The rotten cancer conservative Republicans are infecting our democracy with (#2220)

From diminishing voting rights to diminishing rights for women and folks of color, Republicans are hell bent on establishing the wealthy in our country as the only group that deserves unlimited rights. From the corruptible decisions by conservatives on the supreme court that legalize that corporations are people to money is speech, to the restrictions on our human rights to protest and have representatives that reflect our constituencies, Republicans are destroying what equality and fairness mean within our constitution. There is an illness in our politics that has been allowed to grow and fester and now we are seeing the manifestation of it. Republicans have infiltrated an irrational surreal reality upon us to replace our pragmatic one. Most all of us expect logic and common sense to be the starting point for our leaders yet we are lucky if Republicans can even climb up to that starting point in their advocacy for policies. Nothing about the Republican party is a shining example of seriousness to our current problems. Their utter lack of gravitas is the normal for them. The worm will turn soon enough as we must endure another term before elections again with them. If this is how they are going to govern, which I have been yelling about for decades, then hopefully enough citizens who are still allowed to vote will send them packing. We need honest and real leaders who not only care about our society but also about the majority of the citizens within it. What will happen over this 2 year term will expose the cancer our society is experiencing and with some rational thinking I hope we will cut it out at it's source and move our nation forward without it.

Neoliberalism, look behind what Republicans call it, to what harm it actually does (#2219)

In yesterday's post I showed that Republican "right to work" legislation is really just a name to fool folks into thinking the legislation actually is a good thing. It is not, it is a name designed to disguise the fact that the wealthy want the workers to make less than they are now. The same concept of taking a name that sounds like it is for the betterment of us all has been a trick Republicans having been using for decades. In the 1970's Republicans started a reform movement called Neoliberalism, A term stolen from it's original intent back in the 1930's, because it sounds like it is a more updated take on regular liberalism, but in fact it is something completely different under the Republican middle class destroying intent. Neoliberalism is right along the lines of "right to work", otherwise truthfully known as cheap labor, It is a massive deregulation and market forces purity test that benefits the owners and not the workers nor the general public. So hearing the term, right to work or Neoliberalism one would think that these are good policies for workers but on the contrary, they are policies and concepts that further diminish worker rights and public safety. This is why we always need to look beyond the catch phrase title of a policy or philosophy being offered to see what the policy or the philosophy is actually intended to do. There is no safe harbor in a name or title as a reassurance or belief that can be taken just by it's name as I have shown these last two days. My rule of thumb for the last many decades has been to be skeptical of everything Republicans offer by way of policy since I know their agenda is to help the wealthy few either keep their wealth or to increase their wealth at the expense of the vast majority of us working folks. Democrats have been far more helpful as the party that either protects the workers or increases our opportunities for a better life but regardless, I check them all for more than the name they attach to the legislation they are trying to turn into law.

Republicans named their cheap labor legislation, "right to work", in order to fool people (#2218)

This is something that the media is falling for head over heals. They report about disruptions to "right to work" legislation, which makes those disrupting look like anti work advocates, which is the wrong impression. Those protesters are protesting the legislation for what's in it, not what it is named. The media is helping the legislation by calling it what it isn't. It is legislation that is forcing out unions as representatives of the workers so that owners of large businesses and corporations can pay lower wages. It is legislation securing lower wages for workers. If people were aware that the legislation will make workers struggle even more in our current oppressive income inequality society, they would be getting the right impression of the legislation. A good rule of thumb is to always be skeptical of any legislation Republicans are pushing that affects workers pay and benefits. Republicans are the cheap labor party and everything they ever introduce as legislation will not divert from making us all into cheap labor workers. They believe that if we are all left with little to gain and no governmental social programs to help the vulnerable that we are getting what we deserve. Republicans think that most who are not wealthy are inferior human beings and unworthy of their time and resources. Their mindset is a survival of the fittest one from our long ago past. As long as they can get cheap labor for their benefactors then having us all work for cheap labor increases an already much too wide income inequality dynamic. Greed and power are their goals not raising the living standard of our citizenry. This country belongs to all of us not just the wealthy and their boot licking sycophants. Working folks voting for Republicans and their agenda is like working hard all day and then expecting nothing for your labor. It is mostly accomplished through tricks like naming cheap labor legislation right to work.

