Category: Opinion

Relationship Advice

This is good advice. Advice I could have used ten years ago.

I got divorced (I initiated it) after almost 20 years. About a year after separation and about 10 months after the divorce, my ex came out as a lesbian. (That was confusing, but explained a lot.) I had one relationship since then. That relationship was a mess, so glad it ended after a year. I’ve been on a few online dates that were odd experiences.

I decided I was going to be OK with being single. I somehow can’t meet a woman who has similar interests and wants to get to know each other before sex. If sex is the only thing you have, it won’t last.

I was doing great until the pandemic and a diagnosis of prostate cancer about the same time lockdown started. That’s what threw me for a loop and I really missed having someone to hold onto at night.

However, I had surgery, and all signs point to they got it. I’m not feeling that “need” for someone in my life now that I don’t feel like I’m facing my eminent mortality.

I still want someone. A few years ago I realized it was the smell of my ex on the mattress that was causing me to dream about getting back together. That stopped once I got a new bed.

My ex was the right height to feel like a perfect fit when we hugged. I miss that feeling. My ex doesn’t want me plus she has at least one untreated mental health issue. I don’t have time for that.

The best thing to come of that relationship are two sons and two granddaughters. Becoming a grandfather was the greatest thing ever. But children & grandchildren are not a substitute for an adult romantic relationship.

I’m 57 and set in my ways. Finding a woman with similar interests and who enjoys my company is what seems like a hopeless quest. I don’t want to change. I felt small and alone living with a woman who didn’t really want me, and whom I could never please.

Here’s what I’ve learned over the years:

1.) YOU have to make YOU happy.
Others can only enhance your happiness.

2.) You can’t make another person happy.
If you try you will be constantly frustrated at your failures. That was my big mistake in my marriage, trying to make a miserably unhappy person happy. She still isn’t happy and has more ex-wives than I do.

3.) Stay out of debt & get out of debt ASAP.
Accumulate an emergency fund. This will help free you from paycheck to paycheck stress.

4.) Keep your money separate from your partner.
I’m not sure I could ever get married again, and I’d still keep finances separate if I did. I’d probably do a pre-nup.

5.) Don’t move in together or get married until you’ve had sex.
If you aren’t both able to find satisfaction, this will be a sore point in the future.

6.) Don’t deny who you are just to do what society expects.
I wouldn’t marry a lesbian if I knew she was a lesbian. If your potential life partner doesn’t know who they are, you should ask them to go figure it out.

7.) If your partner thinks they can read your mind RUN!

Opinion

Death By Civilization

The word civilization comes from Latin civitas, meaning city. That is, one who lives in a city is civilized.

Living in cities has enabled humanity to pool resources and make the advances in healthcare and other areas of knowledge possible.

However, the problems with civilization since the industrial revolution have magnified with each passing year.

This has led to many problems:

Over use of anti-biotics leading to drug resistant bacteria.
Massive build up of trash and just dumping it in the oceans.
Pollution of the land, water, and air.
- Micro-plastics, PFAS, radioactive materials, the list goes on.
Cutting down the forests.
Preventing all fires to the point where any fire is now too hot to serve the purpose it should for the renewal of the forest.
Using more water than is available in the arid regions of the Western U.S. and other places, leading to drought.
CO2, methane, and other greenhouse gases flooding the atmosphere to enhance any naturally occurring global warming. This exacerbates drought and other problems which leads to loss of ice caps, rising sea levels, and loss of sea life.
Extinction of many animal species that serve purposes in the ecosystem.
Overuse of pesticides and other chemicals that are harming bees, which threatens to impair pollination of food crops.
Building things like nuclear reactors without keeping in mind that gravity is free, but expensive to overcome, and that water flows downhill.
Self-centered national policies on the part of every nation seeking to get their slice of the limited pie which leads to more problems than it solves.
Too many acting like the resources of Earth will never run out. When else can we go?
We could eradicate polio in a decade, if we really wanted to.
We could eliminate hunger and poverty, if we really wanted to.
Rich get richer at the expense of the not rich with a rapidly increasing wealth gap.
- Multi-billionaires could each keep one billion dollars and their descendants could live very comfortably with wise investment and disciplined spending. They could use the “excess” billions to solve problems governments can’t or won’t.
Punishing poor and minorities with disproportionate prison sentences and conditions. All while so-called “white-collar” criminals get off with minimum security or house arrest for a very brief time.
The African continent has been pillaged and raped by Europe and Asia for centuries, keeping it down. Similarly, indigenous peoples of the Americas, Australia, and many other places have been shoved to the side and ignored when outright genocidal efforts went out of style.
Corruption and greed among the rich and powerful keeps things stirred up. If we don’t blow ourselves up or die by an apocalyptic pandemic, things won’t change unless the way we’ve always done it changes.

