Bridge to American Citizens

I recently watched the film of Billy Joel's first trip to play in Russia in 1987: "Billy Joel: A Matter of Trust - The Bridge to Russia".

A very moving film.

I've been a fan of Vladimir Vysotsky for decades, around the time perhaps that Billy first learned of him while in Russia. In the film he said that he saw a line of people waiting to leave flowers on Vysotsky's grave, and that he was surprised to find that it was much longer than the one for Lenin's.

Vysotsky was a national hero who sung what he couldn't say aloud in public.

So at the next concert for the Russians, Billy dedicated a song to him, his song, "Honesty". It was so very touching and the Russians, those that understood, really appreciated it. It gave the song so much more depth, meaning, emotion.

That made me think of how the Russians felt and how they wanted honesty from their government. Which made me think of our own government and all the shenanigans going here in our expensively "free" country.

If only our own government would treat us overall like their own constituents, not just those of their Party. Because especially now a days being voted into office needs more concern about the country as a whole.

There has for some time been an issue in America between we the citizens and those we empower to run things for us.

Allow me to repeat that.

We empower YOU politicians, to run things for... US.

So why is that so hard for them to understand? Can they simply not hear reality over the roar of their egos and the flopping of checks from special interests flooding their inboxes?

This is an issue in both major parties but mostly exemplified and most easily exposed in the Republican party. The party of business and big money.

I would argue this is even more true for 2016

Someone recently said that they believe there is no longer a republican party at all, just a conglomeration of individual interests under the same now defunct party name. I had said myself a few years ago that the republican party was self destructing and that we would soon see it implode. Has it?

I had also then said that it looked like it was dissolving at that time and finally perhaps now it is after all dead though it's bloated, lumbering zombie-like corpse is still wandering around the national political scene, abusing us all and, itself.

As a zombie it may never "die", as it continues to make money for the rich, steal that money for the not rich in a kind of zombie "Trickle UP" economy, where all the money we make goes to the top few.

As Bernie Sanders said last week, we need a political revolution.

We need the rich to begin to see themselves as our saviors and not just as our masters, not just as a bank machine for their pleasures.

To those rich ones (like the rather slimy Koch brothers) who try so hard to be a political cancer in America, to those trying to abscond with our government and money, we say this:

Just be honest with us, as best you can be, because your partisanship is just not important to us as a nation. You need to consider if you are a minority voice, speaking only for themselves and then remember that they are not the entire country; that you and those in your pocket... government people... American servants, need to consider that in depth; to weigh that against the whole of the country; against what is best not just for you and your purchased constituents, but for the entire country; and as it also relates to the entire world.

This is no longer and has no longer been the case for decades now where one can concern themself only about themselves and theirs. We are all on the same lifeboat called Earth. If only you could get that through your leaded skull into your thickly calcified brain, then you could convince all your friends of the truth and depth of that concept.

Because you sir or lady (not that you deserve such a highly vaulted title), are not an island unto this world. Nor are your positions, your constituents, or your Party entities separate from all others who walk upon us.

Stop the stupidity of so many of your foolish beliefs, your disingenuous rantings, many of which you obviously do not even truly believe yourself. Otherwise, you would show yourself to be a fool, if not just a charlatan.

Denying climate change, putting down women, restricting their State given rights as well as the rights of voters? Trying to damage the office of the president and the President, apparently at all costs?

Sure many people claim these are "just my opinion". Really? Opinion, based on what? As John Oliver recently put it on his excellent HBO show:Last Week Tonight, referencing a Gallup poll showing one in four Americans believe climate change isn’t real:

"Who gives a shit? You don’t need people’s opinion on a fact. You might as well have a poll asking: “Which number is bigger, 15 or 5?” or “Do owls exist?” or “Are there hats?”"

I got that from an excellent article by Jeff Rouner on Houston Press, No, It’s Not Your Opinion. You’re Just Wrong. Check it out.

Anyway, how about trying instead to be supportive of our national government, even though your striving to support your own constituents and party. Try it. Raise them up. Enlighten them,. Enlighten yourselves. Force yourself out of your stodgy conservative ways, your self-serving, self aggrandizing bubbles and realize that we need action, but action in the right directions.

