Robert Creamer at the Huffpo has an article on the real attack on Christmas coming from the Right, not the Left. He discusses the importance of Ayn Rand's Objectivism to their philosophy. He compares that to Christ's parable of the Good Samaratan as the true spirit of Christmas and Christianity in general. He finishes with this statement:
A few years ago I read a book by a planetary scientist named David Grinspoon called Lonely Planets. It explores the question of extraterrestrial life.
Toward the end of his book, Grinspoon speculates on the chances of survival for intelligent life in the universe. He argues that every civilization of intelligent creatures must pass through a gauntlet that tests whether the values and political structures of the society are capable of keeping pace with the exponentially increasing power of the society's technology. If its values and political structures can keep pace with technological change, the society may pass into a phase of enormous freedom and possibility. If it does not, the power of its own technology will destroy it. Perhaps, he postulates, civilizations are like seahorses. Many are born, but only a few survive.
For the first time, a little more than half a century ago, human society entered that gauntlet. Our technological growth reached a point of takeoff that for the first time gave us the power to destroy ourselves and all life on our tiny, fragile planet. From that moment on, the race began.
The next several generations of humans will decide how that race turns out. We won't simply observe it, or describe it; we will decide it. Whatever the future holds will be a result of human decision for which we are all responsible.
I believe that progressive values -- love your neighbor and empathy -- are our greatest evolutionary treasure.
Progressive values: that we're all in this together, not all in this alone; unity not division; hope not fear; equality not subjugation; the premise that if each of us is better educated all of us will be wiser; that it is not true that for me to be richer you have to be poorer -- but rather that if each of us is more prosperous, all of us will have more opportunity; that our success comes from cooperation and mutual respect. These progressive values are the most precious assets that will give human beings the ability to make it through that gauntlet -- and to create a truly democratic society.
That is just one more reason why at this time of year, we should celebrate these values -- the true spirit of Christmas -- and defend them from those who want to take society back to a time of social Darwinism, to the law of the jungle, to "survival of the fittest." Because the fact of the matter is that in the future, if we govern our society by the precepts of selfishness and the survival of only the fittest, we may find that human society is not fit enough to survive at all.
About Me
- P M Prescott
- Family and Friends is my everyday journal. Captain's Log is where I pontificate on religion and politics.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Monday, December 12, 2011
Life Comparison
My mother-in-law's funeral will be on Wednesday. She lived 92 years. A long life. When the funeral home and those at our church said, "Tell us about her." Our first thought was that there wasn't much to say. Something should be said.
The best way to explain some things is by comparison.
Rose didn't tell stories of her life, she was a very humble person, but she did tell me one thing about her growing up in Leadville, Colorado. As a little girl she remembered an old woman walking out of a wooden shack at the mouth of the abandoned silver mine and going into town to buy groceries. Everyone in town knew the old woman who always dressed in the same long black dress. Baby Doe Tabor.
Baby Doe Tabor had songs written about her, movies about her life and museums filled with her memorabilia. She married a Senator. Teddy Roosevelt attended her wedding in Washington D.C. Horace Tabor her husband owned a silver mine in Leadville, but when the Gold Bugs defeated all measures at Free Silver they went bankrupt. For the last twenty years of her life she lived alone in the shack widowed and abandoned by her children waiting for the price of silver to rise enough to reopen the mine and be rich again. She froze to death March, 7 1935 when she ran out of wood.
Rose was the daughter of an Austrian immigrant brought over to work in the mines of Leadville. Growing up her family never had much money, but got by. He older sister married and started a family in Belen, NM. Rose moved in with them to help with the children while her brother-in-law and sister ran a bakery. She met Ed during the war. He was stationed at Kirtland Army base and when he got leave would spend it with her. They married in 1947 when he started working as a parts manager in a car dealership in Belen. They lost their first child. Ed found employment with the Lincoln-Mercury dealership in Albuquerque and worked as its parts manager for 35 years through various owners and locations. Rose stayed home and raised two children, losing a fourth child. Ed and Rose lived a very quiet and simple life around friends, family and church. Ed was a deacon at their church and Rose was an active member in the Woman's Missionary Union. They bought their house in 1948 and made a few additions to it over the years. My brother-in-law married and moved to Nebraska. When I asked Ed for his daughter's hand out in the front yard at their house while he was watering flowers I thought he'd twist his neck with the double take he gave me. It didn't come as a surprise to Rose. When our children were born Rose was our day care giver. She helped raise them as much as we did.
Over the years we ate many meals at their house. Rose was a good cook. Her enchiladas were better than the ones in the most expensive Mexican restaraunt in town. We planned on having her move in with us after Ed passed away, but nothing could get her out of that house. Finally her health forced her to sell the house and move to Nebraska with her son and family. She had a nice cottage at an assisted living village managed by her daughter-in-law and spent the last year of her life in a nursing home surrounded by family and new found friends passing away peacefully. She lived a full life filled with love and loss beloved by all who knew her.
Our culture is obsessed with beauty, wealth, possessions, accomplishments, what good did all that do for Baby Doe Tabor? Yet when you mention that Rose was a housewife content to live her life taking care of husband and family you're looked at as if she was a Stepford wife or she lived a meaningless life. To those of us in her family and friends she had great meaning and accomplished much.
The best way to explain some things is by comparison.
Rose didn't tell stories of her life, she was a very humble person, but she did tell me one thing about her growing up in Leadville, Colorado. As a little girl she remembered an old woman walking out of a wooden shack at the mouth of the abandoned silver mine and going into town to buy groceries. Everyone in town knew the old woman who always dressed in the same long black dress. Baby Doe Tabor.
