To "Karma" or not to "Karma"

I'm a bit of a fatalist. I often think that life and the world itself is divinely "rigged", so to speak.

However, I don't subscribe to the notion that "whatever you mete out shall be meted out back to you in equal measure".
I don't think reality is quite that regimented in nature.

Frankly I think if God wants to "do you in" or "let you have it" He just will.
That it has nothing to do with whether-or-not you "did anything to deserve any kind of wrath"
---you can be perfectly innocent, but if it's "your time" you could, for instance, be walking down the street just minding your own business and still be shot on the street randomly for no reason
...or you might get involved in a minor altercation and end up getting arrested for a mere verbal insult or even just "looking at someone wrong".

But if it's a period when God's "favoring" you, you'll be reaping benefits without even having to make the slightest effort to "earn" them
---that if it's "not your time (yet)" you could probably (just about) commit murder or rape even and STILL get away with it.

I really believe that what you receive in life and what you put out is not always so proportional.
How else could one explain all the inequitableness of this world?

Infrastructure

We have networks and networks of roads, bridges, highways, underground pipes, and underground cables everywhere, all over the place.
Plus we have, over the years, build everything on top of---and in-and-around---all of these networks.

What started out as a dirt trail or a railroad line progressed into more trails and lines
...eventually replaced by concrete roads and freeways.

What started out as a water main supplying two or more villages eventually turned into multiple water mains supplying a whole region...

What started out as an underground gas pipe extended into multiple pipeline networks serving every section of the country.

Then there were later underground cable lines run from coast-to-coast, initially for phone lines
---but eventually there were also the additions of television cables---then internet cables added later on.

Do I need to mention the networks of sewer lines?
All underground as well.

And all the while we would keep building more and more on top of all this:
More buildings; more roads; more shopping centers; more freeway extensions; more houses...

But everything is like a small child
---they need constant nurturing and maintenance to stay in shape.

And everything is like possessions
---they'll wear out from age and overuse and need to be repaired...or even replaced.

Likewise all of these underground networks are pretty much the same way.

The problem is:
With everything having been built on top of all these underground utilities getting TO them to repair, replace, or enhance and modify them is bound to be a-hat-trick-and-a-half.

Everything in this society has been so overbuilt it'll never be possible for utility crews to access themselves to any of these underground networks without disrupting numerous lives at a time
---often for weeks or even months at a time.

And where do you put dozens upon dozens of displaced residents?
(It's bad enough having to answer that question after a natural disaster.)
What kind of "back-up plan" is there for those who can't stay where they live due to inability to continue performing their normal everyday functions?
Would the cities, towns, counties, or states be able or willing to move said people into some form of temporary shelter until the work is finally finished and everything is back up and functioning normally once again?
...Most likely---NO!

And, also, with all of these underground networks, is it possible for any one utility faction to work on their own lines, pipes, or cables without everyone else's lines, cables,and pipes being in their way?

We spent so many decades building up all of these service networks as well as building everything else on top of (and in-and-around) them
...with no thought of how we might go about dealing with the eventual reality of having to access ourselves to any one of them when age finally catches up to them
...or if/when they might experience damage from natural and man-made catastrophes and disasters
...as well as from the frequent shifts in the earth's ground surface, which is always the norm even in nonseismic regions.

Frankly, I think when it comes to this particular subject society has pretty much "painted itself into a corner"
...there's no easy way out of this dilemma.
...maybe no way out at all!

Corporations Are Not People!

This is true!
...Because they're a creation...an invention...
...not of the physical kind, of course---more the "conceptual" kind.

...But they're STILL something created...invented...
Okay, true, it took people to invent the concept
...but it's still a concept...a concoction...
...something invented by someone's mind...

