A Christmas Reflection

Merry Christmas! May we all ever better mind our own business!

Walk with me a moment.

Yes, an atheist and a Buddhist of my own orientation, I can certainly celebrate Christmas. Especially having been raised with it as a Catholic. After all it was something that started out as a pagan celebration and was blended with Christmas and Christianity by the Catholic church in order to assimilate those pagan's lands they wished to acquire.

It certainly can be a pagan or secular holiday, too and has become one more and more anyway. And no we don't have to remember what it's roots are in order to celebrate it. But, it is wise to do so for several reasons.

Odd, I know. But true enough.

We can easily use it as a positive reason to treat one another with respect and love without needing to bring a deity into it. A strange consideration for a theist of that particular denomination but hey, there it is.

I think Jesus might just be more accepting of that than many want to believe, or his followers could accept.

Moses? Probably not so much either.. But then, he was a kind of an Old Testament sort of guy.

Muhammad? Well, let's face it. He had some pretty weird ideas and wasn't the brightest bulb in the pack and pretty much the same with anyone believing in all that.

I suppose Jesus had some odd ideas himself but he wasn't actually the one who turned his beliefs into magic. He wasn't the Buddha surely, but then according to the Dalai Lama, Jesus himself was a Buddha. And he taught some basic Buddhist beliefs in order to alter Judaism.

Perhaps Mohammed too was a Buddha, though I have my doubts on that.

Jesus had that need to blend with Judaism and the old Testament in order to build change into the nonsense he had grown up and into. Teachings that weren't so ridiculous back then before the advent of refrigeration and other advancements. Though he did as I said, incorporate elements of the Buddha Dharma to create his new Judaism (later, Christianity) and well, that was a very good thing.

But let's face it. In simply reading the record...we have Mohammed on the bottom, then Moses, Jesus and finally and foremost, Buddha, from least to most. It doesn't take a genius to see that's the order. Sad? Perhaps. But reality can be difficult. And besides, that is to be expected since Gautama Buddha, Siddhartha, was the best educated and least superstitious of all of them.

Still it matters little as all their legacies have been abused and subverted by some or many. It is after all what you pick and choose to believe. Sad as that is. It is much like trying to decide which is the best martial art. A foolish endeavor and does no one much good, for it is all about how you use what knowledge you have chosen, how you apply it, that is most important.

It isn't because I understand Buddha (not his descendants, not his followers, but The Buddha), makes more sense than all the rest of them combined. Consider, Jesus in his life had access to the teachings of the Buddha from travelers, if not from his own. He incorporated those teachings into Judaism and tweaked it so it worked to lead Jews into a more sane belief system. Just as Catholicism centuries later would incorporate paganism into their beliefs in order to assimilate new tribes and beliefs as they infected their world. These aren't wild beliefs. Just reality and history.

I read, I discussed, debated and analyzed and that's how it panned out. Look, don't get mad at me. If God supported anyone of those guys (and I don't think he does, or exists for that matter), then He would have made it quite obvious who was on top. Not much more to say after that, is there....

Yet that's not really what is important here, though. No, really. It's not.

First... allow me to wish you and yours a happy holiday season. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, a cheery whatever you wish you want to enjoy and celebrate at this winter solstice time.

But what is all this really? Let's lay off for a moment with what history, reality and tradition tell us and just think about what actually is.

You see, there is after all, magic in life.

It isn't the magic of religion or Gods or what we wished (or fear) exists. It's the magic of Humanity. Though we're mostly too humble to allow ourselves to accept that. As vain and greedy, terrified in the face of the universe and life as we are, we are still too humble to accept that we are it. That this is it. All of it.

Isn't that odd?

There is a movie that exemplifies what I'm trying to say here. A 2011 film with one of my favorite entertainers in it, Eddie Izzard. The film is Lost Christmas. It's not about religion but the magic that is Life. And if that doesn't work, here's some others who can explain Christmas a little better.

In life, we have who we have and the memories we have with them. We also have what we believe we will have and those memories that we will then have with them, whomever "they" will be. What we leave, after we no longer exist, really isn't what we will have ourselves at all. Though sometimes we act like it, but it is really what others will have after we are no longer there.

So all we really have is ourselves, our others, our memories. Then we're simply gone and it's the end.

It is hard for many to contemplate dying, or not existing. We don't relate to it as humans. And so we have invented ways, som rather bizarre ways, in our ancient ignorance to deal with it. Okay.

So now let's take a step beyond that and talk about....

Religion and Guns.

No, really, bear with me a moment longer.

