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Cancers In Our Lives I am a retired person. I’ve been retired for 17 years. This also is an age where I’ve begun to notice that my friends and acquaintances are dropping off this mortal coil at an ever increasing rate. One of the principal causes is cancer. Staying Alive in Retirement: Learn Something New: Ham Radio Staying alive means more than just waking up in the morning still breathing. To me staying alive means to be engaged with life, my community, my family, and within my own brain. Today’s topic: Studying for and passing the Technician’s ham radio license. Writers - Never Throw Anything Away This is to protect yourself, ideas are like fine wine, they need time to ripen and mature to full value. In this day and age of inexpensive RAM for computers, dirt cheap hard drives, and dirt cheap CD backup, no other writing activity is as important as the backup of files. Even your deletions in the editing process, don’t just toss your ideas off into the never-never land of the Ether; instead copy and paste them to a file called- - “Editing snippets from (- - - - - -)”. Writing About The No Excuse-We Just Love to Party- Party Ironically I wrote my original notes for this piece at a Christmas party. I wasn’t feeing particularly Scrooge-ish, neither was I foaming with ebullient Christmas Cheer. In fact, I’d not yet even had a single beer to drink. We had arrived early, it was still daylight out, the sun was not yet past the yard arm, and I had little to do. I wrote some notes in the back of my rapidly expiring calendar. Trash, Sell, or Pack and Keeping Your Marriage Intact Getting ready to relocate one’s life location, again, in your sixties, is not a fresh stack of pancakes. It is more like chewing on hockey pucks. This is mid December. In mid October, to beat the Christmas rush, we sent 46 various sized boxes ahead to be stored for our arrival in our new location. I Do My Writing in the Wal-Mart Parking Lot. I do my writing in the Wal-Mart parking lot. My wife likes to shop, I’d really - - -rather not. She’ll stay inside ‘til she’s ready to drop. I sit in the car, watchin’ the folks come ‘n go, the flow never stops. How to Plan to Guarantee a Perfect Vacation In one word: plan. In a phrase: know yourself and plan. By failing to plan, you plan to fail (to have a perfect vacation). The first step is an honest personal assessment. You have to seriously consider and firmly decide what it is that your mind and body needs from a vacation. Then you have to do it. Duck! Weave! Shift! And Hide! Duck! Weave! Shift! And Hide! ‘Tis the After Thanksgiving Christmas Shopping Crush! Spread your elbows, protect your toes. The mad rush is on, its Stampede Time! At Wal-Mart, Sears, K-Mart, Woolworth’s, and Target. Rain Washes The Tears Away I wait for days with big heavy drops, That run streaming down my face. My hot salty tears hide easily in the cold, … cold flood. I walk in the rain when I want to remember you. Hard Tack, Old Charlie, Jake, and Me Just Old Charlie, Jake, ten cut-plug chaw, eighty dry beans, a hard-headed herd of long-horn cattle, and me. Two gallons of raw, red-eye whiskey. One for snakebite, and one for cutting’ the dust. Water can be hard to find, and firewood’s mighty scarce on the short grass prairie. Spring’s wild flower carpets and Fall bottom colors are a cowboy’s delight. The sun’s fire hot come Summer, and in Winter it is not. How to Use a Word Picture for Planning A Home for Retirement Many retirees find themselves moving to a new location. Many of these become involved in building themselves a new home in the new location. This can be both an exciting and an excruciating time. There are however methods of reducing the pain. One of those is both simple and complex at the same time, especially for non-writers. The simple description is the use of words, written language, to describe in as detailed a fashion as possible exactly what it is that you want in a new home. Song: Rain Washes The Tears Away The sounds of rain drops on my roof brought this poem (lyrics) to me. I can't sing, or compose music, so the next best thing is to share a stream of words that evoke emotion and thought with the world. Relocating In Retirement, Writer’s Cramp, and Flashes of Inspiration There are three themes to this article: relocating in retirement , writer’s cramp, and flashes of inspiration. One can lead to the other. First, there was the flash. It came as a tiny moment of thought. It lasted only nano-seconds. And yet, when I sat down at the keyboard, I was able to grow this tiny seed of light into an 1100 word article very easily in just a couple of hours. There I was, just going through my normal and usual getting the day started activities . . . when it hit. Writer’s Cramp and the Future Writer’s cramp, block, or an onset of fear of writing happens to all of us, even me, the loquacious one. The big mouth, the ever churning idea factory is temporarily stilled. Sometimes the turning point is internal and due to ill health, nutritional problems, or just being “off your stride”. Not this time. Sometimes it is external: the world becoming too much with us, or a series of events that suddenly greatly impose themselves upon you. Script Writing I am a writer. My job was to write a script. My job also contained a requirement to work collaboratively with the technician. We needed to meld and blend our array of skills to create an audio-visual creation for television or home use. It should contain a narrative story, still pictures, possibly video pictures, music background, and text on screen by way of titles, and credits. Obviously this kind of presentation has some elements of advertising and promotion. Writing Large Differently I’ve just finished a major writing project. A kind of writing that I’d never done before: I created a script for a DVD. This was a part of a larger project I served as Director. The technology for production of such material is more available today than ever. More and more people are learning through the use of their own home computers and available software how to go about assembling a combination of still pictures, video, and sound tracks. 