If corporations are people, then any other invention can be as well...
---the automobile
---indoor plumbing
---microwave ovens
---the phonograph
---cameras/photography
---television
---works-of-art
---the light bulb
---the electric generator
---water heaters
---lawn mowers
---ships and boats
---elevators
---buses
---trains
---guns and weapons
---phonograph records, recording tapes, CDs, DVDs, or mp3s
---soaps, shampoos, and detergents
---bulldozers
---the printing press
---the telephone
---the telegraph
---the internet
---computers
---the Post Office/mail delivery
---radio
---the transistor
---audio equipment (a step or two above "the phonograph")
---dwelling places (houses, buildings, etc.)
---aircraft (planes, jets, helicopters, blimps)

...you get the idea.

More Musings

                                  On-line Illiteracy Revisited:
I get so tired of reading all these web sites and comments posted by people who can't spell (or even write a decent sentence to save their own lives).
Honestly now...
---"disfunctional"
---"missajinist" (someone who hates women who can't spell?)
---"imparitive"
---"hisstery"
---"winsical"
---"hole" (instead of "whole")
...for more on this subject simply view any "comments" section of any news sites or even blog sites.
...as a matter-of-fact sometimes the articles themselves yield enough such fodder on their own.



Have you ever noticed---when doing business with commercial establishments like restaurants, laundromats and the like---you can walk in when it's "dead"
...I mean you can be the only customer in the whole place when you walk in
---but, invariably, you won't be in there for even a half hour sometimes when all of a sudden there's this massive influx of other customers.
I mean, one person after another strolling in incrementally one-after-another
---and, soon, the place is way-overcrowded to the point where you can't do, say, or try anything without "being-in-someone's-way".
I wonder:
Where do all these people COME FROM?
I mean, are they ALL part of the same group or club?
---do they know each other or what?
Do they all, like, receive orders from some "higher-up" to infiltrate certain select establishments at a certain given time?
Who ARE all these people anyway?

Another Cyber-"Celebrity Birthday Card"

Herb Alpert turns 77 on Saturday.
Born on March 31 1935 in Los Angeles
Congratulations to a multi-talented musician, record producer, and successful record company CEO (who said all CEOs were "heartless money-grubbing scumbags"? When stereotyping always keep in mind those who are "outside the box"---the exceptions to the rule.
Yes, there can be dignity and integrity even in "owning a major company").

Another Annoying Adage

          Having a "bad reputation" DOES yield one advantage:
          It makes it impossible to be blackmailed...
          ...Like, what are they going to do?
          ---threaten to "expose you" if you don't pay up?

Happy Birthday...

to...


Aretha Franklin
Born March 25 1942 in Memphis
70 years old tomorrow


Reginald K. Dwight a.k.a. Elton John
Born March 25 1947 in Pinner Middlesex England
65 years old tomorrow



                             CONGRATULATIONS FOR MAKING IT THIS FAR
                                AND FOR HANGING AROUND THIS LONG!

It would be very easy...

...to be condemning of the police or other authority types for their tendency to hastily resort to using tasers or other means of self-defense when dealing with turbulent situations.

However, spending one day to go out shopping, and the bus rides back home were enough to remind me what kind of volatile social climate this culture really is.

At one point there was a woman sitting in the back talking on her cell phone, going off about some other lady she's been having problems with---referring to her in expletives and other derogatory terms, running off about how "the next time I see her I'm spitting in her motherfuckin' face"...
...the driver finally had to get on the internal P.A. system and ask that she "refrain from using profanity on the bus".

Then, later on, some woman opened a window because the air conditioning on the bus was set a bit high and she was cold.
(Granted, it was a bit chilly inside the bus I'll admit)
Well, the driver told her she had to close it (because apparently the policy is such that windows are to remain shut while the air conditioning---or heater---is running).
But the passenger was defiant and proceeded to verbally argue with the driver in a combative manner, even cussing him out once or twice.
Strangely enough she was still on the bus when I got off.

But the point I'm trying to make is that people in this society are so loud and aggressive
---the way so many shout back-and-forth at each other when they're out-and-about on the streets walking around, or even when driving around, the way they "have to" yell out at each other.

And the way so many people are cocky and inconsiderate of the presence of others around them when in public places, often hogging aisles and doorways in stores and restaurants, or just standing around on the sidewalks in large groups forcing pedestrians to walk on the grass or step out in the street in order to continue walking.

