We are the product of our choices

MY PHILOSOPHY IS

We are the product of our choices

So, suddenly I'm a philosopher?

Philosopher: (somebody who seeks to understand and explain the principles of existence and reality: a thinker who deeply and seriously considers human affairs and life in general: somebody who calmly and rationally reacts to events, especially adversity).

Loosely applying these definitions, I could qualify as somewhat of a philosopher. But then, so could most writers because, what most of us do is write about human affairs and life in general. I cannot say we all do it calmly though. I, for one, tend to get fired-up at times and spin off into La La Land. I am but the rough slab of bark stripped from a saw log. I lack the finesse required to smooth out boards for making fine furniture etc. I have searched all my life and I fail to understand some people and their ways.

My statement

We are the product of our choices in life. Now, is that not a good philosophical statement? Of course, it is not mine. I stole it from someone else. I pondered it for a long time and firmly believe it. What I cannot believe is, people freely make choices that that sends them down the wrong road. Then they turn and blame someone else for their folly.

We all face many choices each day from the time we wake up until we flop on our bed for another session of dreamtime. So why should we blame our mean old boss for singling us out and firing us for coming in late. It was our choice to stay up watching a late movie. It was our choice to click the alarm off and fall back to sleep. However, we cuss the TV for tempting us, and we have forty eleven excuses for not making it to work on time. Then, we belittle our employer for sending our sorry butts a packing. We simply fail to fess up to our ill begotten choices.

This putting the blame on someone else is something we learn in early childhood. We are quick to point the finger-of-blame at someone else or even something else, i.e., our sibling or our favorite toy. I believe it is the unusual parent, who teaches their child to take responsibility for his/her actions for bad choices.

Some personal examples

One of my earliest remembrances is when I was around five. My mother and sister had planned a trip to the grocery store and I was excited because Mum said I could go with them. I guess I grew impatient waiting, so I wandered off into the neighborhood, something I recall doing quite often. I returned to find them gone. I probably threw a fit, cried, jumped up and down, and beat my head against the wall. I know I was very disappointed. When they came home, I sobbed and demanded to know. "Why didn't you take me?"

"Because you weren't here when we left, so I thought you didn't want to go," Mum said. Now I ponder, was my mother giving me a lesson on responsibility or was she just being mean?

Most of our choices are just that, i.e., they are our choices freely made. No one stands beside us wielding a whip and forcing us to make a choice. Well, maybe in some cases some of us feel as though there is. Mostly, we are the ones making the choices, weather right or wrong it is up to us. What we choose will eventually determine what or where we end up at the end of the day, week, month, year, or life. We alone, make the choice, sometimes even when made against a warning.

At about that same time, Mum warned me about standing too close to a stray dog she had just thrown some scraps. As I stood by watching the peaceful looking stray, I decided to help it with its meal. When I reached down to pick up a piece to feet it, the stray nailed me. I still carry a scare on my wrist to remind me of my ill begotten choice. Some choices have immediate results. Others take a lifetime for us to realize our folly. I, for one, have stacked up a long list of regrets. I hate regrets. However, good bad or indifferent, I accept full responsibility. They have carried me down a long and weary road of which I hope is nearing the end.

Having our cake and eating it

These days, we can choose to have a healthy breakfast at home or we can choose to stop at one of the dozens of fast food joints strategically placed along our route to work. You know the ones that advertize to our children promising them fun and frolic if they only convince their parents they will be good if they have one of those slop burghers and half-gallon liquid flavored drinks laced with highly refined poison, i.e., SUGAR, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is so easy on us busy parents. What harm is a little fat and sugar? We make the choice.

We gladly select this form of feeding mainly to keep their yapping, whining mouths shut. It is an easier and cheaper way for busy parents to feed their little brats as well as themselves. These fast food chains have convinced us that their fatty slop-burgers laced with GM, (genetically modified) meat are healthy meals. Besides a good meal, our little butter balls get a play toy, as well as a place to play to work off all that fat they just ingested. This play period comes nowhere close to working off the fat-laced double burger, large fries, and jumbo drink. Our plump kid would have to work out for a week to rid his chunky body of half the calories in that meal. We made the choice.

The consequences

Later, WE complain about the high cost of medical care. What made our children's teeth so rotted? How did our little butter balls end up with diabetes? It must be those damn fast food slop houses. Let us sue the rascals. They have deep pockets. They need to pay.

We deny it was our choice to feed on this garbage and expose it to our sweet vulnerable babies. We demand compensation. You worldwide food chains fooled us and forced us to make a wrong choice. Pay up. You lied when you said your meals were healthy. I didn't know they were laced with GM. I didn't know they came from floor scraps drenched in bleach. Give me money to burry my kid, lots and lots of money.

When will we ever learn?

It is quite evident we have not learned yet. These slop joints continue to thrive and they continue to lure us into their dens of death. Like zombies, we line up to feed on their tainted meat we have become addicted to. They will continue as long as we choose to patronize their establishments and as long as we allow them to continue buying off our representatives in Washington. We made the choice, now we suffer the consequences.

Who is to blame?

