Prepping For the Kill

While driving to work in Corning, there is a large old broken down Army truck along the Interstate 5 freeway.  On the side of the truck is a large sign: "PREPPERS  AMMUNITION AVAILABLE!"  What are these paranoid Preppers preparing for?  What do they need more ammunition for?  Truthfully, they are preparing to kill some innocent animals or human beings.
 
I live in a safe, quiet, rural area.  The cities near me are Red Bluff and Redding.  Both cities are ranked in the top ten most Redneck cities in California.  Rednecks, often right wing white Republicans, are a fearful and selfish lot always fretting about and Prepping for civil war, race war, Christian Defense war, or some kind or other of end of the world spiritual apocalypse.  They seem forever to be lamenting that they can't trust anyone.  They seem happier when hating somebody. 

This week, a 7th grade boy was checking out a hunting book in the library.  I asked him if he enjoyed this hunting season.  He said that he liked to shoot squirrels with his rifle.  I asked if he ate squirrels.  He said "No."  "Why do you kill them," I asked politely.  He smiled and answered, "for fun."

The sociopath that killed 9 people at an Oregon Community College last week had 14 guns in his apartment.  You know that he spent hours fondling guns and bullets, allowing his petty discontents about women fester in his sick mind as he relished the feel of his precious steel guns.  The callous deranged killer of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School had many guns in his home, and spent countless hours playing violent shoot and kill video games.  The racist murderer of 9 people at a church service in South Carolina, toyed with guns as he harbored the drug addled thoughts of a cold blooded White-Power killer.  The Colorado movie theater killer, dressed like GI Joe or some ISIS thug, loaded down with automatic weapons, bombs, tear gas, and bullet proof vests, showed his lust for gunning down 82 innocent people for no reason whatsoever.  The Columbine High boys, dressed in black like some kind of faux Matrix ninjas, murdered 12 and wounded 21 more, and shot people in the face like they were killing squirrels.  The scoundrel traitor Major Hasan screamed "Allau Akabar" as he murdered 13 and wounded 30 of his fellow soldiers, all highly trained to defend themselves, at Fort Hood.  A right-wing extremist machine gunned and killed 77 teenagers on a holiday in Norway.  How many wives and children have been shot to death by a discontented, angry, jealous, or cruel husband— a weak and pathetic man with a steel trigger on his finger?  A child arguing with and killing a neighbor child with a pistol?  And, how many people kill with guns "for fun."  Wake Up People: Over 11,000 people are murdered with a gun every year in America. 

We poured ice cold water over our heads and raised funds for the ALS victims.  5,000 unfortunate persons die of ALS each year in America.  Over 11,000 people are murdered with a gun every year in America.  How many tens of thousands more are seriously injured from gunshot wounds each year in America???  Every year, in America, over 100,000 people are shot with a gun. 

I read this week an excellent opinion piece by Paul Waldman titled  "Ben Carson Perfectly Explains the Republican Position on Guns."  These Republican candidates support a bizarre solution to this rampant gun violence: sell more guns and put more guns in more people's hands; or, Jeb Bush shrugs and says "stuff happens" and we should do nothing.

More people wearing pistols into supermarkets, churches, schools, shopping centers, bars, restaurants?  Everyone tensed and armed and fearful and untrusting and waiting and enabled to kill three people in five seconds?  No limits on guns?  Teachers and preachers with guns strapped to their waist?  Great news for the NRA, gun manufactures, bullet manufactures, holster makers, gun salesmen- all those that greedily profit from gun fetishism and killing urges.  However, not so good news for me shopping for groceries at Raley's when some drunken local redneck yokel thinks I offended his fragile honor, and, with pistol holstered and ready at hand ... bang, bang, I'm dead. Crazy!  Like that gun toting retired policeman who shot to death a man in a movie theater because the discourteous fellow spilled some popcorn on him and talked too loud. 