We may be civilized, but only because cities are the foundation of our current way of life. We are barbaric in that we treat the world, its resources, and each other like stepping stones as we each claw our way to the top of the heap.

Not all humans are like that, but enough are, and they end up in positions of power. This ensures that they can maintain the status quo that keeps us in this perpetual cycle.

Instead of common sense overruling our base nature, we stay the course. We’re waiting until things are so horrendously bad before making a change. That is a fool’s errand.

What world will my grandchildren and great-grandchildren inherit? How many generations of humanity are left?

From the vantage point of a study of history and current events, I sense we are heading toward a turning point. What that might be, I can’t say. I grew up in the Cold War with the ever present thought that we could all die by nuclear war. I naively thought that was past when the Iron Curtain fell. The world is a much more dangerous place in some respects.

Some violent re-shuffling of the world is coming. The way the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken the world and continues to be felt is a sign that our current way of life is fragile. Supply chains are vulnerable to disruption, the healthcare system in the U.S. is strained due to the ignorance and willful selfishness of too many. A breaking point or turning point is coming. The U.S. is getting ready to give up it’s place as the world leader. Russia doesn’t seem to be ready to step in, but China does.

It could all happen without a shooting war. All because over the last century and more, the U.S. has meddled with the internal situations of other nations. This meddling made unstable situations worse, or created instability where there was none. As those of European descent become one of many minorities in the U.S. the changes will accelerate. European Americans will have their comeuppance.

Will the U.S. survive? Another Trump presidency, or one like it will probably shatter our constitutional republic. It will either fall into tyranny of the kleptocrats, or see the oligarchs and corporations grow in power and influence, or the nation will fracture like the former U.S.S.R.

I’m tired. The small minded, selfishness of those in power and their mindless supporters are just exhausting to deal with. Logic and reasoning have no power. Common sense isn’t common. I weep for the future.

Tags Civilization

Opinion

So-Called Christians Focused On A Narrow Aspect

Post author By admin
Post date September 5, 2021
No Comments on So-Called Christians Focused On A Narrow Aspect

Too many who claim to be Christians focus on a narrow aspect of Christianity and those foci tend to be minor and irrelevant in the long run.

Such things are:

Which translations are “correct.” Forgetting that the original Hebrew and Greek are older than English.
- The KJV was published in the 1600’s. That 1,600 years A.D. The lack of understanding of that time scale is a matter of ignorance they should resolve.
Focus on spiritual warfare and ceding more power to Satan than he really has.
- I’ve met some that think that Satan is behind every bush waiting to jump out and get them.
Judging and excluding those who don’t do things “correctly”.
- This varies from sins on a list, or a hyper focus on a single sin, or those who don’t “look right.” In short, forgetting to help those in need and setting them aside because they are in the “wrong category.”
- That same list that you point to homosexuality also has gossip. Grey haired old ladies don’t like it when you point that out.
- They forget to “take the log out of their own eye before removing the speck from another’s eye.”
Aligning with specific political parties and candidates, extolling them as virtuous, in spite of their obviously NOT being or behaving as one would expect a Christian to behave.
Forgetting to “be a light to the world”, and instead being hateful, small-minded, judgmental jerks who act like their “shit don’t stink.”
False teachers and scam artists seeking to get rich at the expense of the gullible. False teachers who claim that they know when Christ will return, when the Bible says that “no one knows (except the Father).”
- Such lies and deceits and false teaching are driving people away. If you really cared about people, you would accept them where they are and go from there. Instead, you expect them to know all about what the Bible says instead of showing them hw to love one another.