To be civilized is to progress not regress (#2217)

You have to decide whether or not you want to be civilized. You cannot do anything else until you decide what you want. Do you want to live like a barbarian or do you want to live like an enlightened person? It is fundamental to every decision you make and every act you generate. it seems that too many want elements of both but that is where contradiction and chaos live. Logic dictates that being of two minds on the same issue is irrational. This is how the ridiculousness of cognitive dissonance flourishes. I prefer to be civilized myself. For one thing it is rational and not given to brute force. If I had wanted to live by barbarianism I would have foregone this blog and instead been out taking what I wanted without any care to my actions or the consequences others were left to deal with. I would not accept the law of the land as my guide for living, rather I would be skirting the law enough to get what I wanted without getting caught. The ancient form of barbarism wont fly today so a more subtle form of it is required to exist in a society that would be ripe for my picking. That is what many are doing now, subtly inculcating barbarisms into their illusory civilized lives. Again, a form of cognitive dissonance rampant in our society. This speaks to the overall dysfunction our society is experiencing and the lack of will to remedy these ills as policy. Progress has been tainted as a weakness and an ailment to be avoided. There are too many with much to much power trying desperately to take us back to the days when life was hard. They care not that they never experience the hard they are thrusting everyone else towards. But it doesn't matter to them because our pain and suffering only benefits them more. Be what you want but at least give yourself the dignity to know what you are before you do what you do.

Too many are only small picture people (#2216)

How we are supposed to live is to take care of our small picture lives while not losing focus on the bigger picture. Our small picture lives are our daily dealings and how we input ourselves into society. Our bigger picture lives involve how we help to improve our society and our futures. The problem we have now is that too many folks are only vested in securing their own lives without caring enough about our society as a whole. A lot of it has to do with not having the education and experience to grasp a wider and more panoramic perspective. In other words, a lot of us don't know what is going on around us because we haven't had enough exposure to many different cultures and ways of doing things outside our own experiences, beliefs and acceptances. We don't have a comprehensive understanding of how our society has evolved over the centuries nor do we care enough to learn. It seems that living in the moment and taking advantage of every opportunity is more important than what the consequences of our actions are permitting. I know the world at large is a daunting thought but we humans have always been the ones who discarded sedentary ways in favor of being bold explorers. The thirst we have for knowledge is currently being quelled by economic factors that have most of us down to scrambling for our next meal instead of our next great discovery. This is why I rail so hard against the current forces that have us locked in a battle against each other for the few resources the many of us have to share. Too few have too much and none of the rest of us have much of a chance to redeem our better selves during our lifetimes. We must recognize that most of us are living in a small box and we need to break out of the box in order to see the greater world around us.

Why won't Republicans vote to extend equal rights to women? (#2215)

From the equal rights act that is still not ratified to the unfairness in pay women experience compared to men for doing the same work, I cannot understand why Republicans refuse to offer solutions to these obviously denigrating problems women face. You would think that since every man has a mother to thank for his very existence that it would be inherent within him to do everything to make a mothers life here in America at least equal to his. Since it is only Democrats who are working to make women equal it begs the question as to why Republican men and women don't offer their ideas toward a solution for women. It appears that in the vacuum provided by Republicans in not offering a solutions it is for me and others to question Republican motives. I have not heard any response from them that would lead me to believe they are working toward equal rights for women. So I must assume that they are not working toward equal rights for women. If not then, why? I can further assume that they think that equal rights for women is not needed given the laws we have on the books now except that those laws do not provide equal rights for women with men. So that is not it. If they still think that women are are legally equal with men then they are illogical. To be illogical in the face of facts denotes a further ulterior motive since rational people must accept facts as truth. So to continue it seems that Republican men and women see another purpose to keep women in a lower legal standing than men. There must be some benefit to the Republicans that keeping women as lesser legal souls gives them. Surely women are more democratic in their politics and women are also pioneers in a just and fair society. Could it be that Republicans are afraid that giving women equal rights will destroy the political power that Republicans crave above being good stewards of our democracy?

Doubt is not the same as fear (#2214)

Having a doubt about something or being hesitant to act on something is not actual fear, it is a caution to act that needs more information in order to have a considered opinion. Fear is the inability to act when knowing full well that an act is required on your part. The "frozen effect" or an unwillingness to stand up for oneself or others, that is fear. I often have doubts about what will come and how things will end up but I don't let my doubts stop me from acting. I may want to hide my head in the sand and let the events of the day just have their way with me but I won't do it out of a respect for my own individual right to choose how I live. If being the master of my own destiny makes me feel uncomfortable or not connected to a safe harbor then so be it. Reality dictates the events that confront my life not me dictating to reality what events will confront my life. The whirligig of circumstance is at it's own pleasure whether driven by coincidence or manipulation. However it ends up at my door I cannot let the factors of it displace me from acting according to my own sense of right and wrong. I cannot allow anything to bully or persuade me against my own judgment, regardless of the consequence. Nothing in life will protect me from unfairness or harm unless I am willing to stand up to it in all areas of my life. Being afraid or scared through fear is how many would like you and I to react to their conniving. But as much as fear is their greatest weapon we allow them to use, I will not do so myself. I will stand firm against their threatening efforts to "herd" us one way or another. Although I may have doubts about what to do that is right in all cases I am sure that me being more informed before I act is the proper thing to do. Never shall I give in to the temptation to run from a fight out of a convenience. Fear is not to be allowed to succeed when the hesitation of doubt can be overcome with a greater understanding.