In the days of the first version of the Constitution, pistols and rifles could just make one shot.  One shot, and then time to reload.  [Ben Carson could back then lead the charge to tackle the one bullet bully and save the day; then, he could go back to being the slave of some heartless white Southern plantation owner.]  Naturally, with that kind of firepower in those long ago days of only farmers in back woods settlements, there was little question about "the right to bear arms."  We live in different times.  Modern arms can rapid fire many shots in seconds.  Nearly everyone lives in a city.  It is high time to change the Constitution regarding this out of date "right."  The "Constitution" has changed many times, e.g., Christian men refused to allow all women to vote until after 1920 (19th Amendment).  Change the laws about gun manufacturing, sales, ownership, and use. 

99.99% of people flying on airplanes are not terrorists, but we have no problem with spending hundreds of millions of dollars each year trying to prevent terrorist attacks on airplanes.  What are we doing to prevent gun worshippers and assorted angry lunatics from killing over 11,000 people just last year in America?  Or, from killing millions of innocent animals "for fun."  What are we doing?  Nothing— "stuff happens."


Guns do kill people.  People kill people with guns.  People kill innocent animals with guns.  People who own and use guns do think about and fantasize about killing animals and people.  Preppers are preparing to kill people and animals and lurking foreign terrorists.  Countless video games and television shows feature killing, crimes, violence, gangs, hunting animals, and gun fun.  If that is not enough, we invent new creatures to kill: the walking dead zombies, vampires, demons, ghosts, Big Foot, space aliens, monster snakes, godzilla, mutated flies ...  Shame on America.  Cruel America.  Violence loving America.  Just last year, this hate filled, fearful, desperate, and self-loathing America had over 21,000 people put a gun to their head and blow their brains apart.  Ugly!  Unnecessary!

Some people have proposed reasonable solutions to gun control that need to be adopted.  Stop manufacturing and selling military grade weapons and machine guns.  Make gun owners and gun manufacturers pay for special insurance, just like we do for automobiles, to provide some measure of restitution to persons wounded by guns or killed by guns.  Educate children in schools about the dangers of guns, e.g., over 500 people are killed each year in American in gun "accidents."  Legislators can do something!  More important, Americans need to shed their cowboy fantasies, their gun fetishes, their worship of firearms, their perverted desires to possess more and more guns and display them in a threatening manner, and stop the celebration of killing innocent wild animals.  Some changes can be legislated, others must come from a change of heart and mind. 

Men once thought that smoking tobacco was macho cool, part of the rugged cowboy mystique.  Seeing a few wheezing and emaciated smoker friends suffering miserably and dying of emphysema or cancer in a modern hospital room, and anti-smoking public education campaigns, and restricting smoking in public locations, and warning labels, and higher taxes on tobacco ... all have resulted in fewer people smoking these days.  Why not some similar efforts at defusing our gun loving mania and murderous ways in America?

And, reduce the number of hours you waste watching television.  Television is largely a pathetic front for commercial advertising wrapped around programs featuring violence or trivial humor or celebrity worship. Watching fewer crime dramas might help reduce our urges to kill someone.  Come on people, Duck Dynasty?, dirty bearded stinky old men killing animals and drinking beer, or poor anti-social loners hunting caribou in wild Alaska ... how is this relevant to how 90% of Americans actually live.  Or, watching old rich rock stars tell us about the joys of blasting ducks apart with shotguns and being shills for the NRA is just blow-hard tiresome ted.  Wake up!  Stop feeding your violent fantasies!  Grow vegetables, garden, nuture loving kindness, cultivate decent friendships, create peace; don't daydream about sawing the antlers off a deer's bloody skull that you shot to death "for fun."  Realign your values!   


Seems like, in America, the family that kills together stays together.  Teach you children well, Papa Rifleman.  Their camouflaged bravado— really just pretending to mask their underlying defensiveness, weakness, fears, and lusts to kill something.  Sure, Donald Trump, let these kinds of gun toting folks into your church or restaurant or casino— you can really trust people that fondle automatic weapons.  They look Prepped, grossly fat from eating dead ducks and armadillos, and ready to blast away anybody who questions their sanity.  We will let Ben Carlson, that phony and unrealistic pseudo hero, rush to the front of the class when these types of folks come into the classroom Prepped to kill us all.   