Believe it or not, there is something familiar there between those two things.

I'm going to tell you a secret. Something people need to share. Something people need to not keep quiet about. In fact if you need one thing in life to shout to the world, this would be it.

Those who want to spread the "word" will tell you otherwise, but that is from their inside out. Possibly your inside out, too. But that is dysfunctional. It is dangerous. It is against the need of the many, the need of all. Here it is.

Do not share your religion with everyone. Please. Keep it to yourself. Share it with others of a like mind. Offer to those who inquire of you about it. And let that be it. For the benefit of us all. Be open to sharing. But be quiet about forcing the issue on others. You're only doing yourself and your beliefs a disservice. And a disservice to all the rest of us. Regardless what you religion or leaders tell you. Especially in the money grubbing  super churches and many of the evangelical corporate thinking type endeavors.

Evangelicism being one of the great banes America has infected the world and our nation with.

Although some of us do believe you should be ashamed to share your "faith" in these beliefs you hold, with anyone, you are welcome in my world to live your life as you see fit, to pursue happiness for the most part, as you see fit. This is America, still, and hopefully we will survive Trump and his minions.

And so everyone is welcome to their own delusions which we all have. Just be aware, if you bring down our most basic ideals of freedom in the  name of a faux freedom as designed by the greedy now in charge, you will eliminate not on that freedom but your right to your own personal delusions. In religion, in everything.

And you will have to begin to believe in what those in power want you to believe. Much as Trump is doing now, in forcing fakeness and diatribe upon us all in order to enrich both himself and his cohorts.

With only this exception.

For the good of all you should wear your faith under your coat, not on your sleeve for all to see. Signs of your Faith, quiet signs like jewelry, is fine. But the vocal part, you should wear just as you should wear your gun under your coat and out of sight. If you have a gun, and want to carry it around.

Though better it is best for all for you to leave it at home. Rather than forcing force by vigilante actions, force the government to apply funding and resources to protect us properly. THAT is a far better way. Hold our representatives to task to protect us so we do not have to protect ourselves to the degree tha is now perceived, many times incorrectly, but so many. And so many whoa re ignorant and believe whatever their favorite pundits say.

Faith extremists will tell you to preach the word to all and any! Spread the word to assure the continuation of your addiction! Shove your beliefs down the throat of any and all because your God demands it!

But no. That is the way of the immature.

As in religion they will say, propagate, raise your children up with your religion. Force religion down the throat of all humanity until they have no choice but to be subjugated to whatever your choice of religion is and to Hell with all others! Because they become indeed then, The Others.

But that is from within. Don't you see?

From without, from within the whole of humanity, we are many and varied. Diversity is good. But delusion not based in reality is of late, endemic and dangerous and could bring about our own demise.

We need therefore to coexist in order to be, together. That means we need to allow others to seek their faith as they see it. Even when it seems foolish or anti to your religion. Because your religion (even if it's guns) may seem anti to theirs.

Maybe you're right. Maybe, they're right. Because, what if you're wrong? But then, your religion doesn't allow for that, does it? Would it? No, because that is the design of religion in the first place. Isn't it.

And that is fine, I suppose. Mostly. For now.

I would say that in today's world it has now reached a point where we need to kill those who push their beliefs on others so that those who do not, who live to allow others their lives and beliefs, can be the ones in the end to survive and prosper.

Because we do not need those who will push their beliefs on others. Besides it will only, counterintuitively lead to the demise of those who are most obnoxious and pushy. As religion is on the decline globally anyway. It just seems like it's growing because any animal dying and in a corner, becomes louder and more dangerous, until it's dead.

For they are the troglodytes, those who push the ancient and archaic mythologies as reality. The proto humans who need to die off so the evolved humans can survive to propagate and replace them.

Just as children one day finally need to leave their childhood selves behind so that they too can become adults.

We all need to grow. But we do not all need to make others into our own image. Even if we believe that is the image of our God. We need... to all live together. Together in ways that will allow us all to live and prosper and be happy. Together.

And those who do not believe that?

They need to find their end. Quickly. And if they cannot then they need, they are asking us for, our help to end them in their difficult journey.

Hard words, right? Well? Life is hard. But it doesn't have to be. Global warming is real. To think that "God will save us" or "God will fix it", is ludicrous and childish.

We don't need to be making it any harder. Regardless what our beliefs are. We just need to get along. Believe what you will, but remember to treat others with respect and leave the judging to your God. Because if you don't believe your God will judge them, then you do not believe in your God. So either way...stop being demeaning to others.

So, a cheery winter's solstice to you and may you be happy and may you leave others alone, when they need it.