People are not commodities (#2213)

This whole economic monster we have created is being morphed into a Leviathan that chews up and spits out a majority of humanity to serve the wishes of a too few cabal of individuals and groups. The fact is that capital entrepreneurialism has taken over the leadership of society even displacing democracy as the number one sanctified paradigm. It seems that making money is more important that living in a just and free society. The only way this could be happening is if we citizens lack the will to fight against the forces of greed and have lost our courage to put down those who would take our pursuit of happiness and make it their own. Now some may say that they have enough to be happy but what is left after the wealthy few have taken the most is barely sufficient for some and only table scraps for most. Why would we allow this to happen to ourselves where we are competing against ourselves for leftovers when the few wealthy are feasting on the best of what we have become? The master/servant paradigm is becoming our new/old reality. How is it that we could regress in just a few generations from liberating the world through a hard fought blood and guts determination from fascists, to being such weak souls who are scared of our own shadows? The will to preserve the mighty victories over subjugation won by our forefathers/mothers is now just insignificant in our more important lives. What could be more important in our lives that would allow us to be taken over by the forces of greed? Hopefully it is just not being aware, but even that speaks to the insignificance we are willing to give our history and respect for what those in the past have given us. If it has more to do with us being disinterested then we have a bigger problem. Either way we are about to lose our democracy and in it's place we are allowing ourselves to become commodities in a market where the wealthy few decide what our happiness will be.

Solitary man (#2212)

Yes, this is me and apparently that is the way I like it. Everything has been up to me to do in my life and there are no excuses for me to rationally make as to why I am not in a lasting relationship. I know that when I was very young and saw all the failed relationships around me I made a pact with myself to not enter into any marriage without being absolutely in love and have love returned to me in the same way. It seems that I am still holding myself to that pact as over the years I have been in intimate relationships but none seemed to carry that simple test to fruition for me. It isn't that I had hoped they would fail, contrarily, I had given some of them more benefit when doubt was obvious. But in the end none could measure up to my hope for that pure love desire. Solitary man is now who I am and although whenever there is time left in one's life it is always possible for things to change my own perception is that I have become so set in my ways it would be near impossible for some woman to find her true love in me. Which for me tells me that the younger in life we can find what I like to see as our own soul mate the better chance we have of the lasting relationship of our desires. Although this conclusion is not what I had hoped for as an outcome when I was just that young boy who gave his thoughts to this, I am also content that I had the chance to set my course on a path that didn't fall short of it. I never wanted to be like all those I saw early in my life who married for reasons other than true love. Most all failed and the few that didn't still demand a lot angst instead of a lot of happiness. Some have found what they were looking for after some failure and for that I still find hope for myself regardless of the odds being stacked against me. However my life in the end turns out I have done what is right and if being a solitary man is my reality than so be it.

Quit being cowards and demand what is right and good! (#2211)

Too much fear here in America. It is everywhere in every state and county. The Republican party has spent billions of dollars to persuade folks that they should be afraid instead of being courageous. Well I am here to say be courageous and demand what is right and good for our society. All of us citizens deserve the right to vote, deserve the right to have a job, deserve the right to health care and deserve the right to an objective education. We are all family here whether the Republican party wants to admit it or not. I am sick and tired of Republicans splitting us apart with their policies of segregation and denial of rights. What they are doing to women is especially heinous. They treat women more as property than as our equal mothers and sisters. What gives them the right to tell us that some of us are better than others of us? It is an arrogance of wealth and power that they protect and nothing out of logic or common sense will persuade them to change their way of thinking. So they continue to propagandize us with divisiveness and fear. It is up to us to reject it and to advocate back at them that we are all deserving of opportunity, not just some of us. We all are invested in making our country prosperous and efficient while providing for our basic human needs. We are a country poised to advance creative technology and innovation to all sectors of our society in order to modernize and mobilize our greatest strengths, our compassion and our curiosity. Never before in the history of humankind have we been so ready to throw off the shackles of intolerance, superstition and indifference. But one final human attribute is required before we can move forward into our destiny. We must find the courage within all of us to stand firm for enlightenment and to call out fear for what it is and then triumph over it.

Conservatives don't care, they are waiting for the rapture (#2210)

When we talk about the horrible atrocities and looming climate disaster we are creating conservatives just shrug it off like it is natural for them to take place. You see they are waiting for the end times decried about in the Bible. So the more catastrophes and wars the better as they see it. It means they are one step closer to being transported up to Heaven. Most conservatives are highly religious in a few areas of their lives. They do not follow the Bible strictly but conveniently. So when the idea of doing nothing in order to solve our world problems faces them they choose to do nothing and even exacerbate situations to help them along in there destructive path. So much simpler that way because of some promise in some ancient book they hold dear. Going to Heaven before death is such a grand idea to them since they have no courage to live out their lives as exemplary humans. So don't be surprised when Republicans act contrary to science, logic and common sense and say that the climate is supposed to be the way it is and we shouldn't interfere with nature. Although their argument is badly flawed to being absolutely wrong, it does enough to keep them from having to face reality instead of their fantasy. When poverty, hunger and lack of work are rampant Republicans are more secure in the knowledge that the rapture is close. They are trying too hard to make an illusory prophesy come true, instead of being good sovereign stewards of our planet and solving many of the problems we humans continue to create. The puzzlement as to their thoughts and acts are less a mystery now and given that the rest of us have a duty to shut them out of our reality based progressive lives so that we can go about solving problems despite their intransigence, we need to do just that.