We can no longer afford to be concerned only about our own selves, our tiny minded group, our own desires. We have to consider what is best for our nation and the world and you my friend, are never going to get there in the way you are traveling now. You are outdated. You will suffer for this in the long run. The tide seems to be changing in part becuase of all the instant media and internet which you've abused, and which is now coming back around to eye you, hungrily, just as you have eyed us.

Above all else we need honesty from our government and officials so as not to be just another fascist regime like the old Soviet. The likes of which produced such voices of dissent as Vysotsky, when all others were fearful to speak out against those abusing the nation at the top.

We need a wave of progress in our government. More Bernie Sanders types.

We need from our leaders, a bridge to the American citizen. To all of us, not just to a select few. We need voting to start working correctly, big money to stop deciding our leaders. Real people to really lead.

We also need to have them start sharing with us as a part of them, not as their enemies, separate from them, such as we are, their employers.

In what business does it work to have those in charge so unaware of those beneath them doing all the work? Only in those businesses that fail, surely. Look around. We've been failing, though we are now pulling ourselves up off the bottom of the barrel thought still our infrastructures are deteriorated. Our digital bandwidth is suffering and 2nd class, our capitalism is defective and has taken over.

Those of power and wealth need to treat us not as their minions but as those in their charge to care for, protect, in an honest effort to serve America the ideal and the country, the citizens and the legacy, to prepare for our future and not just our present for only a few. Propping us up, props them up. Not propping them up, props us up as in their laughable "trickle down economy" shell switch con game.

They need not to just pummel us with their own not infrequently ludicrous beliefs while they push only for their own self-protective, self-serving self-interests. They need to share the wealth. I know, something hard for the greedy to understand. And....

Yes, I know, I know....boring. Right?

But it's all true and someone has to say it.

Don't we all? Don't we all need to say it? Over and over, over and over again, and again, until change finally is inevitable?

Hope springs eternal they say. But hope requires action.

Prepping for the Apocalypse - Sci Fi, or just Life?

I love a good science fiction, horror film or apocalypse book or film. But those are fiction. Reality can be far different. Though there are many good and well thought out ides used in many of those stories.

However some people get easily carried away with this prepping thing, cuz, you know, the apocalypse is right around the corner. Right? Okay, probably not realistically speaking.

That's really what it's all about. What's real and what's perceived or feared. Fear, is the mind killer, someone said.

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
― "Litany Against Fear" Frank Herbert, Dune

All of this kind of stuff is just risk analysis. It requires a study in the dynamics of that kind of thing. If you live in the wrong place in the Middle East right now, having prepped for bad times is probably a good thing. Except, someone more powerful will probably come along and take it, and possibly kill you first. But if you live in the UK or America, just how important is it to be so ready at the drop of a hat, to deal with no infrastructure, no food, no water no security?

Let's say you prep full out, you have your guns, maybe even a truck loaded with everything you'll need to "bug out" and hit the trails, running for the high ground, or some secluded areas you know about where you would expect to find very few in the case of a national degeneration of the government.

What if then, as you're "heading for the hills" as fast as you ccan, someone simply takes it all from you?

After all in having all that stuff, to anyone else who has no qualms about taking from others if they had a mortal need for what other have and they don't, you'd then simply be turned into a target. All your work over all that time, possibly years of acquiring things, all the money you would have spent, all of that labor and financial expense would simply turn out to have just been a hobby.

Let's say you prep your home for disaster and then finally one day, it strikes. Someone bursts into your home. They don't harm you but they take all your goods. Then all that money, effort, scrimping and storing would all go for naught.

Or let's say you do not do any prep. Maybe you die first. Or maybe someone takes you in and makes you a part of their family and you survive just fine. Maybe you are head of a family and you are responsible for others, especially children. So then you'd want to be more prepared than if you lived alone or didn't have any dependents. What then?

I look at all this like a fire drill.

What really makes sense? Well, it makes sense to know a way out of a burning building and to talk to your kids about it, to do a run through with them Because it's been proven that practicing something decreases fear and mistakes during an actual crisis. Even POWs have shown to handle their situation in captivity if they first have had POW training and experienced a mock up of what it would or could be like and have some examples of how to handle things under those conditions.

