France's Muslim Problem

One perceives in the distance the dim possibility that France will administer bitter medicine to herself in order to correct a systemic disease. One sees it in the distance and one sees France's majority inching towards the solution. There is a historical precedent. The tolerance and benevolence of modern folk can only be tested so far before they adopt a solution that worked for their ancestors.

Relations with the U.K.

Now that the U.K. has voted to leave the European Union, we in the U.S. need to rally around our long-time ally and fellow English-speaking nation. The U.S. always has had and always will have a special relationship with the U.K., and I think it is right we should always protect that island and the people in it. If the U.K. is leaving the E.U., then perhaps it can forge some kind of economic partnership with the New World, possibly even joining an expanded NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement). The U.K. may be farther away than most North American countries, but certainly not farther than Argentina, and let us all remember that the U.K. owns islands in the New World, notably the Falkland Islands off the coast of Argentina. I think it is entirely logical and right for the U.K. to enjoy special trading privileges with the U.S. I think that is all that the English people want. They do not want to share our currency or political system or immigration policy. They just want the economic advantages, without all the political intrusion that the European Union represented. However, one way that the U.K. and the U.S. should combine is on the metric system. We should adopt the metric system. Also, we should develop some kind of consistency in regard to our mutual language. Let us spell words the same.

The Left-Behinds

The Left-Behinds are the unhappy individuals who just don't enjoy life like the rest of us. They are angry all the time or sad all the time or a mixture of both. They have been left behind by the peace, prosperity and exuberance of this modern age, which is such an easy and enlightened era to live in. Compare the modern times to ancient times, and I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief that we don't live in a world where slavery, torture, starvation and disease are commonplace. These artifacts of the bad old days have been relegated to the barbarian outposts of the world, that is to say, Muslim nations for the most part.

In the U.S., we need some kind of outreach program, preferably Internet-based, to open channels of communication with desperate criminals that are on the verge of doing something horrible. Granted, it may not even be possible to reach them, because they tend to isolate themselves, or only associate with like-minded cretins, but it may be possible to reach someone with sense close to them, who may observe signs and symptoms. A free online mental health forum and chat service, staffed by psychologists, interns, and college students might be the ticket. The online service would not cost much money, and would offer paid experience to thousands of unemployed Americans. Just have a service with a domain name like help.gov that operates 24 / 7 / 365. Tips can be forwarded to the law enforcement as needed, emergency services can be dispatched as needed, and people that really need help really should be offered help in the form of free therapy and free medical care. Now, that part (free medical care) might be costly. The thought of socialized medicine raises hackles among the right-wing crowd. But I wonder which costs more. Treating the ill, or letting them just do whatever with a bunch of firearms and bombs or drinking and drugs and driving? If a person goes crazy, I grant you the most likely victim is the crazy person himself. After that, the most likely victims are the people around him. But the community also suffers. Who wants a bunch of crazy people running amok, anyway? It is bad for public order and morale. We need to get serious about mental health in this country and do something to put an end to the mass shootings, drunk and drugged driving, addiction, overdoses, violence, crime and everything else. I think that more cops on the street is not the answer. We have enough cops on the street. What we need is communication and therapy to heal the afflicted, or at least identify them and try to help them and reduce the amount of damage they do to themselves and others.

Britain, Stay in the European Union

If I were British and against the Euro, I'd change my vote, based on the horrible assassination of the bright lady, Jo Cox. If that cretinous assassin believes so-and-so, then it almost definitely is wrong, no matter what. Shooting and stabbing an unarmed, unguarded woman, a mother of two at that, is about as low as you can go. If people that want the UK out of the Euro are that low, then they have to be wrong in what they believe, no matter what. It was an act of absolute evil. Seldom in politics are things so clear-cut as that. Jo Cox has got to have been right in what she believed, if she was assassinated for it. I am in favor of the UK remaining in the European Union, based on that incident alone. Either postpone the vote by a year, or vote against leaving the Union. I don't see any other moral choice.