Society crumbles when education is devalued (#2209)

Instead of focusing on our ability to create critical thinkers in our education systems, conservatives have decided that critical thinking is not for everyone. they instead have chosen to teach religion as guide to our children's future and belittled science, math, art and history as irrelevant. What these
Republican conservatives hope to accomplish is a robotic mundane society that is dependent upon an elite class of wealthy to instruct them as to how to live. A  mostly two caste society where there are the demigods and the underlings. I suppose it is in the best interests of the wealthy to stake a claim on how society is run if for only the selfish reason of securely maintaining their grip on wealth and power. As that may work well for them it is not in the best interest of the rest of us who must cater to their desires devoid of our own sacrifice. We currently have a society that gives us democratic options for building our society based upon the majority/minority interest, however, we are not long for that as the very small minority made up of the wealthiest are about to usurp our democracy in order to facilitate a plutocracy. Now you may think I am being conspiratorial here but no, I am only following the evidence. Free speech is now money and corporations are now people. Our voting rights are being whittled away through dissembling the voting rights act to onerous voter identification laws. Gerrymandering has given the Republican party an absolute iron grip on the House of Representatives thus assuring that the wealthy continue to have control over how our government spends it's resources. As more and more of our public resources are privatized there is less and less we the people have control over. Where we miserably fail is in our education paradigm, which is being attacked from the wealthy onto the teachers and the curriculum. I am not long for this world as my days are in sunset but it won't be too much longer before our democracy is a thing of the past just like I will be.

We must have a truth in news national law (#2208)

I am beside myself trying to understand how we let this awful situation occur. Instead of punishing those who propagandize our news with misinformation and lies we allow it to happen. As if the effect of misinformation and lies will be of no consequence. It is absolutely insane to think that with our busy lives we would be able to filter these things correctly when there is no official effective legal filter to begin with. It is anti-modern to deny truth in advertising and truth in news reporting to our huge populace when private enterprise controls our media. A double edged sword in effect is always hanging over us with the agenda of the private sector differing from the concerns of our overall community and no buffer from untruths. We have gone too far in allowing free speech to contain the speech to lie as well as capital being given the definition of speech. What we have is a perfect opportunity for false news to inundate our public airwaves in the hopes of keeping us from any cohesive response to stop it. The wealthy who own the networks that broadcast in all mediums their ulterior motives through dissembling have effectively cornered the market on how we think about the subjects of the day. We are now being led by their ability to manipulate the news to serve their purposefully dishonest intent. Instead of us learning how the news of the day integrates into our own lives we are being told how it integrates into our own lives. Big difference! If we cannot reclaim our rights to truth in news and stop and reverse the effects of money as speech, we will soon find that we have given over our rights to establish our own conclusions based upon the truth and become more and more just servants of those who demand more and more from us.

The truth may be hard but lies are worse (#2207)

Once we each accept the fact that life is hard and no amount of sugar coating that is going to change it the sooner we can accept the truth and adjust our perspectives accordingly. It may seem like it is best sometimes to tell a lie in order to avoid a great harm but in the end the lie ends up being the greater harm. Maybe not in the same way but in that the truth is not exposed for what it is and it changes how we think and act without it. The first part of what I am saying here is that life is hard. It is hard and so are the realities we end up with. But not acknowledging that is the first step away from our real existence. We start out living in the truth if we are ever going to make something of our abilities. We rely on comprehensive facts and truths to be able to begin to understand the how and why we exist in the first place. Surely we can rely on myth, superstition and belief systems if we prefer but none of these is fact that is provable. I need proof beyond faith in something because I am a reasoned human being who like all the rest of us have the curiosity to want to know that which I don't know. I cannot just accept things as facts without verifying them to some degree of authenticity. If I were I would be gullible to any convenient lessening of the hard, life really is. I will not live in a world that provides more illusion than actual substance. I was born into this reality and in this reality I will base my understanding. I don't need someone to lie to me to make me feel better or to save me from some dismal reality. I just need the truth so that I can make conclusions based upon reason and analysis. I wish we were all so convicted in our principles to just accept what is and to make the best of it based upon what we know to be factually true.