Do we have the right to complain, blame it on someone or something else? Should we sue the food chains because we made the decision to eat their garbage instead of a wholesome meal at home? Some have done it. People will not fess up to their ill begotten choices. We still have not learned how to stop pointing our guilt-ridden fingers.

We have only ourselves to blame. Our early choices in life made us into what we have become. Without realizing it, I learned this early in life. Maybe that is because I have always been a loner. Loners learn early on how to make choices that mainly benefit themselves. Well now, you say that is selfish. Maybe so, however, I look upon it, in many cases, as self-preservation. That rather changes the picture, does it not?

However, you put it, it is our choice, right, wrong, or indifferent, we freely made the choice. We may have based it on wrongful information or thinking, or jumping to conclusions, they were decisions we freely made. This is good that we are free to choose. Now if only we would accept our responsibility and take our whipping without screaming the devil made me do it.

Decades later, we cannot lay the blame on someone else. We need to suck it in and face the truth, or find a hole and crawl into it. I found my hole, but I seldom feel comfortable there. I have made my cot, now I wallow in it, for the end cometh. I feel safe in the knowledge there is no hereafter and I don't have to worry about crossing paths with those I have wronged in my life. I have regrets aplenty, but things, that happened a lifetime ago, have done their damage and not all the regrets in the world could undo it.

Thanks and have a pleasant day. Have a grand New Year.

Ray

A WEIRD CHRISTMAS DAY

A WEIRD CHRISTMAS DAY

New feeder

I'm a bird watcher and photographer, which consumes a large portion of my days. The day before Christmas, I decided to put up a new feeder for the birds, one the squirrels couldn't get to. Squirrels Just don't like sharing, not even with each other let alone with those flighty birds. I don't know why I hadn't thought of it a long time ago. Of course the answer to that is, the old noggin just doesn't work like it used to.

Anyway, I placed the new feeder in front of my computer room window where I previously had two feeders, which hung on plant hangers I confiscated from my wife. This time I hung the new one from the edge of the roof gutter.

Feeding station in backyard

It worked beautifully. Within minutes birds, mostly sparrows, flocked to the new feeder and the squirrels querulously searched for a way to gain access to it and I set up my camera. I had to make one adjustment, i.e., the feeder swayed too much to take good pictures.

I had to anchor it down somehow. I found a string and went to attach the feeder to the side of the window. While in the process, an unsuspecting bird flew in. Its wing brushed against my cheek before it realized I wasn't part of the feeder.

The string, you see in the picture below, worked and I covered the window from inside concealing all but the camera lenses and began taking pictures. I was as delighted as a pig in slop and obtained many great pictures. Birds flocked in, mostly Sparrows, as though they hadn't eaten in days. I got some good shots of flighty Tufted Titmice, on the left and Black Capped Chickadees, on the right, that come in, grab some seeds, and take off again. I'm too slow on the trigger to get good shots of them. I took these two just after putting up the new feeder.

 I was surprised and disappointed on Christmas day when no birds showed up. More surprising, no squirrels came around.

Oak tree bush

The stillness of the quiet felt weird, and. the only birds I saw that day were the pair of mocking birds, that for the past several years, have lived in my oak tree I keep trimmed into a round bush. The pair usually comes out in the mornings and sits for long periods atop the bush as they survey the neighborhood before taking off on their daily excursion. They have built four nests in that small tree/bush.

Pair of Machingbirds

I only saw the female when she came out and took off. That is the female on top. I can distinguish the male by the larger patches of white on his wings. I often catch his beautiful songs when I wander outside wearing my hearing aids, which I usually only wear when watching TV.

This is my backyard feeding station, which is an unusual shot, because most always, there is a squirrel sitting and munching seeds, or chasing birds or each other away from the feeding station, while a half dozen more are positioning for whose next to feed. The ornery devils cannot stand having company while they eat. I guess the table is too small for more than one squirrel at a time.

The next day, I told my wife about the missing animals. She said, "It's probably because of the storm we had."

"What storm?"

"It came in after you went to bed. The animals probably sensed the storm is coming."

"I guess that's what it was then. I thought it may have been all those tingle bells and hoof beets from the night before."

If you like birds, have a look at this video, on Birds of Paradise. Check out the longer version on that site. It's amazing.

CHILDREN KILLING CHILDREN

So, another incident of a child killing and maiming class mates. Everyone is UP IN ARMS about it, and blaming it on everything from God to the National Rifle Association (NRA). Why do we always get so upset about these events? Check these statistics.

According to the Center for Disease Control, in 2011 there were 15,953(44 a day) murders in the United States and 11,101 (30 a day) were caused by firearms. Suicides and unintentional shootings account for another 20,000 (55 a day)deaths by guns each year

Yes, of course, it is a tragic event; however, compared to the above figures it looks a little insignificant. The mere fact that it took place in a few minutes is what opens our eyes. We get angry and want to blame it on everyone from God down to us lowly atheist. If only God had not been chased out of the schoolroom, if only those damn nonbelievers would quit crying about their rights being trampled upon. We are too quick to point our fingers.

