All around the watchtower

Since a belief is not a fact and morality is relative...does that make "moral beliefs" an oxymoron?


If stubbornness isn't viewed in a positive way, why is tenacity?


If the parents of all of those needing a gun for protection had used some form of protection themselves, we wouldn't need so many guns!


One man's immigrants are another's exiles. It's all in the eye of the beholder!


When Caesar ruled, slavery was politically correct. Events, time and perception can change the definition.


The Pilgrims invented the "save a tree" concept...NO papers!


Did either of these associations create the term "familiarity breeds contempt"; the Jews and the Arabs....the Irish and the English? Same tree, just sayin'.

We all do these things

In this post the word "man" will indicate all mankind , while the word "all" will suffice for the vast majority.

All mankind shares a myriad of foibles, functions and general foolishness. We all "burn air" (breath), we all consume (eat, drink, etc) and we all produce copious by-products (think about it). However the only one we actually talk about, arguably the most dangerous, is the sex drive. All of them used in marketing naturally.

There are scores of graphs and charts to prove that the more we procreate the more we produce and consume. Hell, even congress can decipher that one. Yet, for some reason only the poor seem to have large families. How can that be? Easy, congress hasn't put a tax on it yet. And, if you can't afford a brand new game-boy what are a boy and girl to do?

Due to an exponential growth of by-products due to an exploding population growth, our nation, no, our world  is in danger of "going down the crapper"...think about that one for a bit. 

It's obvious that man is privileged when it comes to sex. After all, unlike other creatures, we can and do avail ourselves at all times. Let's take the time to consider the situation we are so buy creating. Or in the words of the great Judy Tenuta, "practice, practice, practice!" Perhaps this is something we should not always take so seriously...that's a punch line from an old joke. I don't advocate celibacy, abstinence or any other unworkable idiotic pablum-like solutions. But, a little bit of "common sense" and a condom isn't world shaking...then it again, it would be a good change!

What's next?

We live in a world overrun with passwords, ID's, user names all purporting to "protect" our identities. All safe, all secure, all requiring frequent change. Omnipotent! 

But, don't write them anywhere! They mustn't be easily discovered or figured out. So you have to remember them. Now, I don't know about you, but my memory is more die,die,die than didactic. 

And now to this we add the "eye test on acid" block. A group of numerals and letters blended fuzzily together for us to copy exactly if we ever want to see the item we just spent half an hour searching for. 

All of these security devices have one thing in common. Any half-baked hacker can get past them on their way to personal nirvana!

Of course you could take cash and actually go to the store...wouldn't that confuse them all? You could call it a modern "exercise" program. Rationalization rules!

Right!

The first person to make an axe probably heard this, "I told you it would work!" And, that makes the first tool- language. Without language, the ability to convey ideas between us we would still be painting on cave walls with chalk.


If you are 100% in agreement with someone then 100% boredom should follow, after all what do you have to talk about?


How very ironic that the person you know, the one most likely to have been in the most churches is me?


As a teenager, if I wanted to go somewhere, I walked, took a bus or rode my bike. I was actually married before I owned a car. Now? Some of those things are a bit different. Not always better, but different.


How does one define normal? Who makes that decision? Can normal change? What are the parameters of normal?  Why do we care? When should normal affect us? Where will normalcy lead us? An Orwellian Utopia?


From a new ad...we are all born unique. Then why do we spend so much of our lives trying to assimilate? Are we leading and living our own lives or just following the lemming in front? 


Yesterday I put off some chores because it was raining. It is worse today, if I put the same chores off again am I a procrastinator?
Or should I wait until tomorrow?


A rose is a rose is a rose...sometimes. In British "English" a bonnet  is something other than the American bonnet. Same with pecker and many more. Poor computer! Can't do a decent translation in the same language! Who knew?


Fun and foibles. Don't know what I'll use that for, but it's a wonderful working title.


How does one "kill time"? What is the weapon of choice? Is it a "capital" crime? Hope they don't catch me...think I just committed a crime.

Modern

In Rome "modern" means something within the past three centuries and buildings over 500 years old are not rarities. In Florence there is an apartment building that has been in continual use as a domicile for 2000 years. These are not samples of recycling, they are the norm.