Sláinte!

I wish you all the best, the best of Life, Memories and the after...for your others.

One last thing....treat one another as if all you know was:

And you only have, one another.

Finally....

Conservatism and Self-Righteousness

Originally I wrote this for our 240th Independence Day. It seemed appropriate to wish America a very happy birthday and all the best for us and the world in all our joint and separate, future endeavors.

It's been almost fifteen years since the 9/11 attack. An attack by foreigners. Enough of the conspiracy theories already. Enough of diluting reality to support conservative agendas. Supporting ignorance, fear, stupidity, greed, self absorption and now with Pres. Trump, self aggrandizement.

It seems appropriate at this time to discuss this, our national, and international, conservative diseases.

That means Trump is merely symptomatic of this social disease, along with other authoritarians worldwide and, modern conservatism in general. Original conservatism from previous centuries wasn't such a bad thing. But today, it most certainly is. It has become the internal slayer of nations.

Newt Gingrich was in many ways our most recent conservative patient zero. Our national case of herpes. Does hearing that annoy you? Yes? Are you a conservative? Does hearing that annoy you but you're not a conservative? Yes? Are you slamming liberals or the democratic party?

Ask yourself if you find you are expounding conservative beliefs... and really don't know it. Or won't, or perhaps simply can't admit it.

Just for a focal point, are you purely anti-Hillary? Do you know why? Exactly why? Have you vetted your beliefs and reasons? Or do you just read memes on Facebook? One thing America has way too much of right now is the armchair political quarterback. People who "know" what's best, but best on very suspect information.

However this is not just the common "Joe" at home with a beer anymore. Now it's professional pundits and news presenters too. For profit news has ruined our country and world in many ways. You don't feed the public news they want, you feed them what they need. You certainly don't lead with what they want, you lead with what is most important on that day with a consideration for the long term. Otherwise, what in the hell do you think you are doing? And, why?

Anyway, we cannot just solely blame the little guys anymore. Although the information is out there. But when you have such bad information and web sites, it's hard for some people to know what is what anymore.

How many of your reasons against Hillary were from decades of building and reinforcing the conservative bubble? Are you only seeing her down sides? Because everyone has them as all their opponents have pointed out. And then, there's the Russians. Now an officially acknowledged fact and no longer conjecture.

Well we're all human, after all. Though considering Trump. maybe not so much, I really donno.

Hillary was originally against gay marriage, but she was not against gays. Considering what she went through and her background, that she ever changed on that is something to consider. I don't care if it seems someone changes just for political expediency, as long as they do and stay the course. How does it matter? At issue is whether she chooses a position and leaves it once as President. Just as it is with any candidate. Just as Trump has failed to do now.

If someone makes bad choices and then they start making better choices, who cares why the reason, as long as they start onto that better path? Trump is a special case however because he cut himself off at the knees over all that during his campaign. But other than with him, that is the American way. For some of you that is the Christian way.

So if you are a Christian, get with your own program.

If you're not, then just try being rational.

Do you feel that feeling of revulsion against her in explaining why you're anti Hillary? Do you feel it possible you could be wrong about her? No? You know what that feeling is? It's self righteousness.

The core of the conservative movement, and of the Republican party anymore ever since it was taken over by foolishness, by divisiveness, by extremism. This is really all about extremism masked as conservatism. Either way it's here to stay. For now, anyway.

It's addictive, it's pleasurable and it comes out of the religious right. The NRA has used it to boost their agenda. Republicans have picked up on it and used it to boost theirs and the NRA's agenda and they dovetail it nicely into the Christian right's agenda.

Are you self righteous? Because if you think you are a left wing liberal and yet you are pushing these right wing bubble points, well, there's your sign. You're now a cloaked conservative.

Don't get me wrong. Self righteousness can be fun. But it's masturbatory. It's stroking one's own ego. It feels like it's right all through you, and through your understanding of things. Even, if you like, up through religion to God. So how can you NOT like that, love it, immerse yourself in it?

Even if you're not religious. Even if you're an atheist, or just a so called atheist.

This is why we're in this situation today in America, and around the world. WE have allowed untruths to propagate because of self-righteousness, because of...religion. People talk about all the good religion has done in the history of the world, which is really kind of countered by all the bad it has done. All in order to be "Truthful".

There is one truth however that we have failed to notice and that we are now seeing run rampant around the country, both in our politics and around the entire world. Believers are following false beliefs. Many are now using those beliefs against others for their own benefit and to our great comparative detriment both indirectly and directly, and of  perfectly innocent people. Many who simply do not know any better.