Baby Doe Tabor had songs written about her, movies about her life and museums filled with her memorabilia. She married a Senator. Teddy Roosevelt attended her wedding in Washington D.C. Horace Tabor her husband owned a silver mine in Leadville, but when the Gold Bugs defeated all measures at Free Silver they went bankrupt. For the last twenty years of her life she lived alone in the shack widowed and abandoned by her children waiting for the price of silver to rise enough to reopen the mine and be rich again. She froze to death March, 7 1935 when she ran out of wood.
Rose was the daughter of an Austrian immigrant brought over to work in the mines of Leadville. Growing up her family never had much money, but got by. He older sister married and started a family in Belen, NM. Rose moved in with them to help with the children while her brother-in-law and sister ran a bakery. She met Ed during the war. He was stationed at Kirtland Army base and when he got leave would spend it with her. They married in 1947 when he started working as a parts manager in a car dealership in Belen. They lost their first child. Ed found employment with the Lincoln-Mercury dealership in Albuquerque and worked as its parts manager for 35 years through various owners and locations. Rose stayed home and raised two children, losing a fourth child. Ed and Rose lived a very quiet and simple life around friends, family and church. Ed was a deacon at their church and Rose was an active member in the Woman's Missionary Union. They bought their house in 1948 and made a few additions to it over the years. My brother-in-law married and moved to Nebraska. When I asked Ed for his daughter's hand out in the front yard at their house while he was watering flowers I thought he'd twist his neck with the double take he gave me. It didn't come as a surprise to Rose. When our children were born Rose was our day care giver. She helped raise them as much as we did.
Over the years we ate many meals at their house. Rose was a good cook. Her enchiladas were better than the ones in the most expensive Mexican restaraunt in town. We planned on having her move in with us after Ed passed away, but nothing could get her out of that house. Finally her health forced her to sell the house and move to Nebraska with her son and family. She had a nice cottage at an assisted living village managed by her daughter-in-law and spent the last year of her life in a nursing home surrounded by family and new found friends passing away peacefully. She lived a full life filled with love and loss beloved by all who knew her.
Our culture is obsessed with beauty, wealth, possessions, accomplishments, what good did all that do for Baby Doe Tabor? Yet when you mention that Rose was a housewife content to live her life taking care of husband and family you're looked at as if she was a Stepford wife or she lived a meaningless life. To those of us in her family and friends she had great meaning and accomplished much.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Friday, November 25, 2011
Killashandrea Rhee has stopped singing.
When I started to read prolifically in junior high school like most boys at that time who grew up on Saturday afternoons watching Science Fiction Thriller movies. I was natural I'd start reading sf. Isaac Asimov, Rober Heinlien, Poul Anderson, Harlan Ellison, Andre Norton and Anne McCaffrey.
She wrote hard scienc fiction like her Crystal Singer series and Ship Who Sang then incoroporated it into fantasy with her Dragon rider stories. In 1986 she was one of the few writers in this genre that hit it big on the New York Times best seller list with the third book in her Dragon Riders series: The White Dragon.
I read the novella that was later turned into the first novel: Dragon Flight in an anthology of Hugo Award Winning Stories. (Hugo's are the top awards for sf & fantasy) What was fascinating about the dragons in her stories is they imprint and are linked telepathically to their riders. This makes the dragons equal characters with their riders. It is a total bafflement to me and I'm sure many of her fans why none of her stories have been turned into film. CG technology has been up to the task for at least ten years and I've seen numerous movies with lesser dragons than and stories than hers.
I joined the Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club and picked up about six books a year for nearly ten years through them. I dropped the club in the mid 80's because they stopped having books that were sf being mostly sword and sorcery. I fell in love with her Fire Lizards. A subset of the planet Pern where these stories are set in the Harper Hall books dealing with a young haper (singer) named Mennoly who imprints a clutch of fire lizards. After I read the first of these books Dragon Singer I gave it to Penni, who was in high school at the time, and the first thing she said after reading it was, "I want a fire lizard."
When I married decades ago I read all these stories to my wife. Reading to each other helps keep us close. The Crystal Singer stories with Killashandra Rhee were her favorites.
Notice how singing is so integral to her stories? It's not often any writer adds the importance of music to their make believe worlds.
Teaching 7th grade English I aquired a classroom set of Dragon Flight, and not all the students liked it, but I'm hoping I made a few of them Dragon fans.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Soul Searching
Since I've started e-publishing I had like most writers lots of stuff gathering dust that they'd written, but either never got around to finishing or thought it wasn't good enough to send to a publisher. I'd been writing a flash story a day for some time. I'd choose a picture, describe it as practice for my other work. Eventually just describing a face or flowers or scenery became quite dull so I started weaving a quick little story of the picture. The person's expression was where I usually got started, if the person looked happy, why were they happy, satisfied, same thing, anger, sad...
I compiled these stories into three anthologies when I started e-publishing and then started going back and taking some of the flash stories turning them into short stories. I'd turn a 500 or 1,000 word story into a 3,000 to 5,000 word story. One I turned into over 18,000 words.
Most of the pictures I used for these stories I chose from the Playboy Cyber Club. Out of 30 pictures of a model only about 10 show nudity. They usually have a glamour shot of the model's face and many of those were my inspiration. If you can describe a person's face you can describe just about anything, and the women are gorgeous.