                       
[Unquestionably, rants like the above include some exaggerations and sharp rhetoric.  Many Red Bluff and Redding folks are decent, honest, kind, and trustworthy.  Not all gun owners think about killing animals or other people.  Self-defense does have a legitimate place in our lives; rarely, thankfully.  There are a few Republicans like Gabby Giffords that support some gun control measures.  Nevertheless, I still stand by my main points: many people have an excessive and dangerous gun loving addiction, we encourage and pleasure ourselves with violence excessively, and we lack the will and courage to self-change and public-change away from this trend towards fear-hate, stockpiling guns, killing animals, and a bang bang your dead macho but unmanly bravado.]

Bull Crap Qigong

In nearly all of the photographs of persons doing standing meditation their faces are impassive, close mouthed, neutral, glum, even mean looking.  Do you ever see any pictures of persons doing Zhan Zhuang with a nice smile on their face?  Don't the majority look rather stern, stiff, and aloof?  Is the coolness, toughness, frowning, and closed eyes of these faux standing posts a defiant reaction to the many other people who look at them and smile or laugh at them?  Is the gruff expression a bodily mudra to affirm the Buddhist claim about the inherent unhappiness and suffering of human existence?  Is the Yiquan toughness required to endure this demanding standing physical exercise the source of this hard, 'don't mess with me' facial expression?  Persons doing hours and hours of seated zazen mostly look, to me, just tired, frustrated, aching, and pissed off about their inner insights.  C'mon Man!  Why all the serious. sad. and stern looks?  

I don't resist smiling or having pleasant and easy going look on my face when I do seated or standing meditation.  I've read about smiling meditation, laughing yoga, smiling heart qigong, and Inner Smile Taoist Neidan.  Seek and embrace more options than glum, neutral, stern postures and attitudes.  More Yin, Less Yang!!

Hours and hours of these standing or seated "meditation" practices are often just boring, dull, uneventful, uninspiring, and non-productive for me.  Twenty minutes a couple of times a week are more than ample.  I lay odds that if you try to do standing meditation for an hour a day you will end up frowning, stiff, tired, grumpy, and ready to quit.  It would be far better to take a walk each day and enjoy yourself.

I enjoy doing Chi Kung (Qigong) and yoga movements because they are fun and provide fitness exercise variety.  However, when the qigong or yoga teachers drone on about invisible organs and esoteric anatomy, contradict one another, discourage questioning, are vague and confusing, share only anecdotal reports of benefits, overuse flaccid metaphors, worship specific lineage traditions and bad mouth competing styles, don't explain much or seldom talk, or are too secretive ...  then I just loose my interest and move on.  I recommend learning early on about how to smell out that kind of bull crap qigong or bull crap yoga.  

I would question the claims that long sessions of standing post will make your legs stronger, build up your Qi, or give you super powers (siddhis) of some kind.  I would argue confidently for more benefits to your legs and overall fitness from walking, jogging, squats, weight lifting, stretching, form practice, sports, and other leg intensive exercises.  Since there is no known way of quantifying and measuring Qi, how do you know you have built up, increased, or amplified your Qi??  And, as for those super powers, they are the unreal stuff of our playful imaginations, fantasies, Wuxia novels, comic books, and motion picture special effects. 