That gets down to experience and skillsets. Is it better to give someone food, or teach them to fish, as they say? Food lasts until it is gone. But knowing how to get more can sustain you for good.

That's how I look at all this.

If all the grocery stores are out of food, if the power grid goes down for a month along with the water system, what happens to you? What would you have available, both in your home and without? Nearby. Far away. What are your resources? Sometimes remote is better than nearby. These are the questions you need to answer, before tragedy strikes because once it does, it's too late.

We all tend to have some back stock in our home. But how much and how well do you rotate your back stock?

For myself I really don't need to go to a Costco type store more than every couple of weeks, or longer sometimes. Once in a while I will stretch it out longer just to use up what I have and clear out any older stuff and then rebuild. Though I do go in between locally for some minor things as unforeseen issues crop up.

What therefore would be MY concerns? I should probably address and have on hand at least a modicum of back stock or knowledge of where I can replenish supplies. But I also need to know where it's guaranteed to be if I need it. Otherwise, I need it to exist within my home.

We need to at least think over all this and consider it ahead of time.

And maybe do something about it. Whatever it is you would need to do. Watch survival movies. Horror movies are also actually good to watch in order to put you in a mind set for this kind of thing. They are not all good for this kind of thing but some are and some are better than others.

Because if the worst happens, you may find you have no idea what you will need, or what you might end up going through, or what preparation could or should have been done ahead of time.

Just don't go nuts over it. But give it some pre-consideration and do take some steps toward being self sufficient. The government suggests to have a couple of weeks of goods stored up should some disaster strike. In the US we have the National Guard and FEMA to help during your basic national disaster situation but as we've seen in the past in hurricane and earthquake disasters with flooding and roads being washed out, assistance doesn't always get to you in a timely fashion.

You may need at least for a while to be able to protect you and yours, to supply your family with sustenance in order to survive until help arrives or if they never do, so that you can become self sufficient in a new way. One without stores, without money, without supplies or a supply chain. You may have to deal with others trying to take from you what is yours. You may find you are taking care of others you had never foreseen you might have to take care of.

These are all things you have to think about before it is too late.

You may know how to get out of your house should it catch on fire at 2AM, but do you know how to get away from your house, your neighborhood, your city, should you ever need to? Do you know where safe zones would be to get away from the public?

If you try to get out of town do you know the fastest route? The fastest route when all the roads are gridlocked, or damaged? The ways out of town on foot if need be? Places to hole up during the journey either on foot or in a vehicle?

Perhaps waiting till the roads free up would be best way to go. Perhaps the longer you take getting out of town, the more dangerous the urban areas get as there become fewer and fewer people around.Do you leave town for open or closed areas? High altitude or low areas, near or far from large bodies of water?

Know your territory. Know your options, so that you have options.

In many cases seeking out the public would actually be the way to go as those are where the National Guard and others will seek to locate and supply. But if things were to go horribly wrong, you may need to avoid those areas say in the event of severe contagion and a lack of inoculations or medical care.

The point of all this is, disaster is not just a sci fi show on TV, or a horror film. Things do happen. But they do not happen all the time and so to live expecting it is questionable. As they say, plan for the worst hope for the best and live accordingly.

Learn a few skills that require no electricity, like how to live off the land. A weapon is handy be it a gun, a bow and arrows (and practice using them), a sword even or just a sharp stick. There are always weapons at hand with a little alteration.

Have at least a few of the right books and not an ipad with ebooks on it as no electricity can mean no ebooks. Books on basic medical procedures in the field, on survival, hunting, how to pick food in a forest. During a disaster where you may have to hide from other people, know your accessible forests, caves, and so on.

Places that are good for hiding in. The more viable supplies, potable (drinkable) water is good but it's not going to last that long anyway and really is, as many don't realize, just there to get you through till your government arrives or if they never do, aides you through that transition period of going from a monied economy to a barter, or self sufficient one.

In the end, should something ever happen, DON'T PANIC! Act.

What's the best way to avoid panic? It's to have considered whatever can happen before hand. Forewarned is forearmed, after all.

Finally, the War on the War on Drugs is Here

We are beginning to see the war on the War on Drugs.