We could also blame parents for allowing their little pets to play all those innocent video games like Mortal Kombat. It's a short distance from the reality killing field of a game to the actual killing fields of school. Our little scamps are more adapt a mowing down every figure in front of them than they are at figuring out what's on the blackboard. And, I would venture to say, they spend more time playing reality games than they spend in school and studying. Yet, this too, is not to blame.

So, what or who is to blame? My vote goes for the gun. We need to get rid of them, all of them. Guns are for killing. It is that simple. To stop the killing, we  need to get rid of the guns. I don't give a damn what you say "I only use them for target shooting." Why? You do not learn how to drive if you are never going to drive a vehicle. Why not collect pictures of them? Collecting pictures is fun I have thousands and thousands of them.

"I need a gun to hunt with." Get a bow buddy, and show a little sportsmanship. Give the poor defenseless animals a fighting chance. Besides we already torment, torture, and mistreat billions of animas  each year intended for our dinner plate, not to mention the pollution that saturates our air with rising gassed created by these pore creatures. Think of all the ground that would be available for growing food for our selves, instead of using it for fattening up our dinner stakes. We do not need meat in our diet. If we were ment to eat meat like all other carnivores, we would have evolved with much larger canine teeth. Or, like flies, we would have developed a way to puke on our meal to dissolve it and suck it up through a straw. Besides, we now have the technology to grow meat in the lab.

Guns are for war

We have much more efficient ways of suppressing crowds of people. We have the A-bomb. Now, if only we could keep it out of the hands of other countries or militant groups. We also have nonlethal weapons that we could perfect to disable large groups of combatants long enough to put them into chains. Why do we need guns when we can conduct our fighting from thousands of miles away?

Why not put the blame where it belongs, i.e., the National Rifle Association (NRA) big laugh. It is too big, too powerful, and too rich. Like everything else in this crazy world, the big, the powerful, and the rich controls the small, the insignificant, and the poor.

What is the cure?

Here is my suggestion, although, as above, it is a little ridiculous. We could set up medal detectors at the entrances of all schools, ex-ray everyone, make them take off their shoes, and pat them down just like at the airports. It would create more jobs for our National Security Agency, as if we do not have enough them already. Shhh, let's not mention that. It just might happen.

Check out this video from Bill Moyers. It is the most heartfelt one I came across. Here is another one on how an atheist can cope with Christmas.

Hope you all have pleasant holidays. Thanks. Ray

OUR CHOICES DEFINE WHAT WE ARE

This is my philosophy

So, suddenly I'm a philosopher?

Philosopher: (somebody who seeks to understand and explain the principles of existence and reality: a thinker who deeply and seriously considers human affairs and life in general: somebody who calmly and rationally reacts to events, especially adversity).

Loosely applying these definitions, I could qualify as somewhat of a philosopher. So could most writers, because, what most of us do is write about human affairs and life in general. I cannot say we all do it calmly though. I, for one, tend to get fired-up at times and spin off into La La Land. I am but the rough slab of bark stripped from a saw log. I lack the finesse required to smooth out boards for making fine furniture etc. I have been seeking all my life, and I sometimes fail to understand some people and their ways. See there, none of what I just wrote has anything to do with what I want to say.

My statement

We are the product of our choices in life. Now, is that not a good philosophical statement? Of course, it is not mine. I stole it from someone else. I pondered it for a long time and firmly believe it. What I cannot believe or understand is, people freely make choices, that send them down their path of life, but fail to take responsibility for them My main beef is, when they make a wrong turn, they inevitably want to blame someone else for their folly.

We all face many choices each day from the time we wake up until we flop on our bed for another session of dreamtime. If we happen to over sleep or fail to hear our alarm go off and show up late at work, why do we blame our mean old boss for singling us out and firing us? We simply fail to fess up to our ill begotten choices.

This putting the blame on someone else is something we learn in early childhood. We are quick to point the finger-of-blame at someone or something else, e.g., our sibling or our favorite toy. I believe it is the unusual parent, who teaches their child to take responsibility for his/her bad choices.

Some personal examples

One of my earliest remembrances is when I was around five. My mother and sister had planned a trip to the grocery store and I was excited because Mum said I could go with them. I guess I grew impatient waiting, so I wandered off into the neighborhood, something I recall doing quite often. I returned to find them gone. I probably threw a fit, cried, jumped up and down, and beat my head against the wall. I know I was very disappointed. When they came home, I sobbed and demanded to know. "Why didn't you take me?"

"Because you weren't here when we left, I thought you didn't want to go," Mum said. Now I ponder, was my mother giving me a lesson on responsibility or was she just being mean?

Most of our choices are just that, i.e., they are our choices freely made. No one stands beside us wielding a whip and forcing us to make a choice. Well, maybe in some cases some of us feel as though there is. Mostly, we are the ones making the choices. Right or wrong, it is up to us. What we choose will eventually determine what or where we end up at the end of the day, week, month, year, or life. We alone, make the choice, sometimes even when made against a warning.

At about that same time, Mum warned me about standing too close to a stray dog she had just thrown some scraps. As I stood by watching the peaceful looking stray, I decided to help it with its meal. When I reached down to pick up a piece to feet it, the stray nailed me. I still carry a scar on my wrist to remind me of my ill begotten choice. Some choices have immediate results. Others take a lifetime for us to realize our folly. I, for one, have stacked up a long list of regrets. I hate regrets. However, good bad or indifferent, I accept full responsibility. They have carried me down a long and weary road of which I hope is nearing the end.

