Writing Yourself Back Into Sanity

Gun control. Hang on, hang on! Give this just a moment. Let's use that as an example, as well as address it, just for the moment.

I'm a writer. I write myself into impossible situations in fiction, or my characters anyway. Then I write my (their) way out of it so at first, my reader thinks my character is lost. Then, not lost, but in a fun way. Hopefully.

When I build into those situations both as the author and character God, I try to write cleverly. Whenever I can't, when I'm just as lost as my character (happens all the time, that's the fun of it!), I first have to realize, I'm lost. I consider all the rational, logical, even illogical ways out of the situation or scene, or picadillo. Once I find I have no solution, it's like there's a click, and I realize where I am. Stuck.

That's when it occurs to me to look 180 degrees about in order to see where to go. It's jarring at times. It's counter-intuitive. It's at times humorous. Or feels insane. But then, I ruminate about how to make whatever it is that rises to the surface, to work. Not forcing it, but jostling it about in my mind as mental attachments are formed and then, solutions begin to spark into life. Exercise at times aides that along. Also, removing oneself from the problem. Rest, entertainment (but be careful, that can also be a trap).

So often, that realignment to 180 degrees, becomes the actual and best solution. At times, the only solution.

I first discovered that in my life. With heavy contrast comes obvious elements previously unseen in the situation. Counter-intuitive, like I said. It's not always intuitive. So you have to break out of that mindset you are locked into.

That's what I've meant about conservatives and Republicans of late. They seem to have difficulty with situations that require counter-intuitive solutions or, ways of viewing things. They can'/t see the forest for the trees you might say, so much of the time.

I've shared this 180-degree concept with people over my lifetime and they've been surprised at first how often it works to their benefit in giving them insights or perhaps, outsights. It's a technique for thinking out of the box. Or realizing there was never a box to begin with. Now that's thinking outside of the box.

When I look at guns, the gun situation in this country, gun control, mass shootings, where we are at now...the obvious solution, for a child...is arming everything and everyone. It is an ill-informed, juvenile consideration,.

It is where the, "Only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun" solution comes from. But it sounds like the solution of a five-year-old. Or, the NRA, or the Republican party. Of conservative gun owners and those who cannot see clearly any other solution. Because it's not obvious. It's lost among all the other chatter in the situation.

It's low contrast, obscured because of a reverent almost religious attachment to the US Constitution. Which is not a God. And once you consider the destructive dynamics of a God consideration, outside the blanket goodness attributed by theists to deity worship, one begins to see what is truly there.

Welcome to my world!

Remember a long time ago? Further up the page here when I mentioned getting out of tough creative solutions to fictional problems? Yes, those were the good old times, weren't they? The good old days of a moment ago. Before all this insanity in the world was boxing us about the head and brain, mind and morality. Yet, we really must continue on....

So, to summarize, IF you turn about 180 degrees you can frequently clearly see potential solutions.

And in this case, that is...the reform of gun control laws. Or going further in turning up the contrast levels, a rethinking of the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution. I know, I know, all that and the rest.

If you cannot see that, well...that's how the NRA and the extreme conservative Republican party and how so disingenuously they ard the travesty in the oval office, Donald Trump, have all continued to trick and con us all. To subvert reality to their own ends and not ours.

The solution isn't usually all that hard. It's just hard for some to see. But once it's been seen, you really cannot unsee it. That's the problem with atheists, you see. I went through that myself. I was raised strict Catholic. Old school, old country, old Slovak Catholic. Then I came to understand I was only half that. The other half was Irish by way of my father's family. I realized I was more Irish Catholic. That broke with the old strict traditional Slovak Catholic I had been all my young life. This was about the beginning of high school for me.

There were some other issues that helped me along, which aren't relevant here today about this. But you get the picture. I started looking around. In reading science fiction all my life, brilliants thinkers had given me a methodology to see when you are blinded by your reality and not THE reality. After a decade or so of theistic and philosophical, then college and studies in anthropology, sociology, and a degree in psychology, it all became clear.

Then I had to shake off the remaining vestiges of a lifetime of fear invoked by religious dogma and finally one day, after being a devoted theist, an adamant agnostic, a staunch atheist, I found the reality that wasn't in that box built by humanity and found one that was always there in form, a part, and parcel of the universe itself.

That is when one has to act.

That has been nearly impossible.

But times are now a changing yet again and those who are conning us are on the way out. Demographics are changing starting to fit a reality we have lived for some time now. We just have to open our eyes, our minds, and take in what is there and where we are headed. We can get in front of that train and get run over, or we can help it along and gain the love and respect of all those feeling abused because we refuse to see them or...to respect them. In ways they know, they deserve.

We will all one day, our descendants will one day, all look back at now and marvel at how really damned stupid we were and for so very long.

Really, it just takes courage.

And being honest about what is and what isn't, If only or even for a moment as we study it, we can see what is there without us in the picture. Then put us back in and see how we truly fit into what is and what has been. And what we haven't been able to see. For whatever reason.

Whatever it takes. And if that is looking about oneself 180 degrees, or counter-intuitively, so be it. Or if you have another way, one THAT WORKS, great! Use it. But do...use it!

Because we have to stop not seeing what is there and start seeing what others can clearly see while we refuse or simply cannot see it. Or see it all.

Especially when the solutions were there, staring us all right in the face.

Choosing to Over Complicate Life

Literally...OMG! Really? Sinead O'Connor converts to Islam.

Is there something wrong with people who choose an overly complex way of living from what they have known all their lives? Or to switch to what is seemingly the opposite of who they always have been?

If it does them some good, if it makes their lives AND the lives of those around them better, well, that's what living in a free country is all about. They should be able to involve themselves in their choices as deeply or as superficially as they wish. Not to be murdered or even abused for "not doing it right." By whose judgment?