Be careful the environment you find yourself in, it can seep into your consciousness and you can start to view things differently. If not from "Stockholm Syndrome" then at least from the old adage, "we are what we eat". Or more directly, you can start to view things in the ways that are basic to your normal environment.

This is the reason why we need to push back against religion in general as a force to be reckoned with, to be dealt with. Otherwise we will have this insanity just continue on and on. The sooner we all start to believe in reality and not beliefs from ancient times, the sooner we will start to get a handle on world problems. The sooner we will begin to put down and disallow these sociopathic abusers to take advantage of society and our resources for their own and only their own benefit.

I don't have a problem with anyone being a believer. IF it is kept in perspective. Not just with reality, where especially in America all are welcome to choose a favorite delusion. But we really need to if not keep it to ourselves, just not to force it onto others. Especially not at the end of a knife, a rifle or that of a bomb's destructive sphere.

It's dense information sharing time....

Check out atheist AmonRa's video in part about this: AronRa's Rabbi Dovid Gottlieb's questions for "evolutionists".

Merrian-Webster defines self-righteous as:

:  convinced of one's own righteousness especially in contrast with the actions and beliefs of others :  narrow-minded moralistic

It is a component of the addicted brain, and there is a chemistry to it.

One researcher in Psychology Today labeled it The Goody Two Shoes Syndrome.

"As much as we loathe hypocrites, we may dislike the self-righteous even more. Any person who presents himself as morally unimpeachable is making an "implicit indictment" of everyone else that is "irksome to the mainstream," finds a recent study in Social Psychological and Personality Science."

Which is also to say, not just that we don't like them, but they find and revel in their "implicit indictments". We internally object to their narrow self justifications, which frequently aren't based on reality. Ever talked to a staunch conservative about guns?

The thing here is that we tend to severely dislike those who are self righteous and obviously wrong with the added issue of knowing that they are foolish and ignorant. Even in the face many times of easily attainable and actual facts. They make conclusions without enough information out of a frustration typically due to a lack of that information, and of control over their lives. Sometimes, merely over a false sense of their lack of control over their own life. I get that. But we have to be careful.

For those others however it is also seriously dislikable in experiencing the self righteous in those who are absolutely right and correct in their beliefs and contentions. The issue there especially when you actually are right, is a degree of intensity. IF you are correct, you do not need to force excessive amounts of emotion or disdain into it. If you're right, you're right. Truth usually does win out in the end. The trouble comes where and when that will finally happen.

An article in Huffington Post pushes further into the self-righteous syndrome:

"We often engage in internal dialogues with ourselves, some of which we never evaluate or examine. They keep going on and on, driving us to judge and react to situations and people without even being aware of why. We all do these self-talks, but we mess up when we let these have power over us rather than the other way around. There are many irrational thoughts that have no basis in reality. Here are a few of the irrational thoughts that bring about a state of self-righteousness (i.e., “I am right and you are wrong”):"

1. All-or-nothing thinking: When one sees things in black-and-white terms and has very limited vision. If something, someone, or some belief falls short of what this individual sees as perfect, he or she sees it as worthless or a total failure.
2. Overgeneralizations: People who over generalize take a single negative incident and exaggerate it. These individuals have a lot of use for words like “always,” “never,” “all” and “no one,” extreme words that by themselves can create radical thinking.
3. Mental filters: This is when a person picks one or a few negative events and dwells on them to make them look much bigger, darkening his or her vision of reality. It is as if you drop one droplet of ink into a whole bucket of water.
4. Discounting the positive: This is when the person rejects anything positive related to a situation, thinking that they “don’t really matter.”
5. Jumping to conclusions: This is when a person comes up with conclusions when there are no logical, scientific, or unbiased facts to support those conclusions.
6. “Should” statements: This is when a person tells herself that everyone and everything “should” be the way she thinks, functions and is comfortable with. People who make a lot of personal “should” statements usually experience a lot of negative emotions like guilt and frustration, or even anxiety. Should statements that are directed at other people, or at the world in general, lead to anger and frustration (e.g., “He shouldn’t think like this”)? This way of thinking is counterproductive, because it creates feelings of rebelliousness and separates you from those who don’t think the same way.