I don't deny that a few, rare, and unique persons have unusual and powerful inner martial arts skills.  Likewise, a few yogis are superior contortionists and gymnasts that can do extreme postures.  But, so what!   So you can defeat everyone you meet in push hands, so you can stand on one leg for two hours, so you can walk/run 70 miles in a day .... fine, and some of us will be amazed.  However, most reasonable people don't aspire to Olympic standards of performance, and don't need to endure the strict training regimes of the extremely rare Amazing Masters and Siddhi Adepts.  Further, I do not have much of a pressing need to fly up walls, defeat 40 swordsmen like the blind Zatoichi, repulse ten men with a single magical push, kill a man with the touch of a finger, disappear through walls (doors work quite well), read your mind (probably as hohum as mine), or live to 300 years of age and have to dutifully work at seven careers.  Since I am a poor swimmer, I might have an occasional need to walk on water, but I might die before completing the required discipline of forty days and nights in the desert alone fasting, doing yoga and chanting - so that particular unpleasant task and marginal benefit are now off of my bucket list. Playing drums, dancing, and chanting for three hours before walking on burning hot coals might appeal to some, but I will pass on that experience also. 

Some people claim profound inner experiences, mystical insights, revelations, epiphanies, ecstasy, personal gnosis, satori, kensho, illumination, or enlightenment as a result of enduring these strict bodily disciplines.  Even the Buddha tried these physical austerities for many years until he "realized" that enough is enough and that moderation is a better course.  I hear LSD takers and steady alcohol drinkers claim the same "benefits" of consciousness expansion.  Personally, I'd rather water my garden each day, do some Taijiquan, and read good books; and not be a drug user or face a cave wall in stiff seated meditation for seven years like the Bodhidharma.  Some say they practiced for many years, even decades, to gain a "glimpse" of some degree of profound, unified, or universal consciousness.  Seems to me like a very big investment of time and effort for very little return.  Sharpening your critical thinking and reasoning skills would reap more rewards.

Some people take up these hard physical practices because their guru, preacher, master, roshi, sifu, or other authority or leader tells them or orders them to do so.  Students are taught to trust, obey, submit, respect, and kow-tow to the guru.  I say, keep your independence!!  Sensibly respect and learn from worthy teachers, but don't be slavish.  Some degree of healthy skepticism is valuable.  Practice on your own rather than humble yourself before some faker, phony, braggart, secretive or expensive master.  Discover what works for you to earn better fitness and well being rather than dumbly following an unbending formulaic physical regimen lineage invented by some illiterate old man 300 years ago.  Not obeying a goofy or exploitative guru is quite sensible.  Some rich gurus, preachers and masters are often merely just trying to tap the soul of your wallet.  Beware of quacks, and keep thinking clearly.

Long periods of standing, fasting, sitting, and self-humiliation may be required as a kind of initiation or hazing ritual before the neophyte applicant is allowed into the practice group.  These disciplinary practices are to test the mettle, seriousness, intent and grit of the applicant.  Stories abound about monks being struck with a stick and rebuffed and made to wait standing outside in the cold for weeks until the master allowed them into the temple.  College fraternities have bizarre hazing rituals, and occasionally young applicants have died in the process.  Criminal gangs may beat up new members or make that potential gang member beat up, rape, or kill some enemy or random person before they are admitted to the gang.  ISIS recruits probably have to blow up some antiquity or decapitate a retired museum director to get into the inner circle of that cabal of True Believers.  Military recruits must endure Boot Camp to prove they have guts, are obedient, and have a killer attitude.   Sports have their "hell week" of double practices to test the toughness of new players. Likewise, new Tai Chi players may be made to stand like a post for long periods of time, maybe for weeks, before the exalted Taiji Wizard will teach them anything.  You have to prove to the regular members of the group that you are trustworthy, obedient, loyal, submissive, and can endure discipline.  In some cases it makes sense and the initiation is worth the effort; but, in many cases the hazing and self-humiliation are unnecessary and just humbug. 

Yes, I do exaggerate here to try to make a few points.  I do greatly enjoy and benefit from Taijiquan, Yoga, and Qigong.  But, in addition, being a doubter and skeptic and smiler all do have their own benefits. 

I might not push hands with this guy.
He probably could have flung my disrespectful and sassy rear end ten feet away.
Maybe not!  I'm pretty tough and strong myself - but with a smile.

 

Another sad looking group doing serious standing meditation to find inner peace.

The 'enlightened' and sour puss Bodhidharma. 

An unenlightened and smiling old Daoist Druid. 