There is a concern today that some of us find it easier to change who we are, rather than do the difficult work on finding out why we can no longer be who we have been, and making that work. IS it better to destroy your history than to work with what is there?

It does sound very...Republican. Very, conservative. Lazy, even...childish. Counter-intuitive even, which conservatives seem to have a fundamental issue within their ideologies.

To destroy who one is for that which really isn't necessary or even, better? Doing what you have never done, sometimes does tend to sound better to immature, lazy or unsophisticated minds.

But that is separate from those who truly do have a reason and a need to do so. And they should be supported. There is a process, their are professionals whose job it is to help these indivdiuals and see they choose the right path...for them. Not you. Not me.

There is a curious thing about all that, however.

Because we are seeing some people especially on the conservative side of things, who have built up very complex mental structures within themselves, resulting in some very unsophisticated ways of thinking.

Essentially spinning their mental wheels, experiencing a massive amount of effort for rather simplistic ways of viewing life. Self-serving ways of viewing life. All at the expense of others who need help, while too many have rationalized their way out of offering that help.

We see it frequently anymore in the conservative mindset. It gives the illusion of one being better than, of being more knowledgeable than, of being more right than...even when reality correctly differs, and which to others, to outsiders, it is clearly seen to be incorrect.

I'm not saying Sinead is wrong in her choices. But it is interesting to note, as well as something we are seeing a lot of lately in Trump supporters and within the conservative and Republican bubbles.

It is indeed so much harder to change for the better what you have than to tear down and rebuild with the mentality, so often incorrect, that the "grass is always greener on the other side." It is often a misperception. Often the mindset that leads to marital affairs. Or to Republicans voting for someone like Trump, because "he's not the same old politician." Utterly disregarding the damage Trump could and has done. Or apparently, his entire business history.

The unfamiliar always seems different than, better than, the reality of being a part of it.

To many it is fearful. To some it is attractive.

Either way, its consideration does indeed add to the flavor of life. Certainly, for those who can accept themselves and better who they are, in starting from their foundation of a lifetime of experience and history, they are ahead of the game. Over that of always beginning again in a kind of ongoing dissociative state of mind and lifestyle. We all know those people who it seems every time you meet them, they are trying to be something they've never before been.

Am I against it? No, not really. As I said, we live in a free country. And that is incredible, awesome, we are the envy of much of the world because of it. We are also hated for it by some, mostly religious elements. ISIS comes to mind.

It's so much better than living in a restrictive country. To have the freedom to live however you wish to. To change as you like, when and as frequently as you like. Although we do live now in an America where one political party wishes to force all others to live how they see things are best. Which the rest of us see as truly defective and at times destructive.

But there is also something to be said for sticking with what you have, who you are, and making that better. Living as an example for those who cannot change. And to make better your culture, your way of life, over abandoning it to others to do the heavy lifting. That is a basic tenant of many if not all religions. So there may be something to it.

Of course either way, one must first make oneself functional and productive. Because if you cannot first achieve that, you will continue to flop around and spin your wheels going in circles and repeating the same questionable behaviors over and over again. Which we see in the conservative mindset so very often.

We need productive people who can add to humankind, to our country. So that whatever it takes, we need to become whole. To add to all our lives. And to our own.

Only you know what is best for you, or you should. Just be sure that you do, and that you are not simply taking, not just the path less taken, but the path best suited, for yourself.

As for Sinead? Well, don't be surprised if we find her changing yet again someday. Some of us just never can be satisified. And that, is our main goal in life. Because the journay really is the destination, and the destination, is inevitable. Whatever it may turn out to be.

The End is Nigh... But Not How You Might Think

What is the first stage of religious freedom?

No, ot freedom to worship your religions of choice.
No, not freedom to have many religions in a country.
But true religious freedom.
Free of religious thought, constraints and diatribe.

We have here in the United States of America seen an upswing in mostly Christians openly speaking out (other religions are probably afraid to speak out because of them) about their religion. In some cases they demand to be given total freedom in this country for their religion in order to spread the "Word" to everyone, through government and therefore down onto the heads of the people. Believers and unbelievers alike.

Why? Why is this happening?

First off, some people have tried reading the Bible. And became atheists.

The religious, that is theists, have had to live in shame for a long time. Good people just didn't share their religion outside of their home, their tribe, their church, their religion. Back in the 1970s however we started to hear from these people about the word of Jesus Christ. And that opened a flood gate. People began to realize that this was indeed, America. We have freedom here, and the first amendment.

The protests of the 1960s were still fresh in people's minds. Evangelical churches started to get bigger eventually becoming mega churches. Because it enriched their leaders. Some of those who went to prison because of it. Most of them got carried away with it and their rock star status. That even led to some of those leaders enjoying buying sex with their profits.

America

Freedom of Speech.
Freedom to pursue happiness.
Freedom of religion.

That last one has turned into a killer, as we've seen of late. People began to lose their shame about speaking out. The internet increased that euphoria and if there's one thing theists know, it's how to exploit euphoria in their chosen beliefs.

Religion loves putting shame upon people. Like in the Catholic Church with its concept of "Original Sin" that you are born born with. A sin that was passed down from Adam and Eve. Because Eve ate a piece of fruit and talked Adam into it.

The creation of "confession" in the Middle Ages (AKA, the Dark Ages) allowed some priests an amazing amounts of power and leeway in their potential for blackmail of prominent citizens. That is, the ability to "convince" people of doing their bidding, "for the Lord."

You are therefore born losing and so are beholding to the Church to save you. You have to be brought into the Church as an infant through baptism, thus washing away your "sin" and avoiding ending up in at very least, Limbo. Pretty ridiculous. But it begins "The Shaming".

Once you realize that isn't a concern, then you can speak outwardly and openly.

The trouble is that once you begin to lose your shame, you also begin the long journey of losing your religion. So the 1960s for many was the beginning of the end. Though it really began long before that. This was just its coming out in public, openly, therein laying the foundation for the public origin of the reason of what we're seeing today.