Then there is this article from Psychology Today:

"The specter of mental illness does indeed loom large over creationists, but they are not alone. Signs of psychopathology can also be seen among their political bedfellows, conservative politicians, especially when you consider a wide range of illness indicators. In his award-winning 2005 book, Dr. James Whitney Hicks discusses 50 signs of mental illness including denial, delusion, hallucination, disordered thinking, anger, anti-social behavior, sexual preoccupation, grandiosity, general oddness, and paranoia. Now I'm no clinician, but in my (admittedly biased brown) eyes it seems that prominent Republicans have evidenced each of these ten telltale signs of mental illness over the past year:"

1) Denial: humans did not evolve;  Obama is not a native-born American Christian
2) Delusion: climate is not changing
3) Hallucination: God ordained me to be President
4) Disordered Thinking: being for small government that's huge in the bedroom;  being anti-contraception and anti-abortion
5) Anger: Newt Gingrich’s perpetual scowl
6) Anti-social Behavior: toward women, gays, minorities, anyone without an umbilical cord or trust fund
7) Sexual Preoccupation: a fervent compulsion to control when we can mate, with whom we can mate, and precisely how we are allowed to mate (which I lampoon in Why Do Politicians Want to Police Dick and Jane's Private Parts?)
8) Grandiosity: even Rick Santorum recognizes Gingrich’s “over the moon” grandiosity
9) General Oddness: Ron Paul
10) Paranoia: pretty much all of them, all of the time
Even (the not necessarily dumb) Pope Francis appears to recognize that “it is a serious illness, this of ideological [conservative] Christians. It is an illness, but it is not new, eh?”

Back now to less dense information....

Conservatism and self-righteousness, these are just other flavors of a few knuckle draggers who exist in our country and the world over. Those who drag along with them the masses who do not see what is being done to them. It is a disease that has long been coming out of the woodworks of the world. Like mold on food in the back of a fridge that has not been managed well or often enough.

We let this happen to us in not standing up to the nonsense from conservatives and religious nutcases, their nutgroups and their nutbelief systems. But be careful, they will mix in just enough truth and reality to poison choosing not to believe once you are assimilated into their mindset. It's like quitting smoking to a smoker, for some, it's impossible to quit, even when you know better. For those who do smoke, they can be overly aggressive against their old addiction. Which is offputting to many and counterproductive to the "anti" activist, the anti smoker, anti drinker, or anti conservative or theist.

We have really kind of asked for this and now we are reaping the detrimental misfortunes of it.

And so we can also rectify it by doing what manages it correctly and by paying attention, standing up to it, speaking out against it and shouting down idiocy whenever it crops up. But it has to be done in such a way as to allow those types to save face and find it in their hearts and minds to alter their addictions. Even then, just as in how long this has taken to get here, it will take time to rid ourselves of it.

I'm talking about pushing reality on people who purposely avoid it, who fear it, because of either defective belief systems, selfishness, or outright greed.

It will happen, not to worry. Remember when I said that truth always wins out?

More so, reality always wins out. I just hope it's before we destroy ourselves and not through this planet reclaiming its original natural beauty... without humankind.

We have to be careful about delving into the skewed psyche of these new kinds of "news" entities and the conservative mindset or numbset itself as it exists today. The question is, does information coming from sites like those count, is it accurate? Specifically and potentially at times perhaps, but in the general and long term, typically no. And that is what you have to be aware of, every second.

Now that being said, and you won't hear conservatives saying this, we also have to be careful of our own beliefs and our greater political leanings. But that does not mean you should abandon your own beliefs for a skew that makes things merely appear real. I noticed this in someone once years ago. 

Listening to this person I too was upset at what they were telling me until...I left them that day. It took about fifteen minutes after I left them before reality started to seep back into my consciousness. I just (luckily) happened to have some relevant facts at my fingertips. When I compared the reality I knew to be true against what this person had told me, the world they had been weaving for me fell quickly away. 

I was stunned and realized that I had been sucked into their delusions, their negative delusions about people we both knew, and the world at large. But while I was with that person listening, I fully was taken in. They were being disingenuous, and negative but I also knew they didn't know what they were doing. I realized two things at that moment. 1) they were delusional, seemed authentic but 2) they were exhibiting evil in a pure, nearly autonomous sense. 

It was that day I realized that true evil existed in the world and it wasn't just murderous warlords or terrorists, but was also simply when someone or some entity professed something to be true for their own devices (or not, though in that case they too are their own victim) while it was not. People then go and act on that incorrect belief and all the bad that comes of it affects many, not just the one.

Thus it is the basis of conspiracy theory to weave truths with lies (misinformation), and to skew reality (disinformation) in such a way as to be indistinguishable from the truth, while performing some directed intention away from its original course. 

Enter the world of the insane, while you to them are the ones who are insane.