That is to say, a war against the war on American citizens which has been going on even decades before the so called "War on Drugs" was officially begun in 1971, but goes back to an effort from as far back as 1914. Our more modern war on drugs is based in some very old and unfounded scientifically, beliefs.

Before I get into this, how does what I'm going to say benefit you, what does it do for you?

Here's the thing, no matter where you are living, you have to see what is best for yourself, your country and the world. Conservatives seem to see what is best for them, then justify what is best for everyone else through that filter. But what is best for all is best for the one because the one, needs to live  in that world of the all. Kind of counter-intuitive (not really) which is why many conservatives have issue with it.

We need to push for what is best and not just what our governments and people have been misled toward believing is best for them, when in reality it is best for a few and a few who control things, who have power, money and influence. The masses however are the people, not the few people. It's not just quantity over quality but it's quality overall of the quantity.

So don't let people put you down, speak out, say what needs to be said. Vote accordingly and think forward. Be proactive when possible or at least, reasonable. Progressiveness should be about progressing and we have as a world been regressing now for far too long. Look at all the wondrous things going on around us, breakthroughs in science and in advances in society.

Legalizing cannabis (pot), legalizing gay marriage, cracking down on money in elections, squarely facing the responsibility humans have for advancing climate change, on and on down the line. People are starting to wake up and realize they are suffering only to prop up corporations and government, rather than government and corporations propping up human beings.

But for now I'm only focusing on the end of the nightmare that has been, the war on drugs.

I won't go into a history lesson on this, but when Nixon called for a commission on drugs and they returned to him a recommendation that we legalize them, he lost control, ignored the recommendation and took his current paranoia at the time which we all know about now, which eventually led to "Watergate" and the bled over and into the eventual and official War on Drugs.

Whenever a government starts to see its own citizens as the enemy, it has to be seen that something has gone very wrong right from right and at the top as well in this case, deep in the past.

I've been pushing for the legalization of pot for decades. Literally since I was a kid, since I was in my mid teens, anyway. We've spent over a trillion dollars on the war on drugs in this country, something that should never have been instituted. But okay, it was.

What have we learned? We have incarcerated over 37 million people and it's not yet gotten a handle on the issue while in other countries, they have. They have in ways we would never before have considered, considering.

"We've been walking into the future, backwards for too long." Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Real Time With Bill Maher..

If we have a troubled child and punish them but they don't get it together, they don't figure things out through their being mistreated, then what do we usually do? We punish harder. Where does that stop, though? When do WE wake up and realize that what we are doing is only adding to the problem? We are then at some point making things worse.

We do become the bad guy at some point.

We have to wake up to see if maybe our charge, our child, needs something we aren't offering them. Maybe it is our lifestyle that is abusing that child. Maybe it is us who needs to change.

On a side note, this is especially true of ADD and ADHD kids who go through hell because their school and family wants them to adhere to what is considered normal.

Offering borders on behavior is good, but punishment at an early stage tends to be counter-productive because it is a counter-intuitive situation. Much like our war on drugs which requires those in charge to have intelligence, to observe and update their own behaviors. Not to keep saying we have to hit them harder. Because as some point, they have become the abusers. They, have become the addicts. Social addicts, addicted to a social behavior that is failing.

Regarding the arguments about children and pot, that really isn't the argument, so stop diluting the topic.

Adults are who we are talking about using pot.

As for kids they can get it now with no legal issues stopping them, as they are going to underground dealers. If we take the market from them, well? Just as today, where it's illegal for children to buy alcohol, they will still be able to get pot, just as they can now get alcohol. But we require alcohol to be regulated and it is legal. Why would we treat pot any different? Especially when it is an entirely different animal that is far less harmful that alcohol and actually has some benefits.

To alcohol if nothing else and there isn't nothing else. It is being shown time and again that there are benefits to pot. That being said, no, of course children shouldn't be using pot and it would be best as I've read, not to use it until around twenty-five years of age. Same as with alcohol. But that's just not going to happen. So let's make the best of the situation and consider the whole and not just the most delicate of our species.

But that has absolutely nothing to do with legalizing it for adults state by state as is not happening now, or nationwide as is surely soon to come once we hit that tipping point. Hopefully our leaders and legislators won't sadly wait till all states have legalized it before they pass national legalization.