Intelligence, education, even the Internet, are all antithetical to religion. Religion teaches to not think too much about its teachings or else it quickly evaporates in a puff of logic.

Religion has to reward ignorance.

So here we are today with new a generation, a new population of religious ignorants and emboldened shameless people.

It is the beginning of the end of religion but, they cannot see this... yet.

Go out into the wild and fatally wound a wild animal. Let it lay there in pain as it dies. Then try walking up to it and poke its wound.

Would you do that? No? Why not? Because it would be dangerous? Because it is dying, in pain and in its death throes? Because it is using all its power in a binary all or nothing attempt to protect itself at all costs? Yes, quite so.

We see this in many of the religious and religions today. We are seeing the spiritual death throes of many of the religious and many of their religions. It is merely matter of time now that will disintegrate in a serious of half lifes, like with radioactive decay.

Some are dying slower than others, some are younger than others and so will have further to go before they fall. So they will seemingly be around forever, and yet they will be zombie religions. Much as it is now with many, who believe but do nothing about it.

It is happening now all around us.

Religious death cults are not helping things much, in groups like ISIS and other Islamic based death Jihadi type groups. Although all the desert Abrahamic religions are really death oriented and capitalistic in nature. You receive your "just rewards" after death in going to heaven. You receive more of something in death for something lesser in life and so isn't death rather attractive? Proximity to the Lord in Heaven, or 72 virgins, or whatever.

Islamic extremist Jihadis have certainly keyed into that one.

Christian right wing types and apocalyptic versions of religions are looking all the time more the fool to mature rational people. They exemplify the worst religion has to offer and in their actions showcase their ignorance and even that of others who normally are more rational, albeit still religious creatures. Most use it as a method for what they could do with other forms of thought but find beauty in ancient religions. So it's an aesthetic choice.

Still the first signs are in seeing their lack of shame in public, and their inability to any longer be humble. To maintain one's religion in a private belief should require no support from others. It should require no one other than those in one's chosen religion in order to maintain or alter their lifestyles because of their beliefs.

And yet, we are seeing that happening just about everywhere. It will pass, though with time.We are seeing the adolescent phase of religious belief as humanity grows beyond the need for religion as a race of beings. So far we have advanced through paganism, Polytheism, into monotheism and finally in the closing chapter, we will see the advent of atheism spreading far and wide to be replaced by rationality, science and reason.

We see it now in religions in people being of their religion identifying with it (frequently out of fear to do otherwise) while not actively practicing their faith. A good sign that they treat it lightly. Then they get upset when called out about it, as they fear being outed. But to whom? God? Others? Society in general so they have to admit the demise of their beliefs?

What is sad and curious is we began with atheism. Before we even knew what we were doing we had fallen into giving ourselves over to fantastic explanations of the mundane, what really required only simple scientific explanations for and that we did not have, yet.

It is as if we decided to take a boat out from a lakeside dock we are standing on. We decide through new beliefs presented to us, to walk all around the lake first, only then we find our way to other lakes, as more people show up and convince us they are the ones with the magic. Until finally we arrive right back to what had been directly in front of us to being with. That which was in fact originally right under our feet, all along.

Well, at least we're finally getting there.

We just need to continue for the time being to help others along. Those who are still struggling with finding that dock. While there are many fishermen already out on the lake enjoying themselves and having far less trouble existing than the many, than those who are simply lost and continuing to think they have to find some magic element in life.

Even though it is right there before them.

It is and has been, as the Buddha said, always right there before you and within you. You have merely to see it, to recognize it. It's no magic elixir, no magic fix, no ghost in the sky. It's you. You just have to not be so scared that you cannot see it there, right there before you.

Don't worry. We'll get there.

As long as we don't destroy ourselves over literally nothing along the way.

JZ Murdock, who? A brief biography.

Who exactly is JZ Murdock? Who am I and why do I hold the beliefs that I do? How were they formed? Why does it even matter?

Well, it very well may not matter. I won't go into all of it, but perhaps some of it.

I am a writer. Not unlike many of us I have lived various lives, I have saved a few lives. I'm happy to say that I have gotten this far and have yet to kill anyone. Though I have had my moments when it may have been justified.

I am a published author (since 1990) with print, ebook and audiobooks available. I've studied screenwriting at my Western Washington University where I got a degree in psychology and I worked for years at another, the University of Washington. I'm still working on my screenwritings and I've started working again on film productions.

Cover art by Marvin Hayes

I wrote the horror sci fi book, Death of heaven. But why? How does someone come to be so against religions to even write a book titled as this one, where the "h" in "heaven" is lowercase. That "h" actually has more to do with the story than my personal beliefs. I spent the first half of my life surveying, studying, even though a university psychology degree going back into the origins of religion. How it came to be, how it could come to be.

Across the humanities and sciences, across the evolutions of religions, until I found what seemed the most reasonable explanations and I came to find it is simply a form of thought that can be far better achieved for whatever it has offered humanity through other and far better formats not requiring a deity or any consideration of ridiculous and far fetched fantasies.

Religions were invented by men. For all the good that religions have achieved, because of their format and structure they have allowed, at times supported, and overall allowed and put great evil upon the world.

For every point that theists point to how great religions have been, it all could have been achieved in a far more rational, safe and sane way; undercutting those claims of necessity, reality or relevancy by theists. Humankind has been addicted to religion and it's high time we grow out of our childhood mythologies and into our rational adolescence as a whole.

The story I devised in Death of heaven is quite a story and not for the faint of heart or the simple minded. It is a complex and hybrid tale told in a unique way, multi-layered with multiple-dimensions. An unusual book of fiction that I'm rather proud of. Aside from the obvious, there is nothing in that book that hasn't been done to humans or humanity by religions or the religious, at some point through our history.