The journey to being a good person keeps me going (#2206)

I know I am heading in the right direction but not so sure about where I will end up. Regardless though, for me it is in the how I live my life and not so much what I have achieved. Being a good person is simple enough if we dedicate ourselves to doing so. Most people think they are good people and right they are in a lot of ways but to be a good person in most all ways, one must really focus on what one is doing all the time. You can't just say that most of the time you are a good person while some of the time not being one and still consider yourself to be a good person. It doesn't work out in an equation that just involves quantity, it also involves quality. Like those who are suffering from oppressive political actions by an oppressive political party yet continue to vote for the political oppressors. That is absurd and less than good, even if everything else you do is good and welcoming. For one thing it is contrary to goodness for you to vote for ones who have harm as their intention. Secondly it is for all the others who also must suffer for your decision to put or keep those in political power who fail at being good. This really is simple folks, it doesn't take a highly evolved education to understand. When some folks continue to harm it is not to be allowed. Simple enough. Being good is when you feel good about yourself and good about others in equal amounts. You know you have hit upon a balance that is fair and equitable. This has been the path I have been traveling, not just to be a good person but to be a good person to as many as possible while remaining good to me. it is a journey that will take all of my life to complete but it will be fulfilling and rewarding because in the final analysis, being good is a state of mind and if that isn't the state of mind that everyone wants to attain then it sucks to be them.

I have faith in honor, respect and humility (#2205)

When asked what I believe I respond with I have faith in our better natures. I have the results of the better nature of humanity in my own life. There are bright and clear memories in my life, no matter how long in the past they occurred, that are sacred and molded me into the man I am today. Some of these memories were crafted by persons of little distinction but nonetheless as powerful as any person could be as an example. I truly am a defender of the human species in all our forms against the vile that would demean and subject us because as a species I have seen our magnificence and humility in numerous ways which have touched my very soul to the core. The breach in the wall of my inner defenses is eternal now. I have no more time for the caution and fear of cynicism. I know what we all have inside us, the makings of a superb human being. Yet we are all so chaotic about how we find it within us to be such a person. The problem occurs when we fail to trust what is best about us. We think that being the great person we are inside leaves us vulnerable to those who would take advantage of our majesty. So instead we hide behind familiar walls of protection so as not to leave ourselves vulnerable. I get that and for too long my own pride kept me from being honest and open about my need to live as an honorable man. I now know that such silliness on my part was just fear, and having defeated my fear to be a real human being is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I have clarity of purpose now and a stubborn willingness to express my principled conviction in the face of indifference and incorrectness. These are the things I place my faith in, humanity and it's better nature. I am so proud of us as human beings and could be even more proud if we would just set aside what is not best about us and concentrate on what is.

The hard choices in life (#2204)

A friend has reminded me of how I am torn between how we survive. We often must kill those who are trying to kill us and live with it. I hate killing, it is barbaric and mostly fueled by hate, yet the choice whether to let someone or something take our lives at their discretion will not be tolerated by me. I will live with the guilt of deciding to kill if that is the final choice I have. neither will I wait for the intent to kill me to come to me. I will seek it out if left with no hope for another possibility. A very hard choice but we live in a hard world as we are so often reminded. I wish it were not so but it is not up to only me. For any chance of peace to be our normal we must get past those who want to only war. Most warring is horrible and should never be entered into unless it is for the defense our right to exist. There are those out there who only have one mission, to kill us as a society. They are extremists who wish to take personal liberty and freedom and destroy it. I will not let go of the dream of our forefathers/mothers who gave their lives defending their right to self-determination. never! Even if it offends my conscience. Peace will only be gained through strength of not only power but of conviction. At no time shall those soul less ones ever have dominion over me. I will kill to protect against the ravages of the barbarians wherever they show there existence. Whether here in my front yard or halfway around the world, they will feel no safe harbor from my wrath if they choose to kill to subject us. I am of one mind about this and for years have evolved to this point. The sickness in our world is fueled by hatred, prejudice and greedy small minded people. These are ills that need to be wiped out but until they are they continue to foster extremism and the twisted souls who try to carry it out.

At the age where getting to the point is crucial (#2203)

Nothing in my life nowadays is worth wasting time on. When I was younger and dumber than I am now I was of the mindset that time was infinite. As I look in the mirror and reflect on where the hell did time go, I know that nothing is infinite especially time for me. So all that I do nowadays is succinct and to the point. The idea of subtlety is not a priority especially when it involves the truth. I don't consider hurting or not hurting someone's feelings at the expense of the truth to be much of a factor. Surely in moments of crisis and such subtlety is necessary but for the run of the mill daily adventures we humans find ourselves in there is no time like right now. Such it is in my public life and my personal life. The hard truth is the better tonic than a "don't hurt their feelings" lie. Also, in the personal arena it is better to get to the point with relationships than to "beat around the bush" with childish behavior. I am hardening up as I get older and that is a good thing. Now I am not a rock but I have little tolerance for the worst of our natures. We control what we can be and to make excuses or accept outdated paradigms as our guides is intolerable to me. That is my choice. So let reality exist as it is without us being afraid to own it. Life really is too short and not living our lives with a sturdy determined desire to experience it then what is the point? I have not forsaken my care for ourselves and all things but I have no time to waste on disingenuous emotions, thoughts or acts. I want to call everything in my life what it is without the apprehension that I will offend or lose out because I said it like it is. I accept that others will not want to hear what goes against their grain such as it is but I can't be swayed by those who refuse to be logically objective, they only slow me down and cause me to waste time, which is expressed by this posting as NOT to be allowed.