Having our cake and eating it too?

These days, whatever that means, we can choose to have a healthy breakfast at home, or we can choose to stop at one of the dozens of fast food joints strategically placed along our route to work. You know the ones that advertize to our children promising them fun and frolic if they convince their parents they will be good if only they have one of those slop burghers and half-gallon liquid flavored drinks laced with highly refined poison, i.e., SUGAR, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is so easy on us busy parents. What harm is a little fat and sugar? We make the choice.

The truth

We gladly select this form of feeding mainly to keep their yapping, whining mouths shut. It is an easier and cheaper way for busy parents to feed their little brats as well as themselves. These fast food chains have convinced us that their fatty slop-burgers laced with GM, (genetically modified) meat are healthy meals. Besides a good meal, our little butter balls get a play toy, as well as a place to play to work off all that fat they just ingested. This play period comes nowhere close to working off the fat-laced double burger, large fries, and jumbo drink. Our plump kid would have to work out for a week to rid his chunky body of half the calories in that meal. We made the choice.

The consequences

Later, WE complain about the high cost of medical care. What made our children's teeth so rotted? How did our little butter balls end up with diabetes? It must be those damn fast food slop houses. Let us sue the rascals. They have deep pockets. They need to pay.

We deny it was our choice to feed on this garbage and expose it to our sweet vulnerable babies. We demand compensation. You worldwide food chains fooled us and forced us to make a wrong choice. Pay up. You caused me to make the wrong choice.

When will we ever learn?

It is quite evident we have not learned yet. These slop joints continue to thrive and they continue to lure us into their dens of death. Like zombies, we line up to feed on their tainted meat we have become addicted to. They will continue as long as we choose to patronize their establishments, and as long as we allow them to continue buying off our representatives in Washington. We made the choice. Should we suffer the consequences?

Conclusions

Do we have the right to complain, blame it on someone or something else? Should we sue the food chains because we made the decision to eat their garbage instead of a wholesome meal at home? Some have. People will not fess up to their ill begotten choices. We still have not learned how to stop pointing our guilt-ridden fingers.

We have only ourselves to blame. Our early choices in life made us into what we have become. Without realizing it, I learned this early in life. Maybe that is because I have always been a loner. Loners learn early on how to make choices that mainly benefit themselves. Well now, you say that is selfishness. Maybe so, however, I look upon it, in many cases, as self-preservation. That rather changes the picture, does it not?

However, you put it, it is our choice, right wrong, or indifferent, we freely made the choice. We may have based it on wrongful information or thinking, or jumped to conclusions, they were decisions we freely made. This having a choice is good. Now if only we would accept our responsibility and take our whipping without screaming, "The devil made me do it."

Decades later, we cannot lay the blame on someone else. We need to suck it in and face the truth, or find a hole and crawl into it. I found my hole, but I seldom feel comfortable there. I have made my bed, now I flounder in it, for the end soon cometh. Thanks and have a pleasant day.

Ray

A NOT SO HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Needy Airmen to Receive Free Turkeys for Christ

I was not going to write about Thanksgiving Day until I read this article this morning. I think it's a god damn shame and disgrace this world-leading country, the United States of America, cannot see fit to pay its military members a decent wage. I guess our Representatives are too busy figuring new ways to increase their own wealth to worry about peons who put their lives on the line while these same fat hogs in Washington lounge around smoking cigars and sipping brandy

I think back to the early sixties when I married and began my family. I was in the middle of the enlisted ranks, and my pay was below the poverty level. As I rose in rank, my family grew also. Throughout my military career, I never made enough to pay any income tax, and I always had a second job or ran a small business on the side. Having five kids contributed a lot to not having to pay taxes, and I never got above the poverty level.

The point I am trying to get across is, the US Government just does not give a damn about its military members. It pays them peanuts, and military members are the first in line to get no raises/have their pay frozen and have their paydays altered to boost taxes revenue for a short period. I am sorry to say, it is damn hard for this retired military man to love and respect this grand country to which he dedicated twenty years of his life. Yet he would do it again if need be.

What does all this have to do with airmen receiving free turkeys? Well, it just burns my butt how this law breaking, hypocritical, racist; supposedly religious group tries pull a fast one in the dame of God. This anal group is what makes it hard for legitimate religions. Thanks again for tolerating my rant.

Have a happy turkey day. This has to be an oxymoron. As for me, I am cooking a veggieducken. Here is the recipe ,It's an all vegetable dish, and having no sugar added sweet potato, and cherry pies. Thanks once again and have a pleasant day. Ray

Election results tickled my pink

I'm so excited about the outcome of this election I nearly wet my pants. Not about the presidential part, i.e., I felt sure our flap-eared President would win out and serve his final term. This is, most always, a sure thing. I believe this is because we are resistant to change. We know what the old-boy is and we are never sure about the new one. I feel certain this will continue until we vote in a change that a president can only serve one term.