The Anti-Hillaries

I've encountered a ton of anti-Hillaries in my day, even among the left-wing crowd. The specific grievances people have against Hillary Clinton seem to me rather dubious or petty. Private email server, Benghazi, the Clinton Foundation, and some people even claim Hillary killed somebody or ordered them to be killed. Well, I don't know about all that. The right wing says a lot of crazy stuff, like Obama is a Muslim or the AntiChrist, and so on. The right wing seems to suffer from paranoia. Just because you call someone something, does not make them so. Some people do not know the difference between words and reality. As for all the accusations levelled against her, it seems to me the facts just don't pan out in some cases, while things like the email server and the Clinton Foundation do not seem egregious. Hillary has had a long career and has been careless in some regards, but if she were really guilty of anything serious, there is little doubt the Republican majority in Congress would have gotten to the bottom of things by now. One thing about the Republicans, they are not in the habit of letting the Clintons off the hook about anything, great or small.

I think Hillary's real problem is just that she is not really photogenic and personable. Some of the photos the media prints of her are not flattering. Maybe it is because members of the media dislike her. Hillary is kind of a nerd. But I think that being a nerd is cool.

In a way, George W. Bush was photogenic and personable. I disliked George W. Bush and thought he was stupid, unfit for the job, but as a face, well, he was all right, and as a personality, certainly he would seem acceptable at a party. He probably spent most of his formative years in parties, while Hillary was out there working. Hillary is a worker bee, that is what she is. A workaholic. Would you have a good time with Hillary at a party? Maybe not, because she'd be on her phone texting, worrying, emailing and getting work done while you were goofing off. I can't imagine Hillary kicking back and drinking a beer in a hammock and doing nothing all day long. Hillary is all about the job. She is on a mission. She wants to do right and make a mark in history, a positive mark. I think she is good and grounded and does right by her own code, which is probably not too different from the code of most Americans.

Now, comparing her to Trump, I think it is clear that Trump has more problems with honesty, accuracy, and every other moral quality. I think any analysis of Trump can begin and end with Trump University. I rest my case on Trump University. If America wants to learn about Trump, then graduate from Trump University. Listen to all that Trump has said about Trump University. Let Trump be the star witness. I think that a Trump Presidency will be amusing, if not scary. I don't think it will happen. People will turn out to vote in droves to see to it that Trump does not become President. But I could be wrong. We will just have to see, won't we?

Muslims and Barbarism

The only time that Muslims do anything newsworthy is when they are either killing Americans or complaining because Americans don't like them. Well, stop killing Americans, and maybe they will like you. When the Muslims learn basic manners, then that will be considered progress. But it is not the job of the West to teach the barbarian Muslims right from wrong or to help them in any other way. The Muslims need to teach themselves right from wrong and learn about basic morality. The West can only do so much. It is not our job to lift up the rest of the world out of barbarism.

Not a year goes by that Muslims aren't killing a bunch of Americans, usually young people with their whole lives ahead of them. The Boston Marathon. Now the gay bar. The targets are calculated, always young people with a lot of promise and potential. The Muslims take our technology, which they never could have invented on their own, and use it to harm Westerners. Go back to Saudi Arabia, go back to Syria, go back to wherever in the hell you came from if you don't like it here. See how many rights Saudi Arabia grants you. I understand Saudi Arabia sentenced a liberal blogger to 1,000 lashes. That is the Islamic ideal, Saudi Arabia. Go back there and live the Islamic life, if all this Western stuff rubs you the wrong way. Why do they come to America, if it is so bad? They want to create trouble for us is why.