Conform or break the mold (#2202)

There seems to be no short supply of those of us who are willing to conform to whatever process has been laid out in front of us. We feel a duty to conform to what others have decided is best without us knowing the wherewithal of the decision making processes behind it. A sort of blind trust given to those who are more powerful and louder than we are. I get that because life is more complicated than ever and some things need to be left to the system we have in place to help guide our thoughts and actions. But when is it necessary to question the system for it's decisions if ever? I simply apply a protocol to anything that seems irregular to me, does it do no harm? Usually that one little question reveals a massive amount of information for me to base a decision. Second, if the do no harm is not enough to objectively allow me to see my unsettled feeling about whatever is troubling me then I ask does it do the greatest good. Those are my general questions I ask when a policy or a political vision has me scratching my head over it's utility. There is also a specific question I ask when it comes to me or someone personal to me. Must I defy a preferred law in order to save myself or someone close to me knowing that overall the law is better than not having it. Do I nullify what I can see is right generally in order to solve something that is specific? Yes is the answer for me. I will intervene and break the law if it means that a moral dilemma is solved positively. I of course will not deny my wrongdoing, and I will make myself available for any punishment that breaking the law calls for. Yet in my soul I will have done what is right even though I am considered a law breaker. It is the way of our society to maintain a duty to it regardless of any consequence I must face and that is how it should be until we can make better more flexible laws.

Society should never reward bad behavior (#2201)

In a truly remarkable blight on the process of our democracy there are currently 31 states with laws on the books that allow for a rapist to sue for custody or visitation. Think about that for a moment, a woman is violated in her private life and the outcome of that violation gives the violator a say in that woman's life going forward. In what logical thought about fairness or justice does this make sense? When the violator is given rights to intervene in the life of the violated? Apparently in over 60% of our 50 states it is allowed. Now I am having a really hard time here trying to convince myself that we are a civilized society. When we cannot protect the rights of the violated and pass laws that protect the violators. The abomination of this reality has no bounds. This is a perfect example of how far we still need to go to becoming a truly egalitarian society. Our women are subject to laws that are a major disadvantage to them. Nowhere in a democratic society should this be so. Men and women are equal members and any law that puts them at a disadvantage should be abolished. That men who commit crimes of a nefarious and sickening nature are allowed privileges from that outlaw behavior is also an abomination. How is it that these laws that give rapists parental rights continue to exist? Because it is men who have had the reins of power that let it be so. Men who are not worthy of being called honorable protecting men who by their actions are despicable. Our nation needs to wipe clean this slate of laws in the many various states that protect parental rights for rapists, and instead give no rapist ever the claim to being a parent to any child born of their illegal and immoral act.

http://aattp.org/sick-31-states-allow-rapists-to-sue-their-victims-for-custody-or-visitation-rights/

Human life is not property (#2200)

That I even have to say this is unfathomable in this modern time yet it needs to be said because too many sick minded souls are in positions of power within our society. There seems to be a a stale remnant of folks who believe that the survival of the fittest theory is one to be followed, as long as it is in their favor. A greedy sick minded lot that has taken what our society provided for them and turned it against those that would have the same opportunities. Like freedom of one's own body for the purpose of self determination. These unhealthy ones have allowed their egos to rule their lives and as such they see others as products or services just waiting to be used at their discretion. Instead of honoring human life and respecting individual choice within the framework of our civilized society, they want a chaotic wild west society where the rich and powerful control all things, including human life. So instead of advancing principles of modernity within our society, these folks have chosen to abandon core democratic ideals and push for more authoritarian ones. It is as if the ego these folks allow to exist would rather separate the many of us and use us like cattle, to be harvested when profitable and desirous. The sickness they are under is too strong for them to see the error of their thinking so they fight and claw to keep their decaying fever continuing. I used to think that we Americans had a special quality of righteousness and goodness about us that would never allow such a mentality of debasement to exist but I see that an elevated honor to protect the innocent and punish those who create and expand harm is not one of our valued qualities. In fact, it seems that we are less honorable in this area than I would ever have imagined.