I am against killing and humans causing other humans misery. Especially if it is through some form of belief, faith or religion. No one should ever die because of a religion. No one should ever die or be maltreated because of a belief system. Especially not one founded in myth and magic.

More Hard Hitting Words From The Dalai Lama About The Mass Brainwashing Of Society

If you've visited my Facebook page you'll notice a certain attitude against terrorists and abuse by one human or set of humans against another and that might make you wonder. How did that ever come to be? I've been very vocal against terrorists since 9/11 to a point that some have worried for me.

But we have to speak out against injustice and ignorance, foolishness and stupidity.

Light kills evil. Silence fertilizers it.

So how did this all come to be?

I had a pretty good but at times rather rough childhood. Partially because of ADHD. My parents weren't highly educated but bright people. Though my father was an electrician. Not a dumb guy but then, I didn't grow up with him after three, I only got his genes for the most part. My mother was kind of flaky at times but a loving if not occasionally somewhat nutty woman, though with a great sense of humor.

I got into trouble a lot. I got grounded a lot. So eventually I found books and the public library, including the adult section in fifth grade and then books by Aristotle and others. Something that was a great benefit to me overall but a great detriment in trying to fit into the 1960s as a child.

Some adults back then started to think I was nuts because I would say things that the world and history has long ago judged correct and brilliant. I remember in fifth grade saying something once and my stepfather, a harsh guy who wasn't my biggest fan, had said was stupid and asked where I hear that from?

I said, "Aristotle." He asked, "Who's that." Somewhat stunned at his ignorance and trying not to embarrass him and in doing so feel his wrath, I simply said, "A guy from 2,000 years ago." To which he responded, "He's an idiot."

Taking a chance and trying to restrain my irritation in  having already read what a boon to humanity Aristotle had been I said, "Maybe so, but people all through history, [I hesitated, then pushed it further knowing I was justified] all around the world have based how we think on his words."

That ended that particular "discussion". From that moment on I realized I was learning more than he knew about and it spurred me on. While he realized from then on I was someone to be even more wary of.

Some adults around that time started asking my opinion in making decisions in their own life as they thought I seemed for some reason to make a lot of sense. But not the family. Never my family who only thought as my sister liked to put it, that I was "weird". I was. I thought I was weird too. And I couldn't figure out why any adult would listen to me. A kid. I knew I must be onto something.

The downside of my childhood were all mostly mental issues really. Berating from those who didn't understand me, from teachers I couldn't satisfy, from a stepfather who according to my mother was jealous of me and found me a pain in the ass.

Having a father who was out of my life from when I was three and we were living in Spain didn't help things. I used to daydream he would come save me from my life.

Our mother picked up this new guy on the way home from Spain who got his jollies for years after in berating me so I learned to stay out of his sight whenever possible. After Spain, after spending a couple of years around our east coast family, our mother dated around and finally settled on this guy and married him.

They had a kid when I was five and brought him back to where I was born in Tacoma, Washington. Even though our mother had been born in Brooklyn, New York. Tacoma for me once we had left, was a place I never wanted ever to go back to. Certainly not after experiencing Spain, Philadelphia, New Jersey and New York.

When we returned to Tacoma in 1960 it seemed even worse than when we had left.

The museum we had visited in Philly had a giant human heart you could walk through the ventricles of. They had a hands on moon exhibit where you could experience what it was like to walk in a lighter gravity. In Tacoma we went to a museum and it was in an old square wooden building with square glass display cases containing artifacts. At first I thought it was some kind of a bad joke. It was light years behind the museum science displayed on the east coast at the time.

We moved each year so I had trouble making friends and got to realize it was useless to anyway as I knew they wouldn't last. Much like a military brat but stepdad wasn't in the military. He just had trouble finding a decent job on a new coast after his having been a big band leader. I always felt sorry for him about that, even though we pretty much hated one another.

Mom had forced him to stop playing music. Who does that? And drinking. She never allowed him to spank us as his anger was too disturbing and she said he didn't know his own strength. I thank her for that. But that meant she was the punisher and would use his belts to whip me with when I was bad. But he's dead now. I recently sprinkled his ashes in the River Liffy in Dublin at my sister's request and against my personal desires.

I got taken down to a Karate dojo in 1965 by my mother because said she was tired of groups of boys beating me up for my big mouth. I'd had a big mouth because I hated seeing injustice and I spoke out whenever I saw it. I can't stand bullies, or people pushing their will upon others. Occasionally I took a beating for it, but it never stopped me speaking out. Not to this day.

My saying "Screw Al Qaeda, screw ISIL, screw ISIS, or screw DAESH", isn't a new thing with me.

They are all slim. Terrorists are scum when they kill, maim and abuse non combatants and they deserve to be called out about it. Their pathetic needs do not weigh a thing in light of the innocents they murder. Just as do the politicians and rich who abuse their status, as well as conservatives, Republicans, or anyone on the other side who abuse through their actions. But then too, there is only so much time in a day. I find I simply can't avoid speaking out when I see abuses.

Something that did however make my childhood... difficult.

I had been taken there earlier and turned down as the Sensei said he didn't take on children. But then we heard he had started to and she took me back. That led to my learning Asian philosophy and to pick up an orientation on how to kill quickly and in so learning that, in also having gained a responsibility to protect others from a confrontation with me to protect them from being killed.

In having gotten grounded a lot I discovered science fiction which opened my mind quite a lot. I'd be sent to my bedroom as punishment but after a while, whenever I got told that I had to try not to look happy about it. Because I would go from being outside or playing in the house where I would get into trouble to going to my room and traveling the universe. I always read only the best and they had good solid ideas to found my young personality on.

I got used to things seldom going right for me. Or of being my own worst enemy in my curiosity or lack of care in being punished for trying new things. I got in trouble in third grade once for repeatedly jumping off the roof of the house. The fall was fantastic even if the sudden stop at the end was a bit of a let down.