Trump is right about closing our borders to these people. The number of Muslims that should be allowed into the U.S. per year is zero. There should be a net outflow of Muslims, not an influx. We need to encourage departure, rather than making things so easy that they have the time and resources to plan attacks. They need to learn that U.S. citizenship is a privilege. Other people from other countries work hard, obey the laws, and do what is right in order to become a U.S. citizen. These refugees come over, get made citizen just because of their refugee status, and then hate and kill Americans. Something is wrong with the immigration policy. Instead of coming over to the U.S., these people need to stay in their own country and make it better. Why is it that the U.S. has to bleed in Iraq and Afghanistan? These refugees need to stay and fight for their own countries, instead of coming over here. We do not need more terrorists and criminals. Go back to Afghanistan, go back to Saudi Arabia.

Obama

I think Obama did well in the context of the leader of a conservative Western nation with a conservative, right-wing Congress composed of right-wing, conservative Democrats and a Republican majority. Democrats are practically indistinguishable from Republicans on many issues, with only the most outlandish things, like forcing prayer in schools or torturing prisoners, being the hallmarks of the Republican party. He did about as well as he could on most fronts. The paranoid white people that claimed Obama was a communist, Muslim or antiChrist have been exposed as crackpots by his mild, caretaker administration. Meanwhile, Obama has brought wars to an end and tried to deescalate all the other conflicts around the world that the U.S. has been embroiled in. Easing the situation in Cuba was a good idea, and not getting too involved in Syria was also right.

I read today some quotes from his appointed Supreme Court Justice, Sonia Sotamayor, and was impressed by how good she is. Whenever I read quotes from Scalia, I always wondered what a cold person he was. Now he's cold for real, but even back in the day, he was pretty cold, always siding with whatever was bigger and more powerful against whatever was weaker.

Trump?

I'm not opposed to the idea of a businessman as President. I do think there are many skills that translate directly from the business world to the political realm. However, in elections, we deal not with generalities, but specifics. The specimen before us is Trump. First of all, how did he make his money, and what kind of skills has he demonstrated, and what was the nature of his deeds? Simply having the money is not impressive by itself, nor is making it. If Trump could indeed make America great again, I'd vote Republican. His career is a long history of enriching himself at the expense of others and not bringing a lot of benefit to his community. When does Trump think about anyone else besides Trump? Never, would be my guess. A Trump Presidency would be rich on self-gratification and self-promotion. Trump has shown himself to be thin-skinned and vengeful, so he would have a lengthy enemies list and punish anyone that said or did the slightest thing against him. He would spend most of his time combing his hair, looking in the mirror, and acting important. Trump does not strike me as particularly intelligent or original. He has street smarts, though, and made short work of the nitwits that the Republicans usually place before voters. Perhaps he is a better choice than they were.

I'd prefer a normal manager-type, one that knows what she is doing and is used to it, like Hillary Clinton. I hope that she does the right thing and selects Bernie Sanders as her running mate. If they have a rocky relationship, so much the better. VPs and Presidents don't have to be best friends, and I think that Hillary would gain credibility by having a prominent and vocal critic in her administration.

Yes to Tariffs

I do support the idea of tariffs to protect American jobs. Too much is made in China, which seeks to conquer the world, beginning with its backyard. China will soon eclipse the U.S. in economic might, and then the military will follow. We need to add twenty to fifty per cent to the cost of goods manufactured overseas, to encourage companies to manufacture goods in the U.S. If this results in a trade war, then the U.S. will win that war, because it is the largest consumer economy in the world at this time. Another idea would be to include all of North and South America in a development zone that is free trade, and then place a tariff on goods outside of the New World. Just about everything can be produced in the New World. We need to take an interest in our neighbors and friends, rather than enriching future military adversaries like Russia, Iran and China.

The idea that one day, America will be able to compete with China on jobs is ludicrous. China has zero protections for workers and the environment. They will always be cheaper. Either you want an America where your child will grow up to flip burgers at the Waffle Goon, or else you want an America where future generations can get decent jobs that pay well enough to enjoy a good quality of life. It seems pretty simple to me. The only people that benefit from so-called "free trade" are the stockholders in the big corporations. Workers don't see any benefits.