I know atheists who are better Christians than most so-called Christians.

So many so-called Christians making lists counter to I Corinthians 13.

So many so-called Christians cursing and arguing with people online and threatening them.

So many so-called Christians acting holier than thou towards anyone who isn’t just like them.

Christianity has become the Pharisees and Sadducees. The minority genuine Christians are not standing up to the imposters.

Christianity is founded on a religion of murder and genocide. I’d rather focus on the common sense of treating others the way you’d like to be treated and forget all the laws and rules.

Love is doing what love requires, but the so-called Christians have a sick and twisted interpretation of love.

But the Church (all denominations) and God have failed to deliver. I was a pastor for a decade. I have a three-year graduate degree, a Masters of Divinity. It was a waste of my time, as I bought into the scam that God is real.

I’ll just be kind to others and help where I’m able. Keeping a huge building operating for a weekly meeting that is the usual suspects just keeping up appearances, is a waste. That time and money is better spent helping others.

The so-called “religious right” is really the irreligious wrong, the immoral majority, or is it a minority now? Donald Trump is no Christian. He cannot give an answer that isn’t doublespeak. If he ever told the truth it would only be something that serves him. He is sleeze and the way Republicans fall over themselves to put their noses up his ass makes me sick.

The so-called Christians seek to back laws denying votes to minorities, deny women bodily autonomy while arguing for their own bodily autonomy to ignore masks proven ability to keep others safe. If COVID-19 only infected ignorant selfish jerks, the problem would sort itself out. That’s not how the disease works. The most vulnerable receive the most harm. I doubt they are praying for forgiveness for their part in the manslaughter of those they helped to infect.

So many of them are from my generation, who have smallpox inoculation scars, and didn’t catch polio, measles, mumps, or many other childhood diseases, yet they rant and rail against the efficacy of vaccines.

If they believe God is real then they better be in fear for their place in eternity for teaching and encouraging no masks and no vaccines that lead to the deaths of the innocent. Teachers are judged more harshly. But the leaders are frauds and charlatans out for power, glory, and mammon.

Then they get upset when radical Islamists enforce Sharia in the areas they control, and wage terrorist war on the West. They follow the same lie that Allah exists. When they say, “There is no god….” they need to stop speaking. The truth is hidden in their lies. They were raised believing it and it takes years of conscious effort to unlearn that crap.

I hope humanity doesn’t end up killing itself through over reliance on religion and the ignorant masses who shamble along mindlessly agreeing to do their bidding.

Tags Christianity, Religion

Opinion

Putin’s Troubles

Vladimir Putin, long time president of Russia and a corrupt former KGB officer is facing a lot of scrutiny at home after he had his goons try to poison Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader.

Twitter is trending with the protests.

It’s on all the networks, like CNN.

Putin has enriched himself and worked with the oligarchs that used their Soviet era power to grab ownership of large industries and businesses. Why were their so many billionaires in Russia as soon as the Communist, private property shunning U.S.S.R. collapsed? One word: Corruption.

Putin also has visions of growing Russia and maintaining the former influence and borders of the U.S.S.R which expanded beyond the bounds of the former Russian Empire. Those in power in the Soviet Union also grabbed wealth and orchestrated influence and control.

Putin has expanded into Ukraine. Putin is aided in his expansionist dreams by the policy of the Tsars and Commissars to spread ethnic Russians across the landmass. These “citizen ‘boots on the ground'” help assert claims to the land where they live. Similar to how Israel builds settlements in Palestinian territory to back their claim that that land is part of Israel.

Putin dreams of the power and influence like that once held by the rulers of the Soviet Union. His ability to lead Trump around by the nose has allowed him to influence nations allied and friendly to the U.S. to break down former trust and unity. Putin must be laughing all the way to more entrenched power at home due to the ways Trump just let him have his way.