If we could only make that change for our other governmental representatives, that too, will be a long time coming as long as they are the ones voting on it. Wouldn't it be lovely if we all could decide on how much we were paid? And, they surly know how to thank our military fighting forces by how much and how often they don't get a pay raise. They are a bunch of thick-skinned S.O.Bs up there. I can't see how they are able to show their faces at times. I take that back. I do see how they do it. It's in their nature. It's a requirement for their position.

What I liked about the results

I am tickled our state of Florida voted down amendments 5, 6 and 8. See what happens when WE THE PEOPLE get to decide on issues our representatives try to shove down our throats using double talk and language a college professor would find hard to decipher.

What excited me more was, two states, Washington and Colorado, passed amendments legalizing the use of pot. This was a welcomed surprise. Another, Massachusetts, passed an amendment allowing medicinal use of pot. I think this is a giant step forward in braking up our WAR ON POT. I have no doubt our big-footed feds will be stomping all over these states as they continue beating down those that already allow marijuana for medicinal use.

Puerto Rico is coming closer to being our 51st state. I'm not sure whether this is a good thing or not. I don't know enough about it to make an educated statement.

To top it off, I didn't even vote this time.

My wife and I thought it was a good idea at first. She works a lot and sometimes doesn't get home in time to vote. After our third trip to vote during the week, we were disgusted at fighting the crowd and finding a parking place. We didn't even vote. Maybe we will vote absentee next time. I don't know what they were trying to accomplish this time, but I don't think they were doing it for our benefit.

That's it. I better go clean myself up now. Thanks and have a pleasant day. Ray.

TOO ORGANIZED OR NOT TO ORGANIZE

Where did I put that hammer?

I am not an organized person, as my garage will attest. My wife is forever after me to clean it up, and I have several times over the past twelve years. It only lasts a week or so and then it gradually morphs back into a monstrous death trap for the unexpected. You will never find my wife in the garage. She will not even open the door. If she wants me, she yells through the door. I spent many years in the Navy, so I know how to organize my things in neat segregated areas. It's a necessity, especially when aboard ship where one only has a few cubic feet of personal space and you durst not infringe on someone else's. I thought being a civilian negated all that neat freak stuff. Wives think otherwise and do not hesitate to let you know.

This is just one corner on my garage/collection site.

In my garage, I have built cabinets with drawers and workbenches with tons of pegboards. I have a dozens of toolboxes stored under, in and on my workbenches and stored in unknown cubbyholes. And between spaces are miles and miles of shelves. Believe me, there is a place for everything, yet nothing in is ever in its place. Passing through my garage is like going through a hazardous maze laden with booby traps. Many times, I have been lost for hours while navigating form one end of the garage to the other. I usually end up bloodied, crippled, and apprehensive, which usually takes me several weeks to recover. Like my wife, at times, I too, hesitate to enter this strange territory of yesterday and tomorrow. I keep threatening to get rid of it all.

How does one rid himself of a lifetime of gathering? It takes me months to make order in the garage. I find memories in each tool I pick up. Every time I come across an unusable or antiquated tool, it is painful to lay it to rest. My wife keeps suggesting I have a garage sale. This is not an option either. That would be like selling your child. I would rather give them away. but I cannot bring myself to that either. Yet, it is a pity and a shame to let them deteriorate into uselessness. Most of what I have has been laying dormant for a decade and a half.

Every time I use a tool or something, when I'm finished with it, I never put it back where it belongs. I'm usually too tired, or more aptly, too lazy, and truthfully, I can say I'm not lazy either. It's just a terrible habit. I lay or throw whatever I was using onto THE workbench; the one I never do any work on, the one just inside the door, the door I must go through to get to my favorite chair where I watch TV.

The next time I need that tool, it's nowhere to be found. I cannot remember when I last used or saw it. It's not in the place I made for it. I looked there several times. I scanned the cluttered bench where I found many other items I haven't seen in eons. I found everything but what I was looking for. After several trips around the garage searching in corners and cubbyholes without any luck, I settle down to rooting through the pile of stuff on the catchall bench forgetting what I was looking for. When I finally give up the search, I usually trip over the dumb thing while wading through the clutter on the way to the door.

Then I begin a fifteen-minute rant of screaming, cussing, jumping up and down and threatening to clean the damn place up. After searching for thirty minutes for the right hammer, I pound in the dumb nail that took me another thirty minutes to find, hoping the wife does not change her mind about where she wants her dumb picture hung. I finish my chore in thirty-seconds. Then, what do I do? Is there any need to say it?

It's the same in my corner of the computer/sewing room. However, everything is within arm's reach. I still get involved in thirty minute or hour long searching sessions for something that seems not to be there. Yet I know it is. Post-it notes drive me crazy. I cannot read my own writing and what I'm looking for sits there in front of my face unnoticed.

This is where I spend three quarters of my day.

What if I take out the catchall-workbench and install a wall of shelves in its place. I could see everything on open shelves. Yeah, right, like all the other open shelves loaded down with boxes upon boxes. I'll put that on my to-do list. Now where did I see that last?