One of the flash stories I developed into a short story turned virulent on me. The characters took me to a place well past the line I thought I could go. There is a thin line between describing the human body in all it's glory and pornography. This story crossed that line and when I'd finished the story the characters wanted a repeat and I wrote a second story and recently a third. By the third story I went as far as I'm willing to go and now it's time to step back, say, "I'm glad I got that out of my system," and pull back.
A friend of mine, who I respect greatly read one of those stories. As a friend he told me how much it troubled him, not because he's prudish, more like giving a drink to an alcoholic.
Optimus: Praetorian Guard is my pride and joy. I don't want what this book and the subsequent sequel tarnished by these characters. I've unpublished them. Yes in this e-publishing world you can unring a bell.
I compiled these stories into three anthologies when I started e-publishing and then started going back and taking some of the flash stories turning them into short stories. I'd turn a 500 or 1,000 word story into a 3,000 to 5,000 word story. One I turned into over 18,000 words.
Most of the pictures I used for these stories I chose from the Playboy Cyber Club. Out of 30 pictures of a model only about 10 show nudity. They usually have a glamour shot of the model's face and many of those were my inspiration. If you can describe a person's face you can describe just about anything, and the women are gorgeous.
One of the flash stories I developed into a short story turned virulent on me. The characters took me to a place well past the line I thought I could go. There is a thin line between describing the human body in all it's glory and pornography. This story crossed that line and when I'd finished the story the characters wanted a repeat and I wrote a second story and recently a third. By the third story I went as far as I'm willing to go and now it's time to step back, say, "I'm glad I got that out of my system," and pull back.
A friend of mine, who I respect greatly read one of those stories. As a friend he told me how much it troubled him, not because he's prudish, more like giving a drink to an alcoholic.
Optimus: Praetorian Guard is my pride and joy. I don't want what this book and the subsequent sequel tarnished by these characters. I've unpublished them. Yes in this e-publishing world you can unring a bell.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Vander's is out
Strangely I kept the story through all the different incarnations of computers and when I started e-publishing last March I dusted it off and have been editing this story. Today I pubished it at Smashwords.com and Amazon.com
Plot:
Eugene Vanders is an electircal engeneering professor at UNM. He's living a comfortable life with wife and daughter. A student tells the police he's a drug dealer and they raid his house. The new police chief trying to avoid law suits and bad publicity has a standing order that all drug raids produce drugs. They plant cocain in Vander's garage and he is arrested.
While in prison his wife is murdered and daughter commits suicide. Vanders swears that those responsible will pay.
He develops silicon discs that can make anything placed on them fly. The first real magic carpet. He fights with corporations and government to market his invention and revolutionize transportation while getting even with those who set him up. He's torn between seeking revenge and giving forgiveness to rebuild his life with a new wife and step-son.
This story deals with the abuses and problems with our war on drugs which is just as pertinent today as it was twenty years ago. It also is about how difficult it is to market new transportation technology while fighting oil companies, automobile corporations and government regulations. It's positive message is that this technology is possible and it will become reality.
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Crazy Year In Writing
A year ago I had a really bad case of something that kept me in bed for nearly the whole month. When whatever it was let go of its grip I needed out of the house, but still wanted to write. My client didn't have much legal work for me so I approached him about using the office for my writing and I'd do a few gofor things as a quid pro quo. He agreed.
I came across an article about Yellowstone being a super volcano that could explode at any time and that it would nearly wipe out mankind when it does. I started a novel with the premise that if we can fly into space, build underwater hotels, survive in the arctic and antarctic that our technology is now capable of meeting even this challenge. I hit 80,000 words starting my story The Fan Plan in 1963, but the back story reaches to 1948 and worked my way up to 1990. I set the eruption around 2017 to 2020. I hit a wall at that point so I put it aside. I finished editing Human Sacrifices which I had worked on for ten years while editing and printondemand publishing: Optimus: Praetorian Guard. I submitted it to Publish America after Anne Littlewolf did a wonderful cover for it, but then discovered the wonderful world of e-publishing. I backed out of the deal with PA and felt a 900lb Gorilla fall off my back.
I published HS and the first 40,000 words of The Fan Plan (up to 1976).
For years I'd been writing descriptive flash stories based on pictures as an exercise. I compiled them into three anthologies and published them.
The very first novel I wrote Vander's Magic Carpet over the summer of 1989 on a 286 pc with monochrome screen on 51/4 inch floppies for Ted Turner's Tomorrow Awards. A 50,000 word piece that didn't win. I discovered that I'd transferred it to 3.25 floppies and then from hard drive to hard drive of numerous computers and still had it. My client looked it over since I start the story with a court case and he gave me advice on how to make it more authentic. I started editing it and then discovered that marketing flying cars around the year 2000, which was the future when written wouldn't sell today with our war on terror. I've put it on the backburner until I have time to edit it more for the present. I think the story will still work.
So projects in the works:
With scanner at the ready I've given my card to numerous attorneys and said, "Have scanner will archive." So far no takers, which is good for my writing.
While doing all of the above there was no sense in working on novels. I started looking at some of my flash stories and developed them into short stories. It's been so nice that once I have a 3 to 5 thousand word story done I can post it at Smashwords and Amazon for Kindle. Smashwords then sends them out to Kobo, Nook, Sony or readers can download a HTML or PDF files. I've even been getting royalties. Wow who would have thought it a couple of years ago that the average author could now get royalties instead of rejection letters or be an indentured servant of print on demand!
I'm hoping to have the second part of Fan Plan and Vanders ready for publishing by the end of December so I can get serious about Stephanus (my sequel to Optimus).
That is if my client doesn't tie me up with legal work or I get takers on digitally archiving.