With all the new forms of pot available we need to hold adults who have it legally, to be held legally responsible for it's access, in the case of children accessing it. If you have a lollipop pot confection, you have to know to lock it up.

Only an idiot leaves it around for a kid to use it. People need to be educated. Just as if alcohol were dropped into a society when they were ignorant of it before. As humanity has done to isolated communities all through history in missionaries and sailors having discovered island societies and suddenly brought them up to the world's most modern times and technologies.

If the recriminations are made well known for children accidentally taking pot, it will get around and it will settle down. How many people do you know now who don't lock up their alcohol? Except they don't leave around a mixed sweet drink that would entice a child. It's an educational situation and we will work it out. It takes being proactive, something Americans as a nation seem to be allergic to.

That doesn't mean we should continue a war on American citizens.

It means, we need to grow up and wake up and move forward into the future. Because as we're seeing in so many other things, as in the middle east, oil and gas drilling and fraking, climate change and so on, the future is rapidly passing us by.

We can either get on the train and deal with the ride, or stand before the train and be run over.

Choose your path. Choose it now, before it's too late. Because the rest of us, are going to move on without you, if you don't.

Know Thyself

There's a saying, "A good man knows his limitations." This isn't about being macho, Not about age, gender, education, religion, relationships, position in society.

Sometimes I have a feeling that people have no clue what that means. Especially, politicians, religious and political pundits and... did I say politicians?

Anyway, know how far you can go with something. With anything.

Yes, it means that. Many think that is all it means, or at least, they act that way. But really you know, it means so much more.

You also need to know if and how far you can and should try to push yourself beyond those limitations because that is when great things happen, when great people are exhibited to themselves and to the world.

I say "themselves" because we are a conglomeration of individuals, a multiplicity of selves we that call, "self", just to simplify things.

It is good to be aware of that, because it can be important in knowing one's limitations.

Be aware of where YOUR limitations lie.

We can and should supersede those limitations, but knowing where they end and when we are running on fumes, and luck, are all important things to be keenly aware of. Because it can get you killed. Or at least, it can ruin your connections to others.

Know when your limitations are not someone else's. Don't push them to the breaking point when sometimes, most times probably, that is up to them. Though sometimes, we should push them.

Those two things are important in relationships and in helping others. They are also important elements in ruining relationships, in harming others and in certain situations, getting them killed.

Also know when your limitations are not someone else's, in the other direction. Like when their limitations outdistance yours, or far outdistance them for that matter.

Give them their due respect.

Respecting others who deserve it, admitting when you are fallow in their shadow, really doesn't diminish you. In fact, it elevates you.

I see this a lot among those who have less training in something than they need and yet refuse to show proper respect in the audience of greatness.

Even slight greatness more than yours, in showing respect, makes you seem more than you are, not less.

I know, it's counter-intuitive, something that conservatives have a great deal of trouble with, as well as the less well formally educated, in my experience. I have no trouble showing respect to someone who deserves it, regardless of how or where they were trained or educated.

Though sometimes that alone really is worthy of respect and can be a separator issue from what they actually know or can do and again, that does confuse some.

Err on the side of caution during those times.

Few things irritate me more than someone trying to be what they are not, with inflated self-importance.

Look. I'm the first to offer respect when someone deserves it, even if they outshine myself. If you are the first to not do that, then you are a sad individual indeed. Because you are exhibiting poor self-esteem and worse you are exhibiting poor judgement.

Of others, of yourself,. Then, you are a detriment to all involved.

It's really pretty simple, and complicated. But it's even more easily defined as this really:

"Know thyself."

Today's Gender Roles - Marriage Equality now SCOTUS Supported

I am a phenomenologist. Truly. I have a degree in psychology and I studied phenomenology. I am here not to make judgement as much as I am to observe and describe what I see.

I was just talking with my daughter and her friends about transgender issues and modern gender issues in general. I'm pretty open minded, transcendental. But I am human and was born in a time where a certain paradigm was prominent even though I was usually ahead of change due to my love of science fiction since the early 1960s.

We had talked about Bruce Jenner, my daughter and her friends, and individuals we've all known, personally. We were talking about how one relates to a transgender person. How is that defined?

