Rant Alert

Tonight I set my clocks forward. I was tired, thought I might actually get a little extra sleep.

There aren't actually too many channels I like to watch, but I put it on DirecTV #284, the Science Channel.

I was suddenly pissed, pacing the floor, and ranting and raving. (Just ask my wife)

I can't believe we are paying for this shit.

Seriously?  "NASA's Unexplained Files?"

I hit the info button to see WTF I was watching, and the description was (paraphrasing) "Life on Mars & Mysterious Moon Pigeons." I am not making this shit up.

I think they even had astronaut Story Musgrave on, but by then they had lost me. (I don't know what he might have seen, but I *AM*  disinclined to listen to conspiracy theories and such...)

So... Major networks jumped the shark LONG ago.

MTV 1 & 2, VH1 might as well not exist.

TLC has apparently become the Honey Boo-Boo network. (The primary thing I have learned from The Learning Channel is to not watch it anymore.)

History Channel is purveyor of Monster Quest, Pawn Stars, American Pickers & Ice Road Truckers.

Animal Planet is home of the American Mermaids Are Us program (or some shit like that.)  If I remember correctly, I think they tried to pass that off as a documentary.

This crap makes me angry.  Now, for a while, I was cable & satellite-less. That actually worked quite well when I was living in the single-guy mode.  Although insomnia nights sucked.  Even though I got 12 or 15 channels... late night infomercials blew chunks.  And I could only live through a few seasons of She-Ra, Princess of Power. Not to mention Brave-Starr & Tex Hex.

Why have we allowed this crap to become what we accept?

Unfortunately, in January I just extended our contract by 2 years in exchange for going High-Def and getting a DVR.  So apparently I get to see the same crappy programming, only in higher resolution.

Yay.

The Death Penalty

When I first began this post, I had just read news about a Mexican national being put to death in the U.S.A.  Of course the world, and many in the U.S.A. are in an uproar.

Convicted Cop Killer Executed

Let me just openly say I have no moral qualms with executing a guilty person, if our society has chosen to make it a capital offense.  Whatever that means in this day & age.  I don't know of the specifics of this case. I am painting with a much broader brush.

If I see someone harming another, especially a child or a woman, there is a fair chance they will meet a piece of lead and subsequently, their maker.

I have never directly killed another. If I did, I might have nightmares.  I don't know what it feels like, I don't pretend. I am not thumpy-chesty.  I am blessed in my ignorance. Even the most hardened soldier usually regrets what he has done.

Where my doubt emerges, regarding the death penalty, is in the form of proof.

I am no bleeding heart liberal, yet I am opposed to the death penalty as it exists in our current system.

I have no problem with a guilty person being executed. But how does one determine that a person is guilty?

We are human; we are fallible. We have constructed a system... by extension, it too is fallible.  And sometimes, even though the facts seem immutable, our interpretation may be incorrect.

This was a turning point in my view of the death penalty.

The case of Patricia Stallings.

Conceivably, this woman could have been sentenced to the Death Penalty, depending on jurisdiction.

Can you imagine the hell she went through?

Her child died, she went to prison, her other child was taken, her marriage was destroyed.

I can not begin to fathom.

"Flame On" against me. As long as a person is still drawing air... there is hope, and we can correct a mistake.

Again... I have no problems with a guilty murderer, pedophile, or child rapist being executed... but how do we determine that?  Not just beyond a reasonable doubt... but beyond a human constructed system's doubt?

Short of "Minority Report" how do we do it?

A New Blog for a New Blogger

My wife likes to write. Sometimes she'll write a bunch of stuff in a short period, other times she'll go a long time writing very little.

Several months ago, I helped her start a blog on this same venue. She has written a few posts and is still getting her legs in the blogosphere.  Last Saturday night, I helped her get her e-mail subscription form/link working.

She tends to write primarily about personal, philosophical & spiritual topics, unlike me... I'm all over the map!  But I invite you to subscribe to her blog and find out for yourself.

From the Island of Misfit Joys

What Does Freedom Taste Like? (Part II)

I chose to divide this into 2 parts, due to brevity and a typical American's attention span, but also to lay the framework, and now my own interpretation.

(I know, I am being redundant, but I am passionate about this topic.)

The Founding Fathers were imperfect, they allowed slavery and did not account for the Native Americans in a fair manner.  Yet they built a Republic, not a democracy, in which every man could have a voice. We continue to refine the system, work out the bugs, or, in Darwinian terms "evolve."

After the Constitutional convention, a person asked Benjamin Franklin:

“Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”

“A Republic, if you can keep it.”

Our system is not perfect, nor do I think it ever will be.  And we'll always bitch about that nebulous body called "The Government."  But when properly applied... we are bitching about ourselves.

I will not delve into the mechanics of the Articles of the Constitution.  Find them yourself... learn them, live them.  The Constitution of the United States of America

Instead, I now turn my attention to The Bill of Rights.  The first 10 Amendments to the Constitution.  If The Constitution is the foundation, then the Bill of Rights is the first layer of bricks.

I invite you to learn the rights thus enumerated.

Oh, I hope we've all been indoctrinated.  It's grade school fun. I won't go through it again right now.

Going back to my older post... read it if you're so inclined. I won't repeat it in entirety here.

Ancient Secret:

Live it.  Learn it.

The rights enumerated in the "Bill of Rights" are NOT given to us by the font of all knowledge, or the creator, or whomever you think is entitled to do so.

Rather... read them as written.  The "Rights" enumerated are CONSTRAINTS upon the government, not the individual.

DO NOT FORGET THIS.

As long as there are people among us who hold true to this fact, there is hope for us retaining our republic.

-- Sam

Part I

What Does Freedom Taste Like? (Part I)

My title is a rhetorical question.