I do realize that slapping tariffs on China would result in a drastic increase in prices for all computer parts and all kinds of other goods. My purchasing power would go down, in the short term. There would be a long period of pain, maybe even a whole lifetime. That would be a price I am willing to pay. One has to think, not just about today, but about fifty years from now. What will America be like? People just don't think about anything other than themselves and today. That is why America is in the situation it is in, where good jobs are hard to find.

Calling the 2016 Election

It is obvious Hillary Clinton will be the next President. I find it so obvious that I don't even feel the need to explain. I'm far from alone in seeing this. Probably everyone with a functioning brain sees the same outcome.

I prefer Bernie Sanders, but perhaps he is too old and obscure. He does not enjoy name recognition, unlike Clinton. I don't think Bernie can beat Clinton at this time. Young voters prefer Bernie, but young people are apathetic and don't tend to vote. I see grayhairs when I go to the polls. Young people stay at home playing video games or whatever. That is why the country is in the jam it is in.

I will vote for Hillary Clinton, because the alternative, Trump, would be unpleasant. I think Trump may even win some televised debates, because he's a seasoned TV personality, and what seems to matter is style rather than substance. Trump has a more flamboyant style than Hillary Clinton. Even if Trump wins all the debates, he will not win the election. I will be surprised if he carries the white vote.

Reality Is What We Make of It

Reality is what we make of it. I feel this is true about everything. My opinions seem like the simple truth to me. Others have contrary opinions and seem to have great conviction that they, instead of me, are right. I am impressed by those with conviction, but also suspicious, because I wonder how quickly they arrived at their opinions, and whether they considered the other sides much at all. Perhaps their opinion was formed long ago on the basis of information that has since been discredited.

Marijuana has had reams of misinformation broadcast about it. So many lies have been cultivated about marijuana, it is a strange wonder that anyone at all likes it. Based upon the lies, you would think every human being on the planet would be actively engaged in eradicating the demon seed. Yet that is not the case. Instead, hundreds of millions of people adore marijuana, and great numbers have done so since ancient times. Why? Who is right? Is marijuana good or bad?

I like to call marijuana "weed," because it is, in fact, a weed, particularly in areas where it is illegal. It grows quickly and spreads on its own in the wild, and humans have declared war on it, for better or worse, ever since the 1930s, although before that time, Americans found marijuana useful. Abe Lincoln liked to smoke it.

Some have the modest and humble opinion that weed is, at the very least, better than alcohol. They are not saying it is good, but only that it is better than alcohol, which is not saying very much at all, because we know alcohol is bad. I have this opinion, and I think it is self-evident, requiring very little in the way of debate, that is, if both sides are being honest and objective. Many believe this based upon direct experimentation with both substances, individually and in combination. Their opinion is, therefore, grounded in direct experience, which is the best manner to form an opinion. Their reality is evidence-based. Bolstering their position is a pretty vast amount of scientific literature. To ignore the science surrounding marijuana is not dishonest, but it is lazy. In summary, alcohol is toxic to the human body, while weed is not. Twenty years of drinking will devastate the body and mind more surely than an entire lifetime of vaporizing. Emphasis must be placed on the verb, vaporizing. One does not smoke in 2016. Smoking is a relic of the past, and anyone who believes that weed is smoked is not living in the modern age. All of the arguments about the negative effects of smoking must be revisited to come to terms with modern methods and to come to terms with legal weed, a product that is pure, unadulterated, unsullied by crime and by criminals, and sold in well-lit and state-sanctioned retail stores.