Being (#2199)

This is such a difficult paradigm for me to explain about who I am and why I am. I know the who I am for the most part but the why I am is still just a mystery. The who is what is best about me and how I reflect that out to everyone to see. The why is what I have decided to make of myself as a purpose based upon what I know about me. Surely the why is open to different observations with many suggestions available. So instead of wrangling with all the possibilities I am comfortable enough in just examining my traits and applying them as best they are utilized. So the why of me is what I have decided makes the most sense given my biological advantages. Again, I am a biological data processor, with memory and the ability to rationalize, analyze and conclude. My senses give me information for me to turn into knowledge. I, like all of us, am a supreme sensory subject with amazing logical comprehension. Not only that but I am alive and dependent upon my own ability to keep me so. What is even beyond that is my curious nature to explore and discover. So I don't need to be programmed I just think and imagine and then develop an idea. Given what I know and applying it to what could be gives me the ability to find new means of utility. I am not just some plant or animal incapable of survival without direct help. I am a member of the species human being. which is the mightiest species in terms of capabilities ever to have been known to exist. All of that to give us an overview of who we are in relation to any possible reason for why we exist. If we have such capabilities then it suggests very adamantly that we are to use our special natural skills to their greatest efficiency. We also have an emotional component that I call compassion, or more readily, care. With a robotic like ability to discover through the abilities of our curiosity we are also given many levels of love into which we define the soul within of each of us. Being, more than my simple post can describe in one sitting.

When my consciousness is over (#2198)

When my life is over so will my consciousness of it be. I won't be here in my host. My body will be reformed into it's separate particles freed to become attached with any other atoms and molecules out in existence. What I do know is that the time I spent being Carl Clark will be over. Yet I still want to live like it will be a record on the history of humanity. Whether that happens or not is not for me to decide. You see what I want is not the ultimate adjudicator of reality. So how do I reconcile this with my current thoughts and behavior? Easy, I actually believe that my destiny is in how I take what I am and make it into my reality. What I mean here is that I am living who I am. I don't need the idea of a holy book or a list of ideals to live by. I need what is best about what is inside me, in my case the goodness within me, to be exposed as my working premise. I am not naturally a hard and cruel being, on the contrary I am a caring and curious one. That is my essence. So the consciousness I have of this is my purpose. So while I have life here in this existence I am under a duty to myself to utilize what is best about me and to live it. Regardless of whether it all turns into nothingness at the end of my time. I don't need a forced rationalization of some fairy tale about life after death or some hoped for fantasy to allow me to be who I am. I accept that my time is limited and when my time is up I will be no more. Such is the way of this existence and nothing I wish for will change that. What I do instead is celebrate the time I have here by doing everything in my power to be the best of who I am. Yes, I have a complex about being perfect but only in the sense that every moment I live as the best me the better I do to achieve the purpose of my life, no matter how mortally short that time is and no matter that I will not know of it after I am dust. 

I accept who I am with a smile (#2197)

No one is more critical of me than I am on myself. I actually spend too much time critiquing my thoughts and actions against hindsight. A flaw I need to address. Yet it is instinctive of me to see how I measure up against my own sense of right and wrong. But what I have addressed over time is the fact that I am me and no amount of me wanting to be more like someone else is ever going to happen. My life is complex and adjusting and following through on what I think should be done is busy enough work for me. I am not despaired or despondent that my life is what it is, in fact I am reasonably happy that I have such a good mental health approach to my passions and my hopes. When measured against others I am not the greatest nor the worst. I am somewhere in between those two extremes. My life is mine and for that I have a great sense of obligation to it. I do not look to others to see what they have or what they are doing, instead I look inside myself to see what I have and what I am doing. I have all I need to decipher what is going on around me. I have an open mind and an initial respect for all things and beings. I treat others as I would have them treat me. I do no harm to anyone, including myself, as a goal. Sometimes I fail to treat others like I want to be treated and sometimes I harm others but not as an intentional thought or act. I do the best I can with what I have and I keep learning more and more to help me understand our most creative and innovative selves. My life is open for others to see and there is little I won't discuss in hopes of positively impacting the lives of those who are in contact with me. I like myself and who I have become. Really, what more could I ask for? :)

The courage to overcome fear (#2196)

Most all fear is from the idea of death. We know that death will find all of us no matter who we are so being afraid of dying is foolish. Why be afraid of something we will all experience. So any other fears seem rather secondary. Living in this world will cause some minor fears to develop but nothing like the fear of death. So overcoming our fear of death seems to be our greatest obstacle to living. Funny how that works, we spend too much time worrying about dying, which will happen regardless, and not enough time actually living while we have the time. Living in fear is an awful way to live. I prefer to live in possibility. Which means that I allow my curious nature to explore what I don't know even when danger is part of the mix. No amount of living will ever be safe and secure from all harms. So just let nature and our own abilities guide us in whatever progress we pursue, while taking care to use our wisdom and common sense. Fear should have nothing to do with how we rationalize our understandings. Now some may say what are you talking about Carl? What fear is keeping me from living my life? I refer to the fear of the unknown and how we create scenarios to alleviate that fear through institutional beliefs and hoped for faiths. If I believe that a God has my back, I am not dealing with my fear, I am creating an illusion that my fear can continue to exist from because a God is my buffer. A temporary fix for a lack of my own courage to deal with reality because it is so scary. Now I am not saying that having faith in a God is wrong. But what I am saying is that a faith in a God in order to alleviate my fear is wrong. My fear stems from my own inabilities. I must conquer my own fears about life before I subscribe to living it with conviction. We all have our battle with inner fear to fight and the sooner we get on with it the more rational and courageous our lives will be.