2809 Total Deaths, 96 So Far this Month on 10.26.06 and 811 Days To Wait What depressing numbers out of Iraq. Twenty-eight hundred nine troop deaths. Ninety-six deaths so far in 26 days this month. Eleven more days to wait see if the electorate has been bamboozled yet again. Eight hundred eleven days until our pompous Imperial King George, the Constitution Crusher, hopefully leaves office. Closer in time, I keep expecting and waiting for the October Surprise. Karl Rove’s version of, “I fooled you. I fooled you. I fooled you, again.” Vision Problems and Looking Into the Future? We recognize, because of our common experience of being socialized in a human community, our imperfections as human beings. We learn this as we grow up in contact with an immense variety of other human beings. Part of this is what we really mean when we use the term sophistication. A person from a small isolated rural village has not had the opportunity of exposure to as large a variety of people as has had a person growing up in a city. Another Night of the Long Knives Now that George Bush has gotten total and absolute autocratic power to “disappear” anyone who simply disagrees with him, his policies, decrees, or his plans - when does the purge begin? Will you and yours be the targets of eraser teams or death squads? The Constitution is an inconvenience and nothing more than wishful thinking written upon an old piece of paper to these power addicts. Waiting for The October Shoe Surprise I’m waiting for the shoe to drop. Again. I thought it already had. Then that shoe turned out to be a hoax. Remember the story about terrorists planning to explode radiological bombs in seven NFL stadiums this weekend? That’s the problem with this kind of thing, when there is this much excitement in causing havoc, there are copy cats, idiots, fanatics, and college numbheads who want in on the fun. Black Tuesday, October 17, 2006: U.S. Constitution Revoked For 791 years, ever since King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta at Runnymede, the crown jewel of English common law and later our own system of law under the U.S. Constitution, habeas corpus, has reined supreme. Now, because of their unnecessary fear of a few ragtag terrorists, a disbelief in, and an unwillingness to follow the Constitution, Republican lawmakers have overturned the single most important protection of law available to our citizenry. George Orwell Had the Wrong Date This administration has sailed the USS Hubris into uncharted and unrecognized international waters and managed to strike more mines, reefs, and shoals than Gilligan. Their swollen cranial balloons, unpunctured by scientific facts not found in King James, nor connection to common sense realism has bloated government expenditures run by an incredibly corrupt Congress and big business bribe handlers, a.k.a. lobbyists, into a new form of contorted and mostly unrecognized Orwellian nightmare. This is Republican Morality? Remember the moral majority. Remember focus on the family, family values, moral authority, and God’s Gift of the Devine Right of Kings to the Republican Party to lead the nation on all issues dealing with morality, sex, and protecting the homeland. Hubris. Feet of clay. So much for protecting children. So much for telling the truth. So much for attempting to re-write history. So much for homeland security. This is the downfall of a bunch of hypocrites. Amish Shooting Gallery The Pennsylvania incident where five very young Amish school girls were murdered in their school room by a deranged gunman has again pulled out the very worst of propaganda to service a helpless point of view. “There’s nothing that we could have done to prevent this kind of incident from happening.” What utter bull manure! Yes, there are many things that could be done to prevent school shooting incidents of this type from happening. Some are simple. Many are not simple, but doable. Stream of Consciousness Writing I’ve been asked what I mean by a stream of consciousness writing. I mean awareness. I mean what you are seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling? What are you thinking? By way of an example look below: The stream of consciousness - eyes closed listening sensory awareness 9.21.06 2:30 PM. Sitting in the Home Depot® parking lot in Hilo, Hawaii. NIE #2: Iraq, the Basic Training Camp That’s right. Iraq is a basic training camp for al Queda, and their ilk. It includes many opportunities for live fire exercises. This quickly weeds out the dumb and unlucky among the constant flow of new terrorist trainees. The trainees come from the entire Muslim world to build a cadre of bomb building volunteers. Well, well. The NIE has been around since April? Now we know that we have a case, several cases actually, of President George W. Bush lying through his teeth about very substantial matters: connection of Saddam to terrorist groups, WMD’s, necessary troop deployment levels, torture of prisoners, and now this NIE revelation that the President has known for five long months that we are in a losing situation in Iraq. How many U.S. soldiers