My daughter said it's all about how the individual wants to be defined. But I think there is more to it than that.

As I see it there are three versions of gender. How a person defines themselves. How the person's gender is defined legally (what's on your birth certificate). And how you are defined by your physicality.

It used to be easy. There was an order to that, it wasn't a concern or consideration. No one thought about it because there was nothing to think about. Or so it seemed.

You're born either male or female, you're male or female, respectively. Surely a small percentage are born without a physical and prominent distinction. One in 1,500 babies from one report. So more than one might think, or have thought at one time.

Then things like gender reassignment came up. We were defined by our physicality but eventually we were defined by the individual's beliefs more than their physicality.

So Bruce Jenner takes hormones, comes out to the world as a woman. He's a woman? But he said he will not go the full course and lose his penis so physically he will be a man with breasts and a feminine appearance. What's his gender then? Female? Male\female? Male? What's the defining factor?

My daughter said if someone dyes their hair from blond to green, isn't it green or will you say, "No, you're still a blond."

I said that wasn't how I saw it at all. It was more like they were blond, dyed their hair green and said it's red. If that is the case, do we accept then that it's red? Or is it blond. Or green? How do we define their hair color?

Still there would be the three ways to define that. Legal, physical, personal. But in this case the hair would physically be green, though called red, and fundamentally blond.

It occurred to me that part of the issue here is in those gender reassigned or partially reassigned individuals over-complicating the issue.

See, it's really a fairly simple issue.

But individuals need to feel, well, what they feel. In the old days, they'd have gotten therapy. Basically, that is what they do need IS therapy. But the therapy has gone from mental, to physical and therein lay the confusion. For everyone.

I've always been told I was over complicated. But as I saw it, I was merely able to see the complexity in things that most people couldn't see. In this issue it seems to me that these people are overcompensating things for their therapy. They are over complicating their gender issues (yes, gender issues are complicated, I'm not denying that, just bare with me), so they will feel normal.

Now look. I don't have a problem with people trying to feel normal. Up to a point. We all have limits, right?

I mean, if you're a serial murderer, or a pedophile, you need to kill or molest to feel normal. Well, I don't want you to feel normal in that case, I want you not to feel normal. However for most people I do want them to be able to feel normal. I don't have a problem with THAT. Not if it doesn't affect others (as in death I mean).

But there is more to life than a person simply needing to feel normal.

As I'd said you can call yourself a rocket ship even, if you like, but you are still going to have to be designated on legal documents as something discrete, a compartmentalized unit. Such as male, female, or even, let's call it, trans. I don't think we need legal definitions to go to the lengths of Facebook and allow fifty-six gender titles. We just need a general idea of what we all can agree that you are.

I mean, really Facebook, do we really need 56 genders? Well it's social networking so, sure why not? I do think that's going a bit far, though. Okay, perhaps not for social media, but certainly for legalities. Three should be enough, or six, but let's not get carried away.

Here's in part my point. Some will over complicate their gender or title because they need to in order to feel either special, or that is, normal. I'm more concerned about the special, but the normal can also be an issue.

When you over complicate your gender to the group, you are also asking them for something for you. Understanding, if nothing else. I mean you can call yourself anything in the privacy of your home but when you go out and expect others to relate to you in non normal (general, average, etc.) ways, you are entering a different realm. You are then asking the group to help you make you feel normal. That simplifies things for you but complicates them for the group. Whether or not they see it that way really doesn't matter, because it simply does what it does. And that's fine. To a point.

But it is more complicated than that, too. If I were to point that out then those who are over complicating the issue will rebel and say that I am over complicating their issue. So they are saying they want things to be simpler and I'm the one over complicating things on their agenda.

You can't have it both ways. It's either complicated, or simple.

Obviously we can just relate to someone as they wish to be related. But should we, really? If they aren't based in some form of reality? And what is reality but a definition of what is? What is which, physical, emotional, legit, intellectual? What? Where is the definition? What or which is more important? The individual? The group?

Basically the individual is expecting the group to take on part of their therapy. And that too is okay, up to a point. We all do that and the individuals who do it too much are labeled as troublesome, possibly to be avoided and at some point they are usually locked up.