In getting poor grades in school I mostly got used to not living up to the standards of my older straight A sister. Years later I heard a CEO give a talk to us in college saying that he preferred solid C students over straight A types. Because he said, when an A student type failed they took it hard, but C student types were used to it and just pushed on through it. That was me.

I got to where I thought outside the box because I had to.

I also had an older brother, seven years older who we seldom saw but who always questioned things. I learned over the years from many of his mistakes. Things I would have done, that he did first, suffered for it and would share his experience to help me avoid duplicating his mistakes.

Our grandmother taught me to always listen to those older and more knowledgeable and not be like many kids who don't listen to their elders, to people who have done it all already. Why not build upon other's experiences and save myself the trouble, to put me further ahead of those who don't listen? That made a lot of sense to me.

My grandmother, my mother's mother, was a great benefit to me in learning critical thinking. She told me when I started reading to always finish a book once you start reading it. Just be sure before you crack that cover that it is a book you want to read.

To this day I can count on one hand the books I haven't finished reading. And I've read a lot of books though I always seek out the best authors and for that matter apply that to anything I did. I have my mother to thank for always seeking out the best teachers in anything I wanted to learn. Grandma taught her to choose experts wherever possible. And I've had more than few.

From that I learned to finish whatever I started and to learn the best forms available and possible.

In eighth grade I started in Civil Air Patrol. CAP is an official auxiliary of the US Air Force. It teaches its young cadets Aerospace technologies and search and rescue of downed small\light aircraft. I took ground school toward a pilot's license in junior high.

We learned base support in taking care of aircraft that flew to locate downed aircraft and locate survivors. We learned communications in two way and HAM radio in how to run radios professionally. We were taught first aid, first responder training. We learned LSAR, Land Search and Rescue techniques, how to travel in the mountains, to locate aircraft and crash survivors and find your way in and out, how to climb cliffs, and so on.

If my mother knew half of what we did she would have had a heart attack. After my first meeting I was told to learn the manual as next meeting they had just received so many new kids I would be in charge of a "flight" of them, half of that squadron. I taught them how to drill, to march in order.

I was raised in a blue collar Union family, Teamsters, as democrats. We were Catholic. Liberals I suppose. But it was a positive life affirming environment which I've only come to appreciate of late as I have learned what Republicans and conservatives are all about and I find it rather distasteful, based in a strange kind of reality that seems to fit only the rich.

My mother had said I was "gun crazy" as a kid in eighth grade. Which may be reasonable when you are adventure loving, mostly stupidly fearless and grew up watching 1950s and 60s cowboy, military\war and cop shows and films. With Vietnam on TV during dinner almost every night a gun seemed like a pretty good idea, even though I grew up in a suburb.

So mom called the police department to ask what to do about me. They suggested getting me access to burn out on my cravings and to learn how to handle guns safely with authoritative and appropriate respect. They suggested a civilian who had a gun club for kids who reloaded cartridges for the Tacoma Police Department to save them money.

They let him use their firing range downtown for his junior gun club and said he was well liked and highly respected and reputable. He was yet another in a long line of men who were second fathers to me, filling in where both of my "dads" had failed. It was in that club that I got my craze under control and learned how to shoot, handle firearms properly and see them as what they are. Tools, not toys. Eventually I got my high school sports letter from being three years on the Lincoln High rifle team.

During nights in high school I worked at a drive in theater where my step father worked as assistant manager. As long as I kept my grades respectable (no one expected As or Bs), I could keep my job and have some pocket money, and then a car in my senior year. I eventually became snack bar manager and worked the box office. I started there picking up the garbage on the field in ninth grade each day after the previous night's showing.

I had what three neurosurgeons said was a nervous breakdown and ended up in the hospital in twelfth grade. They said from what my mother told them it had to do with the tension in my home life and that I needed either to figure out how to deal with it or simply move out. They gave me a prescription of valiums and sent me on my way. I moved out the week after graduation at seventeen into my own apartment, having started a job the day immediately after graduation.

I was up for that job with another kid. I got the job because he wanted to go to graduation party and I underbid him saying I could start the day after graduation, thus killing my going to the Ocean Shores graduation celebration. I later found out that the kids that did go, got corralled by police for a caravan of drunk kids, hanging out of car windows driving around and their parents had to drive the couple of hours to the shore to get them all. So in the end I pretty much got the better deal.

Then I got very sick with bronchitis (something I got about every year) and the doctor required I stay away from the open garage doors of the drive in's snack bar for a month. So I lost my job in a rather underhanded way because the new manager didn't like how my employees listened to me over him. I've received that kind of loyalty from employees ever since, all through my life including in the military.

So that's about it. There is of course a lot more and where I was headed after high school. I've written a biopic, a true crime screenplay about a week in my life after high school where I was a bodyguard for the first (and not last) time, for a stip club waitress who witnessed a mob murder. I have titled it, Teenage Bodyguard. It was a well known murder in 1974. The waitress had a different story that the official one that holds to this day and I may be the only one with the true story of what really happened.

I graduated high school hating my K-12 school experience, because of ADD mostly I suppose. I decided I would graduate and be done with school and never have another thing to do with it. Happily, my life changed, I changed, and I ended up at a university after the Air Force. Eight years to get through four years of college. But then my Vietnam era benefits paid for college, something that otherwise would, could, never have happened.

I was actually talked into going to college by two high school friends who said they could get me into pledge their Zeta Psi fraternity at the University of Washington. But my mother said they simply didn't have the money for that.

There is a wonderful true scene where I spent a night there at the Zeta Psi house in Seattle during the Christmas season so I could take the SATs the next day. There was hardly anyone there, every one being home for the holiday break. The frat Secretary and President knew I was there and found me and pulled me into their room. We sat on the floor and smoked pot and listened to Simon and Garfunkel and talked. In the end I did miserable on my SATs and the UW wouldn't let me in anyway.