Where's this coming from? I ran into fellow teachers at a Mickey D's yesterday and they asked if I was getting by on retirement. I handed them my card with pmprescottenterprises.com on it and said, "Check it out and see how I'm doing."
I came across an article about Yellowstone being a super volcano that could explode at any time and that it would nearly wipe out mankind when it does. I started a novel with the premise that if we can fly into space, build underwater hotels, survive in the arctic and antarctic that our technology is now capable of meeting even this challenge. I hit 80,000 words starting my story The Fan Plan in 1963, but the back story reaches to 1948 and worked my way up to 1990. I set the eruption around 2017 to 2020. I hit a wall at that point so I put it aside. I finished editing Human Sacrifices which I had worked on for ten years while editing and printondemand publishing: Optimus: Praetorian Guard. I submitted it to Publish America after Anne Littlewolf did a wonderful cover for it, but then discovered the wonderful world of e-publishing. I backed out of the deal with PA and felt a 900lb Gorilla fall off my back.
I published HS and the first 40,000 words of The Fan Plan (up to 1976).
For years I'd been writing descriptive flash stories based on pictures as an exercise. I compiled them into three anthologies and published them.
The very first novel I wrote Vander's Magic Carpet over the summer of 1989 on a 286 pc with monochrome screen on 51/4 inch floppies for Ted Turner's Tomorrow Awards. A 50,000 word piece that didn't win. I discovered that I'd transferred it to 3.25 floppies and then from hard drive to hard drive of numerous computers and still had it. My client looked it over since I start the story with a court case and he gave me advice on how to make it more authentic. I started editing it and then discovered that marketing flying cars around the year 2000, which was the future when written wouldn't sell today with our war on terror. I've put it on the backburner until I have time to edit it more for the present. I think the story will still work.
So projects in the works:
- Update Vander's Magic Carpet.
- Finish Fan Plan
- Research and write sequel to Optimus: Praetorian Guard
With scanner at the ready I've given my card to numerous attorneys and said, "Have scanner will archive." So far no takers, which is good for my writing.
While doing all of the above there was no sense in working on novels. I started looking at some of my flash stories and developed them into short stories. It's been so nice that once I have a 3 to 5 thousand word story done I can post it at Smashwords and Amazon for Kindle. Smashwords then sends them out to Kobo, Nook, Sony or readers can download a HTML or PDF files. I've even been getting royalties. Wow who would have thought it a couple of years ago that the average author could now get royalties instead of rejection letters or be an indentured servant of print on demand!
I'm hoping to have the second part of Fan Plan and Vanders ready for publishing by the end of December so I can get serious about Stephanus (my sequel to Optimus).
That is if my client doesn't tie me up with legal work or I get takers on digitally archiving.
Where's this coming from? I ran into fellow teachers at a Mickey D's yesterday and they asked if I was getting by on retirement. I handed them my card with pmprescottenterprises.com on it and said, "Check it out and see how I'm doing."
Saturday, November 05, 2011
Ethics and Virtue
I'm tying a few scattered thoughts into a thesis so stay with me as I connect the dots.
Point 1:
I recently received a newsletter from Logsdon Theological Seminary tied in with Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene Texas. It was two lectures on T. B. Maston the best know ethics professor in the last century among Southern Baptists. You can listen to the lectures here. The first lecture was a biography and the second on his thoughts. I was very impressed with the summation of Maston's thoughts and will share a few, which I wholeheartedly agree with concerning Christian Ethics.
So what is ethics: the term 'ethics' is singular. Second, ethics has to do with oughtness-with what a person or a group of persons ought to do, with what is right.
Okay, so what should a Christian "ought" to do?
The basic characteristic of the cross-kind-of-life is self-denial or servanthood. Maston wrote: "The first or basic law of life is not self preservation but self-denial and self-sacrifice. This is the 'way of the cross. " He emphasized that the cross involves the crucifixion of self with selfish ambition and purpose because Jesus made clear that the cross calls for selfdenial in the life of the Christian. Maston often quoted Jesus' statement recorded in Matthew 16:24: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me." The first followers of Jesus knew the cross not as jewelry or architectural symbol but as an instrument of suffering and death. They clearly understood Jesus to be calling them to a life of sacrifice and servanthood. (bold emphasis mine). Let me be clear here. This applies to Christians only. I am in no way saying that everyone in the U.S. or the world for that matter should apply their ethics by this standard. However since so much of the Republican party and the Moral Mafia do feel this way, and that they call themselves Christians I feel this should be a standard applied to their thoughts and actions over the last thirty years when they first got in bed with a major political party.
Point 2. Read Paul Krugman today. He had an article concerning people who concider him (Krugman) to be hypocritical because he makes lots of money, but advocates for higher taxes on the rich and a strong social safety net. He ties in Mel Gibson's movie The Patriot and another person's critique of how patriotism wasn't a virtue of the film because the film's hero didn't fight for his country, but only out of revenge for the British attack on his house and family.
So to say what should be obvious but apparently isn’t: supporting policies that are to your personal financial disadvantage isn’t hypocrisy — it’s civic virtue!
But, say the wingnuts, you say that rich people are evil. Actually, no — that’s a right-wing fantasy about what liberals believe. I don’t want to punish the rich, I just want them to pay more taxes. You can favor redistribution without indulging in class hatred; it’s only the defenders of privilege who try to claim otherwise.
Lind’s essay about Mel Gibson ended with concerns that we may have lost the sense of what citizenship and its duties mean. Indeed. If people can’t comprehend what it means to work for larger goals than their own interest, if they actually consider any deviation from self-service somehow a sign of phoniness, we, as a nation, are lost.