Thankfully we don't do that anywhere as much as we used to. There are people walking around free today who at one point in time would have been locked up in a prison, or an asylum. Of course there are those in prison now who should be in a mental institution for help and are instead being brutalized in prison because we are too cheap as a country to pay for the proper care in the proper environment.

So someone gets gender reassignment and doesn't change their genitals. Male or female? Is it only their decision? Well, for the most part outside of legalities, sure, why not. However, when it gets into things like pronouns, how much can they require before it gets out of hand?

What if it carries over to their pets? Do you call their dog a "he", a "she", a "their"? Or some other form. When it gets to the point that when someone meets your pet for the first time and they have to ask, "Oh, what pronoun does "she" ("he?") like to be called?" Isn't that kind of over complicating things?

At what point does it become over complicated to the point that it is too complicated and unacceptable, or should be unacceptable?

Here's part of the consideration. It's easy to just be accepting and say, "Whatever an individual wants to be referred to as, is what I will refer to them as." It sounds pretty, it's feelgood. but when you consider a group of all non standard gender types, the consideration becomes something else; as I was indicating above about the hair dye.

Sure, on an individual basis you can refer to someone as however they prefer to be referred to. At some level, it's just good manners. We should try to be considerate and cater to our fellow human's identity of who they see themselves to be.

But you can also reach a point where it simply isn't reasonable, or where it isn't even good for the individual making the claims in calling for their desired designation.

For the most part I think, just refer to someone as they choose.

But when you start talking about it in the abstract as we are here and now, and as I was with my daughter and friends, it really grows into a bigger and more inclusive issue than just the consideration of a single individual as you initially wish it to. It quickly grows into a societal issue and not just a personal or subgroup issue.

That is where some of this can quickly become very emotional to discuss. Because you can get one person talking about it at an individual level, even though they are or may also be discussing it on a much larger scale. Many times debates run into that issue. It's why you see so many heated discussions or arguments on topics like this, not even going into the potential pathology of someone arguing about their own identity.

Bottom line I think is, just treat someone kindly and compassionately. Outside of that and in the larger sense, just give it a little more thought than you might normally have done. Life isn't simple anymore. We  have masses amounts of information to deal with, ways to behave are more sophisticated, people can more easily be hurt by way of inattention or ignorance, or a fear of the different.

Don't be one of those people. Be thoughtful and kind and try to understand. If you find yourself reacting negatively, then try to find a more productive way to deal with it. You may find that many times what you fear or hate, find distasteful or disgusting, is out of ignorance, or unfamiliarity. Consider if it's based in elements of what you have grown to see as reality and where any of that  might wrong, or if you are right but you can still treat others strange to you with compassion if not at least, common good manners.

To each their own. And maybe we can tall talk and get to know one another, regardless of how annoying they may be, or we may be, to them.

Speaking of which, SCOTUS, the Supreme Court of the United States has just declared same sex marriage legal in all fifty states. It's nice to see sanity rule the day for a change. From them today on this..

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.

Try, try again...but, Try.

Is there really a greater threat to human progress than the fear of the unknown, the fear of fear itself?

For it leads to one second guessing oneself,
to the point of inaction, when action is needed;
to fighting to maintain the status quo, at all costs even when it's the wrong thing to do;
it leads to conservationism (and of late) to Republicanism, to fundamentalism,
all out of fear of change,
of progress,
of taking a calculated risk,
of offering oneself the opportunity of succeeding and thereby,
excelling, of raising both yourself and your fellows
out of the muck and mire of what is,
into the possibilities of what could be.

Alfred Lord Tennyson said:
"'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all."

And so it is... better to have tried and failed,
than never to have tried at all.

T.S. Eliot spoke of being

  .   "Only undefeated
  Because we have gone on trying..."

Or as the Zen master Adam Richman of "Man v. Food" put it:

"He looked his destiny in the face, and he ate it."

That reminds me of a film I shot for a couple of Professor's at my university on Phenomenology toward my degree in Psychology wherein there is a section that says (to paraphrase):
"When we meet, we eat one another."
Of course I meant that metaphorically.

Then this....