So I screwed around after high school from seventeen till twenty, through the nightmare of my little brother's death via cancer and into my engagement to my first wife. But I had no job prospects.

So at twenty I entered the Air Force as Law Enforcement. The other forty nine guys in my flight were from seventeen to nineteen and called me the Old Guy. At twenty, I was being called the Old Guy. Except there was one guy older than me at twenty four who had been a teacher. We called him The Teacher and Crazy for joining at that age. But he said he wanted to teach, in the Air Force.

I got booted out in basic because of flat feet but talked them into letting me stay. Demanded it actually as I was pissed off I went through so much of basic training only to lose my job and my slot. The base foot doctor, a Colonel whom I was bitching to about this liked me for some reason. So he told me to select another job.

I chose Flight Simulator Technician and as backup, Parachute Rigger. I had been a SCUBA diver since 10th grade and started skydiving just after high school. But I just missed the primary job and ended up as a parachute rigger. A field where they were nicknamed, "panty packers". Everyone seemed to have a nickname. "Riggers can pack anything" they told me.

Before I left the military I joined the OSI. That is a book unto itself. And it could have gotten me killed.

I got out and floundered for a year doing nothing, which I now see as a healing period. My older brother whose house I was staying at, talked me into using my military benefits and so I entered college where I found that my teachers believed I had a knack for writing. I had only planned on getting a two year degree but my girlfriend (another long story) wanted to get a four year degree.

So we petitioned universities around Washington state, visited all the campuses and both decided on Western Washington University where we eventually got our B.A. degrees in Psychology. UW turned me down yet again. They said not to feel bad because even straight A students got turned down. By this point I was extremely close to a straight A student, but not quite.

At WWU our Psychology adviser in the department eventually told us we were in the top 1% of the top 1% of all psychology students in the country. The head of the counseling department literally begged me to go into counselling as he thought I had a real feel for it.

I knew I couldn't emotionally handle dealing with other people's problems day in and day out and would eventually kill or drink myself to death if I had to take on other's miseries. And I wasn't a drinker, not after high school. By the time I turned twenty one in fact, I had pretty much tired of bars and drinking.

So yes, I'm a progressive type and have always been liberal in my approach to life, much more fearless than our conservative types from what I have seen, who seem to me mostly to be rather fearful people.

I see life for what it is, a calculated risk. Not something to hide from. Not a venture where you can take from others, or to have much that I don't need that costs others in taking from them, and so on and so forth.

I see this planet as a spaceship we're all riding on.

A world we owe something to for living on it. I don't think I have any right to impose my will on others unless they are harming others, or possibly themselves. Conservatives are like that, ISIS is like that, Republicans lately have been very much like that.

As the Examiner.com put it:

"Average Americans need to be more informed about what is going in the country, but also where to get their information. The argument isn't about holding a liberal or conservative ideology, it's about facts that are based on truth and not information based on twisted logic. Americans need to learn to dig a little deeper to find honest reporting, not just believe something that falls in their lap at the expense of a billionaire funded think tank or news organization."

I think we owe it to ourselves to be as honest as possible, not to lie, even if it is at the cost of our beliefs. If your belief is wrong, why are you holding onto it? Let it go.

We have many who don't care about the truth, just twisting things into their benefit. Sadly many of them don't even realize they do that. Critical thinking has become a victim.

I grew up testing myself. I've had plenty of opportunities to.

Someone once said if you run from your fears you'll run all your life from them. So I've tried to discover them and face them down. I also got the testing of myself out of the way at a fairly young age. Something I've seen adults doing sometimes late into life, much to their detriment and that of others around them or under their control.

A good man knows his limitations I was told and I've found many times in people making mistakes in life where they simply didn't know themselves, don't know their limitations. They incorrectly, over or under expect failure or success.

What I've found is many times, most of the time, when I go up against what I'm afraid of or when I take a (calculated) risk, it nearly always seems (against all reason sometimes) to work out in the end. If you have an accurate assessment of yourself, you can achieve great things. But one has to balance life and family, quantitativeness with qualitativeness.

If you give in to your fears you never find out what you can achieve.

Therein for me lay the defect in conservative thinking.

Want some irony?

My older brother has become a conservative and a small businessman. From having been a1960's hippy type, I have no idea how that happened. Other than he was mostly raised by his own father. Of my four siblings, we all had different fathers, except for my one still living younger brother where we have different mothers but grew up separately. He's the genius artist in my family. We didn't grow up together but I'm happy to say now we are great friends.

I think that gives you just a small idea of who I am and where I get my attitude and orientation from. I was raised Catholic, I was head altar boy at one point. I'm now what some would call an atheist, a humanist, perhaps a pantheist. Since the concept of God came after one not existing, I object to being called atheist as it means against something and one cannot be against what wasn't there to begin with.

I have learned that Aikido (I'm on the board of directors for our local non-profit Aikido dojo) and the Buddha Dharma (Buddhism for Westerners) has helped me a great deal. I'm not a ritualist though and I reject any religious orientation in my Buddhist thoughts. I became a Freemason years ago to see why my grandfather was one as well as a Shrine. Getting a degree in psychology has given me free therapy and helped me achieve a kind of cohesins in life. Raising two kids also gave me a wealth of reasons to be alive. To see them grow and become artists, musicians and free thinkers themselves.

I spent much of my twenties being bitter about my childhood until I realized to simply let it go (though there was nothing simple about doing so). To see things in the right light, makes life so much more worth experiencing. To want love over things, is so much more worth the effort. And to leave a positive legacy, such a rewarding pursuit over that of wealth, power or notoriety.

