teenagers, no longer so shy.

Along these roads are drainage ditches, shallow, just enough to run off excess water when it rains. Even after years of walking these roads, I’m amazed to see how much trash is discarded in these ditches. By-God, this is the pastoral ideal, and someone is dumping on Eden. Where does it all come from? Well, not from the cattle or deer, unless they have taken to drink more than the creek water.

Even more amazing is the variety of trash. The ubiquitous beer can, too many brands to count, is most prevalent. Next is the soda cans and bottles of every ilk, condoms, and generic plastic baubles. I have found enough junk to satisfy an archaeologist 2000 years from now as to how we lived in the 21st century.

Among the more interesting things I’ve found are tools. I have a small collection of wrenches,  files, a knife, several screwdrivers, and a couple of hammers. Once I found a water bottle, a huge thing that is turned upside down on office water coolers. Much to the chagrin of my wife, I lugged the thing home and have it sitting behind the house. Some day I’ll find a use for it.

All is not lost in paradise; I have learned and observed from this trash. I know that driving drunk happens much more than I would prefer. I know that kids still have sex in the backseat of cars; these days that must be difficult with smaller cars. You need not go to the inner city ghetto to find the pathos of human discard in your path. Conscience is rare as evidenced by the volume of waste here.

One day last year I happened to notice a couple of middle-aged women walking along with trash bags. We talked for a moment, and I asked about the sticks they used, nails in the end, to spear the junk. They had tired of looking at trash as they walked, and decided to clean it up. I don’t know how much they actually cleaned, but parts of the road were devoid of the junk for some days to come. I mentally applauded them for their efforts, with doubts of much positive effect for their labors.

Regretfully, I was right.