The radical sense-of-entitlement so many people have that makes them so bossy and despotic.
This inability to discern between "standing up for oneself when wronged" and downright extortionism that seems to be the common modern-day norm.
...loud-mouthed and imposing...
obviously having "Constitutional Rights" implies entitlement to getting what one wants at the expense of those-who-don't-matter-anyway.

Oftentimes I find myself wishing I had my own taser the way so many people come off so menacing and like such chronic "loose cannons".
I'd be willing to use it in the most sticky situations, even if I wasn't licensed or authorized to have such a weapon and doing so meant getting locked up and "criminalized".

I can sort of understand if those-in-authority have low opinions of the general public and if they view most people as being so potentially "threatening" enough as to necessitate a policy of a no-nonsense "don't take a chance, just be ready to get them before they get you" type of mindset.

I, too, feel quite uneasy around a lot of "average" people myself...
...of course I also feel quite uneasy around a lot of authority figures as well.
...But that's probably because, as an social outcast, no-one's likely to "take sides with" me in any situation no matter who they are.

Inappropriate Response?

A few years back I worked at a dry cleaners, pressing jeans, pants, shirts, blouses, and even jackets and vests.

I remember, one day at work, seeing one vehicle after another pull into the driveway and I asked the guy I was working with what was "going on"---why are so many people pulling into the parking lot?
He replied in a matter-of-fact demeanor "They're customers!"
"ALL of them?....GOD!!"
Upon which he turned and stared at me really shocked and annoyed. As if I just desecrated something sacred.

It was because I had never worked at a cleaners before and, to me, it just seemed strange how "important" it is to so many people to "have neatly creased and pressed clothes".
I guess along the same line as people who get these $50 stylish trendy hair cuts at big-name salons once every week or two...
...they just have to be so "perfect" all the time.
This sort of thing just never "hit home" so close to me before while my years-of-experience co-worker was so used to it he never thought twice about it.

I think people get used to things they either experience or witness on a regular basis, and after a while they become "numb" to them.
They just become too "accepting" of them---so if someone comes around and has a strong reaction to them and make-an-issue of these things they've never thought twice about before themselves, they tend to view the person making waves about it as being some kind of antagonist or rabble-rouser.

That's the thing about this society---or even the world itself:
The way so many people take certain things for granted no matter how outrageous they are in the practical/logical sense.
A lot of things just "are" in this world that not only shouldn't be, but, from a logical and, sometimes, moral standpoint should never have been in the first place.

And those who would now make a big deal or major issue of them at this point in time will probably come off as being wannabe rabble-rousers or just "out to make a scene" or "just kick up some dust".

It's a shame, really...
...there are so MANY ongoing problems in this world which should have never been in the first place but which are still omnipresent due to our being-so-used-to-them.
And if you say anything disparaging about them you're told "Don't be so vulgar" or "Don't be so antagonistic"---or even "That's just the way the world is---quit being so clueless already!"

People just don't like bitchy smart-asses who are always making a big deal out of stuff most people take-for-granted.
...but I just think some things in this world are long-overdue for rectification...
...but any time you try to say anything about it people will just get annoyed and insist you either talk about more "sociable" subjects or just "shut-the-hell-up!"

Bacteria!

When I was in high school I had a Biology teacher (1971/1972) who was a practitioner of organic farming long before it became a fad: he had a vegetable garden in his back yard and a flower garden in his front yard, and he always used pigeon dung as fertilizer and openly stated his refusal to use commercial products (i.e.: SCOTT'S Turf Builder) due to their toxic chemical make-up.

And he was always going off about "bacteria".
I learned about not only all the different types of bacteria, but also how omnipresent all these bacterial elements are.
Which can make one quite hygiene-conscious.

Here in Columbus (Ohio) people are constantly spitting on the sidewalks, throwing their trash and garbage all over lawns and sidewalk, and letting their dogs crap on people's front lawns.
...think of all the "bacteria" there is---germs and disease just "floating up into the air" and all around you every damn time you go outside.