Flags, Marriages, and True Believers

The Confederate flag represented many Southern white mens' desires in 1850 to exploit and enslave people of color, to institutionalize slavery, to revolt and kill, and to separate from the United States of America.  In 2015, flying the Confederate flag over governmental buildings in these United States of American is inappropriate, since most people today do not support the Confederate ideology.  Numerous Federal Constitutional Amendments and many federal and state laws attempt to reduce discrimination and reduce racism.  Most people consider the Confederate flag a symbol of racism and destructive rebellion.  Such a flag has a place in a history museum, but not flying over a U.S., state capitol building, courthouse, or a university.

I was pleased by the recent United States Supreme Court decision to remove restrictions on marriages imposed by various States.  Marriage between adults of different races, different religions, or of the same sex seems to me a private matter and personal preference.  I am comfortable with letting adults chose the person they wish to love and marry.  Of course, you can be sure that States like Louisiana and Texas, ones that still fly the Confederate flag, and have statues of Confederate rebels everywhere, will still refuse to grant marriage licenses to those persons that authoritarian politicians and religious bigots arbitrarily chose to disrespect and harass.  

It is interesting to see the current GOP candidates, scurrying to gain the favor of the religious conservatives, waffle on the fundamental issues of liberty, and support the need for "State's Rights."  Do these candidates mean to say they would have no problem if the majority of the citizens of say Louisiana voted to ban and criminalize same sex marriages, interracial marriage, and abortion; established Southern Baptist Christianity as the State religion to be taught and prayed about in public schools, allowed persons to carry handguns and rifles into churches and supermarkets, flew the Confederate flag over all governmental buildings, did not pay taxes to the Federal Government, used Federal land for private purposes, encouraged alcohol and tobacco usage, built a wall around their State to keep Mexicans and other undesirables out of their State, did not allow women or dark skinned people to vote, etc.  These GOP political candidates don't have the courage to defend a position in defense of liberty and individual rights, and shuffle the issue off onto the plates of local or "State" issues.  I used to be a Republican until the religious fundamentalist Moral Majority stunk up the scene. 

I favor a government where the laws are generally consistent and uniform between all the States of these United States of America.  I favor a government that encourages liberty and justice for all.

I do understand that disagreements between State governments and the Federal government in the U.S.A. are complex, difficult, and ongoing.

I don't find the Bible or Koran very useful for information for living a good life, their 'histories' are boring and uninstructive, and their rules and social customs often irrelevant to current world circumstances and diversity. Also, believers and preachers of these two creeds have a long and bloody history of forcing others to obey their arbitrary rules and convert to their religions.  They do not believe in individual freedom and liberty, and are opposed to and want to oppress others favoring modern values, and often are at odds with a scientific and pragmatic world view.  

"True Believers," in Eric Hoffer's sense, are dangerous to civil peace and prosperity.  Whether they be Christians massacring Native-Americans and enslaving Africans, Islamic Jihadists massacring tourists in Tunisa or mosque-goers in Iraq, or dumb drug addled white supremacists waving a Confederate flag and then murdering nine black people in a church in South Carolina, black rioters in Los Angeles, Nazis, KKKers, or the Timothy McVeighs or Jim Jones's of the world ... all were true believers in theivery or murder or terrorism "justified" by religious or ideological dogmas or anger/revenge.  

A Portrait of another sullen True Believer, Dylann Roof:

"Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton,
Old times there are not forgotten."

Bickleys Air Conditioning, Red Bluff, CA: Very Poor Service

In May 2015, I called Bickley's Air Conditioning and Heating (530-527-7188), serving Red Bluff, California, and surrounding small towns.  I ordered a new evaporative (swamp) cooler from them, and paid for proper and timely installation.  It was quite expensive, but three people had recommended their work. 

WARNING:  A Story of Bickley's Very Poor Service:

1.  After waiting over 3 weeks, they called to tell us it would be installed on 6/11/2015.  So we waited at home.  They did not arrive on 6/11.  The dispatcher said a mistake had been made in scheduling.