A diminishing minority of Americans, less than fifty per cent, believe weed is worse than alcohol, and therefore should remain illegal. Within this group, some have never tried it. Their reality is based upon what others have told them. Other people have constructed reality for them, and they have accepted that version of reality, often without question, much as religious zealots do. Others within the group have tried weed, and for whatever reason, have concluded weed is worse. I heard from a man today who once smoked marijuana, but quit. He told me "Dope is wrong," and his reasoning was that weed makes people stupid. Well, it so happens that I agree. Inebriates tend to make people stupid. No one is arguing that weed makes anyone smarter. The effect, however, is short-lived and does not persist. He also said that when he used weed, it gave him the munchies, and he overate, resulting in his obesity. Well, weed varies. Some weed does trigger appetite. This is extremely useful in those suffering from nausea. For an obese person, abstinence may be best. But to conclude from all of that that people should go to jail for possessing weed is ridiculous. Nevertheless, he seemed to think that there is nothing wrong with locking people up for weed. I think that he simply likes the idea of locking people up, and it pleases him so, he does not stop to think about the rightness or wrongness of the law. What profit is there, after all, in debating the merit of things? Why not just accept everything as it is, however bad?

Visitors to North Korea

Any American that visits North Korea has got to have something wrong with them. Their intelligence is clearly sub-par, and their allegiance to this country is at best questionable. The U.S. should not intervene when they are arrested, confess their crimes, talk about how bad the U.S. is and how great North Korea is, and generally play the traitor. Let them serve their sentences. This might put a cap on all the nitwits that decide for whatever reason to ignore the advice of the U.S. State Department and common sense and travel overseas to that blighted nightmare of a country.

If the world were run better, North Korea would not be the tragedy it is today. The only reason North Korea exists at all is because of China. And the only reason that China is a great world power today is because greedy Western businessmen took the jobs away from Westerners and gave them to the Chinese, to save money. Now we have a lot of people in the West without very much to do, and not many good jobs other than of the "Would you like an order of fries with that?" variety. China makes everything, including war material. In the not-so-distant future, Americans will have to learn Chinese just to make a decent living.

Regets of an Older Person

I have grown old enough to remember times past. Now I regret several trends in the modern world.

First and foremost, I dislike that cold hard cash is going away. I think money is a good thing. It is hard to trace, which is both good and bad, depending on the situation. I like less information in the hands of governments, because I do not trust governments. The American government is one of the better ones, but I still do not trust it completely. That which is mortal is prone to failure--and to corruption. Money is good for human beings, because we evolved along with it for thousands of years, and it has a long history with us. When money is invisible, as in the case of a credit card, then it is hard to fathom. I see young people getting into debt all the time, and not idiots either, but extremely intelligent young people, who should know better, but they have been seduced by the siren call of easy credit and getting things now as opposed to saving up for them. Where is wisdom, forbearance, and delayed gratification? Young people are the ones that will suffer most, because they have been unschooled by money.

And money is a school. I know exactly how much I can spend at any given time, because of the money in my wallet. I can see it. I can feel it. It has a texture. It even has a smell. If it takes a little bit longer to make change at a cash register, then that delay allows time for reflection over my purchase. The easier and the faster that a purchase is, the more likely it will be made upon impulse and not grounded in reason. Credit cards are horrible tools devised by clever marketing specialists. They use psychology, mathematics, and statistics, just like casino owners, to overwhelm the feeble human defences against overspending and impulse purchases. Remember, it was not long ago that there existed no money, no market, no economy. We were hunter-gatherers. Money in itself is a recent and radical innovation. Before money, there was bartering. Credit cards have arisen just within the last hundred years, and the human race is far from ready for them.

I regret that America is less than what it once was, and that no-one seems capable of reversing its decline, while China rises. China will cause many problems in the world, because their leadership is ruthless. America appears to be ruled by crony capitalists who seem only interested in their own affairs rather than those of their country. There is too much corruption and too little efficiency. Much money and time is wasted upon pointless exercises, such as adventures in the Middle East. It would be better to attend to domestic problems than to meddle overseas. Improve infrastructure and invest in scientific research and education is the simple answer and the correct one. But people want to stretch for bloody glory against weak enemies, foes that die easily but reproduce their numbers continually, so that a never-ending quagmire of money-draining goes on. Meanwhile, China improves infrastructure and invests in scientific research. Can anyone read the writing on the wall? Perhaps I will be gone before the fate I see comes to pass.