have died in those five months? Death is a fairly substantial matter. Islam: You Are Responsible for Your Government, Your Culture, and Your Religion Islam: You are responsible for your government. If you do not like what your government does, you are responsible for making the changes that will make you happy. That was what our American Revolution was all about. Generating the Creative Moment That Conceives the Writing “Egg” If I knew exactly what it is, what causes it, and how to do it, I promise you that I would do it more often. What I do know is that I can see a word, a phrase, a sentence and it triggers an idea that expands like compressed foam. Sometimes it is a mental picture. It is a nanosecond flash of time . From that tiny beginning the rest grows like a mustard plant from a tiny seed. Fearing God As a child I was taught to fear God. I was told to fear God in many ways, most of which were never explained. God was the fearsome unseen force that people talked about every Sunday. I never understood why I didn’t ever see God. Other people talked about seeing God, or at least seeing the light of God. I never understood why I didn’t hear that much about God on other days of the week, especially if He was that frightening and around all the time. It Only Takes One To Make A War Just like on the school playground, or between nations, in matters religious it only takes one to make a fight. It seems clear that Muslims world wide have no interest in good relations between the world’s great religions. How far the mighty have fallen. Once the best of the best in creative expression of reason and thought, Islam has driven reason into a slime pit. When recognition of a desire for world wide religious domination is taken into consideration, this makes a kind of sense. Ugly Truth: Well ! Isn’t That Interesting? World War Three Is Coming. I am surely not alone in noting with interest the angry response from around the Muslim world to Pope Benedict’s recent remarks about Islam and violence. I think that they protest too much. I think that they can see the justification for such comments. Even they can see that the continual and escalating violence around the world initiated by adherents of the Islamic faith engenders this belief. This makes them feel uncomfortable. It should. No one wants to hear the truth. Rational Resolution of the Iraqi Problem Iraq. We broke it. We own it. That is understandable. After that the problem is so complex that it is difficult to apply sound reasoning to the problem of finding a replacement for a strongman (Saddam) form of government for Iraq. “Stay The Course” Really Means Using Our Troops As Live Bait “W’s” apologists just don’t get it. “W” has been in office for six long years. He is the one responsible for what happens, or does not happen during his watch. The constant blame game and trying to lay off “W’s” failures on former President Bill Clinton are readily seen for the Loser’s Limp it has always been. When Torture Is AOK? It has been interesting to watch the Conservative commentators and “talking heads” on TV this week. They are obviously trying not to swallow the bitter bile of erosion of Conservative Principles and personal freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution under their erstwhile leader President George W. Bush. This erosion, and a growth of a more powerful executive, is exactly the kind of behavior that would have been expected of Liberals playing fast and loose with the Constitution. God, What Do You Want? Part 1 The problem with the examination of the God-Man relationship is that only one side of the relationship is available to us for study. Everything we think we know about God is our idea. Everything about our relationship to Him is based on underlying assumptions, speculations, history, belief, faith, hope, and fear. Man(kind) cannot ever “know” God except in terms that are understandable to us as human beings. God, What Do You Want? Part 2 The problem with the examination of the God-Man relationship is that only one side of the relationship is available to us for study. Everything we think we know about God and our relationship to Him is based on underlying assumptions, speculations, history, belief, faith, hope, and fear. Man(kind) cannot ever “know” God except in terms that are understandable to us as human beings. Donald and I Agree About Sudetenland I suppose that it is inevitable. Anything is theoretically possible. This, is however, one item that I truly never expected. I actually find myself in a single item of agreement with S.O.D. Donald Rumsfeld. In this one item, he is absolutely correct. There is a reasonable case to be made for a parallel between the Appeasement of the Nazis and asinine wish fulfillment ideas being promoted by some Western journalists, politicians, and social observers. Winning the Cultural Crusade In another article I complained about the moral and intellectual dishonesty of all too many journalists covering the recent military actions in the Middle East. In that article I called those journalists sob-sisters. I accused them of being out of their minds. The recent kidnapping of two western journalists in Gaza simply underscores the ideas I stated at that time. Islamic fascists do not believe in a free press. Nor do they respect any other religion. Writers: All You Really Need to Know About Outlining Question: When do you outline? Answer: When you need to. Question: Before, during or after writing? Answer: When you need to. Question: When do you need to outline? Answer: When you have a problem you can’t otherwise solve. As simplistic as the above is, it works for