2.  Two men arrived around 9am on 6/12.  It was expected to be 106F.  They worked till around 10:30 and left, saying they had forgotten to bring the motor for the swamp cooler. They were gone for a few hours.
When they returned, during the very hottest part of the day, 106F,  they were working on a searing hot roof - a sure recipe for mistakes. [That same morning, in contrast, I started working outdoors at 5 am, daybreak, loading a dumpster.  A wiser choice for working than they made.]

3.  They got the unit working by 3:30 pm and we were able to turn it on at full speed and off.  They said that they could not figure out the wiring to make the inside hallway wall switch to work so as to control the swamp cooler by fan only, pump only, slow speed, high speed, off, etc.  They said they were not qualified to work on the wall switch and would send a technician out on 6/16 to put in a new switch and get it working properly.

4.  An hour after they left, I went onto my roof only to discover that the new swamp cooler was leaking out of the bottom of the unit.  It was a slow steady leak, and had gotten under the roofing tiles and was slowly streaming down the plywood roofing and exited along the face boards of the porch roof.  The excess water, probably from an improperly adjusted float height, was not going properly down the 3/4" plastic pipe to the roof gutter because of a poor leaky connection by the inexperienced work men.

5.  I called Bickley's at around 4pm, but could only leave a message on their answering machine.  Nobody called back.

I went online to their website and filled out the feedback form; however, the message field would not open so I could explain the service problem.  Dead-end! I sent them an email message and included this post. 

6.  I turned off the new swamp cooler unit at 4:15 pm, and shut off the water to the roof.  It was now 106F on 6/12/2015. It was still steadly dripping at 6:30 pm.

Their Yellow Pages ad says that they are a "Certified Comfort Expert."  Their slipshod service was not comfortable for us.

7.  Bickley's did not telephone us on Saturday, 6/13 or Sunday, 6/14; or send out a repair person to fix the leaking swamp cooler.


 

Leaking on our back porch instead of down the roof gutter on 6/12 at 6:20 pm.

Tools and parts left on our kitchen table on 6/12.


8.  On Monday, at 7am, I called Bickley's to report the problems.  At around 8:30 am on Monday, 6/15, two repairmen showed up and, it appears thus far, fixed the leak problem.  Then, they said the technician would come on Wednesday instead of Tuesday to fix the inside switch.  This would not work for us since we would not be home on Wednesday.  They told us they would fix the switch by Tuesday.  At around 11 am, a supervisor came out and checked the work and we talked about the wall switch installation needed. Around 4pm a workman from Bickleys came out and worked for a few hours on the wall switch installation and it seems to be working.


9.  On Tuesday, 6/16, 5:20 am, I went outside to check the swamp cooler.  The workmen late yesterday afternoon had improperly replaced the west side panel and left it ajar.  Water was streaming down the inner sisal pad and onto our roof, soaking shingles and the plywood roofing, running down the roof, and over the porch roof and onto the porch floor.  It was also also dripping water from the copper tubing connection onto the roof.  What a mess!!  Poor installation and careless repositioning of a panel.  I turned the swamp cooler unit off at 5:30 am, and turned off the valve under the bathroom sink at feeds up to the roof swamp cooler.  I called Bickleys at 7:30 to complain and get people out to repair the problem.

In the morning on 6/16 a service repair man came out to our home from Bickley's.  He said the problem was that their servicemen had set the float too high.  I agree.  However, if the west side panel had been installed properly the excess water would have just drained down the drain pipe into the house gutter, and not directly down on our roof.  Two more mistakes: side panel not set properly, float level not set properly.  The result was that our roof was soaked and men walked all over the area.    

I am worried that the excess water on the roof will compromise the integrity of the roof in this area, and leak down on the plasterboard ceiling in the hallway bathroom. Fortunately, it will be over 102F today and hopefully dry the roof rapidly. 