Logic is the future (#2195)

Logic is the ability to take what we know and make sense of it. It is the process by which we find common ground based upon known factors. This is what distinguishes us from all other life forms. We can reason, analyze and conclude based upon truths and givens. Is logic perfect? No, but when we find fallacies we are able to correct them and then keep moving forward. Logic is our floor from which to begin. Metaphorically, if we find we have risen above our floor with a theory and cannot defend our position, then we are able to go back to the beginning where we first began our theory and restart with another one. Logic gives us the firm foundation of beginning. It is in the knowing that we have a floor from which we won't fall below is what logic does for us as long as we accept logic as our reality. Now many have chosen not to follow logic and have instead chosen to follow some belief system based upon faith. The problem arises when faith is not the answer to what our current problems require. If I have the faith that not breathing will still keep me alive, I will soon learn that not breathing will end me regardless of the faith I put into it. We need logic to help us understand this. We know that oxygen is required by our lungs to feed our blood and therefore maintain our ability to stay alive. This is a logical understanding. So keeping oxygen coming into our lungs is necessary for us to be alive. As simple and childlike as this example is it does illustrate just how important it is for us to base our understandings on logic and not just on faith. With logic we are able to create and innovate because logic is a process by which all new information is questioned and integrated into our growing knowledge base. We all can partake of it since logic is not a restrictive utility. There is no denying that logic is the paradigm by which every human may agree on a subject given logic's ability to explain itself based upon facts.

When you can't see the forest for the trees. (#2194)

The old saying is true in my observation of so many people that I need to respond to it. The word comprehensive is a very powerful word. By knowing the meaning of it we get to change our perspective about things that we encounter. Comprehensive is a term used to describe an overview, or the whole version of a situation or problem. I paraphrased here in order to make the definition more easily understood. When we see a situation or problem in it's entirety we are better able to assess it's virtue or lack thereof. When we don''t apply comprehensiveness to these scenarios we are only catching a snapshot of the situation or problem and our opinion about a conclusion is less viable since we know less about the entire problem. Then there are those who have an agenda to tear down something good by only pointing out it's inevitable minor discrepancies or they try to build up a fallacious policy by only pointing out it's few virtues and ignoring it's many harmful and unjust effects. Regardless, when a less than full understanding, or an ulterior motive is being used to determine a fact, we are all harmed by the incompleteness or nefariousness of the act. Comprehensiveness teaches us that there is no simple, black or white fix for most problems. Most problems require complex solutions and even then the solutions are not even near perfect. Yet we continue to get those who want something more than an honest debate controlling the narrative of what could be the best paradigm for our futures. They move the narrative away from a full understanding and replace it with what is either convenient for their purpose or a continuance of their tunnel vision like view. Unfortunately, we all suffer by their inability to put a comprehensive understanding to test before they engage in forcing illogical opinions based upon less than all the information.

The anxiety of loss (#2193)

This is an unavoidable subject. Even the expectation of loss is devastating. By loss I mean of a life that matters to us personally. Now I want it to be clear that even loss of life to those lives I have never met leave an indelible mournful imprint on my soul. But for now the loss of someone or some soul that is precious to us has a lingering gut punch feel to it. But even before the loss occurs we go through some form of anxiety as to the dangers out there that could easily deprive us of our desired companionship, A sort of protective mindset becomes our natural conclusion for a solution but in this real world of ours there is no way we can protect from any life the imminent destiny of death. So instead of worrying about loss that has not happened yet, we can judiciously allow for fate to have it's way while celebrating the life that would move on from our existence. Fear is the penultimate guardian of our anxiety yet fear is not the only arbiter available. Joy that we actually have the opportunity to be alive and knowing full well that it is not of our doing that we exist, should be enough to assuage fear from guiding an initial anxiety into a worrisome lifestyle, and instead allow the anxiety to pass with the knowledge that the precious time we have is best left to living with happiness. My life in particular has been an enormous gift to me from something outside my understanding. The mysteries of this existence will not be answered by me in my lifetime but the knowledge that I don't need to worry about it is sufficient. I have had some great souls exist with me for a time and now they are not here anymore. I accept that and accept the loss of it as well. Yet to live in anxiety over the loss of someone now still with me is not honoring them now nor is it healthy for me.