Lifetime habits cannot be broken. I know better than that too. They can and I have proven that to myself many times. I hate to say it but, I just lack the desire. Therefore, I will shut up and quit belly aching. I will continue to lay in the bed I have made. Thanks for letting me steal your time to read my rants. Have a pleasant day. Ray

ODDS AND ENDS

From banking to distraught weather woman, from reducing abortions to what is typical.

I've been busy for the past few weeks cataloging the photographs I have taken over the past decade. I am about halfway through. I'm thinking about setting up another blog to display the best of my photos. I have taken a WAG of their number(for the uninformed, that means Wild Assed Guess) of well over 8,000. Ninety-nine percent of them are of things in my back yard. So, my secret is out. I'm somewhat reclusive. I have three hundred photos of my wife and one of myself. The rest are of birds, bugs, lots and lots of squirrels, mushrooms, flowers and other things that wander into my world, including my neighbor's cat who keeps down the number of subjects I photograph. But, for that, he is a nice cat. and we are good buddies. Most of what I photograph is on his menu.

 Everyday, he interrupts my early morning walk and I have to stop and scratch him. I guess he's returning from his nightly carousing. He spends most of his days curled up in one of several spots in my back yard. At least he's not interrupting or disrupting my shooting sessions as my wife dose. I spend half an hour tracking down and setting up an interesting shot and she yells for me to come and empty the trash or some other dumb thing.

Anyway, I have let things pile up, things I wanted to pass on. So, instead of writing long dissertations, I'll simply leave some sites containing the info I want to pass on. Plus, it saves me from being guilty of plagiarism. I hope you find them as interesting as I did.

1. Weather woman having it her way, Or weather woman gone wild. Check it out. It's funny.

2. What is normal or typical? Watch this video. It's very interesting. Be warned, this video has a distracting advertisement attached to it, which I detest with vehemence.

Those guilty of this should have a sensitive part of their body clamped in a vise that automatically tightens each time someone views the stupid commercial. They entice you to their site only to insult your intelligence, which I have little of, and force you to view an advertisement you absolutely have no interest in. Sometimes, if I'm agitated enough, I quickly exit the site and try never to venture there again. I swear. The audacity some people have
.

3. Free birth control items. Here's a good article that proves freely available birth control reduces the number of abortions. I'm for abortions and feel a woman has to right to decide what is best for her body. This is a subject religion has pushed beyond the limits of humanity. Sorry folks, but it's a fact.

Back before The Pill and during my age of ignorance, my first wife and I brought fourth five kids in rapid succession. In the first six years of our marriage, my poor wife only had one normal period. I was present to plant the seed. I witnessed a birth only once. Our youngest daughter was six months old when I first saw her. I was either coming or going. In our frenzy, we seldom took precautions.

Shortly after our last child was born, My wife had a gull bladder operation. Her doctor took advantage of the situation and tied her tubes at the same time. We had asked him previously if he would do it. At the time, the military would not allow it. I say again, Yes I'm for abortion and I'm all for woman's rights.

Join a credit union. If you are not doing your banking at a credit union, you should seriously consider it. I joined (that is what you do, you join with others and become part of the credit union) back when I was an innocent, naive, dumb hillbilly. That was last week. Actually, it was back in the late fifties. I needed some money a buddy informed me about the Navy Federal Credit Union. I joined and never for one minute regretted it. I have had business accounts with regular banks. Again, this was from ignorance. I did not realize I could have opened a business account with the CU.

I am no longer a dumb hillbilly, but I am still ignorant about many things. I am trying to correct that by cramming a lifetime of knowledge into my thick skull in the few remaining years before I take the eternal dirt nap.

That's it. I'm going to shut up now and go take some pictures. I'm shooting for 10,000 by the end of the year. Why? For the hell of it, Just because I'm retired doesn't mean I have no goals. Thanks and have a pleasant day, Ray

Misogyny

Why is the world so prejudice against women?

Misogyny: a hatred of women, as a sexually defined group, not to be confused with misogamy: hatred of marriage

Personally, I harbor no such feelings. I like women. Many of my friends are women. I think I have more female friends then male friends. Maybe that's wishful thinking. My mother was a woman. I have been married three times to women. Some women are even fun to be with, at times. I have only hated one woman in my life. That was my second wife, the one who gutted me like a hog and left me bloody and quivering on the side of the road. I still hold such a deep-seated hatred for her that it scares me. I also know it will lie festering inside me until the day I die.

A cold weakness flows through me just writing about it. Lead weights pull at my arms. It's a terrible feeling and no one should hold such hatred towards anyone or anything. I try not to dwell on it. But sometimes it sneaks up on me. A rage floods through my veins and I have to shake it from me like a venomous snake. Some day, I may write that story. It may help me shed my ingrained hatred for that despicable woman. That someday is a long way off though. So, I do know how some can let their feeling eat away at them. Just because one eats a bad apple, does not mean all have eaten of that apple.

Let me get back into my non-serious mode.