I am neutral, rather than partisan, on the issue of books and newspapers. They were good and bad. There was a lot of bad. Some people don't remember. They think of Shakespeare when they think of books. I remember bad books, bad newspapers, bad magazines. So now the world derives information online. I do not think that is necessarily a bad thing. I think it may be good, but I reserve judgment. I do like books, too. But most books are probably bad. There are some authors that I really like to escape with and join them in their mental space for hours and days and months at a time. Their books are good. They can be formative, even life-changing. I think books will always be with us. Videos can be tedious, and they are hard to produce, but not only that, some people express themselves best through thought, rather than theatrics, and books are the most efficient medium for thought.

Health care is a big PITA in the U.S.A., and is only getting worse. Nurses and doctors are now expected to be accountants and programmers. Instead of studying medicine, they must study computer programs and insurance plans. Instead of paying attention to the patient, they pay attention to the computer. So health care is terrible. When you go to see a nurse, she has to stare at the computer screen instead of listening to you. Meanwhile, other countries like Canada have health care figured out. Unfortunately, in the USA we have something called the Republican party that opposes anything that might potentially improve the lot of the poor or minorities. If you have insurance, then you have to navigate a maze of different insurance companies, different insurance policies, updates to said policies, HSA debit cards, insurance cards, toll-free numbers with wait times in excess of one hour, and so on, ad nauseum. I am sick to death of insurance companies. I have four different insurance companies for different facets of my health care, four different usernames and passwords, four different phone numbers I need to call, and I had no choice in the matter but was given this by my employer. The Democrats are stupid because they want to make health care more complicated, rather than less. The Republicans are stupid because they don't even want people to have health care in the first place. Both of the stupidities intermingle and combine to create an ever bigger stupidity. And what we are left with is health care in the U.S., which is boneheaded stupid.

I will have to continue this post another time.

The Supreme Court

I feel curiously unmoved by reports of Scalia's passing. I have not really kept up with anything involving him in the news. His replacement could be better or worse. He certainly lived a long life.

I haven't followed Supreme Court cases much. Even the gay marriage case I am not adequately familiar with. As for Scalia, sometimes I agreed with him, but more often I think, not. He was a jurist, not a politician or philosopher. His merits can be debated among legal scholars. I do not think he was either the best or the worst. He was not consistent in his philosophy but seemed biased in his interpretations, giving a lot of bend to his principles when it suited his personal beliefs. I prefer other jurists.

I don't really like the idea of a Supreme Court with power to make or reinterpret law. Ideally, that is, in an imaginary perfect world that does not exist, law should be determined by the legislative branch. However, our legislative branch is conservative and slow to act, except in cases of war. They act fast where there is any chance of military action. It seems to me they are hungry for it, because that means lots of extra money for their rich clients. For other things, such as social reform, they are glacial. I think that many reforms should be passed to make our legislative branch better. Then the Supreme Court would not be asked to do those things the legislative branch is too ignorant to do.

However, a thing may be judged on its effects, rather than its appearance. The effects of some Supreme Court rulings have been good in some case, ill in others. On balance, perhaps, good?

There is something to be said for a law issuing forth, not from a group of politicians, but from the ultimate transcultural, material and spiritual symbol of justice and power in the world, the Judge, dressed in his robes, reigning in court, like an ancient king in his awesome dignity. Is it not right that we should do as the kings and queens bid of us, even as our ancestors did far back into time immemorial? Our docile submission is in our blood. Even the wise feel awed by a Supreme Court decision, grounded in reason and invested with all the authority that only a group of judges can give. Much is just show, but how many perceive that, and how many, even perceiving, feel awed all the same?