In the end I have only this to say to you all. Do your best in life to do no harm. To leave things better than you found them. To know that religion is never a good enough reason to kill but to kill those killing for the purposes of their religion are sometimes necessary. That killing is seldom necessary, though sometimes it is in order to survive but if you avoid it as best you can and still survive, you should have no guilt, only regret in not having seen a better way sooner to have avoided it.

May prosperity seek you out in many ways and may you deserve any gifts it bestows upon you.

Cheers to you all! Sláinte.

Life is risk. Calculate it. Risk it. Live.

Religion in a Postmodern Multicultural World

Religion was mostly designed during a time of ego- and geocentricity. As a front against affronts by outside forces. As a buffer to live, a way to form cohesion among those of your own kind and, to help enforce reasonable laws of living for the benefit of all.

At some point it got out of hand, however. It always does.

UPDATE 4/26/20: Let me start here and you can come back to it. But you really want to know this information from C-SPAN:

The Power Worshippers

Journalist Katherine Stewart argued that religious nationalists are waging political war on American democracy and institutions. This was a virtual author program.

You can come back to it later. But if you're confused by Donald Trump and Republicans and what is going on, it snaps it all together pretty neatly.

Back to 2015:
Sure there are newer religions and the younger they are today the more ridiculous they seem to be.

From the older Indian religions, indigenous religions and the more notorious desert regions, the religions of Judaism, Catholicism, and Islam, to the babies of Mormonism and Scientology (a lie of a "religion" if ever there was one) and a "religion" who bullied US government officials into giving them tax-free and religious status. Something by the way, that needs to be addressed and rectified ASAP.

Religion was all fine and dandy thousands of years ago. Though not really. Constantine in Rome and the Christian leaders led to the Council of Nicaea, rebuilding things in that image so that an empire didn't fall. And of course, the religious leaders had their own agendas. Like eliminating anything making Jesus look merely and only human.

Well, it seemed reasonable at the time, to be sure. It did save the empire, for a while, anyway.

But nowadays it has become dysfunctional in this multi-cultural world where religions and cultures rub up against one another. Where ego- and geocentrisms hold very little weight in the overall scheme of things. Where transportation of people and information have lost the barriers once paramount in maintaining the stranglehold of religion.

Knowledge is the bane of religion and it is now everywhere, we are thankfully awash in it. We are also sadly awash in the ignorance of incorrect information that people believe to be knowledge and is one of the greatest dangers we face today. The individuals and the grouping of individuals with selective ignorance and low information.

 Low information in that it is shallow. We are the most information available and yet by ratio perhaps, the least knowledgeable humans in history. We scan on our cell phones all day long but only to a shallow degree.

So we know little about much, one might say.

That and thinking emotional beliefs circumvent or replace actual knowledge have crippled us at a time when we should be brilliant and doing amazing things. Far beyond still, what we are actually doing.

Knowledge is not power, wisdom is.
Knowledge can be wrong.
Wisdom by its definition, cannot be.
It is your choice which you wish to strive for.

Of course, the comeback from the modern theist to that statement is:

"Well, it's a personal thing and so, of course, it still works."

The problem with that is that, no, it's not and if you really look, it doesn't. Work, that is.

It has become more than a personal thing and in some as in the American evangelical Christian movement, it has become politicized, polarized and even exported to Africa. As it has in Uganda where rather slimy US evangelicals have talked locals into a mindset that has led to the killing of gay males and the open raping of gay women.

Why? How is that "Christian"? And yet as we know, it also very well is.

So it is still dysfunctional.

The religious (mostly Christians and Muslims, and no not all of them but those involved) need to pull it back, to make it merely personal once again where it belongs, so that all may live in peace.

Then, we're good again.

Christians too frequently confuse old and new testaments of the bible. Some Muslims today are confusing fundamentalism with literalism. Or political delusions with fundamentalism.

People really need to come first.

Any religion who is offended by Humankind, who inspires even some of their followers to act in such ways, merely because of who we truly are as humans with all our failings, frailties and difficulties, perhaps what they really need is to find a different race of beings, some other species to disdain and abuse. And just leave us all alone.

Any religion that teaches murder of another human, is not a good religion and is fundamentally flawed.

May I suggest, mosquitoes as an alternate species to abuse? And yet, they are also needed as food for other creatures.

Something that Jesus was pointing out and that so many of his modern followers now forget when they go back to the old testament... whenever oddly enough, it makes them feel good and more secure. When Jesus clearly came to close the book on the Old Testament.

But Jesus didn't teach secure. He taught to love thy neighbor.

He hung with the outcasts. How is that security?

It's standing up against the authorities to take care of others and yet, what do we see nowadays? Much turning of backs on the needy in Christianity down to the point even of murder, or dismemberment in Islam.

Look. If you are going to become belligerent and political, you also have to stand up for what is wrong in your religion. Or in what others are doing in your religion. You don't get a free ride for spouting ignorance, hate, and stupidity. The world is becoming too small for that anymore. The religious now need to grow a little, to grow up as a whole.

Politicizing your religion doesn't just mean you get to speak out for your beliefs. It also means you have to speak out when it makes you uncomfortable, to stand against injustices both outside and IN side of your religion.

Especially, INside your religion. Because that my friend is YOUR responsibility. Not mine, not ours. Yours and yours alone...your group's responsibility.

Why is it, why should it be that so often those outside of religion are the ones who have to fight the good fight for religion?

If you want your religion, fight for it. But fight sanely. Police yourselves and allow others to help. But don't put the burden on them when it's your arena. Your desire. Your need. Why do so many assume their need is that of others? Even when they do not know it. Or want it? And so some murder them because if they don't feel it, death.

It occurs to me that up until recent times, "God" was such a part of people's lives that it wasn't necessary to do things like put it on money, or write it into laws, something our Founding Fathers didn't want to begin with.