me. Outlining is a necessary skill for writers. It is not a skill that must constantly used. It’s use is more often to be observed in theory, than in fact. New Writers for The New Readers: Change Your Writing to Succeed We all know writers that want to create their “masterpiece”. Their own “master-work”. They want to write the all time world’s greatest novel. You may be guilty as charged. It is time to cut the crap and get real. You need to know your audience. Today’s reader won’t read that great novel. They can’t. They are basically illiterate. How to Write a Classic (But Factual) Soap Box Letter in Five Steps This is a real letter. It went into the mail as is, although some names and addresses are replaced here by strings of XXXX. This is one of my better efforts. The afternoon I created this blaster, I was on a high roll. The heat was set at a high boil. That is your first Step: to decide the purpose and temper with which your letter should be written. If you don’t or can’t do this, then delay mailing your result until you have cooled off for at least three days. Then re-edit before mailing. Thinking Out of the Box About Israel: Let Israel Move to Nevada There is a non-violent answer to the never ending series of conflicts between the Arabs and the Israelis. We have to realize that Israel is simply in the wrong place. That is what irritates the Arabs so much. That is the burr under their saddle. There is a cure for the condition. Offer Israel a new location. How to Write Book Reviews for Informal Purposes Sometimes there are Freebies…tasks that you somehow cannot avoid. My wife is a member of a reading club. She didn’t have time to read this enormous book. Also she was not particularly interested in the subject. I did, and I was. The following is my very simple and not very complete book review that she took to her book club.. Book: It Doesn’t Take A Hero Author: General H. Norman Schwartzkopf (and Peter Petre) Sob Sister Reporters and Crying Over Hezbollah Casualties From the tear-jerk garbage broadcast to my television screen portraying the o-so-terrible pain, suffering, bloodshed, and eviscerated bodies in Lebanon, to the obvious exclusion of pictures of the similar pain, suffering, bloodshed, and ball-bearing shredded bodies in Israel, it looks to me like the TV networks have decided to take the side of the terrorists. So much for the possibility of objective journalists doing their work honestly. Delayed Decisions Equal Future Larger Disasters, Part 2 The latest weak-kneed, gutless international activity at the U.N. and elsewhere that led to the “cease-fire” between Israel and Hezbollah-Lebanon was a mistake. The problems are not going to go away. Hezbollah is not going to go away. Israel is not going to go away. All that has been accomplished is that the U.N. and other sob-sisters have given Iran the opportunity to re-supply their Hezbollah troop numbers, arms, ammo, and rocket depots. Delayed Decisions Equal Future Larger Disasters, Part 1 The latest weak-kneed, gutless international activity at the U.N. and elsewhere that led to the “cease-fire” between Israel and Hezbollah-Lebanon was a mistake. The problems are not going to go away. Hezbollah is not going to go away. Israel is not going to go away. All that has been accomplished is that the U.N. and other sob-sisters have given Hezbollah the opportunity to re-supply their troop numbers, arms, ammo, and rocket depots. Airline Travel Today This is a new subject of discussion at our home. Perhaps it is at yours, as well? When I’ve discussed it with friends and acquaintances, I get varying ideas. Mostly the complaints are not about having to remove one’s shoes, put carry-on luggage through an x-ray machine, or to walk through a detector, or being wanded, or even patted down. The Truth About Violence & War, Religion & Terrorism Human beings are too violent to be truly civilized. Civilization is only a thin veneer laid atop a thick multiple layered structure of fear, suspicion, jealousy, envy, acquisitiveness, greed and misunderstood sexual drives. It is, however, this thin veneer of civilization that keeps us striving for excellence, deflects our energy, and ameliorates our ruthlessness toward members of all species, but especially our own. War on Terror: Either We Win, Or We Die In the war on terror, either we win, or we die. These are the stark choices that we face. The terrorists are dedicated religious fanatics. They can only see one or the other. They can only hear one or the other. We Americans and Westerners may not want to believe that this is true. Wanting, like wishing, and the truth are seldom close together. Give Israel Enough Time George, get Condi back in the States and keep her here ! It is too early for any negotiations ! The Israelis need more time. Yes, they have made a mistake or two. So what. They are fighting the dirtiest kind of war against terrorists who are imbedded in a civilian population that the terrorists have bought and paid for, body, blood, and soul. Even and especially the children. This is both cowardice and cynicism. Dead kids make for great agiprop and pulling world opinion their way. Falling In and Climbing Out Smelling Good I do not believe for one minute that George W. Bush had any ability, intention, or foresight to understand the geopolitics of the Middle East. I hope the fact is that George W. Bush at least has the smarts to realize that he has had the luck to fall into a fresh Texas sized cow pie and has a chance to come out smelling like a rose. He has a fresh, new, nasty Middle Eastern war, that he didn’t start, to call U.S. electorate attention away from our war of mistakes in Iraq and 2,558 U.S. deaths Thank You George W. Bush Thank you for killing for all time the misconception that somehow Republicans had something over the Democrats in the field of Foreign Affairs. Thank you for also for killing for all eternity the misconception that the Father is like the Son. The tiny number of voters who chose to vote for you based on the idea that you would be able to tap the knowledge and expertise of Bush I have obviously found themselves adrift on an ocean of discontent. Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition It is time that I give President George Bush some credit . His present stance of doing nothing is exactly the right thing to do when dealing with problem of the Israeli incursions into southern Lebanon and Gaza. Go for it, George! Sit back and watch. Keep your fingers out of the pie. Either do nothing, or more positively, I say, send the Israelis more ammo. Laughing All the way to Comprehensive Immigration Reform 07.13.06 Any comprehensive solution to immigration has to deal effectively with a number of issues. I am not sure that a comprehensive solution is possible because I do not trust our government under the Bush Administration to be able to do even one part of a multi-faceted solution correctly. This group of the gang that can’t count to five with the help of the fingers on one hand, certainly can’t shoot straight, nor walk and chew gum simultaneously without injury to the body politic. U. S. Democracy At Risk The general incompetence of the current political party in charge has placed our Democracy at risk. I tend to think that perhaps they can’t help it. The Republicans have been out of power for so long at the Congressional level, and much longer since they have had both Congress and the White House that they lack practice. They are simply unskilled. That is why I think that they have had so huge a problem with corruption. Without practice they are unskilled at properly hiding their actions. Can You Believe It? I didn’t. Not at first. Osama bin Laden - Wanted Dead or Alive! Multiple million dollar bounty will be paid for an identifiable body in either condition. And the CIA halts, stops, and disbands the special unit dedicated to hunting bin Laden down? Just what part of Republican Newspeak is this? Are we just going to trust that eventually an informant on the other side will do a Jesse James on him? Karl Rove Is Breeding Red Herrings in the White House That has to be the answer that explains the rate at which the White House is able to drag out these Red Herrings, one after another. Given the powers that this administration has taken unto itself, I do not understand how the full power of the Government of the United States is somehow unable to determine the source of the leak to the New York Times about undercover examination of international financial transactions. Parents: A Class Out of Favor A declining number of married, or civil union conjoined, adults are choosing to become parents. Who can blame them? Parents today are not supported by the institutions of society, especially government with its taxing power, and are forced by the volatility of the jobs marketplace into seeking dual income status to survive. Che, Osama, and You The latest hoorah about the US Government tracking large financial transactions is much ado about nothing. First, the government has been doing this for many years. It is one of the methods used to track money laundering activities of organized crime. It really has not had much effect as the intelligent criminals simply found another way to transfer funds out of sight of law enforcement. My Grandchild’s Future, and What About The Elephant Herd in Our National Living Room? The official bulleted happy talking points dance down the page suggesting that in the US economy all is wonderful. The concert of the financial pundits is an all too familiar croak of pond frogs, and similar to whistling while walking through the cemetery at night. That is why a super majority of Americans feel like they are teetering on unstable ground before the rising winds of the gathering storm. Perhaps it is the trampling, trumpeting herd of elephants in our national living room . Bush, “Spreading Democracy” in the Middle East, and Shaking Hands "Spreading Democracy" is “W”’s latest lame excuse for getting us into a war in a country where we don’t belong. It is more home grown, domestic, political marketing bullshit. First was WMD’s. There were no WMD’s. Second was al-Qaeda. al-Qaeda hated Saddam. It was mutual. Both would have rather eaten rat poison than even talk to each other. A Time for Brutal Truth Isn’t it time for the citizens and countries of the world to take their heads out of the latrine and see things as they really are? Our Western civilization has had a religious and cultural war declared against it. That war has been going on for over fifty years. This is not a nice clean intellectual pretend war where no one ever gets hurt. This is a brutal war with guns, RPG’s, high explosives, and idiots running around with automatic weapons and swords. What Went Wrong? When I was a Junior in high school (1957), I watched my older friends (Seniors) go out and within a week, or two, get a job. That job was collateral enough for many to purchase a car, get married, and some were well on their way to parenthood and home ownership when I restarted school the next Fall. The overwhelming majority of married women had a non-wage paying job of homemaking and rearing children. It was considered important work in those ancient days. This was the “middle class” ideal. Upon Awakening From A Dream I was