9.  No apologies.  No offer of a discount on the price for all our hassles as of 6/16.  No consideration of our lost time having to reschedule appointments so as to be at home waiting for them to come and return again and again to solve their poor workmanship.  We paid far too much for such poor service.  Consequently, I will just leave this post online.

You would be very unwise to choose Bickley's AC to install or fix your evaporative swamp cooler!  I use Gallagher's to repair my refrigeration AC unit - reliable, fast, quality work, expensive but reasonable.  


Here is what our back porch looked like on Tuesday, 6/17, 5:30 am:

Our roof looked like this on Tuesday, 6/17, at 5:30 am:

 

Crying Over the Dead

Today is an American holiday called 'Memorial Day.'  It is a day to remember American soldiers who were injured or died in wars of the past.  Yes, sometimes fighting in wars is necessary in self-defense; but, still an evil and not to be glorified.  

Even the god Krishna tried to convince Arjuna (a professional soldier) in the Bhavagad Gita that fighting and killing were a duty and necessity.  The Bible and Koran tell of how "God" slaughters people, and how murder is acceptable to punish "sinners" and non-believers. Fervent religious people are often quite pleased with killing other people.  

Scores of millions of people have died in the many useless, stupid, tragic, horrible, cruel, and crushing wars of the past. Most of the men that started or fought in these destructive rampages where merely pawns in the hands of nations or dogmas or greed or dictators or petty warlords.  There were a few heroes, and many evil men, and mostly just extremely scared people crying and screaming as the bombs exploded and bullets whizzed by and their loved ones and friends were torn apart and murdered.  

So, let us instead remember on this Memorial Day to celebrate the real joy that everyone felt when we heard "The War Has Ended" and people could live again in peace.  Let us remember the millions of civilians slaughtered by soldiers marching under ten different flags.

I recommend that we adopt an amendment to the U.S. Constitution to Limit the War Making Powers of the U.S. Government. 


I served in the United States Air Force from 1969-1983.  I served because the United States forced men of my age, through "The Draft," to serve in the Vietnam War.  Penalties, social ostracism, and imprisonment were imposed on young men if they did not "serve their country" in the military.  I had been indoctrinated in my youth in Catholic Schools to hate communists and have few moral reservations about killing atheistic communists.  Again, sadly, we were merely pawns in the hands of nations or dogmas or ideology or religions or greed or dictators or petty warlords.  

When I hear women and men talking these days about how we need to fight and kill those cruel Islamist ISIL brutes in the Middle East, and that President Obama is not "tough" enough, and these same people never gave one single hour of their life in being a soldier and/or seeing and smelling the carnage of battle, it makes me want to vomit.  

Peace and Memorials to Peace, Less Thinking about War "Heroes"  

Beware of worshiping flags, signs, emblems, and symbols.  We, and every nation, including our "enemies," indoctrinates its ruled population to stand up and show worshipful reverence to their own nation's flags and favored religious symbols and fallen soldiers and heroes.  On Memorial Day the graves of dead soldiers in America are decorated with U.S. flags and the Christian cross and gunfire salutes to their following orders.  But, remember, the map is not the territory.   

Before you get too worked this Memorial Day about our military "heroes," our brave fighting men, our courageous soldiers ... please recall just a few of the cruel acts they did to earn such glorious distinctions, to wit:


"On March 9, 1945, United States military warplanes launched a bombing offensive against Japan, dropping 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs on Tokyo over the course of the next 48 hours. Almost 16 square miles in and around the Japanese capital were incinerated, and between 80,000 and 130,000 Japanese civilians were killed in the worst single firestorm in recorded history."  

 

The United States military, during Operation Rolling Thunder, killed over 90,000 civilians in North Vietnam from 1965-1968.  Listen to a "heroic" professional U.S. soldier tell of "silencing" the Hanoi defenses to rescue one downed pilot, and the "business" of war.  

On February 14, 1945, the United States military dropped 3,900 tons of bombs on the city of Dresden in Germany, and killed over 25,000 civilians.

The United States military dropped atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and killed over 129,000 civilians.  