We tend to repeat our mistakes

For example, my marrying three times or, our country struggling through another period of prohibition, one would think we would learn from past mistakes. I thought we liberated women a long time ago. We sanction same sex marriage and then take it away. States are allowed to decide whether pot is legal or not, then the Feds visit their state and stomps the crap out of them. Abortions are legal and then they are not. We cannot leave things alone. We must continually stir the pot. What we settled in the past, we feel a need to rehash, make it all funky again. It's as though we have a dire need to punish ourselves time and again or experience what our grandparents went through. Going through an election year does not help either. It seems to enflame us more. Politicians do this well and do not care who they tread on.

Religion played a big role in how we perceive women today

Thirty to fifty thousand years ago, or maybe further back than that, we humans worshiped women, i.e., they were our first gods. Our first images and figurines were of women. We cannot deny the existence of the thousands of Roman and Greek gods many of which were female, and they all were lovely heifers, too.

Religion came along and turned our beauties into second-class citizens or less. Then it got worse. Some religions still treat their women like low grade whale dung. For the life of me, I cannot understand how a religious group who warships a loving god can treat their fairer sex as they do. I'm not only referring to Muslims. Most other religions place their females on a lower scale than males. They insist their god wants it this way. Excuse me folks, but I give that god the finger. Does he not have a mother? Well, his son did.

I believe this maltreatment of women came about, not because a god wanted it, but because men wanted it. Men made up a god and then made up what they thought a god wanted. If females had taken on this task, we would be living in a completely different society, and women would be stoning men for their perceived atrocities. No, if women had been in charge, I think this would be a more peaceful world and surely, we would not be facing a world so overpopulated we face starvation for all in the not too distant future.

Government has done its share of denigrating women

Our governing group in DC and state and local as well, which mostly consists of men, wants to regulate what a woman can and cannot do to her body. This also comes from pressure applied by religious organizations led by you guessed it, men.

Do any of these groups feel a need to dictate that men cannot have his ducts cut and tied? Have clinics that perform this nip and cut procedure been picketed, bombed and their proprietors killed beaten and bloodied? These are facts we all know, yet few step in to do anything about it.

These two, government and religion, do not and should not mix. However, with every election, the two clash. This year women and religion are both taking a beating.

I think I have stirred the hornet's nest enough. Your thoughts? Thanks and have a pleasant day. Ray.

Weather Forecasters May Be Hazardous

Warning, Killer Storm Approaching

Isaac is a Hebrew name for a male, and it means, child of laughter. It is a fitting name because I laughed a lot at weather forecasters who seemed determined to make this storm more than it was. It was the biggest fiasco I have seen in a long time. And, I do not mean in a disastrous way. Our weather forecasters turned it into a humiliating and ludicrous failure from the very beginning, and continued until it was long gone.

Thursday afternoon, I first learned about Isaac when my wife came home disgusted, worn out and complaining about not being able to get any gas. "All the gas stations have long lines", she said as she sat her purse and notebook on the table. Then she slumped into a chair.

"What's the big deal," I asked?

She began explaining about a terrible hurricane headed our way. Of course, I hadn't heard about it. I don't keep up with the news or weather on the TV. I only check on the computer when I first get up around, 2:30 or 3:00 in the morning, to see if it would be raining when I do my daily exercise. I hate getting rained on half way through my workout. I saw nothing about a hurricane warning. So, I questioned her, a little apprehensive figuring it was speeding towards Pensacola and would make landfall within the next 48 hours. Otherwise, why was everyone frantically descending upon gas stations to fill up their vehicles and gas cans.

She said, "It'll be here on Thursday."

"That's today," I said, alarmed.

"No, next Thursday," she said a little irritated."

"You mean, it's a week away and everyone's going crazy filling up already?" I threw up my hands in disgust and wonderment.

Since she was upset, I decided to appease her and said I would go fill up her tank for her. She sighed and handed me her keys.

Sold out

I returned thirty minutes later more disgusted and frustrated than when I left. There are four convenient stores within ten minutes of where we live. Three of them were out of gas and the forth one looked like a madhouse with cars lined up every which way fighting to get to a pump that still had gas in it. I was not about to get into that mess fearing fist fights were about to break out. I tried to think where another station was.

I checked the fuel gage. It showed a quarter full. Shoot, that's enough to get the wife to work and back if I did not waste any more trying to find a place that had gas without a blue million cars stacked up with anxious drivers leaning out their windows.

I drove home as a sick feeling churned my gut. I was not sure who disturbed me more, the weather forecasters, who depicted the forming tropical storm as a probable horrific threat to the entire state of Florida and the gulf coast, or the people listening to them. We are so gullible.

Whom to blame

I don't put all the blame on the forecasters. The poor things seldom get the chance to report something worthwhile, something that makes them feel as though they are earning their pay. Unlike news commentators, they seldom have the chance to report something exciting. Then, they exaggerate the facts scaring the hell out of everyone. "The sky is falling, the sky is falling. Be sure to fill up your gas tanks."

A week later, as I checked what the weather would bring that day, I noticed a video update and forecast of Isaac. I clicked on it and wished I hadn't. The woman was saying, "Expect the rain to last for hours and hours and hours," so dramatic. I chuckled and clicked it off. Farther down the page, I noticed another video.

A male forecaster suited up in foul-weather gear stood as if bracing against a strong wind. Behind, and to the left of him, stood a clump of grass about two or three feet high. It stood straight, unwavering. I laughed again, clicked it off and went to a third video.