Point 3: Cognitive dissonance is believing two diametrically opposed ideas at the same time, and that is what is happening in the Republican party. It's a coalition of different types of conservatives. Social conservatives such as the moral mafia that fight against abortion, same sex marriage, dancing, drinking, breathing, etc. and Physcal conservatives or financial conservatives that are against regulations on big business, taxes and are for wars because they're good for business and deplete the surplus population. The bible for the business crowd is Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
Ayn Rand's philosophy is 180 degrees opposite of Maston's Ethic.
Atlas Shrugged page 953-4 (paperback 35th anniversary edition)
"'Sacrifice' does not mean the rejection of the worthless, but of the precious. 'Sacrifice does not mean the rejection of evil for the sake of the good, but the good for the sake of the evil. 'Sacrifice' is the surrender of that which you value for that which you don't...
"If you want to save the last of your dignity, do not call your best actions 'sacrifice' that term brands you as immoral."
Rand has John Galt end her doctoral disseertation on economics by saying page 993:
"You will win when you are ready to pronounce the oath I have taken at the start of my battle...
I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
Conclusion:
If those in business want to live amorally, fine. The only beef I have with them is using pennies out of their pockets to buy congress critters to legislate them Billions of taxpayer money when they don't chip in and help out and get us into needless wars for their profits. That's an economic and political difference.
I have nothing but scorn for the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and the others of the moral mafia who have sold their souls to the crooks for lip service on their pet issues. The physcal conserevatives have stacked the Supreme Court and got what they wanted: Corporations have human rights. Roe v. Wade hasn't been overturned yet, nor will it because the crooks know that once the moral mafia gets what it wants their votes will melt away.
Christians and patriots know that giving is better for those around us and even for our own sense of self-worth. It's what makes us human. Sociopaths are only in it for themselves. Too bad so many of those who claim to be Christians are really sociopaths only interested in the money and power.
.
Point 1:
I recently received a newsletter from Logsdon Theological Seminary tied in with Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene Texas. It was two lectures on T. B. Maston the best know ethics professor in the last century among Southern Baptists. You can listen to the lectures here. The first lecture was a biography and the second on his thoughts. I was very impressed with the summation of Maston's thoughts and will share a few, which I wholeheartedly agree with concerning Christian Ethics.
So what is ethics: the term 'ethics' is singular. Second, ethics has to do with oughtness-with what a person or a group of persons ought to do, with what is right.
Okay, so what should a Christian "ought" to do?
The basic characteristic of the cross-kind-of-life is self-denial or servanthood. Maston wrote: "The first or basic law of life is not self preservation but self-denial and self-sacrifice. This is the 'way of the cross. " He emphasized that the cross involves the crucifixion of self with selfish ambition and purpose because Jesus made clear that the cross calls for selfdenial in the life of the Christian. Maston often quoted Jesus' statement recorded in Matthew 16:24: "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me." The first followers of Jesus knew the cross not as jewelry or architectural symbol but as an instrument of suffering and death. They clearly understood Jesus to be calling them to a life of sacrifice and servanthood. (bold emphasis mine). Let me be clear here. This applies to Christians only. I am in no way saying that everyone in the U.S. or the world for that matter should apply their ethics by this standard. However since so much of the Republican party and the Moral Mafia do feel this way, and that they call themselves Christians I feel this should be a standard applied to their thoughts and actions over the last thirty years when they first got in bed with a major political party.
Point 2. Read Paul Krugman today. He had an article concerning people who concider him (Krugman) to be hypocritical because he makes lots of money, but advocates for higher taxes on the rich and a strong social safety net. He ties in Mel Gibson's movie The Patriot and another person's critique of how patriotism wasn't a virtue of the film because the film's hero didn't fight for his country, but only out of revenge for the British attack on his house and family.
So to say what should be obvious but apparently isn’t: supporting policies that are to your personal financial disadvantage isn’t hypocrisy — it’s civic virtue!
But, say the wingnuts, you say that rich people are evil. Actually, no — that’s a right-wing fantasy about what liberals believe. I don’t want to punish the rich, I just want them to pay more taxes. You can favor redistribution without indulging in class hatred; it’s only the defenders of privilege who try to claim otherwise.
Lind’s essay about Mel Gibson ended with concerns that we may have lost the sense of what citizenship and its duties mean. Indeed. If people can’t comprehend what it means to work for larger goals than their own interest, if they actually consider any deviation from self-service somehow a sign of phoniness, we, as a nation, are lost.
Point 3: Cognitive dissonance is believing two diametrically opposed ideas at the same time, and that is what is happening in the Republican party. It's a coalition of different types of conservatives. Social conservatives such as the moral mafia that fight against abortion, same sex marriage, dancing, drinking, breathing, etc. and Physcal conservatives or financial conservatives that are against regulations on big business, taxes and are for wars because they're good for business and deplete the surplus population. The bible for the business crowd is Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
Ayn Rand's philosophy is 180 degrees opposite of Maston's Ethic.
Atlas Shrugged page 953-4 (paperback 35th anniversary edition)
"'Sacrifice' does not mean the rejection of the worthless, but of the precious. 'Sacrifice does not mean the rejection of evil for the sake of the good, but the good for the sake of the evil. 'Sacrifice' is the surrender of that which you value for that which you don't...
"If you want to save the last of your dignity, do not call your best actions 'sacrifice' that term brands you as immoral."
Rand has John Galt end her doctoral disseertation on economics by saying page 993:
"You will win when you are ready to pronounce the oath I have taken at the start of my battle...