Any time I see some lunkhead blowing hockwads right onto the public sidewalk where others also have to walk I think to myself:
"Hey, give me your address so I can come by late some night and dump a bucket of crap right by your front door. And, maybe, urinate all over your mailbox as well."

Of course that's just a fantasy.
One wouldn't dare try a thing like that...
...God knows how many "criminal charges" the authorities would level against you.

The Three Dangers of Society

1) The Criminal Element
This one's the most obvious.
There have always been bandits and outlaws:
Those who rob, rape, murder, commit violent assaults.
And thieves, scam artists, embezzlers.
This is the biggest threat.

2) Government and Authority
This is #2 due to the fact that the character types who gravitate towards any kind of position involving any kind of authority tend to have excessively domineering personalities and the need to "always be in charge".
Also the laws govern far more than the just the "criminal personality" type of offenses of the bandit-and-outlaw types.
There are a myriad of laws governing social behaviors and the manners in which one expresses everything from personal opinons to one's emotional responses and desires.
Minor crimes can comprise everything from petty theft to verbal abuse/threats to nonviolent improprieties.
So---unless one can attest to their own flawlessness, perfect moral character, total self-discipline, or have such an ideal existence they would never have need to resort to any sort of unorthodox methods to fulfill some of their needs/desires---be aware you're at risk of potentially being turned into a "criminal" yourself at the very hands of the civil servants who otherwise are suposed to be"protecting-and-serving-you".

3) The Elitists and Privileged
Brought up with all the excesses and taught by their elders how "precious" and "entitled" they are in addition to never-being-in-want-or-need-of-anything, such types automatically expect and demand respect and awe and acknowledgement from those around them as to their "specialness" and superiority over "just anyone".
Plus, if you are to ever piss them off in any way they have plenty of the money and means to "put you back in your place" whether legally or by disreputing you.
And, because society is so social-rank fascist these types automatically "have-more-credibility" than those of lower social rank.
Which means whatever they think is pretty much "gospel" in society's books.
And if they judge you in a biased manner you end up being blackballed.
So don't be fooled into thinking that just because they're "also 'fellow citizens' as well" they can't also destroy-your-life just as much as The Criminal Element and Government and Authority can.
In fact it's Government and Authority who back these types up.

Two More Sites For You To Check Out

Is there some tendency for those-who-are-attracted-to-blogging to just naturally have this inclination for "pushing their personal agendas on their sites"?

That stated, I must mention I found myself yet another site I consider worth viewing:

                                                     The Phil Factor
                              web address: www.philfactor.blogspot.com

It has a lot of the type of witticisms and observational comments, statements, and humor that I find myself able to appreciate.

Check it out and decide for yourself if this guy's site is your "cup-of-tea" or not.





And for you apartment (or condominium) dwellers, you have to love this site:

                                  DEAR GIRLS ABOVE ME,

                        The web address: www.deargirlsaboveme.com





                                                  ...enjoy!

The "War On Terrorism"...

...every time I hear or read that expression I have to laugh...

...I mean, I remember terrorism from when I was in grade school i.e.: school bullies; mean teachers and principals and corporal punishment; physically and mentally abusive alcoholic parents; barroom brawls at the dive bins across the street which occasionally culminated in gunfire.

When these news pundits ramble off Gregorianesque rhetoric about "The War on Terrorism", just what do they have in mind anyway?

Essentially there's always been some form of terrorism in the literal sense.

In the 1980s you had "drug wars" and the DEA and "drug cartels".

In the 1990s and beyond there are all the "gangs" and their operatives: gang-bangers and drive-by shootings---firing lethal weapons into residential units (even when they're after just one person)...
...or just gunning someone down on the streets (for whatever twisted reason).
And all the "road rage" incidents. Citizens attacking "fellow citizens" over minor traffic infractions better left overlooked---and sometimes culminating in aggravated murder at that.