Perhaps some of our cultural differences are based on the fact that at the time our "world" was being discovered theirs existed and had for hundreds, thousands of years. Everything was there. Built to last, in stone, brick and cement. They just repurposed.

In the "new world" the building material of choice was and is wood. Something that is subject to every type of decay and rot conceivable. We tear down. We start over. Nothing is built to last. In Europe, Africa, Asia and South America buildings from thousands of  years ago still exist. We look on them in awe...but, never attempt to build anything as lasting. No pyramids here, or A Great Wall or a Colosseo! Somewhere the Incas, Aztecs and Anisazi laughing at us. Wondering who the ignorant savage really is?

We belong to an IKEA mind-set, knocked down. Everything can be easily carted and assembled, disassembled, reassembled but it is only for short term consideration. Even the wood we now build with is a composition, MDF, whatever that means. Sawdust and glue pressed into a flat board. Cheap and easy. How easy? Well if you just add some water to that product you are back at square one, Sawdust. Only now it's a damp, wet mass not a building. Soon we'll be back to Adobe. But there will be some marketing ploy added to make it better than the original mud, straw and dung mix. Perhaps, Bulls--t! A new name, an acronym perhaps, OPBM...organically produced building material. Think I'll go start checking trademarks.

Favorite?

Oxymoron? "Favorite" pet peeve! Maybe you can have a most despised pet peeve, but favorite? Kind of like having a favorite toothache! 

Without Webster's guidance on this one, here is my thought on a definition. A pet peeve is some repetitious action, quirk or mannerism that irritates you without you having a choice. Like "internal plumbing" ads right at meal time...biggest audience, don't you know! Snoring, not your own, also qualifies. 

Very high on my list is what I refer to as "speed-speaking". Where some totally self-absorbed unconsciously blathers on at a pace that the human mind isn't designed to comprehend. Why? Are you trying to confuse me? I don't need the help, thanks. Afraid if you stop no one will ever listen to you again? I'm not now...you lose.
It's a learned trait. Unlearn it! It's just rude. Language is meant to be uttered and understood, not amassed and dropped on you like a blivet! Ten pounds of drivel played at 78rpm! 

And, now I have had the pleasure of discovering that they are hiring bureaucrats with this affliction, oh Joy!

Before Jimi

Do you remember who played at your first rock concert? Where it was? Why you were there?

In the spring of 1963 my train pulled into Norfolk, Virginia. That gives the time place and why. Anything you could do to get off the base was better than listening to real yardbirds with drills and the absolute stench of fire retardant blowing through the non working air conditioning. 

I went to see an Alan Freed type concert where the "Star" goes on stage, plays the hit, the flip side and whatever other song they might know and leaves for the next performer. I remember only one performer. Her story was longer than her career. With only one big hit it isn't that hard to understand. The girl was discovered by a much more well known performer, Carole King. Little Eva, stage name, was heard singing as she mopped the floor for Carole King and now she was on stage. Whatever happened to her? She was truly a dynamic little force on the stage, maybe 5' tall, holding an upside down guitar and strumming away, long before Hendrix entered the scene. "Everybody knows the locomotion..."and covered it as well!

It was many years, two daughters and a whole new life before my next concert and everything had changed. It wasn't a high school auditorium anymore. The girl I was with spent the entire concert standing on the back of the chair she was supposed to be sitting in. Wouldn't have seen a thing if she had obeyed that one. The Centrum in Worcester, new, clean, loud and it was New Years Eve. Some one opened, then ended. A wait and all hell broke loose as the"House Party" started. Three hours of Peter Wolf, Magic Dick and J. Geils and a presentation of the city keys later we drove the hour plus back home. Three days later I could hear again!

The old Boston Garden and several Cambridge venues pretty much ended my concert days. There are only so many performers out there now that I would pay to see/hear. And, almost all of them play the guitar. Clapton, Beck, Page, Keith and Mick with any blues player of note, Joe Bonamassa for one might make the list. But, big but...it costs so damned much! Little Eva was under $10, Geils around $25 on New Years, wonder what Keith and Mick get now...not $10.00! 

Ah, the good old days!