I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine."
Conclusion:
If those in business want to live amorally, fine. The only beef I have with them is using pennies out of their pockets to buy congress critters to legislate them Billions of taxpayer money when they don't chip in and help out and get us into needless wars for their profits. That's an economic and political difference.
I have nothing but scorn for the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and the others of the moral mafia who have sold their souls to the crooks for lip service on their pet issues. The physcal conserevatives have stacked the Supreme Court and got what they wanted: Corporations have human rights. Roe v. Wade hasn't been overturned yet, nor will it because the crooks know that once the moral mafia gets what it wants their votes will melt away.
Christians and patriots know that giving is better for those around us and even for our own sense of self-worth. It's what makes us human. Sociopaths are only in it for themselves. Too bad so many of those who claim to be Christians are really sociopaths only interested in the money and power.
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Thursday, November 03, 2011
Between Cake
Yesterday was daughter's birthday and tomorrow is Grinnygranny and my 33rd anniversary. Had a nice dinner with all the family for daughter. Tomorrow we haven't decided about yet. I might work a little while in the morning if my client has something for me to do, if not we're both free to get away for a few hours.
National advertising and numerous critiques heralded a movie named Anonymous. It deals with the Oxfordian theory of authorship for all the works of Shakespeare. I read a few posts by Michael Prescott (no relation) on his blog a few years back and it peaked my interest. I fall in the catagory of who the bloody hell cares, but thought it would be a nice period piece set in one of my favorite time periods. Guess what. None of the theaters in backwoods New Mexico is showing it. Not happy.
I have a post at the Captain's blog concerning a military approach to economic stimulus.
National advertising and numerous critiques heralded a movie named Anonymous. It deals with the Oxfordian theory of authorship for all the works of Shakespeare. I read a few posts by Michael Prescott (no relation) on his blog a few years back and it peaked my interest. I fall in the catagory of who the bloody hell cares, but thought it would be a nice period piece set in one of my favorite time periods. Guess what. None of the theaters in backwoods New Mexico is showing it. Not happy.
I have a post at the Captain's blog concerning a military approach to economic stimulus.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Economic Anorexia
There's nothing more horrifying than watching someone struggling with anorexia. They're purposely starving themselves to death all the while deluding themselves that they're getting more and more beautiful. Isn't that what the fresh water economists are doing here and in Europe. Cutting taxes, cutting spending starving the economies and deluding themselves while millions of people are losing jobs, homes, cutting education, adult children unable to establish independence after graduation, underemployed dying without health insurance etc. and the economic experts look at the economic starvation all around them and delude themselves that this is beautiful.
Just as a human body needs food to maintain all aspects of the body so does an economy need money to feed all those living in the system. Governemt spending is that food. It's needed now.
Just as a human body needs food to maintain all aspects of the body so does an economy need money to feed all those living in the system. Governemt spending is that food. It's needed now.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
John Denver Lives On
One of the many memories of going off to college in 1972 out on the windy dusty plains of Texas was an up and coming singer that had songs about mountains. The one thing I was really homesick for over those years were mountains. When I fell in love, many times over those four years, there was the perfect song for someone passionate about a woman: You fill up my senses... (Annie's Song) Not hard to sing along with if you drop an octave.
It's hard to imagine it's been 14 years since John Denver's plane ran out of fuel and his voice was lost to the world. At one time his album An Evening With John Denver was the biggest selling of all time. Of all his songs the one I love the most on this album is: Grandma's Featherbed.
Today on the anniversay of that tragic day his Windstar foundation in Colorado is hosting an open house and auction to continue his work.
John Denver is one of the celebrities that purchased a painting from Anne Littlewolf. She recently did a John Denver collection of paintings based on his songs, and Windstar accepted them for their auction. Over the next month I'll put on the paintings on my heading. I've started with Portait of a Hawk.Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Security surrounded by enemies
Bruce has a post concerning Israel, here's my take:
Israel: A militaristic state surrounded by enemies outnumbering them 10/1. Yes they are a democracy, but their only weapon of survival is keeping those surrounding them in fear of their military. It worked in 1948 when they created their country. They used their armed forces to good advantage in 1967 and defended it well in 1973. Since then no single country around them has tried to invade them and they are on the defensive against terror attacks. Their only real chance of survival is to increase their population, which they've done by birth rate and taking in Jews from Eastern Europe, and then slowly driving out the Palestinians with settlements in the occupied areas gained from the 1967 war. The U. N. can recognized Palestine as a separate country, but slowly and surely Israel will shove them out and fill up what they conquered. The stubborness of the surrounding countries refusing to admit them as refugees is delaying Israel's success, but won't stop it. This will not be a process for the squemish and hasn't been since the British left and the whole mess got started.
Israel: A militaristic state surrounded by enemies outnumbering them 10/1. Yes they are a democracy, but their only weapon of survival is keeping those surrounding them in fear of their military. It worked in 1948 when they created their country. They used their armed forces to good advantage in 1967 and defended it well in 1973. Since then no single country around them has tried to invade them and they are on the defensive against terror attacks. Their only real chance of survival is to increase their population, which they've done by birth rate and taking in Jews from Eastern Europe, and then slowly driving out the Palestinians with settlements in the occupied areas gained from the 1967 war. The U. N. can recognized Palestine as a separate country, but slowly and surely Israel will shove them out and fill up what they conquered. The stubborness of the surrounding countries refusing to admit them as refugees is delaying Israel's success, but won't stop it. This will not be a process for the squemish and hasn't been since the British left and the whole mess got started.