China

There are folks out there that think China is hunky-dory. I guess because they think General T'zo was a great military leader. Or they discovered green tea in the grocery store.

The reality is that China is a bad actor on the Internet, and here's just a recent example.

American companies that offshore jobs to China should pay a tax for each job they offshore, to reflect the hidden costs such as a more dangerous world, a more dangerous Internet, and a weakening of the U.S. economy. Some CEOs simply have no scruples, no sense of responsibility whatsoever to their country. It is too bad that they get rewarded by Wall Street for reducing the number of jobs in America. There needs to be some accounting for the costs of giving power, money, and jobs to a nation like China that has no ethics, abides by no law and respects only force. A thousand dollars per year per job sent overseas would be a good start on a new and just tax. Apple should be paying the U.S. debt down with all the billions of dollars in fines that they so richly deserve. Steve Jobs had the most ironic name in the history of American business. Apple should rebuild Detroit and other decayed American cities with all the wealth they gathered by short-changing the workers. If the elite do not take care of what is happening in this country and see to it that jobs are there for the workers, then in the not-so-distant future, the U.S. will cease to be a world power at all. There are too many people either unemployed or underemployed.

The Age-old Controversy over Abortion

I never saw a problem with the right to abortion. I'm for a lot of rights, and I think there is a high burden of proof on the side that wants to restrict liberty. "Why you wanna put people in jail?" is the question that comes to my mind. If you want to make something illegal, you had better have a darn good case for jail, or else you're the problem, not the solution.

I have gotten to know a fair number of conservatives and conservative Republicans in my day, and once I asked a friend why he liked the Republican party so much, seeing as how he wasn't rich and couldn't possibly invest that much feeling in the Republican party's fiscal agenda, which is to tax the poor, give welfare to the rich, and spend trillions on foreign wars against third-rate powers. The main issue for him, he said, was abortion. He saw it as wrong, because according to his religion, life began at conception, and therefore any human action to interfere with said life was murder. Drawing the line at conception seemed arbitrary to me, so I asked him how he felt about sperm and egg cells, which we waste on a regular basis, through intentional or biological processes. He was wholly uninterested in gametes, and said conception was different, that it was something spiritual ordained by God, even, he said, in cases of rape or incest.

To me, conception is certainly nothing special. I am not sure where one should draw the line on the sanctity of life, but certainly conception seems far too soon. Wombs abort their contents spontaneously, and clearly the body itself does not hold special what some sentimentalists do regarding the new tissue.

As for that anti-abortion black and white poster showing a fetus within a womb and a autobiography of its development, ending with "my mother murdered me," I always thought, "you fortunate thing, to avoid being mothered by a monster." If the mother would deal death unto her own, then what good is to come by compelling her to give birth? No good can come of that. Unwanted and unloved children remain a problem in the world. Abortion, then, may be a mercy, not a crime. The crime would be to sentence the unborn to being raised by a parent that did not want it.

Men who frown on abortion need to man up. The main reason abortion is needed is because men have done their women wrong through carelessness, incompetence or wickedness. There are men who either won't use or can't figure out a condom. If a woman evaluates the sire and determines the child is better not to be, then it is criminal arrogance and a grave Sin for anyone to countermand her choice, as though they know her situation and are wiser and better to decide for her. They do not know her situation. They are not wiser. They lie, they sin, and theirs is a criminal interference. Mother knows best, in this above all other things, for it is her body and her life. Her designated role is clear to anyone with eyes to see. The mother is the gatekeeper, the final arbiter, as was ordained long ago, from the very beginning. What is not needed are future generations of carelessness, incompetence or wickedness.

People who want to control other people are the main problem with the world today. The same rule we were taught in school applies to the world of adults: Keep your hands to yourself. Leave other people alone.

Yes, I Do Love Bernie

I will vote for Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary.

And so will my elderly mother. She watched him on television in a Democratic debate. She was a Hillary supporter originally, but now she sides with Bernie, because he is well-spoken, bright, and passionate.