dreaming during my afternoon nap and my wife assures me that I was also snoring, “really sawing logs”. Psychologists tell us that our dreams are simply our brains trying to resolve conflicts. If that is true, I think I know the issues with which I was struggling, the things which generated this noise troubled dream. Immediately upon awakening, the dream and my answers still vivid, I began to write this material to further deal with the issues. The Ugly Truth About Hell I do not believe Hell exists, except as I will define it later. God doesn't need Hell. Some people need it, psychologically. Most people don't need Hell. A few people are well served by Hell. By promoting Hell, they get theirs. Most of what most people "know" about Hell comes to us from imagination and works of non-divinely inspired fiction. Most of what most people "know" about Hell comes to us from imaginary FICTION. Hell does not exist. War does exist. 666 and the Power of the Pen With the recent advent of June 6, (6/6/6) and the sudden appearance of news stories and TV programs about the number (numerology), the anti-Christ, and the Devil, I was recently asked by a reader of my book to explain again why I don't believe in Hell. The easiest answer is that I don't think God needs Hell. It was likely originally created by human beings as a prop useful in telling a campfire story. It wasn't much of a lie to start with, but by layering the story grew. Animal Gods in Our Modern Life I don't usually spend much time worrying about religion, and God, and my relationship to Him. I thought I'd resolved my concerns a long time ago. I thought I had an understanding with God, and we didn't bother each other very often, or very much. I don't know about God, but I was comfortable with the arrangement. Only 956 Days Left to Endure the “W” Cramp in Our Side Just as was expected and predicted in previous articles, we now have before us the first prime example of a desperation measure by the George W. Bush owned and controlled Krovian Twist & Spin Trust of Dirty Tricks: the “compassionate conservative” President George W. Bush proposing that a permanent state of discrimination be written into our Constitution against a minority of our citizens. The real question is, of course, who will be next? Easy Killing: Best Argument for the Strict Regulation of Small Firearms Does God exists in all human beings? God gave you free will. God gave you a brain with the ability to think and reason. Know yourself. We need the experience of death. To understand death, you must actually touch the corpse. You must feel the absence of life and soul. You must actually touch the corpse before you can truly value life. This gives you the opportunity to value life. This one idea alone is the best argument I know of for the strict regulation of small firearms. A Simple Successful Retirement Test Everyone who is on the long, slow glide path toward “the Golden Years” needs to plan ahead in many ways. One that is rarely talked about is the emotional-sense-of-self that simple activities adds to a person’s life. My lifetime of observation is that a person who retires to a rocking chair dies mentally or physically very soon afterwards. The active ones with various interests stay around much longer. This test is intended to help people do some simple planning for their future. Illegal Immigration: the Secret Republican Party WMD Aimed at the U.S. Middle Class What I have been unable to figure out is how so many people in the middle economic class were so easily duped by George Bush and his spin and web weaving master, Karl Rove. Was it ignorance? Stupidity? Distraction? A suicide wish? All of the above? The result is an unprecedented attack on the American Middle Class. Unemployed poor sick people who don’t vote are so much easier to kick around than healthy, confident, secure citizens. Aloha Writers In an article directory, essentially you put forth copyrighted free standing samples of your work. This could be a first chapter, or a segment of a story. It is an especially valuable way to reinstate material languishing in the closet, unseen, and lost forever. Unless you free it and edit it for the world to see. The important part is that each article must stand alone, and by itself. Your article is then part of the public domain available for use with copyright credit and attribution. Writer's Comfort and Work If you've read some of my other articles, it might be possible to think that I am not aware of an author's need for physical comfort. Comfort at your workstation, or office. Don't mistake, I do stress using your time efficiently. Using "waste" time. Using "down" time. Using "dead" time. Writer's do not need any additional excuses to "kill" time. We are already too, too efficient at that already. I think all of us can agree to that. George and Tony Admit to “Some Mistakes” You and your fellow travelers admit to “some mistakes” and keep pointing to the “positive results” as if that was sufficient excuse for your own undisciplined, bullying, and morally unacceptable behaviors. It is as if you want and expect people to love you and trust you. Why in God’s name should they? You are not deserving of trust. Any trust and goodwill that you may have accrued in the past is long gone. It will take many years to regain it to the same degree that formerly existed. George W. Bush: Only 971 Days Left: It is barely enough time to finish the job. There are only 971 days left to painfully endure before the incompetent administration of the George W. Bush Presidency comes to a lingering, crawling, whimpering, and unbeloved close. Sparks The most unusual town where