A loud swishing sound of wind blowing threatened to drown the forecaster's words. I am sure his sound-guy had the cover off an unseen mike. These foam covers are to eliminate this wind noise so it does not distort the sound.

These tricks were ment to make the storm seem more severe than it really was. These exaggerated tactics are what turns me against watching news and weather on the boob tube, or listening to it on the radio or reading it in the newspapers. They all carry things to the extreme, dramatizing the mundane and are well paid for these talents.

What is the nature of our States

First off, check out this site. It is a real-time counter of how much our glorious nation is wasting in our latest War Against Terrorist since 9/11.

1. The cost of war in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 is over 1.36 trillion dollars. That is over 124 billion per year and quickly growing.

2. This represents 4.3 million dollars for each U.S. citizen. I think I could have put my $4,300,000.00 to better use.

Are we warmongers?

Our country has been constantly at war from before we became an independent nation. See HERE . We cannot live peacefully. If we are not fighting our own battles, we are taking up arms to aid some other country. So, if we are not warmongers what are we?

On 9/11, around 3,000 people died in the attacks. Since then we have sacrificed ten times that many of our military members. We have caught and slain the two main culprits and most of their followers responsible for this horrendous event. Need we continue our slaughter of the innocent as well as the evil? Have we not caused enough pain and suffering in this world to pay for what we lost in 2001? Must we continue to empty our coffers for more and more fighting machines? Why do we waste our resources on wars, when we have so many peaceful projects that need expanding? Is this our contribution to ease world population growth?

I know there are many who believe war stimulates the economy. They are probably the same ones who believe the War on Marijuana is protecting our citizens and youths. If this is true, our economy should be stimulated to hell and gone. Maybe it is. It is a certainty there are companies out there who have larger budgets than our country. Our representatives see to it that there are, and everyone involved ends up with stuffed pockets.

Objective of this war

Our main objective was to locate, capture and make those responsible pay for what they did. We have accomplished that. I believe we could have done this in less than a year.

It would have been a lot easier to send a small militia of special forces to capture and eliminate these two terrorist, as we did with the last one, i.e., go in kill the sucker and take him out to sea and deep six his sorry a$$ as required by his country's beliefs. The sorry mothers had no qualms in attacking us or blowing themselves up in crowds of innocent people. Why should we worry about our reputation? They invaded our country and slaughtered our innocent people. This is the way it has been since before we climbed out of the trees, and I think it will be the same when our end arrives.

We have accomplished our original objective. Now, let us get the hell out and let them lick their wounds and heal. This war on terrorism has brought our country to its knees. We too need to lick our wounds. We need to regroup and assess what we have become. That is, we are slowly becoming a police state because of what happened over a decade ago. Of course, this is exactly what some want. We need to sort out and get rid of these S.O.Bs before they lead our nation to annihilation.

Or are we whoremongers?

Crime is running rampant, not among us citizens, but among those who make the laws and those who enforce the laws. They institute laws that make it easy to arrest anyone suspected of being involved in terrorism. Of course, everyone arrested is a terrorist suspect. They can imprison these quasi terrorists until hell freezes over and no one can do anything about it, unless they enact more laws. Those who are prostituting our country bit by bit know this and we know it, but we do nothing about it. We sit back thinking someone will do something eventually. However, 'eventually' never comes or arrives too late.

These scum buckets, put into office by Corporate America, are selling our country and its resources to these same big-money contenders. These super corporations are well on their way to having worldwide control over everything from shoestrings to spaceships that will someday spread their power to the far reaches of our galaxy.

Government leaders are merely high-paid sales representatives. Citizens are as cattle grazing on the polluted fodder thrown to us by wealthy corporate directors. Many already control 80 to 90% of our food crops, oil, and natural resources. It is difficult to find organically grown fruit and vegetables not tainted by GMO, genetically modified organisms. We eat beef, pork, chicken and fish so genetically polluted that it affects our own bodies. We do it out of ignorance because the big boys do not want us to know what we are eating. Fat corporate owners fear it might put a dent in their twelve digit quarterly profit on the sale on the garbage they feed us. We cannot get away from it.

Grow your own

It is nearly impossible to grow a natural garden anymore. The big boys have so polluted the world with their GMO plants that there are few, if any, naturally evolved plants left. Farmers who strive to grow healthy produce fight a lost cause. Corporate conglomerates wipe them out within a season or two. Small farmers' fields, polluted by big farmers' poison crops, have little or no chance of winning a case in court. Big money and big buddies make a good team. It's another case of you can't fight city hall.

Not only are we in danger of losing our natural plants, but some of the GMO animals are escaping their growing pens, breeding with, and upsetting the life cycle of their natural counterparts, thus threatening the life cycle and possibly the demise of many other organisms. Given time, eventually, we will not need an invisible god to destroy all life on this planet. The Man God will have taken care of that.

What's the answer?

Don't ax me. As always, I believe we will eventually rise up and kick butt. I only hope it's not too late. I wish I had gotten this fired up as a young man. Thanks and have a pleasant day. Ray