The United States military killed over 550,000 civilians in North and South Vietnam from bombing, artillery attacks, and heavy weapons attacks.

 And, recently, we made a "mistake" about Iraq having any weapons
of mass destruction and for having anything to do with 9/11.
American military soldiers killed over 120,000 Iraqi noncombatant civilians.  

 

Heroes?  Artillery men, air bombers and gunners, snipers, tank gunners ...

Only crying on Memorial Day.

Yes, the horrors of war and the intense survival necessities of battle for he conscripted soldiers is nearly unfathomable.  

 

 

Only crying on Memorial Day.

I recommend that we adopt an amendment to the U.S. Constitution
to Limit the War Making Powers of the U.S. Government. 

Memorial Day: Sorrow, Guilt, Shame, Revulsion

Will the Real Terrorists Please Stand Up

I seldom comment on the larger social and political matters that are reported and commented on each day on television news, radio programs, blogs, and newspapers.  “Expert” commentators and leaders, and political entertainers, can keep you tense and occupied for hours each day - if you allow them to do so.  I don’t!  

Far too many Americans are prone to anger, violence, and hatred.  Each year, around 14,000 people are murdered in America. Television programs feature sex and violence, video games are violent, and news reports are filled with the horrors of unending violence in America.  I think too many Americans find violence entertaining.  Lately, the Christian fundamentalists and Islamic fundamentalists are waving their scriptures and shouting out their condemnation of homosexuals, womens’ rights, atheists, people of other religions, cartoons, science, secular states, and whatever else strikes their angry superstitious fancies.  Racists and ethno-phobes are everywhere.  The drums of war make many Americans much happier.  Americans are prone to gun mania and gun worship, and enjoy killing animals … seriously, with this kind of prevalent mental illness it is no surprise that 14,000 people are murdered each year in America, and that 724,000 aggravated assaults occur each year in America.  The incessant American worries about "Islamic terrorists” seems weirdly disproportionate to what Americans really do to themselves in fits of rage, anger, meanness, criminal intentions, gang bravado, stupidity, drug induced stupors, insanity, and callousness.  

We spent over 3.5 trillion dollars fighting in Iraq, and a total of 4,491 U.S. military service members were killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2014.  After all that considerable effort to be aggressive and “a World Leader,” and fight the War on Terror, have we really stabilized Iraq and helped it become a highly productive or peaceful place to live in?  Americans killed over 109,000 people in Iraq since 2003; a nation not involved in the 9/11/2001 attack in New York, poor, and with no weapons of mass destruction.  Just another example of the penchant for violence that grips the American soul.  Give an American the most trivial excuse for bullying or anger or hatred or revenge or rage ... and bang bang your dead.  

On the other side of the coin, I've read that 90% of Americans own guns.  However, we rank at around 107th in murder deaths per 100,000 persons compared with other nations around the world.  If we would not count the impoverished areas of some large American cities, with their high unemployment among youth, gang affiliations, and drug business; murders per 100,000 would be substantially lower.  So, are Americans safer here?  Yes ... but, 14,000 murders per year still is shocking along with 724,000 aggravated assaults.  Americans bent on causing terror and violence is still our real threat.   

What solutions do I propose?  Few, really!  First, honesty about where the real violence occurs in America, and where the real dangers exist.  Second, high employment and better wages for the lower economic classes in the U.S.  Third, stop encouraging and preaching hateful and angry talk about others; and focus on self-reform, kindness, compassion, and patience. Fourth, acknowledge that Americans are prone to gun worship, and take delight in violence.  Fifth, stop being fooled and corrupted by macho motion pictures, violent video games, blowhard preachers, power hungry politicians, and political entertainment news; and, focus your daily actions on wholesome activities and constructive thoughts.  Sixth, be very suspicious of American warmongers.  

So, I turn off the TV and radio, read uplifting literature, walk and exercise, work in a decent occupation, stay at home, give money to good causes, mind my own business, and garden.  I try my best to not cause more violence, and try to discourage others from embracing hatred and violence. An old man like me can't do much more.