But not once did our federal government respond to the plethora of incidents like those with grandiose speeches about "defending ourselves against those who would trample our freedoms and way-of-life 'who have no regard or respect for life limb or property'", or enact elaborate Draconian laws severely limiting our freedom-of-speech and freedom-of-movement.

Only when certain acts-of-terrorism entered these shores from "outsiders"---specifically foreign radical members of fanatical religious factions---did we suddenly respond as if our "sacred" "utopian" and "peaceful" lifestyles were "suddenly disrupted by 'conspiring' 'menacing' and 'brutal' factions 'obviously intent on destroying us'".

In short, if it's "home-grown" terrorism said acts are simply handled like domestic "criminal offenses"...
...However, let any threat(s) come from abroad and suddenly it's handled like some alien invasion of creatures from a planet outside our galaxy.
Out come the "red alerts" and cliche color-coded "terrorism alert level" fluff.

I say:
Bring back "Duck---and cover". 

Must-view web site

Occasionally I'll stumble across a web site I think makes it point in either a crafty or cleverly humorous manner so eloquently it just "hits home" with me.

Here's one such a site:
www.maddox.xmission.com
...also at this web address as well:
www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi

Check it out---it's worth a laugh-and-a-half.

This guy spoofs everything from the police to photoblogging and social networking...
...his derisive and disparaging comments about bloggers had me chuckling.
(So what if I'm a "blogger" myself.)

And I love his April Fool's parody of the kind of obsessive photoblogging and "Project 365" fare so prevalent on the "net" these days.
I know what it's like to go onto a web site full of photos and videos and such and not be able to get through even two or three pages of said site without my search engine "straining it's gears" and slowing-to-a-crawl.

I've had plenty to say myself about the availability of all this sophisticated technology to those with money but who lack credence and imagination...
...they're able to create sites with all sorts of quasi-"professional"-looking headings and designs, but the substance level is beyond lame and almost always inconsequential.

Anyway, check that site out for yourself.
A good dose of dry/wry humor is always good self-therapy.

Daylight Stupid Time

Well, it's that time again:
Daylight Savings Time

One of the most mindless manipulations of the man-made institution known as "time"
..."time" being the systematic continuous tracking of what are actually natural patterns, but interpreted in man-made graphic terms via clocks, calendars, schedules, etc.

That said, I think DST is one of the most pointless rituals modern society has ever come up with.

The notion that we're "saving an hour of daylight" when how we rearrange the face of our clocks can't possibly affect the natural patterns governing when the sun "rises" and when it "sets".

I remember the first time this country went on DST (April 30 1967), and how the explanation given me was something along the line of "The farmers need the 'extra daylight' to plant their summer crops".

What a crock of shit---everyone knows farmers routinely work "40-hours-a-day" ANYWAY.
They're always up-at-4:30-A.M. and work in their fields until 10:30 P.M. 6-days-a-week, breaking only for meals, sleep, trips to town to go shopping, or brief bouts of week-end fun.
...which means they get up when it's pitch black outside ANYWAY.
Farmers aren't idiots you know---they DO own floodlights and most have plenty of electricity to work with.
(And, lo-and-behold, most even have indoor plumbing as well---and you all thought rural living involved "outhouses" and wells).

In short, I think DST is pointless, useless.
I don't know why they ever started this asinine ritual nor why it's still continued to this day.

Even the slogan is idiotic---"Spring forward"; "Fall back"
...sounds like someone's describing an athletic event one moment and a freak accident the next.

Other bloggers

One thing that's always captured my attention when it comes to other blog sites and other bloggers:
And that is: the way so many are able to capture such loyal followings.
It doesn't matter what kind of site it is:
Whether it be a fashion blog, a political blog, music blog, media blog, science-fiction blog, what-have-you
...most bloggers almost always have this large---or at least substantial---following.
Others on-line who think alike and have similar interests in the same subject matters who are always leaving comments on the blogger's site
---or even make references to said blogger's site on their own blog site.

It's like everyone on-line is, somehow, "networked" with others just like them or something.