Syria is a mess, refugees and opposition to the Assad regime were abandoned and slaughtered. Iraq is a mess. Afghanistan is a mess and we’re just leaving. Iran is at a heightened state of tension with the U.S. North Korea is still North Korea and continued doing their dynasty entrenching regime building at the expense of the bulk of the population.

China let the COVID-19 virus out and withheld facts so that the rest of the world is in terrible shape from it.

Nuclear Treaties were allowed to lapse, or just cancelled.

I grew up in the Cold War and the thought of dying from the aftershocks of nuclear war were ever present, most likely radiation poisoning, or starvation due to nuclear winter.

The break up of the Soviet Union and the rise of unfettered terrorist organizations reacting to the meddling of superpowers in local affairs brought us to the world of today.

We need to build trust and help instill hope for a better future to best combat terrorism. Russia, China, the U.S. and all other powerful countries must stop official actions and the actions of private citizens and businesses from cheating whole nations while making the leaders of those nations more corrupt and more wealthy.

All nations need to hold their leaders accountable. Trump was voted out and his schemes of wealth and power appear to be crumbling with his defeat. His businesses are losing money and he has lots of real estate loans due in the next few years. If he and his family lose the bulk of their wealth and influence, maybe it will serve as a warning to others.

Senators, representatives, and all elected officials should not leave office more wealthy than they started. Only their blind trusts should allow their wealth to increase. No elected leader should be able to profit from their knowledge of secret intel, like some did with COVID-19.

In Russia, the people need to rise up and break up the political machine Putin has co-opted from the Soviet years. He has allowed the illusion of democracy and voting matters. Unlike the claims about the 2020 Presidential Election being rigged, the claims about Putin’s re-elections are definitely rigged. He traded offices with someone due to constitutional limits, then had the constitutional limits changed, and is back to the office he was once limited from keeping.

One should not trust Putin or any other politician who seeks to stay in power beyond purposeful limits on power. Those persons are liars, thugs, and dangerous to peace in the world.

Other countries can’t do much to limit Putin beyond sanctions, and acts of war. Rogue actions like assassination are extremely bad options as it risks creating a martyr or a worse person coming to power in the chaos. It also risks war. Only the people rising up en masse can stand a chance to make a change.

Thankfully, in the U.S. the nut jobs that ate up the nonsense Trump & cronies spewed, have fallen victim to internal debates when their incitement to further insurrection got their organizational platforms to block them or were shut down. We need some way to weed out crazy conspiracy theories and prevent them from gaining traction. Internet companies have all the data. They can stop the crazy.

Anti-vaxers & anti-maskers used to be the most dangerous, but insurrectionists who think they are defending democracy by ignoring a truly fair election are even worse. All the anti-science, anti-truth loons need their “drug supply” of lies and lunacy cut off so they can hopefully detox and regain their senses.

Opinion

Vote Him Out

Donald Trump is a disgrace. He neither respects the office of president, and he especially doesn’t respect the American people, or our institutions.

He flagrantly ignores the constitution and has drained the swamp, yet filled it with sewage!

The Republican party, or a large and influential part of it have rolled over and let him rub their belly and now their noses are stained brown from being so far up his ass.

I can’t believe anyone would think he is doing a good job. But it turns out that most of his followers silently, and now not so silently support groups like the NAZIs, KKK, or similar white supremacist groups. It makes me sick.

Opinion

Rural Internet

This YouTube video from the Wall Street Journal shows that where one lives affects your internet. In my opinion, we need to declare the internet a utility and put forth the effort to being true broadband to rural areas.

Opinion

Trump Is A Joke

I haven’t liked Trump since I first heard about him in the 80’s when I was in high school. His reality TV show is stupid. I still can’t believe people I grew up with think he’s great. I can’t believe anyone would take his candidacy seriously. I think the media shot us all in the foot when they spent so much time covering him because they thought he was a joke. I think that backfired and left the gullible with the impression he was the guy. Had the Democrats ran anyone but Hilary, they might have won.