They didn't want it because they were wise, educated, and knew how badly legislating things like religion can be (please see Middle East, or American conservatives today). "God" used to be so inherent in daily life it was a nuance to conservation. But also people died over those considerations, something we generally believe today is ridiculous, if not criminal.

We've been hearing about this topic more and more over the years since "In God, We Trust" was first put on money back in 1952 sadly replacing "E Pluribus Unum", One out of many. Which had summed up our nation's orientation to be inclusive of all (if not in practice, surely, in theory, intent, and desire)?

As the concern and consideration of "God" has decreased over time those who are so close to it have felt a need to bring it more and more into our attention by doing things like putting it on money. Or more recently and insanely, trying to alter our politics, our citizen's rights hard fought for and legislate it into laws (not seeing the irony in their also hating and legislating against things like Islamic Sharia law).

People can have their religion, but forcing it into the national attention over and over is only in the long term going to cause a societal irritation that will eventually backfire. Throwing in another religion (Islam) which has literally been killing masses of people (as opposed to the self-proclaimed typically racist and unbalanced Christians who are killing ones-at-a-time), just makes it all the worse overall.

Think about it. That means that the concept of "God" has been decreasing overall for a very long time.

Legislating it will only speed that process.

Muslim Terrorists vs. Violent Terrorists? Either Way Worse Scum Than the Flu? Absolutely.

Yes, I've been watching last Friday night's Real Time with Bill Maher.

You'll have to excuse my comments below at some point. Just be aware that if you can't, terrorists are the reason I'm saying these things and frankly? I needs to be said....

Two things.... the flu and terrorists. Two scummy things that we need to eradicate from the planet. I'd vote, kill the terrorists model first, being the more lowlife of the two. At least the flu can only attack as it's nature. Human beings have a choice and they decide that their petty God or Allan, their magic Guy in the Sky, is more important that a real human being right in front of them.

First, people who say flu vaccines don't work, why get them, aren't arguing they don't work (unless they're just ignorant), they're arguing they are only so effective as the flu changes and the shots are made five months ahead of time. But the do work, but only within a range of a percentage of what's possible. 23% is tossed about. Okay, so 23% of Americans find it useful. That's like 76 million people, who don't get it, get it lighter than they would or don't die. And they aren't infecting others or decreasing the number they would which is additional savings which aren't considered.

So yes, we all should get a flu shot.

Pres. Obama has started calling Muslim Terrorists, violent terrorists. Really? From within the perspective of all religions, he may be correct to do so. But from outside of the perspective of religion, I think he's wrong. At very least he should say religious terrorists or something. Yes, these people are in many cases just criminals wrapping themselves in the cloak of religion just to have fun or push a cause, but still religion is at the core of their efforts. It is not the mainstream cause of Muslims, most of them shouldn't suffer for the cause and actions of a few (don't go kill any Muslim, you have to wait till they yell "Jihad", or "Praise Allah" just before they push the button and blow you the hell up. Or shoot you. And the other woman and children in the market.

So no, all Muslims have little to do with Muslim Terrorists. But they are still Muslim Terrorists.

That being said, Pope Francis has said that you shouldn't talk smack about someone's religion because if the guy next to him was talking that way about his mother, he'd punch him out and then apparently mimicked the action. WTF? Jesus punching someone over anything? His representative on earth, doing what? Really? I love this guy, this Pope, I really do, but that was stepping over the line.

And I'm sorry, but anyone anywhere should have the right to call bullshit on your ridiculous religion or beliefs. Just walk away. Because if you can't, what are you? Twelve? Because the mindset I'm seeing behind religious killings is that of a child who has yet to mature into an adult who can play well with others, even when it's annoying to.

Anyone who wants to should be able to look you right in the eye, if you think you should be killing people for God, or Allah, of some Prophet and say to them, "F*ck your God", Allah, the Prophet, Jehovah, or Dog for that matter (because some people worship the most ridiculous crap, right?).

But you know what? And how many who are pissed at me for the previous paragraph are really reading THIS far?

We probably should NOT say, "F*ck your God." We should really say "Fuck YOU!" Because the concept of God, Allah, whathaveyou is really initially a good and positive mental construct. It is a well meaning attempt at humanism believe it or not. Typically a failed one I'd argue but it started out well. Usually it is there now to replace one that already existed that someone thought was defective and thought "F*ck YOUR God" to someone else coming before them. Probably long before them and so aren't there to defend themselves or their original intent. Just descendants of followers who probably now have a diluted and bastardized form of the original religion, much like today's Muslim Terrorists. Or Religious Terrorists. Or violent terrorists but really, isn't "violent" terrorists just redundant?

Name a terrorist who wasn't violent, because terror by its nature tends to be violent so really, at very LEAST religious terrorist should be the go to phrase. But then Catholics, and those idiots over at Scientology, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists and all the other nut cases including Judaism would start whining.

What we should be saying is "F*ck YOU, you rat bastards for killing innocents and pushing your defective extreme (not fundamentalist) thoughts onto others who not only don't see things your way, but may very well in general see things your way as you do after all KILL MUSLIMS, you ASSholes!"

Praise being kind to other people who are real and need our compassion. Should that include terrorists? Well, by their own definition I'd argue, No.

Put down your guns, your bombs, head cutting off knives and swords and your bad attitude and rejoin the human race and then yes, I'd agree. You'd have my compassion again. Until then, you die, whenever possible. Not that it's very hard to do, kill you I mean, since after all half the time you die in the action of killing others and really that's the epitome of stupidity.

Your attrition does help our side however. The side of the entire rest of the world who is against you. So join the rest of humanity because if you think you are right and 99% of the rest of the world is wrong, you really are a loser. Come on. Come join us. Be a part of humanity. You can do it. Just turn your back on ridiculous beliefs. Really. It's doable. Many have done it already and more are all the time, realizing how stupid religious wars against the majority of the planet are.

But first you have to get your head out of your ass.

God, or Allah, ain't up in there.