I don't care what his hair looks like.

It is true he is old, but Hillary is no spring chicken either at 68, and Bernie does not appear remiss in his intellectual faculties.

I do not care that he calls himself a Socialist. We are all socialists, whether we know it or not, because we use the interstate highway system, Social Security, and the police and fire department.

He is a good fellow and bright, and that is more than can be said for the others. I think he intends to serve the country and make something of his life through his deeds.

And I say that he will win against any of the Republican candidates and will be our next President, so get used to the hair and the aged face and the socialism.

I don't like that Hillary assumes she is the logical next President. I don't like that Hillary has taken so many short-cuts, wife of a President and all that, to get where she is at. I do not think that she belongs in her position, and I would not elevate her. Why must she continually generate tedious controversies through her mismanagement, thoughtlessness, cluelessness and incompetence?

Exile ISIS

Anybody connected with ISIS should have their citizenship revoked. Tens of thousands of their families and friends would also be good candidates for exile. Is there really a need for millions of angry Muslims in Europe? They are just going to tear Europe down to resemble what they came from, the Middle East. Repatriate these Muslims to Syria. I don't see paying for a ticket on a passenger airliner, however. That's a bit much to ask of hard-working taxpayers. They can be jettisoned out the sewage flap of a cargo plane, one by one, along with similar material unloaded by the crew. (Serve the crew lots of fibre bars.) These ISI-Sissies can learn about the gravity of their actions from ten thousand feet.

News from Africa is Always Bad

I'm of a generation that remembers the constant barrage of television commercials depicting starving children from Africa and guilting the viewer into signing up to donate money on a monthly basis. "Sponsor a child," they said. A lot of people fell for that. My geometry teacher sent a check for $25 a month to some kind of organization that bought cocaine and whores for the spokesman and every once in a while send a loaf of bread to some little church in Sudan. She used to show pictures of the child she was "saving", someone named Uhl or Og or Yumo. Later on Yumo grew up to be a Somali pirate and raped and killed a bunch of Westerners. Og went on Islamic jihad and burned down a church. Uhl had eleven children and all of them needed sponsoring too. Maybe teach should have stuck with the geometry. Geography didn't suit her at all.

News from Africa is always bad. I never hear anything good out of that region of the world. The reason is that Africa is the most ignorant continent in the world. Ignorance has a home, and it is in Africa. Africa takes all the ignorance of the world and holds onto it like a precious treasure. Africans prize ignorance. Either they are killing, torturing or arresting each other, or they are starving due to their own stupidity and ignorance and begging Western countries for more money on top of the billions already given. Either way, Africa is not a place I would want to live in or give money to. I think that Westerners that send money to Africa suffer from self-hate. These same Westerners shrink from giving charity to their family, neighborhood, city, state, or country. They do not give charity to people they know and love, and why? Because they do not love anyone. They hate everyone. If charity moves them at all, they send money over to a strange, barbaric, uncouth, alien place where the money will be siphoned off by corrupt criminals or at best, used to make future generations of unhappy, violent people.

Disconnected

Does anyone else feel disconnected when they read the news? The Pope says blah blah blah, King Saudi Arabia kicked the bucket, and a lethal injection execution went down in Texas. Who gives a flying fly's copulation? I do not know what is wrong with the world that many people apparently care about these things. Tears for a convicted murderer are strange. My conscious would be eased by approaching death, if I had the blood-guilt, and what's so bad about death anyway? I don't really sympathize with the convicted murderers. A hangman's noose would suffice. I don't know why the modern world has to pussy-foot around with drugs. Maybe because America is so schizo about drugs? Maybe to reinforce the idea that drugs are bad? Whatever. As for the Pope, who cares? As for King Saud, who cares? The King and the Pope are no startling original thinkers or inventors. Tell me if a scientist or writer has a cold, but don't inform me about the deaths of monarchs, please.