We should not taste freedom... we should bathe in it. We should swim in it with much aplomb. We should be swathed in it from cradle to grave.

I have touched on this very topic, albeit with a different twist as I recall.  I'm not going to go back through my own rants to recount the selfsame.  You may, of course, at your own leisure.

Man (and I use that intending gender neutrality to imply humanity) in his natural state is 100% free to do as he pleases.  But a man does not live as a solitary animal, much as a wolf does not roam alone.

I am not an anthropologist, but we are social animals.  Man forms bonds with other men. We want to be with others, we form families or tribes in our natural state.  Then by extension, we form towns, cities, kingdoms, nations and so on.

Tribes once fought each other, they banded together, then cities, then kingdoms, then nation-states, then nations...

Somewhere along the way, the individual man gets lost.  He becomes a statistic, a pawn.  He fights for king and country.  He is but another salmon swimming against the stream.  Yet he still exists.

Thus the battle between the individual and the State.

I am concerned that too many have lost site of the natural order, and look to the nebulous term of "the government" to take care of them.  Whether in the form of a benevolent dictator, king, or committee... when one gives away the right of being an individual, one is less of a person.

The government does not exist.  If every human being died tonight, tomorrow, there would be not be a government.  We are all cogs in the wheels of that machine which we created, and in many instances, that machine has swallowed us.

"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"

Gawd... I love that line... It's from The Declaration of Independence.

The next line is one which should give pause:  "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."

BAM.

In the interest of brevity, I will now leave you with Part II.

Into the vapors... Part II

Facebook is an interesting way to interact with people you know, and maybe meet some you do not know, or even become better acquainted with people you know (knew?), but not well.

Millenia ago (just a few years in computer terms) I used MySpace.  Found it useful, met some new people, even dated a little (while I was single.)

I resisted the upstart "Facebook."  I found it clunky, but I set up a profile, deactivated it, but then again grew curious and "re-activated it." Haven't really looked back since.

I saw the S.S. MySpace sink while the S.S. Facebook sailed by... I went from one ship to another. The S.S. MySpace became defunct & adrift, and I think I helped bail the last few buckets into her hull  (In the Beginning...)

Now, I am going to fast-forward.  I have suddenly found myself in possession of 128 "friends," many of whom I have not communicated with in ages, and did not know well in the first place, or did not know at all.  I realize 128 friends is a low count in the FB world... but I am stuck in the human world.

Time for either a cartoon flashback, or a cheesy metaphor.

I can't draw well, so guess what you get?

I own a couple of pieces of property. Trees, bushes, weeds, you get the idea.  Some are old trees, some are fast-growing bushes, some are in between.  When I prune a tree, I am careful. When I decide to cut a tree, I am even more careful.  It is easier to leave a tree than to plant a new one. I have cut many trees over the past 19 years of owning these properties, but I don't truly regret any. Some of them just had to go. They were either dying, or they took up too much space against other trees, or were a danger to other things more valuable to me (like falling on a house?)

I warned several months ago:

Facebook Friends Into the Vapors

I cautiously fired up the chain saw, I waited. As I breathed the 2-cycle smoke & oil exhaust, my bushes continued to grow. I thought they'd be OK, I wouldn't notice... I allowed some to grow, I even allowed a few new ones.  That's how I became the possessor of 128 friends, with a bunch of people pending, most of whom I don't recall meeting.

I now live 2,500 miles from where I grew up... suddenly I'm Mr. Popular back there?

No Thankyew.

Tonight, the motor revved.  I went from 128 "friends" down to 90.  I wonder how many will even notice?

I Got Plowed Tonight (Part II)

So this is a follow-up post regarding my last Saturday night (Feb 22) collision.

Original Post

Last Sunday, I called the lady who hit me the night before. I left a message and she called me back shortly after. I offered to let them look at the car before it was towed, because I didn't want them to think I had mystical alien abduction damage or back/neck injury and sue them for bazillions of dollars.  (I'm fine, but the car is bent, to say the least.)

She said she'd bring her husband down, they looked at it and were very apologetic.  She is working night shift in what is probably the vicinity of a minimum wage job.  Her husband is out of work due to back injury. (I get that one... believe me... I get that one!)

So far I've been chastised by multiple people for not getting the cops involved.  Deputy Barney Fife from across the street showed up.  He was a shirtless SCOPE (Sheriff Community Oriented Police Effort) volunteer who drives an almost unmarked car with a light bar. He appeared immediately and questioned whether either of us were drinking. He was waving his flashlight, which he reluctantly surrendered to me in order to check out the damage to the car. I declined his offer of protection "to have the cops here in a minute."

Again, I am not a believer in mystic Karma.  But I do believe in treating others with kindness. Just because you have a kill shot does not mean you should decapitate your opponent.

In my mind, if the other driver had no insurance, my "uninsured motorist coverage" would kick in. Whether she had a ticket or not is irrelevant.  I could have had Law Enforcement pile on with "no insurance" and "Failure to yield."  Probably over $1000 in fines.  From my perspective, my insurance pays either way.  Time will tell if I've been too soft, although I met her & her hubby under less stressful situations Sunday.  They seem genuinely contrite in their position.

I was initially concerned that the car would be considered a total loss due to its age (we just had the trannie rebuilt 1 year ago), but my insurance company is paying for the repair, which is around $2700.  The bumper is being replaced, the wheel, hub & strut also, along with a minor dent to the quarter panel.

I've asked the other driver to cover the deductible, which for uninsured motorist, is $100.  They said they would.

We are getting our wrongs righted... once again... time will tell if I'm being too much of a softie.

Don't get me wrong... I can be your worst enemy if I feel I've been crossed.

But...

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."
-- Plato