Monday, September 26, 2011
A Long Time Ago...
When I was 14 I made a friend that my parents didn't exactly approve of. He lived down the street. He was in 7th grade and I was in 8th. He was a bad influence on me. He got me smoking. We were going to a very fundamentalist church at the time. The preacher didn't think Christians should go to movies, watch TV other than Dallas Cowboy Football, and the usual no smoking, drinking, premarital sex, playing cards, dominoes...
In the fall only 9th graders played football so there wasn't anything to do after school until basketball started up in November. M and I sometimes with someone else would go to his house until I knew Mom would get home from work. I'd bang around on his drum set and we'd smoke. During lunch there was a vacant house with a back yard bordering the school. We'd jump the wall and smoke. Mom's reading this so I won't tell anyone how we got the cigarettes. We got caught and were suspended from school for three days. Mom was not pleased. I had to read John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and write a report. She had some other punishments for those three days.
What this did was give me an out from smoking. I really didn't like it. Every time I'd light up I'd look over my shoulder to see if someone was around that would tell my parents and I knew God wasn't pleased.
I could then tell M that I wouldn't smoke anymore. He stopped having anything to do with me and I wasn't all that upset about it.
We had little contact the rest of that year or the next. I didn't play basketball that year, but made varsity in track. I went on over the years to be state champion in the mile, get a track scholarship to college and so on.
A few months ago when we joined a house church pastored by the man I currently do legal assistant work with. M and his wife are also members of this church. He and S (the pastor) worked in a prison ministry. I don't know all the details how M came to find tthe Lord, but it's been nice to meet again. The problem is that his is dying from the forty plus years of smoking and won't quit. It's sad for his wife to come alone to church because he's too sick to get out of bed and see her tears knowing he doesn't have much time.
To a certain extent his story could be mine if I didn't have parents who cared and a faith to help me overcome peer pressure at that time.
In the fall only 9th graders played football so there wasn't anything to do after school until basketball started up in November. M and I sometimes with someone else would go to his house until I knew Mom would get home from work. I'd bang around on his drum set and we'd smoke. During lunch there was a vacant house with a back yard bordering the school. We'd jump the wall and smoke. Mom's reading this so I won't tell anyone how we got the cigarettes. We got caught and were suspended from school for three days. Mom was not pleased. I had to read John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and write a report. She had some other punishments for those three days.
What this did was give me an out from smoking. I really didn't like it. Every time I'd light up I'd look over my shoulder to see if someone was around that would tell my parents and I knew God wasn't pleased.
I could then tell M that I wouldn't smoke anymore. He stopped having anything to do with me and I wasn't all that upset about it.
We had little contact the rest of that year or the next. I didn't play basketball that year, but made varsity in track. I went on over the years to be state champion in the mile, get a track scholarship to college and so on.
A few months ago when we joined a house church pastored by the man I currently do legal assistant work with. M and his wife are also members of this church. He and S (the pastor) worked in a prison ministry. I don't know all the details how M came to find tthe Lord, but it's been nice to meet again. The problem is that his is dying from the forty plus years of smoking and won't quit. It's sad for his wife to come alone to church because he's too sick to get out of bed and see her tears knowing he doesn't have much time.
To a certain extent his story could be mine if I didn't have parents who cared and a faith to help me overcome peer pressure at that time.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Happiness or Nothingness
Dimitri Hamlin, an ontalogical anarchist, wrote a piece in the Huffpo. Arianna Huffington even suggested to him the title of the piece: Is That All There Is?
This is his conclusion:
Nothing is the positive yet indeterminate impression on the horizon, just before becoming something definite. It is nothing and it is not-nothing. Together with the present, it is the future and it is the past. It is the pure potential and freedom to experience -- the initial "I can" of intentional consciousness that provides for my participation and correspondence with wonder.
I think the world is interesting because I actually care about the possibility of nothing.
Singing, "Is that all?" the chorus calls for us to recognize the continually conspicuous presence of an absence. Disappointment is not so much the problem now if we believe in nothing; because nothing, by definition, actually exceeds all possible expectation: "wherefore it is right that What Is be not unfulfilled; for it is not lacking: if it were, it would lack everything." (Parmenides, fr. 8.33) I think that sometimes we mistake things for their absence and for this, in the end I trust, there will always be more to say about nothing.
Maybe Queen said what he's trying to say better in Bohemian Rhapsody: "Nothing really matters, nothing really matters at all."
Interesting ideas, even compelling to many, but there is nothing more like Hell on Earth that a state of anarchy. Anarchic societies are fear zones. Women must be protected at all costs or they will be kidnapped or raped or sold into slavery. They can't leave the house without protection or being covered from head to foot so no one knows what they look like, their shape or age. Men walk around carrying machine guns ready to shoot at anyone who looks funny at them. Homes are forts built for protection. There is only the law of the gun. But what the hell, there will always be something to say about nothing, because nothing really matters.
Compare this to "Persuit of Happiness."
Definition here: Happiness as meant by Greek thought and used by Thomas Jefferson means contentment, fulfillment, completeness, not just having a good time.
This is closer to Maslow's top on the pyramid: Self Actualization
Happiness is something, not nothing. Happiness is something to strive for, work for, appreciate what you've done, learn from your mistakes, regret the harm you've done to others.
To look back and see that you did SOMETHING in and with your life. You loved a woman or many, you had the joy and despair of being a parent, you worked not just for money to live on, but your labor mattered, you were part of manufacturing products, repaired stuff, grew and harvested plants, nursed the ill, taught children, raised children, kept a clean house, bounced grandchildren on your knee before your knee replacement.