The conservative model of political monitoring as we've seen repeatedly (though apparently only of their opponents as you may (should) have noticed) is that there seems to be a ghost around every corner. Or a commie or a gay or ethic whomever the latest flavor of disdain might happen to be.

Trouble is, odds of there being a ghost around most of those corners is niil to zero for most of the time.

How does one get to a point of distrusting literally everything they disagree with? And one's self? Broken childhood obviously. Which most of us have had in one way or another.

Or a disillusion of some sort. also possibly from childhood. Something deep seated, some unfilled hole in your logic when one day you find a "logic" that fits and seals up that hole. Even if it couldn't be more inaccurate, more incorrect.

So why did just some of them choose to not trust anything, anywhere? A perceived lack of control in childhood? Raised in a family too religious or strict? Thing is, once we become adults we need to own it. Shrug off the fears, the distrust, the scary monsters and face reality. To think. Not to overthink, but to accurately think. Not finding "truth" through a lack of information, but truth through and when you have enough information.

Study conspiracy theory and those personality types who adhere to it. It's interesting reading. The trouble with most conspiracy theory types is that they never study conspiracy theory itself. They just dive in thinking they have the skills to survive it. Those who don't are typically the ones we hear from the most and the loudest. 

If someone says something they agree with, even if it's nonsense, then it must be true. Why bother checking into it when there are so many they disagree with, so many they can simply push all their fears and distrust upon, their anger and bigotry into? 

Just makes sense, right? And who cares. It just feels good!

Besides if you never see the world as shades of grey rather than black and white, only right against wrong, you are always right half of the time. Right? Or no? Like the stopped clock, always right twice a day. It's safe. It's too safe. It's defective. 

The most concerning element now a days are these current forms of extremism (see, How extreme beliefs, not mental illness, may fuel mass shooters), which are the brainchildren of instant media, and of for-profit news, of the internet in general, but not of bipartisanship as it should be taken to its natural conclusion.

Now that anyone can speak out to the masses, we are seeing a great deal of ignorance being sold online as knowledge and insight. When really it is just the lowest level of intellect mixed with a lot of negativity, being sold as correct and proper information. Even though it is the antithesis of the definition of real information and just comes off as insane to anyone with a valid sense of what was once called, common sense. What is taken now for common sense is simply that, common. Lacking much if any sense at all.

So. In just being negative, sooner or later you'll probably be right. Besides, most of those liberals are retards and corrupt, unlike good Christian conservatives and Republicans. Right? Those types never do bad things. Right? Name one Republican governor or congressman who has done anything bad, ever. Right?

Best of all? You only need two brain cells to rub together in order to make that model of self-righteousness work. Even if you ARE wrong most of the time, it lights up your inner self-importance and who doesn't just love that? Self conflation is the order of the day, it would seem.

Kind of brilliant if you think about it. And what a form of energy conservation!

Finally if you cannot buy any of this as presented above, perhaps this presented below will make you happy:

Obama Outed As Secret Muslim By Anonymous - Conservatives Said 'We Told You So.'

Happy "the lunatics have taken over the asylum", America!

Cheers!

Blue Was The Sky - or, Ballad of the Dissonant Mind

I was standing on the street. All alone. The streets were empty. For the moment anyway, traffic was non-existent.

A man came up to me and said.
"Sky, it's purple."

I looked up at the sky. It was the clearest blue I had ever seen. Not a cloud in the sky. I looked at the gentleman next to me, standing there staring between two buildings at a piece of the sky to the south.

There was a large solid glass faced building between those buildings, down the street. It gave the buildings a slight reddish hue to their dark tones. But the sky between them, that small tall rectangular piece of sky he was staring into, was blue as blue could be.

I said: "Uh. Sure." He looked at me, reading something in the tone of my voice.

"It is isn't it? A beautiful purple. Never seen that before like that. Don't you agree."

I was caught. I could lie to a perfect stranger, let it go, and maybe he'd go away. He smelled slightly of something, I couldn't put my finger on it. Musty. Confused smells of stored clothing and cardamom maybe. Cardamom left too long in a cupboard.

"Well, the sky is blue as I've ever seen." He gave me an odd look of disdain.  I felt a need to qualify my remark. "Those buildings, they have an odd color don't they? Kind of a purple color." He eyed me suspiciously. So I went on.

"Perhaps the sky and the buildings are playing tricks on your eyes?" I smiled at him, congenially. He reacted negatively to my comment, as if I'd called his being into question, as if I'd challenged his veracity, his sanity even.

"The sky is purple, I'm telling you. What we see is important, what we believe is more important. It speaks to who we are. I know. Yes. I know. You should know too."