Some say risk nothing, try only for the sure thing,
Others say nothing gambled nothing gained,
Go all out for your dream.
Life can be lived either way, but for me,
I'd rather try and fail, than never try at all, you see.

Some say "Don't ever fall in love,
Play the game of life wide open,
Burn your candle at both ends."
But I say "No! It's better to have loved and lost,
Than never to have loved at all, my friend."

When many moons have gone by,
And you are alone with your dreams of yesteryear,
All your memories will bring you cheer.
You'll be satisfied, succeed or fail, win or lose,
Knowing the right path you did choose.

-William F. O'Brien

The world is there for you to live in, not for the world to live in you, or to usurp your life. But for you to use it as a vehicle to expand, enhance, experience.

But you have to take hold of it, of Life, and never let go.

Then on occasion whipcrack it to your intentions.

"Qu'est-ce que le cinema?"

"What is film?" Director Jean Renoir used to ask his friends before viewing one of his films. He would say that movies are more than mere flashing images on the screen. That, "they are an art form that becomes larger than life."

As is cinema, so is your life.

Should you choose to allow it to be so, anyway. When life goes against you, try harder, do something different. Make it, interesting.

Especially when it is trying to do the same to you.

Don't just live life, don't just exist, don't just survive.
Eat it, love it, immerse yourself it it.
Make love to it.

And it will love you back.

Allow me to close on a passage from the great Syd Field's must read screenwriting book, Screenplay, The Foundation of Screenwriting:

"I've learned there are two or three times during a lifetime when something happens that alters the course of that life. We meet someone, we go somewhere, or we do something we've never done before, and those moments are the possibilities that guide us to where we're supposed to go and what we're supposed to do with our lives...I've learned not to believe too much in luck or accidents; I think everything happens for a reason. There's something to be learned from every moment, every experience we encounter during the brief time we spend on this planet. Call it fate, call it destiny, call it what you will; it really doesn't matter."

According to Field, auteur director Jean Renoir whom he once knew, son of the famous painter Renoir, used to tell them that, "Art, should offer the viewer the chance of merging with the creator."

How does one do that? How do you go about sharing with others you will never meet, a chance to merge with the creator of what they are viewing?

What matters in all of that is what you do with it.

Recognize it when it happens. When those moments of greatness are offered to you and then make good use of what you have experienced, of what you have hopefully learned. Then share all that in a way that others can "see" what you are trying to tell them, to share with them.

Now. Go out and be brilliant!

NOTE: Last night I was updating this blog, mostly about at the top and I twas going well. There is a nuance of this software where if you paste something it selects a group of text. I dropped down, typed some more then realized all the text at the top was gone. I quickly existed and reentered and it was gone permanently. This has happened a lot when I use my laptop and not just here. It's very annoying. I just wish software would allow me to lock it into writing mode so that only typing words would be allowed as other functions crop up if you have the wrong key accidentally. Usually CTRL Z will save it or some other thing (like quickly existing and re-entering a document but when it autosaves (it had looked like it hadn't saved) you're lost. I just wanted you to know, this blog was a better blog with more elements about Jean Renoir but I was so frustrated with what happened I just left it as the original. I've had this happen with entire blogs so that I got used to using Notepad and copying and pasting but when you're just updating you sometimes mistakenly believe it will be okay, and then...it's not. My apologies for the blog you may never see. Though I may try to update it sometime this week when the pain of the event passes. It's just hard when you word something well and lose it, then when you redo it, it never seems to be as good as what you had originally done because at that moment you had been inspired.
I've told this story before but back in the late 1980s I had a dual 5.25" floppy drive system, no hard drives yet on home PCs. The left side was the OS disk, the right, the document disk. If one or the other filled, you lose everything. I had sat one afternoon in my living room and written a short story that I felt was the most perfect short story I had ever written. I went to save and it said, the horrid, "Disk Full" warning. I sat there for an hour, frustrated, angry, depressed, trying anything to save it until finally I realized my only recourse was to reboot, then write as fast as I could to reclaim all that I could remember. I was able to rewrite the story from memory, but not with the exact wording, and so it was never as good as that period of writing with inspiration, after re-writing it with a period of frustration and sadness. Computers. Our best friend and sometimes our worst enemies.