I have ever lived is Sparks, Oklahoma. Sparks got its name from its origins. The origin was in work safety laws as they pertained to the railroads. Under the work safety laws, crews were only allowed to work for so many hours. Then a new crew had to take over. The timing of road length and crew changes did not always match the locations of towns. Solution: build some new towns. All over the west, railroads had lots of land, so picking spots was easy. After A Drought Comes the Rains How to get started in writing…write about what you know. Go back into your own life, remember with clarity. Remember your thoughts and feelings and experiences. This is what writers do. They call upon their own experiences, their feelings, and they use this material to tell stories. Here is one of mine. Just before my senior year I high school, my parents moved to Southern California, into the LA basin area. During the settling in period, they rented a cottage in Lawndale. Reducing Churn for Writers and Other Professionals All of our lives contain what my father called “churn”. Churn is any and all activities which may, but more often do not, support our main life, work, or professional objective. Churn has as its net effect the taking away of time from that main principal activity. Some parts of churn are necessary: sleeping, eating, personal care and maintenance, interactions with others, paying bills, meetings, doctor’s appointments, and keeping informed. Please, Just Call Me a Pagan I’ve been doing some serious thinking lately. I am very concerned with the paths all too many “Christian” leaders are obviously following. From my perspective, many of these purported “Christian“ “leaders” are in fact false Christians. Their public statements, actions and activities have little or nothing to do with the message from Christ I read in the Gospels of the Disciples. Sitting in the parking lot at Wal-Mart® and writing on a Kleenex® box I’m tone deaf, can’t sing, and couldn’t carry a note with a tin bucket. Nor, am I any kind of poet, but words - those I can string together . . . Then I change and exchange ‘til they seem to fit in some sensible fashion. And what’s my point? Simple. Writers write. Write about what you see. Write your interpretation, or your personal vision. And don’t forget to have something else to write on besides a nearly empty box of Kleenex®. Your Uncle Ferd* Was an Idiot We enjoy God given free will so that we can make mistakes. So that in the end of the universe God will not. I assume that God does not want to make mistakes. He is perfectly willing to let you interact with evil for Him. God grants to you the power to choose. He guards your free will choices. He guards your ability to make decisions for yourself. God can learn nothing from you if He controls you. That destroys God’s Plan. Because that is always the way it has been is not an excuse. Crucified, Beheaded, or Burned Alive are Only Ways to Say, "You Lose." You must seek oneness with God, enlightenment, or nirvana within yourself. This is your “vision quest.” The truth of it is, that you will never know until you try for yourself. It may, after all, be an illusion, or a delusion. Being crucified, beheaded, or burned at the stake are particularly nasty ways to die. You might find yourself locked up in an institution, or medicated. You might find yourself wandering the streets a shopping cart. The name of this game is called persecution. You Have to Choose to Sin Generally, sin is a transgression of a religious law made up by humans. This is the lowest level of sin. Sin is a deliberate disobedience. You have to know it is a sin, and do it anyway. You have to choose to sin. I am only concerned with the higher level of religious sin. The higher level of religious sin is that behavior which knowingly and deliberately interferes with God's Plan. It is our duty to follow those laws and rules. You Are Not God's Focus Some folks want an interested, paternal God. A God who cares of His children. A God that pays attention to every tiny act and thought of every second of every day. This is a childish fairy tale. God does not care what happens to humans. What would convince God to change His mind and act to send another emissary to Earth? All the others had failed from Moses to John the Baptist. That was a plan that apparently does not work very well. You Are Alone You are responsible for your own personal relationship with God. In other words, you must put aside the fairy tale of God hovering above your shoulder. Put aside the idea of a constantly observing God. Put aside the idea of a bribable, appeasable God. Put aside the idea of a capricious and constantly meddling God. A God that will save you from yourself. A God that will save you from current events. The hardest idea to accept is, that God does not care about you while you are alive. How to Effectively Deal with The IRS I got a copy of this from a friend several years ago. I thought to share. The IRS sent me a letter last Friday. They audited my return and denied two of my dependent deductions! I sent them the following letter: Prayer Is Not Sniveling, Whining, & Crawling To remain sane you need to seek to create a balance within you. You will experience good and evil. You will do things that are good. You will do things that are evil. Seek to balance evil with good. Threats, promises, and bribery are not forms of prayer. They are instead the immature actions of a child. History is always written by the victors. It does not demand sniveling, whining, and crawling. These actions are remarkably similar to those of a slave using nonassertive tactics to res Are There Any