What do you say to that? He was not happy, I could see beneath the surface, he was seething. I couldn't understand his passion, his adherence to his belief in a purple sky. I looked up. I looked up at the sky in such a way so as to invoke a desire in him to cast his gaze upward. But he continued looking straight ahead.

"That sky, is blue." I said this looking up above us, lifted my hand slightly to indicate the sky above.

"I've never seen a sky so purple," he said. He stared at the slice of sky framed by neo modern buildings and a super modern one beyond them, then looked over at me. As if daring me to disagree.

"Is there anything I can say to make you see that the sky is blue between those buildings?"

"Between the buildings? It's not purple just between the buildings." I looked up, back at him, between the buildings, up at the sky covering us, then back at him. He hadn't moved. I got the distinct feeling he may have had trauma to his neck, from the way he held himself. He wouldn't look up, or he couldn't look up. Something wasn't right.

"Purple huh?"

"Purple, no doubt about it."

"I always liked purple." He smiled.

"It's a good color. The color of sky."

I glanced over between the buildings. The sky appeared purple. A cold sweat broke quickly over my skin, and then just as suddenly disappeared as I glanced upward and saw a very blue sky. I looked back between the buildings and now the sky was again blue as it had been, as it was. I looked him full in the face.

He smiled, nodded and just, walked off. There was a bounce in his step. As if he was happy. Or had achieved something worthy of pleasure.

I looked back up and then forward. Perplexed.

The sky was still blue.

Up next on Monday, August 8th, 2016: "Donald J. Trump's Big Con".

58% of Americans say legalize Pot. So what new Drug shall we attack?

So, 58% of Americans now think we should legalize Cannabis. So let's stop wasting time and energy and legalize Pot! On the federal level. Let's now put that money into something useful. The War on Drugs has failed. So now what?

Consider that with the end of Prohibition against alcohol, Harry Jacob Anslinger (who held office as the assistant prohibition commissioner in the Bureau of Prohibition, before being appointed as the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics on August 12, 1930), replaced alcohol as the drug to war against, with pot. After all, he had to do something for those poor agents now pretty much out of work with families to support. Right?

So? Where does that leave us now? Don't we now have to replace warring on pot with something else? So what do you want to be the prime target now in our eternal war on whatever, I mean, drugs (and Americans) now?

Look, if you want to continue your wasteful "War on Drugs" then you've got to find a new drug to attack. A new group of people, new users, new addicts to attack, to ruin their lives like we have for so many pot smokers and their families (for no apparent reason or end purpose). And just what should be the new, nefarious, and most highly dangerous drug in History to attack and destroy? Well, I think I've got it. But it's not a drug, per se, though the symptoms are pretty much the same.

Extremism.

At least, extremism in ideological views. I'm all for extreme sports (within reason), as much as the next guy. Then again let's face it, extreme anything at some point, just becomes stupid. And we've seen a lot of that in recent times. The lesser of the evils, is still evil nonetheless in the form of trying to decide other's lifestyles, as in being antiGay, and needs in life, as in making abortion illegal and taking away women's rights, trying to force them into roles right out of the 1940s.

It would seem that conservatives in this country can't have a progressive thought without first leaning on their childhood fears of Hellfire and brimstone. But these are the least of our worries as there are far more ridiculous people out there. Not just people standing behind the counter-intuitive banners of ProLife, but those who out right murder people. Like abortion clinic Doctors. Or worse.

Yes, extremism has brought us suicide bombers, the destruction of the twin towers in NYC, mass murders, genocide, abuse, rape, child slavery, and on and on. It has recently even brought our government to a shut down (thanks GOP extremists), or to a slim down or whatever you want to call it. Whatever you label it, it was bad. Stupid, and bad.

Extremism is where you take something based in a truth, twist it with a half truth, then intelligently shove it down the throats of the less educated, the ignorant, the stupid, and those who are more rather than less, narcissistic. See you can't con an honest man. Conservatism and extremism, are like kissing cousins. As is Fundamentalism. It's all an attempt to decrease things to their simplest elements and let's face it, Life ain't simple. And whenever you try to make it so, people get lost in the shuffle. And a select minority find power.

Maajid Nawaz, is cofounder of the world's first counter extremism think tank, Quilliam, a campaign organization where they do "counter messaging", where they try to popularize counter narratives against extremism. They are looking for ways to "inoculate" extremists against extremist messages. Maajid was recently put on the Al Shabab hit list, so he must be doing something right. He is also author of the book, "Radical - My Journey out of Islamist Extremism", and he is one of those out there fighting the good fight, trying to squelch Islamic extremism.