Presumably these are typical "average Joe, Dick, Jane and Mary's"---just your normal "fellow citizen" types, presumably leading ordinary everyday lives, who are putting up these blog sites.

But the way they're so able to "network" each other is somewhat befitting of, say, a corporation or an industry
...or maybe an organization---like a charity for example.
The way all these folks manage to "find each other" with such ease, so effortlessly.

Meanwhile I'm lost out here in the cyber-wilderness trying to find may way around and wondering:
"Am I transmitting? And is anyone receiving?"

Putting "Hanky-Panky" Ahead Of Health Concerns

I don't know if what I read is true or not---I'm kind of hoping it's not.
But here goes:

It seems MEDICAID pays the bill for VIAGRA and other sex performance enhancing drugs for older men---in full.
With no set limits on number of supplies.

This is disturbing in that there are so many legitimate medical and dental procedures the system will NOT cover:
including:
---routine medical check-ups (medical)
---crowns and bridges (dental)
---dental implants

MEDICAID "can't afford to" pay for a simple routine preventative medical check-up---the quintessential doctor's appointment---but when it comes to supporting the hedonistic "night-life" of older reckless males it not only does so ever-so-willingly---but at the expense of all taxpayers at that.

I find this more-than-ironic considering what an inquisitional vendetta this culture has against "sex offenders" coupled with a ever-broadening definition of what comprises such types of offenses alongside harsher and harsher criminal penalties for even the most innocuous improprieties.
The "sex offender" is truly the modern-day "leper".

It's for reasons like that, for example, that I find some of society's priorities a bit perplexing and inexplicable.
Does MEDICAID, by any chance, also pay (in full) for breast implants in small-busted women---or for face-lifts and other sorts of cosmetic surgeries?
Why not? Those are just as phony and fraudulent as any artificially-stimulating "penis-function enhancing" pills.

Fate calls former Monkee

I recently heard of the passing of former Monkee Davy Jones last week.

He obviously had quite a full life during his 66-year-and-two-month mortal tenure---a popular and sucessful celebrity; a long and happy marriage as well as adult off-spring and a few grand-children to boot; and he was still performing up to the end...
...definitely no "Monkee-ing around" for him.

The stated cause-of-death was "a massive heart-attack".
...and least he went naturally.
But a natural death doesn't necessarily denote a peaceful one.
A heart-attack is quite a traumatic way to go, actually.
Remember that Blood Sweat & Tears song AND WHEN I DIE...
"...don't want to die uneasy---just let me go naturally..."
And Laura Nyro, the songwriter who penned that song, did just that...
...she passed away in 1997 from ovarian cancer...
...so she got half her wish anyway: she "went naturally"...however that wasn't exactly an "easy" way to go.

However, not to digress, let's review a few Monkees songs featuring the late Davy Jones on lead vocal:
I WANNA BE FREE
LOOK OUT HERE COMES TOMORROW
WHEN LOVE COMES KNOCKING AT YOUR DOOR
DAYDREAM BELIEVER
VALERIE
IT'S NICE TO BE WITH YOU
SOMEDAY MAN
...and, sharing lead vocals with Mickey Dolenz:
WORDS
GONNA BUY ME A DOG

One thing about the group---besides starting out as simply a fictitious one (of television characters) which later transformed into a legitimate entity as a result of the immense popularity of their "token singles":
They epitomized the concept of synergy:
Besides just having the benefits of a good backing by seasoned professional songwriters and record producers, they took advantage of the idiosyncratic aspects of the different nuances of each group-member's voice...
...that is, no one member overrode any of the others in terms of "leading" the group.
They'd "test" out each song, and whoever's voice best matched said song, that member would do the lead vocal on that particular number.
Even later in the group's career, after they "took charge of" some of the "artistic input" of their recordings (i.e.: writing some of their own material and laying down an instrumental track or two themselves) you had, for example, the song THE GIRL I KNEW SOMEWHERE was penned by Michael Nesmith---but features Mickey Dolentz on lead.
It was an understanding of the concepts of "push-and-pull" and "cause-and-effect".