Good People Left in South Dakota? I just read the horrific news. Abortion ban passed in South Dakota. Are there any good people left in South Dakota? If there are, let us help them leave. Let us begin by encouraging them to move somewhere else. Let us begin by encouraging every woman in the state to simply leave and not return. These characters have spent way too much time alone out in the grasslands with the sheep and cows. These characters have spent way too much time with their head deep in the whiskey barrel. Something Stinks Like a Dead Fish Most of what we have been told about sin is a lie. The lies stink. They stink like a dead fish. They stink because their purpose is so venal. Only organized religion is served by these stinking lies. The lies do not serve the mass of people. The lies serve the purposes of organized religion. Very little that organized religion calls “sin” is really sin. God gives us life and free will. Sin then must negatively impact either life, free will, or God’s Plan. Suicide Without A Sanity Test To commit suicide is, at least, slightly arrogant. God may decide you have not learned enough. God might very well send you right back to try life again. Laws against suicide are based on politics. Even Moses didn't try to proscribe that way out. Today, we force people into death by cop, or faked "accidents". In today's crowded world, we do not need the extra people. It makes sense to have a quiet, honorable way out without a sanity test, and an extremely protracted delay. Survive, Suffer, & Enjoy Sweaty, Satisfying Sex God is right out there in plain sight. God is visible if you have eyes to see. People would rather believe some mountebank, charlatan, or criminal priest. God has a purpose for you. His purpose is not one where He will be worried about your happiness. Your happiness has never been the question. People are not here, and alive, to be happy. Happiness is not part of the game plan. God’s purpose opens the door to incredible human adventuring, joy, suffering, pain, and death. Ten Steps to Success in Life The answer unfolds from the survival imperative. Clear perception, honest appraisal, learning, exhibit courage, responsiblity, reproduction, teaching, appreciate beauty & collaborative music, support your relatives, and support your society are the ten steps. You’ll note that there is not one negative in the bunch. Ten Ways To Recognize Real Sin The key point for all that we do, is to take personal responsibility for what we do. Despicability does not necessarily make a sin. It might not be a sin against God. God doesn’t demand a lot from you. God doesn’t prohibit a lot to you. What is sin? Especially if God is not going to punish you for your sins? Sin is that which interferes with God’s Plan. God’s Laws are provable and observable. God’s laws are not interpretations by some human. The Power of Symbols and My “Ah! Ha!” Moment Symbols enable thought. Eureka! The lightning struck me on the road to enlightenment. Symbols are powerful devices for the manipulation of ideas. Symbols are an aid to thinking. Symbols are an aid to the conceptualizing process. Symbols allow us to add depth and breadth to meanings by way of simile, and metaphor. I found instances of a spider as a symbol of God. Observation quickly suggests that spiders are “cold”, “heartless” hunters. Spiders are obviously of a different species. We Sang Together in the Treetops Beauty and music are the balms of life. Music is supposed to soothe the savage beast. Learn to read and play music. Sing! You don’t have to be good, you just have to be good and loud! We sang in the treetops while we drummed on the branches. Learn to draw, paint, or sculpt. Take art classes. Learn to read about something new. Reading transforms the mind. Priests in Sheep’s Clothing False religious leaders will try to tell you what to think. False religious leaders will try to tell you what to do. False religious leaders will will hold out their hands expecting you to place your money in their hands. This is how you will know them. Observe them with open eyes and a closed mouth. Keep the lock on your wallet firmly closed and the key in another pair of pants. They are the wolf in sheep’s clothing. False religious leaders do not care about your soul. Rape, The Death Penalty & A Modest Proposal for Reformed Justice Rape is a violent social crime that deserves the severest punishment that can be provided – death. The original concept of ostracism was a death penalty sentence. Today we drive the prisoners insane. We transform them into sexually perverse persons. This cost is simply too expensive for society to bear. A prisoner that is convicted of a violent crime is too dangerous. The convicted should instead be quickly and quietly executed. The Real Truth Revealed About Prayer & The IRS We are taught that a failure of prayer is our fault. If you believe that, you are hooked. God never answers prayers because it is not in His interests to do so. A curse directed at God is just as effective as prayer. God is a pragmatist. God wants results. Don’t beg God in prayer. He has already given you what you need. God will not help you. He will not hear you. He will not answer you. God best helps those who help themselves. Rebellion Against Organized Religious Repression Life on Earth is short. Only your soul is eternal. We humans might have a life span of a century. This tends to cause us to think short term. To never question your perception of your relationship with God is sinful. Giving up the opportunity to be free of organized religious repression is sinful.
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