Like the eleven year-old girl, Malala Yousafzai, who stood for education in her country against the Taliban, and who in 2009 was shot in the face by them for her efforts. She is now touring and continuing to speak out. Sam Harris called her, "The best thing to happen to Islam in 1,000 years."

One group engaged in this, in the arena of Women's Rights is AON. On this order of things, Valarie Plame (author of the new novel, "Blowback" and previously the non-fiction work, "Fair Game"), said recently that you can tell that "the trouble spots in the world, it is no coincidence, are places where women are treated as second class citizens."

Christopher Hitchens once said in a July 2011 Vanity Fair article, in speaking about Islam before the Talibanization of Afghanistan and Pakistan and on repression in the Islamic republic, "Let me try to summarize and update the situation like this: Here is a society where rape is not a crime. It is a punishment. Women can be sentenced to be raped, by tribal and religious kangaroo courts, if even a rumor of their immodesty brings shame on their menfolk. In such an obscenely distorted context, the counterpart term to shame—which is the noble word “honor”—becomes most commonly associated with the word “killing.” Moral courage consists of the willingness to butcher your own daughter."

Try to name some famous opposites of the Islamic extremist leaders who are on the other side of the table, as Democratic leaders in the Muslim world. Far harder to think of, isn't it? You remember Bin Laden, right? But who is his opposite number on the other side? Extremism is alive and well around the world, and here at home.

We can't keep trying to simply take out these extremists with raids and drone attacks and so on, as it works about as well as the drug war had. It's not stopping. We need to treat Islamic extremism like the ideological phenomenon that it is. As any extremism is. We can't simply remove the heads of these movements and organizations and expect them to simply go away. It just doesn't work.

They will just be replaced. Extremism needs to be nipped in the bud. It becomes as a drug to them, an addiction that they need to be extracted from, weaned off of. And because of it, they won't listen to reason. They are much like a drug addict of a real drug. Not pot for reason's sake, but we're talking your heroin or meth of the theistic type. The change needs to come in a fashion more insidious to them. They can't see it coming, because no matter how much sense the opposing argument can be, they will refuse to hear it. Spoken with an extreme American Conservative lately?

People are afraid of clarity in these things because it forces them to think, and have to avoid reason and they don't want that. They don't want it because it forces them to face that they aren't using reason, they are rationalizing what they want emotionally. And the world seems to be going that direction, more and more.

Whenever we are clear about a position, then people are forced to have to go up against it and either agree with it or more typically, disagree with it. But at that point they have to KNOW something. They have to know either that they don't know what they are talking about, or that they are avoiding dealing with it rationally. And that pisses people off. Not appropriately at themselves, but at others who are opposing them. No matter how correct those others are. Since mostly people don't know something, they then become fearful.

Richard Dawkins said that in the struggle of his Atheism against Theism, that this was exactly what he had come up against, time and time again. And it is very much how it is today in our own nation.

Since about 1980 Christians have taken over our national agendas. And that has got to stop. We need to have a secular government back to make secular decisions. Ones based in Humanity and not religious tomes. But we have been steeped in extremism ourselves in order to further these right wing religious agendas against secularism and sanity. We are in a death throw with theism around the world, and at home.

But at a more base point, it isn't just an issue with theism, Christianity, Islam, etc.

Again, it is the drug of Extremism.

Extremism, that easy drug to swallow, to become addicted to. It doesn't require much thought. But the thought it does require is easy and fun, emotionally satiating. Regardless who else out there gets hurt by it. Because it is a very narcissistic addition. It is for the "Me" generation. It is a kind of, "put your head down and ram it into the wall repeatedly" kind of thought format. It is both dangerous and holding the world back from advancing, from evolving. And it warps compassion for our race and justifies things, in the Islamic terror organization as example (and there are other religions doing this), such as killing of innocents and their own Islamic brothers and sisters.

Finally in Catholicism with Pope Francis, some sanity is coming into play. He is putting down all the avenues of extremism available to Catholics. Stop picking on Gays, stop being so focused on the concerns of birth control. Love one another, have compassion. Basically, he is turning the largest religion in the world, Buddhist, albeit with different rituals and texts. And, I am good with that.

So in the end we need a new drug. My vote as you have seen, is for a war on extremism. Or no war at all. Because the way we are really going to get a handle on things kinds of things, that keep popping up, is to treat all people of the world with compassion and not just corporate and national interests as primary concerns. But in the well being of all of Humanity, even those not of your country, or personal belief system.