Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. —Martin Luther King, Jr.
There are so many events that fail to make a lick of sense, one has difficulty trying to not go crazy
Yesterday had more than it’s fair share of challenges. Some were part and parcel of just having kids and trying to take care of them. Others, though, hit deeper. We found out yesterday that the owner of a popular Northside bar & grill that Kat and I occasionally enjoy committed suicide over the weekend. Beyond the immediate tragedy of one feeling so desperate, the move also puts in jeopardy the livelihood of his employees who may now be without a job.
Last evening, an estranged couple, who were under a no-contact order, met in a parking lot in Camby, a small town just East of Indianapolis. The conversation grew heated and in an apparent act of frustration, the man shot his estranged wife in the leg and then the head before exiting the car and killing himself. She’s in stable condition, but be sure that every aspect of her life has been turned upside down.
The world is crazy.
The Tennessee State Legislature passed a bill yesterday making the Bible the state book. Governor Haslam has said he opposes the bill, but there is still some speculation as to whether he may sign it and, if he doesn’t, whether the legislature can override the veto. So much for the separation of church and state. Merely by passing the bill the state legislature has marginalized millions of Tennessee residents who don’t identify as Christian.
The world is insane.
An ex-wife, the one named Ivana, of a leading presidential candidate said yesterday that she supports immigration because, get this, “Who’s going to vacuum our living rooms and clean up after us? Americans don’t like to do that.” Never mind that she, herself, is an immigrant and I dare say has never so much as touched a vacuum cleaner in her overly-advantaged life. Such statements make it clear that 54% of the United States would be marginalized should her ex be elected president.
The world has gone nuts.
Someone hacked the entire citizenship database for the country of Turkey, population 49,611,709, and published all the details online. Everything. Full name, parents’ names, date and place of birth, current address, etc. Everything one would need to completely obsfucate Turkish identities for decades. This potentially places everything related to identity in question. Imagine if the US Social Security records were to be hacked in similar fashion. The website hints that the new US president had better know what he’s doing or we could face a similar attack.
The world has turned on itself.
Reuters is reporting that Daesh militants are using rockets filled with mustard gas in their fight to take over a Syrian military airport. Never mind that the use of chemical weapons violates the Geneva convention. We can’t expect Daesh to abide by any laws, including their own. Such an act demonstrates a complete and total disregard for human life and we should take note that this isn’t the first time the terrorist organization has used the nerve gas. These people are vile, yet France’s Prime Minister Manuel Valls says Islamic extremists are winning the propaganda war. Could we be facing an event worse than anything Hitler could have imagined?
What do we do when the world seems to have literally turned itself upside down?
We could worry. We could fret. The truth is, though, there’s not a hell of a lot we can do to actively change the actions of others. We can look forward to voting in November, but then it’s what, 12 to 18 months after that before we could start to see any significant difference that actually effects global actions?
I’m beginning to think that Sally Bowles had it right when she sang:
What good´s permitting some prophet of doom?
To wipe every smile away
Life is a cabaret , old chum!
So come to the cabaret!
What else makes sense? If we cannot create immediate change over such outlandish behavior and events, then we do best to go on with our lives and make the best of them we can. Two friends brought beautiful young lives into the world this weekend (both boys, interestingly enough). We should celebrate. There are advances being made in the fight against Alzheimer’s. We should be encouraged. There was an electrical fire at the Internal Revenue Service. We should be hopeful.
Star by admitting
From cradle to tomb
It isn’t that long a stay
Life is a cabaret, old chum!
It´s only a cabaret, old chum!
And I love a cabaret!
Information Randomized
While I was napping, Dreamhost, my favorite web hosting company, moved all my sites to newer, faster servers. The result should be faster loading speeds, especially on posts with full-sized images. I’ve been trying to find a balance between having a lean website and still hosting full-resolution images. This is going to help considerably. Let me know if you continue to have any problems.
Meanwhile, the Republican Study Committee (RSC) is calling for an undetermined increase in the retirement age to offset longer life expectancy. This would mean that instead of retiring at age 67, one would have to work however much longer before being able to access the funds that you specifically invested in the fund while you worked. This is the Republican’s way of “going after Social Security.”
According to CBS News, The deal on the appropriations bill includes a ban on “all direct U.S. funding for… the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees until March 2025.” This would severely hamper any aid service for Palestinian Refugees displaced by the war with Israel. If this isn’t blatant government racism, I don’t know what it is. I’m severely disappointed that the White House would agree to such a ban.
Alanbama’s governor has signed into effect a law banning diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs across public schools, universities, and state agencies. If the law survives inevitable legal challenges, it will be a horrible step in the conservative effort to erase LGBTQ+ people from society. The bill also requires that higher education institutions designate bathrooms “for use based on biological sex,” banning trans people from using public bathrooms that align with their gender identity. Especially harmful, also bans discussions of “whether slavery and racism are aligned with the founding principles of the United States.” In other words, Alabama wants to live in a fantasy land full of lies.
The state of Tennessee has gone off the fucking rails. SB2691 passed the state senate on Monday. The bill states that is is “documented the federal government or other entities acting on the federal government’s behalf or at the federal government’s request may conduct geoengineering experiments by intentionally dispersing chemicals into the atmosphere, and those activities may occur within the State of Tennessee.” The bill also says, “The intentional injection, release, or dispersion by any means, of chemicals chemical compounds, substances, or apparatus within the borders of this state into the atmosphere with the express purpose of affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of the sunlight is prohibited.” Two things are obvious. These senators have forgotten that federal acts and legislation supersede state law. Also, they flunked high school science classes.
For everyone else who missed that part of your education, here’s what really causes the contrails behind jet planes.
I’m constantly amazed at how stupid people are.
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