When you have done SOMETHING with your life there is accomplishment, pride, fulfillment, sorrow, pain, regret, completeness, contentment: HAPPINESS.
All of these are emotions some are even opposites, you've loved and hated sometimes the same person at the same time, your feeling good, you feel sorrow, anger, laughter. When you do something you feel something. You feel.
The only emotion anarchy satisfies is greed, selfishness, fear and numbness concerning others. A great philosophy for serial killers, rapists, theives, drug dealers, corporations. Whenever this philosophy is prevalent society is ruled by tyrants, dictators, secret police, and fear.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Golfing again
Got wifey out to play Friday, we did all 18 holes and had fun. We went to play again today, but the course had a tournament. Not often I can talk her into playing that often.
Friday, September 09, 2011
Pleasant Surprise
Finally got the bill from the hospital for wife's gall bladder surgery. PPO dismissed most of the bill, paid a good portion and it looks like we'll be able to pay it off in one year. A little belt tightening but not nearly as bad as we feared. Flex account has covered all the other bills.
Now cross fingers that we remain healthy for the next few years.
Now cross fingers that we remain healthy for the next few years.
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Magic Kindle
I have a magic kindle. Whenever I have to go to the doctor or take someone to the doctor and in the waiting room to be called, or am waiting for the wife to finish before we can leave, or just about anytime I'm waiting for someone else all I have to do is take out my kindle and start reading and magically they show up before I can get one page read.
Sunday, September 04, 2011
Matthew Iglesias has an interesting post concerning file sharing of e-books. Kind of like file sharing of music a few years back. Most e-book readers like Kindle or Nook are specific, but many e-books are PDF's and can be easily downloaded onto other computers or readers. He's really upset about file sharing books in the public domain, his example: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin. I wonder if you can get it free from Amazon or Barne's & Nobles, or get it free by getting it e-mailed to you by a friend, what's the difference? It's public domain!
Here's my beef. I went to Amazon and checked my book. Optimus: Praetorian Guard. They still haven't dropped the kindle price down to $7.99 to match the price now set by Publish America. But if you look at the NEW books offered by different book sellers the price ranges from $8.99 to a whopping 874.25. Most in the 30-40 range. Here's my question. These are new books which should only be sold new by Publish America or through their distributors to book stores where the sales should generate my royalties, or by me after I buy them from Publish America and sell them at a book signing. HOW CAN THESE BOOKS SELLERS GET NEW COPIES OF MY BOOK AND SELL THEM WITHOUT PAYING ME A ROYALTY?
I can understant the used books offered, but if the books are new I should be getting my cut for my work and my copyright.
Here's my beef. I went to Amazon and checked my book. Optimus: Praetorian Guard. They still haven't dropped the kindle price down to $7.99 to match the price now set by Publish America. But if you look at the NEW books offered by different book sellers the price ranges from $8.99 to a whopping 874.25. Most in the 30-40 range. Here's my question. These are new books which should only be sold new by Publish America or through their distributors to book stores where the sales should generate my royalties, or by me after I buy them from Publish America and sell them at a book signing. HOW CAN THESE BOOKS SELLERS GET NEW COPIES OF MY BOOK AND SELL THEM WITHOUT PAYING ME A ROYALTY?
I can understant the used books offered, but if the books are new I should be getting my cut for my work and my copyright.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Busy busy busy
Took a "tag you're it" trip to Santa Fe. Had to hand deliver a letter to someone concerning a case Attorney X is working on. Here's a tip, never trust a google map. Had to buy a map at a gas station to find the place.
I've been running ragged taking papers out to Rio Rancho's courthouse. Twenty miles out and another 20 back. Air conditioner works good in the car, but the heat still gets to you. It's nice going into a quaint little courthouse that's not filled with people hustling and bustling. I just hate the drive.
I don't know what got into me on the last story I published. Normally I write R rated stuff to add a little spice, but the characters in this story were a lot randier than normal. It seems to be getting a lot more hits on smashwords than my more tame stories. Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned.
Publish America has lowered the price of the softcover of Optimus: Praetorian Guard from $27.95 to $12.95. There's still the PAper back for $9.99, and they lowered the e-book price down to $7.95. Amazon last time I checked had the kindle edition still at the 27 buck price tag, but it should be coming down soon. I expect PA will hike the prices back up after the first of the year, so if you don't own a copy and want one, now is the time to buy.
I've been running ragged taking papers out to Rio Rancho's courthouse. Twenty miles out and another 20 back. Air conditioner works good in the car, but the heat still gets to you. It's nice going into a quaint little courthouse that's not filled with people hustling and bustling. I just hate the drive.
I don't know what got into me on the last story I published. Normally I write R rated stuff to add a little spice, but the characters in this story were a lot randier than normal. It seems to be getting a lot more hits on smashwords than my more tame stories. Perhaps there's a lesson to be learned.
Publish America has lowered the price of the softcover of Optimus: Praetorian Guard from $27.95 to $12.95. There's still the PAper back for $9.99, and they lowered the e-book price down to $7.95. Amazon last time I checked had the kindle edition still at the 27 buck price tag, but it should be coming down soon. I expect PA will hike the prices back up after the first of the year, so if you don't own a copy and want one, now is the time to buy.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Perk starting to pay off
Volunteering at a golf course is starting to have its benefits. Had a nice round of golf Tuesday and today got wife out for nine holes.
Saw a rabbit take off running and a red tailed hawk swoop down from a tree. The rabbit dropped in a hole and the hawk sailed to another tree not missing a beat. Nature is awesome some times.
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